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Friday, November 30, 2007

November 30th, 2007: Allan Sugarbaker says...
Audio Report - Serving up hate with gravy

Turkey day and the resulting family obligations pushed this Audio Report episode back a bit, so we’re happy to get this one out there. We got some serious hate on for WotC’s Dungeon Survival Guide and the overall flawed 4th Edition preview marketing approach thus far. Miniatures throwing gang signs, Scandanavian LARPs, and Keira Knightley all may or may not be significant to the rest of the episode, but we certainly pimp the 2007 OgreCave Christmas Gift Guide. Have a listen, and tell us what you think.

Posted in Computer and Console Games, Dungeons & Dragons, Industry, OgreCave, Roleplaying Games | 6 Comments

Monday, November 5, 2007

November 5th, 2007: Allan Sugarbaker says...
Audio Report - Uneasy about the approach

Marketing - or to be more specific, the D&D 4e marketing approach thus far - is one of many things we dive into this episode. The death of Dreamblade, unlife of Zombie Fluxx, and everlasting love of ThunderRoad make appearances this show, as well. Plus, in his OgreCave Audio Report debut, Lee Valentine of Veritas Games Company joins in to throw some elbows with the rest of us.

Posted in Board Games, Card Games, Computer and Console Games, D20, Dungeons & Dragons, Industry, Miniatures Games, Roleplaying Games | 4 Comments

Monday, October 15, 2007

October 15th, 2007: Mike Sugarbaker says...
Audio Report: Xcrawl Fiction Contest is go

We chat with Brendan LaSalle of Pandahead Productions, creators of XCrawl, about the new fiction contest they’ve put on with publisher Goodman Games. Yes, there are prizes, and yes, one of the judges tells you exactly how to curry favor. (It should not surprise you that the judge in question is me.) Also, Allan really likes Halo 3, Steve likes Halo ActionClix (though not nearly to the same degree), and a whole lot of other stuff too. The full version of our talk with Brendan is up on our Interviews page as a separate download. Enjoy, and please to share with us your thoughts.

Posted in Board Games, Computer and Console Games, Industry, Interviews, Miniatures Games | 3 Comments

Friday, October 5, 2007

October 5th, 2007: Mike Sugarbaker says...
James Wallis getting ARGy with Perplex City creator

Now and again, and it seems like lately it’s a little more often, I stumble across some neat little bit of info, and it may have been known to others already or by some much more obvious means, but it still makes me go “holy crap” and get all bouncy with anticipation of what could result. Take yesterday: I was reading James Wallis’ blog (Mr. Wallis, former Hogshead guy and doughty game designer, will not be unfamiliar to longtime Cave readers), specifically a post about a neat thing I’d seen a few days prior but hadn’t gotten off my ass to post for some reason, and… hey. Wait a minute. “My colleague, Adrian Hon”??? At a firm called Six to Start, that comes right out with “we make alternate reality games”? Well, damn if that’s not a glimmer of hope for a genre I was starting to lose faith in. Very interesting news for Wallis’ career as well.

So I’m all into that, but I shouldn’t keep burying the equally-interesting news that Hon and Wallis are trumpeting to begin with: Let’s Change The Game, a design contest to create a fundraising ARG for Cancer Research UK. Stories are the best motivating force on the planet as far as I’m concerned, and they seem particularly potent when juiced up with the particular energy of alternate-reality gaming - this is a smart and heartening project.

Posted in Computer and Console Games, Contests, Game Design, Industry, Roleplaying Games, Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Friday, September 21, 2007

September 21st, 2007: Allan Sugarbaker says...
Audio Report - Coming down after con season

We still have a bit of the shakes from all the convention news of the past month or so, so we let it all out in the latest OgreCave Audio Report episode. From how Gen Con developments reflected on our 2007 Ogre’s Choice Awards to the Penny Arcade Expo, and from Rackham’s recent issues to troubled local conventions, we manage to have a theme and be all over the map. Jump into the story already in progress, or check into previous episodes - it’s all good.

Posted in Board Games, Card Games, Computer and Console Games, Conventions, D20, Dungeons & Dragons, Industry, Roleplaying Games | 6 Comments

Thursday, September 13, 2007

September 13th, 2007: Mike Sugarbaker says...
Want a peek of the Gleemax online board gaming? Maybe you’ve already had it

So here was my little mystery story tonight: go by Cheapass’ news page, be surprised to find a press release from GameTable Online. In the press release, find this: “Instead of subscribers in thousands, we have yet to break the 200 subscriber mark.” Oh, wait, that’s pretty interesting but not what I’m talking about. Here it is: “The great news is that a recent sale of the license to use our game platform, now called Metagame™, and contract game work have provided us with the resources to […]” Well, wait a minute; this release was posted in June, and who might have been shopping for a board game engine around then? Ohhhh. A trip to the Metagame website confirms it: the same engine that powers GTO will be powering the online board games on Gleemax. So if you’d like a preview, I guess subscribe to GTO.

But man… 200 subscribers? It makes a kind of terrible sense, given how many of those crappy free play-by-web games are out there that people put incredible amounts of work into for no compensation at all - not even players. GTO’s offering is pretty far from terrible; it’s well-executed, attractive and solid. And I happen to know how bloody much work it takes to code that. Hell, making the crappy kind is more work than I want to do. And it still only gets you 200 subscribers. I guess enough people are willing to make this kind of thing for free that the value just gets driven down. Well, okay, and the case for subscribing to a mildly random selection of board games is quite different from, say, the case for D&D Insider’s playtable (which will run on a completely different engine, just to be clear). But it doesn’t bode well, although the analogy is still not perfect, for the financial success of efforts like WotC’s upcoming Uncivilized, or that one game I was going to start a company and do someday, or of, um, the Gleemax online board games. *sigh* Glad I could cheer us all up!

Posted in Board Games, Computer and Console Games, Industry | 6 Comments

Friday, August 17, 2007

August 17th, 2007: Mike Sugarbaker says...
WotC’s series of tubes still clogged 14 hours later; video trickles out

(For those of you just joining us, Wizards of the Coast announced D&D 4th Edition and their web server turned into a small pile of crisped meat. Also, the new edition will be accompanied by a big online product, which is sort of a part of this other Gleemax thing.)

Well, it’s more articulate than “Service Unavailable” now, but still, the idea that they didn’t think to invest in a short-term bandwidth solution is just embarrassing. However, I think we can trust this video of the D&D Insider gameplay screen, seeing as how it comes from the same YouTube user that posted all this other stuff including the complete Gen Con presentation.

I’m disappointed in the approach they took to online play, although not for the reasons you’re seeing all over - “Oh, boo hoo, D&D is just a video game now.” And what, Mr. Bitter McNostalgiapants? - but for reasons of practicality. There’s a shift now starting in online gaming, away from downloads and 3D and toward in-browser games that can be developed more quickly and reach more people faster. It worries me that WotC is throwing more software at the problem of an authoritative online-play experience than they really need to, instead of taking this more agile, less-software approach; I fear another Master Tools debacle.

At the same time, it’s incredibly clear that we’re not looking at the final version of the software. So I reserve judgment. I also hope to see more of the social aspects of the D&D Insider product, and how they’ll be integrating their online supplements into this whole thing.

Posted in Computer and Console Games, D20, Dungeons & Dragons, Industry, Miniatures Games, Roleplaying Games | 5 Comments

Monday, June 11, 2007

June 11th, 2007: Mike Sugarbaker says...
Hail Gleemax! WotC creates marketing initiative that actually makes some sense

Here’s the news version, and here is the somewhat less comprehensible thing itself. The announcement talks pretty big talk about a new social hub for gamers, and frankly, WotC’s assessment of the problem they face is dead on. “We’re slowing down in terms of recruiting that next generation of hobby gamers. Today’s 15-year-olds have such a different experience than a 15-year-old did five years ago or 10 years ago, or when I was a 15-year-old,” says WotC VP of Digital Randy Buehler; “So today’s 15-year-old is online and doesn’t necessarily have any reason to leave his computer because there’s so much to do there.” And this new endeavor, full of online games as it will eventually (they say) be, is meant to loop back around to supporting retailers… which it could certainly do if the execution’s right.

And there’s the rub. Because first impressions matter, and while I am certainly down for an online strategy-gaming hub seasoned with cryptic commands from an evil brain in a jar, my first impression is that gleemax.com is a fairly dumb play-by-post RPG that thinks it’s an alternate reality game. That’s fine as far as it goes, and there’s allegedly some more authentically ARG-y things happening somewhere, but they’ll have to make a clean break from this version eventually - ideally around the time they launch Uncivilized. They’re making noise about bringing online versions of some of the Avalon Hill hits to Gleemax eventually as well. Early versions of the social-networky parts of the site should hit at Gen Con… I guess that’s not such good news for the UnCiv ship date. Ah well.

On the whole, I’m glad to see this announcement. With regard to the social stuff, there’s certainly as much potential upside as there is potential for biffing it, and maybe more. And I want my hands on those digital games, as I’m sure I’ve made abundantly clear. Bring it, evil brain dude!

Posted in Computer and Console Games, Industry | 18 Comments

Monday, April 16, 2007

April 16th, 2007: Mike Sugarbaker says...
They also announced Rocketmen! (sound of crickets)

Okay, so Allan beat me to the post. Savor the flavor, hotshot. But anyway: Xbox Livers and PS3 owners (all twelve of them) will be getting this tweaked-up Rocketmen game in the fall. No word on whether it’ll have some kind of collectible-sales aspect, probably because no one cares. Me, I always thought the strongest and least-exploited part of Rocketmen’s IP was the character designs, and it looks like this game’s a lot more about that. So hey.

Posted in Computer and Console Games | 2 Comments

April 16th, 2007: Allan Sugarbaker says...
Talisman making the leap to consoles, PC

The classic Games Workshop fantasy boardgameTalisman, for which countless gamers are quite willing to shell out for each new edition, is headed for the Xbox 360, PS3 and PCs. From the Capcom announcement (also copied below), it looks like additional adventure cards, characters, and alternate endings (achieved by cards in the original boardgame) will be offered as downloadable extras. I still say GW nailed Talisman with the second edition way back in 1985 (and ebay prices seem to agree). However, if uninitiated gamers of the electronic era can get a taste of the “magical quest” boardgame that so many game designers still try to imitate, I’m all for it. The Capcom version is scheduled for a Winter ‘07 release. As for the completists out there, or the curious newbies, GW has 4th edition slated for release this October, guys.
Read More…

Posted in Board Games, Computer and Console Games | 1 Comment

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