Drinking Quest

Drinking Quest comes packaged in a box just slightly larger than one of the old Magic theme decks and doesn’t even fill the box the way a theme deck did.  Next thing I’m thinking is ”As soon as this moves off the new release shelf, no one will ever find it again”.  The box footprint is less than two square inches, nowise big enough to give a good description of the game, much less show a full depiction of any of the cards.  Currently, I expect the only people who purchase this will be those who read about it on the Internet or heard about it from other sources as I don’t expect the game to sell itself to a customer who picks it off the shelf

If You Want to Sell Us Cards:

1.  Have some idea of what we sell here before bringing in your box of CDs or baseball cards.
2.  Don't bring in a box of common Magic, Yu Gi Oh or Pokemon cards and get out of sorts when we offer you nothing for them.
3.  Sort your cards or expect much less from them.
4. Don't tell us you got cash for your Yu Gi Oh or Pokemon last time you were here.  You didn't.
5.  Don't tell us:  "This card sells for XXXX online" because in actuality, someone wants to sell that card for that price online. Doesn't mean they ever got it.

Edge of the Empire Beta

We have in the Beta edition for the new Star Wars RPG from Fantasy Flight Games. This will be the 4'th RPG system out for the Star Wars system (1 from WEG and two from WOTC).

I am finding FFG's approach to this interesting. Essentially, the Beta asks fans of Star Wars to test out the system for FFG and give them feedback on what to improve.  However, unlike WOTC's beta testing of D&D Next/5th edition, FFG is asking fans to pay for the privilege of doing playtesting for the company

John Kovalic on Game Publishing

Last August, John Kovalic of Dork Tower and Munchkin fame, sent out 17 tweets, detailing what to do if one wants to get a game, either RPG or board, published.  He has now collected and expanded on them.  If you harbor any minute idea of publishing a game, READ THEM

TableTop Future

Boyan Radakovich associate producer of TableTop on the Geek and Sundry website, talked about the effect the show is having on game sales, with stores and distributors reporting huge increases in sales of games featured on the show.  Whether Google/YouTube commits to a second season for the show depends heavily on the number of subscribers the channel gets and the number of shares, not likes, a show gets, so, if you would like a second season of TableTop, be sure to subscribe and share each episode.

Radakovich addressed some of the concerns that retailers had about TableTop first directing interested buyers to Amazon to buy the games featured on the show, pointing out that no one currently maintains a comprehensive online retailer locater, most viewers were familiar with Amazon and Amazon had all of the games played on TableTop readily available, should viewers wish to purchase.  Regarding the more recent agreement to promote TableTop featured games in Target, Radakovich pointed out that Target only promoted those games it already stocked and would help drive interest in expansions, such as those for Catan, and other products from the same publisher that Target did not stock ( Not that this is generalizable throughout the chain, but I took a walk thought our local Target this afternoon.  No games from participating publishers had the Geek & Sundry sticker on them and the G&S cardboard display featured Scrabble Catch Phrase, which, if I recall correctly, has not appeared on any episode of TableTop).  In addition, Radakovich showed off G&S TableTop posters, hopefully arriving in stores in November, and discussed a possible lighted G&S sign for instore use, as well as a national G&S TableTop Games Day, tentatively scheduled for next spring.  Lots of good stuff here, assuming it comes to fruition.

Mayfair Games, Industry Leader

I find it interesting that, despite some complaints from retailers (Star Trek Catan and the recent exclusivity arrangement with Alliance) Mayfair Games has taken quite a leadership role within the gaming industry, first with their Minimum Advertised Price policy and more recently with their co-sponsorship of both this year’s Origins and  GENCON, followed by their announcement, at the Open House of a strong push with commercial advertising in the Chicago market (third largest television market in the nation, according to stationindex.com), including an extended appearance by Mayfair Games newsrams Bob and Angus on the Chicago broadcast of the Today show.  This, coupled with their offering of professionally produced commercials to qualified retailers, as far ahead of anything any other manufacturer (with the exception of WOTC) has developed to grow the market.  WOTC’s relaunch/push of Kaijudo Fantasy Flight Games and Pazio both do a good job within the industry of supporting and growing their various games, FFG especially through the Media Center and Organized Play and Pazio through the Pathfinder Society, but neither is reaching outside the adventure/hobby/specialty game industry

Max Protection

Max Protection from whom I haven’t heard much from in the past year or so,showed off a line of new, tougher sleeves (don’r remember the name).  Among our customers, Max Protection has acquired a reputation for attractive sleeves that do not hold up to repeated shuffling, tearing and peeling after only a few uses, so our more active players avoided them.  This new line appears to have dealt with the tearing problem. At least, I was able to pull fairly hard on the sides of the sleeve before the sides separated under the pressure.  I have always liked Max Protection’s price point and selection so hope these sleeves perform as advertised.