The game was not terribly complex: The were quite familiar, encompassing ideas point of the game is, as CEO, to keep of companies that were no more, such as your fledgling dot-com in business. The “Butler-Hosted search engine,” or “Dot- Allen, I’m in the same boat as you on gameplay emerges through a careful Com Card Game” – whatever that is. this collectible card game thing – I don’t balance of personnel cards and skill And it was these cards that made the To The Editor: If Christian game get it. For those of you wondering, go cards, the personnel cards each carrying game really quite fun in a quirky sort of producers want to be taken seriously by have a read through Allen Varney’s an individual’s burn rate and his skill way, inspiring comments such as, “Wow, the mainstream market (in particularly article in this week’s issue of The level, and the skill cards representing an that really was a bad idea,” and “Yes! I the overseas European and Japanese Escapist, and you’ll see what I mean. action and the personnel skill required to remember the sock puppet!” market) they’re going to have to stop Perhaps this makes me a dimwit, as perform that action. designing their games as blatant well; certainly I’ll admit to some level of But I guess it’s easy to laugh in propaganda and misinformation. dimness on the topic, as many of these During the first couple of dot-com eras hindsight, knowing that these ideas were card games are a smashing success. we played, my companions and I focused indeed bad, as evidenced by their I grant that I am basing most of my How did this happen? on the mechanics of the game, taking failures (though one has to wonder if opinion off of the highly-publicized (and note that not all employees were worth some of those companies didn’t just end widely maligned) future game Left I suppose my confusion is based in my in skill their required burn. Once we up with Vern Slick as VP in the Sales Behind: Eternal Forces which I’ve noted lack of experience with CCGs. You see, realized that the VP of Finance was Department). I mean, free internet includes some particularly juicy my one experience with a card game necessary to keep the money rolling in, access certainly seems like a good idea, creationist nonsense. Such a thing may outside of those played with the usual that an HR VP was needed to keep your even though it didn’t work out. So, work in Bible-belt America, but try 52-card, four-suit deck was a game people from being poached, and that if flipside of the same token, who’d have selling that stuff elsewhere and you’ll called Burn Rate. Now this was not a you were saddled with any Sales VP, you known a card game for which you have find the market won’t bite. card game of the collectible sort, nor was were as good as sunk, we had it all down to build your own deck and give away a there any aspect of “betting” a card of pat. Then we could focus on the third card at the end would be such a huge A lot of video games (which even I, an your own deck based upon the outcome type of card the game offered – the Bad hit? atheist, have enjoyed) include Christian of the match. Nor were there hundreds Idea cards. themes, such as faith, redemption, of possible cards from which to build a Cheers, salvation, divine providence, and deck or hand. Rather, the deck was The Bad Idea cards represented the messianic fulfillment. My favorite game relatively close to the size of a typical obstacles that most confounded a large of all time features a protagonist named deck (as I recall) and the cards were percentage of dot-com era companies: JC who can progress through the divided at random among the players. the business idea. The cards’ contents majority of his challenges in non-violent ways and can come to embody a kind of divine trinity! That’s about as blatant as In response to “One Hand Behind My very scientifically-minded, always wanting I want my rhetoric served though ... Back” from The Escapist Forum: I to find out how things work, and not when the game starts spouting was just thinking about one handed trusting anything that they’re “not propaganda it ceases to be a game and gaming a couple weeks ago, while on a supposed to” understand (which, in all becomes a tool for proselytizing. crowded bus. My DS Lite is a big step fairness, is a stigma many religions carry). backward for mobile gaming on some - J. Azpurua levels as the stylus controls require some In addition, that programmer’s mindset stability to use accurately. I can’t still is the dominant one throughout the In response to ‘OK Computer” from perform surgery in Trauma Center while industry. These are the sorts of people The Escapist Forum: The simple fact is bouncing around in a bus, you know? who’ll look at anything overtly religious until they can make a product that actually And I wish Ouendan let you mash and write it off as either an overbearing works really well for men, no internet sex buttons as an alternative to stylus attempt to “save” them, or merely an toy will ever hit the mainstream, because controls. There are a few people out exercise in preaching to the choir (in a it is men that are the ones seeking a there who enjoy playing DDR with the fairly literal sense). sexual experience online. gamepad instead of a dancemat, afterall. I’d probably be annoyed if my rhythm Women have the rabbit and the pocket I think maybe handheld systems need game told me in all candor to praise or rocket and what do men have? Sure more buttons on the back of the system. worship anything (side effects of the there are toys designed for men, but Something like the PS2’s dual-shock programmer’s bias, I suppose, but I am they are no better than the old tried and controller. The Dual shock has 6 buttons a programmer), but it is refreshing to true low tech methods we’ve been and a joystick all within reach of a see more variety entering the industry - employing since the dawn of time. single hand. especially a vastly different sort of Where’s our masturbatory holy grail? variety, which is what stands the best - shihku7 chance of expanding the medium. I wish Personally I don’t think we can overcome them good luck. the anatomical, material, and In Response to “Dancing for Jesus” engineering constraints of mechanically from The Escapist Forum: I can track -Bongo Bill pleasuring the male organ. However, I one major reason why religiously- do know this: If you build it they will themed games never caught on big: In Response to “Dancing for Jesus” come. How’s that for a pun? Video games still bear the relics of their from The Escapist Forum: I think it history as a programmers’ hobby. has less to do with programmers - heavyfeul Programmers are usually very cynical, specifically and more to do with human nature. I don’t think it matters if you’re a out there who bought a PS2 for the sole which comes with 750 cars and 51 tracks personally very happy to see and use of programmer, a physicist, a doctor, a purpose of rocking. They all thought I included in the price. The Premium micropayments for vehicles seems like musician, a secretary, or a mini-mart was crazy, they said there were other version is the one to which the quoted an intelligent way to balance the high clerk: faith is a deceptively difficult thing games out there, but it didn’t matter to prices apply. There are far fewer cars cost of producing the game assets with to understand. me. I had no aspirations to roll the universe and tracks available currently because the desire to keep the game moderately into a ball, destroy ancient Chinese armies, they’re all being modelled (both visually accessible to those who want to try it. Plus, I think there is a common or hit my opponents in the nads repeatedly and behaviourally) to a ridiculous degree misconception that science is the enemy with a polearm or pike. of precision. In my view micropayments are a good of religion, especially with current tool. Like any tool they can be used well political climates being what they are. My PS2 isn’t a game console so much as To say that having a product like that or used badly. The Chromehounds stuff I But, that idea is only a throwback to it is a guitar simulator. When Guitar Hero released commercially is bad for gaming consider bad. GT-HD, from what little we 15th century thinking (Galileo, 2 hits, my friends and I will most likely is a very odd position to take. High know so far, looks good. Copernicus, et al) perpetuated by zealots go missing for several days until our production values and meticulous on both sides of the argument. Reality wrists start to deform into immobile claws. attention to detail are something I’m - Dom Camus probably lies somewhere in between. - zackola Anyway, my point is that the denial of the existence of God is not so much the In Response to “Gran Tourismo HD: property of scientifically-minded folks as game Not Included” from The it is the property of anyone who might Escapist lounge: I don’t want to not believe in something that they interrupt all the fun you lot are having cannot empirically experience. But, yeah, with your rant, but I think you might be religious games are usually teh stinky. a bit confused with respect to the facts of the case. - DrRosenRosen GT-HD comes in two versions, “Classic” In Response to “Guitar Heroics” and “Premium”. Stephen Rokiski may from The Escapist Lounge: It comforts want the Premium version, but the rest me to know that there is someone else of you without a doubt want Classic, In a career riddled with mistakes of Adkison, trying to scrape together the minor consequence, I look back at 1980 money to publish Garfield’s boardgame as the one blunder of colossal magnitude RoboRally, was looking for intermediate that proved me, beyond doubt, a projects. Having not yet met me or hopeless dimwit. Olotka, Adkison independently inquired with Garfield about a game suitable for While I waited with him in line for an convention play. Garfield thought it over event at Noreascon Two, the World and, the next day, proposed a game Science Fiction Convention in Boston, where each player has his own cards, Peter Olotka, co-designer of the brilliant plays against others, and the winner Cosmic Encounter boardgame, described gets one of the loser’s cards. Adkison a notion for a game that players might pondered this, grew excited and said, play while, for instance, waiting in line at “This could make us a million dollars. a convention. “They would each lay out Maybe two million!” their own cards,” Olotka said, thinking it over, “and play them against each other, This is why a Boeing engineer and the winner would somehow get the revolutionized the game field and is now loser’s cards.” I pondered this, then said, worth upwards of $50 million, whereas I “I don’t see how that would work,” and scrounge a hand-to-mouth existence changed the subject. writing for online game magazines.

In 1992, long after I blithely abandoned Those Were the Days this 12-year headstart, Peter Adkison On the first day of the June 1993 Origins Since the earliest met at a convention with Richard game convention in Fort Worth, Texas, Garfield. Adkison was a former Boeing as I sat with him at his small, neglected Magic: The Gathering engineer who had cashed in some stock exhibitor booth behind unsold stacks of to start his own little game company; his roleplaying supplement The Primal days, trading card Garfield was an amateur game designer Order, Adkison bubbled with games have been and doctoral candidate in combinatory characteristic enthusiasm. He showed math at the University of Pennsylvania. me Garfield’s decks ofMagic: The moving online by Allen Varney Gathering play test cards -- laser-printed usual. He proudly showed me samples of more lucrative than Magic. In 1999, on construction paper with cheap clipart the printed Magic cards, which had just Adkison sold Wizards to Hasbro for $325 -- and explained the concept in almost arrived from the printer, Cartamundi in million; he left the company at the start the same way Olotka had described it to Belgium. I held what was, I believe, the of 2001. He now runs Gen Con and wants me years before. very first printed card of the Hurloon to be Stephen Colbert’s gamer friend. Minotaur, which would become the iconic Along with Garfield, Adkison’s small creature of Magic’s Alpha, Beta, Now in its ninth edition, . Magic reshaped Seattle company of six part-time Unlimited and Revised sets. “Very nice,” net gaming, and vice versa. This caught gamers, Wizards of the Coast, had made said Hopeless Dimwit, oblivious to the Wizards off-guard. Adkison the engineer several market assumptions. They hoped tide of history. was, by the standards of the early each Magic player would buy one 60- 1990s, remarkably net-savvy; he card deck and perhaps as many as six Magic debuted two months later, at the secured wizards.com the instant he 13-card booster packs. Players would August 1993 Gen Con in Milwaukee, started his company, long before most naturally form small groups (hence the Wisconsin. I never saw the Wizards booth publishers had ever heard of a domain game’s subtitle) and play one another for there, because gamers were packed solid name. Yet the net confounded his “ante,” a card from the loser’s deck. In around it, three deep, every single minute expectations about Magic’s players, and every player group, the available cards the exhibitor hall was open. They bought the players in turn bulldozed Wizards’ would represent a unique subset of cards the first few thousand of the several early plans for the DeckMaster series. from the game’s larger universe; no one billion Magic cards sold to date. would have a clear sense of all the cards Magic: Even the Paper Game was in existence. About eight months after This isn’t the place for a corporate Online they released The Gathering, Adkison biography of Wizards of the Coast under Though Magic was no computer game – said, Wizards planned (finances Peter Adkison. (Shannon Appelcline not at the start, anyway – it became a permitting) to release Ice Age, a offers a brief Wizards history on RPG. huge “computer-enabled” game. Players companion “Deckmaster” game using the net.) But to close off the story: Adkison quickly coordinated through Usenet to same card backs. continued to display his eye for talent, compile card lists, optimized deck acquiring TSR (publisher of Dungeons & designs and rules exploits. Everyone The next day at that Origins show, I Dragons) in 1997 and, in 1998, English- quickly learned, and bought, every card. stopped again at the Wizards booth and language rights to the Pokemon trading Frenzied by a speculator-driven found Adkison even more jubilant than card game, which ultimately proved even secondary market, players hungered for more cards. Magic’s phenomenal success The first online trading card game was prompted Wizards to postpone Chron X in May 1997, followed by standalone DeckMaster companion Sanctum and several more over the games in favor of expansion sets for The years. Some of these survive as labors of Gathering. (Ice Age belatedly debuted in love, but only two companies have June 1995 as Magic’s first “standalone thrived with digital cards: Wizards itself, expansion,” and Wizards has since with Magic Online (though it is blighted published 11 more Magic standalones.) with lag, bribery, security issues and frequent downtime); and Worlds Apart In the first years of the craze, imitators Productions, a Denver company that flooded the market with physical trading started with text MUDs (Eternal City and card games of widely varying quality. In Grendel’s Revenge) before moving into 1996, inevitably, this bubble burst. online card games in 2003 with Star Because it cost well over $100,000 to Chamber. Building out the Star Chamber produce a trading card game, some technology as the Collect-Trade-Play ambitious small publishers created their platform, Worlds Apart hit it big with versions online. These games, along with online versions of two licensed paper a few pioneering text MUDs, were the card games published by Decipher: Star first to attempt business models Trek and The Lord of the Rings. How big? centered on Virtual Asset Purchase. Hard to tell, but in a Denver Post article, Unlike the small freeware apps players Worlds Apart founder and president Scott could use to play Magic over the net, Martins claimed a successful online card such as Apprentice, these online-only game can generate an average of $70 operations sold nonexistent virtual per player each month. trading cards. Purchasers could then play the game for free using a downloadable As that news article reports, Sony Online client. This seemed so odd, back then – Entertainment bought Worlds Apart in at least to a hopeless dimwit. August 2006 for an undisclosed sum. Renaming it SOE-Denver, Sony has set the studio to develop an online game Design blog entry “SOE Buys CCG January 2006, and World of Warcraft and based on WizKids’ “collectible strategy Company, Clearly Up To Something” EVE Online card games are due in late game” Pirates of the Spanish Main. No autumn. If any of these games sell well word yet on the fate of the Auto Assault “[T]here will be a real temptation here to (the City of Heroes card game has so far digital card game Worlds Apart designed make a money game. Magic is a money roused little fanfare), we may see events as a tie-in to NCsoft’s new MMOG. game – they have a relatively small in the online world reflected in the card number of customers buying a lot of game expansions, and vice versa. The Reshuffle and Deal cards. This is a very different spending companies may offer cross-promotions: Sony’s purchase shows its desire to get pattern than you see in a [World of Send in these three rare cards and get a into the online card business. “We are Warcraft/EverQuest]-style monthly fee. prized virtual item for your online going to be integrating what they do The big danger with money games, if the character; complete this quest and earn with what we do,” said SOE history of all the Magic wannabes is any a coupon for a free booster. spokesperson Chris Kramer in a Rocky indication, is hitting critical mass – Mountain News story about the finding enough other players willing to Beyond that, I wouldn’t care to speculate, purchase. “There may be a point in time invest into any given CCG [collectible having already proven myself a dimwit. in the future where not only is there an card game]. The paper CCG industry EverQuest II card game, but people averages one success every five years.” playing in the (computer game version) Allen Varney designed the PARANOIA of EverQuest II could go into a tavern, We’ll see increasing convergence paper-and-dice roleplaying game (2004 sit down and play the card game inside between online card games and MMOGs. edition) and has contributed to computer the computer game.” This follows as part of the larger role games from Sony Online, Origin, that physical trading card games have Interplay and Looking Glass. SOE has already moved into virtual asset assumed, as one more routine format for sales with its Station Exchange, launched licensed media properties: lunchbox, for EverQuest II in July 2006. Online videogame, trading card game. In fact, card games are a natural extension of the first wave of physical card games this idea, but a risky one, as designer based on MMOGs has already arrived: Damion Schubert noted in his Zen of One based on City of Heroes appeared in Even if you’ve never heard of Steve Jackson, you’ve probably felt his influence.

Steve Jackson started his career at Metagaming Concepts, where he developed games like Ogre and The Space Gamer and pioneered the “microgame,” creating wholly self-contained games often distributed in single plastic baggies. Jackson parted ways with Metagaming in 1980 to found his own company, appropriately named Steve Jackson Games, where he has since produced over 250 games, including Car Wars, Illuminati, Ninja Burger, GURPS (Generic Universal Role Playing System) and Munchkin, and is currently at work on his first MMOG, UltraCorps. But Steve Jackson’s reach extends beyond his own vast empire of card and tabletop games, influencing or directly mentoring many of today’s brightest developers, including Warren Spector, who started his career at SJG and went on to create some of the most intelligent and innovative videogames ever made.

As with most creative visionaries, one’s first impression of Steve Jackson is not necessarily that he’s a supergenius. Although he is a hyper-intelligent game designer, the first thing one notices about Steve Jackson is that he’s an enthusiastic gamer. As we spoke on the phone, his intelligence was apparent, but his passion for games (both his and other people’s) came through even more clearly. And after speaking with him in person at AGC, that impression was solidified.

The man also pronounces punctuation. Questions he’s asking are clearly interrogative, it’s deadly apparent when he’s finished speaking and when he’s making an emphatic point, there’s no mistaking the exclamation point. I’ve tried, where possible, to translate that into text using bold-faced type, but having a conversation with the legendary Steve Jackson is one of those things you just have to experience to believe.

*** The Escapist: You’ve been making TE: Is there one that you’ve done that’s we’re working on. Other than that it’s games for quite a while, and all of your you’re favorite? just a scattershot. … We’re evaluating a lot games seem to have that “Steve Jackson of games for 2007 release, right, so right flair,” but that’s really hard to define. SJ: When people ask me that I like to now I’m playing a lot of different games. What is it about your games that make ask them if they have children. You them “Steve Jackson” games. know? Which is your favorite? TE: Anything you can talk about?

Steve Jackson: I wish I knew; it’s just TE: I don’t, and I can’t help myself. I SJ: No! Can’t talk about it. I can admit what I do. A lot of them have a just instinctively ask that question even that there’s more Munchkin coming, but humorous element, but not all of them though I know that’s going to be your that’s about it. do. Certainly Ogre didn’t. What can I answer, because you just have to. I think say? I just do them. everyone has a favorite Steve Jackson TE: UltraCorps is kind of an expansion of game, and it may not necessarily be tied an earlier UltraCorps game isn’t it? TE: Do you see any future in tabletop to the game per se. Maybe it’s tied to the gaming today? company you kept or the table you were SJ: UltraCorps was originally created by But there were a lot of problems with the playing it on. And I think that ties back to a studio called VR-1. And it was released way it was originally run for pay, and for SJ: As long as we’ve got tabletops there what you were saying a minute ago. That’s on the Microsoft Gaming Zone and it had me, none of those trumped the essential will be people who will want to sit down what really keeps us playing isn’t it? a little run there, but it was not coolness of the game. It’s just that and have chips and soda and play with successful. It was, in fact, so there were some little execution their friends. That’s not going to go away. SJ: Yes. The enjoyment you get out of a unsuccessful that there’s a short chapter problems. Some of them are forgivable. game is largely about who you’re playing in a book about online gaming that For instance: The game did not have it with. Yes. That’s going to reflect on discusses all of the reasons it flopped. I good refereeing on the Zone according, your memories. I have different favorites found that very instructive. to the book (and I’ve had other people from month to month and sometimes tell me this). It didn’t have good they’re my own games and sometimes The only [reason] I disagreed with was refereeing because the referees were all they’re not. Right now I’m playing a lot the idea that games like that aren’t fun so into the game that they were playing of Puzzle Pirates. and nobody’s going to play them, period. it themselves. They were sometimes I think that there are a lot of people who more interested in their own games than TE: What else are you playing? like the idea of playing a multiplayer in their refereeing duties. It speaks well space conquest game that’s more for the game that it could eat their minds SJ: I’m doing a lot of test playing in “boardgamey” and less about running that way; management shouldn’t have UltraCorps, which is the online game that around with an animated character. allowed that. And we see that here in our play test. I bottom of the food chain - quite literally. player and I though it was just cool. It operating more or less as an “indie” really still love playing the game very The winning strategy for the game was owned my mind for a few months some developer, living hand-to-mouth? much, even after two years of to hope that you were set up next to a years ago, and I was very sorry when it sometimes painful redevelopment. The couple of newbies so that you could roll went offline. And then, when I had the SJ: It’s not totally hand-to-mouth, but coder loves playing the game. We’re just over them. And take their stuff! We opportunity to buy it myself, it was like we certainly can’t go around taking risks going to set it up so that game staff have done a whole lot to make the game “yeah, duh.” I truly don’t know how it randomly. Part of the UltraCorps thing is cannot join the massive for-points easier to learn. We’re building in some will do financially when it’s launched. We it’s a controlled risk. We don’t know if we games. That’s easily done. social things to encourage [veterans] to have a lot to learn. But one reason that I will make a bunch of money on it, but help newbies. Although, of course, there wanted to do it is for the experience. we’re pretty sure that we won’t lose a The other problem with the game, the will still be reason to kill them or bunch of money on it. And we will learn big problem, was that it was hard to anybody else. And as soon as we have TE: When are we going to get our hands a lot that will position us to do other learn, and new players were at the enough real games under our belt to on it? things later, or make us a better partner make this possible, we will divide play up for other online publishers who want to according to experience so that the real SJ: You can play it now at ultracorps. take a license. tigers will no longer be around in the com. It’s in a free test phase. Before we games that the newbies enter. launch it, we will hit feature lock and we We have so many properties out there will run one final game as the beta game that could be turned into computer TE: So it’s safe to say that you’re using on the theory that “OK, everything is games. If I were fully-funded now for the experience of the early game as sort done and now we’re testing it all everything I want to do, there wouldn’t of a handbook of “what not to do”? together.” And then we will say “OK, send be time to do them all for the next five me money?” And see what happens. to 10 years. SJ: There’s a lot of what not to do, but it’s a great game. The reason that I TE: Talking about buying UltraCorps TE: Which of your games would you most bought [it] was that I was in it as a raises an interesting question. At this like to see turned into a videogame? point, your company is pretty well- established. Are you to the point now SJ: If I could just wave my hand and where you can take those risks and not make it happen now? Munchkin. have to worry so much about the commercialization, or are you still TE: Munchkin? SJ: Yeah. With Car Wars in second place. gamegardens.com, which is basically a SJ: Depends on the game. You have And the only reason Car Wars is in public sandbox for people to use his tools some brilliant work out there that’s second place is that Car Wars had its and do game development. He speaks at almost all setting and you have things greatest popularity 10 years ago, and conferences and is very forthcoming out there that are pure system. SPI’s Munchkin’s greatest popularity was last about what he’s doing. He even gives Strategy 1 was nothing but system. month and has been last month for more numbers. He’ll stand up and tell you how There are some maps of territories that than a year. It just keeps going up! So many subscribers he has, how much never happened and here are a whole lot Munchkin is the hot property right now. money he’s making and what models are of counters in God knows how many Car Wars would make a wonderful, working best. He not only gets it, but colors for generic military units. And wonderful game, and so would he’s willing to share, and I think that there are some brief rules on how to use Munchkin, but they’d just be different [being] willing to share is part of “getting this to represent medieval and here games. And so would Illuminati and so it.” He does a blog called The Flogging some brief rules for Age of Steam and would Ogre and so would yadda yadda Will Continue that’s very good reading. there are some more brief rules for yadda I can’t do them all at once. WWII technology … and now run along TE: Do you think that ties in to the and play! No setting at all. TE: What would a Munchkin videogame “hacker ethic”? Do you think that sharing look like? of information is really key? My GURPS roleplaying game is all about system, and some people found that SJ: It would look a lot like John Kovalic SJ: I would reject strongly the term either daunting or boring, and they said drew it. I would absolutely want to keep “hacker ethic” because different hackers “well, there should be some setting.” And the Kovalic art style. have different ethics. But yeah, sharing the fourth edition does add some specific information, sharing ideas - setting suggestions, although it’s a TE: You were at TIGC recently and you brainstorming. And the internet lets you “multi-versal” setting. It still gives them spoke about independent game brainstorm with people that you have a framework. Some people like development. Is there anybody out there never met and will never meet. And he framework. Some people prefer story that you think “gets” it? gets that, too. framework to game rules. They say, “I can make up rules. Give me a story to SJ: Daniel James “gets” it. Daniel James TE: Let’s talk about design in terms of work with.” gets it so much. He’s the creator of putting together a game. Which do you see Puzzle Pirates. He’s proven that he gets as the more important aspect, the system There’s no right answer, and there’s no it by doing something that’s both original of a game or the setting of a game? reason to think that one approach should and commercially successful. He runs or will dominate, because people are At the same time some really, really different. They want different things. quality products - some really quality companies - have been created in TE: GURPS is obviously a brilliant response to d20 or flourished and sunk system, and it’s held up pretty well. their roots deep doing quality d20 stuff. We’ve since seen another system come There’s nothing about the d20 system out: the d20 System. I want to know itself that says “this has to be lowest what you think about the d20 system common denominator.” It’s just that out and what you think about the there in the “real world,” unless you see proliferation of it. a logo on it that you know … when you see Green Ronin or Mongoose, you know SJ: It was an interesting marketing you’re buying Green Ronin and move, and it’s been a very enabling Mongoose quality. But if you see a d20 thing. d20 enabled indie game publishers sticker on it and you’ve never heard of it, like crazy. Between the enabling of a then what you have to expect is that licensee to do imitation D&D and the you’re getting imitation D&D by enabling of “Woo we can publish free on somebody that’s living out their fantasies the web and cheap with Pod,” we saw being a game creator. Open the cover something because they saw insufficiencies just a huge blossoming of indie game and look before you buy it. in the system they were playing. Except I creators. Most of their work was simply got mine published. Woohoo. abysmal, and that had some serious TE: How do you think d20 plays? Have effects on the sales chain. you played it much? d20 is streamlined D&D. Duh. If somebody wants to play with classes and There was a big bulge of d20 stuff. For a SJ: Not much. It plays like D&D. D&D levels and they’re in a setting where while, you could sell anything with the was the first roleplaying game I played D&D works (because it was optimized for d20 label on it and then when people because when I started there weren’t sword and sorcery, it’s strongly figured out that the d20 label meant any others. And I liked it! It was cool! optimized for that, and you get hilarious “lowest common denominator,” a lot of results when you try and bring the retailers and distributors were stuck with Some of my first design was in response system into anything else), it’s pretty product. And that hurt them. So we see to what I perceived as insufficiencies in easy to find somebody that wants to play enabling is not always a good thing. the system, just like a hundred thousand D&D. And if you wave a d20 book around, other people who went out and wrote that’ll be recognized as D&D even though TE: Is that sort of a running theme? computer just doesn’t make a very good Russ Pitts is an Associate Editor for The the trademarks are different. game master. What would you say to that? Escapist. He has been writing on the web SJ: With some things. On the other since it was invented and claims to have TE: Looking at one of your newest hand, with Ogre it was “clichés are to be SJ: I would say that’s true. Saying that played every console ever made. He also games, Chez Guevara - and that’s celebrated! Look at the huge tank!” Ogre the computer doesn’t make a good game makes a mean Texas chili. obviously a take-off of Chez Geek - is not ironic at all. I did that almost 30 master is neither a new comment nor an looking through your game catalog, one years ago, but the message with Ogre is incisive one. Don’t let anybody sell that gets the impression that you’re kind of a that tanks are cool. The bigger the tank, to you as an insight. The insights will revolutionary. Is that just a side effect of the better it is. come from the people who find a way to your sense of humor? address that problem. TE: So you guys are working on SJ: Chez Guevara is not a game about UltraCorps. Is Steve Jackson Games TE: Looking forward at other properties the romantic side of being a moving in that direction? Toward you may turn into a computer game, is revolutionary. Chez Guevara is about computer games? that something you’re addressing? being dirty and sweaty and stinky and out there in the jungle, and the officers SJ: I don’t want to move entirely in that SJ: Well. The short answer is “not with are trying to get you, and your fellow direction. I want to move more in that anything I can talk about.” And if I could troops don’t like you all that much, and direction because you can do such neat talk about it, I would be waving my arms you win the game by collecting enough games on the computer. Over the years, as and explaining what I’m dreaming about “Slack” so that you can escape, go to the new styles of games have developed I’ve rather than spitting out lines of code that city and open up an internet café on the had a lot of fun with “hey, can I do that?” solve the problem. Putting a real game reward money from turning in the I’d like to do digital games. I don’t’ want to master in a computer is possibly an issue “Glorious Leader.” abandon what I’ve been doing for … a of true artificial intelligence. And that’s a terrifying number of years, but I would like ways off. TE: So it’s more about the Steve Jackson to have more options to play with. sense of humor? TE: Thank you so much for taking a few TE: One of the criticisms we’ve seen of minutes to talk with us. SJ: The cliché that that game subverts is MMOG games or games that have the cliché of “Glorious Revolution.” attempted to capture the tabletop game SJ: I hope it was useful, and that you Everything is out there to be made fun feel in a computer setting is that the had a good time. of. Clichés are to be subverted. Should games be fun? feeling that’s different for each and every This thought popped into my head the one of us. As Marc LeBlanc pointed out in other morning as I walked my crazy dog, his GDC talk, “Formal Design Tools: Maggie. I’d just spoken at the Texas Emergent Complexity, Emergent Narrative” Independent Games Conference, and it back in 2000 (wow, a millennium ago!), the seemed like everyone at the show kept word “fun” isn’t much help to us as coming back to the question of how to designers and developers. make games fun; or were games as fun now as they used to be; or was the But, the word “fun” has other problems. mainstream game not fun anymore; or It kind of locks us into a “games are for was Raph Koster right in his book, A kids” mentality. It implies that games are Theory of Fun for Game Design? good for just one thing: passing time in an enjoyable manner, for want of a “Fun” was everywhere, as a topic of better definition. discussion, if not as a characteristic most of the attendees used to describe most And perhaps most damning to me is that recent games. all this focus on passing time puts a ceiling, of sorts, above us that separates So, I guess I shouldn’t have been us from other media, media that are surprised that questions about games allowed to strive for something other and fun would occur to me. What did than simple “fun-ness.” surprise me was my response: Movies, books, musical compositions and Maybe all this focus on fun — this so on are — or can be — fun to watch/ requirement that games be fun or that all read/listen to, but there’s nothing in the evaluations of games be run through the definition or judgment of those other fun-filter — maybe all this is a bad thing. media that requires fun. We’re the only medium that says to itself, “This is what For one thing, the word “fun” is kind of you must be and all you will ever be.” meaningless. It’s a flabby, ill-defined word, one that describes a state or a That kind of thinking makes me mad. wife, Caroline, and I recently watched John Cage concert because it’s going to What about other words, other values? David Cronenberg’s film, A History of put a big ol’ smile on their face. And A What about “challenge”? What about Violence. And, man, would I say we History of Violence was a lot like being in “compelling”? What about “discomfort”? didn’t have fun watching it — not in the a room with someone you just wanted to What about “enlightening” and “thought- way we had fun watching The Incredibles scream at but couldn’t. provoking”? We do “aspirational” some of or Pirates of the Caribbean (the first one) the time, which is a start, I guess. And or a Woody Allen movie (when he was So why must games be “fun”? Who said one of my friends and colleagues, Doug funny). No. A History of Violence can not that was the highest, or even worse, the Church (unsung hero of gaming and be described as “fun,” not by Caroline only value? Is it a function of our status smart man that he is), commented to and me, anyway. But, man, was that as a medium that is truly for kids? Is it a me recently that “There are things like movie thought-provoking (and function of a development community Reel Fishing or Harvest Moon or Animal pleasurable in that way). dominated by Peter Pan types who won’t Crossing which allow more space/ grow up? (I’ll cop to that, if you will.) Is contemplation during play, but still have After the credits rolled, Caroline and I it that games are just different from a ‘fun’ core in that they need to appeal talked for hours about the questions other media in some way I can’t define? to a visceral/competitive vibe.” I have to raised (and left largely unanswered!) by Maybe I’m missing something; maybe agree with him (though I admit that I the movie. And even when we weren’t the serious games movement is where may be twisting his thought around a bit talking, we were thinking about it until our not-fun games are being made. as I obsess about fun). Even when we one of us would break the silence with try to do something different, we end up another comment that set the dialogue I mentioned this whole rigmarole to going for the fun. rolling again. Heck, Caroline dreamed another friend, Robin Hunicke, who’s about the movie, for crying out loud! currently working on a game that And that drags me back to my question: promises to be a ton of fun (plus a lot Does “interactive” inevitably equal That’s valuable — a story that wasn’t fun more) and she dragged me back to “playful,” or can we strive for different to watch, that wasn’t pleasurable in and current market realities, which probably (and more)? of itself, but was clearly “troubling,” explain a lot here. She said, “I think that “disturbing,” “annoying,” “over the top,” the common (and sad) response to ‘The Actually, I guess this line of thinking was “ambiguous”; all things that mature Fun Question’ is that fun sells, and driven not only by the conference media, for mature people, allow and games are made to sell. A History of emphasis (not a pre-planned focus on encourage. I mean, it’s not as if reading Violence or John Cage concerts have the part of organizers or attendees, by James Joyce or Thomas Pynchon is “fun” limited audiences because they are ‘art,’ the way) but also by the fact that my (come on, admit it). No one goes to a and games are primarily not considered an art or made for art’s sake (as it’s don’t think is worth examining may be pretty hard to make a living making the very thing we most have to examine. them that way so far). So people don’t generally decide to make games without Right now, I’m thinking we should be considering how much they will sell (to thinking about whether a game has to be people who want to have fun, fun to sell; whether we’ve trained our specifically). It’s not that it’s wrong to audience so well that we’ve trapped think about making arty games - it’s just ourselves in funsville; whether we can, not profitable, so hardly anyone does it or even want to, try to change things. ‘for real.’” I don’t have any answers about this She’s right, of course; Robin usually is. stuff, but I sure wish more of us would And she makes me feel a little like a start thinking about it. If we don’t — if hypocrite. It’s not like I’m exactly we just accept uncritically the idea that working on stuff that isn’t trying to push games have to be fun, we’re doomed to every fun button I can reach. But I have a future as a way for people to pass to think that maybe, someday, I’ll get some empty time — and nothing more. that chance — the chance to do something that’s enjoyable in some way, but without falling into the typical, Warren Spector is the founder of Junction competitive, games mode. Point Studios. He worked previously with Origin Systems, Looking Glass Studios, You know, the thing that kills me about TSR and Steve Jackson Games. this is that, even as I write this, I’m left with a knot in my stomach at the thought of making a “not-fun” game — the unexamined assumption that “Games = Fun” is powerful and insidious. But I’m a believer in the idea that the unexamined and, more, the thing we While Games Workshop began as a small Managing this marriage of American bedroom company focused on importing videogame and British tabletop game American roleplaying games for the companies is Design Manager Paul British market, their own lineup of Barnett, more business consultant than tabletop miniature games like misty-eyed visionary. That’s not to say Warhammer Fantasy Battle made them a he’s unfamiliar with the industry, as his power in their own right. By 1990, roots go back before Ultima Online, to Games Workshop employed over 250 the days when text-based dinosaurs people, and by 1994, their shares were ruled the Earth. “I wrote some MUDs floated on the London Stock Exchange. (Multi-User Dungeons) back in the early However, while there were many `90s,” Paul says, going through his successful Warhammer 40K resume. “One, Legends of Terris, went (Warhammer’s sci-fi relative) on to become the biggest MUD in videogames, Warhammer’s fantasy line Europe. After that, I went into business struggled to find success in the age of consultancy working with big business.” electronic gaming, boasting some obscure While he’d left the gaming industry, the PC strategy titles and not much else. gaming industry hadn’t forgotten about him. “I had stayed away from the Their online effort, Warhammer Online: computer industry and only went back Age of Reckoning (WAR) is a star- into it because of two things: crossed project. After costs began to rise Warhammer and Mark Jacobs (Mythic’s under Climax Online, WAR’s original CEO and lead designer for WAR). I met developer, Games Workshop pulled its Mark years ago when my games were on funding, ultimately killing Climax’s AOL. He and I hit it off, but it took another chances to secure a publisher. In the decade before we could work together.” meantime, Mythic Entertainment’s decision to shelve its aggressively- While he’ll mumble about a dark promoted Imperator left the company conspiracy to bring him back into looking for a new project. One thing led computer games, the real story isn’t to another, and WAR found its way into quite so mysterious - on the record. Mythic’s Virginia-based development house. “Games Workshop had just cancelled their first Warhammer game with Climax. They had decided that they would his job to mediate the dispute and get best resource available, the game consider licensing out the project, but everyone on the same page. system itself. Many designers would envy only to a company they trusted. As part the extensive background on the of my consultancy, I suggested Mark and The major challenge for a company Warhammer world, from the sourcebook Mythic.” A remarkable series of taking something with a built-in audience to the miniatures game to fictional coincidences came together, by his and converting it to a videogame is stories. When it comes to building the telling: “Games Workshop already had a deciding where to draw the line when it game, “We look to the eight points of history with Mark. I had introduced them comes to strictly sticking to the existing Warhammer.” He starts ticking them off: a few years back. Once the magic had property. I asked Paul for his thoughts “Empire, Battle, War, Magic, Monsters, happened, both Games Workshop and on that, whether they are trying to get a Grudges, Humor and Chaos. These eight Mark indicated they wanted me to be complete, exact replication of the points, driven through endless, heroic, part of the project.” Conspiracy? “Quite tabletop game, or if they are looking to perpetual struggle are what our game is simply, I was asked,” he says, though capture the “spirit” of Warhammer itself. all about. As for where we get these the rhythmic pattern of his blinking may “[That question] has a very long answer points from, we go right to the source — just be Morse Code. that I really can’t do justice to here. But Games Workshop’s Rick Priestly and Alan if I had to try and explain it, I would say Merrett.” As the Shadowrun debacle was Balancing the desires of an old-school it’s important to understand that we are still fresh in my mind, and as Paul also British tabletop game company with the not making a game based on the faced the challenge of adapting an older urges of Mark Jacobs and the Mythic tabletop war game. We are taking the games style to a new format, I asked team can be, he says, “a difficult job. idea of Warhammer — the idea, concept, him for his thoughts on whether Games Workshop is rightly protective of theories and feeling — and making the Warhammer had “too much baggage.” Warhammer, and Americans are naturally best Realm versus Realm MMOG we can.” “It’s back to the idea of Warhammer,” he optimistic that they can understand He adds, “Warhammer is Batman,” answered, capturing both the difficulty of anything.” He serves as a liaison meaning no matter what form Batman is dealing with an established property, and between the two, he says. “I spend most in — be it comics, movies or LEGO — the mindset required to overcome that of my time helping both sides get the there is always a central theme, a sort of obstacle. “We have a definitive vision we best out of each other, explaining the spirit of Batman’s character running want to follow, and we get the best out needs of Mythic to Games Workshop and through it. of Warhammer when we stick to its core vice versa.” When the inevitable culture idea. That way, you don’t get caught up and game design clashes pop up - “Two “It’s complicated,” he allows, “[but] trust in all the ‘baggage.’ To mangle a quote, countries divided by a common language me. It will be an MMOG that drips we fudge the IP for the gameplay and and different cultures, and all that” - it’s Warhammer.” To that end, they use the the gameplay for the IP. But we always all time,” he says. While it may not suit aim to make tasty fudge.” the massive definition, the focus on small groups and constant combat Outside of Warhammer’s eight points, should be familiar to anyone immersed the Mythic team has three more guiding in the genre. principles: “We want the game to work through skill, commitment and The old school MUD designer negotiating imagination,” Paul says. “Part of that is the relationship between an old guard to reward players’ skill. We want to British company and the Young Turk ensure that those people who bother to Americans is the stuff geeky sitcoms learn the best ways to play, find the best should be made of. It will be interesting ways to gather information and make to see if it works out, especially the most of their gaming time get a considering Mythic’s lofty goals for the reward. It’s not communist in outlook. game. “We want WAR to be to the MMOG It’s about heroes being just that. If you model [of] what Half-Life was to Quake - have the commitment, the skill and the the same, but different; essentially the imagination, then you damn well deserve same tech, but a new experience. We the best game experience.” want to move things on and to make a great game in a way that no one could Since we were talking about game see coming.” experience, I was curious about his “roots,” as in his likes and dislikes. You In 1972, Shannon Drake was sent to can tell a lot about a person by the prison by a military court for a crime he games he likes. “I cite Bubble Bobble, didn’t commit. He promptly escaped GoldenEye 64, Civilization, Half-Life, from a maximum security stockade to Doom and Elite as some of the greatest the Los Angeles underground. Today, games of all time,” he answers, which still wanted by the government, he tells me he has taste. As for his MMOG survives as a soldier of fortune. If you touchstone, it’s a title that predates have a problem, if no one else can help, Ultima Online: “I think that Gauntlet (the and if you can find him, maybe you can arcade game) is the greatest MMOG of hire Shannon Drake. The rush of taking down the repugnant Alliance in World of Warcraft is something hard to replicate. Knitting a sweater really doesn’t cut it in contrast to discovering a lone Paladin out of mana in Stranglethorn Vale, separated from his group. The joy of unleashing the glorious Frost Shock/Earthbind Totem combo and asking your party, “Where is his god now?” as you laugh about the recently departed; it’s almost too much fun. Could you imagine trying to recapture that action and transform it into a complety different medium? How hard would that be?

To find out, I spoke to two men, Brian Kibler and Danny Mandell. They’re the Lead Developer and Lead Designer (respectively) of the group responsible for distilling all of WoW into a collectible card game (CCG). The game, called the World of Warcraft Trading Card Game, is being published by Upper Deck and aims to bring the persistent, massively-multiplayer experience of WoW offline, pitting two friends against each other in heated battles. Of course, you don’t just sit down one day and say, “Hey, let’s make a card game of this really successful MMOG.” It requires a lot of work.

According to Kibler, the hardest part is figuring out “how you make a game of a game. One of the pitfalls is trying to include too much of the game. If you do that, it’s gonna fail. You could imagine that you start the game at level one and you’re fighting mobs and your opponents, but the problem is if you go really wide, it’s hard to go deep, and then it’s hard for a lot of new players to process. … You want it to be accessible.”

Mandell added, “We want to make sure you can play your character that you have in the game.” “We had a big whiteboard, and we hour.’ So we had to pick a pretty specific you’ll equip to the hero. You pay the also quests [from the game], like … basically went about asking ourselves scale. We asked, ‘What’s the game really strike cost to add their damage to ‘Tooga’s Quest,’ where you have to what our goals were for the game,” about?’ - the combat. Yes, exploring the attacks. Rogues, Paladins and Warriors protect this turtle, Tooga. ... We have it Kibler said. “We were like, ‘We want the regions is cool, and the flavor on the armor [have] a defensive value, and you where you put a Tooga token into play, games to be 20 to 30 minutes, so you cards in the deck adds that to the game. can exhaust your armor to absorb and if you can protect it for a turn, you could get three to four games done in an So, we ultimately chose combat to set damage. There’s items, and they’re can draw two cards.” it up for the PvP experience. standard play. “Everything is drawn directly from the “There are seven card types [and] 16 “And while a lot of the game is based game,” Mandell said. “All the allies are different heroes - one for every class on [on] combat, players will instantly see recognizable and have made up names. the Horde and Alliance side. The hero things they recognize. Weapon cards, Additionally, each class has about 15 does several things. The object of the armor cards, quest cards. When you see abilities, with about 10 being straight game is to kill the other player’s hero. … a Mortal Strike card, you immediately from the game. The others are ones we A hero usually needs a weapon to deal have a connection to the game. There’s a generated. … For example, there’s Smite, damage. Casters deal from the hand lot things that are meta-flavor connections which deals Holy damage, but we with spells, like Fireball. Though, there in the game. For example, the Leeroy decided to not do ranks (as characters are no racial abilities in the first set.” Jenkins card would be one of those.” level, their spells get stronger, rather than just getting newer spells). A, it’s “Deck building is pretty open-ended,” Sounds like the makings of a pretty solid boring; and B, it’s weird. It seems Mandell said. “There’s gear, which is tons game, but Kibler’s words regarding the unattractive. That’s why we have a card of armor. Abilities are cards played from quest cards really made it sound special. called Chastise - a baby Smite in addition your hand that are sweet spell effects “Then, there are the quest cards. Once to the named one.” like Fireball, and some of these remain in per turn, you can play a card face down play. There are the allies, which are your as a resource. It stays face down, and Of course, as they said, they’re trying to party members. You can have one in it’s pretty much gone for the [rest of the] appeal to everyone who plays WoW. combat at a time, and the damage they game. Quest cards are played face up, They wouldn’t be able to do that without take remains on them. It’s a thematic and [each] has an objective and a emulating the raid content that has perspective, so that you could have reward. There are fortune ones that you, countless players scheduling their healing play a factor like it would online. say, pay three resources to complete the weekends around their guild calendars. There are weapon and armor cards that quest, and you draw a card. There are “The second release is the Raid deck. We’re also planning on doing these three though raid content in the [online] game BlizzCon. There are three in the first set, card game industry like WoW did the or four times a year,” Kibler said. “The comes out a lot faster. We’re following up and there will be additional ones in MMOG field. I’ll have my eyes on my PvE version - well, the first one - is with the second Raid deck being Molten future sets through our online local hobby shop to find out. versus Onyxia and it’s for three or four Core with Ragnaros. It’ll get shaken up a redemption program.” or five players, with one of the players little bit after that.” controlling Onyxia. When the CCG releases on October 25th, Dan Dormer is a videogame freelancer The CCG will also take WoW’s first players will have a chance to take a who keeps a poorly updated blog at his “It’s sort of weird. We had to look at the expansion, The Burning Crusade, into crack at the game themselves. Who personal site. He’s also afraid of seeing constraints first. We had to balance it so account in future installments. “We don’t knows, maybe some of that secret sauce scary movies. True story. players could play through the game in want to forget about everything that Blizzard is cooking made its way over to an hour. You could use any deck you came before [the expansion],” Kibler the folks at Upper Deck. If Kibler and want, but there’s a little bit of a puzzle said. “Set Two is our bridge set between Mandell’s take on WoW kindles the same solving aspect to it. The first time you do the existing and new content. We work fire in the player base that the original it, you’re going to get wrecked. You’ll pretty closely with Blizzard. A couple of game did, maybe they’ll take over the lose, but it will be fine. Then, you’ll Blizzard guys come to the office every figure it out and you’ll be tuning your few weeks to tell us what’s going on. “ decks as a team. You’ll do stuff like in the game, having a mage handle the And the game will also pay off in the whelps with some AOE (area of effect).” MMOG, with special cards known as Loop cards. Mandell elaborated, “The Loop “It’s a 3 vs. 1 or 4 vs. 1 setup, and rares are cards in the set that are Onyixa has special rules,” Mandell said. alternative versions of cards in the set “It takes place in three stages. She with codes redeemable for cosmetic draws more cards as the game goes on, upgrades in the [MMOG]. Stuff that looks so it gets harder as you progress cool, akin to the Murloc pet from through the stages. The Raid deck also comes with a treasure pack, with gear that mostly drops off Onyxia. Future Raid decks will mirror the progress that players actually experience in the game, EDITORIAL PRODUCTION BUSINESS Executive Editor Producer Publisher Julianne Greer Jonathan Hayter Alexander Macris

Content Editor Layout Artist Associate Publishers Joseph Blancato Jessica Fielhauer Jerry Godwin Russ Pitts Jason Haile Gregory Lincoln

Contributing Editor Lead Web Developer Director of Advertising JR Sutich Whitney Butts Susan Briglia

Research Manager Web Developer Chairman of Themis Group Nova Barlow Erik Jacobson Thomas S. Kurz Tim Turner Contributors Dan Dormer IT Director Shannon Drake Jason Smith Russ Pitts Allen Varney Warren Spector

Issue 65, © 2006. The Escapist is published weekly by Themis Group, Inc. Produced in the United States of America. To contact the editors please email [email protected]. For a free subscription to The Escapist in PDF format please view www.escapistmagazine.com