by Yep, it’s #TuesdayNewsday and here’s what you should care about in wargaming this week >>>
This Week’s Headline: GAMA Follies
Wow, where to begin. We’re not going to try to speculate on what’s happened behind the scenes, but just the public-facing events and communiques over the past 2 weeks have given us (in rough chronological order):
- GAMA furloughs some of their staff at the office in Columbus (now down to 4 people)
- A variety of public statements from participants in Origins Online saying they are pulling out of the show, with references to GAMA’s lack of a stance on the protests following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis (note for context: a bunch of game companies are based in Minneapolis, where Floyd was killed, and some of the largest protests were in Columbus, literally on the street where the GAMA offices are)
- A number of other participants in Origins Online – OTV hosts, panel moderators and participants, celebrity guests – pull out in support of those who had already distanced themselves from GAMA (this Twitter thread links to a lot of people in the last 2 categories, in one place)
- GAMA’s communication director quits (and neither GAMA or Origins Twitter feeds have been updated since)
- GAMA pulls the plug on Origins Online
- GAMA gets criticized for their statement canceling Origins Online by a major voice in the business
- Several prominent game industry personalities make public statements in support of those who had pulled out of the show, or the litany of other issues within the industry that have bubbled up afterwards
- GAMA cancels Origins in October (interestingly, O2020 merch is still available)
- Several candidates for regularly-scheduled GAMA board elections withdraw their candidacy (note, the elections themselves had been scheduled for over a year, and were unrelated to the other events. Also, a board member did recently resign, but it was because he started a new position in the industry and was no longer eligible to hold the board position he was in)
- Leder Games releases a statement disassociating GAMA and returning their Origins Awards
- UPDATE 6/17 GAMA Exec Chairman offers apology & schedules Town Hall meeting
- Dark Helmet and Colonel Sanders turn toward the camera and exclaim “Everybody got that?!”
Now, no matter what you feel about the ongoing protests, GAMA’s responsibility (or lack thereof) to make a statement on it, or the reactions of many of the game creators out there, the last 3 weeks at GAMA sure look chaotic. Very little that GAMA does directly affects wargamers, but the larger ecosystem in which wargames exist does affect us – fewer games getting published can affect the breadth of options for printers available to print wargames. Fewer stores, or conventions, or gamers, can all shrink the pool of potential opponents or outlets for wargamers to share the hobby. And the front-facing industry trade group purporting to represent the hobby to the rest of the country looking like dumpster fire…? Wow.
Newly Released This Week:
- Brief Border Wars is finally here!
- HFD has A Cold & Bitter Battle about a fight near Detroit in the War of 1812; very interesting counter graphics!
- GMT is shipping Imperial Struggle
Newly Launched This Week:
- Laboratory H (with DxD panelist Jeff Horger!) launched a new Kickstarter for their game Journey of the Emperor. While it’s not a wargame, we wanted to call attention to it because they’ve added a special tier at $3 for backers whose employment status and/or game-buying funds have been impacted by the plague. It’s an innovative idea, and one worth supporting!
- There’s another WW2 ETO game on Kickstarter. The World At War: Europe is chugging along with pre-orders
- Tiny Battle Publishing is taking preorders on Yaah #14, which includes Rattenkrieg, a solitaire Stalingrad game, and an expansion for The Devil’s To Pay
- Nuts! Publishing has a Kickstarter going for the Q&D dungeon-crawler MiniRogue (not launched this week; just found out about it)
New from the Dragoons:
- This week, Design x Dragoons talked about engineers on the battlefield
- Saturday Night Fights got all Napoleonic again but with some new players
- Armchair Empire – the Shadow Empire 4X AAR had to fight off a rebellion, during the war
- My Own Worst Enemy is aiming to run the AWI in real-time
News From The Wargame Industry:
- Decision Games has a Fathers Day book sale going on until 21 June
- JTS Games has announced that they’re wrapping up their offer to support migrations from older HPS customers. Their statement:
And finally, we want to address the migration process for old HPS customers. We are closing the window on this offer, with June 30th being the last day to take advantage of it – so if you still have games to migrate to the JTS version contact Support@johntillersoftware.com soon. You can simply send a picture of your games, similar to the image below, or I can find you in the HPS database if you bought directly from them.
- Avalanche Press has a big sale on the GWAS / SWWAS series of games.
- Compass Games interviewed Brian Train on video about the new Brief Border Wars quad
The Professional Wargaming World:
- Sally Davis is looking to capture the wargaming experiences of wargamers outside the ‘old white guy’ stereotype. Even if you’re not in the demo she’s looking for, any signal boost to help find players would be useful to her.
- GUWS has a new website that’s a big navigational improvement over their older one
Something From Our Partners:
- Moe reviews friend-of-the-regiment David Thompson’s Castle Itter
- Ardwulf is still playing through A Hot Dry Season with designer Patrick Mullen
- Dan interviews Kat (aka Gloryhoundd)
Oh yeah, and Poland invaded the Czech Republic.
This Week’s Mashup:
You can hate me for this later….
That’s all for this week!
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