XLBS: Game Design, R.I.P Harold Ramis & Movie Chat!
March 2, 2014 by dignity
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@lloyd mate, you are a legend, definitely having you invited to my funeral lol. Also liking the sound of this epic moments gaming, fair more refreshing than playing power gamers and people who are more interested in whether a game is balanced. Certainly one marine in the midst of a whole group of necrons is far from balanced, but seeing him succeed against the odds is what made it great.
I have always had a thing for plasma weapons, I still laugh everytime time one of my models dies in a ball of plasma from his own gun!
Number one rule of army selection: If the model looks cool, it’s in the army. I may lose a lot of games but by god I look swish while doing it.
Great show guys, no better way of kicking off a Sunday morning.
Great weekender Why not do a Robocop board game/ card game where Robocop is the ‘villain’. Who says you have to play the good guy? 2-6 players play criminals doing bad stuff, have to strike the balance of committing crimes and avoid being caught by the law, the more they do the more likely Robocop is going to show up, so either try to amass enough victory points (be it cash or whatever) to win, or get enough guns/tech/henchmen (or team up with other players) to be able to have a chance against fighting Robocop, or screw over the other… Read more »
Id hate to have Robocop blow my balls off if I was playing that game you described.
All my armies in any game have always been picked by what figures I like, can’t stand power gaming. I have two favourite moments in gaming one only happened last week in my first game of Bolt action. I advanced out of cover with a piat team and rolled two sixes to blow up a puma. They got completely destroyed the next turn but what a cool moment, can’t even remember if I won the game but remember that moment. Other is when my 9 year old son destroyed me 7-0 in three turns on Dreadball. It was the first… Read more »
Thanks for starting my Sunday off right.. 😉
I have no issue with any reboot as long it’s done well. Speaking of which, I want what Lloyd is smoking lol. The original Robocop movie is truly great. The remake is a bland, ball-less, soulless, piece of film-making. The original had verve and imagination which is completely missing from the re-make. In 25 years time, no-one is going to remember the re-make like the original is remembered now.
Now to disagree with Warren lol. Within five miles of me there are five gaming clubs that meet every week with a large attendance. I have no local game stores. There’s a Travelling Man in the city centre which gives over a few shelves to mini-gaming, a store 20 miles away that carries very little stock, and a one 45 miles away that also has very little stock and primarily runs the business online. Gaming clubs are the lifeblood of our hobby, LGS’s can duplicate this, but they’re not necessary.
And to bring out the implication of that. I buy almost exclusively online. Mainly because I have to. Since I switched to buying online, the amount and the diversity of the games I buy has exploded in a way that never could have happened if I’d been tied to a LGS. The increasing diversity of mini-gaming requires an online model, rather than being stifled by it.
There is no easy answer to this unfortunately.
I too see the role of clubs dramatically increasing over the years.
It isn’t the case that the gaming clubs have replaced the LGSs in my local area. We’ve never had them. The situation I describe is the healthiest it’s ever been in terms of LGSs in my region. We’ve always had a strong presence in terms of GW stores. Our first opened in 1982 (I’m old!) and I’ve got four within 7 miles of me now. But those stores obviously only create and service demand for GW games. Without the diversity of the market that the internet has brought, we’d never have expanded outside that. The local TM, which is literally… Read more »
Should check out warboar gaming in Bromley, stocks just about everything. You played the owner at the drop zone commander tournament @warzan
Will do, though I’ll have to order online lol
I really like the sound of this except I live in the US, where gaming clubs are extremely rare. The LGS is the lifeblood of recruitment here. Clubs are really hard to find (mostly because there aren’t many places for clubs to meet, but also because there’s a cultural expectation that play should be free – people don’t want to pay dues). I think it’s crap myself. I like the idea of a club much more than the idea of meeting at the LGS all the time, but that’s just what it is out here. I’m lucky that there are… Read more »
My feeling is that if the ecosystem changes, and I think that’s still a big if at this stage, then what we’ll get is a concentration of gaming stores into fewer, larger companies. Much as what happened with supermarkets in the 80s, albeit on a much smaller scale.
I can’t imagine why any company would open brick & mortar retail franchises when they could just do online sales. For a manufacturer it makes sense because stores are a form of recruitment, but for an independent retailer the economies of scale just clearly favor online (as you’ve learned firsthand). This isn’t similar to supermarkets because it’s a niche market, and minis don’t spoil in transit like vegetables. Supermarkets consolidated because the stores themselves were still needed. The LGS can simply disappear, and be replaced by Wayland, The War Store, Miniature Market and all the other online retailers with better… Read more »
I didn’t mean to imply they would be B&M. Rather that they would be online. It wouldn’t work any other way.
Wayland has tabletop nation…
I agree. I think gaming clubs work better to socialize and promote actually playing games than independent store do. In my surroundings I see stores work very well for quick games like Magic, but they don’t work so well for time and space consuming wargames. The difficulty in forming a group is finding a large enough group of players playing the same games and of course finding a space to play. Perhaps to combine the two, stores having space and clubs having members, we should think about a new formula. Something like event centers where people can meet, perhaps rent… Read more »
Where I can I always support my FLGS, even to the extent that I’ll pay a few quid extra to get it from them rather than online. That could also be my childlike impatience though 😉
Thats a good thing, to many people sitting behind their desk buying online, just because its cheap for you, it doesn’t mean its good for the industry. I’d rather go and buy from a shop and have a social experience as well as getting some nice kit.
Aren’t most of the online retailers also bricks & mortar stores?
@Warzan – remember that sometimes to much special effects is just way to much and can ruin a movie (like Jar Jar BINKS). Special effects should only be an add on to the movie, not the main and only feature.
Oh, and any info about the Inheritance?
I think a google hangout on that could be a great thing, to see where we are with it and where we go next.
What say you?
I say yes.
I still see your faces, in my memory, when you were talking about it on the Weekenders and the joy in your eyes was so easy to see.
Agreed, I want time manipulation added to 40k!!
On playing to win, I’m wary of throwing the baby out with the bathwater. If the only purpose of playing is to win, then our hobby wouldn’t be much fun, but playing to win should be always be a part of the hobby.
Correct, I think our stance is more about how the ‘journey’ to that result, is more important than the result itself 🙂
Amen brother, preach it!
Hi Warren, if you want improv? You need to look up stargrunt II. trust me. Available for free download. There are even improv 40k variants for it. I hope you enjoy.
I agree completely, the most important thing to me is how good my army looks, regardless of how effective it is. For instance I’ve just started building a Tyranid army that will have no guns of any sort and just scythes and other close combat weapons, some will say I’ll just get shot to pieces, but I don’t care, as how good will it look with an entire swarm of nids charging across the battlefield, like warren said it’s the cinematic moments you remember and how much fun you had.
Agree with redben, the key is definitely balance between the drive to win and all the other things that make gaming cool. When I play a game I want to win, but that’s not all I want out of the encounter. It’s about winning using that really cool mini I’ve just bought, or bringing the game back from the brink etc, rather than winning because I’ve worked out some optimised army list. Best game I ever played was with a guy I played regularly, him always fielding gobbos and me always fielding vampire counts. Neither of our armies worked very… Read more »
Sorry lads, couldn’t finish watching the XLBS this week, you lost me in the first five minutes. Having trouble dealing with death at the moment, my Dad died in my arms after falling off his roof at home, and Ghost Busters was on of the first films he took me and my brother to. It happened 6 months ago, but as I am a trained intensive care and accident and emergency nurse it really sucks ass I couldn’t save my own father. Haven’t got the stomach to watch people talk about death at the moment.
So so sorry to hear that mate 🙁
Caught me with my downguard as well. I lost my mother last Monday.
Guard down I meant
We all have someone close that passes away. Don’t beat yourself over it as the guys reminisce Harold Remus. @mattgro I hope and know you’ll overcome the grieving of your dad. I myself lost my dad a few years ago to cancer and even now I look at his picture and think of him. You’ll learn to move on and see your not to blame for his death no matter how trained you are in your profession. I really feel for you.
@warzan cant seem to load, anyone else having trouble?
Yep, the video froze and went green, lol! Try refreshing the page or turning the browser off and on again. 😀
@warzan I felt the same too when John Candy died; he and his movies have a special place in my childhood, just like with Ramis and Ghostbusters. They played a big part in our growing up – like with you and @lloyd, I and my sister grew up with referencing all the funny quotes. I suppose what’s great, is that they still live on in those movies and we’ll always have them to revisit whenever we want. Unless Judgement Day happens, with human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together, mass hysteria! 😀 If there was a continuation of the movies… Read more »
Honestly, I think the reason that John Candy’s death hit me harder is because it felt so much more tragic. He made so many truly brilliant and sometimes very moving films that really highlighted his talent and emotional power. So many of his films established a strong emotional connection between his character and the audience (Planes, Trains & Automobiles, Only the Lonely, even Uncle Buck to a certain extent). He was very often the most human character in his films, the emotional keystone that the audience had to connect to. You felt something for him, a lot. Ramis’s roles rarely… Read more »
I actually met John Candy a few times as he went to the same high school as me. He would pop into the class every now and then when he was in Toronto. The entire school was shaken when his mother called his teacher about the sad news. We where some of the first people to know of his death. Really wish I had met Harold Remus as well as he was a very talented writer.
One the most epic moments playing 40K was back during 3rd edition playing in a tournament when my vindicare assassin armed with an exitus rifle turbo penned a land raider completely destroying it! That move was the talk of the tournament over shadowing even who won the tournament!
Apart from the great stories to tell the best bit of gaming for fun is that you’re never short of an opponent. Simple as that, People want to play you.
I have always built my models with what looks really cool to me or how does it fit into my theme I have for them. I may not win but my army looks damn good while loosing 😛
It was so refreshing to hear some of the points of view on there. It all comes down to enjoying the hobby and its those moments you remember. Take the hobby back for the enjoyment of it again enjoying each aspect building, converting, painting and playing with a model that looks great and you have a bit of pride in. It doesn’t matter who is the winner or who is the loser if there were epic moments you enjoyed in the journey!
I have to say, ive moved away from 40k myself to fantasy (seen as GW is all i can play, despite me having 2 full warmahordes to play, lack of opponents is my issue), but watching the BoW how-to-play 40k with darrel and @warzan was what helped get me back into the hobby. Coverage of a game system i already spend too much money on rather than things i wish i could spend money on is great, I cant wait until it starts. And yes, go for a marine army, this is a ‘getting back into 40k’, which is to… Read more »
Is there any way you might consider using something other than flowplayer. I am so tired of the green screen screw up everytime i sit to watch XLBS. I have to refresh the page several times every time i try to watch it.
Not my idea of a relaxing Sunday morning, sorry guys. Stopped watching it at 21.23 after my 2nd or 3rd greenscreen, so no idea what the rest of this XLBS is about.
That’s a pain in the Arse!, lets see if we can introduce a download link or something to give another option.
Download link would be great for me. Have a slow connection here but love watching in HD. I don’t have any problems with the current player but tend to pause and buffer a load then start watching.
Can be a pain if I rewind a bit then have to wait for it to buffer again 🙂
Can you see if you can find a solution for it to work on Android? its a bit frustrating to have the backstage content inaccessible on the tablet.
That is appreciated. Thx Warren.
I can’t agree more on the prospect of the journey over the win. I win a few times, but mainly I lose. I lose A LOT. I play lots of games and everyone at my FLGS knows me as the dude who just loses but I have fun doing it, and that’s the key. Those moments where my battered and weathered German Soldiers manage to hold off waves of Russians as they poured over the careful defences and fought off my ambushes I had lain in place only to fight to a grinding draw. The foolish Chaos Space Marine Raptor… Read more »
I’ve done a fair bit of competetive sports and after a while it becomes pretty obvious which people like the game and which people just like to win.
Game design is an art, there are in the field two schools of thought. One focuses on providing tools to the players and help them create their own playing experience and the other focuses in giving the players a complete system to play with, or if you prefer it in other words playing experience . The first one as you mentioned is indeed close to role-playing games, but as the role-playing games themselves it has a deeper root to us playing games as children, they are a set of rules that all participants in the game agree with, can be… Read more »
I’d kinda like to get back to that whole, ‘quest for epicness’ thing again. – Dreadball and Deadzone are pretty great at doing that. My problem with 40k though, was eventually I just got fed up of getting, well, battered in a game. Eventually the epic moments for me, which I did have a few of (one very similar to Warrens example, except it was my Assault marine dude eking out a draw…), were just completely overshadowed by games where GW staffers turned up at the club to play with his 5 Demon Princes list and wiped out my Blood… Read more »