MN Big SW Gaming & Fanclub News!!! (Good and Bad)

www.theforce.net is reporting that Hasbro is slashing the budget of its subsidiary, Wizards of the Coast by 90%!!! This means they will only have 10% of the budget they had last year!

Why is this of interest to SW fans? Two reasons. First, Wizards is the company/division behind the SW:Role Playing Game that just came out. Second, Wizards within the past month bought the SW Official FanClub/SW Insider Magazine from Fantastic Media. Both of these SW properties could now be in jeopardy! If nothing else I hope they can save the SW Insider Magazine. I have thoroughly enjoyed my subscription and it has kept me quite up to date with new prequel pics and information as well as great interviews with SW cast members, and a great store (the one in the magazine & the one that was at the official SW site.

What's the thin silver lining about all this? Well, Wizards of the Coast also produces several Collectible Card Games (CCGs) including Magic, X-Men, and I believe Pokemon. They have long been aggressively trying to stop the other CCG makers. Hopefully, this will make it easier for their biggest competitor Decipher, Inc. which produces the Star Wars:CCG, Young Jedi:CCG and the forthcoming Jedi Knights:CCG (as well as Star Trek and for the upcoming "Lord of the Rings" movies). Plus, I hate Pokemon and have never played Magic. I tried the X-Men CCG, but found it dissapointing.

But I do not want either of Wizard's SW lines to be cut!!! Who know what will happen with their limited budget though?

 

I went and checked the WotC website (at http://www.wizards.com ) to see if they have any news of this. There was a press release from 12/15 about some reorg plans... the CEO is retiring and the president is moving up to CEO... 5% of their workforce is now or will soon be unemployed... Pokemon slowdown....

::shrug:: We'll have to see how it pans out.

Thom

 

WELL, I for one will be very very unhappy if SW Insider does not continue to be just as good as it has been. I LOVE SW Insider! Would be almost heartbroken if it goes down hill.

I don't know if I'll ever really worry about the RPG myself. I always wanted to play D&D when was a kid, but was too insecure to let me be seen hanging around the geeks who played it, so never did. Only since I've grown up a little maturity-wise (and a LOT age-wise) have I begun to do a lot of the stuff I've WANTED to do but never did before for one reason or another.

Anyway, LOTS of people have the experience and the resources (books, dice, etc., etc.) with D&D. And we have had difficulty getting a group together to commit to a fairly regular schedule in order to complete an adventure. And if it's that hard to get together to play D&D, figure it will be that much harder to generate common interest in enough people for a new RPG and then having to acquire the necessary resources, and still have to deal with making the time commitment and the time scheduling.

So, I'll probably just stick with D&D for any roleplaying I do. Unless a lot more star wars fans suddenly appear on fanforce!

 

I don't read the SW Insider anymore so it wouldn't really affect me directly. I don't want to know what Anakin will look like until I see Episode II. But, I'd miss the dish I get from those who read it.

 

That brings up an interesting point as to what constitutes a spoiler. I don't want to know any details of the plot, but I don't mind knowing the characters who will be involved in the story and what they look like. For instance, when Hayden Christiensen was announced as playing Anakin Skywalker, I watched a few episodes of Higher Ground on Fox Family Channel to get a feel for his acting.

Phil

 

I picked up the SW RPG rulebook at the bookstore on break and skimmed through it... not surprisingly, given that they're made by the same company, the rules resemble the new edition of D&D. (It's the d20 System, this seems to be the new standard for WotC RPG's.)

Best part of my perusal? Reading the lists of examples for the six characters "stats". (Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, Charisma... toldja it was a lot like D&D ) Didja know that Luke is more intelligent than Han? ::chuckle:: Not as intelligent as Qui-Gon Jinn, though....

Thom

 

Well, the bad news has started as regards the WotC takeover. Item that concerns me at the moment, the announcement that SW Insider will no longer be providing the service of forwarding fanmail.

I've got a bad feeling about this....