Banality on the Internets? For shame!

There is something in general that really bothers me about games on facebook. For the most part, they aren't games. There is nothing inherently challenging or strategic about them at all, it's just collect as much stuff as you can afford and then click a lot. I should also state that this involves games that are built for facebook, not games that were adapted to facebook.



Okay, that's a little unfair. There are games there that involve some degree of strategy, but not a lot. It's more like modification and then you spend a lot of time clicking. The clicking is an automatic success. It will always work, there is 0% change of failure. Again, this is not a game. A game is a series of risks and rewards that you try to navigate better than everyone else. Most of these things are time sinks that are really good at marketing themselves.

Now CFC has a little bit more of a navigational challenge. For those who aren't up to date (ha! I make myself laugh, people reading this) we wanted to make a Facebook game that was a bit more of a challenge than the standard game. I believe we succeeded. We've got a game where your move, style and stance selection makes a big part of how well you do in the game. Our problem is that we're not that good at doing the marketing bit. That's what the next incarnation of CFC is going to focus on. We're looking at creating circuits so you can just click buttons, but you had better hope that you manage to set yourself up right otherwise you're going to lose. Integrate the facebook mindless clicking with a bit of actual game play.

But that's just me.

Alpha set mocked up

Finally, after how many months ... the Alpha set is mocked up.

Now I just gotta play it and watch as every single flaw is magnified.

Dreamation 2009

So, I do two cons in the same area. This breaks a rule of conventioning, unless you live in the area doing cons in the same spot is usually a bad idea. This is why Origins is dying and Gen Con is flourishing. They are too close to each other in both location and time which means that the game companies are using Origins as the party place and Gen Con as the work place. It's not going to go well for Origins if they stay in the same spot and/or time, which is sad because I prefer Origins to Gen Con. Without question, but that's just me, your milage may vary.

I do Dreamation and DexCon, which are run by the same people in the same place, because I love these conventions. Seriously, I'd do them and Origins and the Toronto ones and be happy because they are just a fun time all around. From beginning to end, the people at Double Exposure do everything they can to make you feel welcome.

Anyway, the main reason why we're there is to run CyberGen. I bring Suitors, but the key thing is that everyone there has played Suitors three times over. They like it, but most of the people who bought it have already bought it. That's fine, I'm here to run some CyberGen. The cool thing is that the NAGA folk are here in force and we're starting to try to get more stuff to them in printed format, rather than the "this is all in my head" format that I usually do. We need to get others on this so that we can get other people to help us promote the game.

The second thing I'm there for is the LARP. Oh my god that LARP. It was awesome. We had a total of 23 people show up and three storylines going and I didn't really push a single thing. It was a case of everyone just running and doing their own thing. It was phenominal. I hope to keep this momentum going so that we can give everyone an update on the LARP.

The game ended with two people evolving, and a Rad starting a riot to give them cover to escape. It just reinforced this lesson that I've learned by doing all of five LARP events. This is a story for the players, not a story for me. I want them to run with their stories, and I may put down some elements that will try to rope the players into something, but if it doesn't then it's not the end of the world because if you give them sufficient motivation then they'll do it themselves.

We also got two interviews done at the con.

The first one is from Elizabeth Amber and can be found here.
The second is from the Bacon Ice Cream Crew and can be found here.

Page XX Article

We've got an article posted over at Page XX by Pelgrane Press.

It's an article on making your own CCG. It's the first one, there should be more but go check it out!

Them Resolutions

So, I think it's time to come up with some New Years Resolutions for myself. I've completely stolen this from Save Vs DM but I'm sure he'll forgive me on this.


1. Run more:

I need to find the time to run more, and take the time I need to make sure that the games that I run are a lot better.

2. Run more CyberGen:

I'm not running any CyberGen games. That's a lie, I've got a PBEM game of CyberGen going on, I should really be trying to run it more often than I do.

3. Finish projects:

I have been known to sit down and start something and then get distracted by a shiny new object. I need to buckle down and finish stuff by the end of this first three months. One of them is a new CyberGen book, which hopefully will do well.

That's it for now. I think this year is going to be the year of resolutions. The year where I sit back and every time there's another chance for a resolution I will make it on the spot

More Mocking up

50% done all the cards for the DCG.

Only 50% to go.

Blech.

The Art of Mocking

There is something inherently tedious about making a mock up. It's really nothing but monkey work that no one ultimately appreciates because they're busy trying to tear it apart.



Which is good, you want them to tear it apart. Rip it limb from limb so that they can find all the flaws. It's just really hard because you spent a lot of time on it.