Yeah, it doesn’t look like much of anyone has a well-oiled journalism machine in operation at GAMA this year. GR (which does not mean Green Ronin) has , here’s some annotated-for-your-convenience highlights and extra bits:
New TITAN. Yes, that one. These folks are bringing it but nothing’s on the site yet.
Pokemon CMG. Make it stop.
Pinnacle‘s doing a hallelujah NON-collectible pre-painted plastic minis game called Slaughter Gulch. (Also a Pirates of the Spanish Main RPG in May, which I hadn’t heard.)
CCGs for 24 and Stargate SG-1, *yawn* huzzah.
The third- and fourth-place distribution firms, Premier and Centurion, are merging, which is actually kind of a big deal, and maybe not altogether a good one for retailers. The combined company will operate under the Premier name.
Yeah. Valley Games – they’re the same folks that brought out a new version of Die Macher. Not my cup o’ tea as I don’t see the appeal of playing a game of German political elections but I know its very well liked by some of the more hardcore eurogamers and the components were done well.
But new versions of Hannibal and Titan? Yay!
Pinnacle picked up the rights from Wizkids last year at some point if I remember correctly to do RPGs based on the CMG lines. Smart thinking to put out Pirates right about the same time that the new Pirates of the Carribean movie hits.
I wonder if we’ll ever see the Rocketmen RPG that they had planned? I think thats a property that would do better as a RPG than it did as a CMG.
I spoke at some length to my board game buyer about Valley Games. It sounds like Die Macher came out and was not terribly well received within the community. Not terribly high production values. Also, with this set of announcements, this puts a massive release queue on a company that already has “quite a few games in development.” So, it will be interesting if anything…
Mike, I think the plan for a Pirates RPG was announced so long ago (Nov 2005), we all pretty much forgot about it:
http://www.ogrecave.com/archives/004342.shtml#004342
About the Rocketmen RPG, I don’t think is gonna happen, based on the fact that it used to have a dedicated forum (as all licensed products) at Pinnacle’s boards. Now just Pirates and Solomon Kane remain.
I’ll certainly buy into Slaughter Gulch. I really like the fact that is non-collectible (and 30mm, but that is a non-related rant).
I think I’ll buy a Pokemon CMG starter or two. Just because of my never-ending search for the grail of gateway games.
Pokemon CMG is a great idea…
if it had been released 6-7 years ago…
In regards to 24 and Stargate, since when did all tv licenses have to be CCGs?
Thing about TV and movie licenses for CCGs is they’re the only way to do a CCG that even approaches economical (and even then, only if you’re an established company), because they come with all the card art you’re going to use.
I dunno if I am going to agree, Mike. Cause all that said, 1) paying liscensing isn’t cheap, and 2) being behold-en to a license can cause problems money can’t solve…
My analysis above should not be mistaken for a belief that doing a CCG actually is economical on any level. Really it’s just the means by which a couple of big publishers with money to burn can convince themselves it might be a good bet.
Mike and Chris, Allan has my report from GTS (I emailed it to him), he may post my report as a new feature if you give him a nudge.
Cheers,
Lee
Allan! Get off yer hands boy!
There’s yer nudge! 😉
Relax, he’s working on it as I type this. We’re also recording a show tonight with Steve Kani, who attended (although you wouldn’t KNOW IT from his POSTS ahem ahem).
Geez, Chris. Calm yourself. 🙂
Lee’s write-up deserved some extra effort, so I’ve linked it in here. Have a read through, then come back here to comment, guys.
The Sugerbake boys have about as much a sense of humor as a piece of poop. So there.
Oops, I spelled their name wrong in my insult post above. Sigh.
Lee, PLEASE post this on the GiN. You don’t, and I will on your behalf! 😉
Or, post the link there. It’s a thought.
Lee talks about the tables set up for exhibitors to demo their games. If this is true, GAMA really did do a terrible job of advertising this. Because, in fact, Green Ronin did specifically want to run demos of our new Walk the Plank card game (with copies brought in early for the show) but I understood that those tables were specifically for “Play with the CREATOR” and we were informed in no uncertain terms that “Play with the CREATOR” was just that, the CREATOR of a game could show it off but merely being the filthy publisher of the game, we were not welcome to participate. Since Evan’s wife is due to give birth to their son literally any day now, the CREATOR of the game was not going to be jetting off to Vegas to show it off…
Feeling that we were specifically warned from trying to participate in the Play with the CREATOR stuff, I stayed away. I’m also one of those exhibitors who didn’t let my guys start to break down the booth until within 5 minutes of the official close of the exhibit hall, even though people all around us started packing up their booths a full half an hour earlier than we did. My inner geek craves order, I guess. I try to follow the rules.
Wow. Yeah, it sounds like GAMA’s communication was confused at best. Maybe we should get some official comment…
Chris, go ahead and post it to the GIN on my behalf. You’re better known among the retailers and your name will draw more attention to the thread. Allan has recommended that you post a link so that he can track statistics.
Nicole, I just posted my interpretation of what Matt Ragsdale told me about the tables near the GPA booth area. Perhaps I misunderstood, but it sounded like they were free to use. They just set them up as a way to fill space.
BTW Chris, if you post this on the GIN, I’d ask that you start a new thread over there so this doesn’t get lost in the shuffle.
Thanks for the excellent report, Lee.
Did OCAR send in their cards to Mike as well? I cannot thank Mike enough for this; he mentioned it was about 10 podcasts that sent in their business cards (The Gamer Traveler was one of them). I would have liked to see a lot more podcasts take advantage of this opportunity, but it does mean that these 10 should get a good boost in visibility and recognition.
Preach on! I went to an expo this weekend for my other business (Travel) and for various reasons I made it there 3 hours before closing. I hadn’t been in the exhibit hall 30 minutes, when a number of exhibitors began to pack, even though there was still a good number of attendees walking around. That irked me to no end. I made sure to thank the folks I spoke to that stayed “open” till the end.
Hi Daniel,
We sure did. I’m as surprised as you that only ten podcasts took advantage of Mike’s offer, but when I heard about it, I sent our cards off right away. Mike is indeed the man for hooking up us podcasting folk at GTS this year. 🙂
When I see exhibitors packing up – or leaving entirely – before a show is over, it just tells me their convenience is more important to them than serving the attendees. Sure, leaving early is unavoidable at times (to catch your plane flight, or whatever), but it leaves a negative impression. If you’re at a show as an exhibitor, exhibit for the length of the show.
Allan wrote:
” If you’re at a show as an exhibitor, exhibit for the length of the show.”
We were guilty at Games Expo, Allan. The last day of the show was so dead that pretty much everyone was packing up early. Generally we don’t pack up early, but sometimes it’s just not worth it to stand around. Even though GTS 2007 was slow at times I never felt that I should tear down early.
Hey, Allan.
He sure is. The man has earned a beer from me at Gen Con.
I know you guys aren’t on the RPG Podcasters Yahoo! Group (why aren’t you, anyway?), so keep in touch with Paul Tevis (or I’ll send a reminder) because there’s some great podcasting planning for Gen Con, starting with a podcasters-only get-together sponsored by Geeklabel.com and a Gen Con-sponsored Podcasting Party at some yet-to-be-decided point.
Looking forward to the next OCAR!