- Though it's a year late for my tastes, last year was Robert Howard's 100th Birthday, Fantasy Flight games will be releasing the Age of Conan boardgame this summer. The game will be designed by Nexus games and will use mechanics similar to those used in their excellent War of the Ring boardgame. They have yet to post pictures of any of the game's components online. Given the track record of Fantasy Flight Games and Nexus, I expect the components will be of very high quality.
As Thulsa doom might say, "Contemplate this on the tree of woe." - Gamasutra has an excellent, and long -- 10 pages, article covering the history of the first video game console roleplaying game I ever played. The article, "The History of Dragon Quest," discusses the success of the franchise and also finally explained to me my unnatural enjoyment of Dragonball Z. You see, Dragon Quest had character design art created by Akira Toriyama, the man behind the Dragonball mask. And that jem came on the first page of the article. When it comes to the Dragon Quest series, I have never had so much fun "killing" smiling slimes than the first time I loaded Dragon Warrior into my Nintendo Entertaiment System.
Isn't he cute? Shh...don't alert him. I need to bash his brains in with my longsword.
Do slimes have brains? What about smiling slimes? - Media Tie-In Author extraordinaire, Lee Goldberg, informs us that media tie-in authors now include the snooty and artsy fartsy literati. Dave Eggers, of A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius fame, is writing the novelization of the upcoming Where the Wild Thing Are film adaptation of Maurice Sendak's classic children's picture book. Thanks Dave. Now I'll have to get into fist fights with people about how the new novelization, of a movie based on a 300 word work, has now elevated the form. Add to this all the fist fights I get into with people explaining that Blankets is a graphic novel, but Watchmen is a "trade paperback collection," I'll be spending so much time brawling, I won't be able to blog anymore.
- Apparently, the basic Risk boardgame is being revamped so as to no longer end marriages and friendships. For years, I have tried to explain to people that the Risk variants, which limit game length and add "objectives" to the victory resolution system aren't as bile causing as the basic Risk game. For years, my friends have continued to play the basic game, only to have long lasting friendships lost in the process. I don't know what it is about Risk that causes this. Games like Diplomacy and Junta are all about betraying your friends, but when the game is over everyone still likes one another. It only takes a couple hours of Risk to create hatreds that last generations.
This image from the article over atGamers with Jobs, shows the "playtest" edition Hasbro is releasing to create buzz.
You wanna create buzz? How about giving me a copy to promote on Geekerati Radio? I'll even schedule an interview where fans can call in. Sheesh!
Wednesday, February 06, 2008
Midweek Miscellany of Geekdom
Following in the footsteps of one of my favorite Medievalist bloggers, I have decided to include a weekly feature which highlights oddities and exciting news I have read about on a given day. Naturally, all such information will be some how related to geekdom in general.
Tuesday, February 05, 2008
A Call for Writers
Despite the fact that I have been pretty lax in my posts the past few weeks, this is not a post soliciting writers for this blog. I have enough co-writers, who don't do enough co-writing, at this time.
What this is is a call for writers who want to write for a new online magazine designed to support the Geekerati webcast radio show my co-hosts and I air each week. Essentially, I am looking for writers who are willing to work for no-pay now, hopefully pay in the future, who will write quality articles about some area of geek culture which will be published in a Monthly online magazine via the Issuu service. Here's what I'm looking for.
Any writers/illustrators will be invited to participate in our online radio show on a fairly regular basis.
As I wrote earlier, these positions will be unpaid until we can build an advertiser base, but when/if we do that we will pay a fair rate.
What this is is a call for writers who want to write for a new online magazine designed to support the Geekerati webcast radio show my co-hosts and I air each week. Essentially, I am looking for writers who are willing to work for no-pay now, hopefully pay in the future, who will write quality articles about some area of geek culture which will be published in a Monthly online magazine via the Issuu service. Here's what I'm looking for.
- A reliable illustrator or two: b/w line art is dandy as is someone who can do cover designs.
- A video game reviewer: we'll need 2 to 3 video games reviewed each month.
- 2 to 3 book reviewers of various genres: do you want to write about mystery, fantasy, children's lit, comic books?
- A television reviewer: Shawna...I'm looking at you. We need 2-3 television show reviews a month.
- Games reviews: We need someone who can write 1 or 2 table top game reviews a month.
- A film reviewer: (David Chute and LYT, I'm looking at you guys) Are your reviews not published in enough places? Try our magazine
- A tech writer who knows a thing or two about the gadgets out there.
Any writers/illustrators will be invited to participate in our online radio show on a fairly regular basis.
As I wrote earlier, these positions will be unpaid until we can build an advertiser base, but when/if we do that we will pay a fair rate.
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Gaming History and Piracy
Today's Gamasutra has a great article about the Apple II and its role in the history of video game development.
When it comes to my early memories of video games, there are two systems that dominated my early gaming -- and thus my long term gaming habits.
I owned an Atari 2600 and played its games obsessively. Many times I played Asteroids on "flip" mode until I rolled over the score, not to mention the many hours devoted to Yar's Revenge. In fact, my modern love of "actioners" like Assassin's Creed can be directly mapped back to Pitfall and my love of "action rpgs" can be mapped back to the excellent Raiders of the Lost Ark licensed game (not everyone agrees with me that RotLA was excellent, but I'm sticking to my guns).
But many of my favorite gaming moments can be traced back to "all nighters" spent mapping the levels of Bard's Tale as my friend Sean fought against hordes of "99 Barbarians, 99 Barbarians, 99 Barbarians, and 99 Barbarians." Ah, those were the days. If memory serves, Sean owned the PC version, but the computer I learned BASIC on at school (and used all those maps made during the all nighters on at lunch while playing Bard's Tale) was an Apple II. In fact, after finishing the Bard's Tale trilogy, I wandered through the many levels of "Wizardry." For five years, and to be honest to the present day, computer gaming was synonymous with computer roleplaying for me. I wasn't much, and still am not much, for fight games and sports games on the PC, those games belong on consoles. But a "boring map game," as my wife likes to call PC RPGs, those are heavenly on the computer. And when it came to these games, during the late 80's -- and for a blink in the early 90s when Apple still had games manufactured for it -- the Apple II was the system. "Platformers" were the purview of the Commodore 64, but that is another story.
I loved RPGs on the Apple II and I always bought mine. Which brings me to the reason I actually decided to post today, sorry that I have been lax of late. Barton and Loquidice (the authors of the Gamasutra piece) briefly mention the "role" that piracy had on early Apple game development and for the most part they are dismissive of the issue. They mention at least one game, only in the text beneath an image, that went under "due to piracy's affect on sales," but they state dismissively that, "In short, the precise impact of piracy is difficult to determine, though it likely had advantages and disadvantages for the longevity of the platform."
Really? Could the fact that when it came to the Apple II, "the inner workings of the hardware was made public," have been one of the reasons Apple moved from the "open" II series to the closed and proprietary Macintosh series. To this day Apple is obsessively proprietary about their hardware and software, whether it is the iPod or the Mac. In fact, the Mac was notorious for having almost no viable gaming software (other than Marathon which eventually became Microsoft's Halo) for most of the 90s.
Maybe those businesses that claim they "went under" due to piracy should be taken at their word. Certainly, it is nice to be able to emulate games Apple (and the original companies) have "abandoned." And certainly piracy expanded the exposure of computer gaming, likely creating the modern obsession with playing video games. Free is a great way to grow a market after all. Piracy might have helped the industry develop, but it also killed some businesses along the way. I know the positive effects of freeware and "hacked games" and how they helped create demand among a less technically savvy, and more willing to pay, population. What I would have liked to see would be a little research into the real numbers.
The article dug deep into the history of Apple, and Woz, but it makes claims about piracy without ever backing up any claims with numbers. Instead, like piracy advocates (and I am not claiming the authors are piracy advocates -- I doubt that to be the case), the authors use vague language rooted in sentiments which doesn't help anyone in any discussion.
Actually, it's a great article about the early history of Apple with some minor notes about Apple's impact as a game console, even though the article is supposed to be devoted to the Apple II as a gaming platform.
When it comes to my early memories of video games, there are two systems that dominated my early gaming -- and thus my long term gaming habits.
I owned an Atari 2600 and played its games obsessively. Many times I played Asteroids on "flip" mode until I rolled over the score, not to mention the many hours devoted to Yar's Revenge. In fact, my modern love of "actioners" like Assassin's Creed can be directly mapped back to Pitfall and my love of "action rpgs" can be mapped back to the excellent Raiders of the Lost Ark licensed game (not everyone agrees with me that RotLA was excellent, but I'm sticking to my guns).
But many of my favorite gaming moments can be traced back to "all nighters" spent mapping the levels of Bard's Tale as my friend Sean fought against hordes of "99 Barbarians, 99 Barbarians, 99 Barbarians, and 99 Barbarians." Ah, those were the days. If memory serves, Sean owned the PC version, but the computer I learned BASIC on at school (and used all those maps made during the all nighters on at lunch while playing Bard's Tale) was an Apple II. In fact, after finishing the Bard's Tale trilogy, I wandered through the many levels of "Wizardry." For five years, and to be honest to the present day, computer gaming was synonymous with computer roleplaying for me. I wasn't much, and still am not much, for fight games and sports games on the PC, those games belong on consoles. But a "boring map game," as my wife likes to call PC RPGs, those are heavenly on the computer. And when it came to these games, during the late 80's -- and for a blink in the early 90s when Apple still had games manufactured for it -- the Apple II was the system. "Platformers" were the purview of the Commodore 64, but that is another story.
I loved RPGs on the Apple II and I always bought mine. Which brings me to the reason I actually decided to post today, sorry that I have been lax of late. Barton and Loquidice (the authors of the Gamasutra piece) briefly mention the "role" that piracy had on early Apple game development and for the most part they are dismissive of the issue. They mention at least one game, only in the text beneath an image, that went under "due to piracy's affect on sales," but they state dismissively that, "In short, the precise impact of piracy is difficult to determine, though it likely had advantages and disadvantages for the longevity of the platform."
Really? Could the fact that when it came to the Apple II, "the inner workings of the hardware was made public," have been one of the reasons Apple moved from the "open" II series to the closed and proprietary Macintosh series. To this day Apple is obsessively proprietary about their hardware and software, whether it is the iPod or the Mac. In fact, the Mac was notorious for having almost no viable gaming software (other than Marathon which eventually became Microsoft's Halo) for most of the 90s.
Maybe those businesses that claim they "went under" due to piracy should be taken at their word. Certainly, it is nice to be able to emulate games Apple (and the original companies) have "abandoned." And certainly piracy expanded the exposure of computer gaming, likely creating the modern obsession with playing video games. Free is a great way to grow a market after all. Piracy might have helped the industry develop, but it also killed some businesses along the way. I know the positive effects of freeware and "hacked games" and how they helped create demand among a less technically savvy, and more willing to pay, population. What I would have liked to see would be a little research into the real numbers.
The article dug deep into the history of Apple, and Woz, but it makes claims about piracy without ever backing up any claims with numbers. Instead, like piracy advocates (and I am not claiming the authors are piracy advocates -- I doubt that to be the case), the authors use vague language rooted in sentiments which doesn't help anyone in any discussion.
Thursday, January 24, 2008
What can striking WGA writers learn from video game writers? A lot.
This year's WGA awards are featuring a new award devoted to video game writers. The award, I am sure, was created to increase the ties between television/film writers and writers in the video game industry in order to set the foundation for video game writers eventual migration into the WGA structure. While specific games selected by the nominating committee might leave those of us who actually play video games doubting the sanity of the WGA, the fact that the WGA is reaching out the the video game community proves them to be not only sane but savvy. The quicker the WGA reaches out to the video game industry, the better.
The WGA should have begun looking into a partnership twenty years ago when games like Zak McCracken and Maniac Mansion were already showing the link between film and game (you can watch the introductions to these games below). George Lucas understood that video games can tell stories, and that there was a demand for computer based games. But it is better to be late, as is the case with the WGA and their outreach to the video game industry, than never.
Had the WGA reached out to video game writers/designers earlier, they might have been more prepared when going into negotiations seven years ago. They would have had members who had experience with "alternate revenue streams" and not bought into the studios selling them on the "unpredictability" of the DVD sales market. Luckily, there is time to learn more lessons from writers and designers in video games and to benefit from their outlook when it comes to alternate revenue streams.
In a recent article on Gamasutra, a United Business Media (the people who own PR Newswire and CMP) site devoted to the gaming industry, Tom Buscaglia discusses a recent negotiation he entered into with a game company and how he ensured his clients received a fair share of the revenue the game would produce. One of the first points that Buscaglia made was that their are "some things that publishers excel at and one of them is coming up with new and innovative ways to commercially exploit games." The publishers, like the movie/tv studios, may not know how to make a good game/show/movie (or even how to recognize one), but they certainly know how to make money off of one when it is successful. Buscaglia reminds us as readers that this means that those going into negotiations with publisher (and by extension producers) need to go in with their eyes wide open.
Buscaglia sites a common mistake that people make when entering negotiations with a publisher. What is it? "Often the developer is so focused on getting a publisher to sell their game that all they look at are the royalties from game sales." This is a huge mistake, according to Buscaglia, because, "If all the developer asks for is a portion of the revenue from the sales, what’s all they’ll get, regardless of how much ancillary revenue a game generates. And publishers are getting really good at finding innovative ancillary revenue streams from the games the sell."
That's right. If all you want to do is secure that you receive a percentage of sales, that's all you're going to get, but don't fool yourself into thinking that is all the publisher is going to get. I wish that the WGA understood this in their earlier negotiations with the producers and studios. The "suits" certainly understood this, even as they were dickering a low residual rate for the writers. What about business to business (B2B) revenue created from advertising sold on studio websites when episodes are streaming? Nope. None of that, but the studio is certainly making money that way. The writers were already getting B2B revenue from syndication, why didn't they see that there might be other B2B revenue streams?
What might one of these alternate revenue streams look like? Once again, we can look to the Buscaglia article and the video game industry. "Eventually, through some rather persistent negotiating, we were able get the publisher to agree to pour any in-game advertising and any B2B revenue into the revenue pool." So...they made sure to get a share of business to business revenue, and...what's this? They also got the publisher to pour in a share of "in-game advertising?" When was the last time the writer's asked for a share of "product placement" revenue? It is the film/tv equivalent of in-game advertising after all. If Bruce Willis drinks a Pepsi in a movie, and the funders are benefiting financially from that event, the writer should be getting a share of that revenue as well.
Buscaglia, in representing video game developers, tries to ensure that his clients are a part of any potential future earnings. For example, just "in case the publisher found any other way to exploit the game that was had not covered, [he] also include[s] in the contact a "catch all" provision pouring any and all revenue from any commercial exploitation of the game from anywhere into the royalty pool to be split with the developer."
Certainly, the fact that Buscaglia is representing individual clients (and not a whole union) enables a certain degree of liberty in the negotiating process, but the WGA could certainly learn from the way he looks at a creative property as a revenue source.
Here is a list of what I think the WGA should be getting:
The WGA should have begun looking into a partnership twenty years ago when games like Zak McCracken and Maniac Mansion were already showing the link between film and game (you can watch the introductions to these games below). George Lucas understood that video games can tell stories, and that there was a demand for computer based games. But it is better to be late, as is the case with the WGA and their outreach to the video game industry, than never.
Had the WGA reached out to video game writers/designers earlier, they might have been more prepared when going into negotiations seven years ago. They would have had members who had experience with "alternate revenue streams" and not bought into the studios selling them on the "unpredictability" of the DVD sales market. Luckily, there is time to learn more lessons from writers and designers in video games and to benefit from their outlook when it comes to alternate revenue streams.
In a recent article on Gamasutra, a United Business Media (the people who own PR Newswire and CMP) site devoted to the gaming industry, Tom Buscaglia discusses a recent negotiation he entered into with a game company and how he ensured his clients received a fair share of the revenue the game would produce. One of the first points that Buscaglia made was that their are "some things that publishers excel at and one of them is coming up with new and innovative ways to commercially exploit games." The publishers, like the movie/tv studios, may not know how to make a good game/show/movie (or even how to recognize one), but they certainly know how to make money off of one when it is successful. Buscaglia reminds us as readers that this means that those going into negotiations with publisher (and by extension producers) need to go in with their eyes wide open.
Buscaglia sites a common mistake that people make when entering negotiations with a publisher. What is it? "Often the developer is so focused on getting a publisher to sell their game that all they look at are the royalties from game sales." This is a huge mistake, according to Buscaglia, because, "If all the developer asks for is a portion of the revenue from the sales, what’s all they’ll get, regardless of how much ancillary revenue a game generates. And publishers are getting really good at finding innovative ancillary revenue streams from the games the sell."
That's right. If all you want to do is secure that you receive a percentage of sales, that's all you're going to get, but don't fool yourself into thinking that is all the publisher is going to get. I wish that the WGA understood this in their earlier negotiations with the producers and studios. The "suits" certainly understood this, even as they were dickering a low residual rate for the writers. What about business to business (B2B) revenue created from advertising sold on studio websites when episodes are streaming? Nope. None of that, but the studio is certainly making money that way. The writers were already getting B2B revenue from syndication, why didn't they see that there might be other B2B revenue streams?
What might one of these alternate revenue streams look like? Once again, we can look to the Buscaglia article and the video game industry. "Eventually, through some rather persistent negotiating, we were able get the publisher to agree to pour any in-game advertising and any B2B revenue into the revenue pool." So...they made sure to get a share of business to business revenue, and...what's this? They also got the publisher to pour in a share of "in-game advertising?" When was the last time the writer's asked for a share of "product placement" revenue? It is the film/tv equivalent of in-game advertising after all. If Bruce Willis drinks a Pepsi in a movie, and the funders are benefiting financially from that event, the writer should be getting a share of that revenue as well.
Buscaglia, in representing video game developers, tries to ensure that his clients are a part of any potential future earnings. For example, just "in case the publisher found any other way to exploit the game that was had not covered, [he] also include[s] in the contact a "catch all" provision pouring any and all revenue from any commercial exploitation of the game from anywhere into the royalty pool to be split with the developer."
Certainly, the fact that Buscaglia is representing individual clients (and not a whole union) enables a certain degree of liberty in the negotiating process, but the WGA could certainly learn from the way he looks at a creative property as a revenue source.
Here is a list of what I think the WGA should be getting:
- Continuing Syndication Revenue: Yes, syndication is dead. And yes, they are already receiving syndication money, but this revenue stream needs to keep trickling.
- DVD Residual: Like syndication, this revenue stream is actually already dead -- it just doesn't know it yet. And writers are already receiving some revenue from DVDs. They need to milk this for as much as they can get, for as long as they can get it. They also need to understand that it isn't going to be around for much longer.
- Internet Download Residuals: These too are actually already dead. That's right, this "wave of the future" way of selling movies is already obsolete. Sure, it will pass through a period of high revenue, but it will die and quickly. Once again, that shouldn't stop the WGA from getting their members a share.
- Revenue Sharing from Online Display: An absolute must. This may, or may not, be a long lasting future source of revenue, but revenue sharing -- rather than a "per view" payment -- is an absolute must.
- Cell Phone Viewing Residuals: What? Cell phones? Yes, and I'm not talking iPhone downloads -- but those too. I'm talking about "on demand" cellular viewing technology, or streaming cellular video technology. People will be using their portable devices to watch tv on the go. In fact, the WGA should be negotiating for all of the TVs of tomorrow.
- Percentage of Product Placement Revenue: This is most likely going to have to be negotiated by individuals, and likely will be limited to "creators," but the writers had better be keeping his revenue in mind. My acquaintance Rob Long likes to talk about how everyone knows that the "King of Queens" works for UPS, and that the studio is watching a revenue go down the drain every episode. The studios, and the show's creators should be fighting to get UPS money if they can do so without losing creative control.
- A percentage of any future revenue source I can't predict: I'm not able to see into the future, but the WGA and writers need to be thinking about any future revenue now. They either need to get a better "percentage" in the long run or demand more money up front.
Maniac Mansion Introduction
Zak McCracken Introduction
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
PSN and XBLA Retro Gaming Remakes
The game for Playstation Store Network and XBox Live Arcade releasing this year that I am looking most forward to is the remake of Bionic Commando Rearmed. No, not the next gen game that will be coming out shortly, but a graphical and gameplay upgrade of the NES classic. Behold!
I got this game in 1988 when it first game out for NES. I was a kid at the time, but I remember this was one of the most challenging games that I owned for the system. I played the heck out of it, even though I wasn't any good at it. One of my favorite memories in all the time I played my NES was the day we, my brother and our best friend, managed to get past a level that had been puzzling us for a whole year. We finally got to beat the game and save Super Joe. The sense of accomplishment and triumph after hours of playing this incredible game is still fresh to this day. I am certainly looking forward to the new Next-gen Bionic Commando, but it's this remake of the classic that I am looking forward to the most.
Retro games sell.
Nostalgia sells.
Why else do companies constantly roll out 2D platformers for the Nintendo DS, like Contra 4?
The NDS is perfectly capable of rolling out awesome 3D games, like Legend of Zelda
Phantom Hourglass. My favorite NDS game, a game I played a bunch last year, was Final Fantasy III. It's an old game from 1990 originally designed for the NES. One of our favorite PSP games here at Cinerati was last year's Final Fantasy Tactics: The Lions War, a redo of an old PS1 game from 1997.
This type of graphical and gameplay overhaul has already been executed on another awesome 2D side-scroller for XBox Live Arcade. The game was Prince of Persia and here is a cool side by side comparison of how it looked in 1990 on PC and on Sega Genesis in 1993 and how it looks now now on XBLA.
As long as they keep doing these amazing upgrades for the classic quality games and not overdo it with bad retreads of awful games I will keep buying these downloadable and portable gems of old. These games work well for both the handheld systems and for the downloading networks of the Next-gen systems.
Nintendo is also in on the trend, selling old games from their old platforms as emulation software on the Wii, via Virtual Console.
All I want to know is; Where is my Galactic Super Mario Bros., Nintendo?
I got this game in 1988 when it first game out for NES. I was a kid at the time, but I remember this was one of the most challenging games that I owned for the system. I played the heck out of it, even though I wasn't any good at it. One of my favorite memories in all the time I played my NES was the day we, my brother and our best friend, managed to get past a level that had been puzzling us for a whole year. We finally got to beat the game and save Super Joe. The sense of accomplishment and triumph after hours of playing this incredible game is still fresh to this day. I am certainly looking forward to the new Next-gen Bionic Commando, but it's this remake of the classic that I am looking forward to the most.
Retro games sell.
Nostalgia sells.
Why else do companies constantly roll out 2D platformers for the Nintendo DS, like Contra 4?
The NDS is perfectly capable of rolling out awesome 3D games, like Legend of Zelda
Phantom Hourglass. My favorite NDS game, a game I played a bunch last year, was Final Fantasy III. It's an old game from 1990 originally designed for the NES. One of our favorite PSP games here at Cinerati was last year's Final Fantasy Tactics: The Lions War, a redo of an old PS1 game from 1997.
This type of graphical and gameplay overhaul has already been executed on another awesome 2D side-scroller for XBox Live Arcade. The game was Prince of Persia and here is a cool side by side comparison of how it looked in 1990 on PC and on Sega Genesis in 1993 and how it looks now now on XBLA.
As long as they keep doing these amazing upgrades for the classic quality games and not overdo it with bad retreads of awful games I will keep buying these downloadable and portable gems of old. These games work well for both the handheld systems and for the downloading networks of the Next-gen systems.
Nintendo is also in on the trend, selling old games from their old platforms as emulation software on the Wii, via Virtual Console.
All I want to know is; Where is my Galactic Super Mario Bros., Nintendo?
Monday, January 07, 2008
Cure for the Dragon/Dungeon cancellation blues.
I know a lot of people who were pretty angry with Wizards of the Coast when they ended their licensing agreement with Paizo Publications, thus ending the print publication of both the Dragon and the Dungeon magazines. Okay, I don't actually "know" a lot of people who were angry -- most my friends aren't gamers -- but I do visit the aggrosphere (message boards) from time to time. Trust me, there are some angry people out there.
Dragon had been in publication for over 30 years, with one year long hiatus (which most people seem to have forgotten) as TSR was going under, and Dungeon has been around for about 20 years -- with a similar hiatus, so it's understandable that many might feel a sense of loss now that they are no longer available in print. They are becoming available as ongoing "online" magazines, but the process of migration from one medium to another has been less than rapid and equally less than fluid. As I mentioned earlier, this isn't the first time that Dragon and Dungeon were not available for purchase during their long runs. In the late 90s, before Wizards of the Coast purchased TSR, there was a period of almost a year when no issues of either (in any format) were being produced. Needless to say, current fans of the magazines have a lot to complain about and a moderate wait before the "digital editions" come close to filling the void left by the absence of these wonderful magazines.
But these fans do have one very exciting replacement option available to them. Wolfgang Baur, who has in the past edited both Dungeon and Dragon magazines, has begun publishing his own quarterly magazine devoted to "the world's most famous roleplaying game." The magazine, Kobold Quarterly, began as an extension of Baur's very successful Custom Adventure series of patron sponsored gaming adventures. Initially, Kobold Quarterly was solicited as an "online magazine," but Baur was able to make the magazine a print/pdf publication before the first issue was released. This was partly due to the rapidity with which Baur's patrons, of whom I am one, became subsribers and partly due to the desire in the gaming community for a d20 based gaming magazine. I have been a subscriber since day one, as I wrote I am one of Baur patrons for his custom adventure design experiment (I write this in the interest of full disclosure). I am also repeating my patronage so that he might, just might, become a guest on my weekly podcast.
Having said that, I would like to say that Kobold Quarterly is rapidly heading toward Dragon Magazine quality (it doesn't contain adventures so is not a replacement for Dungeon) with regard to both the quantity and quality of content. The first issue was reminiscent of the old Strategic Review newsletters, the second issue was like an 80s issue of Dragon, and the third (most recent) issue is approaching the high standard that Paizo set in the final days of the Dragon. In the first three issues, Baur has already expanded the content from 30 to 60 pages and the quality of advertisers has increased. The magazine has also gone from almost entirely Baur written to containing articles by leading freelancers in the rpg industry. That's quite an achievement for a one man publishing show. Before you run over to his website and purchase PDF copies of his first three issues (linked here), let me give you a rundown of their content -- with brief quips with my opinion regarding each article, but minimal spoilers.
Issue 1
Issue 2
Issue 3
Stellar cover, more prestigious advertisers, 60 pages of content. This baby is a beauty. Go subscribe now. This this issue contains the Ecology of the Lich, an article on Baur's special "Star and Shadow Magic," an interview with Ed Greenwood, an excellent article by Keith Baker (creator of Eberron) discussing how to run Hardboiled adventure, and much much more. The issue just came out and I am still absorbing it, but this issue is what I hoped for when I first subscribed.
Dragon had been in publication for over 30 years, with one year long hiatus (which most people seem to have forgotten) as TSR was going under, and Dungeon has been around for about 20 years -- with a similar hiatus, so it's understandable that many might feel a sense of loss now that they are no longer available in print. They are becoming available as ongoing "online" magazines, but the process of migration from one medium to another has been less than rapid and equally less than fluid. As I mentioned earlier, this isn't the first time that Dragon and Dungeon were not available for purchase during their long runs. In the late 90s, before Wizards of the Coast purchased TSR, there was a period of almost a year when no issues of either (in any format) were being produced. Needless to say, current fans of the magazines have a lot to complain about and a moderate wait before the "digital editions" come close to filling the void left by the absence of these wonderful magazines.
But these fans do have one very exciting replacement option available to them. Wolfgang Baur, who has in the past edited both Dungeon and Dragon magazines, has begun publishing his own quarterly magazine devoted to "the world's most famous roleplaying game." The magazine, Kobold Quarterly, began as an extension of Baur's very successful Custom Adventure series of patron sponsored gaming adventures. Initially, Kobold Quarterly was solicited as an "online magazine," but Baur was able to make the magazine a print/pdf publication before the first issue was released. This was partly due to the rapidity with which Baur's patrons, of whom I am one, became subsribers and partly due to the desire in the gaming community for a d20 based gaming magazine. I have been a subscriber since day one, as I wrote I am one of Baur patrons for his custom adventure design experiment (I write this in the interest of full disclosure). I am also repeating my patronage so that he might, just might, become a guest on my weekly podcast.
Having said that, I would like to say that Kobold Quarterly is rapidly heading toward Dragon Magazine quality (it doesn't contain adventures so is not a replacement for Dungeon) with regard to both the quantity and quality of content. The first issue was reminiscent of the old Strategic Review newsletters, the second issue was like an 80s issue of Dragon, and the third (most recent) issue is approaching the high standard that Paizo set in the final days of the Dragon. In the first three issues, Baur has already expanded the content from 30 to 60 pages and the quality of advertisers has increased. The magazine has also gone from almost entirely Baur written to containing articles by leading freelancers in the rpg industry. That's quite an achievement for a one man publishing show. Before you run over to his website and purchase PDF copies of his first three issues (linked here), let me give you a rundown of their content -- with brief quips with my opinion regarding each article, but minimal spoilers.
Issue 1
- Editorial: The issue begins with the obligatory editorial which describes the goal of the magazine and the central philosophy of the publication.
- Ecology of the Derro by Wolfgang Baur: Picking up right where Dragon left off, Baur gives us a glimpse into the psyche of everybody's favorite mentally unstable gnomelike creatures.
- Underdark Encounters by Wolfgang Baur and Mark Gedak: Encounter tables were a staple of the old Dragon, back in the day, and I have always found them useful. Nice companion to the Derro piece.
- Princes of Hell -- Titivillus, the Scribe of Hell by Wolfgang Baur: Demons and Devils have always been a staple of D&D meta-fiction and rules. I have never been a big fan of the proliferation of devils and demons, the core rules have plenty for me, but I know they are fan favorite articles and this one (like most of Baur's other demon/devil stuff) is well written -- even if I find the topic staid.
- 10x10 Toon by Stan!: Comics, like devils, are a staple of the old Dragon and Dungeon magazines and Stan! was one of the stable of cartoonists who have entertained us for years in those publications. This is a welcome addition.
- It's Not (always) About the Gold by Wolfgang Baur: This is a top of the line DM advice article that helps DMs think outside the box when it comes to rewards players can earn in a campaign, it's more than GP and XP.
- Interview with Erik Mona by Wolfgang Baur: This interview is a great conversation between two significant writers in the D&D "universe." I really liked reading this, both for the areas I found I agreed with Mona and Baur about what makes the game so much fun and in the areas where I think Erik Mona is crazy. There's a discussion about "unfair traps" that sent my head spinning as far as how I try to run my own games.
- The Kobold FAQ: Where our esteemed editor answers questions like "Will a paper edition be available?" The answer he gave to that question is now moot, but all the other questions are still salient.
- The Ups & Downs of Tripping by Sigfried Trent: Is a workmanlike article about the use and abuse of tripping in your D&D game. It is sure to get your min/maxers plotting and scheming.
- Bolt and Quiver by Stan!: The return of the strip that ran regularly in Dungeon and Dragon. As funny as it was there.
- The Far Darrig by Scott Gable: Let me just say that 3rd edition D&D had far too few fey, creatures actually defined as fey that is, and this article on malicious red caps is a welcome addition.
- The Free City by Wolfgang Baur: The first of a regular column highlighting the default campaign of the custom adventure project, the Free City of Zobeck and the world that surrounds it.
Issue 2
- Editorial: Baur discusses shared worlds.
- Kobold Letters: We now have a letters column. I don't know about you, but even in the digital world we live in, I still love to read a good letters page. Then I jaunt on over to the message boards.
- Belphegor by Tim and Eileen Connors: The obligatory demon/devil article. Fun, but -- as I wrote earlier -- I am not the target audience. I have devils/demons coming out the eyeballs.
- 10x10 Toon by Stan!: Funny metagaming humor.
- On the Street Where Heroes Live by Ed Greenwood: That's right...issue #2 and already an article by Ed Greenwood. That's a big get, and the article is one that my CSI: Sharn game was dire in need.
- King of All Monsters by the Open Design Inquisitors: This interview with Wayne Reynolds, the artist who really set the tone for the Eberron setting, gives some very good insight into this artist's process and even contains a brief comment regarding Football (the British variety).
- The Assassin by Robert Schwalb: This article is a preview of material published in Green Ronin's d20 Freeport Companion book. The article takes the Assassin out of the realm of the "prestige class" and makes it a base class.
- Bolt and Quiver by Stan!: As much as I like Stan!'s humor, I'd like to see some other cartoonists work featured in the Quarterly. The metagame humor in this strip seemed a little forced. Two strips...same joke told differently.
- Ask the Kobold by Skip Williams: Yep, you read that right. Skip Williams, Wizards' sage and rules guru for 3rd edition, answers rules questions as "the Kobold." The advice in this column regarding miss chances provided a good basis for making some changes to how I used the miss chance in my game.
- Ecology of the Barghest by Nicolas Logue: Nicolas Logue is one of Paizo's most prolific, and one of my favorite, adventure authors. His article on the Barghest was entertaining and informative. The "advanced Barghest" in the article is going to give my PCs a headache.
- From the Outside In, Creating Vibrant Characters by Sigfried Trent: A workmanlike article for players and DMs alike who want to make their characters a little more memorable. In my opinion, more useful for DMs -- who have the burden of creating hordes of NPCs compared to the relatively few characters a player needs to make.
- A Kingdom for my Horse by John E. Ling, Jr.: The paladin is my favorite class in D&D, but it is too often the subject of too much ridiculous controversy. "There should be paladins of all alignments!" "There should be evil paladins!" "Why can't paladins multi-class?" All these questions seem to miss the point of what being a paladin actually entails, or the mythic origins of the character type. Paladins are by nature righteous defenders of the weak and innocent and should exist, in the D&D game, regardless of what particular religions a campaign has. Paladins unswervingly serve good, it's in the archetype. All those other things, Lawful Neutral paladins for example, aren't paladins. They are other concepts by players who want the benefits of paladinhood, but not the drawbacks. Ling's article on the "horseless" paladin is a good one. He offers alternative rules that make sense given the mythic archetype.
- Joining the Noble Classes by Jeff Grubb: Yep...Jeff Grubb. This is a very good article that feeds on the idea of campaign rewards beyond XP and GP.
- The Avatar of Hunger by Wolfgang Baur: Baur provides a glimpse into the background of his second Custom Adventure project "Kingdom of the Ghouls" in the form of a really scary dragon. There's more to it than that, but I don't want to spoil Wolfgang's fun.
- Griffon Towers of the Margreve by Wolfgang Baur: More insight into the default Custom Adventure setting of Zobreck.
Issue 3
Stellar cover, more prestigious advertisers, 60 pages of content. This baby is a beauty. Go subscribe now. This this issue contains the Ecology of the Lich, an article on Baur's special "Star and Shadow Magic," an interview with Ed Greenwood, an excellent article by Keith Baker (creator of Eberron) discussing how to run Hardboiled adventure, and much much more. The issue just came out and I am still absorbing it, but this issue is what I hoped for when I first subscribed.
Thursday, January 03, 2008
A Year in Podcasts
As a product of Generation X, I have a deep affection for popular culture. It doesn't matter whether we are talking about movies, television, comic books, roleplaying games, or video games. I love them all. Okay, I don't love every product in each of those groupings, but I do love all those groupings on whole. I have watched a ton of movies and television, played quite a few video games, and own a comic book and game library. In short, I am a pop culture junkie and so are a few of my friends. Last year, I decided to do something with my geekdom. Namely, I decided to get together with some friends/acquaintances who knew a lot about popular culture, often more than me (especially in their areas of exptertise), and put on an online radio show at BlogTalkRadio.com.
On May 14th 2007, these friends of mine and I got together to air our first Geekerati Podcast and have been doing weekly shows since. Some of our shows have been great, and others (like our 15 minute "updates" at Comic Con) were unsuccessful experiments. I still think we can do 15 minute updates at a big event, but we'll need to plan them better than we planned our Comic Con coverage.
In the spirit of beginning the new year, I would like to provide you with a list containing some of last year's episodes for your listening pleasure. Listen in, download, and experience partial enjoyment.
Our first episode, where your resident Geeks at Cinerati/Geekerati discuss and preview Summer 2007's crop.
This week we will be interviewing SF/F author Susan Palwick about her newest novel Shelter and SF/F in general.
Between designing toys and games to editing and writing fiction, Matt Forbeck is a very busy man. He still finds time to chat with the geeks.
Do you ever listen to or watch the bonus features on your DVDs? We do and we want to talk about what we like and don't like about special features. We are visited by film critic David Chute who discusses his commentary on Dragon Dynasty's King Boxer and One Armed Swordsman.
Marc Bernardin discusses the transition from comic book reporter to comic book writer.
Your esteemed panelists will be discussing the books you should be reading, the shows/movies you should be watching, and the games you should be playing with special guest James Lowder.
This week Win Eckert visits the geeks and we discuss our favorite pulp authors and analyze their legacy on modern storytelling.
Jeff Mariotte will be visiting our show for around 15 to 20 minutes to help us kick off a conversation about Vampire movies and television shows, as well as other nasty things that go bump in the night. Jeff Mariotte is a former editor in chief at IDW Comics and the co-author of two published 30 Days of Night media tie-in novels, Rumors of the Undead and Immortal Remains. A third novel, Eternal Unrest is scheduled to be released next July.
The Geeks will discuss the pending WGA strike with television writer/producer Rob Long. Rob has some interesting insights into the future financial models of the industry that are intimately related to the technology that surrounds and binds us.
Join us as as Variety editors David S. Cohen and Peter Debruge discuss their favorite animated films of the year. They will also discuss whether a motion capture film, like Beowulf, qualifies as an animated film.
Television writer/producer Tim Minear begins at minute 00:52(http://timminear.net/) and joins the geeks to discuss the ongoing WGA strike.
Professor Richard Scott Nokes returns to our broadcast to discuss the upcoming Beowulf movie. Joining him is Alexis Fajardo, the creator the Kid Beowulf comic. Kid Beowulf chronicles the adventures of a young Beowulf and alters certain elements of the Beowulf myth. In Alexis tale, Beowulf and Grendel are brothers.
Deborah Chesher, renowned photographer and author of the previous book "StarArt" talks with us about her new book "Everybody I Shot is Dead" which details the lives and deaths of several famous musicians she has fortunate enough to cover -- musicians like John Bonham, John Denver, Waylon Jennings, John Lee Hooker, Rick Nelson, and Frank Zappa among many others.
Tonight we will be discussing our favorite Christmas Holiday films.
That's just a smattering of what we offered in the past year. Look forward to more geekery in 2008. Come join us Monday nights at 7pm Pacific -- live...you can even call in and stuff -- at Geekerati Radio.
On May 14th 2007, these friends of mine and I got together to air our first Geekerati Podcast and have been doing weekly shows since. Some of our shows have been great, and others (like our 15 minute "updates" at Comic Con) were unsuccessful experiments. I still think we can do 15 minute updates at a big event, but we'll need to plan them better than we planned our Comic Con coverage.
In the spirit of beginning the new year, I would like to provide you with a list containing some of last year's episodes for your listening pleasure. Listen in, download, and experience partial enjoyment.
Our first episode, where your resident Geeks at Cinerati/Geekerati discuss and preview Summer 2007's crop.
This week we will be interviewing SF/F author Susan Palwick about her newest novel Shelter and SF/F in general.
Between designing toys and games to editing and writing fiction, Matt Forbeck is a very busy man. He still finds time to chat with the geeks.
Do you ever listen to or watch the bonus features on your DVDs? We do and we want to talk about what we like and don't like about special features. We are visited by film critic David Chute who discusses his commentary on Dragon Dynasty's King Boxer and One Armed Swordsman.
Marc Bernardin discusses the transition from comic book reporter to comic book writer.
Your esteemed panelists will be discussing the books you should be reading, the shows/movies you should be watching, and the games you should be playing with special guest James Lowder.
This week Win Eckert visits the geeks and we discuss our favorite pulp authors and analyze their legacy on modern storytelling.
Jeff Mariotte will be visiting our show for around 15 to 20 minutes to help us kick off a conversation about Vampire movies and television shows, as well as other nasty things that go bump in the night. Jeff Mariotte is a former editor in chief at IDW Comics and the co-author of two published 30 Days of Night media tie-in novels, Rumors of the Undead and Immortal Remains. A third novel, Eternal Unrest is scheduled to be released next July.
The Geeks will discuss the pending WGA strike with television writer/producer Rob Long. Rob has some interesting insights into the future financial models of the industry that are intimately related to the technology that surrounds and binds us.
Join us as as Variety editors David S. Cohen and Peter Debruge discuss their favorite animated films of the year. They will also discuss whether a motion capture film, like Beowulf, qualifies as an animated film.
Television writer/producer Tim Minear begins at minute 00:52(http://timminear.net/) and joins the geeks to discuss the ongoing WGA strike.
Professor Richard Scott Nokes returns to our broadcast to discuss the upcoming Beowulf movie. Joining him is Alexis Fajardo, the creator the Kid Beowulf comic. Kid Beowulf chronicles the adventures of a young Beowulf and alters certain elements of the Beowulf myth. In Alexis tale, Beowulf and Grendel are brothers.
Deborah Chesher, renowned photographer and author of the previous book "StarArt" talks with us about her new book "Everybody I Shot is Dead" which details the lives and deaths of several famous musicians she has fortunate enough to cover -- musicians like John Bonham, John Denver, Waylon Jennings, John Lee Hooker, Rick Nelson, and Frank Zappa among many others.
Tonight we will be discussing our favorite Christmas Holiday films.
That's just a smattering of what we offered in the past year. Look forward to more geekery in 2008. Come join us Monday nights at 7pm Pacific -- live...you can even call in and stuff -- at Geekerati Radio.
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