CONVENTION REPORT: Gencon 2007
At last weekend’s Gencon 2007 it was clear that almost no one is launching a game without a popular license attached. In a market defined by Dungeons and Dragons and Magic: The Gathering it can often seem like those are the only two games left that crafted their own setting.
Upper Deck Entertainment is the poster child for the modern game company. Their strongest selling game is Yu-Gi-Oh, a game that they don’t even design on their own; they get most of their cards from the Japanese company that invented it. Their newest hot game is the World of Warcraft Trading Card Game, which is, of course, based on the ludicrously popular computer game. I got a chance to demo it and the game mechanics seem to be one part Magic, one part Alderac Entertainment Group’s Warlord.
The marketing for this game is brilliant though; some fantastically rare cards unlock unique items in the computer games to show off to people there. In addition, every con attendee got a starter pack of the game when they checked-in for the weekend giving them access to potentially thousands of new customers. Even after the demo they gave me, my free pack remains unopened.
Also at the Upper Deck booth I got a chance to check out the Vs. card game, a game featuring heroes and villains from DC and Marvel comics. The demo decks were out of their recently released Hellboy set. This may have been a mistake because their booth was decked out in huge Alex Ross paintings of DC and Marvel characters. I was set to see Superman take on the Hulk, not Hellboy versus Rasputin.
The game uses a scaling resource system that is becoming increasingly standard in the industry, one more resource each turn almost regardless of what’s in your hand. So, having a character that cost the maximum amount you could spend in a turn was important. I knew the game was lost when on my sixth turn I had to settle for a second turn and fourth turn characters while my opponent got a massive sixth turn guy capable of dealing massive damage to my guys without any fear of retaliation. This seems to lend itself to a game that is all but over before any iconic characters could hit the field. This was a disappointment because any card game that could dedicate an entire set to the Green Lantern Corps and another to the Legion of Superheroes clearly knows what kind of comic game I want to play.
What to do with Doctor Strange?
It’s The Big ComicMix Broadcast Wizard World Chicago pre-game show (whew!) loaded with this week’s avalanche of new comics and DVDs fresh in the stores. Mike Oeming tips us on what’s ahead for Powers and we uncover the hidden secrets of G.I. Joe! We reveal what the stock brokers know about all those undisclosed new films coming from Marvel (including Thor and, seperately, The Avengers), and then it’s a trip back to the Nixon era for a song on the radio by a guy name "Yokim" who wasn’t from Dogpatch!
Department of “Shoulda Seen That Coming”: in the UK, a government minister issues a stern warning that a particular book, Tintin in the Congo, contains “hideous racial prejudice,” and that no right-thinking Briton should ever, ever read it henceforward. Result? 
