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This episode we're joined by Dan Yarrington in the third chair. Dan is the owner of Myriad Games and the driving force behind Game Salute and has over ten years of experience in the game industry.

Up first, we go over what we'd like the to see the game industry do to make our games and gaming experiences better.

Later we head to Arrakis to harvest spice...no that's not right. We review Fantasy Flight Game's "Rex: Final Days of an Empire." Rex is a re-theming of the old Avlon Hill board game "Dune." Do the old rules mesh with the new theme and come out fun?

All that and our other not-too-horrible segments including:

- The Hollywood Minute
- Total Fan Girl
- Do You Ever Notice
- When you wish upon a game *New Segment*
- & More

Link to Episode:
http://www.thed6generation.com/webpage/d6g-ep-98-wishes-for-game-industry-rex-final-days-of-an-empire-detailed-review

Please let us know what you think of the show!

Hey fellas - great show as always, although I'm just getting to the Rex review. I wanted to comment on the "game industry wishes".

First, I thought the "bashing" of Avalon Hill (Hasbro) and their reprint of "Betrayal at House on the Hill" was a bit unfair. Now, in complete honesty, I've never played - or even seen - the original game. But, I bought this reprint when it came out, based mainly on all the talk about it that occurred first 50 or so episodes of the The D6G. I enjoy the game, although my wife isn't a big fan. And yes, I was disappointed that the cardboard tiles started curling up. But an email to Avalon Hill solved the matter - they acknowledged the issue, and sent me new components that stayed perfectly flat. The problem was only with the room tiles, but I got a 2nd copy of just about everything, including all the monster tokens. I bring this up, because AH isn't the only one to have this problem. The 2nd edition of Game of Thrones has a game board that was mis-cut slightly, as did my copy of Merchants and Marauders. Z-man stepped up and replaced my M&M board (although that replacement doesn't lay exactly flat either), and Fantasy Flight has promised a new GoT board. In fact, you mentioned the GoT board issue on your episode reviewing it, and I want to say you praised FF for "doing the right thing"...Avalon Hill/Wizards of the Coast/Hasbro deserves the same recognition for "doing the right thing". Again, maybe the new components of Betrayal are still inferior to the original product - but they have "fixed" the curling issue. The real problem here - as with so many products that we buy today - is the particular country of manufacture for many of these games doesn't exactly have the best quality control record. And I'll leave it at that.

As for the rest of the "wish list" - I kind of found the discussion about some of the technical gee-whiz stuff to be kinda...meh. I'm with Craig - I don't need video tutorials, apps, etc to help me with these game. I just want to sit down at a table and play. I understand where Dan is coming from, as a store owner and someone involved in the industry, but most of that stuff didn't really resonate with me. Although I had an "oh crap" moment when he was talking about the poor rulebook for Power Grid:First Sparks, which I just bought at Prezcon last week. Guess I'll be going to BGG and looking up the errata...if only that was in one consolidated place....

Dan reminds me of a lawn mower; Does a great job, makes your lawn smell good, Makes a lot of noise doing it.


but seriously, twas good.

G'day from Down Undah!

Hokie, I agree with you, now that you talk about your experience. I guess, because none of us had the experience, since we didn't buy the game and hadn't heard of the response, we didn't know it was an issue rather than an 'is what it is' moment. We should definitely relate your story next episode!

~Craig

Dan hit the nail on the head with his video & audio support comment on the new segment, "When we wish upon a game". Most of the games that I currently own and all of those listed in my wishlist are because I saw a video review by one of the usual suspects (Tom Vasel, Jeremy Salinas, Lance, Marco and Joel Eddy). It would be great if they were done by companies to present the game and introduce the rules. It would make life much simpler when introducing friends to a new game. It is more likely for someone to seat thru a 10-15 minute video than to read 10 pages of a manual. I'm not sure why Craig didn't like the idea.

Besides Salinas' video, all the other are really low production (nothing fancy, just the facts). This should indicate to the publishers that they don't need to spend a crazy amount of money on some crazy production. Just a simple video will do.

The things I hate about publishers:

RPGs
Crap or no character sheets in the book? (that is the first thing I look at and judge a game entirely upon it, even crazy hippie games that do not even need a character sheet need a "character sheet")

Form fallible electronic character sheet!

Include a digital copy!

Summarize the rules and provide it as separate printable sheet

Game Shops
Buy the games your customers are playing! (why, oh why, would you stand there and stare at people that are playing a game that they can not purchase at your store??)

Talk to, and greet your customers. Find out what they are playing, are interested in, and get those games. It is like free marketing research, and helps build the community. The community is why they are buying things in your store instead of amazon, make it worth while.

Have demo days! And schedule events every day. There should be some scheduled every hour during the weekend and every weekday evening. You can get people to run these for you, for free, just schedule it and ask people to demo something.

Put your products on the outer parts of the store and your game tables in the center. It draws people into seeing what the others are playing. It makes it significantly easier to see the product, and easier for those that are there to play to actually get to the table. I could write volumes on why this is so important. Also, if you think people would not like this because it might make them feel awkward, you are wrong, those that would feel that way would not be there in the first place.

Allow outside food and drink. We are adults, we do not want to eat small bags of chips or frozen burritos.

Board Games
Include ziplock bags at least for story the game pieces. And considering that you can get Plano boxes for under a buck, why not get those?

Make a quick reference card with all the rules you would need to "reference", and make a one page reference sheet for people that have played before, but have not played in a while.

It's not so much that I'm AGAINST all that newfanglry . . . Dong . . . just that it doesn't really do anything for ME. I don't want to have to exist online to fully experience a board game I bought to play with my friends at a table. So all of that web-enhancement takes the game in a direction AWAY from where I want my games to live. That being said, however, video previews don't really do that, and I've seen some cool ones. I don't think a video alone would interest me in a game whose elevator pitch couldn't do it, but I don't DISLIKE those videos, especially if I'm already interested . . .

If that makes any sense at all?

~Craig

Master-Terraformer wrote:G'day from Down Undah!

~Craig

Well, now I'm just jealous.

thadrine wrote:

Game Shops
Buy the games your customers are playing! (why, oh why, would you stand there and stare at people that are playing a game that they can not purchase at your store??)

Talk to, and greet your customers. Find out what they are playing, are interested in, and get those games. It is like free marketing research, and helps build the community. The community is why they are buying things in your store instead of amazon, make it worth while.

Have demo days! And schedule events every day. There should be some scheduled every hour during the weekend and every weekday evening. You can get people to run these for you, for free, just schedule it and ask people to demo something.

Put your products on the outer parts of the store and your game tables in the center. It draws people into seeing what the others are playing. It makes it significantly easier to see the product, and easier for those that are there to play to actually get to the table. I could write volumes on why this is so important. Also, if you think people would not like this because it might make them feel awkward, you are wrong, those that would feel that way would not be there in the first place.

Allow outside food and drink. We are adults, we do not want to eat small bags of chips or frozen burritos.

Board Games
Include ziplock bags at least for story the game pieces. And considering that you can get Plano boxes for under a buck, why not get those?

Make a quick reference card with all the rules you would need to "reference", and make a one page reference sheet for people that have played before, but have not played in a while.

Agree with a lot of Thadrine says here. Although I have noticed that more and more games are coming with little zip-locks inside them. But I definitely agree with everything on the list about game stores. Our local game store - The Game Parlor, in Chantilly, VA is a good store. Maybe even a very good store. But it's not a GREAT store precisely because of many of the issues you point out (although they do let us bring in pizza and drinks from the Italian place next door). I am consistently amazed when I hear the D6G talk about the stuff they're able to get from Myriad. The Game Parlor will get the new hotness in maybe...6 months after it's the new hotness. If at all. There are games on their shelves that have been sitting there - no exaggeration - for at least 10 years. And they're still trying to charge $40 for them. One of my favorite games - Conquest of Paradise - is a very niche game that you can pick up online for $20-$25. In the Game Parlor they're still trying to get $50 for it. They have game expansions that have been sitting there for years - but never once have I seen the base game on the shelf. They waste floor space with a big rack of comics - I've never once seen anyone buying a comic from them. They waste more space with a big "kiosk" that has 8-10 computers on it. All of these computers are at least 6+ years old, with big 'ol CRT monitors - I've never once seen anyone playing computer games in there. Their website is a joke. Gah...now I'm rambling. Anyway - sore point with the game store comments, and I think you're dead on.

Great episode. Dan added a lot, enough to make me think about giving one of his podcasts a listen (although with all the 2+ hour podcasts I already get... ).

Also, a word of thanks to Craig for sharing his Kindle travails. Just yesterday, my wife's started doing unusual things. I was able to coat-tail on to Craig's solution without even resorting to the internet. I looked like I was innately aware of the Kindle's inner workings. The D6G, not only making me sound like a more informed gamer, but worldly as well.

Rex really sounds awesome, as I'm a big Dune fan...also a fan of TI (I like my games like I like my podcasts?).

Thanks guys for another great episode. I loved the Rex review. I have recently played Dune for the first time, so it was all very pertinent.

Thanks for all the kind words everyone!

We just posted Lost Chapter #28, look for Episode 99 early next week.

great episode ! a fun listen . thanks to my buddys at templecon they were able to get me the coveted d6 generation autograph ! thanks guys , now i have to frame it and hang it next to my " rendar let the galaxy burn ! dan abnett autograph !

MattRendar wrote:great episode ! a fun listen . thanks to my buddys at templecon they were able to get me the coveted d6 generation autograph ! thanks guys , now i have to frame it and hang it next to my " rendar let the galaxy burn ! dan abnett autograph !

Wow! Next to Abnett?!? I wish we'd had something cooler to sign!

Always flattered and humbled when folks ask for our signatures. Thanks so much for listening & supporting the show.

Good show, guys! (Using the gender neutral "guys" so to include the total fangirl). I have to let you know that you help me get through my 12 hour driving day at work twice a month, so in a little way, you are partly responsible for keeping me slightly more sane than I might otherwise be with my fifty tons hurtling down the freeway.

I started listening to find out more about Firestorm Armada, and though it did not quite catch on with me, the podcast did.

Thanks and good luck.

Great podcast! The addition of Dan and his "When we wish upon a game" segment, was great, and I look forward to more of it.

One thing that no one mentioned, and is a pet peeve of mine is that I want a good picture of what the game looks like on the back of the box. If I turn over the box and I have no idea what the game board/components look like, the publisher is doing a terrible job at trying to sell the game.

Just one example was the first edition of Stronghold's reprint of Escape from Atlantis. If you turn over the box, all you see is text. Not one picture. This is especially confusing considering that Stronghold did such a great job on Escape, and the components are gorgeous.

In my gaming store (Zombie Planet, in Albany NY), I saw people pick up the game, seem interested, but eventually put it back because they hadn't heard of it, and couldn't tell what the game looked like. At least two of those people, upon seeing a group of people actually playing the game, ended up buying it at a later date.