2008/Dec - GAMERS Newspaper

FREE Vol 2

Issue 11

Dec 2008 * Gaming Articles, Monthly Editorials & Remarkable Stories

Anthony Gallela, former (and current acting) Executive Di-rector of GAMA, will lead the company formed to run Gen Con if the efforts of the Gen

Con Acquisition Group are successful, he told ICv2 on Tuesday. “The investors are all outside the industry, very well funded, and can support the offer, and support Gen Con’s growth and develop-ment and continuation,” Gal-lela said. Gallela is also cur-rently the VP-Sales and Mar-keting of Bucephalus Games .

The offer from the Gen Con Acquisition Group came in on the eve of the filing of Gen Con’s final plan for emergence from bankruptcy, and was sub-sequently rejected by Gen Con. We asked Gallela why he thought the GAG’s offer was superior to Gen Con’s plan

for emerging from bank-ruptcy. “The success and strength of Gen Con is very important to me, and to the rest of the industry, and to the fans,” he said. “So for me, the best thing for Gen Con is to have solid fiscal backing and the experience at the top of organization that can ensure that it continues in the best possible way.” Gallela said that the GAG group would invest over a million dollars “to satisfy the debt and invest in the future.” Gen Con’s creditors would be paid faster under the GAG’s plan than they would under Gen Con’s plan. And he reached out to cur-

rent Gen Con management, saying of Gen Con President Adrian Swartout, “Adrian has done yeoman’s work with Gen Con, and if things can be worked out we would want her to continue on,” he said. Asked about the role of cur-rent Gen Con owner Peter Adkison, Gallela stressed his respect for Adkison and his appreciation for his success in other areas. But when it came to Gen Con, Gallela felt the show could do better. “Peter is an innovator and has been a longtime friend of mine,” Gal-lela said. “That doesn’t mean that he’s as good as Adrian or me at running a convention for game enthusiasts…. I think Peter is right for Hidden City

Gallela Ungagged: Reveals Gen Con Acquisition Group Involvement

Konami Digital Entertainment,

Inc. (KDE) today announced that the company is taking over all operational and busi-ness aspects of the worldwide phenomenon, Yu-Gi-Oh! TRADING CARD GAME™, effective immediately. KDE will take over distribution and cus-tomer support for the Yu-Gi-Oh! TRADING CARD GAME™ from Upper Deck Entertainment (Carlsbad), KDE's former exclusive dis-tributor of the trading card game. The Yu-Gi-Oh! TRAD-ING CARD GAME first took

the Asian market by storm in 1996 and became a global sen-sation in 2002 as it reached the shores of North America, quickly followed by Europe and other territories. Today, the Yu-Gi-Oh! TRADING CARD GAME continues to reach new milestones as the game evolves.

“Konami Digital Entertain-ment, Inc. is very pleased that the Yu-Gi-Oh! TRADING CARD GAME continues to be the number one TCG in the world. We are fully committed to maintaining a very high level

of game support, from sales to organized play, and to provid-ing a seamless transition during this process,” commented Ka-zumi Kitaue, Chairman and CEO of Konami Digital Enter-tainment, Inc. “We look for-ward to having distribution of the Yu-Gi-Oh! TRADING CARD GAME within our cor-porate umbrella as it allows us to take advantage of the syner-gies from our existing gaming platforms to ensure continued great products for the Duelists and for our retail and distribu-tion partners.”

For distributors and retailers wanting to set up accounts with KDE, please contact cus-tomer support at 310-220-8 6 3 0 o r c a r d [email protected].

About The Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG The Yu-Gi-Oh! TRAD-ING CARD GAME is the #1 trading card game in the world with over 18 billion cards sold. It is a game of strategy, where players create individual decks of cards collected from Struc-ture Decks and Booster Packs. Two players engage in a duel while using cards that repre-

Konami to Take Control of the Yu-Gi-Oh! TRADING CARD GAME™

Celebrating Over 1 Year in Publication

ICV2.com

Copyright 2008 GCO, LLC. Reprinted with permission

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2 G.A.M.E.R.S.

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3 G.A.M.E.R.S.

As many people may have no-ticed 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 & re-focused. 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-prof it group. Once that is accom-plished, 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 con-ventions & inside retail stores. We will also be bringing you a new & revamped ohiogam-

ers.org website with new fea-tures, 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: GAMERS Newspaper , which as of Nov 2008 has en-tered its 1 year anniversary & has reached a distribution of close to 1000 throughout Ohio. We will soon be ex-panding our distribution area outside of Ohio to Michigan, West Virginia, New York, Pennsylvania, Indiana, & possi-bly even Illinois. We will soon also offer a subscription ser-vice. Girls of Gaming Is continu-ing to morph & expand into more than just a Calendar. Soon, this innovative program will be bring events & attrac-tions that appeal to & spotlight the Female Gamer. Of course

never fear, we will still con-tinue to bring you your favor-ite gamer girls in their very own calendar. Phoenix Rising Event Ser-vices, our DBA for OGO Publications, that will host & service Several Premier events throughout the different fan-doms. These Include: NEOVENTION: Starting March 27th, 2009, this innova-tive 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 Co-lumbus in 2009, will quickly rise to become a major fundraising event to assist in the develop-ment of Neovention. Also, with this new company comes new developmental services & projects: Game Publishing: OGO Publications is a fully functional publishing company, that oper-ates for the benefit of smaller game designers. We will con-tinue to help with the develop-

ment 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 ex-citing 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!

State of the Ohio Gamers Organization Written by Jack R. Stewart Monday, 10 November 2008

Challenges of an Indie RPG Publisher

The games we play do not ap-pear out of thin air. Each game we see on the shelf at the store is the creation of thousands of hours of play-testing, writing, fighting, screaming and poten-tially murder. The blood, sweat and tears of the developer can be

seen throughout the product in its execution, scope and even art-work. But what kind of fortitude does it really take to design a game? More importantly, what kind of sheer tenacity and sense of purpose is required to design a game while not employed by Palladium, White Wolf or Wiz-ards of the Coast?

Over the next several months Andrew Kozak and Vito Pandolfo,

co-designers of the game “Metal, Magic and Lore,” which has been out now for a few years and seems to be doing quite well. I'm not going to jinx them by suggest-ing yet they've “made it,” and simply instead say that these gentleman seem to know what they're doing.

So please, read and enjoy. Hope-fully those of you currently at-tempting to develop, or merely

thinking about attempting to develop a game will find some-thing of use from here in the coming months.

Our idea to create an RPG was born from our years as hobbyists, and in fact came out of home brewed rules for other games as early as 1988. These rules were created out of our desire to tailor an RPG

(Continued on page 5)

By Andrew Kozak

and Vito Pandolfo

Forward by Ben Chronister


http://neovention.org



4 G.A.M.E.R.S.

Gallela Ungagged (cont)

Games, but I don’t think he’s right for Gen Con. I would have to assume he feels the same since he hasn’t been involved with running the show for two years.” We asked Gallela what changes he would make in the way Gen Con operates. He noted the potential for expense reductions and ex-pansion of positive aspects of the show, without more spe-cifics. “For the fans, I don’t see substantial changes other than that the things that an-noy them would be improved and the things they like would be more plentiful,” he said. Indianapolis would continue to be the show’s venue.

Gallela said that he knew of support for and interest in the GAG’s offer among the creditors, although he said he hadn’t “taken a straw poll.” “We have spoken to a num-ber of the creditors, and our counsel has been talking to some of the creditors’ coun-sels,” he said. We asked whether GAMA’s board was aware of his in-volvement in the acquisition group, and he indicated that it was, and that his efforts began as GAMA declined to make an offer. “GAMA did look at Gen Con because of its concern over the potential demise of one of the most important events in our in-dustry,” he said. “GAMA did not want Gen Con to go away. But GAMA decided

not to be involved in a hostile takeover, and that Gen Con would continue on whether run by Gen Con or an invest-ment group.” Gallela’s role as ED of GAMA was what led to the first con-versations with Gen Con’s Swartout. “I did talk to Adrian some time ago in my capacity as GAMA ED and did bring up a lot of the con-cerns of GAMA and different industry pundits and mem-bers,” he said. “I had a talk with her about our plans and Gen Con’s plans. I also let her know there was the pos-sibility of another offer. I also had a few meetings with Peter, keeping him appraised on the issues around the bankruptcy, and I let him know there was going to be

another offer.” The investment group is not open to keeping Adkison in as an equity owner, although Adkison “would gain the pay-backs given to Hidden City that have been paid already,” Gallela said. “We plan to work with Gen Con, and work with Adrian, and work with Peter to do the best thing for all involved.” The next step appears to be a reconsideration of the Gen Con Acquisition Group offer by Gen Con’s management, a c t i ng a s de bt or - i n -possession. The creditors committee and the judge could also weigh in. Devel-oping.

(Continued from page 1)

GAMA Hires Kaufeld As Marketing Director

GAMA has hired John Kaufeld as its new marketing director, according to an announcement by the game publishers’ organi-zation. Kaufeld has been han-dling marketing, communica-tions, and publicity for the or-ganization on a part time basis for the past year. He also had a previous two year stint with the organization as communications director, and has served on the

GAMA board and on the GAMA Retail Division board. Matt Ragsdale, who had been handling exhibitor sales and services, left the organization earlier this month “as part of a strategic move to better utilize our staff,” the organization said. And the organization has made an offer to a candidate for the GAMA executive director posi-tion, and expects to have an announcement soon.

ICV2.com


The UK-based Product Enter-prise, which morphed into Iconic Replicas to create a popular line of high-end prop replicas based on Gerry Ander-son TV Productions and Irwin Allen’s Voyage to the Bottom of Sea, has now evolved into Six-teen 12 Collectibles and plans to add a wide range of mer-chandise including statues, rep-lica ray guns, space ship models, t-shirts and comic books all based on Space Vixens, an origi-nal intellectual property that harkens back to the time when the future was fun.

The new Space Vixens IP with its definite retro bent takes its inspiration from classic science fiction comic strips and serials such as Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers, and Dan Dare as well as vintage TV shows such as Tom Corbett—Space Cadet, Space Patrol, and Rocky Jones, Space Ranger. Sixteen 12 Collectibles

debuted its Space Vixens line by displaying the first two statues and a prop ray gun at San Diego. The statue of the sexy space captain Felicity Bliss (MSRP $350) is due out in February and can be ordered in the U.S. via Davis Marketing Services. Both the Felicity Bliss Statue and the first Space Vixens t-shirts will be available for purchase at the New York Comic Con. The Sixteen 12 Collectibles booth will also feature addi-tional prop prototypes, posters, and sample pages from the Space Vixens comic book with art by Steve (Athena Voltaire) Bryant. The Felicity Bliss Statue, which is limited to 500 pieces world-wide, is crafted out of high qual-ity Polystone material and stands a full 12 inches high. Sculpted by Andrew Teal and Jim Freckingham, the Felicity Bliss figure is packaged in a full color presentation box and comes with a numbered edition certifi-cate.

Back When the Future Was Fun!

ICV2.com





5 G.A.M.E.R.S.

Challenges of an Indie RPG Publisher (cont)

system to our own tastes and desire for “realism”. At the time, Andrew authored much of the concept of the game in books of notes, along with numerous charts and tables. This first game was affection-ately called “Melee & Magic.” The setting has evolved over time but is still, in essence, the same game we made back then.

After a hiatus of several years the idea of actually writing a complete game was revived in 2002; this time as a busi-ness idea. We were over-whelmed by the number of questions that we had to answer. We thought our concept would be a great game, but was it ready to bring to the world in pub-lished form? How much of the game needed to be devel-oped? What is happening in the gaming industry? How many games might we sell? How much will it cost to produce the books and how shall we finance the venture? It was overwhelming.

We steadied ourselves by clearly articulating our vision, which was to “create a game system that distinguished itself from others by provid-ing a sense of realism while maintaining a superior level of playability.” We needed something that built upon the

good ideas in games already released and added a lot of new ones. Something that contained artwork that was visually interesting and added to the game’s realism. Some-thing that was a real product. We quickly decided to move forward, which for us this meant that we would have to do the work to develop the game first and then find out if we had created a game peo-ple would enjoy playing. We would deal with the money and business questions later.

This first step led us to our first major challenge as well. “How do we create a game that is realistic and fast-paced?” In early development, was found that realism came with a price, was that the games pacing became bogged down in details. This was not acceptable. We were deter-mined to crack the code of realism without sacrificing speed. At the same time, we were also trying to satisfy our own hunger and vision for a new game system. We took our experiences with earlier RPGs, good and bad, and began to add, subtract and test pieces of the earlier sys-tem.

Our endeavor began and the labor-hours began to pile up. We researched, conceived and developed. We gathered data and created ways to

express things realistically in the game through the use of mathematical abstractions and formulas. This was a tre-mendous effort involving mul-tiple skill sets, spanning from the creative to the analytical, and it tested our ability to collaborate together, (more on that in later installments)

During this process we dis-covered something that was monumental in determining the direction of the entire game. In order for us to do what we set out to do, we needed at least 10 pages of design notes for every page we were intending to publish. If we wanted realism, we needed to take empirical data and then recreate it through a numerical architecture and rules that we call a game system. If we were simply designing a game based on abstractions, this challenge would not nearly be as great. But realism required a whole other degree of rigor. The game needed to work in ac-cordance with the laws of physics! We soon realized just how much information we needed to catalog and refer to at a later date. This was a lot of work!

A by-product of discovering this first challenge almost immediately led us to our second. As we performed our development due-diligence, we continued to

discover topics and need for game mechanics that we had-n’t considered at first. So as a result, the volume of our game kept increasing. In other words, the game we thought we were researching turned out to be a much lar-ger game system than we had initially imagined. And from what we could see, this trend was not going to stop. In our original concept, “Metal, Magic and Lore” was to be a complete game system rule-book, with a Player’s section, Game Master’s section, world gazetteer, complete bestiary and treasure section. As it turned out this was a nearly impossible task – our Basic Player’s Rule Book numbers some 376 pages and weighs 2.8 pounds. If this had all been included in the initial release, customers would still not know about it as it would not yet be released, and the book would be approaching some 1,000 pages in size. So what is our point here? Our point is that the second ma-jor challenge we encountered was that as we pursued our dream, we immediately had to let go of what we had imagined. Our vision was obsolete and we hadn’t even gotten close to release yet!

For more information on the game Metal, Magic and Lore, or on the developers, head over to www.metalmagicandlore.com



http://www.metalmagicandlore.com



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7 G.A.M.E.R.S.

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sent powerful Monsters, magi-cal Spells and surprising Traps. Duelists with well-constructed decks, dominating monsters, solid strategy and good fortune are the victors in the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG. Konami Digital En-tertainment, Inc. is the exclu-sive licensee and rights holder to the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG in North America and various countries in South and Central A m e r i c a a n d E u r op e . A b o u t K o n a m i Konami is a leading developer, publisher and manufacturer of electronic entertainment prop-erties and traditional trading card games. Konami's software titles include the popular fran-chises Metal Gear Solid®, Silent Hill®, Dance Dance Revolu-

tion® and Castlevania®, among other top sellers. Konami is also the manufacturer of the wildly popular Yu-Gi-Oh! TRADING CARD GAME, which has sold more than 18 billion cards worldwide. The latest information about Ko-nami can be found on the Web at www.konami.com. Konami Corporation is a publicly traded company based in Tokyo, Japan with subsidiaries Konami Digital Entertainment Co., Ltd. in To-kyo, Japan, Konami Digital En-tertainment, Inc. in the United States and Konami Digital En-tertainment GmbH in Frankfurt, Germany. Konami Corporation is traded in the United States on the New York Stock Ex-change under the ticker symbol KNM. Details of the products published by Konami can be found at www.konami.com.


Konami to Take Control (cont)

Konami Digital Entertain-ment, Inc. (KDE) announced Thursday, Dec. 11, that the company is taking over all operational and business as-pects of the popular Yu-Gi-Oh! Trading-Card Game, effective immediately. KDE will take over distribution and customer support for

Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG from Upper D e c k E n t e r t a i n m e n t (Carlsbad), which had been the exclusive distributor of the game since 2002. Upper Deck had filed a lawsuit in Nevada District Court Dec. 10 against Konami Marketing, Inc. and Konami Digital En-tertainment, Inc. claiming breach of contract and asking for $75 million in damages.

Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG took the Asian market by storm in

1996 and became a global sensation in 2002 as it reached the shores of North America, quickly followed by Europe and other territories. “Konami Digital Entertain-ment, Inc. is very pleased that the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG contin-ues to be the number one TCG in the world. We are fully committed to maintain-ing a very high level of game support, from sales to organ-ized play, and to providing a seamless transition during

this process,” commented Kazumi Kitaue, Chairman and CEO of Konami Digital En-tertainment, Inc. “We look forward to having distribution of the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG within our corporate umbrella as it allows us to take advantage of the synergies from our existing gaming platforms to ensure continued great prod-ucts for the Duelists and for our retail and distribution partners.”

Upper Deck files suit as Konami takes control of Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG

Gamerscircle.net 12/16/2008

Two companies that were mak-ing a play to acquire HeroClix from Topps in the wake of its WizKids shutdown have joined forces. Catalyst Games, which announced that it had made a bid for all of the WizKids prop-erties and Pinata Games, formed for the purpose of ac-quiring HeroClix, have formed

a strategic alliance, contingent on Catalyst’s successful acquisi-tion of the WizKids properties.

If Catalyst’s bid is accepted by Topps, “Pinata will begin as operator of the HeroClix brand immediately,” according to the statement. If it occurs, the alli-ance would allow both compa-nies to release new games both together and independently.

HeroClix Bidders Join Forces

Gamerscircle.net 12/16/2008


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8 G.A.M.E.R.S.

UPCOMING PK CARDS DEMOS!

Calendar Of Events DeCONpression 6 (Relaxacon) - deconpression.org Columbus - January 16 -18 Ohayocon (Anime) - ohayocon.org Columbus - January 30 - Feb 1

Bashcon (Gaming) - bashcon.com Toledo - Feb 20 - 22

A&G Ohio (Anime & Gaming) - aandgohio.com Cincinnati - March 13 -15

NeoVGcon (Video Gaming) - Strongsville - March 20 - 22

Neovention Reborn (Gaming and More) - Neovention.org Akron - March 27-29

Anime Punch (Anime) - animepunch.org 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

Date Time Location Telephone #

December 28, 2008 1:00 p.m. Hero Quest

2608 E. Grand River Ave.

Howell, MI 48843

517-540-9790

December 31, 2008 6:00 p.m. Cold Fusion LAN Center

5905 Andrews Rd.

Mentor on the Lake, OH 44060

440-209-1025

January 4, 2009 5:00 p.m. The Labyrinth Comics & Games

324 Sate St.

Ann Arbor, MI 48104

734-769-1969

January 2, 2009 6:00 p.m. The Keep Games and Hobbies

3351 Lincolnway

East Massillon, OH 44646

330-236-4948

January 3, 2009 6:00 p.m. E.A.C.

1294 Conant St. Suite # 400

Maumee, OH 43537

419-891-0328

January 5, 2009 6:00 p.m. Get Your Game On

709 Packard Rd.

Ann Arbor, MI 48104

734-786-3746

January 8, 2009 4:30 p.m. Game Room Comics

3131 W. Sylvania

Toledo, OH 43613

419-475-3775

January 9, 2009 2:00 p.m. Hobby Town USA

800 Plaza Blvd. .

Mentor, OH 44060

440-974-2116

January 10, 2009 1:00 p.m. Comic Heaven

4847 Robinhood Dr.

Willoughby, OH 44094

440-942-6960




9 G.A.M.E.R.S.

NEXT DEMO!!! December 27, 2008 6:30 p.m. The Soldiery 4256 N. High St. Columbus, OH 43214 614-267-1957




10 G.A.M.E.R.S.

Top Cow Pledges $2.99 for 2009

Top Cow Productions has announced that it will maintain a $2.99 price point for its regular-sized comic books throughout 2009. Top Cow publisher Filip Sabik explained: “We looked around and saw cover prices creeping up and up all around us. It seems wrong to raise your prices on customers during these tough economic times.” Top Cow’s announcement comes as news appears that Marvel raising the price of some of its regular comic book series including New Avengers and Hulk to $3.99, sparking discussions on

comic boards and fan sites about comic book pricing.

The standard price for 32-page comic from Marvel and DC has been $2.99 for years, but there has been plenty of talk that comics are heading for the $3.99 price point in the near future. Actually, in a very real sense, the future is now. Mar-vel has been leading the move to higher prices by charging $3.99 for miniseries, special editions and first issues. An analysis done by Conor Kilpatrick and published on ifanboy.com showed that dur-ing the last two weeks of Oc-tober 13 out of 24 and then 9 out of 19 Marvel releases were

32-page comics priced at $3.99.

Reportedly Marvel’s next move will be to raise the price of four regularly published series from $2.99 to $3.99 over the next three to four months. The current Marvel previews list New Avengers #49 and Hulk #10 at $3.99. But this does not necessarily mean that all Marvel comics will be making the leap anytime soon. Marvel EIC remarked recently in his “MyCup o’ Joe” column on MySpace: “We’re doing everything we can to insure that the largest number of customers and retailers can continue to get a large major-

ity of Marvel Comics at the standard $2.99 price.”

Price increases are not always a bad thing, they can provide a much-needed revenue boost to publishers, distributors and retailers, especially if circula-tion remains strong, but it is the size of the leap from $2.99 to $3.99 that gives fans and some industry analysts pause. Will customers be able to ab-sorb such an increase? What will be the effect of the price rise on mid-range titles? Even if publishers restrict the increase to the most in-demand titles, will customers cut down on the number of titles they pur-chase?

Gamers Circle Dec 08, 2008




11 G.A.M.E.R.S.

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OHIOGAMERS

Ohio Gamers Organization, a Non Profit Organization, is l o o k i n g t o f i l l t h e 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 cur-rently filing for. We also have a small number of other volun-teer jobs! Please Call (877)OGO-0010 To apply today!

OGO Publications is looking to hire for the following posi-tions for its growing newspa-per GAMERS.: Advertising Sales Newspaper Editor Graphic Designer Writers Photographers

Sales positions do pay com-mission on all ad sales!

Please Call (877)OGO-0010 Or email [email protected] To apply today!

Volunteers need for staffing Neovention Convention. Will receive free badge for working at least 8 hours of the convention. Visit Neovention.org or email [email protected] for more details.

Coming Soon! Ohio By Night!

ohiobynight.org for info








12 G.A.M.E.R.S.

Prereg Online

Now!




Documents

2008/Dec - GAMERS Newspaper