Origins report
Geenius at Wrok
accompanying art, so I may as well post the unedited version now. :-)
(The personal stories follow.)
--
Time for another dispatch (ha ha) from Columbus, Ohio, site of the Origins
International Game Expo and Fair, an event that turned out this year to be
full of surprises--and not just those stemming from last-minute event
reschedulings or the fact that the proprietor of the B&B where I was
staying was in the hospital with a broken arm when I showed up on her
doorstep. ("Uh . . . is there a motel nearby?")
This was the year in which cheap reigned, in which unassuming little games
proved to be deceptively sophisticated and fun. And that's a good thing, a
GREAT thing, because over the last few years quality games have been
getting really, really expensive. That's been driven in part by an influx
of German family-oriented board games, whose top-notch production values
and overseas origins unavoidably jack up the price into the $40-to-$60
range, and the tyrannosaurus-like market dominance of money-sucking
collectible card games. With a bit of luck, some of these newcomers could
make affordability a trend of significance.
Cheapass Games started the trend last year with its practice of packaging
only rules, boards and cards and letting the buyer forage for common (and
high-cost) parts such as pawns and dice. This year Cheapass was plugging
its latest game, FALLING (at $10, the most expensive item in its line), a
fast-paced card game for four to eight players. One player deals; the
others are all, well, falling, and whoever hits the ground last wins. It's
smart, but something bugs me about the way it leaves the dealer out of the
action. On the other hand, LORD OF THE FRIES ($5, plus a die), Cheapass'
second most recent release, is a hands-down winner. As in last year's Give
Me the Brain (which won this year's award for Best Traditional Card Game),
the players are zombies working in a fast-food restaurant, but the object
this time around is to fill goofily named meal orders by combining cards
such as "bun," "cow meat," "bird meat" and "berry pie." This one was no
surprise, though; despite the company's MO, Cheapass games tend to become
wildly popular overnight.
The real expectation-surpassers included BOSWORTH, AQUARIUS and
GUILLOTINE, three games that share terrific graphic design, card-based
play, simple rules and lots of player interaction. Bosworth (Out of the
Box, $20), which can be played by two or three but is best with four, is a
very clever chess variant played with adorably illustrated cards
representing the various pieces. Each player starts with four pawns on the
board and adds additional pieces as his edge of the board opens up; when a
player's king is captured, his pieces are taken off the board and his
queen turned over to the conquering player, who can use it for himself.
Aquarius (Looney Laboratories, $10) is a domino-like game with cards
marked in five elemental motifs. Each player tries to get seven cards
featuring his element in a row, but the catch is that the element he's
working with may change at any time. In Guillotine (Wizards of the Coast,
$10), players represent French Revolution executioners competing for the
most prestigious decapitations--behead Marie Antoinette and get five
points, kack the Hero of the People and lose three.
Honorable mention goes to GANGSTERS, GUN MOLLS AND G-MEN (Magic & Tactics
Unlimited, $10), in which players represent the infamous bank-robbing
gangs of the early 20th century and compete to rake in the most loot. The
game mechanics are excellent, but it's seriously lacking in the design
department--the artwork is terrible, and the components are way low-grade.
Many serious gamers don't care how a game looks as long as it plays well,
but I have a hard time getting into a game with substandard production
values, and I think most of the general public does as well.
That's a point I made to the guys behind FARE COMPETITION (Wolfhound,
price to be determined), a Monopoly-like game with an airline industry
theme, when they asked after a demonstration how much I'd be willing to
pay for the game. As far as the mechanics go, it's quite good, but the
prototype board had an unmistakably desktop-published look. As it stood, I
said, I'd be willing to pay around $15, but with design work comparable to
what's put into the German imports, it'd easily be worth $30 to $40 (I
think they took my suggestions to heart, so watch for a much
better-looking product around the holidays).
Which brings me to the German imports. There were many, but the only two I
got around to playing were EUPHRAT & TIGRIS (Mayfair, $50--ouch!) and
EDISON & CO. (Rio Grande, $40), both winners. [I thought Edison was a
winner, anyway. Maybe CafeJay would care to elaborate on what he thinks is
broken about it. -KA] E&T is an empire-building game set in the Fertile
Crescent, in which players compete to collect scoring blocks in five
colors--but in a crafty mechanism for promoting balanced development, the
victor is the player with the most blocks in his weakest color. In Edison
& Co., four experimental vehicles (which have a whimsical neo-Victorian
appearance--H.G. Wells grafted onto "The Rocketeer") are being tested on a
track. None of them works very well yet, but each player has a vested
interest in seeing certain vehicles perform better than others. Which
vehicle will move, in which direction and how far are determined by cards
played separately, so no player can ever control all three.
Finally, apropos of nothing, there was FUZZY HEROES (Inner City, $11), a
set of tactical combat rules for use with stuffed animals. Keeping with
the cuddly theme, the combatants don't get injured and die--they just get
tired, fall asleep and go back to the toy box. Toys' powers are based on
their size and color and what they're wearing or holding. The rules are
almost as complex as any other elementary war game's; the fifth- and
sixth-grader at the table with me enjoyed it but needed a lot of help
keeping track of things. Actually, according to the designer, the average
Fuzzy Heroes player is 22.
All in all, an excellent year for the game industry. And yes, there WAS a
motel nearby, and I slept very well, though not enough. Damn those
late-running tournaments.
--
What actually happened with the B&B was that I spent my first night at a
nearby motel, then moved back into the B&B the next morning and stayed
there for the rest of the show. I've been groping for a satisfactory
solution to the problem of accommodations at Origins. My first year, the
Mariott Courtyard didn't satisfy me; for $72 a night, I expect a little
more than just location. My second year, the Days Inn on Olentangy River
Road was a bargain at $45 a night, and I didn't mind riding the bus in
(though I had to hitch rides back with other gamers), but this year it
raised its rates. So I went the B&B route and once again paid only $45 a
night, rode mass transit in the morning and had to bum rides back at
night; breakfast was included, though it was nothing special (ObSlam:
though better than the food at the convention center). I'm now wondering
whether I shouldn't just bite the bullet next year and stay at the Hyatt.
There seemed to be an awful lot of organizational problems this year,
which other people suggested was endemic with Andon but which I haven't
actually noticed in the past. I never got my confirmation letter before
the show or my goodie bag upon arriving, and there was all sorts of
confusion surrounding FASA's Shadowrun tournament, which wasn't listed in
the original preregistration catalog. I was royally pissed when someone
posted info about the tourney from the FASA Web site, because it would
have necessitated scrambling my entire schedule. When I arrived, however,
I found that the tourney had been rescheduled AGAIN because of another
Andon screw-up, and suddenly all was well with my schedule again (with the
exception of my having scheduled 8 AM events after the late-night RP
sessions, a mistake I really really really really promise myself not to
make again). Anyway, like I said, I've always thought Andon's
administration of Origins was pretty tight, and I prefer to think of this
year's chaos as an anomaly that will be cleared up by next year.
The Maze of Games was a little harder this year than last year, but Crazy
Abu's selection was a little better. If I may blow my own horn for a
moment, I am proud to be able to claim having solved more Maze puzzles
than anyone else at the convention -- the only one I had to forfeit was
the Governor's puzzle. (Anti-kudos to WotC for making that puzzles
solution contingent on having played a demo of a WotC game. I solved the
puzzle part of it but couldn't get the actual answer because I hadn't yet
heard of Alphablitz. Phhhbbbttt.) I was also the only one to solve the
Countess' puzzle, which surprises me, because I thought the Count's was a
hell of a lot harder -- it took me two hours to get. Having 20 tokens
left over after all the good stuff was gone from Abu's, for my final
trophy I asked for -- and got -- the head of the Countess. (Not the
laminated card, alas, but the one posted at the vendor booth.) In
addition, when Quentin Hoover signed my Guillotine box, he also responded
to my request for a quick sketch of the Countess by drawing her
dejected-looking head on a spike. Give that man a cookie, a cigar or
whatever he asks for.
Praise also to Kovalic, illustrator of "Dork Tower" and Bosworth, who had
to be the single nicest guy at the convention whom I didn't already know,
and to the vendor (who shall remain anonymous) who sold me a Sailor Moon
doll that wasn't actually for sale. :-) (If you're reading, Mr. Vendor,
my wife loved it.)
Actually, come to think of it, I also met James Ernest, and he was really
cool, too, so he ties with Kovalic.
If anyone is interested, I will be happy to share my Etiquette Tips for
Undersocialized Gamers. There seemed to be more violators than usual this
year.
--
"I wish EVERY day could be a shearing festival!" -- The 10 Commandments
=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+
Keith Ammann is gee...@albany.net "I notice you have a cloud of doom.
Live with honor, endure with grace I must admit it makes you seem
www.albany.net/~geenius * Lun Yu 2:24 dangerous and sexy."
Brian Bankler
> This was the year in which cheap reigned, in which unassuming little games
> proved to be deceptively sophisticated and fun. And that's a good thing, a
> GREAT thing, because over the last few years quality games have been
> getting really, really expensive. That's been driven in part by an influx
> of German family-oriented board games, whose top-notch production values
> and overseas origins unavoidably jack up the price into the $40-to-$60
> range, and the tyrannosaurus-like market dominance of money-sucking
Well, a goodly part of the price comes from transatlantic shipping,
which isn't as cheap as it sounds. At Essen last year I was able to spot
games I'd paid $50-60 for 35 DM (about $25). Granted, their price had
fallen a bit, but a lot of the bigger german games are quite inexpensive.
Mississippi Queen could be had for around $23...because it had
a huge print run. If only we could have print runs in the 10,000 range,
we could have better quality at the same cost (or lower prices).
Case in point: Airlines by Avalanche Press. I looked at the box
(not at Origins) and said "hm...could be good." The owner then let me
look inside the box and see the fact that it was a deck of cards and
a board that was made of essentially business card weight paper. Not
mounted. Not sure if it had color but if so not much. How much was it?
Thirty Five Dollars. This is undoubtedly because of the economics
of scale (although the really nice box probably added $5-10 to the final
retail price. And I have to admit, if I hadn't gotten to look inside
the box I would have been sorely tempted. I still may buy it, it may
be a great game, but as an unknown it was too expensive).
Not to rag on Avalanche...I doubt I could start a company and
print a really cheap card game without taking a loss. It's tough stuff,
fronting a lot of money that you are willing to lose to make a big
print run.
> Honorable mention goes to GANGSTERS, GUN MOLLS AND G-MEN (Magic & Tactics
> Unlimited, $10), in which players represent the infamous bank-robbing
> gangs of the early 20th century and compete to rake in the most loot. The
> game mechanics are excellent, but it's seriously lacking in the design
[snip...]
> That's a point I made to the guys behind FARE COMPETITION (Wolfhound,
> price to be determined), a Monopoly-like game with an airline industry
> theme, when they asked after a demonstration how much I'd be willing to
> pay for the game. As far as the mechanics go, it's quite good, but the
> prototype board had an unmistakably desktop-published look. As it stood, I
> said, I'd be willing to pay around $15, but with design work comparable to
> what's put into the German imports, it'd easily be worth $30 to $40 (I
> think they took my suggestions to heart, so watch for a much
> better-looking product around the holidays).
I just wanted to compare that to your previous statement(*).
"...quality games have been getting really, really expensive." Why do
people make games with nice components that are expensive? Because people
buy them. I *like* nice components. On the other hand, I buy Cheapass Games
because of the very low risk involved...if I hate a game, I lose $3 bucks.
And there are certainly some games from CA that are not to my tastes.
Quite a few. But it's still low risk.
But $20 games are hard pressed. It's expensive enough to make me
think twice, not pretty enough to give me a case of parakeetitis and make
me want to impulse buy. (Expensive games do get impulse bought if I trust
the company or really like the theme).
Expensive games probably have better margins too.
> Finally, apropos of nothing, there was FUZZY HEROES (Inner City, $11), a
> set of tactical combat rules for use with stuffed animals. Keeping with
> the cuddly theme, the combatants don't get injured and die--they just get
> tired, fall asleep and go back to the toy box. Toys' powers are based on
Hm. Sounds like a good game to look into. Cheap and maybe cute enough
to get The Wife interested in playing.
> If anyone is interested, I will be happy to share my Etiquette Tips for
> Undersocialized Gamers. There seemed to be more violators than usual this
> year.
Please do. Are these the standard ones or have new violations been
discovered? Enquiring minds who are considering bringing their SO's along
need to know.
Brian
Geenius at Wrok
> The Geenius at Wrok wrote:
>
> > This was the year in which cheap reigned, in which unassuming little games
> > proved to be deceptively sophisticated and fun. And that's a good thing, a
> > GREAT thing, because over the last few years quality games have been
> > getting really, really expensive. That's been driven in part by an influx
> > of German family-oriented board games, whose top-notch production values
> > and overseas origins unavoidably jack up the price into the $40-to-$60
> > range, and the tyrannosaurus-like market dominance of money-sucking
>
> Well, a goodly part of the price comes from transatlantic shipping,
> which isn't as cheap as it sounds.
Yeah -- that's where the "overseas origins" come in. When Mayfair started
producing their imported games stateside, the prices dropped by about $15
to $20 per game across the board.
> > That's a point I made to the guys behind FARE COMPETITION (Wolfhound,
> > price to be determined), a Monopoly-like game with an airline industry
> > theme, when they asked after a demonstration how much I'd be willing to
> > pay for the game. As far as the mechanics go, it's quite good, but the
> > prototype board had an unmistakably desktop-published look. As it stood, I
> > said, I'd be willing to pay around $15, but with design work comparable to
> > what's put into the German imports, it'd easily be worth $30 to $40 (I
> > think they took my suggestions to heart, so watch for a much
> > better-looking product around the holidays).
>
> I just wanted to compare that to your previous statement(*).
> "...quality games have been getting really, really expensive." Why do
> people make games with nice components that are expensive? Because people
> buy them.
Sorry, I forgot a sentence that went into the column: "This is one
instance in which more actually would be better."
> > If anyone is interested, I will be happy to share my Etiquette Tips for
> > Undersocialized Gamers. There seemed to be more violators than usual this
> > year.
>
> Please do. Are these the standard ones or have new violations been
> discovered? Enquiring minds who are considering bringing their SO's along
> need to know.
I imagine most of them will be seen as standard by some and not by others.
Since you asked for it, I'll be posting it ... and I take no
responsibility for hurt feelings.
Brian D Leet
Brian Ban...@rtp.ericss
> > Undersocialized Gamers. There seemed to be more violators than usual this
> > year.
>
> discovered? Enquiring minds who are considering bringing their SO's along
> need to know.
Actually I thought, and was supported by anothers comment, that the
crowd was pretty good this year. Certainly the card gamers seemed at
least if not better behaved to the rest of the crowd than previously and
I encountered relatively few cases of uncleanliness. Of course I pretty
much stuck to a couple of gaming areas and the folks in the Columbia
blocks games area usually seem pretty good. My biggest point of
etiquette would be this:
Ladies, I don't care what part of your anatomy it is, if enough is being
squeezed out by the clothes to overlap and conceal the clothing doing
the squeezing, *please* reconsider.
Enough said.
Brian Leet
Steven R Nicewarner
> Case in point: Airlines by Avalanche Press. I looked at the box
>(not at Origins) and said "hm...could be good." The owner then let me
>look inside the box and see the fact that it was a deck of cards and
>a board that was made of essentially business card weight paper. Not
>mounted. Not sure if it had color but if so not much. How much was it?
> Thirty Five Dollars. This is undoubtedly because of the economics
>of scale (although the really nice box probably added $5-10 to the final
>retail price. And I have to admit, if I hadn't gotten to look inside
>the box I would have been sorely tempted. I still may buy it, it may
>be a great game, but as an unknown it was too expensive).
> Not to rag on Avalanche...I doubt I could start a company and
>print a really cheap card game without taking a loss. It's tough stuff,
>fronting a lot of money that you are willing to lose to make a big
>print run.
Since I'm the shop owner in question, I feel I should comment. I too
was shocked at the $38 price tag. Then I made the following
comparison;
Airlines
220 card deck -- $38
4 starter decks of Magic
240 cards -- $36
Given that comparison, it's not a bad deal.
Steve Nicewarner
c_fa...@my-dejanews.com
cere...@mindspring.com wrote:
> Brian Bankler <ban...@rtp.ericsson.se> wrote:
>
> > Case in point: Airlines by Avalanche Press. I looked at the box
> >(not at Origins) and said "hm...could be good." The owner then let me
> >look inside the box and see the fact that it was a deck of cards and
> >a board that was made of essentially business card weight paper. Not
> >mounted. Not sure if it had color but if so not much. How much was it?
> > Thirty Five Dollars.
>
> Since I'm the shop owner in question, I feel I should comment. I too
> was shocked at the $38 price tag. Then I made the following
> comparison;
>
> Airlines
> 220 card deck -- $38
>
> 4 starter decks of Magic
> 240 cards -- $36
>
> Given that comparison, it's not a bad deal.
Except for the fact that the game itself isn't very good, and for the life of
me I don't know why they needed that many cards (never mind the expansion).
I too was tempted by the game, but in my case I'm just glad I got a demo
first, because there is almost nothing to the game itself. The themeing is
very weak and it's basically a vanilla Hah! Take That! game. It's not so much
overpriced for the components as overpriced for the quality of the game.
Later,
Chris
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Harpomatic
me I don't know why they needed that many cards (never mind the expansion).
I too was tempted by the game, but in my case I'm just glad I got a demo
first, because there is almost nothing to the game itself. The themeing is
very weak and it's basically a vanilla Hah! Take That! game. It's not so much
overpriced for the components as overpriced for the quality of the game.
>>
Every time I hear someone complaining about price and games I have to laugh.
Is this coming from Americans who pay $15K for cars and $7 for lunch? Games may
last through several playings (sometimes hundreds) and will generate a lot of
fun for the buck. Compare that to a movie at 7 or 8 dollars and a game like
Airlines costs less than taking a family of four to Mulan once!
As for the game perhaps you missed the point and I can understand that in a
demo. But I urge you to play this one against someone who knows the strategies
and you will see just how much depth it has.
Nuff said, Harp.....