Welcome back to Sabledrake Magazine! I know it must seem strange for us to announce that we are going to shut down the magazine after December, only to bring it back in February. But several things have happened since that announcement. We’ve had a great outpouring of requests to change our minds and keep it going. We’ve had a few great reviews of the magazine in other forums. And . . . we’ve missed it.

So here we are, back with a few changes. The biggest change is that we’ve gone from monthly to quarterly. That will allow us to put more work and energy into each issue. Each issue will be bigger and more content filled than ever. We’ve been able to get quite a few regular articles lined up and will still continue to carry a variety of game and fiction related articles. We’ve changed to look of the magazine a bit, especially the gateway page.

2001 should be a great and exciting year for us. I hope you enjoy it as much as we will.

When I was mulling over what I was going to write for this issue’s column, I had decided to rant about annoying game store customers who, after playing a game a few times, decide they don’t like it and want to return it. In my “real life” I am the manager of a game store, Gary’s Games and Hobbies, this sort of thing happens every year.

This year, it was the mother returning a copy of the new Harry Potter boardgame. I explained to her that it couldn’t be returned because it had been played. Pieces had been punched out, it was used, it no longer looked new, so I couldn’t sell it as new. She was shocked that we didn’t stand behind our products. “Why do you carry bad games?” she asked. I told her that it was new, and we hadn’t had a chance to try it or to hear much about it. “Besides,” I told her, “ It’s Harry Potter. People are going to want it, and if they’re going to buy it somewhere, they might as well get it from us.” I told her the business reasons.

OK, maybe not the best arguments, and she certainly didn’t appreciate them, but they were both true. And so I thought I would vent a little bit of my frustration here, in this forum . . .

But the more I thought about it, the more I wanted to give her an explanation that she would understand. I kept trying to compare it to other types of products. Videos, movies, books, computer games, and music all came to mind. That made me think even more . . .

Having worked in game stores now for over 10 years it has always amazed me that people have different tastes in games. I still remember the first time in the store I eavesdropped on two people going on about how horrible the GURPS roleplaying game is. GURPS was my absolute favorite, most perfect game at the time, and it really made me mad hearing these guys rip it to shreads. And that happens all the time now. In fact, at least once a week I’m talked into playing a game of Rosenkonig, a two-player German game. It’s a cute little game, but I don’t particularly like it, but everyone else loves it, so I wind up playing it with them.

The point is that people have different tastes in games. What I like, another person may not, and vise-versa. In other words, game design is an art form, like movies, or books, or music, or computer games. A game store (or video store or book store) must carry “bad” games, because every person that comes through that door is going to have their own opinion about which are good and which are bad.

Since each artist (game designer) has his own style and preferences, it would be best if we all learned the names of the game designers of our favorite games. That way, we could pick out game designers with a good track record, the same way we do with books and music. It would be even better if game publishers would print the name of the designer on the box.

--Tim

I'd like to make a comment about this article.

This page has been visited Hit Counter times.