Idealist Game Designer
Last November, Neoncon introduced a series of presentations from tabletop gaming industry insiders called GamesU. Luminaries like Eric Mona, Ed Healy, and John Wick gave seminars during the convention for the series. I think Neoncon did a great job executing GamesU and I especially enjoyed being able to stream a couple of the presentations live.
Now, Neoncon is editing the presentations and placing them on their YouTube channel. The first video they released was the keynote by Eric Mona on the topic of Pen & Paper Games in the 21st Century. I obviously have a large interest in how roleplaying games will evolve in the next decade, but this article is to address the latest video released from GamesU, Marcelo Figueroa’s Live the Dream: Building a Career in the Games Industry, which is presented below:
If you’re not willing to watch the entire presentation, let me tell you what I took away from it. Marcelo basically argues a couple of points. First, people who are not willing to make games their career need to quit. Because the industry, the games, and the gamers do not want non-career people. The other point he tries to make is that idealist game designers are incapable of being savvy business people. So, according to Marcelo, if you want to be in games you need to make it your career and you need to be what he calls a realist.
I really don’t want to take the time to dismantle everything he said, and I do think viewers can take away some useful information (but more of a general, common sense type of useful). Interestingly, I’m going to use evidence he actually tried to use to support his own arguments.
Non-Career Orientated Need Not Apply
About 9 minutes and 20 seconds into his presentation, after unloading the salesman’s spiel about how it’s all about the mighty dollar (which he admits that you can’t find a lot of it in the industry), Marcelo makes this statement:
“Idealists. Honestly, truly… from a completely industry side of the perspective on this, Idealists should just go home.”
He also makes a statement about how only business people and professionals who want to improve the environment of the industry should stick around.
So let me break this down. There’s not a lot of money to be made in games, but the industry craves business people. So what kind of business people are going to risk investing their time and money in games? Well, I propose that there are two kinds: diehard fans (with minds for business, but unmalleable expectations about games) and shitty business people who can’t make it in better paying industries. Maybe that’s why the industry keeps shrinking…
Idealists Will Not Make It
Marcelo mentions Peter Adkison and Richard Garfield, who were both part-time game designers with “day jobs” before Magic: the Gathering exploded. According to Marcelo, during that idealist non-career time of their lives, they should have quit. Curse those idealists, Arneson and Gygax, for even launching the roleplaying games industry!
Idealists are going to be the ones to reinvent the industry with new games, new delivery methods, and new somethings we cannot anticipate. I feel like the “realists” he is touting are fools that contributed to the d20 glut (because that’s what was selling). The guys that will drive the industry into the ground because they’re only concerned about the bottom line and not innovation.
Have Realistic Expectations
Marcelo does backtrack near the end and says not leave your day job before you’re financially ready. Which for those of us with mortgages, families, and other bills means we’re most likely not going to ever be at that point. The one good point he does make is to be realistic. It’s rare that anyone in the industry is going to get rich. If you do start a business, be smart about it and make savvy business decisions.
Marcelo may have been exaggerating his argument to scare and intimidate the unwary, but I totally disagree that you need to be in the industry to make money. That sort of corporate bullshit irritates the hell out me. I think you need to be industry to make great games. The money will follow if you can do that (and market it decently).
Suggested Reading
I’ve been reading Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics and Reinventing Comics, which are comic books about comic books. He is, in my opinion, a freakin’ genius. I can see a lot of his approaches to the study of sequential art and his insights on that industry that could be applied to the tabletop gaming industry. Scott’s an idealist too…
Listening to: Black Label Society – Shot to Hell – Concrete Jungle
Poke Mind’s Eye in the Brown Eye
Disclaimer: The opinions and views expressed in this article are solely of Mad Brew and are not necessarily the views of Mad Brew Labs, its parent, affiliate, or subsidiary blahs. The opinions may not even really belong to Mad Brew, but this a rant and he is going to say things that will piss people off and he may or may not (most likely not) regret later.
LARP: Live Action Role Playing. What a cool concept. I mean what could be more fun than dressing up as your character and performing your actions as you interact with other players and the environment? Probably nothing if you have the right people, the right rules, authentic costumes, and a controlled environment with authentic props.
My Experience
One hundred percent (100%) of all the LARPs I have participated in have disintegrated into vulgar races for power with in character and out of character squabbles bleeding over the edges into each other. Add cheating, favoritism, hideous costuming, poor acting (roleplaying?), and the odious smell of unwashed bodies then you have a recipe for SUCK.
Do you realize people PAY for this? I’m not just talking about the typical buy-in a player must ante in to obtain the rule books and other necessary tools for gaming. I am talking about a cover charge to play per session. About three-quarters of the LARPs I played in charged money to play (ranging anywhere from 3 to 10 USD).
At this point I should probably make an important distinction. The only LARPs I have participated in are of the World of Darkness variety, and predominantly Vampire LARPS. I have had a long love affair with the World of Darkness, and our steamy escapades stretch back to the early 90s. I still carry a flame for the Storytelling(er) System. Now enter the Storytelling System’s red-headed stepchild, Mind’s Eye Theatre (MET). The title of this article should sum up my feelings for MET.
The Camarilla
The Problems with MET
I’ve played official Camarilla games, One World by Night (OWBN), and unaffiliated games under both oWoD and nWoD rules. The issues are always the same and I think the root of all MET’s problems can be boiled down to these three things:
- The Premise
- Character Advancement
- The Player Base
In the beginning, problem 3 (the player base), was only a symptom of problem 2 (character advancement) and the genre of the World of Darkness. Since then, the player base has grown to become a problem in its own right. Now I will explain my theory.
The Premise
There is a lot less cooperation and a lot more struggle between player characters in MET, especially Vampire, than other role-playing games. The premise is not everyone being united against a common threat. It is a game of social dominance over your fellow players.
Mostly, players will gravitate towards their out of character friends and plot against the other players. So if you game alone at a MET LARP, and do not find a group to ally with, you tend to fall prey to the cliques fairly quickly. This of course feed directly into the next problem of character advancement and power gaming.
Character Advancement
Mind’s Eye Theatre becomes a haven for the power gamer, and I am not talking about min/maxers who can still role-play either. I am talking about the players who really only lust to have the most powerful character in the game. They seek to be omnipotent so they can impose their will upon other players, often because of out of character (OOC) prejudices.
But how does MET’s character advancement lead to this kind of gaming you ask? MET allows a wide variance of power levels between characters, and those characters who have been around the longest have accumulated more experience than the character of a new player. This rewards players who keep their characters quiet and in the background until such a time arises that they have survived the conflicts of their peers and now stand alone at the highest tier of power.
Not to mention that many venues require you to pay to play. This can lead to Storyteller’s Greed, a syndrome where the presiding ST realizes that he or she can pry extra money from their players. So now you can pay for a missed game and recieve its experience, or worse yet, just pay for experience. So now you have players who only show up once in a blue moon all of a sudden becoming a monumental force to reckon with. And now they finally come out of the shadows to prey upon the weaker characters.
I find the great chasm of experience that separates the old and powerful from the new and weak to be a great buzz killer. Especially when you attempt to become part of the story and you have the power gamer bullying your character around. And there is nothing you can do about it. And so the cycle begins anew.
The player sees he must attain more experience to become effective in play, so he waits in the shadows, biding his time until chance finally removes those above him in the pecking order, allowing him to stand in the lime-light. This kills any fun a casual gamer can have as well, because if you don’t have the free time (or money) to show up and receive your XP, it could take years before you can be able to exert influence in a game.
The Player Base
To begin with, the World of Darkness is a gothic-horror setting. So of course, “goths” are going to represent, if not dominate, the make up of the player base, especially in the Vampire games. Then of course, we have the power gamers discussed in the previous section.
I find that many of these players have little to no imagination, and acting tends to be too dramatic or limited to the sum of their attributes and the value of the card they just pulls (or the outcome of Paper-Rock-Scissors-Bomb depending on the edition).
Now I could argue that your average Lick probably would not be into the “goth” scene, and would avoid it like a burning stake, but whatever dude, if you want your character to wear more mascara than Madonna and fishnets on his arms, it is all you. But seriously, if I trip over those goddamn straps on your oversized, canon-legged pants again, I’m going to…
Moving on to the ladies. Listen up gals, I know we are all pretending and acting, but I don’t have enough imagination to hide those muffin tops (but at this stage it is more like mountain tops now isn’t it) showing between the three sizes too small bustier and whatever is showing behind that slit in your PVC mini-skirt, and where did those thigh-highs end? OH GOD, your thighs are sucking them into Oblivion!
I mean come on, I know we all want to play out our fantasies, but please use common sense when dressing yourself for LARP. I know no one wants to see me in mascara and thigh highs! The people that are attracted to these games have fueled many a nightmare. And please, for the love of Caine, THINK about creating an original character! We all cannot be Brad Pitt or Kate Beckinsale, or their vampiric characters.
The Solution for MET
I wouldn’t bitch so much about Mind’s Eye Theatre if I didn’t want it to work. I love the concept. And I don’t like complaining without presenting a solution to my gripe, so this is how I would run an MET LARP (Camarilla, take notes).
Change the Premise
This is probably the most difficult solution to implement. The Storyteller needs to craft exterior forces to cause cooperation among the player characters. These forces will tend to be NPCs. Since it is Live Action, you need actual bodies to play the roles of adversaries, which means a Storyteller will have to pull players to fill the roles of NPCs. This can work if you have willing players who are not in the current scene.
How a Storyteller overcomes this obstacle depends on his resources. Having a group of players willing to be narrators works the best. A creative Storyteller could even use cardboard stand-ups, manicans, or perhaps just simple paper tiles that denote the presence of NPCs. The ST can then “step into” the required position as the NPC when the need arises. This method would work best when actions need to be resolved and not as well during “free movement.”
Mentoring
I would also assign new players to mentors, old players who are willing and able to teach the ins and outs. The mentor would be responsible for getting the new player into role-play and stitching the character into the existing narrative.
Experience Threshold
I do not think that every player should have the same experience on their character sheet. But I do think there should only be a 10-25% margin between the highest amount of experience on a character and new characters. This still rewards people that show up every week without fail with a slight edge but doesn’t leave new players in the dust.
Dress Code
Probably the next most difficult solution to enforce, especially if a Storyteller doesn’t like to hurt people’s feelings. I would just state that all clothing should be appropriate, tasteful, and the Storyteller has final say on what isn’t. Then if you see someone not wearing something up to par, pull them to the side and let them know. If it happens again, send them home. A third time and they are no longer welcome. And make sure this rule is posted and visible.
Money
This rule is simple. Don’t accept money for play. However, I understand that sometimes venues need to be rented, so it should be pretty transparent. Your players should know the cost, how much is collected, and where any extra money goes. And STs sure as hell should not sell experience for money or gifts.
Listening to: Fear Factory - Obsolete – Smasher/Devourer
gamingD&Dd20rpgroleplayingdungeons and dragonsworld of darkness
Gamers Bashed by McCain’s Blogger
I usually steer clear of mixing politics with gaming, the same way I avoid beer with liquor and bitching about in-laws to my wife. They are all recipes for a headache. However, I figured the gaming community, especially American gamers who are eligible to vote (because you are going to vote, right?) should see what our candidates are saying about us.
I am of the mind that the current bi-partisan crap is broken and needs fixin’ and most politicians could use a good ass kickin’, and that no matter who you pick, he/she will end up being a corrupt asshole. But I would rather pick the less corrupt asshole…
So anyways, the candidates have tried to embrace technology by utilizing the web and McCain has a blog. Now, understand, the following comments were not made by McCain but by his blogger: Michael Goldfarb. But, McCain chose this asshat to blog for him… so you can come to your own opinion about either of them. Here is what Goldfarb the Asshat has to say about D&D players:
It may be typical of the pro-Obama Dungeons & Dragons crowd to disparage a fellow countryman’s memory of war from the comfort of mom’s basement, but most Americans have the humility and gratitude to respect and learn from the memories of men who suffered on behalf of others. John McCain has often said he witnessed a thousand acts of bravery while he was imprisoned, and though not every one has been submitted into the public record, they are remembered by the men who were there (one such only recently reported by Karl Rove though it escaped mention in any of Senator McCain’s books). But as Swindle said, this is a “desperate group of people trying to make something out of nothing.”
I play D&D and I am a bonified veteran of the Gulf War, even have been declared disabled by the VA BEFORE I received my Honorable Discharge, and I can guarandamntee this Goldfarb character that I would never presume to disparage a vet’s, let alone a former POW’s, memory of war. I think I can say the same of the majority of gamers I have met. Sure, there will be your occasional dickhead gamer, but these people are not exclusive to the D&D crowd. I had not made my decision on candidates either, but this will definitely garner McCain negative favor in my eyes, unless he fires this douchebag that made these comments. If you click through the links, you’ll eventually find an apology, but Goldfarb can stuff it.
Thanks to my friend Gerf for the heads up on this.
– END RANT –
Listening to: The Sex Pistols – The Great Rock ‘n’ Roll Swindle – Anarchy in the UK
gamingD&Dd20rpgroleplayingdungeons and dragonspolitics
Reflections on D&D 4e Love & Hate
Whether you are a greybeard or a greenhorn, a dedicated or sporadic player of D&D, you probably have a passionate opinion about the new edition. I certainly do. However, I think my opinion has become more tempered since I began scrolling through the heated discussions on various blogs like these two posts (here & here) on Chatty DM, Critical Hits, and another two posts (here & here) on Geek Related. Hell, just Google or Cuil (a new hip search engine!) “4e sucks” and I am sure you’ll find many, many more.
Here is my synopsis of the situation: Wizards of the Coast changed a the way classes work at a fundamental level. There were some other changes, but I see them as more of the natural evolution of the game. The new classes are not as natural… It is more of a transplant. I think the closest analogy I can think of is if I went to the barber, got a hair cut and a shave but gave me a heart transplant as well.
Eh, maybe not so dramatic. On second thought, a better line of thought be to make a comparison to my project car. Right now it is a 1948 Chevrolet Coupe, with a 403 cubic inch small block and manual transmission (never yoiu mind it isn’t currently road worthy!). Let’s say I can’t afford to drive the damn thing anymore because the premium fuel it requires is too flippin’ expensive. So I swap the the V8 for a turbo charged inline 4 banger with an automatic transmission. Does this make the ‘48 a pile of crap?
In short, no. But the hot rod purists would have an aneurysm. But I have fun driving it, it takes less work (shifting) and I get better fuel economy, Plus, it still looks bad ass. But hey, that’s not everyone’s flavor of hot rod. It doesn’t have to be, and it really doesn’t fucking matter because its my damn car and you don’t have to cruise in it if you don’t want.
Lucky for those old hot rodding fossils, I just happen to prefer my classic iron with a big ass V8 in it. I’d never do that to my ‘48, but I can see the logic behind doing it and wouldn’t bash (too much) on someone who did. Besides, that’s what my Eclipse GST is for.
Anyways, you might not be interested in cars, turbos, or how many cylinders my cars have. The point of the long, exhaustive analogy above was to illustrate that it doesn’t really matter if you think WotC f’ed up your favorite game and you abosutely abhor 4th Edition Dungeons & Dragons. On the flipside, all the people that fell in love with 4e need not worry about those who are not fans of it.
I’m not a huge fan of 4e, and I certainly do no plan on purchasing what I think are over priced books, but I’m not going to tell you not to play it or enjoy. 4e just might be your cup of tea, and if its ease of use brings more gamers into the fold, AWESOME. I think everyone should try it and find out for themselves, make up your own damned mind and don’t try to shove your freshly formed opinion down fellow gamers’ throats.
Now don’t get me wrong, I love discussing the finer nuances of game mechanics and discovering why you like this or dislike that. Rational discussion promotes new ideas which lead to better games. Just have some reason behind your opinion.
Bottomline: Don’t get your panties in a twist about a fraggin’ game.
