Upload
le-nurd-mystique-llc
View
235
Download
2
Tags:
Embed Size (px)
DESCRIPTION
various sections of the book written in varying degrees of development, and we knew what we wanted the final product to look like. We still did not know many other things, like how much money would be re- quired to bring the game to market, or how the project would be funded. Jan 09 By Andrew Kozak What we did not have yet, was a cohesive rulebook. We did have the Celebrating Over 1 Year in Publication See You in 2010! OGO Publications OGO Publications Editor (Continued on page 3)
Citation preview
FREE Vol 3
Issue 1
Jan 09 * Gaming Articles, Monthly Editorials & Remarkable Stories
Celebrating Over 1 Year in Publication
This month we bring you the sec-
ond installment of our ongoing
chronicle of the trials and tribula-
tions of an independent game devel-
oper. Their work can be seen and
p u r c h a s e d a t
www.metalmagicandlore.com. They
are imminently qualified for the task
at hand. How many of us have, over
the years, said to one another . . .
“Hey man, we should totally make
our own game!”
Well put down the cheetos and
mountain dew and read on friends,
it takes not only a lot of work, crea-
tivity and patience, but an ability to
juggle a thousand things at once.
Andrew and Vito know what they're
talking about, and hopefully we can
all learn something, gaming related
or otherwise from their experience.
It was February 2006. There we
were, 5th Epoch Publishing. We
were only partly dressed, but with
plenty of places to go yet. We had
engaged in some heavy work to
make Metal, Magic and Lore® more
fun to play and easier to use, and
the fact remained - we had a great
game system that was innovative,
and played and well designed. We
had an enthusiastic and growing
staff: 2 co-authors, 4 designers, 5
creative staff, and a host of consult-
ants. We were fortunate enough to
have some very talented people
involved with the project. Our con-
sultants included medieval re-
creationists versed in armored com-
bat, a professional armorer whose
work can be seen at Neiman Marcus
and a renowned structural engineer
who was consulted in the aftermath
of 9/11 and the subsequent World
Trade Center collapse, a specialist in
precious metals, among others. We
had accumulated play test groups
numbering some 50 people, from
ages 13 to 40, male and female. We
had accumulated a library of well
over 100 books for research and
reference.
What we did not have yet, was a
cohesive rulebook. We did have the
various sections of the book written
in varying degrees of development,
and we knew what we wanted the
final product to look like. We still
did not know many other things, like
how much money would be re-
quired to bring the game to market,
or how the project would be
funded.
Suddenly, there were a series of
competing questions being asked
that were seemingly interdependent.
How much funding was needed?
How would we seek out investors?
What would their stake be and how
would they get paid back? Was it
even possible to pay them back?
(Continued on page 3)
By Andrew Kozak
A Host of Challenges - Confessions of and Indie RPG Publisher. Part 2
Mild Reboot and Statement of Purpose
Over this last year, we here at
G.A.M.E.R.S. have done the best we
can to bring you, the reader, the best
in nerdy news. We’ve conducted
interviews with many industry insid-
ers and game designers, reprinted
relevant clips from multiple different
sources and reviewed many games,
books and conventions so that you
could remain a well informed mem-
ber of the geek community.
With the new year come many new
challenges, promises and opportuni-
ties. Over the coming months our
newsletter will be undergoing a pe-
riod of growth. We’ve several new
writers coming on board, with our
first of them being Ms. Victoria Ve-
sey who this month provides us with
a review of the classic and recently
revitalized Watchmen graphic novel.
Several others are on the way, and
our search for additional writers,
editors and graphic artists continues.
Our goal is to provide readers with
as much original, relevant content as
can be produced.
So please, continue to enjoy this
publication and as the year moves
forward, feel free to provide us with
any feedback you may have. We
thrive and depend upon your input.
This newsletter is here for your
enjoyment, and we are deeply inter-
ested in what you want to see.
Any input, feedback, interest in
working with us, advertising requests
or hate mail, may all be directed to
We look forward to continuing to
provide you with high-quality nerd –
related news and fiction, and are
excited about what this year will
bring. We hope you’ll remain with us
to see it all.
Ben Chronister OGO Publications Editor
Neovention Reborn moved to 2010!
A decision has been made that in
the interest of making sure we bring
back Neovention in the best way
possible, that we will postpone
Neovention for 1 year. Nothing
currently arranged is planned to
change.
Just to make sure that there are no
rumor mongering as to the reasons
for this decision, we wanted to
make sure the real story is out
there ahead of time.
This decision was made by every-
body on staff, the board of direc-
tors, and even the sponsors.
The fact is we have all put a lot of
work and money into organizing a
great convention for everybody,
however while looking over what
we have planned, We decided that
with the addition of some new
opportunities that have presented
themselves to the OGO & OGO
Publications, that we can & will be
able to pull off an even better con-
vention by putting those opportuni-
ties to work for us now instead of
later.
The new tentative dates are March
26th - 28th, 2010. We will still be at
the same hotel with the same great
discount on rooms as 2009 was
planned.
The simple fact is that we are reviv-
ing a 20-ish year old convention,
that many people cared for and
loved, so we want to make sure
that even it’s first year back is not
done small.
So, now is the time to submit any
great ideas you may have had for
events or suggestions!
See You in 2010!
Jack R Stewart OGO Publications
2 G.A.M.E.R.S.
Editor in Chief:
Jack R Stewart - [email protected]
Copy Editor:
Ben Chronister - [email protected]
Photography staff:
Mike Henthorn - [email protected]
Writers:
Matt Ferrell - [email protected]
Mr. Stephen - [email protected]
OGO Publications
P.O. Box 2224
Columbus, Ohio 43216
1-877-OGO-0010
http://www.ogopublications.com
Contribution Support:
The Soldiery –See Ad in Back
www.icv2.com - Industry News!
www.gamerscircle.net - Industry News
www.prweb.com - Press Release Newswire
www.ign.com - IGN
Gamingreport.com
Submissions & Advertising Services/Info:
Printers:
Capitol Square Printing
59 East Gay St
Columbus, OH 43215
(614) 221-2850
Legal Department
Edward F. Peterson Co., LPA
85 E. Gay St., Suite 404 Columbus, OH 43215 [email protected] (614) 224-3737
Fax: (614) 224-3740
G.A.M.E.R.S. Newspaper is published Monthly, 12 times per year by OGO Pub l i c a t i o n s , PO Box 2 2 24 Co l umbu s , OH 4 3216 . For More information or Copyright concerns, please contact
Looking for a good time? Join more than 900 gaming fans for a weekend packed with video games, miniatures,
pen and paper role-playing, Eurogames, card games, board games, and much more!
BASHCon XXIV will be the weekend of February 20th
-22nd
, 2009, at The University of Toledo Main Cam-
pus Student Union in Toledo, Ohio.
For more information, please visit:
www.bashcon.com
or e-mail us at [email protected]
UT-BASH is partially funded by Student General Fees.
BASHCon is sponsored by UT-BASH, the gaming club at the University of Toledo. For more information on us, please visit our website at http://
www.ut-bash.com/
Now Renting Video Games!!!
3 G.A.M.E.R.S.
Last August, Stardock and Gas Pow-
ered Games came together to make
a bold proposition. That we, as
gamers, have our own set of inali-
able rights. The idea is one we’ve all
surely talked about when faced with
the many frustrations of any number
of recently produced electronic
games. Unyielding DRM (anti-piracy)
software, system crashing bugs,
unplayable levels, poor support and
any number of other similarly daunt-
ing issues. All of these come coupled
with steadily rising price-tags and
the stolid march toward monopoly
as larger companies like Electronic
Arts eat up smaller companies at an
astounding rate leaving us with
fewer and fewer places to turn for
our electronic recreational needs.
This Gamers’ Bill of Rights has
raised a bit of a stir, as GPG and
Stardock have attempted to involve
as many other companies as possible
in their efforts to provide gamers
with more and better alternatives to
these common issues. Still unheard
from as to their adherence to this
proposal are several larger compa-
nies including Valve Software and
Electronic Arts.
The inevitable question here is, are
these rules reasonable? Is it possible
for companies to adopt these rules
or is this merely wishful thinking?
Are we as consumers asking too
much or, as this is a free market,
does the responsibility fall on the
shoulders of the game makers to
meet our demands?
Below is the proposed Bill of Rights.
We the Gamers of the world, in
order to ensure a more enjoy-
able experience, establish
equality between players and
publishers, and promote the
general welfare of our industry
hereby call for the following:
Gamers shall have the right to
return games that don't work
with their computers for a full
refund.
Gamers shall have the right to
demand that games be released
in a finished state.
Gamers shall have the right to
expect meaningful updates after
a game's release.
Gamers shall have the right to
demand that download managers
and updaters not force them-
selves to run or be forced to load
in order to play a game.
Gamers shall have the right to
expect that the minimum require-
ments for a game will mean that
the game will adequately play on
that computer.
Gamers shall have the right to
expect that games won't install
hidden drivers or other poten-
tially harmful software without
their express consent.
Gamers shall have the right to re-
download the latest versions of
the games they own at any time.
Gamers shall have the right to
not be treated as potential crimi-
nals by developers or publishers.
Gamers shall have the right to
demand that a single-player
game not force them to be con-
nected to the Internet every time
they wish to play.
Gamers shall have the right that
games which are installed to the
hard drive shall not require a CD/
DVD to remain in the drive to
play.
Does this hold water? We certainly
hope it does. Stardock and GPG
hope that eventually all the game
publishers will unite under these
rules. Unfortunately, there seems to
be little to entice them. Despite any
number of studies showing the utter
ineffectiveness of DRM , and that
continued support of a game can
vastly improve its replay value and
long-term sales, game companies
seem intent to continue along their
current path. Is it hubris, or should
we as mere consumers stop trying
to play amateur economists and
captain’s of business? Whose court
is the ball in really? As well, how
would we enforce this proposal?
In the end, the hope is that this
proposal will gain some sort of
speed. Even if the larger companies
don’t necessarily pick up on the idea
as it stands, perhaps by the very fact
that these ideas be been deemed
necessary to propose will cause
them to realize that we, the people,
deserve better.
We The Gamers
What was the market doing? How
many copies might we sell in our
first year? …in the following years?
What were the tax implications?
How would we, as the authors, get
paid? What were our liabilities?
What do we do about a presence
on the Internet? We needed to
answer these questions and many
others if we were to continue.
Again, when faced with all these
questions at once, the idea of dis-
continuing the project had at times
become as appealing as starting it
had been. We had day jobs to tend
to and families to take care of. We
were willing to turn a labor of love
into a professional endeavor, but
the fact that we had already worked
very hard at that was one that no
one could argue. But now, the pro-
ject had somehow taken on a life of
it’s own. The people around us
were asking about it as if it were
already a product. In a sense, the
project had developed its own his-
tory! Its inception was as far back as
1988, and even during periods of
inactivity, it provoked thoughts and
conversations of reminiscence.
When it was revived in 2002, the
project changed form and evolved
into a wholly new effort. The team
who were involved had become
excited to help, and proud of their
efforts. They were painstakingly
questioning every aspect of the
game system to get it to work prop-
erly. As partners and co-authors, we
had logged an average of 22-25
hours per week each over an ex-
tended period of time, and at times
as much as 40 hours in a given
week! As we had done this, the
ability to see Metal, Magic and Lore
through to the market became
more and more important to us. So
at this juncture we felt a certain
degree of pressure, albeit largely self
-induced, but pressure nevertheless.
We were now in a race with our-
selves, and the sheer challenge of it
was not only daunting, but in some
strange way what made it so appeal-
ing.
At this point, we feel it is important
to mention that all partnerships, but
especially ones in creative endeav-
ors, are tested as the project moves
through its various stages. We re-
lied on our years of friendship and
our deep commitment to the pro-
ject to get us through. When work-
ing on a creative project, its not
easy to tell someone who has
worked for several weeks that one
idea or another should be scrapped
in favor of something new. It took a
lot of time to develop our partner-
ship to where we had a level of
trust and confidence to express the
myriad of thoughts and concerns
that arose as our work continued.
Andrew is a mechanical engineer
with both a creative and analytical
mind; he gets paid to design systems
from scratch under a competing
series of environmental, physical and
fiscal demands. Vito is a systems
consultant who also has both a
creative and analytical mind; he gets
paid to help companies find their
ways out of dilemmas by analyzing
and developing creative approaches
to challenges. The seemingly endless
series of toils involved in the project
tested professional abilities, our
resolve and commitment to com-
(Continued from page 1)
(Continued on page 10)
Confessions—Cont.
4 G.A.M.E.R.S.
Your Onsite Storage Solution!
Got too Much Gaming Stuff?!?
Retail Store with too much Inventory? Go Mini's North West / Central OH Cell: (614)572-3946 Office: (888)254-0761 Web: www.gominis-ohio.com
I don’t read comic books. Call me pretentious, but I’m a fan of full-bodied novels, thick bindings and page after page of words and only words to spark my imagination and sink my whole being into a new world. So, when I was asked to do a monthly book review for G.A.M.E.R.S., I was thrilled at the opportunity. Now I would have more reason to discover all the newest and best fantasy books on the market, and even be able to give my opinion on them, relieving my poor friends of the duty of listening. But when I was asked to read “Watchmen” as my first as-signment, I was a little disap-pointed and it took me a while to even force myself to start it. Give me the classics, fantasy, poetry, biographies and anything else, but comic books had never made it onto my radar as worthwhile read-ing material. Though I frequently perused Heavy Metal and I love the morbid classic Johnny the Homicidal Maniac, I had a hard time finding comics that held my interest. Now I realize I had simply been looking
through the wrong comics.
With a level of ease that startled me, I was able to immerse myself into the “Watchmen” in just a few
pages. Being unused to the comic book set-up, I had a little difficulty with the flow of the story. The story starts out with the death of the Comedian, a founding member of the league of superheroes of the prior generation. Then for the first half or so of the book, the focus jumps back and forth between characters finding out about his death, and their individual back stories leading up to the event. However, with the fill-in provided by the memoirs of “Hollis Mason” and various other articles and additions in between chapters and a little perseverance, the story started to fill in the gaps. It took less than a chapter before I was hooked and I had made it through two chapters before looking up to realize that I hadn’t noticed a thing going on around me for over an
hour.
The story turned out more intelli-gent and motivating than I ex-pected. I loved that the illustra-tions helped me to imagine the story more fully and the details of the pictures surprised me. I had also been under the mistaken idea that comics had very simplistic story lines and characters, but reading this has definitely changed that idea. The plot is complicated, with many layers and twists, the characters are given intricate psy-chological developments, and it has
a dry wit that kept me laughing and prevented the story from becom-ing overly gruesome. Detailed plot lines combine to show the devel-opment of the various superhero characters and the difficult situa-tions they had to deal with that lead them to where they are at the death of the Comedian and then beyond to the resolution of the comic (not to give away the ending
to those who haven’t read it).
My favorite character was Dr. Manhattan, because of the im-mense struggles he dealt with due to his condition. The sci-fi ob-sessed will love the science behind the power of a radioactive man, both mental and physical. The complications of his story bring up many different ethical and moral dilemmas such as the responsibili-ties of someone blessed with such immense power, personal rights regarding how the government controls him and Laurie (his girl-friend and one of the other super-heroes), how to deal with knowing the future, and the hero’s struggle against himself. Beyond everything else, it is interesting to see his complete connection to Laurie, despite the fact he seems to be beyond any form of real human
emotion.
In contrast, the back story of the Comedian, showing that he was as bad, if not worse than the villains
themselves; brought into play the idea of what to do when a “hero” does awful deeds in the name of government and the common good. This theme continues into the end of the story, when the true actions of several other char-acters are brought to light, with the presentation of the madness and excess that can occur when individuals go too far in thinking they can play god and change the world in the continual problem of the end justifying the means. These limitless philosophical questions and unique presentation in the story kept me intrigued and con-
templative until the very end.
Another aspect of this particular story that I enjoyed was the poetic style of the narrator in the flashbacks to the war and scenes such as Rorschach’s (a character somewhat analogous to Batman) conversation with the psycholo-gist. It was a beautiful twist on a morbid subject, which might have come off simply as blood, guts and gore otherwise. Overall, I found “Watchmen” to be creative, com-pelling, philosophically complex and highly entertaining. I am happy to say I have discovered a new genre of interest and look forward to my next foray into the exciting and intricate world of comics. Recommendations will be appreci-
ated.
Watchmen—My Big Surprise
Victoria Vesey Staff Writer
5 G.A.M.E.R.S.
6 G.A.M.E.R.S.
7 G.A.M.E.R.S.
8 G.A.M.E.R.S.
OH SNAP! How else can you
describe the first episode of this,
the final stretch of one of the best
television shows to grace the
airwaves in the last decade? I have
to admit; in the beginning I was
skeptical of Battlestar Galactica. I
had seen a few episodes of the
original series and, unlike many an
old-school geek, thought it was a
crappy imitation of Star Wars,
with a stupid robotic dog. And
BSG 1980? Gag me, seriously. So,
when the new series was an-
nounced and launched with a 3
hour mini-series I avoided it like
the plague. However, after much
cajoling I was duct taped in front
of the television and forced to
watch the mini. And ever since, I
have been hooked.
Ronald D. Moore and David Eick
have created a storytelling master-
piece. Touching on modern
themes and cutting out all the
schmaltz of the classic sci-fi yarn,
they have woven a personal narra-
tive of loss, life and the tough
choices a people under siege must
make to ensure their survival.
While impressive, the technical
feats of the show take a sideline
to the story; a journey of survival
and faith for a society adrift. A
story not unlike our own coun-
try’s last eight years. And what a
journey it has been.
Two Emmy’s, a Hugo, a Peabody
and 9 other awards later we are
now staring down the end of the
journey. BSG has earned its props
and is set to go out with a bang.
And this year’s first episode did
not disappoint. Now, I’ve gone
back and forth on whether or not
I should spoil any of the surprises
of the first episode for those of
you not yet fortunate enough to
see it. And well, if you haven’t
seen the episode, go no further. I
think it would be impossible to
review this episode without giving
something away. However, I’m
going to take a different tack than
your average review, I’m going to
look at three characters and their
course through the episode in-
stead of doing the standard linear
review.
So here goes the run down:
Earth sucks! And everyone is
starting to realize it. Apparently
our BSG earthlings are about as
good at keeping the peace as
George W. on a drunken hunting
trip. Thus, our heroes have landed
on an Earth devoid of life, from a
giant nuclear holocaust, from like
2000 years ago. And, by the way,
what did we learn from the bones
of the fabled 13th tribe of human-
ity? They’re cylons. Man, that had
to be crappy for Roslin.
Duala seems to be the worst
affected by the whole mess and
does quite a bit of crying.
Allow me to take a moment out
here and tell you about how much
I hate Duala. She is a ho, and I
directly attribute her dumping
Billy way back in season 2 to his
untimely death. (Yes, I know he
moved on to other shows, but the
story made me hate her) And
she’s never redeemed herself
since. So, when the depression
finally takes over and she puts a
bullet through her brain I literally
screamed like a little girl,
“AWESOME!”. Yes, I was
shocked, yes I was a little sad and
yes I understand that she did it
because she just couldn’t take it
anymore. She couldn’t take the
battles, the loss and the disap-
pointment. So, after a last good
night with Apollo she shuffles off.
But seriously folks. What exactly
was her journey? Her time clearly
wasn’t as hard as say, Starbuck or
Adama or Rosslin. She sat in CIC
and told people where to fly. And
when she wasn’t doing that she
was playing home wrecker to
both the dearly departed Billy and
destroying all of my Apollo/
Starbuck fantas ies . Home
wrecker…
The final four get an excellent
sort of brain exploding series of
flash backs.
The four of them, along with the
fifth, were apparently all denizens
of this long forgotten nuclear
wasteland at the time it was
nuked. Tyrol finds his shadow on
a wall… all that was left of him
after the bomb. Anders finds a
guitar that was his, and was appar-
ently friends with both Tyrol and
Tory. All Tory gets is a flashback
of hanging out with the two of
them.
Now, Tigh’s side of things is far
more interesting. Yes, he gets a
flashback. But, smartly, the BSG
team decides to save it until the
end of the episode. Where in we
find that the fifth Cylon is (drum
roll please….) HIS WIFE. Yes,
that’s right. His wife, who was
sleeping with Cavil on New Ca-
prica and handing secrets over to
the Cylons to get Tigh out of jail.
The very woman who Tigh himself
killed for being a spy (in one of
the best moments of the entire
series, by the way). Tigh, in one
of the tensest moments of the
show, also gets the chance to off
Adama, and part of me thought
he, or Adama himself might actu-
ally go through with it. But Tigh
smartly puts the gun away and lets
the increasingly despondent and
worn out CO of the Galatica.
I must say, figuring out how they
got to this point in time and what
their real purpose is better be one
of the driving forces of the show
from here on out. I like these
four characters, especially Tigh
and Tyrol, and their path to this
point was one of my favorite parts
of the show. I’m just worried that
now that we’ve figured out where
they’re from the show will begin
to focus on other matters and
leave this story line behind.
Starbuck/Leobin get the biggest
head trip of all (except of course
for the distance Duala’s brains
traveled after she shot them out).
She’s dead. Or at least a version
of her is. Apparently, she did
make it to Earth after being
sucked into that giant vortex. But
while there, she crashed and died.
Making the moment when the
Starbuck we know stumbles upon
the dead Starbuck with Leobin
decidedly awkward for all three of
them.
Leobin’s journey to this point and
his reaction to it really made me
like him even more. Finding out
that he was entirely wrong about
Starbuck and that his whole world
view had been shattered will leave
his final steps in the show some of
the more interesting ones to fol-
low. But back to Starbuck.
Really, how screwed up must she
now be? She’s married to a Cylon,
found herself dead, and then
burned her dead self on a pyre.
Admittedly, she’s been one of my
favorite characters. But I must say,
that she didn’t kill herself after this
little episode only proves how
weak Duala actually was… err… I
mean, how strong a character
Starbuck really is.
The Final Verdict: I think the
scene where Roslin burns the
prophecies and decides to go off
of her cancer meds says it all. The
entire crew is adrift, with more
questions than ever and no where
to call home. Simply, this episode
was a game changer. The Galactica
will soon find itself in what could
be a run and gun battle for sur-
vival with Cavil’s army of crazy
Cylons. Starbuck isn’t Starbuck…
or is she? And no one, literally no
one, now knows where they’re
headed. Of course, this leaves me
a little worried about the way the
rest of the show will play out.
They’ve got nine episodes to wrap
this all up and have promised us
one of the greatest space battles
in history at the end of it. But
what this show is really all about,
and where I hope it keeps its fo-
cus, is on the people taking the
journey. Stick to this, forget about
the crappy one shot episodes
we’ve seen in the past and get to
telling the story you know how to
tell. If you do this, we fans of BSG
will not be disappointed.
An In-Depth Analysis of Battle Star Galactica’s Kick-off to the End
The Unknown Writer Staff Writer
9 G.A.M.E.R.S.
10 G.A.M.E.R.S.
Confessions—Cont.
pleting the project.
The fiscal side of the project was a
challenge all of its own. In order for
this fledgling game company to
come into existence we the authors
were forced to create an investment
structure that had to stand out in
New York City where many such
opportunities are born each day.
The amount of money to be raised
was a complex issue and its details
are still a bit sensitive, but suffice to
say that it was the subject of a num-
ber of very long meetings and the
cause of many sleepless nights. Once
the deal was set and we had gained
the trust of investors enough to
raise the minimum capital necessary,
we then had to file a small mountain
of legal paperwork. The advantage
of having an excellent lawyer who
really looks out for you can not be
understated.
It is safe to say that the project no
longer felt fun. In spite of that fact,
we stuck to our guns and set forth
to accomplish a number of things in
parallel with each other. We had to
create a sample rulebook that rep-
resented the direction of what we
desired in look, style and feel of
Metal, Magic and Lore. As well, we
needed to determine how much
funding would be required to pro-
duce the rulebook and manufacture
units to bring to market. As if that
weren't enough we also had to
determine an appropriate transac-
tional structure that would satisfy
our needs and those of our inves-
tors while continuing to refine our
game system with the team at hand.
And so we endeavored, continuing
to give thought to these subjects as
they loomed in the background, the
rest of the time being spent consult-
ing with professionals. We met with
legal counsel, several accountants,
an investment banker, a number of
entrepreneurs, as well as several
potential investors. We had spent
money from our own pockets, to
pay the appropriate counsel as well
as artists to develop the sample
rulebook. The project was not only
time-intensive, but expensive as
well. We began asking for favors
when we could, just to keep costs
down. Favors, however, come with
a price and that is quality. In the
end, if you want something done
well and right, you have to pay for
it! People are always willing to be
helpful, but asking them to take on
workloads as a favor falls to the
bottom of their lists. They're human
too, and they have their pressing
matters to attend to. To ask favors
of a certain magnitude is not only
risking a lack of quality, it is in some
sense foolish. So, we paid money
wherever and whenever possible,
and bartered things in exchange
where needed. In the end, every-
thing was paid for in one way, shape
or form, and nothing was free. This
is a great lesson for any endeavor.
So how did this turn out? Well, it
took several months to prepare a
sample rulebook and print limited
copies, which were intended for
investor circulation only. The invest-
ment deal required approximately 9
months to develop soundly, which
included all the legal filings as well as
the appropriate financial forecasts
and a presentable investor package.
Raising the money took almost
exactly 120 days to meet the mini-
mum required to start production.
The project required many thou-
sands of dollars of cash and other
resources to execute and launch.
And the work started to become
more difficult to manage as our
deadline approached. We had been
targeting a launch at the Origins
Game Fair in July 2007. This meant
that the printer needed to have
finals (post revisions) by late May
2007. And this meant that we
needed to finish production of the
book in approximately 5 months.
The wheels were set in motion. We
had the investor’s money, and we
needed to make good on the invest-
ment. And time was of the essence.
We were up against a classic busi-
ness model conflict – quality vs.
speed.
(Part Three comes next month)
(Continued from page 3)
Calendar Of Events
Bashcon (Gaming) - bashcon.com Toledo - Feb 20 - 22
A&G Ohio (Anime & Gaming) - aandgohio.com Cincinnati - March 13 -15
Neovention Reborn (Gaming and More) - Neovention.org Akron - March 27-29
Anime Punch (Anime) - animepunch.org Columbus - April 10-12
Morphicon - (Anthro/Artists) -morphicon.org Columbus - May 15-17
Marcon - (Sci Fi) - macron.org Columbus - May 22-24
Origins (Game Fair) - originsgamefair.com Columbus - June 24-28
Gencon Indy (Gaming) - gencon.com Indianapolis - August 13-16
Mid Ohio Con (Comic Books) - midohiocon.com Columbus - October 3-4
11 G.A.M.E.R.S.
Classifieds Section
Pending Classified
Categories
For advertising in our classifieds section,
send questions/ads to
Prices Are:
$.03 per regular letters
$.05 per bold or italic letters
Email us for special rates.
The Soldiery, Inc.
“Your full-service gaming source for 17 years”
Collectable Card Games, Roleplaying Games, Historical Miniatures,
Games Workshop, Wizkids, Paints/Brushes, Gaming Supplies.
Extensive inventory of new/used items, including singles:
Weekly events - 11 Gaming Tables
15% Discount on Games Workshop!
PK Cards and WOW Minis in stock
4256 North High Street, Columbus, OH 43214
(614) 267-1957 Fax (614) 267-0558
drowsydragononline.com thesoldiery.com [email protected]
Hours: Mon closed, Tue - Thu 3 pm - 9 pm, Fri 3 pm - 1 am, Sat 1 pm - 11 pm, Sun 1 pm - 7 pm
Buy, Sell, Trade used gaming items and distressed store inventories!
Event Announcements
Help Wanted
Volunteering
For Sale
Singles Ads
Game Announcements
Misc
Looking For Items
Get First Month of
Hosting for only One Penny!
Visit
HOSTGATOR.COM
And enter the code:
OHIOGAMERS
Ohio Gamers Organization, a Non Profit Organization, is l o o k i n g t o f i l l t h e following positions:
Public Relations Volunteer Coordinator Programs Manager
These Jobs do receive a weekly gas stipend for working 3-4 days a week, when travel is necessary, and are first in line to get paid upon our 502c3 grants that we are cur-rently filing for. We also have a small number of other volun-teer jobs!
Please Call (877)OGO-0010 To apply today!
OGO Publications is looking to hire for the following posi-tions for its growing newspa-
per GAMERS.:
Advertising Sales Newspaper Editor Graphic Designer Writers Photographers
Sales positions do pay com-
mission on all ad sales!
Please Call (877)OGO-0010 Or email [email protected] To apply today!
Volunteers need for staffing Neovention Convention. Will receive free badge for working at least 8 hours of the convention. Visit Neovention.org or email [email protected] for more details.
Coming Soon! Ohio By Night!
ohiobynight.org for info
Prereg On
line
Now!