We played as near to a “complete” game as we could muster, which was damn near – I was able to play a faction-pure 300-point squad of elves, and we even used the wacky weather modifier things on the PVC cards – and the higher point total did indeed make Allan feel a little better. He still bitched about not being able to spin and attack with a figure in one action, but that’s the way the mace bounces; a move is a move, and when you finish one, you’d better think about your facing and keep tempo in mind. If you take turns, you’re going to get situations where a figure can just stay one move ahead.
Overall, there is not much else to report. Elves kind of suck, but you all knew that already. We found our first utterly ba-roken figure: Caldera, a 136-point lizard guy who couldn’t fit into our first game because, well, he was bigger than our squads could be. Homeboy has like seven or eight dominating special abilities right up at the front end of the dial, and high-ass stats. It’s a good thing Allan forgot that we had a little thing called objective points, and that they were, you know, the objective.
So I won this time. We both like Mage Knight, and we are only about a year late getting onto that train. Apparently the attendance at local MK events has fallen way off; mileage may vary in your area, and I don’t have any nationwide sales figures handy. What do you think: is it too late for the original clicky-base game to bounce back?
As a warlord from Tampa, let me say a few things about the Tampa game scene: crappy. From all the stories Northerners tell me about how wonderful their gaming community used to be up-country, it’s any wonder why they moved down here. We can get tournaments running for awhile – anywhere, about any game – and then one day, suddenly, you show up for a 40-something-person day of Magic or somesuch and only 12 people came… Then next week 5… Then nobody. Gamers down here change stores more often than I change undergarments.
That being said, I don’t believe it’s too late. I don’t believe making new rules is the answer either. I regularly play MK Dungeons with my buds at the hobby shop I work at, and we sport a regular attendance of 8 players per two weeks. I think the biggest discouragement to the game scene is the collectability factor – which I feel WizKids could have taken the Magic: The Gathering CCG and used it as a model (their approach has worked for 10 years, where nobody else’s has… and yet you can’t nearly find a-one who has copied that model. How about V:TES and Pokemon, they’re still around b/c they follow that model – because they’re produced {or *were* in the case of Pokemon} by WOTC) to attact *and* keep followers of the game. I still don’t play the newest edition of Warhammer Fantasy Battles – new rules turn people off, at least for awhile. Improve, not rewrite. But no, I don’t think they’re dead yet. They’ll have to work exponentially harder to keep people around though.
Yeah. ESPECIALLY after their recent post to GamingReport.com concerning use of *anything* even remotely product-related by fan sites or, get this, *commercial* sites. This is the “d20 decency debacle” all over again. I can understand wanting to protect your copyrights, trademarks, and so on. That’s just good business sense. But take it too far and your “loyal fans” and retailers will drop you (and your product) like a rock.