Lack of Buzz At GenCon Leaves Visitors Scratching Heads

I don't think Cards Against Humanity will be bad at all. I got it as a gift from a non-gamer friend just recently and I found myself laughing as we did a trial run just with two to get an idea of some of the cards. I see it bookending well with something like Say Anything! The text is occassionally outrageous and if you play it with people who aren't normally raunchy - that's the point, right? - I think it'll be fun. Clean graphic design and font and, man, it comes with a Canadian conversion kit in Canada. A winner for me.

That said, pathfinder and this duel game sound very interesting, too...

bioball wrote: Anyone see Wil Wheaton there?

Saw him twice, both times at my hotel. I was impressed that the geeks were restraining themselves and mostly leaving him alone. I started feeling really old when I had to explain to some of the younger folks who he was. Of course, I also felt like even more of a geek when I had to explain to everyone who Tom Vassel was when we sat next to him at lunch. Saw Mr. Avery once on Thursday demoing his KS game, but didn't run into him again.

Regarding BI, I only played a single turn Thursday morning, so perhaps I'm being harsh on it. I had forgotten about the upgrade bits, which I guess gives you a sense of progression. Other than that, the cards seemed pretty standard, with multiple use cases. The scoring cards were kind of interesting, as the first person to achieve their requirements get them and no one else. So the scoring opportunities keep changing. Much like City of Remnants (which I'm very interested in but haven't purchased yet), I have about zero chance of getting it to the table regardless, so I doesn't really matter what I think.

I skipped over Pathfinder, thinking it was just a skirmish type of game. Maybe I'll have to check into it.

I agree that there was no 'breakout' game of Gencon. I think it was a bunch of factors -

1. Internet. We all know way too much about what's coming out. There was very little introduced at the show that hadn't been dissected.

2. Most of the 'haven't seen them before' games were not available. Rampage, Eldritch Horror, etc, were all 'fall' releases. If all the games at Gencon listed as fall releases do actually hit then, it will be a serious couple of months.

3. The one possible breakout game of the show was Firefly. I got caught up in the hype and picked up a copy Thursday. But for people I talked to, it really started to die down by Saturday as more people got it to the table and actually played a full game. Long, slow, lots of downtime - I didn't talk to one person that actually really liked it. All were either lukewarm or negative.

4. Other games tended to be more niche-y --> I'm putting High Command (Privateer) and Pathfinder in this category. I picked up HC because I play Warmachine, but Pathfinder wasn't even on my list to demo as it seemed like it was geared to folks who wanted more adventure in the Pathfinder universe, which I know nothing about. As Gencon gets bigger I feel like it's breaking into smaller sub-shows, like the eurogamers, minis, RPG'ers, Magic, Warmachine, etc, which is making it harder for any one game to get critical mass.

5. A true 'breakout' game - for me - needs to be one that is available at Gencon but won't be available in retail for several months. There were very, very, few of those. Ironically Dice Duel was one, which I think contributed to the day one sell-out. But not a lot of others. There were a lot of solid games that I wanted to buy, but there was no reason to get it at Gencon since I can get it cheaper later, and without having to drag it back on a plane.

I think last year, with the craziness that was X-Wing and Netrunner, is not typical at all. I think most years are more like this one, and it will probably only be worse as we all know about things (most things at least) way in advance, and just want to confirm our suspicions.

For the record, I picked up Firefly, High Command, Robinson Crusoe, and Trains.

We sold ~150 copies of Dice Duel. I expected to sell out, but didn't think it would happen until Sunday. So it was both satisfying to see them fly out of the booth, but frustrating to have to turn so many folks away the rest of the con.

SuperflyTNT wrote:
The line was TWO HOURS to just SEE what FFG had.

That's fucking ridiculous. Someone needs to get fired over that sort of thing . Poor planning, poor booth layout, or both.

A friend of mine and I were talking last night and there didn't seem to be any sort of must have game that I've read about so far either. Like was said elsewhere - the FFG line up is all expansions of existing franchises or extensions ( Discwars 40K ). No original stuff from them.

What kind of idiot stands in line for two hours to LOOK at new FFG products? I would have posted up by their stand with a bullhorn yelling "Attention! You're dumb!"

Firefly is another one from Gale Force 9, who hit paydirt with Spartacus...I'm supposed to be getting a review copy, so we'll see. Of course, I famously dislike Firefly...

The Warmachine game is pretty much just a card game...way back in 2004/2005 when I was really into Warmachine, it was PRIME TIME for them to do board and card games...but they didn't. The stuff they've done lately feels very Johnny-come-lately. Let us know what you think about this one...they don't respond to press requests, apparently.

Rampage looks cute...I may have to hit up Asmodee for that one.

But yeah, last year was the year of X-Wing and Netrunner, which was a megaton bomb. Year before, it was Quarriors.

Interested in Rampage, but not crazy about it. Everything else I heard about... virtually no interest.

I think if if FFG didn't leak anything prior to the show it would have had more of an impact.

Eldritch Horror is awesome and would have been a great reveal. Hearing more about that makes me want to throw Arkham Horror in a ditch and never look back.

BattleLore Second Edition came out of the fucking ether to surprise pretty much everyone...but it was announced a day before the con.

Diskwars - Again announced a day too early. Plus do people really want a shitload of pogs to play with?

Then there was shit that they didn't announce and you had to just find out about online. Wiz War getting an expansion was something very few people were talking about.

Apparently FFG is reprinting a version of Blue Moon which has been out of print forever. No real announcement or anything.

It was just a strange couple of days. Firefly looked kind of meh... Lost Legends seems like another game hoping to capitalize on the drafting mechanic. I was hoping for something big from Flying Frog and they announced a frickin' deckbuilder set in the 'A Touch of Evil' universe. Ugh. Rampage looks like a blast, but didn't seem to get much coverage. I don't need the uncleaned beards of Gen Con telling me it's a great game, but prone to too much spittle. Where were the reports about 'Freedom: The Underground Railroad'? Didn't hear shit about that. I thought Relic Runners sounded very Euro-y, but it still has potential.

Around here you blokes seem to be raving about Pathfinder the Card Game. I'll check that out. Nothing absolutely owned the show though. I was excited to hear about alot of stuff, but besides Wiz War getting an expansion, nothing seemed like money already spent.

What point is there for FFG to come out with new IPs or completely new designs? They have a couple of very successful brands that they can capitalize on for years to come. All the other stuff like what they used to curate and publish? All going to Kickstarter.

We're going to see that happen more and more over the next couple of years if the Kickstarter thing doesn't bust...greater homogenization from the major publishers, who don't NEED to take risks, and all the riskier stuff going to Kickstarter. That sounds awesome, except that the lack of professional, development, and editorial oversight means that the wheat to chaff ratio is going to be awfully screwed up, just as we see now with Kickstarter.

FFG's marketing team right now is baffling. Eldritch Horror is more or less pegged to be Arkham Horror 3rd edition, but it's branded differently and it's being cast as a "different but the same" game. I'm sure they don't want to cannibalize sales of existing Arkham Horror products and they don't want people to feel like the product line is suddenly made obsolete by the new game...but it's kind of what it seems like is going to happen, doesn't it? And Eldritch is too different to patch with an upgrade kit...

Battlelore 2nd edition, I know there's some people that are excited about it...but why? At this point, there are TONS Of games like this (including some with almost the same system) so the chief differentiator is...Terrinoth. The game isn't compatible with existing Battlelore material, including the Battlelore-branded Battles of Westeros. Who wants to buy into a new system that may get ditched in two years?

Diskwars makes no sense, it's a tabletop quasi-miniatures game based on an actual tabletop miniatures game. Who is this for? Diskwars fans have long since moved on, those looking for an ersatz Warhammer game are buying Chaos in the Old World or Invasion. No idea who is supposed to get into this game.

The Wiz War expansion- great, but why just one additional player? Apparently, the game was a sales bust so why not just blow it out with a single expansion that has everything developed for it and be done?

As for Blue Moon...egad. That game was interesting ten years ago when there weren't many contained CCG-style games. Now, there's HUNDREDS of them.

THe Underground Railroad game sounds awesome, that's a great theme.

I love Firefly (the tv show), but I think that it's an unlikely topic for a boardgame. Or at least a boardgame that I would like to play. Translating the show to game mechanics would likely result in a pickup-and-deliver game with card screwage and probably some light combat system that results in frequent injuries. But that would fail to capture what made the show great, which was good stories, great characters and witty dialogue. I played in a Firefly rpg campaign for a few months, and it was the same kind of problem. Unless you are playing with really witty players, you're unlikely to capture the real spark of the show, and instead have an unmemorable rpg.

I was at our booth the whole time, but to me, it looked like Pathfinder card game was the game of this Gencon.

At our booth it seemed like the busiest Gencon ever. Bioshock was a big hit and the copies were selling very quickly. We sold out of just about everything we brought. Mice & Mystics was selling fantastically well. The Heart of Glorm expansion was super popular. When the last 4 or 5 copies sold it was a frenzy with 2 buyers almost fighting over the last copy.

This is obviously just from the perspective of our booth, but I thought the convention was an incredible success this year, even if there was a distinct lack of big name game buzz.

Jesus, I'm sure that M&M expansion was just GONE. That's going to be massive at retail, I think. You guys also had the virtue of having one of those ideal "curb appeal" convention games with M&M, that's a game that folks who might buy one game a year at a con will see and pick up based on the art/subject matter alone. It helps that it's really good, of course.

Yeah, Firefly and Bioshock were selling like wildfire but nobody seemed to be playing them. Maybe Firefly was "The Game" but like I said, the one game that EVERYONE seemed to be playing, and I mean like groups of 10-15 people in a circle, all over the floor, everywhere, was Cards.

Now, Firefly...everyone I talked to that was playing it, and that was maybe 3-5 tables a day that I saw...they all said it was really good. I can't imagine GF9 making bad shit at this point as I'm a HUGE fan of them for their Flames of War stuff, which is a really fun little brawler, if very expensive. It's the Warhammer 40K of historical wargames.

Anyone get the Love Letter Kanai Factory edition and want to sell it off already? :-D

I had no less than a dozen friends there, so I've been getting feedback all weekend (Next year... Seriously. I'm gonna get back next year...) Of course, over half of them were embedded in FFG's various tournaments (GoT, Netrunner, X-Wing), so I heard more about those than the rest of the con.

I just can't do co-ops anymore. I'm just completely burned out on them and the only one that has any remaining appeal is Death Angel, primarily because you can't coordinate actions prior to making your moves (at least, if you play by the rules you can't; we even use the timer from Space Hulk.) I've traded almost all of my co-ops and am hemming and hawing about selling/trading my complete Arkham Horror set. Give me competition or give me death. It's primarily for that reason that I just can't get excited about Pathfinder or Robinson Crusoe (the latter's $80 price tag is another reason...)

I am kinda geeked to hear about Firefly, since I loved the show and GF9 has been doing good things (traded for Spartacus recently and loved it; surprisingly, since most TV license games trend toward the awful) but, like Shellhead, I do find myself a little hard-pressed to imagine the setting as a solid game. I'll be waiting for extensive reviews, I think.

I never played Bioshock, so I don't have much draw there, either. And Eldritch Horror... I like Lovecraft (and especially like the LCG, but am trading/selling for lack of other players) but it sounds like a co-op and, therefore, not my thing at the moment.

And, yes, two of my friends did sit near Wil Wheaton at one point and chat with him a bit.

But mostly I've been thinking of last year's games recently (like X-Wing and why the Tie Bomber seems horrible compared to the B-Wing.) I'd really like to get an epic game of Runewars in...

I was early to preorder the Mice & Mystics expansion; it was on my doorstep before GenCon started. Haven't gotten into it yet though.

Pathfinder game sounds pretty awesome.