Highmoon's Ponderings

Upon returning from Puerto Rico, I eagerly picked up a package that had been waiting for me at the Post Office. The folks at Geeky Clean, makers of gamer- and geek-inspired soaps, sent me some sample bars for me to try out and review, and frankly, I could not wait to get to it.

I met the Geeky Clean crew on Twitter when they began following my @GamerTraveler profile. When I saw the name of the account/company, I had to go check it out. I immediately loved the idea, in no small part thanks to those pretty 20-sided dice floating in the middle of the multicolored bars of glycerin (though they do have other varieties with different things stuck inside). I immediately started a back-and-forth via Twitter and no later than an hour or two later, we had exchanged emails as we discussed ways to help them promote their product. These upcoming reviews are one of those ways.

My wife and I have already been using the Health bar and we’ll go through all three in order to offer both a male and female perspective on the soaps. So far we both quite like them.

In the meantime, go and check out GeekyClean.com and marvel at the selection of geek soaps they offer, then follow them on Twitter @GeekyClean for new product announcements and surprise sales on their merchandise.

A couple of weeks back, Michael Erb made a post on his blog entitled “I’m a little worried about Origins…” where he talks about some of the changes at Origins Game Fair over the last couple of years, and how that makes him worried about the future of the con. I replied in the comments the following:

Completely unfounded prophecy coming up:
Origins as we know it will cease to exist in the next 5 years. GAMA will drop it as it seeks to save itself. The game play part of it will continue–Origins is THE play event of the big con season for many–but it will morph into something else, while everything else that makes it one of the big shows will evaporate. In essence, it will become a very big local con.

My prediction was picked up by Fred Hicks and mentioned in the latest episode (Season 2, Episode 1) of That’s How We Roll podcast (at the 40-ish minute mark). Fred and Chris Hanrahan go on to talk about the future of Origins, going back to my line about it becoming “a very big local con” as they wrap up. I’d like to expand a bit on my “prophecy,” if I may.

Caveat #1: I have not been to Origins, so my impression of it is based solely on anecdotal data gleaned from a bunch of people over the years in person, on the internet and on podcasts.

Caveat #2: Speculation and punditry follow. Bring your own salt.

First of all, me saying that Origins will become a very big local con is not a negative remark. When I say “local con” I think of socialization, of a level of camaraderie and community usually exemplified by small groups, and especially of a show where play is THE thing; not sales, not hawking, not unveiling the latest doo-dah, Play. Local cons tend to feature these qualities because they serve small-ish geographic areas, so if there’s a dealer’s room, it’s usually a few local stores (maybe a local publisher as well?), with the rest being ruled by games, games, games. I know this is the case in my local con down in Miami, The Summoning: it’s all about games, of as many types as possible, with a couple of vendor tables at most. I know this is a model repeated in many geographic areas across the world because I constantly see/hear reports from these cons online. So this is what I conjure with the term “local con.”

Based on what I know of Origins, it already fulfills this function and displays these qualities. Over and over I read/hear how Origins is the place to go play (in contrast to Gen Con, the other big show) and socialize. Fred and Chris sing Origins’s praises in this respect in the very same episode, as a point of example. So Origins is already the “local con” (in terms of vibe) of the big summer shows. I don’t believe that will change.

That said, I do think that in the coming years, Origins as we know it now, the “other” big con, will change. Michael’s post summarizes well the various events of the last few years that already show that Origins is in a state of metamorphosis from what it used to be, say, a decade ago. I don’t see that trend changing. In many ways, that change will be fueled by whatever GAMA decides to do with Origins.

At this moment in time, I feel GAMA is struggling to find ways to remain relevant in the Hobby Gaming Industry. They run GTS, the sole industry trade show, but one which continues to see declining numbers in attendees and vendors exhibiting (I am honestly not qualified to speculate on the reasons, but to my untrained eyes it seems the show needs to decide which segment of the industry it really wants to cater to, or do a much better job of offering value and worth to all segments equally) and they run Origins, and I can’t help but hear Sesame Street’s “One of these things is not like the other things” song when I see those two shows listed under their banner. I’m just not gonna be surprised at all if I read that GAMA sells Origins away to concentrate solely on being the Hooby Gaming Industry Trade organization they profess to be.

Do I see Origins going away completely from the big summer con schedule? Not at all, not even if sold off by GAMA or if more and more vendors stop buying booth space. Origins has claimed its stake in the summer con lineup by being the play-first choice for a lot of dual-big-show attendees, as well as for many others that choose to only attend Origins and not Gen Con. If anything, I see this feature gaining strength in the coming years, becoming the main draw of the show. In essence, a very big local con.

Hope that explains my “completely unfounded prophecy” better.

It’s no secret to anyone that knows me that I would love to have a career in the Hobby Gaming industry. The sole reason why I started Highmoon Media Productions and the podcasts was to build credits and “get my name out there.”  It’s turned out that I’ve greatly enjoyed doing what I do, but that doesn’t mean that I wouldn’t want a more steady kind of job for a gaming company.

I’ve been a huge fan of White Wolf games for years, and during the late 90s/early 2000s these were THE de-facto games played at my home, with Vampire and Changeling holding court as royal consorts. Thus why for the longest time my dream gaming job was at White Wolf, doing heavens-knows-what, but doing it at White Wolf. These days I’m a bit out of touch with their games (the reset hit me hard, even if I greatly enjoy the new World of Darkness), but yeah, that freehold in Atlanta still holds a certain charm for me.Which leads me to the title of this post.

If there is one person right now in the gaming industry whose job I thoroughly envy, that person would be Eddy Webb, Director of Alternative Publishing for White Wolf/CCP North America. Why, you ask? Because what that somewhat-vague title means is that Eddy is the guy who’s in charge of dealing with all new and emergent ways of publishing/marketing the products at White Wolf, from practically-mainstream-by-now PDF publishing to the new (and really good) White Wolf Blogcast hosted by Eddy himself (basically everything beyond Gutenberg’s legacy).

As you probably know, I do The Digital Front Podcast (no, it hasn’t podfaded and yes, it will return sometime this year), a show I started precisely because I am a part of that Alternative Publishing field via Highmoon Games, and because the subject interests me to no end, even if I have trouble keeping up with all the latest developments. It is these alternative publishing methods that allowed me and hundreds like me to get our gaming projects out there via PDF, that allowed the rise of the indie games movement thanks to Print on Demand, that created a whole new class of media with blogging and podcasting, and that stands poised to give us the very next awesome development in the way games are produced, distributed and consumed (I offer the iPhone and Kindle as two common examples). And being in charge of getting the most out of this explosion in the service of his company and the gamut of great games they put out, that’s Eddy’s job!

So Eddy, when I say I envy you it’s because, as I see it, you have the coolest job in the industry right now, and from what I’ve seen coming out from White Wolf in the AP department, you are doing it hella-well. Be forewarned, as soon as I am able to get The Digital Front back up and running, I’m gunning for you as a guest. Expect that email sometime down the line.

Over the last few days, while I’ve been celebrating Passover, some big events have occured in the gaming world.

First of all, Dave Arneson, co-creator of Dungeons & Dragons, passed away late Tuesday, April 7. I made a post about wanting to know more about Dave on Wednesday, as I was finalizing my preparations for Passover, only to have the confirmation of his death hit the gaming world later that day. I have been gathering posts in a “To Read” bookmarks folder so that I can learn a bit more about Dave before I sit down and record a short special podcast episode, much as I did when Gary Gygax passed away last year.

What most hits me about Dave’s passing is that I have been reminded of how ignorant I am of the history of this hobby that I continually seek to make my business in some way, shape or form. Over the last year we have lost a handful of early luminaries in the hobby gaming field — Gary Gygax, Erick Wujcik and Dave Arneson being but three names that immediately come to mind — and really, aside from the fact that Gary and Dave made D&D, and Erick made Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Amber Diceless Roleplaying Game, I know little to nothingabout their history in our hobby, and what their true legacy is. This is a very young field, barely past a generation in age, and yet we have no formal history documents while we have already begun to lose the early pioneers. Something needs to be done soon.

The thing that I’m most bothered about relates to the second set of big news, Wizards of the Coast’s decision to pull all PDFs from all sales outlets. Thanks to that, I cannot get any old Dave Arneson products to read and have for posterity. Thanks, WotC.

The whole Wizards PDF thing has me aching to sit down and record an episode of The Digital Front Podcast, but at the moment I simply do not have the time for personal/family reasons. I have been catching up on the industry’s reaction to that bonehead maneuver by offering a number of sales on PDF products. Some retailers have thrown a tizzy over the PDF sales, but at least one publisher (ah, Nicole, I know I can always count on you) has fired back, and another retailer has flat-out stated why PDFs are good for his brick-n-mortar store.

Perhaps once I am done dealing with my current family issue I’ll have time to properly digest all the information that has come out and perhaps pull in one or two guests to record a show on the topic (in fact, I am looking forward to). In the meantime, I continue to marvel at WotC’s decisions, hoping they will one day get anything dealing with a digital component right.

So Dave Arneson, co-creator of D&D, is still with us, though in hospice. I pray for his health and for as best a time as G-d sees fit to grant him still.

I realized yesterday, though, when all the rumors about Dave’s passing were flying around, that as a gamer of more than 20 years, I know very little about Dave Arneson and his legacy in roleplaying games and in D&D specifically. Grognardia published an early In Memoriam yesterday that has some lengthy info on Dave’s place in gaming. I can’t thank James Maliszewski enough for that, but I’d like more (and James delivers with a Retrospective on The First Fantasy Campaign).

Before he’s gone, I would love to know more about this man who co-created the game that I so love and about whom I know very little. I am in no position to research such a blog post/podcast show right now due to Passover and travel next week, but if anyone out there is, and can do a post, or better yet, a podcast episode, to bring Dave out of “obscurity,” I would appreciate it tons, and I know many others would as well.

Because Passover starts tomorrow night, I don’t really have the time these two news coming out of Wizards of the Coats last night deserve to be fully unpacked, and I especially don’t have time right now to record an episode of The Digital Front Podcast. That said, here are some quick thoughts.

WotC announced that they had sued eight people (in the US, Poland and Philippines) for piracy of their new D&D book, Player’s Handbook 2. Whatever outcome can come out of that, I actually find myself applauding WotC’s decision to file the lawsuits and make a statement and precedent. Piracy is a reality for any media these days, but it is nevertheless a crime, one that needs to be dealt with so that people will begin to associate that downloading a pirated book is the same as stealing it from Borders. If anyone in the Hobby Gaming Industry has the clout and resources to do this, it’s WotC, so I am quite intrigued how this will develop.

Of course, this announcement comes out at the same time as WotC decides to end all sales of their PDF products and to have them pulled from all stores, such as RPGnow.com (see image to the left), DriveThruRPG and Paizo.com. The reason? They cite piracy of their digital products as the reason for this drastic and quite sudden move. The internet is literally aflutter because of this (just check out Twitter and RPGBloggers.com for a sampling), and with good reason: it’s a poor idea.

I hate to point out the obvious, but eliminating PDFs from legitimate download sources only hurts the legitimate customers, the ones sending WotC quite a nice amount of cash on a monthly basis (considering WotC has consistently been one of the Top 3 vendors at RPGNow/DriveThruRPG), not the pirates. They already have copies floating around, and will continue to do so now that WotC has eliminated the legal sources. Add to that the fact that before PDFs were widely available, there were already scanned pirate copies of books running around, and the piracy argument looses steam really fast. This isn’t eldritch lore, folks; it’s business and marketing info that’s out there.

I write all this fully mindful of what happened with one of my previous mentions of WotC in my blog. I stand by it as well.

Of course, let’s not lose sight of this last quote in the news release:

WotC is apparently not ruling out digital delivery of its products using a different format or model. “We are exploring other options for digital distribution of our content,” the spokesperson said.

Considering how poorly the D&D Digital Initiative has been going (to wit: Gleemax cancelled, Character Builder delayed though now operational, Character Visualizer TBA, e-Tabletop Application TBA), bringing in the exclusive distribution of their own digital products makes a ton of business sense, though the way they are going about it is just dismal. It does continue their abysmal performance in the Public Relations arena during the D&D 4e era.

I look forward to more developments, and after Passover I’ll try to sit down and record with whatever info is available at the moment.