[OT] Paranoia (not the game...)

Dear Jon Tuffley,

Just some late night, paranoid thoughts;

GDW goes under. TSR bought by Wizards of the Coast. West End Games falls to
corporate stupidity (profits used to finance a shoe business). Avalon Hill
(Panzerblitz, Squad Leader, THE Avalon Hill!) folds, and goes to Hasbro,
who'll probably chop it up.

Tell me GZG is doing well.

> On Wed, 2 Sep 1998, Noah Doyle wrote:

> GDW goes under. TSR bought by Wizards of the Coast. West End Games
Avalon
> Hill (Panzerblitz, Squad Leader, THE Avalon Hill!) folds, and goes to

GZG is considerably smaller than any of these outfits. Smaller means more
survivable *if* the owner considers it a labor of love and hasn't quit his day
job. I dare to guess that's the case with Jon.

I run a (very) small business importing paintball equipment. The profits are
next to nothing, but I haven't borrowed any capital for it and my day job
provides my real income, so I can keep it running indefinitely.

We had Ray Greer from Hero Games speaking at RoPeCon this year. He came into
the "industry" from the finance side, so to speak, and curiously he was the
first and so far only industry person I've to offer sane advice to prospective
game designers:

DON'T QUIT YOUR DAY JOB!

> > Tell me GZG is doing well.
(Mikko Kurki-Suonio)

Having left the industry recently after many years (and taking a "lower" job
to get paid heaps more money) I can relate the advice I always gave to
people who came to me with "the next Trivial Pursuit";-
1. Find a sheet metal worker toi make a large iron box. 2. Go to the nearest
large body of water and rent a rowboat (I always recommend Sydney Harbour here
in Oz.) 3 Put everything to do with the game and $20,000.00 in the box and put
the box in the boat. 4 Row to the deepest part of the water. 5 Throw the box
overboard and forget all about it.

This is by far the cheapest option.

Cynical, yes. Realistic, yes.

The games industry is really a lot of small semi-professional companies
staggering from crisis to crisis. Some do well for a while but eventually they
too fall prey to thinking there is a large market for this stuff and that
everyone can make money producing games. The top ten selling games for at
least the last ten years have always included Scrabble, Monopoly and whatever
the latest mainstream game from the
Kenner/Parker/Toltoys/Milton
Bradley was (Pictionary, Trivial Pursuit etc) I can't remember the last time
an RPG or wargame appeared. Face it folks, we're in a hobby industry.

Well, maybe it's a function of location, but I have a pretty good game store
here in Indianapolis, USA, and there are new wargames and RPGs coming
out at the rate of at least one a month - wargames more than RPG, if you

don't include supplements.  Admittedly, TSR/WotC makes up a lot of this,

but there are new wargames, usually battle-specific coming out quite
often,
at least 4 a year, if not more.  Several new system-types have done well

lately, such as Easy Eight's Battleground WW2 miniatures rules - good
game (on advice of trusted friend), lousy cover art. Command Decision 3,
Harpoon 4, about 5 East Front games in the last 2 months (yay!). There's all
sorts of stuff out there. None of it ever garners a huge market (barring
certain RPGs), but that's how it works. People with 'the next Trivial Pursuit'
are trying to create a product with enormous mass appeal.
 Wargame/RPG designers, OTOH, have a pretty well-defined market to deal
with.

Noah

[quoted original message omitted]

> Mikko Kurki-Suonio wrote:
To stop Noah (and anyone else) worrying that Jon hasn't replied to this, it's
probably because he's at EuroGenCon not because he's gone under!!!!

GZG are doing exceptionally well (especially in the UK) and having spoken to
him recently I don't think Jon has any worries on this side at all (if
anything the business is still expanding at a steady rate).

As to his day job - he quit that a few years back as GZG was doing so
well. There's an interesting interview with Jon in Ragnarok 30 which should be
out next month, which gives you a bit of background on GZG, Jon, his views on
the hobby etc, etc.

> On Wed, 2 Sep 1998, Noah Doyle wrote:
Avalon
> Hill (Panzerblitz, Squad Leader, THE Avalon Hill!) folds, and goes to

> On Wed, 2 Sep 1998, Noah Doyle wrote:
Avalon
> Hill (Panzerblitz, Squad Leader, THE Avalon Hill!) folds, and goes

So Don't quit it!  ;->