I have a long-term fascination with air warfare and games about it. It's probably noticeable because I talk about this genre of game quite a bit and someday I'd like to make one. Aircraft are just kino. That's the way it is. But while exploring the (still somewhat disappointing) range of games about tactical air warfare in the early jet age, I came across Foxbat and Phantom, a game from the golden era of SPI published during the best era of combat aviation. While the game itself doesn't seem to be all that well-regared, while looking for more information on it I came across this very interesting article in .pdf on it with one line that really stood out to me: "SPI isn't trying to produce spoon-fed consumers, but active hobbyists who have the imagination and ability to alter the games they play to suit their own tastes." I have never seen a modern game company articulate this sentiment, and it raises the stark contrast between the consumer and the hobbyist. Recap last week:
These are going to be pretty boring for a while, but now that all the automata for Outer Dark are complete, there's even less to share. There's also increased hysteria over THE VIRUS so opportunities for face-to-face play are again diminishing, handicapping my chances to test Afterglow. Here's some pretty model photography I finished this week. Why not? Infinity's fourth edition rules came out the other day so I've been spending a lot of time combing through them and it's gotten me thinking about the phenomenon of transition changes and player retention. I've been through a lot of these and it seems to be a pretty common phenomenon in the wargaming world, but it also seems to be something lots of games struggle with.
I don't have second editions of any games I've written. I don't think I ever will. But I have thoughts on it nobody asked for and the things I feel make for a good edition change and a bad one. |
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