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We see these articles occasionally, profiling a local game store, the business owner, and the customers who show up to buy and play games. But this one stood out for Hastur Games & Comics’ (Salt Lake City, Utah) family friendly atmosphere. There you can apparantly find teenagers playing D&D while at the next table their parents play cards.
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The Con Anti-Harassment Project aims to formalize rules and standards to be enforced by con organizers in order to ensure a safe and non-threatening environment for all convention attendees.
It was prompted by a rather … bizarre event. After one recent convention, a blogger posted about how he had expressed a desire to live in a world where one could ask women if you could feel their breasts and they wouldn’t be offended. Whereupon, one of his female friends said “no problem”, and from there it snowballed into asking random females if they minded being groped. Apparently, many said “no problem”. This snowballed in an attempt to give out buttons with “Yes, you may ask me” and “No, you may not ask me” to female con attendees.
Some of the reactions to the post describing these events – from both women and men – were positive. A great number were appalled, however, with many women saying that they already feel creeped out by less-than-gentlemanly male con attendees, and that this type of attitude, couched as voluntary participation or not, is going to make them liable to never attend another con.
The original poster has since realized the damage his post has caused, and has retracted the suggestion that others take up the program. A billion reactions to the post can be read here.
See kids? If you want to keep getting mentioned on a news site, keep coming out with interesting news.
Bella Sara, makers of a popular on- and off-line fantasy horse CCG, is coming out with “Baby Bella”, an expansion to their core game.
Bella Sara is fun, educational, inspirational, beautiful, and non-violent. So there.
Bella Sara is partnering with toy horse manufacturer Paradise Horses to produce a line of horses corresponding to its popular trading card line.
I’ve heard of games being used to push toy lines, but this is a rather unusual reversal of the licensing direction. How come we haven’t seen plush toys for Magic: the Gathering?
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Since not everyone peruses through Diamond Distribution‘s monthly Previews catalog (partly because only comic book fans realize that it has a pretty healthy games section), we’ve decided to give everybody a look into what’ll be hitting your store in November!
People Will Wait in Line for Something They Want
In the games industry preorder systems serve a variety of purposes. For companies producing niche games within a limited market, the opinions of customers voiced through preorders can help direct development efforts to the highest demand products. If payment is required up front, preorders can also help fund production. And preorder systems can be used to reward loyal customers with discounts or other benefits, while at the same time generating buzz for upcoming products. Also whether intentional or not, I’d be remiss in not pointing out that that the ability to preorder a game may result in a few extra sales, as sometimes it’s easier to punch that button for an order when you know that the money you spend may not be charged to your credit card for quite some time (I speak here from experience).
Of course the terms and conditions for preorders vary by program. Here are some examples: Read the rest of this entry »
The third expansion for the hybrid ccg/video game Eye of Judgment will be released next month. The expansion contains 100 new cards and lots of marketese claims of greatness.
I saw EoJ when it came out last year, and the thing looked ugly, expensive, noisy, and cumbersome. I predicted it wouldn’t last long. Comments on Kotaku regarding this new expansion tend to confirm my prediction. But someone has to be buying this if they’re releasing an expansion.
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Hidden City Games has announced two new promotion kits for their popular Bella Sara card game, designed to bring families closer together. The first kit has a poster and 30 promotional cards while the second kit (in December) will include a new “family night” poster and 2 exclusive foil cards. Both kits are part of the “family reunion” storyline/promotion that will launch as part of the new Baby Bella set. “Family reunion” encourages families to join together to play Bella Sara themed games and “share positive messages” in order to get cards that complete the storyline and reunite the family. From the Bella Sara website:
Dusk and Dawn, the two beautiful foals of Aurora and Rimfaxe, always find their way home by following the direction of the sun. One unusual day in North of North an eclipse of the sun caused Dusk and Dawn to be confused because it was neither night nor day. Concerned, the parents sent out the children’s teacher, Wildflower, to find them. Aurora and Rimfaxe are awaiting the return of their foals and news from Wildflower.
Bring a happy ending to this sad tale!
The promotion begins on October 7th!
Cardtantei is a detective-themed alternate reality manga game mixed with a CCG.
It comes in packs, with codes you scratch off and then use on the official site. But it’s also got clues, puzzles, phone numbers with cryptic voice messages, and so on, leading to a larger discovery.
And all you need are some cards and some rudimentary Japanese.
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Business of Games (BoG) is our regular series looking at the business of games from the perspective of the gamer.
Is Fantasy Flight Games the next Microsoft? That’s the question asked in this week’s episode of the Dice Tower, a popular board game podcast by veteran reviewer Tom Vasel and Sam Healey. At first blush, the idea seems a bit odd – after all, many in the board game world see FFG as something slightly better than Santa Claus, depositing gaming goodness to good little gamers everywhere with amazing consistency. But are they really the same small company that we grew up loving?
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