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PolyCon XXIII Pre-register for PolyCon XXIII for $25: (18 and over only Minors must use minor form) 
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"I Told You So" -- Industry Report
by Eric M. Aldrich I It is now March 1999. In the last six months we've lost Imperium Games, Daedalus Entertainment, and the granddaddy of them all, Avalon Hill. Who's next? This is not a good trend. The fallout from the Collectible Card Game binge continues unabated. White Wolf and West End are on life support. Who's next? What can we do? Those of us concerned about the health of the gaming industry are worried that in the future all we will have to choose from in our local hobby stores are recycled role-playing product, collectible card games we don't care about, and over-priced miniatures with second-rate rule systems. Don't laugh. I'm sure most of you reading this column could immediately think of some of the products I was poking fun at. They are the staples in our industry and they've been dumbed down to the point where a just about anyone who can pronounce "Monopoly" can play these games with the proficiency that Manfred von Richthofen could pilot a biplane after a few short hours of spin-up time. The gaming hobby needs the "hard core." When all the fads have finished subsiding and most people move on to the "next big thing," the future of the industry will have to rely on these people for support. A lot of publishers are doing their darndest to ignore them and they should stop. Now. What is to be gained by gunning exclusively for the mass market? "A whole lotta money" is the usual response, but even if this is true, it's still bad policy because even if you succeed, you're eventually going to lose the interest of the mass market. If you've lost your core following, you've got no one left to keep things alive. That's what's happening now. More and more people are moving on to other things and there's no one left to carry on or even care. Those of us who've been gaming for a while feel that, with very few exceptions, no one wants our business anymore. A lot of us have left already. Who's next? Not all things are going bad. Some incredible boardgames have come out of Germany of late, include "The Settlers of Cataan" and "Modern Art" and Wizards of the Coast have tried to remove the G rating from Advanced Dungeons and Dragons, but these are just a few bright spots in a sea of mediocrity. At least Steve Jackson Games had the sense to bring back the original version of Illuminati. Who's next?
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