In a completely unexpected move yesterday, the board of directors for GX-Media Inc. ordered the layoff of almost the entire staff of Gamers.com. This included the entire editorial department. Problems in the .com world along with severely sharp decreases in advertising revenues were the stated reasons for this drastic move. I will lose access to my account this afternoon, so please do not respond to this post.
Open source software works because not everyone in the world can code software; you still, in the end, have raw consumers. But an open source game system is different, because anyone who can read and write can now design their own game system based off the core rules. And that dilutes the product. And that's not good.
"Traders went on a buying spree on 1st Edition Players Handbook today, pushing it up 50 cents. On EBay, Dragon Magazine #1 fell $30 as a collector posted a new issue for sale. 3rd Edition rule books were unchanged."
A St. Petersburg Times story this morning claimed Bragg had assaulted the child and left him to die because he was interfering with Bragg's enjoyment of the popular online computer game, but lawyers on both sides emphasize EverQuest was a minor factor, at most.
One of the things I find most interesting about MMORPGS is how much money people are willing to spend for imaginary items. Have you ever spent that much on an object from an online game? Would you? Do you know someone who has? Are they in therapy now?
As if the upcoming release of Cyberpunk 203x from R. Talsorian wasn't enough, on January 1, 2001, two new homegrown Cyberpunk-themed Role-Playing Games were released online. One of these, Iconoclast, comes with the disclaimer that I personally worked on it (so yes, I do have a personal stake in announcing this). The other, Emancy, is the work of Alex Peake.
Mention the words "Boot Hill" to most ordinary people and they'll respond with "Dodge City," a reference to the long-forgotten Wild West town which is home to the cemetery of that name. Mention Boot Hillto a gamer and they're likely to respond with "TSR," a reference to the soon-to-be-forgotten gaming company who, aside from revolutionizing the gaming industry with Dungeons & Dragons, managed to churn out a forgotten (but certainly not forgettable) Wild West RPG a couple decades ago.
After over a decade of anticipation, the Dungeons & Dragons movie is finally released nationwide today. I've not seen it yet, but I'm sure a lot of our readers certainly will, so let us know what you think by posting your reactions and reviews here.
There are fantasy games, and there are sci-fi games, and there are horror games, and there are cyberpunk games. And then there are those weird games that don't seem to fit in anywhere, the ones nobody talks about any more, the ones that have all but vanished over time. The Forgotten Games.
All good things must come to an end. Whether you consider this column a good thing or not is up for grabs, but the other half of the statement is certainly true, whether you choose to believe it or not. Belief being a pretty important thing, as I'll demonstrate in an exploration of 1989's Erik the Viking, by Terry Jones.
