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* Gaming Articles, Monthly Editorials & Remarkable Stories
NOV 2008
Catalyst Game Labs Submits Offer for WizKids’ Properties Gamerscircle.com (AP) Catalyst Game Labs has tendered an offer with The Topps Company, Inc. to acquire various WizKids’ properties, including such dynamic game lines as HeroClix, the Pirates Pocket Model Game, BattleTech/MechWarrior, and Shadowrun. After carefully reviewing options, Catalyst firmly believes that to protect the properties and ensure the best possible continuity for all communities, acquiring all brands will ensure the on going success of these game lines. Loren Coleman [majority owner of Catalyst Game Labs] recently met in New York
with Topps senior management to further explore the acquisition of these properties. “Catalyst has demonstrated our ability to manage large and important intellectual properties, “said Loren. “We will bring the same excitement and care to the HeroClix, Pirates and other WizKids’ b ran ds. We’ve made our initial offer, and look forward to a successful resolution.” “HeroClix represents the most popular Collectible Miniatures Game on the market, due to its superb Envoy program and a powerful com-
munity” said David StanselGarner, Operations Manager [himself a former WizKids employee]. “Meanwhile Catalyst Game Labs continues to
grow the BattleTech and Shadowrun properties, each with their own vibrant, dedicated communities. While we would be new to the collectible miniatures market, we have
proven experience in quickly acquiring the talent and infrastructure needed to produce high quality games. We’ve already begun the process of contacting top industry talent to bring on board should Topps accept Catalyst’s offer.” Catalyst Game Labs publishes the perennial Classic BattleTech and Shadowrun game lines and co-publishes (with WildFire LLC) the recently launched CthulhuTech RPG. Next year will see the publication of a new RPG line, Eclipse Phase, numerous casual games (such as Paparazzi!, High School Drama and others), as well as the launching of a novel publishing program.
Kendall Swafford of Up Up & Away! on WizKids & Upper Deck 'Reaping What They've Sown'
by Kendall Swafford Kendall Swafford of Up Up & Away! in Cincinnati, Ohio saw the news about WizKids closing and Upper Deck layoffs and says he’s sorry that people are losing jobs, but the companies are “reaping what they've sown:”
fence in my store. My store is 70% comics and related merchandise, and 30% games and related merchandise. Anyway, besides the obvious economic concerns I have regarding WizKids shutting down and Upper Deck laying off, I feel like they're both reaping what they've sown.
I'm the first to admit I don't play any of the games I sell. Never been a gamer; I've always been a comic fan. Not that the two are mutually exclusive, I just happen to fall on the comic book side of the
First, let me say that I hate to see anyone lose their job in this, or any other industry. It weakens all of us when that happens. But let's take a look at each company in kind, from this one retailer's point of
view. I think WizKids is a victim of two separate issues, only one of which they had any control over. As recently as two years ago, the HeroClix price point was $7.99, and as such we had as many kids playing the game as adults. Several releases later, the price point is $11.99. What does the extra four bucks get ya? One more fig, no checklist and a cheaply printed stat card! At $11.99, the kids left the game en masse as WizKids chose to run 11 sealed events in 11 weeks. With sales tax, that's over $280 just to participate in
the Secret Invasion sealed event! And the prize? A lousy card! As a retailer, I love sealed events, since I really don't feel like running a clubhouse for deadbeats that play but never pay, but 11 in 11 weeks was just too much for most. So the perfect storm of bad decisions was brewing for WizKids. The other factor that prompted their demise was out of their control to some extent. I think consumers have grown weary of the “blind” collectible miniatures
Editor in Chief: Jack R Stewart - jrstewart@ohiogamers.org Copy Editor: Ben Chronister - chronwriter@gmail.com Photography staff: Mike Henthorn - rutilius83@yahoo.com Writers: Matt Ferrell - bigmatt@ohiogamers.org Mr Stephen - cowflipper@yahoo.com OGO Publications
Zombies!!! to Become Video Game by Joyce Greenholdt Gamingreport.com Twilight Creations An Anonymous Reader Reports: The popular Zombies!!! board game is set to hit the video game world in 2009. Twilight Creations, Inc., the publishers of the game, has reached an agreement with Big Rooster, LLC, an entertainment software company, to develop the Zombies!!! board game into a video game property.
P.O. Box 2224 Columbus, Ohio 43216 1-877-OGO-0010
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Initially the game will be developed for the Xbox 360, the PlayStation 3 and the Steam online game distribution website according to Timothy Gerritsen, Executive Director of Big Rooster. Later releases may include the Nintendo DS and Wii systems.
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"Zombies!!! is a perfect game for the Xbox Live Arcade and the PlayStation 3 Network," said Mr. Gerritsen. "We were surprised that no one had seen the huge potential in the Zombies!!! property."
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Originally released in 2001, Zombies!!! has been a consistent seller and is considered one of the core products in the hobbygame industry. The base set has sold over 125,000 copies worldwide. It has also spawned many expansions and spin-offs. Com-
bined, Zombies!!! products have sold in excess of 300,000 units. In Zombies!!! players race around the board trying to find a way to escape the ever-growing zombie horde. The game is simple to play and extremely addictive according to its fans. The tile based board and the many expansions work to keep the game fresh and new each time you play it. "We are tremendously excited," said Twilight Creations' President Todd Breitenstein adding, "This is a great opportunity for both of our companies. Zombies!!! is a great property and we really can't wait to share it with a much broader audience." Twilight Creations, Inc., founded in 2002, is a Kentucky board game publisher based in the city of Cold Spring. In addition to the Zombies!!! line, Twilight Creations also publishes many successful lines such as the Haunting House series and ZombieTown. Big Rooster, LLC is a videogame development company based in Madison Wisconsin and was founded in 2006 by a group of videogame industry veterans. Big Rooster develops games for the PC and for latest generation game systems, such as Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Nintendo Wii.
State of the Ohio Gamers Organization Written by Jack R. Stewart Monday, 10 November 2008
As many people may have noticed a limited amount of news updates to this site, well there's been good reason for this...Many of the programs of the Ohio Gamers Organization have been moved around & refocused. Most of the programs that continue under the OGO banner have been put on a clean little shelf until we can rake in a little funding. We are currently focused on becoming registered as a CHARITABLE non-profit group. Once that is accomplished, then the programs we have put on hold will be able to continue. The one primary program that will continue currently is our membership program, we will still continue to build our membership & build our list of retailers that will offer discounts, and our other list of perks & benefits for your membership. We will also continue to assist these manufactures, publishers & retailers that work with us, by demoing their games at conventions & inside retail stores. We will also be bringing you a new & revamped ohiogam-
ers.org website with new features, a revamped forums board, and even a few new features we have never offered before. To read about our other active programs, and what is going on then. For those of you who have not noticed yet, several of our more profitable programs have been transferred to our sister company OGO Publications, which is our fully functional publishing company: GA ME RS New spape r, which as of Nov 2008 has entered its 1 year anniversary & has reached a distribution of close to 1000 throughout Ohio. We will soon be expanding our distribution area outside of Ohio to Michigan, West Virginia, New York, Pennsylvania, Indiana, & possibly even Illinois. We will soon also offer a subscription service. Girls of Gaming Is continuing to morph & expand into more than just a Calendar. Soon, this innovative program will be bring events & attractions that appeal to & spotlight the Female Gamer. Of course never fear, we will still con-
tinue to bring you your favorite gamer girls in their very own calendar. Phoenix Rising Event Services, our DBA for OGO Publications, that will host & service Several Premier events throughout the different fandoms. These Include: NEOVENTION: Starting March 27th, 2009, this innovative resurrection of a 20 year old convention will quickly rise to become our flagship convention. You can seem more at http://neovention.org. NOVOCON: Our premier Game Day event. Moving to Columbus in 2009, will quickly rise to become a major fundraising event to assist in the development of Neovention. Also, with this new company comes new developmental services & projects: Game Publishing: OGO Publications is a fully functional publishing company, that operates for the benefit of smaller game designers. We will continue to help with the development of small independent
game designers. We will also work with other publishing companies to help publish your game more cost effectively. We just want to see your game out on the market! Merchandising/Promotion: Along with the many different merchandise ideas that we use to promote ourselves, we will also offer many merchandising ideas to help promote your game, convention, service, etc.. Developmental Concepts: We are also on the edge of debuting one of our most exciting services/projects that we have ever come up with, we are not ready to mention it publicly here. But be assured you will hear of it, you will see it, and you will talk about it... So keep checking back. it may take a few months before we really get rolling on the new ohiogamers.org again & debut the revamped site... But its all about big things happening & we need to focus on things in a certain order to make sure they are successful. Remember.. its all a Game, and we are Gamers!
The 12 RPGs Every Gamer Should Play Before They Die Written by Martin Ralya gnomestew.com Sometimes when I meet a fellow gamer for the first time, I’m amazed that they’ve only played one or two games — and not from lack of opportunity (like having no group for several years, or something), but from lack of interest. “I play X. Yeah, I tried Y once,
but I didn’t like it. So now I just play X.” Like what you like — I’m the last person who’s going to tell you otherwise. But when it comes to gaming, how on earth can you know what you like if you haven’t tried a bunch of different RPGs? And more to the point, how can you see all the different crazy shit this hobby has to offer if you don’t, you know,
get out there and experience it? With that in mind, I give you the twelve RPGs every gamer should play before they die. I’ve made no attempt to be unbiased here. You will disagree with this list — and when you do, I hope you’ll tell me about it in the comments. Amber No dice. Instead, stats just have ratings, and unless you
frame a conflict in terms that favor you, the higher rating always wins. Couple that with a rich setting and a competitive element — bidding against the other players at the start of the game to see who is best at what — and you have a formula that’s never been duplicated. You don’t need to read the 10 Amber novels, but it helps. Family ties, backstabbing and (Continued on page 4)
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The 12 RPGs Every Gamer Should Play Before They Die (cont) insanely powerful characters all swirl around in an environment of high drama and intense roleplaying — it’s great. Play it because it doesn’t use dice. There are lots of other good reasons, but honestly they all stem from that one. Burning Wheel Burning Wheel is the quintessential indie RPG success story: one gamer’s passion turned into a genuinely great game through blood, sweat, tears and a willingness to give up sleep entirely. It’s quirky, it’s brilliant and it’s damned fun to play. It’s also not indie just for the sake of it: There’s a reason behind every element, and it all hangs together well. It’s also the only RPG in history to make in-character debates fun, exciting and worthwhile — and to do so through actual rules. In every BW game I’ve ever played, the
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debate has been the highlight. A BW debate — properly called a Duel of Wits — with a table full of people who are really into it is simply one of the best gaming experiences you will ever have. Play it because it’s indie without even a whiff of pretentiousness, and it does great things with engaging complexity. Call of Cthulhu In most RPGs, you spend your time trying to keep your character alive. In Call of Cthulhu, that’s all but impossible. It’s not about survival, it’s about fighting against impossible odds and losing — and having a blast while doing it. And sometimes, it can take you to some disturbing places. Your character will go insane. If you get into a fight with anything more serious than a human cultist, you’re chances are poor — and everything
you can do to increase your character’s power level only exacerbates the death spiral (Learn a new spell? Lose sanity!). Play it because it turns the basic model of all RPGs completely on its head. Dread Dread ignores dice in favor of a novel resolution mechanic: a Jenga tower. Every time you want to do something meaningful to the story, you make a pull; if the tower collapses, your character dies. It’s a horror RPG with no stats (just narrative elements — it’s all about the roleplaying), and the Jenga tower adds a palpable level of physical and emotional tension that ratchets up over the course of the evening. An hour in, everyone is sitting three feet from the table for fear of accidentally knocking down the tower. Play it because it will force
you to think about in-game consequences in a new way. Dungeons & Dragons There are so many flavors of D&D, and those flavors are — despite appearances — quite different from one another, that it’s tough to make this one any more specific. So we’ll leave it at this: You must play at least one version of D&D. It’s the touchstone for the entire hobby, and it can be a blast. Every gamer you meet will have an opinion on D&D — it’s kind of like Star Wars, actually. You’ll meet at least one geek in your life whose never seen any of the movies, but just one. Play it because it’s fun, because some of the rules have been so terrible that they’ll encourage you to tinker and because it’s D&D. GURPS
The 12 RPGs Every Gamer Should Play Before They Die (cont) Generic Universal RolePlaying System — could there be a worse name for a game? I mean, it even has “generic” in the title — and yet, it’s a gem. Sure, in trying to do everything it doesn’t do some things well, but that’s the blessing/curse of a generic system. You really can do damn near anything with it. There are two things about GURPS that every gamer alive needs to experience: the character creation system (which is a true work of art: point buy taken to its logical conclusion, and built in such a way as to encourage roleplaying decisions during chargen) and the wealth of information in its many, many sourcebooks (grab any one and check out the bibliography sometime). Whatever you play, GURPS books are one hell of a resource. Play it because it will change the way you think about creating characters. HERO System HERO boasts a complex system and takes a toolkit approach — throw in lots and lots of stuff, and let GMs decide what to use in their games. That’s pretty old school these days, but it makes no bones about it; you can stop a car with the most recent edition of the rules. Broadly speaking, I think there are two kinds of gamers when it comes to system complexity: those who like math and interlocking systems, and those who like light, get-out-of-theway systems. We’re all geeks, but an RPG like HERO is a great way to find out which kind of geek you are. Play it because sweet Jesus is it complicated. A LARP I know this is cheating, but about 50% of the LARPs I’ve played have been homebrewed systems, so it gets a broader
entry — and in any case, it isn’t the system that’s important, it’s the completely different experience offered by the format. There’s nothing quite like playing an all-social, all incharacter game with a couple dozen complete strangers. You’ll run into turtles who, inexplicably, refuse to roleplay; you’ll meet complete lunatics; you’ll form alliances with people you’d never look at twice on the street, as if you were best friends. And somewhere along the way, you might discover that you like LARPing better than tabletop gaming. Play a LARP because it’s both a distillation of everything RPGs are about, and the complete opposite. Og This is one of the silliest RPGs ever created. You play a stereotypical caveman with a handful of stats (”light” doesn’t begin to describe it) in a cartoonish caveman world, but the real beauty is the lexicon: cavemen only know 17 words — and in character, those are the only words you’re allowed to use. If you can spend an evening running away from dinosaurs and shouting “Me go bang big hairy thing cave!” at your friends without having a good time, something is wrong with you. There’s really nothing quite like Og. Play it because it takes a great gimmick and spins it into pure, ludicrous joy.
It’s deliciously evil, and can be damned jarring if you’re used to groups where the PCs all cooperate because they met in a tavern and knew they needed to cooperate. Up the ante by following the rule my Paranoia GM instituted in high school: Character sheets are evidence of your traitorous ways, so feel free to steal them from the other players. Play it because it lets you cut loose in ways nearly every other RPG around frowns upon or outright forbids. Rifts You know the phrase “the gold standard,” referring to the best of the best? Rifts defines the turd standard, and everyone needs to play a really godawful game. You can derive fun out of just about anything, and if you don’t take it even slightly seriously, it’s possible to have fun playing Rifts. Run it for the awesome robots and books full of guns and weird shit, and the crazy overthe-top setting. Then realize how awesome all of that could be if it weren’t grafted to one of the worst sets of RPG rules ever written, and if the sourcebooks didn’t all boil down to three pages of world material and 125 pages of new guns.
Play it because it’s a great illustration of how a cool, campy concept can be ruined by godawful rules and milked so long that instead of milk coming out, it’s actually blood. Vampire Pick an edition, the fundamentals are the same: You drink blood, you’re kind of a dick and it’s all about story and roleplaying. Next to D&D, Vampire is the other touchstone of the gaming hobby — and with good reason: it’s a light system for playing in a dark world, and done right it can take you outside your gaming comfort zone. Vampire (and its other WoD and nWoD kindred — ha!) are the other touchstone of the gaming hobby — the antiD&D, in many ways. I think that’s a pretty stupid description, but it’s certainly true to some extent: it’s a game of politics, backstabbing and no crawling through dungeons whatsoever. Play it because it’s a fascinating story-first world with light rules that get out of the way and let you roleplay. The Challenge I’ve played every RPG on this list. Have you?
Paranoia Every PC is tasked with killing commie mutant traitors…and every PC is a commie mutant traitor. You get six clones to bring into play one by one as the other players succeed in killing you off without getting caught themselves. And it’s all set in an Orwellian world gone even more wrong — as a comedy RPG. G.A.M.E.R.S.
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Call of Duty: World at War Review by Jason Ocampo August 9, 2008 It's back to the "good" war. November 11, 2008 - War, as Fallout 3 so famously puts it, never changes. While the weapons and tactics may differ, it's still about chaos and fear and the overwhelming of the senses as adrenaline surges through your veins. That's a hard experience to capture on a screen, but the Call of Duty series comes close thanks to its constant redefinition of what "11" is in terms of intensity for first-person shooters. Last year's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare delivered an awesome and varied single-player experience that was matched with an even better multiplayer suite, and it made for some really big shoes for Call of Duty: World at War to fill. If you've been living in Antarctica the past year and haven't heard, then yes, World at War returns back to the series' World War II roots. This has caused no end of grumbling from fans of Modern Warfare's contemporary setting, as well as the fact that this installment was done by Treyarch, a sister-studio to Call of Dutycreator Infinity Ward. Treyarch did the somewhat-maligned Call of Duty 3, but the studio looks to atone for that by delivering a game with an impressive amount of content. There's a solid singleplayer campaign, co-op play, a huge multiplayer suite, and even a fun, silly mode featuring zombies. It certainly helps that World at War focuses on the less popularized theaters of World War II. Instead of serving up Normandy and D-Day for what would have been the umpteenth time for World War II shooters, the game 6
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covers the island hopping campaign in the Pacific as well as the Red Army's reversal of the tide at Stalingrad all the way to the Fall of Berlin. This provides some interesting new battlefields set on sun-bleached coral atolls in the Pacific. You will see some more familiar spots with the bombedout cities and farmlands ofthe Eastern Front missions, but it's still well done. War tends to be a savage affair, but the Pacific and the Eastern Front were especially so. In the game, Japanese soldiers swarm out of the brush, erupting out of spider holes to charge straight at you in an attempt to run you through with their bayonets. They'll play dead and wait for you to walk into the middle of a trap. Though set outdoors, it feels like closequarters combat much of the time. Meanwhile, the Russian Front is full of merciless moments; there's plenty of gunning down of wounded and unarmed soldiers by both sides, and sometimes you're asked to pull the trigger yourself. War is hell. Again. This remains a Call of Duty game through and through. What that means is that the action is fast and fluid, as well as rigidly scripted. The success of the franchise proves that there's a vast audience for that, and this won't change anyone's mind. Enemy soldiers and your computer-controlled teammates respawn endlessly until you advance far enough to hit the trig-
gers to make them stop reappearing. Then you advance to the next firefight and repeat the process over again. The thing is, you're far too busy shooting and ducking and dying to really notice much of the time. The sense of immersion is pretty complete. There are plenty of deafening, large-scale set-piece battles, but there's also variation to change things up. Case in point is the PBY mission, where you man the guns on a Navy aircraft. At first glance, this seems to be a mirror to the Spectre Gunship mission in Modern Warfare; in both missions you rain fire down from above. But the Spectre Gunship mission has a cold detachment to it; those tiny blips on the screen that are human beings die from a foe that they cannot see and fight back against. In World at War's PBY mission, you're in the midst of a raging air and sea battle, taking damage and fighting for your life. Or there's a sniper mission to whack a German general that doesn't quite have the cat-and-mouse feeling of Modern Warfare's sniper level. Tanks are in one Russian level. The campaign does suffer a bit due to its broad scope; the narrative skips over months at a time, showcasing the major battles of the war. The result is that the sense of story doesn't seem as strong as it did in Modern Warfare. It probably doesn't help that we all know how the war eventually turned out; Modern Warfare had the advantage of a fictionalized story with plenty of shocking
twists and turns. All told, the single-player campaign is about as short as that in Modern Warfare, but it doesn't drag on. Plus, there's considerably more replayability here because the bulk of the campaign is playable in cooperative mode with up to three other players. I say the bulk because a handful of missions are missing, notably the sniper mission and the PBY mission; the former wouldn't make sense with four snipers, while the latter doesn't have enough room in the narrow PBY for more than one player to scamper about. Not only is the campaign in co-op, but there's also a Death Card system reminiscent of Halo 3's skull system. Scattered throughout the campaign are death cards that you can find. Each one unlocks a different capability, like Sticks & Stones, which only gives you a knife and dud grenades. Sure, it might seem strange, but it lets you have fun if you want to challenge yourself. Multiplayer is definitely an area where World at War shines. Modern Warfare had arguably one of the greatest multiplayer suites in recent history, and World at War builds on it. There remains the create-a-class and rank system that lets you unlock perks, weapons, and upgrades that you can then mix-and-match to create different load outs. Many of Modern Warfare's perks are here, adjusted for the earlier age. For instance, what used to be the UAV Jammer is now Camouflage to keep you from being spotted by any spotting planes the enemy calls in. Not what you want to see. There are also about a dozen new perks, about half of which are associated with vehicles for (Continued on page 7)
Call of Duty: World at War Review (cont) the four huge vehicle-enabled maps. And while tanks can deal out a lot of punishment, they're also very vulnerable to infantry antitank weapons and other tanks. Driving around in a tank is cool, but you'll realize just how slow World War II-era tanks are. Just like in real-life, you need to coordinate infantry and armor together for maximum effectiveness, and it's nice that the PC version has built-in voice chat. Fans of Modern Warfare on the PC had to set up third-party voice systems out of game to talk to one another.
Warfare return, like Headquarters (each team battles to seize a point on the map; the team that does doesn't gets to respawn if they die), search and destroy, team deathmatch and the like. There are also two new modes, war and capture-the-flag. The former is similar to Battlefield's conquest mode; there are five points on the map that must be seized. The kicker is that only one point is under contention at a time, so it focuses the action. (And, yes, Call of Duty 3 fans will recognize that it had war mode as well.)
The reward mechanic in World at War is also similar, but it does have a nice twist. Three kills in a row gets you a spotting plane rather than a UAV, five kills gives you an artillery strike instead of an air strike, and seven kills without dying lets you call in my favorite new feature: dogs. Yes, you unleash the hounds of war, a pack of killer dogs that will make a beeline to the enemy (helpful in spotting where they're hiding) as well as tear their throats out if they can. The dogs are difficult to take down, because they'll swarm you, and if you're busy shooting at the dogs you're often not paying attention to the fact that an opponent is lining you up in his sights.
And then there's the icing on the cake, a silly-yet-fun bonus co-op mode called Nacht der Untoten, or Night of the Undead. It's also referred to as Nazi Zombies, and it's a last stand against waves of oncoming zombies. You and up to three others are holed up inside a bunker; the zombies try to break down the barricades at the doors and windows and you have to kill them. Each wave becomes harder by throwing more zombies at you or making the zombies faster or both. You gain points for killing the zombies and for rebuilding the barricades, and these points can be used to purchase weapons, ammo, and access to other parts of the bunker. There's even a mystery box that can serve up a ray gun straight out of 1940s pulp fiction. Still, eventually the zombies will kill you, and the goal is to survive as long as
Good thing that PBYs float. All the popular modes from Modern
possible to compare your performance on the leaderboard. Given that it uses the Modern Warfare engine, World at War looks every bit as good on both the PC and the Xbox 360. I've always been impressed with the level of detail on everything; walk up to a fellow soldier and you can see the seams in their clothing. The most memorable visual in the game for me has to be the arterial blood spray that happens when a human body gets torn apart by explosions and gunfire. The dark red of the blood is in stark contrast to the dust and smoke in the air. And the frame rate is Call of Duty-smooth on both platforms from that I saw. (For comparison purposes, the PC I used had a Core 2 Quad processor with an 8800GTX and 2GB of RAM. All detail settings were set to maximum at 1920x1200 resolution.) The death cards are like Halo 3's skulls. Activision tapped Hollywood's top talent for the voice acting. Kiefer Sutherland does his part for the Marines, while Gary Oldman is the main voice for the Russians. Sutherland's voice is so distinct that it's easy to imagine him in the recording booth, bellowing his lines into the microphone (that must have been some recording session). Oldman, who has made a career out of being an utter chameleon, is al-
most unrecognizable in his role, and he delivers a convincing Russian accent. The rest of the sound effects are as authentic as we've come to expect; when you hear the metallic thunk of various machine guns you know that the sound guys spent a lot of time shooting and recording those World War II guns in a desert somewhere. Yet it's the mixing of all these elements that makes a Call of Duty game; there's so much audio erupting all over the place, from gunfire, explosions, guys yelling out commands or warnings, the whistle of artillery above, to the rumbling of vehicles nearby. It all combines to create a rich soundscape comparable to those in movies. Closing Comments It's easy to be jaded about World War II shooters, but Treyarch makes a convincing argument to stay excited with World at War. The game is packed with a deep amount of gameplay to appeal to every type of player, from those who want to experience a gritty single-player campaign to those who like to play with their friends to those who just like to play multiplayer. This is a solid, confident shooter with plenty to offer the casual and hardcore alike. Read More @ IGN.com
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PK Cards,The Broken Seal Doug Perry Product Release Announcement
Mentor, Ohio…PKXL Cards, Inc. is pleased to announce the release of our fantasy trading game, “PK Cards, The Broken Seal”, that debuted September 25, 2008. The game invokes mighty magic’s, ancient totems, and even calls the favor of the gods as they lead their armies into an all-out battle. Hundreds of wizards, warriors, beasts and monsters duel for supremacy, each with unique skills and strategy. Victory requires practice, tactics and heroism--and a bit of luck! Much energy, talent and resources have gone into the development of the game. The game is being well-received for a variety of reasons that include: •Aesthetics: From paper to inks to chemistry to artwork and de-
sign – even to packaging – PK Cards provides its players with a first rate experience that we feel has no equal in the market; •Ergonomics: The cards are laid out in a simple, easily read format. PK Cards can be held fan-like in your hand and still show all game play information, something not generally possible with most collectable card games; •Web Integration: PK Cards seamlessly integrates into a web community from the outset of the project. This community includes a prize system that rewards repeat customers with tangible, substantial prizes, as well as community interactive elements. It will soon also include the ability for 24/7 game play; •Easy Learning Curve: PK’s designers made the game simple to learn for new players without sacrificing the iterative complexity
and rich game texture desired by experienced gamers;
random trading cards. Thus, no core deck is exactly alike.
•Ease of Entry: A single PK Cards core deck may be played by two players, allowing new gamers to quickly enjoy the product; and
Every core deck and booster pack includes one card with a ‘gold key’ – a variable data imprint. Purchasers can take this unique key online, input it in the PK Cards web community when they register an account and receive PK gold pieces, that then may be redeemed for tangible prizes such as game consoles or iPods, or electronic card for future online play. These gold pieces may also be accumulated for future use within the community.
The Broken Seal comprises 366 individual trading cards along with a full set of holographic premium cards. In addition to its standard 10 card booster packs PKXL offers four pre-built core decks branded ‘blue’, ‘grey’, ‘red’ and ‘yellow’, each loosely constructed around paired game play themes. Each core deck comes with a comprehensive rules manual and a game mat to further ease the learning curve for new players, as well as a poster depicting the two central ‘avatar’ characters contained in that deck. Finally, each core deck comes with a five card ‘mini booster’ that includes one premium holographic card and four
Contact: Doug Perry 4 4 0 - 8 2 1 - 8 0 3 9 Doug@pkxlcards.com Come See A Live Demo! The Soldiery (see ad in back) Time: 6:30 pm Date: November 29th, 2008
Calendar Of Events DeCONpression 6 (Relaxacon) - deconpression.org Ohayocon (Anime) - ohayocon.org Bashcon (Gaming) - bashcon.com A&G Ohio (Anime & Gaming) - aandgohio.com NeoVGcon (Video Gaming) Neovention Reborn (Gaming and More) - Neovention.org Anime Punch (Anime) - animepunch.org
Columbus - January 16 -18 Columbus - January 30 - Feb 1 Toledo - Feb 20 - 22 Cincinnati - March 13 -15 Strongsville - March 20 - 22 Akron - March 27-29 Columbus - April 10-12
Morphicon - (Anthro/Artists) -morphicon.org
Columbus - May 15-17
Marcon - (Sci Fi) - macron.org
Columbus - May 22-24
Origins (Game Fair) - originsgamefair.com
Columbus - June 24-28
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Kendall Swafford of Up Up & Away! on WizKids & Upper Deck (cont) format. Twelve bucks ($15 for Wizards of the Coast) for a handful of figs, and you don't know what you're gonna get. It's worked for several years, but fans of any of these games have grown tired of the shell game. I've seen it with D&D, Star Wars and now HeroClix. WizKids had the advantage for several years, as a $7 or $8 price point made it an easier impulse decision to buy blind. The format has run its course, accept it. Nearly every game has a life span, which is a notion that the gaming industry at large is loathe to accept. For every Monopoly, Magic: The Gathering or D&D that lives a long, healthy life, we're inundated with hundreds of wannabes. Some are fun for a while, many are mere copycats, but most are trying to milk a dry cow. If Pinata is successful in
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buying the HeroClix brand, here's hoping it's not the same old same old. But with a former WizKids brand manager at the helm, I fear it may be exactly that. As for Upper Deck, a large part of me hopes they fail miserably, and go down in flames. Again, I truly hope for the sake of their employees this it not the case, but no company deserves it more than Upper Deck. Case in point; WoW Miniatures. Orders nationwide were severely allocated, by 50% or more according to anecdotal information from distributors. Upper Deck loves to artificially manufacture demand for its products, and what better way to do that than produce far less than they have orders for. Upper Deck expects hobby stores to support their product by doing
what hobby stores do; in-store demos, in-store game play, etc... to keep the fan base rabid. But Upper Deck will sell us out for Wal-Mart or Target in a heartbeat every time! Try telling a Target manager that you want to sit down at a table and chairs (provided by Target) and play one of their games that you may or may not have bought from Target, simply because you may (or may not) have shopped there once in your life, and therefore you deserve to have a place to play. Yeah, I can hear the laughter coming from Target stores nationwide! But that's A) the sense of entitlement that many gamers seem to have and B) exactly what companies like Upper Deck expect hobby stores to do. And yet the mass market volume deal-
ers get the product sooner and cheaper, and in greater supply. And yes, I understand the economies of scale, and the luxuries that come with it. Just don't expect me to feel bad that Upper Deck, and game manufacturers like them are falling on hard times. "For they sow the wind, and they reap the whirlwind." These are heady times for the gaming industry. I fear the bloodbath has just begun.
Up Up & Away! upupandawaycomics.com
4016 Harrison Ave Cincinnati, OH 45211 (513) 661-6300
Classifieds Section Pending Classified Categories Help Wanted Ohio Gamers Organization, a Non Profit Organization, is looking to fill the following positions: Public Relations Volunteer Coordinator Programs Manager These Jobs do receive a weekly gas stipend for working 3-4 days a week, when travel is necessary, and are first in line to get paid upon our 502c3 grants that we are currently filing for. We also have a small number of other volunteer jobs! Please Call (877)OGO-0010 To apply today!
OGO Publications is looking to hire for the following positions for its growing newspaper GAMERS.: Advertising Sales Newspaper Editor Graphic Designer Writers Photographers Sales positions do pay commission on all ad sales! Please Call (877)OGO-0010 Or email press@ohiogamers.org To apply today!
Volunteering Volunteers need for staffing Neovention Convention. Will receive free badge for working at least 8 hours of the convention. Visit Neovention.org or email volunteers@neovention.org for more details.
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The Soldiery, Inc. “Your full-service gaming source for 17 years� Collectable Card Games, Roleplaying Games, Historical Miniatures, Games Workshop, Wizkids, Paints/Brushes, Gaming Supplies. Extensive inventory of new/used items, including singles: Weekly events - 11 Gaming Tables
15% Discount on Games Workshop! PK Cards and WOW Minis in stock 4256 North High Street, Columbus, OH 43214
(614) 267-1957 drowsydragononline.com
Fax (614) 267-0558 thesoldiery.com
mail@thesoldiery.com
Hours: Mon closed, Tue - Thu 3 pm - 9 pm, Fri 3 pm - 1 am, Sat 1 pm - 11 pm, Sun 1 pm - 7 pm
Buy, Sell, Trade used gaming items and distressed store inventories! G.A.M.E.R.S.
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