TG As An Industry - Past, Present, Future - The Something Awful Forums

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canyoneer: Sep 13, 2005; I only have canyoneyes for you

So, tell me about printing games and why it seems all of them are printed in China.

I know that if you're manufacturing electronics or computer stuff, doing assembly in Southeast Asia is a no brainer, because they have huge factories with a flexible workforce and all the component suppliers nearby.
Is that the same story with printing? There are a zillion printers out there that can scale up to crazy high output, so it's worth waiting for the stuff to cross the ocean on the slowboat?

# ¿ Aug 10, 2015 04:51

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# ¿ May 12, 2024 00:35

canyoneer: Sep 13, 2005; I only have canyoneyes for you

From my FLGS Facebook:

quote:

A friendly reminder. Yu-Gi-Oh gameplay/trading/building/etc is not allowed in the store.

To accommodate demand we are offering Yu-Gi-Oh packs and decks again. The Infinite Gold is here and we have structure decks and booster packs inbound. But that's all. We are not dealing in YGO singles at all. We do not run YGO events and will not be doing so in the future, and no casual play is permitted. This is due to extensive and repeated problems with YGO in-store play in the past, including shoplifting, player-to-player theft, bullying, profanity, leaving messes, and so on. Not all YGO players cause these problems, but the bad apples ruined it for everybody.

If you play YGO that's fine and we hope you enjoy it, but you are going to need to find another place to play. Thank you for your cooperation and understanding.

And a follow-up comment.

quote:

Among other reasons, part of why DSG is now one of the top selling Pokemon stores in the region is because parents of Pokemon players feel more comfortable letting their kids play where they know it is much less likely that the kid will have their cards stolen, be taught new curse words, be bullied, etc. It was the YGO player base, by and large, causing those issues and chasing away an otherwise healthier Pokemon player base.

We sell more Pokemon each month now than the total of all YGO sales from our opening in 2012 until we discontinued YGO in 2014. We brought back YGO decks and packs at the urging of some of our community players who wanted a chance to show that the game can be healthy here purely on an off-the-shelf basis. Right now that's about as far as we think it's prudent to go.

Also, from the publisher side, Nintendo does a lot more to foster a healthy player community for Pokemon than Konami does for YGO. It shows you where their priorities are as a company.

Magic isn't really affected by this, while it remains a large market for us, there is far less crossover between player bases of other TCGs.

I don't play YGO and don't have any interest in it, but is this something other stores do too? For reference, this place is a nice place to play and had 45 people turn out to their XWing store champs

# ¿ Mar 27, 2016 02:43

canyoneer: Sep 13, 2005; I only have canyoneyes for you

LatwPIAT posted:

The sheer number of women who can relate tales of the many, many times they were made feel unwelcome, belittled, verbally harassed, sexually harassed, sexually assaulted, and raped in nerd spaces points to the fact that there's nothing unbelievable about this woman's story.

https://np.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/3249ff/women_of_reddit_when_did_you_first_notice_that/

Yep. There's a depressing read for you (and in true Reddit style, the top voted comment was written by a dude)

# ¿ Apr 4, 2016 23:43

canyoneer: Sep 13, 2005; I only have canyoneyes for you

Food genital magnate, a Splotter euro

# ¿ Apr 9, 2016 17:34

canyoneer: Sep 13, 2005; I only have canyoneyes for you

homullus posted:

It is interesting. At what point does something you volunteer for become a job that you should be compensated for? They allude to scheduling, certification, and increasing levels of time spent and responsibility, but is that enough to make something a "job" that somebody suddenly owes you money for?

No. Volunteers for pretty much any big event or organization have the same kind of demands on them. Same as if you are a weekend volunteer for a comic convention, church carnival, or if you regularly volunteer at a zoo or animal shelter.

It does get a little weird when you are talking a for profit enterprise, but poor saps do the same thing volunteering at McDojo martial arts schools just for the fun of it.

# ¿ Apr 21, 2016 22:07

canyoneer: Sep 13, 2005; I only have canyoneyes for you

Alien Rope Burn posted:

The fact that there are people lined up to work for nothing, of course, leads to this troubling standard.

Uh, yup. Consider NFL cheerleaders, where they have people lined up to work for almost-nothing. It's absolutely a prestige thing.
http://www.ibtimes.com/super-bowl-2015-nfl-cheerleader-pay-surprisingly-low-fuels-ongoing-wage-debate-1800684

I am way more sympathetic to grad students or college athletes getting paid like employees than volunteer MtG judges (lol)

# ¿ Apr 21, 2016 23:42

canyoneer: Sep 13, 2005; I only have canyoneyes for you

Terrible Opinions posted:

It proves that there isn't any virtue in making something to specifically piss off your established fans. There is only virtue in making a good loving game. Otherwise you go full Age of Sigmar or Windows 8.

I agree. Full-screen only solitaire in Windows 8 was garbage

# ¿ Apr 28, 2016 23:31

canyoneer: Sep 13, 2005; I only have canyoneyes for you

It's cool and weird for me me to think that there are people who have been playing Warhammer for 30 years and MTG for 20 years.

# ¿ Apr 29, 2016 21:13

canyoneer: Sep 13, 2005; I only have canyoneyes for you

Let's be fair to Civ 5. No religion wasn't even in the top 20 biggest problems with Civ 5s release. It did turn into a great game 2 expansions later

# ¿ Apr 30, 2016 03:28

canyoneer: Sep 13, 2005; I only have canyoneyes for you

My local store runs a business blog, and they are also a PokeGym in the Pokemon Go! app.

The dude is already seeing increased traffic from Pokemon Go players, and he's optimistic that it will add to their already healthy Pokemon category sales.

I wonder if other stores are seeing the same.

# ¿ Jul 12, 2016 22:28

canyoneer: Sep 13, 2005; I only have canyoneyes for you

http://www.thepaincomics.com/weekly010905a.htm
Relevant comic

# ¿ Jul 16, 2016 20:46

canyoneer: Sep 13, 2005; I only have canyoneyes for you

Serf posted:

Remember the time when Han shoots that stormtrooper with the blaster that did 3 damage instead of 2 because it had that barrel mod?

Me neither.

"Highly customized weapons and equipment" seems to fit the theme of everyone in Star Wars who isn't using military issued stuff.
I mean, Luke Skywalker uses the Rebellion's BYOD(roid) policy to hook up R2-D2 into his X-Wing.

# ¿ Sep 7, 2016 21:19

canyoneer: Sep 13, 2005; I only have canyoneyes for you

Moderators within a subreddit have all the power and tools to be effective.

The biggest problem is that overall site moderation is unwilling to do anything about disgusting or abusive subreddits, and there is little recourse against an abusive user besides banning them from one specific subreddit

# ¿ Nov 5, 2016 18:15

canyoneer: Sep 13, 2005; I only have canyoneyes for you

I thought Conan was better than both Jay Leno and Jimmy Fallon

# ¿ Nov 22, 2016 07:07

canyoneer: Sep 13, 2005; I only have canyoneyes for you

So, thread's sorta falling off, but I thought I'd share something.

My local store runs a business blog that I like reading. Interesting insight into what it takes to run a games store (my key takeaway is do not run a games store).
They just announced that they're expanding from one location to 7 locations. 3 of them were other local stores they were absorbing, and keeping the same staff under new ownership.
Then two weeks later they announce they're closing one of them, due to stupidly high rent and a huge slowing of the comic book category. :stare:

# ¿ Dec 17, 2016 00:46

canyoneer: Sep 13, 2005; I only have canyoneyes for you

PJOmega posted:

From one location to seven is insane for almost any brick & mortar. Much less a hobby shop.

I know, right?

Slow rollout though. The locations are diversified across town (this is in the Phoenix area), and the current store is a top 1% worldwide Magic retailer that does a ton of volume.
The one they're closing is walking distance from student housing inside ASU campus, so it's unsurprising that the lease is expensive and crappy. I went to a single X-Wing event there and I hated it, because the store was tiny and traffic/parking was a zoo (it didn't help that there was a charity marathon around campus that day and an ASU football home game hours later) It's mostly comic books and Magic, so the comic book decline is probably hitting them hard.

The thing I'm most excited for is the 2017 planned 14,000 sq ft location they're opening that's going to add the retro arcade back in and be the largest game store in AZ.
We'll see.

# ¿ Dec 17, 2016 01:09

canyoneer: Sep 13, 2005; I only have canyoneyes for you

Didn't know there were so many Tucson peeps here. I grew up there and I'm there often to see family.

The store in question is Desert Sky Games in Gilbert. They are not opening a Tucson location, but they are opening one in Payson of all places. A huge, staple store (Empire Games in Mesa) closed earlier this year, and left a good opportunity for other stores. Word is that Empire was doing just fine as a store, but the owners were tired of the hobby games retail industry and just wanted to move on to something else. I sorta doubt that but whatever.

There's some poor dude who just opened a game store in Queen Creek that I'm pretty sure is going to disappear quickly. Hardly anyone lives out there, and the guy posts things on the local Facebook Xwing group for X Wing events all the time. At 4PM the guy created an event for a $5 tournament at 6 that night, prize is the (then new) Heroes of the Resistance pack which is $40 MSRP. Then at 8AM the next morning he posted photos of the 3 dudes who went out for the event. :toot:

When I still lived in Tucson (pre 2012), I think the only game store I ever knew about was Game Daze in the mall.
Since then, I have only been to Tucson Games and Gadgets and TBH it was sort of a bad experience. I was browsing killing time while my wife was getting her hair cut. I asked to use the bathroom, and they told me I had to buy something first. So, uhh, they got an $8 sale for a pack of Dragon Shield sleeves and I don't expect I'll ever go back.

# ¿ Dec 17, 2016 07:31

canyoneer: Sep 13, 2005; I only have canyoneyes for you

Dr. Clockwork posted:

Desert Sky isn't opening a bunch of locations entirely, at least half of that was acquiring established stores that were going under and rebranding, as I understand it from talking with the owner on the retailer forums.

Yep, 3 are acquisitions and one is an announced closure two weeks after the acquisition announcement.
All I know is from being in the store and reading the dudes blog.

# ¿ Dec 17, 2016 22:16

canyoneer: Sep 13, 2005; I only have canyoneyes for you

Lightning Lord posted:

This is like saying because the Transformers movies are huge hits that of course the IDW comics have been selling a million copies a month. If the movie is a big hit, we'll see lots of D&D merchandise move like crazy and it WILL boost the game's sales but the Red Box days are forever gone. I think Hasbro should just accept it's a loss leader and something to keep WotC happy and making MtG and just license it out but let Mearls fart around a bunch as long as he's kept away from actual design.

I hope the movie means we'll get more D&D board games and good video games myself

My FLGS says that D&D is a white hot category now, and he attributes that to the repopularization due to Stranger Things on Netflix.
He's buying deep restock as fast as possible and it's selling out within days. Dice, handbooks, mats, miniatures, they're all selling out right away.

# ¿ Mar 31, 2017 17:51

canyoneer: Sep 13, 2005; I only have canyoneyes for you

slap me and kiss me posted:

This is incorrect. When Magic was first released, it was all anyone did at school.

Exactly.

The big barrier they had at first wasn't finding people to play it, it was getting enough product out there for the crazy level of demand. They expected the first printing to last a year, and sold it out within a matter of weeks instead. Then they reprinted, tripling the size of the print run and it sold out just as quickly.

Star Wars Destiny has some parallels there currently, I think.

# ¿ Mar 31, 2017 22:47

canyoneer: Sep 13, 2005; I only have canyoneyes for you

One of the store owners (of The Good Store) locally just griped about a different store (The Crappy Store) in a local facebook group for Star Wars Destiny. In our area, we've got 7 Destiny Store Championships being hosted during the store champs season. Great!

Good Store is great about keeping the calendar updated (in store and online), and also creates Facebook events in the local player groups as reminders. They set their date for the Destiny Store Champs and announced it literally the same day that Fantasy Flight announced the list of the locations hosting the events. I like playing at this store. It's clean, the employees are good, and it's a nice environment.

Crappy Store datestomped them, scheduling their store champs for the same date, 2 weeks after the other one was announced. It seems so stupid. If the dates didn't conflict, each store could have 80-100 players rather than splitting the base and having each of them get 50 players on the same weekend. Setting a different date is better off for everyone, including the players!

I was talking to a friend who is friends with the owner of Good Store (and runs a lot of events for them, because he plays every game ever). He was telling me that he tried years ago to coordinate with Crappy Store to get their calendars pre-aligned so they don't conflict. He said that their owner was completely unwilling to deal, and told him "You guys do what you do, we do what we do. Our player base will come on whatever date we set" :smug:

That store is so, so weird. It's bizarre that it continues to exist. It has been around for 30 years, and has a multigenerational core clique fan base of people who only play games there. And the store has dirt cheap rent in a sorta sketchy part of town, and closes at 7 PM most nights. Same guy told me that the store ownership houserules/bans stuff within the store for people playing there. You'd get asked to run something different (or even kicked out) if you dared use a Twin Laser Turret upgrade in X-Wing.

I am constantly amazed with the crappy and bad business practices that people in hobby retailing are allowed to get away with because there aren't many alternatives.

# ¿ May 15, 2017 17:47

canyoneer: Sep 13, 2005; I only have canyoneyes for you

Comrade Gorbash posted:

It's more that the SCA is actually organized. There's a clear chain of command and they work on small unit tactics. Most of the gun nut militias in the US practice shooting a lot but couldn't organize themselves well enough to build an IKEA end table and spend most of their time arguing about who's in charge. Militaries learned long ago that teaching people to shoot is the easy part, and you're a lot better off with a bunch of people who are good at small unit tactics but are mediocre shots than the other way around.

The modern day version is that an air soft team that had never touched a real firearm before would almost certainly win a battle against a bunch of gun nuts who spent all their time at the range.

That was one of the founding ideas of the Boy Scouts way back in the day, that teaching boys leadership, outdoor skills and how to be comfortable with hard living would prepare them to be tip-top soldiers for the Empire :britain:

.
Then WWI happened and the founder who was brought up in late 19th century warfare decided that wars nowadays kinda suck so let's dial back the military aspects of it

I don't disagree with your assessment that airsoft dorks would be more effective in an engagement than one would expect, but I don't know how well the SCA stuff would translate into effective post-apocalyptic militias because

FMguru posted:

SCA varies greatly by group and by region. Some places are all about the costumes, some are about the fighting, some are keen on the material reenactment (brewing mead and assembling chainmail and pressing their own parchment and hand-binding it), some are about the heraldry and courtly poo poo, and some are really into the feasting and mead and wenching.

That last one shows up a lot. There's more than a few SCA groups which are basically swinger club with a medieval veneer.

the variance.

Also, this airsofter is part of Meal Team 6

# ¿ Jun 19, 2017 22:20

canyoneer: Sep 13, 2005; I only have canyoneyes for you

DivineCoffeeBinge posted:

My only experience with the SCA was a gaming buddy who explained that if any dudes decided to join, they should ignore all the sword fighting bullshit and spend their time learning courtly dance because doing so was basically a guaranteed way to get laid; since the vast majority of the men were off doing practice military poo poo and all the women were on the other side of the site being courtly ladies, the dudes who said 'screw the swordfighting, I'm gonna go over here where the gender ratio is very much more in my favor' were reportedly in high demand.

So that was a thing.

Even if the odds were good, I expect the goods were odd.

My wife's sister and her husband were involved in it for a while. She's the spergiest of costume nerds, and is incredibly talented (as in, makes period replica clothing in museums talented). The better she got at it, the less she wanted to be involved with all the brokebrains SCA people.

She told us about this one chick who was super promiscuous and sexually flirty ~*~*in character~**~, and she had to repeatedly tell her that she's behaving incredibly inappropriately. They moved away a year or two later, and never had to see her again.

Her name was Gypsy Willis, which you might recognize from this incredibly bizarre murder tale!
http://people.com/crime/utah-doctor-trial-mistress-shares-marriage-shocker-in-testimony/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Michele_MacNeill

So, yeah, for all the cool and interesting people involved you get a handful of total creeps along for the ride too, and the cool and interesting people eventually get sick of the weirdos and move on to other hobbies. All their friends from that scene have moved on to other things in the last 15 years

# ¿ Jun 20, 2017 00:24

canyoneer: Sep 13, 2005; I only have canyoneyes for you

inklesspen posted:

Look, if you wanna talk about the logical result of superpunchdudes getting punched, you have to go by the established yet bizarre constraints on superpunchdudes. Otherwise we are here all day trying to establish why the gently caress a chunk of a dead planet can hurt the dude who was born on that planet, and also how it even survived atmospheric re-entry.

A wizard did it

# ¿ Jun 30, 2017 23:30

canyoneer: Sep 13, 2005; I only have canyoneyes for you

I've always liked the comparison to anime as a genre to metal as a music genre.
There's a couple dozen different subsets that nerds put on these giant flowcharts. I don't think this is a green eggs and ham situation where someone who says they don't like anime or metal just needs to be introduced to the RIGHT subgenre in order to enjoy or appreciate it.

It's OK to not like things.

# ¿ Jul 12, 2017 23:04

canyoneer: Sep 13, 2005; I only have canyoneyes for you

I rolled all 1s on my character sheet and got drafted to the Cleveland Browns

# ¿ Jul 13, 2017 07:37

canyoneer: Sep 13, 2005; I only have canyoneyes for you

Haha, grogwhistling. I love that.

# ¿ Sep 13, 2017 21:18

canyoneer: Sep 13, 2005; I only have canyoneyes for you

http://www.cc.com/video-clips/2xhvj0/key-and-peele-tyrell-plays-d-d

Key and Peele playing D&D with Vin Diesel (the only one taking it super seriously) would be alright

# ¿ Sep 15, 2017 04:09

canyoneer: Sep 13, 2005; I only have canyoneyes for you

Arivia posted:

What about videos where Super Mario recruits you for Hezbollah?

I haven't found that hat yet in Odyssey.

BENGHAZI 2 posted:

HR and legal are also off on the Saturday immediately after Thanksgiving is the thing

Also they've said there's going to be stuff coming later today

Here it is.
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/news/taking-action-harassment-and-bullying-2017-11-28

quote:

We are incredibly proud of the Magic community and the tremendous good it does in people's lives. Magic is a game meant to bring people together�it's right there in the name "The Gathering." Our community is filled with stories of lifelong friendships and bonds forged through tapping lands, casting spells, and swinging in with everything for the win.

Sadly, that sense of community can be spoiled by the behavior of a few individuals. We at Wizards of the Coast are disheartened about bullying and harassment in the gaming community; unfortunately, the Magic community is not immune. No one should be subjected to threats and intimidation. No one should be made to feel unsafe or unwelcome while enjoying something they love. All people should be able to express their joy for the game without being attacked, whether that's in a local game store, online, or somewhere in between.

We diligently promote inclusivity and openness within our community. We're listening to your feedback and working to ensure everyone who plays Magic feels welcomed and accepted.

WHAT WE'RE DOING RIGHT NOW
We are investigating reports we've received as quickly as possible. We know you'd like us to act faster and to share more information with you about this process, but we simply can't. What we can tell you is that we take violations of our Code of Conduct very seriously, and violations can result in removal from organized play, the Wizards Play Network, and all Wizards accounts.

We are reviewing and updating our policies and reporting processes for Code of Conduct violations. We recognize that it is time to carefully reconsider how we work with retailers, tournament organizers, players, and community members to deal with harassment and bullying�online and offline. We have been working on this, but we will work faster. Expect announcements and explanations over the next few months about policies that we hope are clearer and processes that are easier to access and resolve issues more quickly.

We are going to be more proactive about setting expectations for behavior at Magic events and in all Magic spaces. Some of you may have taken a survey recently about what makes you feel comfortable and included at Magic events and what doesn't. That is part of a project we've been working on that will clearly express how players, retailers, tournament organizers, and us here at Wizards expect each other to behave anywhere people are enjoying Magic. Think language and visuals at premier events, stores, and wherever you play Magic that are clear reminders of the respect we expect all players to be treated with. We're shooting to get that out there by the time you're playing Rivals of Ixalan.

These are first steps. We want to be leaders in the gaming community on this issue and will continue to figure out ways we can help tackle the problem.

WHAT WE CAN ALL DO
We all have a hand in maintaining our community, and it's going to take a concerted effort from everyone to ensure ours is a community we can continue to be proud of. Here are some things we can all be doing when we encounter abusive behaviors online or in person:

Report harassment and abuse to the channels you see it on. YouTube, Twitch, Twitter, Reddit, Instagram, Tumblr, and Facebook all have pages detailing how you can make their environments safer by reporting abusive behavior directly to their administrators.

If you experience or witness harassment or bullying within the Magic community online or at an event, report it to Wizards of the Coast. Many of these kinds of behaviors violate Wizards' Code of Conduct, and could merit suspension, account termination, or other disciplinary actions. Depending on the venue, there are several ways you should go about reporting any harassment or abusive behavior.

If you witness harassment or bullying at a Magic tournament, report that behavior to the tournament organizer. If you're uncomfortable reporting it to a tournament organizer, you can always contact Wizards.
If you witness harassment or bullying on Magic Online, or otherwise observe a violation of the Magic Online Code of Conduct, you can right-click on the player's username and select Block. Doing so will prevent that player from talking to you, but will also prompt you to leave a report within the Magic Online client for our conduct team to review. If you forget or want to leave a report after the fact, you can do so by contacting Customer Support.
And of course, you can always email investigations@wizards.com or contact Customer Support directly to report any violations of our Code of Conduct.
Sometimes, insults and abusive speech can escalate into more serious forms of harassment and bullying. If you receive threats or feel unsafe in any situation, report it to your local enforcement agency.

People who have audiences of thousands or hundreds of thousands of fans have a responsibility for the content they create. Words matter, and audiences matter. Going forward, we're going to pay special consideration to those who use their platforms in ways that make a positive impact.

The culture of harassment and bullying in the gaming world has to end. We are all in this together, and everyone here at Wizards of the Coast wants gaming to be a welcoming, inclusive, fun space for people to explore, make new friends, and, yes, gather. Look for more from us on this topic in the coming months. If you have ideas on how we can better make that a reality, let us know. You know where to find us on Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, and Instagram.

# ¿ Nov 29, 2017 05:01

canyoneer: Sep 13, 2005; I only have canyoneyes for you

Nuns with Guns posted:

MTGHeadquarters/Unsleeved Media ate a lifetime DCI ban with no chance to appeal.

Awesome. Can't even go to DCI events as a "reporter" now, right?

# ¿ Dec 8, 2017 21:56

canyoneer: Sep 13, 2005; I only have canyoneyes for you

First they came for Puerto Rico, and I did not speak up because I did not own Puerto Rico but I quietly removed Darkies in the Melon Patch from my trade list wanted section.

# ¿ Dec 31, 2017 01:53

canyoneer: Sep 13, 2005; I only have canyoneyes for you

So at the end of Monopoly, placing the winning token in a miniature guillotine is intuitive enough for the dog token or boot, but I really am not sure how to position the iron or battleship

# ¿ Dec 31, 2017 06:04

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# ¿ May 12, 2024 00:35

canyoneer: Sep 13, 2005; I only have canyoneyes for you

So I read the article linked a while ago with the Asmodee interview about counterfeiting. It was really surprising, I assumed that the hobby I like wouldn't have the volume or price conditions that would lead to counterfeiting. But the way they described it makes sense, because they can probe the market preemptively through Amazon marketplace and do some easy market research and minimize their own risk. Pretty clever.

I also read the article about pricing.
https://icv2.com/articles/news/view/39126/icv2-interview-asmodee-execs-new-distribution-policies

It was pretty interesting. I deal with pricing analysis in my day job (very different industry), but the messages there make sense. It seems the strategy is that they want their games being sold primarily through the independent game store channel. The objective seems to be to increase the store margins. With the flood of games being released each year, it makes sense that they'd want to make sure that their products have an edge to get on a retailer's shelves.

# ¿ Feb 12, 2018 05:40

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Traditional Games > TG As An Industry - Past, Present, Future