FREE Vol 2 Issue 5 * Gaming Articles, Monthly Editorials & Remarkable Stories
May/June 2008
Marcon: Alternative Realities Convention Ben Chronister OGO Publications
The Multiple Alternative Realities Convention, otherwise known as MARCON, took place over Memorial Day weekend at the Columbus Convention center here in Ohio. I had originally hoped to be able to provide an un-biased, non-editorialized piece on the event, dry and unyielding in the face of plain truth. Unfortunately, I had too good a time to be able to do so. Marcon is not your standard gathering of nerds. Taking place about a month before Origins, and in the same location, Marcon carries with it a certain sense of expectancy and defiance. It is a much smaller convention, more tightly knit, comfortable, and laid back than Origins. It
feels in many ways like Origins’ younger, smarter cousin. The focus of Marcon is on literature, Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Horror, Adventure, and just about anything else that can be written about and have a nerdy sort of following. Sure there are stormtroopers and anime characters walking around, and yes a certain amount of gaming goes on, but the primary focus of the convention is on panels of (mostly) knowledgeable people expounding upon theories they’ve devised or their own areas of expertise. Panels and presentations were available involving an incredible range of subjects. Available for all attendees were heated debates of Sci-Fi television’s future, to discussions on how best to be published, to a demonstration of great skill with Whips and the history thereof.
But down to the nitty gritty. Was the con fun? My God, YES! In only two days I saw and spoke with more people about more interesting subjects than I had for the preceding year. Time travel, literature, a short but enlightening conversation about corsets, all of these and more were the topics of my random conversations, not to mention the great interviews I conducted with several different people, all of which will be elaborated upon in further articles in the next month. But perhaps the most telling aspect of the convention came at the very beginning. I’d shown up a bit late and had yet to obtain my registration badge. I was escorted to the registration area and asked to produce my driver’s license for date entry purposes. I did so and waited for a moment before being asked
“What name would you like on your badge?” I stuttered for a moment, unsure of what was being asked. “You have my license right there don’t you?” “Yes, and your real name will appear on the back, but what name do you want on the front?” I giggled for the next hour, unable to keep from staring at my badge, perhaps unreasonably tickled by being able to plaster the name of my favorite former Dungeons and Dragons character on the front of my badge for all to see. Marcon, my fellow gamers, is not a convention for the weak of imagination. It is a playground for ideas, where they may come out to play and grow and thrive in an encouraging and pleasant environment.
WotC to Co-Sponsor GenCon ICV2.com Copyright 2008 GCO, LLC. Reprinted with permission
Quashing weeks of rumors, Gen Con announced today that Wizards of the Coast will be a co-sponsor of Gen Con Indy this August. ICv2 has confirmed that this cosponsorship will include Wizards of the Coast as an exhibitor at the show. The Wizards of the Coast relationship with the show goes back 41 years,
to when the show was founded by TSR Games (later acquired by WotC). This is an
4th Edition in June. It will be premiering the new Living Forgotten Realms campaign at the show, as well as
important year at GenCon for WotC, which is launching D&D
20 years of the Legend of Drizzt. Bestselling author R.A.
Salvatore will appear at the show to sign sample chapters of The Pirate King and The Stowaway. Rumors that WotC would not be exhibiting at Gen Con had been sparked in part by the presence of Hasbro in the creditor list that was filed in conjunction with Gen Con’s chapter 11 bankruptcy petition. Gen Con owed Hasbro over $400,000 at the time of the filing, and it was the third largest creditor.
Editorial: Editor in Chief: Jack R Stewart - jrstewart@ohiogamers.org Copy Editor: Ben Chronister - chronwriter@gmail.com Photography staff: Mike Henthorn - rutilius83@yahoo.com Marissa Alexander - marissa@ohiogamers.org OGO Publications 35 East Gay Street STE #208 Columbus, Ohio 43215
http://www.ohiogamers.org Contribution Support: The Soldiery –See Ad in Back www.icv2.com - Industry News! Executive Director: Jack R. Stewart - jrstewart@ohiogamers.org Chief Operations Officer: Matt Ferrell - bigmatt@ohiogamers.org Events Coordinator: Marissa Alexander - events@ohiogamers.org ARCHIVES: http://www.gamersnewsohio.com Submissions: press@ohiogamers.org Advertising Services/Info: press@ohiogamers.org 614-923-8291 Printers: Capitol Square Printing 59 East Gay St Columbus, OH 43215 (614) 221-2850 Legal Department Kristin Vazquez kvazquez@krvlaw.com GAMERS Newspaper is published Monthly, 12 times per year by OGO Publications, 35 E. Gay St. STE 208 Columbus, OH 43215. For More information or Copyright concerns, please contact press@ohiogamers.org.
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2009
Preregistration Form
Origins 2009 June 24-28th, 2009
From the Ohio Gamers Organization Newspaper!
Origins 2009
Origins 2009
06/25/09
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Sharpening the Sword--Supporting Products Column by John Riley June 9, 2008 Sharpening the Sword is a regular column by retailer John Riley of Grasshopper's Comics, a 1,300 square foot comic and games store in Williston Park, New York. This week, Riley talks about how retailers play a role in the success of new products: Time to catch up! A lot has gone on since my last column. We went to GTS, came back with nowhere near enough time to prepare for FCBD, got through a hectic FCBD and then an injury put me out for a few weeks as I tried to recover from it all. So this week, I’m just going to try to go over a few things I’ve been thinking about for the past month, because there’s just been a tremendous amount going on right now.
First of all, this is just a weird time in general. Here, gas prices went up 28 cents in three days! As a result, over the last month we’ve seen a number of very interesting trends that are sure to affect retailers in some way this year. The Department of Transportation reported the largest decrease in the rate of driving in U.S. history. Apparently, as a result of these high gas prices, people just didn’t drive anywhere over Memorial Day weekend either. In fact, the media has been quick to coin the phrase “staycation” as the substitute vacation alternative for those who can’t afford to travel. So people may be staying closer to home this year, looking for other forms of entertainment, and the entertainment we sell will seem cheaper by comparison. All of which is good, assuming that
Not My Time By Ebony Skies OGO Publications Writer The wind whispered loving nothings as it brushed past her ear. She closed her eyes and leaned into its caress, opening her soul to the world. The chill touched her arms, sending shivers down her spine, and the scent of anticipation soaked her flesh. Vivid emotions raked across her heart until she tore her eyes open with a raged breath. The storm clouds swirling in the sky clung to their raindrops, refusing to release tears until the first blood was drawn. Creatures, their faces contorted with Hell’s violence that had crafted their lives, stood across the horizon. They roared and leapt, an invisible leash restraining them, barely containing their hunger for blood. Their armor rattled as they beat against one another in their struggle to continue forward. Behind their swarm lay tattered and broken nothing. They were what had brought her to 4
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the plains. For years she had denied herself the things she most desired. The world she had hidden from was better off without her living amongst its priceless people as far as she believed. As the world fell to damnation, she turned from her fear and rushed toward the things she had run from for so long: love, friendship, blood, and life. There will never be anything like the end of the world to help a heart realize what it really needs. Thunder rose, but it was not the clouds that screamed. The power holding the creatures fell away, and they surged across the plains, a monstrous wave devouring the golden land in darkness. Flexing her fingers around the hilt of her sword, she shook with her battle cry as she ran to meet the horde. The rain fell as her sword met with the throat of the first creature, brown fangs reaching for her. Its eyes were dull with death before it hit the ground. With an almost musical cry, she spun to fend off the attack of another creature, and a twister of fire erupted around her.
people have money left to spend! Also over the past month we had the Iron Man movie totally overwhelm the box office to not only massive receipts but great reviews. That helped again propel comics into the forefront of peoples’ minds and led to another great FCBD. This was followed up by a generally positive review of the Indiana Jones film, and everyone seems to be stoked for the comic movies yet to come. So on the comic side of our business I’m pretty enthusiastic. We’ve got a lot of great books coming out, trade paperbacks continue to be strong, and the media is helping us tremendously in keeping our wares in the public eye. What’s bothering me right now though, can best be summarized by looking at the recent announcement that Tena-
cious Games, the company behind the Spoils CCG, will be shutting down. The posting that Tenacious released about their problems during their second round of financing clearly walked us through their financing decisions and how what seemed like good decisions, ended up in retrospect to be disastrous. Publicly, they’ve placed the blame squarely on their own shoulders, but what I can’t help wonder is if this is a situation where ultimately the retailers let this company down. What do I mean? Well, personally I believe that this was a company that actually did a lot of the things that retailers wanted. They produced a very high quality game with great mechanics. They packaged it in 12-count booster boxes to encourage box sales as an impulse purchase and merchan-
Sharpening the Sword--Supporting Products (cont) (Continued from page 4)
dised it in a way that made it more attractive in stores as opposed to the Internet. (Being able to buy a “box” for $48, puts a lot less pressure to purchase online than a $140 box does). And when it came to pre-releases they worked hard to get the product into a wide range of stores before it could get to Internet retailers. But their biggest innovation was their “Open Beta” program. In order to build a market for their game, they literally gave it away. Prior to the first set being released they offered free tournament kits to any retailer who wanted one. The kits came with enough cards to hold a free tournament in your store. Players came in, played for free, got prizes, and were able to keep the cards as well! Retailers were able to get one kit a week, and all they had to do was report their tournament results to qualify. I know that some retailers surely don’t agree with me. Maybe you didn’t personally like the game, or their smaller box size. That’s OK, I don’t like all of the games I sell either, but you have to admit that at least they were making an attempt to do things that would help the retailer. So why do I say that ultimately the retailers may have failed this company? Because I’ve questioned quite a few retailers to see how they did with this game and specifically with the free tournament kits. I loved the opportunity to build a market for a new game with absolutely no risk and no out of pocket expense. It’s something I would like to see other companies try. But at this point every retailer I’ve spoken with seemed to do the same thing: they never opened their kit, never tried or learned the game, and then proceeded to sell the kit on eBay.
Unfortunately, I get the feeling that retailer buy-in is missing for other manufacturers as well. For the first time at the GAMA Trade Show this year I left the show with fewer major products than I started with. Of course I did find a tremendous amount of new products to add to my store, but the major manufacturers, manufacturers who need a good amount of retailer buy-in to keep their larger organizations going, all seemed to be cutting back on product lines and retailer promotions. And I know that for many of these programs, retailers have either failed to participate, or participated but didn’t follow the promotion as it was intended. The result is the same: we’re not seeing some of these programs anymore. And in some cases, we’re not seeing the manufacturers anymore either. Case in point: the mass market showed us that Halo ActionClix was an incredibly successful product; yet most direct market retailers didn’t even try it. Ten years ago I self-published an all-ages comic book with a friend of mine. We put a lot of work into it and ended up getting an Eisner nomination for Best New Series, as well as two Russ Manning nominations. We spent a small fortune on promotion, including full-page ads in Previews. But as retailers ourselves we knew that we needed to take the risk out of the transaction. So we sent out about 8,000 copies of our book to every retailer in the country. We knew that the only way retailers could see the quality of the book was to give them the actual book. After two years we stopped publishing, because despite everything we had done, according to the information we got from Diamond, 95% of retailers had never ordered a copy. We never expected to be in a huge per-
centage of stores, but considering the critiques we were receiving, we though we should be in more than 5%. We stopped publishing because we couldn’t figure out any way of penetrating that 95%. Things haven’t changed much today. There are many successful books being published today that wouldn’t be if it weren’t for the book market, because their creators have been quite vocal in telling me that less than 5% of their print runs are actually going to comic shops. Sure, in the end all the retailer buy-in and support won’t save a bad product or company. but when we fail to investigate new publishers or manufacturers, see what they’re about, learn about their products, and attempt to promote the products we view as worthwhile,
we are failing to support the manufacturers and publishers that are essential to our industry’s health. When a manufacturer comes up with a great promotion we need to support it by properly participating in it. Because if we don’t, there are only a few things that can possibly happen: they’ll cancel the product or promotion, take it out of the hobby industry to the book market (comics) or mass market (games), or they’ll leave. And every one of those options leaves us with fewer products to sell. And in these economic times, we can’t afford that. It’s not easy to show support. It takes effort. It’s a lot of work. But let’s face it, when we fail the manufacturers, we’re ultimately failing ourselves.
All Tournaments $15.00 entry fee per person Please note the time and date change
Fri, Jun 20th, 2008, @10:00pm- 8:00am Lock-In COMING SOON!!! BYOC PC LAN PARTYS & TOURNAMENTS COSPONSORED BY THE OHIO GAMERS ORGANIZATION G.A.M.E.R.S.
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Not My Time (cont) (Continued from page 4)
The tidal wave of bodies split around her as the beasts angled their assault to avoid her spell. Despite their evasion, many had vanished into ash. Her eyes glowed brightly, and a prideful smirk played across her features. After remaining dormant for so long, the power felt better than few other things. Hiding had taken effort and announcing her presence to the world lifted a pressure to which she had long since become accustomed. Roars and howls filled the air around her as the mass rushed toward her a second time. Though her magic was strong she knew she would need help if she were to survive the battle. She fervently hoped she hadn’t overestimated her companions. They would either forgive her for deserting them, or they would desert her in return. Fire in her eyes, she planted her feet firmly to the ground and swung her sword, releasing flames to burn the air between her and her enemies. The dry grass of the plains
sparked with orange light as the spell faded.
its chest, revealing innards to its companions.
Moving quickly, she fought with her blade. Rain mingled with black blood as the battle continued, and winds blew the rancid smell of burning flesh across the land. Sweat smeared across her forehead and eyes while her muscles ached with the power she forced into them. One of the creatures dug its armored claws into her back, pushing her forward to her knees. Mud splashed her clothes and face, grit stinging the wounds she hadn’t noticed before. It pulled its claws from her flesh, taking blood and tissue with the metal and blinding her with the white fire of pain. The sight of her blood excited the creatures, and their eyes rolled as they circled her.
Rather than assist their comrade, the monsters fell upon the injured, forgetting her in their frenzy. Seeing her chance, she carved into some of the creatures as she slithered through their broken formation. They continued to devour their fallen as she darted toward the only hill in the plains. Her form disappeared for millisecond intervals as she used distance magic to speed her flight. Once atop the small hill, she turned to watch the animals finish their meal. Having consumed the last of the dead, they turned their eternally hungry eyes toward her. She had divided their numbers. Too bad hundreds still remained, and she was exhausted. Smiling bitterly, she raised her right hand into the air. Having seen her magic, the creatures paused their advance. A single flicker ignited her palm before drowning in the rain. A howl pierced the night and they pitched forward.
She tasted iron and realized she had bitten her bottom lip. Blocking the pain as best she could, she threw herself to the ground and rolled an instant before the creature with her blood on its claws dove to finish off its prey. Bringing her sword up in an arch, she sliced along the center of
They were almost as surprised as she was when her elevated arm was
snatched, and she was lifted into the air by a blue dragon. Tossing her, the dragon caught her on his back and doubled back to the creatures to wash them in blue flames before rising high above the storm. “I would have figured something out if you had given me just a few more moments,” she claimed leaning forward and wrapping her arms around the dragon’s long, warm neck. “Of course you would have,” the dragon replied with a snort. “It doesn’t matter that you’ve used all you magic, managed to get your back torn open, and are out of practice.” “It’s just not my time,” she explained, breathing in his summery scent. Dragons, at least blue ones, smelled of waterfalls and forest. “It’s a good thing too.” “Why is that?” the dragon asked. “Because you let the world fall to pieces without me!” Miles below them, a village was gifted with the sound of a dragon’s laughter.
Calendar Of Events Colossal Con (Anime) - colossalcon.com ORIGINS 2008 (Gaming) - originsgamefair.com
Beechwood - June 26 - 29 Columbus - June 25 - 29
Matsuricon (Anime) - http://www.matsuricon.org/
Worthington - Aug 22 - 24
Buckeye Game Fest IX (Gaming) - buckeyeboardgamers.org
Columbus - October 2 - 5
Con on the Cob (Gaming/Art) - cononthecob.com Mid Ohio Con (Comic Books) - midohiocon.com Ohayocon (Anime) - ohayocon.org A&G Ohio (Anime & Gaming) - aandgohio.com
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Hudson - October 2 - 5 Columbus - October 4 - 5 Columbus - January (dates TBA) Cincinnati - March 13 -15
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