Weekender XLBS: What Could Be The Next Thirty Year Game?
July 9, 2017 by warzan
For some website features, you will need a FREE account and for some others, you will need to join the Cult of Games.
Or if you have already joined the Cult of Games Log in now
What difference will having a FREE account make?
Setting up a Free account with OnTableTop unlocks a load of additional features and content (see below). You can then get involved with our Tabletop Gaming community, we are very helpful and keen to hear what you have to say. So Join Us Now!
Free Account Includes
- Creating your own project blogs.
- Rating and reviewing games using our innovative system.
- Commenting and ability to upvote.
- Posting in the forums.
- Unlocking of Achivments and collectin hobby xp
- Ability to add places like clubs and stores to our gaming database.
- Follow games, recommend games, use wishlist and mark what games you own.
- You will be able to add friends to your account.
What's the Cult of Games?
Once you have made a free account you can support the community by joing the Cult of Games. Joining the Cult allows you to use even more parts of the site and access to extra content. Check out some of the extra features below.
Cult of Games Membership Includes
- Reduced ads, for a better browsing experience (feature can be turned on or off in your profile).
- Access to The Cult of Games XLBS Sunday Show.
- Extra hobby videos about painting, terrain building etc.
- Exclusive interviews with the best game designers etc.
- Behind the scenes studio VLogs.
- Access to our live stream archives.
- Early access to our event tickets.
- Access to the CoG Greenroom.
- Access to the CoG Chamber of Commerce.
- Access the CoG Bazarr Trading Forum.
- Create and Edit Records for Games, Companies and Professionals.
Supported by (Turn Off)
Supported by (Turn Off)
Supported by (Turn Off)
Happy Sunday!!
“40k is currently sucking the air out of the room” puts it very nicely. It’s 8-ed surge is currently ruining my hobby, but I know it’ll slowly die back to normal levels I’m more worried by the short term distortion to ‘normal’ market activity. The increased spend going into GW coffers will be both new money that would otherwise be spent on different luxury products, but a significant amount will be from within the tabletop game market; that means from the smaller, niche, studio games companies struggling to establish in the marketplace. I can see some roadkill being left in… Read more »
How is it ruining you’re hobby? It’s getting a lot of air time but it’s had zero impact on my hobby beyond that.
When my local club was 90% 40k or related and my FLGS Malifaux group have all been tempted away for the last few weeks it’s definitely sucked the air out of my non-40k room; although the balance may already be returning with plans this week…
Happy Sunday guys looking forward to looking through! I am going to a bit busy catching up with the videos ha ha so it may take awhile.
Alright, next thirty-year game. It’s not out yet. I am not saying that there is one in development that I know about, what I am saying is it isn’t out yet. We are reaching a threshold of things making a huge change, self-driving cars that is enough to completely change society. I think maybe the next big thing will be an adult version of skylanders, something where you have a base model, and you digitally paint it, they all come plain and then you do that you battle people at home or at a store and stuff is projected over… Read more »
I gotta disagree with you here dude. I think the next 30 year game is Warmachine. It’s already 14 years old and is one of the most popular tabletop wargames. I can see it doing another 16 years, no worries.
It may but remember I am looking from an Australian perspective and things for Warmachine have gone down a huge amount here for Warmachine, very few stores continue to stock it, it has gone under big time here.
Happy Sunday, everyone.
Aging games: PanzerBlitz, Panzer Leader, Arab-Israeli Wars still have multiple dedicated websites that support them, active communities, “dining room publishers” supporting them etc. The first iterations of Jim Dunnigan’s PanzerBlitz came out in 1969, so it’s coming up on 50 years. 😀
I’ve got Panzer Blitz and Leader as well as all of the Squad leader range …. still love that game.
ASL is definitely another great one. 32 years and still going strong. Talk about longevity! 😀
Happy Sunday!
Happy Sunday! And yay Buck Rogers! We used to play it when it first came out, I can’t remember much about it how it played now but it was a lot of fun.
happy sunday!
I can’t help it I have to ask! Did Justin went to Egersund, Norway recently? Apparently someone destroyed the local Trollpikken. 😀
he should be put on a watch list 😉
Happy Sunday, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century! that is a fantastic find, never played it but I was a big fan as a kid and even had a costume when I was a kid….. there’s an image for people o.O 3 great golden button winners and Dug especially, it’s great to see a regular contributor being recognised for the journey they’ve gone on. 🙂 Longevity in games is an interesting one, there are quite a lot of games out there when you go looking for them that are just as old. There are a couple of reasons games survive… Read more »
The other big escape room game at the moment is Unlock. It’s by the same company who do Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective (to which I third the recommendation, unless you prefer a more Lovecraft setting in which case go with Mythos Tales). They also do T.I.M.E. Stories, which is a co-op game I’ve recommended this before and do so again. Speaking of Lovecraft, co-op games, and apps, Mansions of Madness 2e is wonderfully atmospheric experience. Dead of Winter is another excellent co-op game.
I think I played the Back Rogers game but don’t remember too much about it. The TPG TSR did was good fun as well Why has 40k lasted? I would say shops on the high street. I think there are many other games. DBA, Command Decision,General Quarters for RPG’s Traveller and Runequest are still going strong. Though not quite as old Warmaster and Epic still have a huge following. It would be interesting for any if these games of how many people who played them 30 years ago are still playing them now and are companies relying on a constant… Read more »
For longevity it’s about the fans and the lore. Lord of the rings is over 15 years old and still has a loyal following. The community makes a game for me and a game with a good solid ip that is easy to digest attracts a good group of people. A solid ip allows a company to focus less on background and more on the game and also lets them retain people even without releases. GW didn’t really release anything for LOTR between 2008 – 2012 and while they didn’t build a huge fanbase they more or less retained the… Read more »
I have that Buck Rogers game, I always wanted it when I was a teenager but didn’t get it until about 5 years ago. I also have several Dungeons & Dragons board games by TSR.
I won’t mention my D&D collection 😉
Both D&D and Magic were massive successes straight out of the gate. There was no slow burn for those games. Both games sold out of their initial print runs almost instantly. Magic in particular struggled to keep product in print whilst WotC grew to match the demand. 40K was launched into an already successful market for GW which had been growing rapidly for the previous few years on the back of its Warhammer Fantasy range.
Magic is the first collectable card game. It has no predecessors. Richard Garfield took the trading card distribution model and added a game to it. D&D has more of a context and grew out of the likes of Braunstein. In fact, Gygax was concerned that if they couldn’t raise the money to take D&D to print quickly, then they’d be scooped by another company. But it was the first recognisable rpg and it did innovate that market.
I think I should clarify that I’m specifically talking about games that are still generating significant revenue and even continued growth.
Otherwise the list will get very long 🙂
Could you define significant revenue?…For some games rules that still sell that could mean a few thousands profit every year
At least generating millions of $$$ in revenue every year, if not tens of millions.
Correct
Having been 10 when 40k first appeared and remember those days fondly, I think a lot of the longevity of the game/brand is because of a few elements. Dedicated stores are of course the main reason, targeting high streets with a vaguely affordable kid friendly product. Nostalgia from1st generation fans introducing their offspring to the game(s) of their youth. Constantly refreshing the line and innovation in new production methods which makes the core product a higher quality. The cross platform licensing also helps, computer games based on popular IP’s have the effect of drawing people to and back to the… Read more »
Is profit though the only marker though. Take DBA for example. It’s now in its 3rd edition after 25+ years the rulebook is £20 and that’s all you need ever buy as the army lists are included and after all these years it’s still being played and enjoyed by many 100’s if not maybe thousands of players around the world. I doubt if the writers have made millions out if it but you can’t argue about its longevity and influence in gaming
Yes, because this is about the ability of a product to generate large revenues over a long period of time. Generating large revenues over a short period time, or generating small amounts of revenue over a longer period of time are both much easier to do. It’s also a lot easier to stay in production for a long period of time if you require small amounts of revenue to sustain that. If a ruleset can be done by one guy, then it need never fall out of print. We could certainly ask why it is that DBA has been able… Read more »
Magic: The Gathering is an interesting example as it was almost designed by accident. Richard Garfield was trying to sell Rob Rally to Wizards of the Coast but they said it needed more work and agreed to take it as long as Garfield could come up with a game they could start making quickly, that game was Magic.
They didn’t do RoboRally because they couldn’t afford it. So they asked Richard for something that was cheaper, as well as quick and portable, that people could take to cons and play in the downtime between rpg sessions as a side game. Some side game it turned out to be lol, plus it turned out to be every bit as expensive as RoboRally to boot!
Happy Sunday guys, I wholeheartedly believe in the format you guys put together for the recent hobby night. I feel it’s not only a great platform for the community but also for you guys too. Warren there is nothing wrong with being a host and cracking the whip over the guys as they hobby, as I know your painting days are now behind you and in front of John 🙂 I think Ben needs some sort of visual interrupter maybe a red bat phone or a flashing red siren as he struggled to get in on the conversation a few… Read more »
Inner angry Ben – I like the sound of that @noyjatat ;D
Another great thought provoking show. Longevity of games comes from several things. 40K had great miniatures. GW has continued to stay at the top of the miniature market and so that remained a constant. It had a great story that was different in that it was not a Hollywood ending,the universe was familiar enough and yet unique and the heroes weren’t obvious or ‘clean’. The scale of the universe allowed you carve out your own story in the ‘grim dark’. MTG, D&D and 40K have all stumbled with their rules or flooded the market new releases until their client base… Read more »
A good Sunday morning. i also a fan of the Lost Fleet series and what makes it interesting with the battles is the author Jack Campbell real name John G Hemry is a retired US Navel officer so I can see some of naval knowledge being translated to these excellent books. I know this is not a card game but a game by CMON called Gekido:Bot Battles. Small modular board and the figures are fairly chunky and prepainted/coloured plastic with a fun theme and also another game for you and your wife SAGRADA a dice game by Floodgate games. the… Read more »
Also forgot to mention, head wasn’t attached today I would be trouble. An older book series by another American Author who I think lives in Eire called Harry Harrison well know for the Stainless Steel Rats books wrote a trilogy in 1980 called To The Stars and in the third or second book rail guns are mentioned that these battles the ships are hundreds maybe thousands of miles from each other firing these lumps of metal no lasers or fast Star Wars ship maneuvers but slow Battleship style maneuverabilty.
Sadly Harry died about 5 years ago. Still have first edition Stainless Steel rat book signed by him when he attended a sci-fi con in Belfast.His Deathworld series are really good as well
Didn’t realize that he pasted away. And yes the DeathWorld trilogy is excellent. I know this trilogy is a big favorite in Russia and some sci-fi authors their have carried on the trilogy with HH’s permission and I think know that there maybe six book in the series.
Lost fleet is an amazing series. Read all 15 books far to quickly for my liking (3 months). Love the tactics and the feel of being a real navy book in space. Great twists and like the timings of the book and the real world targeting issues when moving very fast. Will need to go back in 5 or so years and read again.
Great to hear the plug for it it’s awesome, everyone should read them!
Happy Sunday 🙂 Another great Weekender! I enjoyed Warren’s retelling of the family’s jaunt through the My Little Pony RPG – you can’t put a price on that kind of family interaction, was very heart warming. One thing about WH40K’s longevity… It’s what Ben was touching on – it was the first game to do mass battle sci fi fantasy on the tabletop, and it has a complete universe to support it, much like Star Wars. It has a six sided dice mechanic, space elves, space orcs, and space hero’s – Space Marines. Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson started the… Read more »
Wasn’t BattleTech was doing mass sci-fi battles on the tabletop before 40K? I suspect @oriskany can comment on this 🙂
Superfluous ‘was’ there lol
Not entirely sure I would call Battle-tech “mass” battles, but then again you could argue that neither was Warhammer 40,000 in the Rogue Trader era.
I can see X-Wing being the next 30 year game. They’re running out of ships, but there’s a lot of money to be made from new cards and power-creep. Pre-paints + Star Wars is a definite winner.
Will be interesting to see if that proves to be true. GW have stayed away from pre-paints because they believe they are toys rather than hobby products, and as such don’t have longevity.
I agree with them up to a point (though these hobby products are also toys).
I enjoy the the painting as much, if not more as playing, but those of us that do are a little unusual (old-fashioned even) in that respect. I think as the hobby expands, it’ll be the prepaints that bring in the the overwhelming majority of the new blood.
As you say: interesting. I’m no stranger to being wrong 🙂
I don’t think we’re as unusual as you think 🙂 In fact enjoyment of building and painting is one of the things that I think keeps people going back to Games Workshop
Warmachine has a 9 year start on X-wing and I think it has potential to last the distance. I love the X-wing game but I’m not entirely sure it’s a 30 year game. There’s a part of me that kind of agrees with GW’s assessment that the pre-paints don’t generate the level of investment from me as a player that unpainted models do.
@warzan I’m with you, stamp the rabbit, cook it and share it with your friends. MMM delicious.
About Elektronic games: There several worlds that are going for years. I started playing the first Halo about 10 years ago and it is still going and I am sure that there are several others. And new technologies can help keep it alive longer because the developers can achieve more.
About the longevity of games: I think there are several factors that do there part.
The rules and game play for one. But also background and story.
Longevity? D&D and Warhammer due to being one of the first. There were rules for sci-fi/fantasy but these were based on old-school historical games that uses pages of charts meaning slow gameplay. WH changed all that with its simple, to hit/kill/save mechanism and so become huge, the constant releases of excellent mini’s mean it stayed that way. With the internet came the competition now able to show their games to a world-wide audience and cut into GW player-base, hense the re-invention of WH, fantasy and 40K to keep their players and to recruit more, and they have done a bloody… Read more »