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Author Topic: Too much ego?  (Read 9224 times)

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Offline sergeant_hastp

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Re: Too much ego?
« Reply #15 on: April 09, 2011, 02:24:15 PM »
I bet it was a WH40K-based conspiracy.  You know how cult-ish those people can be.

Offline Vok Ytalinov

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Re: Too much ego?
« Reply #16 on: April 09, 2011, 02:50:09 PM »
More to do with the whole "Magic; The Gathering" insanity that was ripping through all of the gaming industry at the time.

Offline Clark

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Re: Too much ego?
« Reply #17 on: April 09, 2011, 05:59:05 PM »
By the time the Rack Deal came out we had people coming to the table at conventions and buying one of everything after liquidating their Magic card collection. However, on release we got overshadowed by Magic, as did pretty much everyone else. LOS was nominated for an Origins Award for best graphic design.  We lost to Magic.

Offline Dave Chase

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Re: Too much ego?
« Reply #18 on: April 10, 2011, 05:08:39 PM »
Nothing wrong with tooting ones own horn, once in a while.

Question though,

Nothing wrong with all these fan and  background posts ;)

but are we going to get back to the grind of the 11-11-11 release of LOS?

(Like rules, fixes, changes, etc)

Dave Chase
Freedom is the right to speak your mind.

It is also the right to walk away from those you don't want to listen to.

Offline Clark

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Re: Too much ego?
« Reply #19 on: April 10, 2011, 06:11:47 PM »
I bet it was a WH40K-based conspiracy.  You know how cult-ish those people can be.

I never really contemplated that, even as a joke,

Offline Clark

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Re: Too much ego?
« Reply #20 on: April 10, 2011, 06:16:35 PM »
Nothing wrong with tooting ones own horn, once in a while.

Question though,

Nothing wrong with all these fan and  background posts ;)

but are we going to get back to the grind of the 11-11-11 release of LOS?

(Like rules, fixes, changes, etc)

Dave Chase

Before reading this post I posted something on Leadership.  I will follow up with a post on Suppression.  And there is some movement on things like formatting and roll modifiers.

Dave, start a thread on the diagonal rule and whether it should be 1-2-1-2 or 2-1-2-1 and I will weigh in after posting about suppression.

Offline grendeljd

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Re: Too much ego?
« Reply #21 on: April 11, 2011, 09:50:54 AM »
oh that fucking rack deal.

lazy useless idiots didn't even open half the packing boxes while they had them.

I can't clearly recall if we had the rack deal set up in the stores I used to work at back then - one was mainly a used book / new comic shop with a small rpg section where we never carried mini's, only doing special orders for regular customers. But the other shop had two locations, both carried some mini's and I think one of them had lots of Global Games shelf product... what year did the rack deal start? The last time I worked in a comic store was the summer of '98.
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Offline smokingwreckage

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Re: Too much ego?
« Reply #22 on: April 12, 2011, 05:15:00 AM »
You needed a demo program. LOS was f*ing amazing to play. I really don't think "It's Spacehulk" could withstand the experience of LOS in play. I still remember one of the few games I actually got anyone to play, the game came down to a single commando legging it off the board through a hail of suppressive fire.... and surviving. It was awesome.

Offline Clark

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Re: Too much ego?
« Reply #23 on: April 12, 2011, 05:19:18 AM »
When Marco and I playtested scenarios they usually came down to an initiative roll, straight up since the sergeant had blown his leadership as a matter of self preservation.

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Re: Too much ego?
« Reply #24 on: April 12, 2011, 10:31:01 AM »
I remember the rack deals and am pretty sure they were mostly after your retail time grendel.

When I got 40k or space hulk players to try LOS it usually came to a respectful: "that is a good system, but I already spent all this money on games workshop."

Offline bobloblah

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Re: Too much ego?
« Reply #25 on: April 12, 2011, 04:02:17 PM »
GW is really the elephant in the room. Having said that, the last few times I've checked, their profits were steady, but their market-share was declining. The trick is to carve out a niche where they aren't, or do something to attract players that are disaffected with them. The latter seems the easier proposition to me, particularly for LoS/PS.

For people upset over cost, you'd be hard-pressed to be more expensive than GW. For those annoyed by the number of miniatures required, you have a small-scale skirmish game (that WH40k used to be). For those annoyed with poor rules and seeming lack of playtesting, you've got a tight ruleset that mimics real-world firefights well enough for those who've experienced combat to feel at home. For anyone upset waiting years for their favourite army list, you can release multiple armies together, then provide updates to all forces with new releases.

As for anyone who's a serious fan of WH40k, I doubt there's anything you're going to do to convert them, except over the much longer term. And I'd say that mostly comes down to them getting fed up with one or more of the problems I mentioned above.
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Offline SgtHulka

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Re: Too much ego?
« Reply #26 on: April 12, 2011, 05:58:41 PM »
GW is really the elephant in the room...The trick is to carve out a niche where they aren't, or do something to attract players that are disaffected with them. The latter seems the easier proposition to me, particularly for LoS/PS.

Isn't this sort of "been there, done that?" I mean, Global Games already went up against GW and GW won.

Offline Clark

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Re: Too much ego?
« Reply #27 on: April 12, 2011, 07:13:49 PM »
Global only ran into trouble when LOS was no longer the flagship product. Global might have gone under but that is incidental to the potential of LOS to successfully compete with some of GWs products.

The basic strategy was to come out with two supplements per year and release two new figs per month. A fig's initial sales general covered the set up costs or more and then our residual sales - and profits - grew as the product line expanded and the customer base increased. With a puah from carrying cases and paints we doubled our sales each year but then flatlined in 1996 because that strategy was abandoned. I'd like to get back on that course, if possible, but without going about it the same way Global Games did.

Offline Nukelavee

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Re: Too much ego?
« Reply #28 on: April 12, 2011, 09:51:18 PM »
It was less LOS wasn't the flagship, and more it didn't get the time the flagship deserves.

Don't get me wrong, I think for a fast simple game, Inferno was pretty solid.  A lot of work went into the art and writing, and that benefitted from experience.

But...it was bad timing.  The energy was better applied to LOS.

Offline Clark

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Re: Too much ego?
« Reply #29 on: April 12, 2011, 11:16:06 PM »
I was the idea guy so I have to take some responsibility for Inferno.

I think Marco did an amazing job with it (and Wes and Tom and Dave can feel free to steal his thunder on this point) but there was a fatal error in the system.  I have no idea if that had any connection to its commercial success: look at VHS or Windows.