http://www.gamersrealm.com/store1/outofthebox.php

Nothing too supercool, yet, but check out the very last paragraph.

Swoot! I look forward to a review of the game by Ken. I want to say, before he actually reviews the game, that we think that Ken is all right. Whatever his review says, we respect his opinions, and think that more reviewers would do well to be as objective and incisive as he is.

Thanks for posting the news, Jason.

Mike

The cheeky elves, that's us. And he's humorously threatening to "get into it" with me, no less ... too bad! I'll be having too much fun running Hero Wars and Sorcerer.

And check that honkin' Forge link in Out of the Box, my friends. Memes live!

Best,
Ron

Yes, cheeky elves are we!

I am trying to wrangle a way to get down there on Saturday. I'll probably see you there.

Anyone who wants to get info on Universalis, and/or chat face-to-face with one of it's mad designers personally, should definitely try to get to Games Plus on Saturday. :-)

Mike

Hello,

I have no specific recommendation to make with this post, but I do think you should consider whether you want to promote a self-published, web-available-only game at a game store event.

Some retailers would say, perhaps with justification, that doing so is exploiting them - and knowing most retailers, they would tend to react with defensive and judgmental acts, later, rather than confront you at the time.

Again, I'm not supporting or agreeing with this argument. I'm saying you'll probably run into it. At the very least, you might consider asking the proprietors whether it's OK, and if it's not, continue to participate at the event anyway.

Best,
Ron

Hmmm. I can see your point as good protocol at the very least. Thanks for the heads up, Ron.

In case anyone was intending to come down and talk about Universalis, be aware that we might not be able to discuss it on the premises (OTOH, perhaps we will depending on how the store management reacts). I will however be taking a lunch elsewhere with a friend of mine at some point and would be glad to discuss the game with anyone who would like to meet with me at that time. Should anyone wish to do so, contact me via PM here, and we can arrange this.

Thanks,
Mike

The review is up!

http://www.gamersrealm.com/store1/outofthebox.php

Hey,

Oh, I am so looking forward to playing Universalis and showing how it's built to start with a non-RPG (collaborative storytelling) and how it can either stay there or transmogrify into an RPG (full bore) through play itself.

Best,
Ron

Woo-hoo! I call that a great review. In fact, his one negative comment is that Universalis may "hack-off" people looking for the RPG feel. Which is true, and is the perfect caveat. I wouldn't want people coming to the game thinking otherwise. He instead will direct people to us looking for something different, and storytelling oriented.

Thus I can only be happy with the exposure. Thank you, Ken!

Hey, Ron, when do you and Clinton start charging tuition? ;-)

Mike

The funny thing is his snide comment about not having the price on the book...I SOOO agree with that. I HATE books that don't put the price on them. For me the reason is that I inventory all my games for insurance purposes (paper burns and reacts poorly to water you know), and when you have over $20,000 invested in paper and card board you need an inventory to make the insurance people believe that that pile of ash and wood pulp actually had value...not having the price on the book makes this process extremely annoying.

Of course the fact that Mike and I couldn't decide on what to charge until literally AS the dealer floor was opening on thursday at Gen Con caused me to contribute to this most heinous oversight :-)

Hmm.. hadn't thought of it that way.

For insurance purposes, couldn't people just refer to the web site? I'm not sure I see the need for a price. Given that we don't have it on shelves at this point makes me feel that it really doesn't need one.

In fact, I thought it was kinda cool that we put out a book that has no price or barcodes or other identification on the cover at all. Seems very clean and uncluttered to me. So often these things added to the cover seem to detract from the flavor of the cover.

Just a personal opinion.

Mike

I just meant that was the reason finding books without a price annoyed me. I'm not sure what Ken's reason for it is. I'm not sure how having the price on the book is supposed to promote sales, since presumeably in order to buy it you'd be at a location where where the price would be known.