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An anonymous reader writes "This year's GenCon Charity Auction raised over $17,000 which they intended to donate to Gary Gygax's favorite charity, Christian Children's Fund. However, the charity refused the donation when they learned of its connection to Dungeons & Dragons." It seems to me all they would need to do is cast remove curse or dispel evil and the money would be fine to use.

In a recent blog post, Wizards of the Coast Vice President of Digital Gaming Randy Buehler announced that they were killing their Gleemax social networking site. Originally designed to create a central hub where gamers could meet, discuss, and play games online, it has thus far been unable to deliver on the grandiose promises made at launch. "The mistake that I made, however, was in trying to push us too far too fast. I still think the vision for Gleemax is awesome: creating a place on the web where hobby gamers (or lifestyle gamers or thinking gamers, or whatever you want to call us) can gather to talk about games, play games, and find people to play games with. But I've come to realize that the vision was too ambitious. We've made progress down about ten different paths over the past eighteen months, but we haven't been able to reach the end of any of them yet."

For the fourth year running Gabe and Tycho are throwing the mother of all gamer parties. This year it's located in the downtown area of the Emerald City, and though just one of the three days of panels, game demos, and nerdcore is completed, there's much to discuss. Read on for impressions from a first-time PAX-goer of the best nerd ticket in the city, with details on the Wil Wheaton Keynote, the first PA Q&A session, and a plenty of information on the duo's game On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness: Episode One. Wizards of the Coast

The makers of Dungeons and Dragons are Seattle locals, and as such it should be no surprise that they have a visible presence at the convention. Not only are they running the tabletop gaming / card gaming areas on lower floors, but they're showing off their online efforts in the exhibit hall. Standing shoulder to shoulder with Magic: the Gathering Online this year is Gleemax, the company's answer to the social networking craze.

While the line between Gleemax and D&D Insider isn't very clear right now, that will quickly be addressed once more a more complete version of the social site goes live. An alpha version will be available to muck around with by the end of September, exposing tabletop gamers to the personal blogs and friend list features video gamers take for granted on a number of different sites. Gleemax is also free, and will remain so; D&D Insider will have that pesky fee once it becomes the fully featured content site Wizards envisions.

WotC representatives were also eager to talk about some of the subsites that will tie into Gleemax. They intend to offer a number of services aimed at giving gamers something to do once they've 'found' each other. The Avalon Hill library of boardgames will be made available via one of these sites, using simple graphics to allow gamers to relive classics like Acquire at any time of the day or night. Another site is going to feature independent games, pointing tabletop players at the newest games that might have otherwise slipped under the radar. A third will feature electronic games from the braintrust of tabletop designers Wizards keeps hidden in their vaults. These original games (like most of the other games on offer) will offer unique strategic experiences aimed at a very niche type of gamer.

As the Wizards folks put it, though, "it may be niche, but it's our niche." The company feels very strongly that they know how best to serve the community of tabletop players that participates in Dungeons and Dragons, and attends events like Gen Con. In their view, these players are undeserved by current online communities and most video game publishers. To some extent, they're even looking to invite 3rd parties into the picture. They hope to offer players the ability to show off characters from non Wizards RPGs, making this a cohesive 'MySpace for gamers'.

The idea of Gleemax aside (and despite having the name explained to me it's still kind of unlovable to outsiders), the gaming portals seem like a good idea. While 'yet another site offering blogs and forums' can only inherently be a certain level of interesting, the online board games / indie games / original content seems to perfectly compliment the D&D Insider game table. With the capability to play strategy games, traditional board games, and RPGs all via the web, Wizards feels like they're trying to set up a sort of perpetual online games convention. Conventions like Gen Con are a great thing, not so much for the swag and the new games, as for the chance to see other gamers. Some folks who go to conventions do so because they're quite literally the only time all year they can 'excuse' gaming. Whether they have busy lives or unapproving spouses, their homes are just not places conducive to gaming. Offerings like Wizard's initiative would seem to be an attempt to bring more games directly into peoples' lives. Barring the appearance of a great many folks falling under John Gabriel's Greater Internet F&($wad Theory, this would seem to have a lot of potential.

WoW TCG

This weekend Upper Deck, the makers of the World of Warcraft Trading Card Game, is releasing the second expansion set for the game. Originally released at Gen Con last year, and with the Dark Portal expansion hot on its heels in February, The Fires of Outlands follows on a (now regular) six month cycle. For those who haven't had a chance to play: Each player fields a hero with a race/class combination that will be very familiar to anyone who has played the Massively Multiplayer Online Game. Classes 'theme' your deck's abilities, with Warriors having extremely aggressive attack moves (based on WoW's abilities) and Priests having various healing spells. Shadow Priests can, of course, still melt faces. There are items and equipment to outfit your hero, just as in the MMOG, and special rare cards are available in expensive 'raid decks'. Resources in the game are quests, cards that can be 'completed' during the course of play to draw more cards from the deck. There are also Ally cards, folks you can invite to your party to aid you in taking out the opposing faction opponent. Together these elements combine to form a TCG with some layers, depth, and a very recognizable flow. There's nothing here that won't be familiar to veteran TCG players, but it's done with a level of polish that will (again) be familiar to Blizzard game players.

The Fires of Outlands series, the newest expansion, continues the trends started in the first set (Heroes of Azeroth) and on Through the Dark Portal. Upper Deck is definitely trying to add some overarching themes with this new set of cards, which further add wrinkles to the already nuanced gameplay. One example of their theming is an effort to tie Ally cards further into specific deck Archetypes. Previously the only cards that relied on a hero's class were Abilities. Now certain allies are most helpful if they appear in a certain class's deck, supporting class abilities like totems for Shaman or Combo Points for Rogues. New class abilities are being added as well, adding to the stable of MMOG powers that have added to the game and further tying the two together. Most interesting are a new series of weapons that aim to allow heroes to attack as often as possible, changing the subtext of the game even further.

Wheaton Keynote

Writer, blogger, and voice actor Wil Wheaton (clevernickname to us) was the keynote speaker at PAX this year, and kicked off Friday evening with a tremendous roar of applause. Wil's impassioned speech ranged the gamut from thoughtful scene-evoking memories of his childhood, to bitter rants about opportunistic game-bashing politicians. Through it all Wil weaved a few themes that resonated very strongly with the enthusiastic crowd. He spoke often of the social nature of games, reminiscing about time spent in arcades in his youth and hours spend playing the Nintendo Entertainment System with his brother. He spoke of the different 'Generations' of gamers in the audience Friday night, rattling off various game catch-phrases to identify what group of games audience members were familiar with. Taking us back with a story of a fateful trip to a corner liquor store for potato chips, he recounted an experience most gamers can probably related to: their very first time playing a video game.

These shared experiences, the implications of social gaming, were the overall message of Wil's speech. The crowd ate it up, on their feet at several times through the event cheering at the author's words. The biggest reactions came from his accounts of his experiences playing games with his children, and the powerful bond that video games can form between family members. Especially Guitar Hero. One anecdote particularly stuck out. Wil related how he was in Vegas for a poker tournament, and received a call from his son Ryan. Having just turned 17, Ryan was interested in finally having the chance to play Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, a game Wil admitted had seen a lot of playtime in his house - after his kids had gone to bed. Seated at a table with a group of other writers, Wil said "Hold on a minute", and turned to the assembled group. He explained the situation, and asked if they thought it was okay. One member of the group spoke up and said, "Does he know that it's not okay to have sex with a hooker, and then kill them to get his money back?" On-stage, Wil paused and put on a thoughtful air. "Hmm," he said. "That's a good question." He mimed putting the phone back to his ear. "Ryan, do you know that if you get a hooker in real life, it's not okay to kill her after she gets out of the car to get your money back?" He paused. The response came: "Well, since hookers are empty shells and not real people ... " The crowd went nuts as Wil beamed proudly across the stage.

Wil closed by coming back to the point that everyone assembled there was, indeed, a gamer. That with every large group there's always some that will make the rest look bad, be they lawyers, doctors, or sports enthusiasts. His message on that point: "Have fun playing games online - but please don't be a dick." His last statements railed against politicians like Hillary Clinton and ambulance-chasers like Jack Thompson that seek to turn the gaming hobby into an opportunity to score political points. His passion was obvious, and at one point someone in the crowd shouted 'Testify!' as Wil paused to draw a breath. It didn't seem entirely out of place. His conclusion was met with thundering applause and a theatre-wide standing ovation. He paused for a long moment to enjoy the applause before departing backstage, obviously pleased that a speech he was sweating fairly hard just a week ago had gone so well.

This was my first opportunity to see Wil speak publicly, and it was immediately obvious why Mike and Jerry had chosen him for the role. He's may not have 'hardcore' geek cred nowadays (time in a Starfleet uniform aside), but then he's also a parent. Parents who game at all get a lot of slack in my eyes. No, Wil was here to speak to us on Friday because he's exactly the kind of gamer that this industry needs more of: well-spoken, confident people who are not only passionate about games but can eloquently get across why games are so very important. It was an amazing experience, and I've heard quite a few people speaking highly of the event in the hallways since.

PA Q&A 1

The keynote was only minutes over when fog began to billow from backstage. The thumping bassline of "Every Day of Hustlin" reverberated through the audience as Mike 'Gabe' Krahulik and Jerry 'Tycho' Holkins strode onstage to huge applause. Their first comment: "If you can arrange it, I recommend you do that at least once in your life." The queue lines formed on both sides of the stage for questions that ranged from the surreal to the hilarious.

Some highlights:

• A hopeful pinball player was a bit taken aback by Jerry's gameface and smack-talk. The Digipen student was obviously unprepared for the statement "Bring a coffin. Bring one per person."
• Between the tracklists of Guitar Hero and Guitar Hero 2, they tend to feel that the first game is more enduring.
• Jerry will likely never write a stand-alone artless novel as he's 'too lazy'.
• There will never be a PAX 2006 DVD, as most of the footage has been lost.
• When asked how they 'deal with' the popularity of the comic and their success in life, both stated that they essentially don't. Said Jerry, "I don't think we're equipped to handle it."
• The question, "In Bioshock are you saving the Little Sisters or killing them" elicited big smiles. Gabe is doing the right thing, while Jerry has no regrets about his actions.
• They reiterated that the "Rain-slick Precipice" series is very much their version of an animated series.
• The highlight of the event: Jerry was talked into singing the ballad "My Belruel" (which you can hear on Wired's massive piece about the duo). Through the course of the song, which was surprisingly beautiful, engineers behind the scenes added some after-effects. The slight reverb added an otherworldly quality to the melody, which echoed across a dead-silent crowd. Near the end of the performance the crowd took matters into their own hands, and soon the place was full of raised hands filled with glowing DSes, PSPs, and cell phones. Jerry initially didn't notice, as he was primarily singing with his eyes closed. When he finally did register the outpouring of affection he was momentarily taken aback, but didn't allow it to slow his singing. When the song of loss and elf roleplaying ended, he was met with yet another round of huge applause. Obviously moved, he took a moment to wipe some moisture from his eyes as he returned to his cohort at the center of the stage.
• Comics (webcomics in specific) may be a more important component to PAX in the future. Now that they have the space, it's something they want to look into.
• To the question, "Which games would you shove inside Roger Ebert to convince him of gaming's artistic merit", they responded with Bioshock,, Ico, and Shadow of the Colossus.
• Apparently recreating a moment from last year's PAX, an attendee asks for the chance to come onstage with the entrance Gabe and Tycho were allowed. They're amiable, and the man is escorted backstage. After a long moment getting things ready, he returns to thumping bass and smoke; the applause equal the laughter from the audience.
• They discuss criticism from their first trailer, which many viewed as poor looking. Essentially they learned why developers so often fall prey to releasing assets early; they're incredibly excited about what they've done. As Gabe put it, "We remember when it was just grey blocks. It looks way better than grey blocks now."
• The event ended with the announcement of a special guess, Uwe Boll, who would take some time to answer questions from the audience. Gamasutra has a detailed writeup of that exchange.

Overall the panel was a reminder of the very down-to-earth nature of these guys. No question was too awkward or stupid, no request too outlandish to at least consider. From indulging a drug-addled questioner (who never did ask a question) for the better part of five minutes at the mic stand to allowing the nameless attendee onstage for a smoke-enhanced entrance, the duo proved (again) that they're just gamers - there to have a good time like everyone else.

Hothead Games Q&A

A media-only demo and question session with Hothead Games closed out the first day of the Penny Arcade Expo. The developers behind The Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness: Episode One, they were onhand to show even more gameplay, story elements, and some excellent 2D animations.

An eerie voice began the event, and set the tone for the Cthulu-noir setting : ""Four gods wait on the windowsill / Where once eight gods did war and will / And if the gods themselves may die / What does that say for you and I?"

The demo showed off the character creation engine, which was available on the show floor yesterday for attendees to play with. These 3D Krahulik-esque avatars will be the player's representation in the game. They're endlessly customizable and, surprisingly, will show up fully realized in the 2D animations along with Gabe and Tycho. The main character's home smashed by FF Prime, your rake-weilding persona takes off after the giant robot with the intent of exacting revenge ... or finding a new place to live. Either way. Gameplay itself consisted of a stretch fighting through hobos on some dirty city streets, a humor-rich discussion of a roach-infested apartment complex, and a boss battle with a golden-maned Slum Lord and his bag o' hobos.

Combat is turn-based strategy, with each character having a distinct fighting style. Tycho wields a mini-gun, while you swing with a rake and Gabe leads with his fists. There are many roleplaying elements to the game, with characters gaining experience after every fight as well as new abilities at various levels. Special attacks allow for an impressive amount of damage and over-the-top violent destruction of opponents. These attacks are mini-games unto themselves, requiring you to variously button-mash, time your keypresses, or pattern-match your way to victory. There's also a team-up option that has the characters combining forces to do even larger amounts of damage. There's humor throughout the game, even within the fighting portion of the game. NPC attacks include holding up a sign begging for money, and the disturbing FF robots are your opponents throughout the game.

The Penny Arcade style of comedy is most evident, though, in the dialogue-heavy sections of the game. The example given had the characters exploring a disgusting slum, variously opening doors into disturbing apartments. Much like the Sam and Max games, the fun comes in the excellent commentary by the PA characters, as well as their polished interchanges. It was obvious even from the short demo, though, that the player is going to feel much more a part of the experience in the Precipice series; being represented by an avatar onscreen changes the dynamic from a buddy flick to a party-based road show. Gloriously, your avatar even gets to have a few funny lines as well. They're not all reserved for the comic's creators. The final boss battle outlined a few more elements of combat, showing us again the team-ups and special attacks, but overall it did not go well for the heroes. They were slain by the Slum Lord's vicious 'Sack Attack', and left to the tender ministrations of the hordes of tiny FF robots scuttling around the apartment complex.

With the demo complete, they opened up the floor to questions:

• The PA gents have been involved in every step of the process, with Jerry providing almost every single line of dialogue and Mike assisting heavily with the art assets.
• The game will be available on Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux at launch. They're really hoping to get more platforms out there as well, such as Xbox Live and the PlayStation Store. They're going to be offering it themselves from their website, but are also considering other digital distribution methods like Steam.
• They're very much not interested in heavy DRM, and their attitude was that if people pirate their game heavily ... then that's the way of things. They're more interested in making sure their paying customers have a good experience.
• Rob Gilbert, the mind behind classics like the Monkey Island series of games, was in attendance at the panel and has been involved heavily in the title's development. He's been working with them on puzzle creation, dialogue tree tweaking, and other core aspects of gameplay. He viewed the highly collaborative nature of the game as not only a good working experience, but comparable to other successful projects he has worked on.
• Future episodes are already in the planning stages, with Episode Two already in development now that Episode One is near completion.
• They're aiming for something in between TellTale games' extremely rapid release schedule, and the epicly long pauses between chapters in Valve's 'episodic' series of Half-Life titles.

With the Hothead Q&A at an end, the first day of the convention came to a close. Gamers played long into the nigh in the PC, console, and tabletop rooms, though, until the event site closed at 3am. Today's events will be just as numerous, with more insights into upcoming games, the world of Penny Arcade, and the culture of gamers that has come together in this corner of the country.

Another year, another Gen Con? Hardly. This year was the 40th anniversary of Gen Con, marked the announcement of the newest edition of Dungeons and Dragons, and was the first year videogame companies were actively sought out as exhibitors. Put together this resulted in what felt like record crowds, a healthy dealer's hall, and an instant conversation-starter with every other person at the event. Read on for notes on the new tabletop releases, thoughts on the new edition of D&D, impressions of the videogames that were in attendance, and a shameful admission of weakness. Gen Con remains a bastion of tabletop gaming, but I'll admit it: I didn't get as strong a sense of the new tabletop game releases as I have in previous years. Instead, I spent time I would have normally put towards demoing games with dice and pieces towards getting a handle on the handful of videogames at the event. It seemed like almost every one was a Massively Multiplayer Online Game, but there were several representatives of other genres as well.

What I did glean from this year's event is summed up very well by well-known designer Robin Laws: "This year was a holding pattern." Many of the companies making products for the Open Gaming License/d20 system seem to have died back. With the announcement of Fourth Edition, there will be a resurgence the year after next, but for this year things seemed to be fairly quiet.

This Year's Releases

So what was released this year? Biggest hits at the con, by far, were the Battlestar Galactica RPG, Changeling: The Lost, and the new version of Talisman. The Battlestar tabletop game is a sister product to the Serenity (as in Firefly) RPG, both of which use the same rules-set ("Cortex"), and are published by Margaret Weis Productions. The Serenity game has a fairly impressive following, with the core book already being on its fourth printing just a year after it was released. Battlestar seemed to be offering up a similar buzz. The Weis booth was also playing host to voice actor Jason Marsden, who plays the part of Tasslehoff Burrfoot in the upcoming animated Dragonlance movie. They showed off a trailer for the film, currently slated for release later this year.

White Wolf gamers may not have been waiting with baited breath for a new version of Changeling; it was never as popular as their 'big three' of Vampire, Werewolf, and Mage. Just the same, I saw a number of copies of the updated title walking away from the White Wolf/CCP booth this year. The attraction of EVE Online in the same booth didn't stop White Wolf players from picking up the latest in the 're-imagined' World of Darkness.

Talisman is probably a name familiar to long-time boardgame players. Under the Black Industries imprint, Games Workshop is re-releasing their classic adventure game with a slightly updated look and a few tweaks to the rules. From what I heard, though, it's almost entirely the same game that you knew back in the day. It just won't cost hundreds of dollars on eBay anymore. Lines for the title were going down the rows and out the door of the exhibit hall, and my impression is that they sold out pretty much every day they had new product to sell.

It didn't have as much buzz as other announcements at the con, but well worth noting was the formation of a company called Catalyst Game Labs. Catalyst is a new outfit formed from the ashes of "Fantasy Productions", or FanPro as it was more commonly called. FanPro has been publishing the Shadowrun RPG since FASA gave up the ghost a few years back, and while the quality of the books has been fairly high it would be kind to say that they've been released on any kind of regular schedule. The new company marks a turn for one of the most well-known intellectual properties in pen and paper gaming, with two new books (Emergence and Augmentation) available just at this convention. Working together with the folks behind the Classic Battletech line, they now having backing and a business plan. If you're a Shadowrun fan, there's going to be a lot to look forward to in the coming years.

Dungeons and Dragons Fourth Edition

The biggest news was, of course, the announcement that Wizards of the Coast is going to be releasing the fourth edition of Dungeons and Dragons next year. At a press event the day before their public announcement to Gen Con attendees, they tried to lay out the groundwork for their ambitious new plan. Essentially, these new books have been eight years in the making. The R&D team at WotC is looking to adapt Dungeons and Dragons to the way that it's played, and stop forcing gamers to play the game the way the game is set up. While the switchover from 2nd edition rules to 3.0 was an amazing step, it was in some ways still black magic. They now have a large base of knowledge to work from, that's going to let them change the game in fundamental ways. They hope it will be for the better.

The biggest changes will be mechanical. My review of the Saga Edition of the Star Wars RPG discussed the significant rules changes that title underwent; the R&D folks as much as admitted that book was sort of a 'test run' for concepts they'll be incorporating into fourth edition. The focus is going to be on ease of play for everyone, both in front of and behind the DM screen. Party roles will be more clearly defined. Encounters will be reformatted, and monsters retuned to more understandable roles and difficulty levels. It may just be hyperbole, but the designers are aiming to 'make D&D feel heroic again.' On the far end of the scale, this means that epic-level play will now be a core part of the game. That is, the Player Handbook will support level progression from 1-30. Levels 1-10 will be known as 'heroic' levels, where characters are better than the average human but still 'normal'. Levels 10-20 are 'paragon' levels, where characters accomplish feats only possible in a fictional environment. Levels 20-30 are 'epic' levels, where heroes will be able to step out into the world and change the course of history. Desiigner Chris Perkins put it this way: "We want first level to be more than 'run away, it's a kobold.' Gone are the days of the four hit point Wizard."

On top of that, WotC feels as though a new edition is necessary to support the other three columns of their ambitious new plan. Physical books are the most important part, but there are three other pieces that feed into the game. The first is community, exemplified by the terribly-named Gleemax.com website. Gleemax is going to offer up a single place where D&D gamers can come together to discuss the game, as well as CCGs, boardgames, and the lot; a MySpace for tabletop nerds, essentially.

Unfortunately, it's not clear how separate that piece will be from the ambitious D&DInsider.com. That site, essentially an outgrowth of the official Wizards of the Coast website content, is going to be a central hub for Dungeons and Dragons players. The late, lamented Dungeon and Dragon magazines will be available online there, and the site will also play host to the most novel concept in the fourth edition bag of tricks: The D&D Game Table. The Game Table is an online playspace, where groups can get together around a virtual table to actually play Dungeons and Dragons online. DMs will be able to lay out dungeon maps, place monsters, and run games. Players will have access to online versions of their purchased physical rulebooks, can make characters using a character creation tool, and can even create their own virtual miniatures for their characters. Voice chat will bring the whole group together. The WotC folks were very clear: this is not meant to take the place of your regular game. It's a place to go if your gaming group is spread across the country (or world) as so often happens in our busy modern world. They also envision a future where players who don't have regular games can hop online and connect with other folks to play in a regular campaign.

This last will likely be aided by the fourth leg of this concept: organized play. The RPGA has always been associated with but not a part of Dungeons and Dragons, if that makes any sense. With fourth edition the organized play campaigns will become a central component to the game experience. From your home, to the gaming store, online with the D&D Game Table, and all the way to conventions, the goal is for gamers to have a fun and slightly more formal handrail for gaming together. With a renewed interest in adventure publishing, designer goals seem to be to bring back the days when every D&D gamer could talk of playing through modules like Keep on the Borderlands or Tomb of Horrors.

All of this combines to an extremely ambitious goal: a brand new D&D. Just from anecdotal experience, from talking with players and retailers at the convention, my own gaming store, and from reading comments here on the site, the general reaction seems to be anger. The reason is understandable; 3.5 books aren't cheap, and many gamers have invested heavily in the current edition. In the latest D&D Podcast even the designers themselves admitted that 3.5 isn't 'that broken.' Thankfully, there's still quite some time before even the Player's Handbook comes out. The folks at Wizards have a good long while to explain to us what exactly they're planning to do. A long time to convince us, to reassure people that they really aren't ditching the OGL (full support), that their favorite campaigns will be supported (new Realms book next year, Eberron in 09), that it's worth shelling out another $90 for the upgrade. They've already begun, in fact; their ongoing design and development series has already put up posts on party roles, the new vision for Fighters, and what it's like to face a dragon in the new edition. If they even come close to delivering on what these articles imply, next year is going to be an interesting time to be a gamer.

Warhammer Online

Last year, I wrote this about WAR: "I wasn't very impressed, either with Mythic's showing or with the game itself. The buzz around the convention seemed to be that it is 'too much' of a World of Warcraft (WoW) ripoff." What a difference a year makes. Since then Mythic was purchased by EA, development has gone into high gear, and the company has done a tremendous job of getting out the word on what exactly Warhammer is all about. The result? A booth that was swarming with people from the moment the doors open until the exhibit hall closed. Their enthusiasm reflects my own; it's far and away the game I'm most looking forward to next year. I had the chance to take a Goblin Shaman for a spin in the Greenskins starting area, and the development team's cry of "War is everywhere" seems to have made for some inspired gaming.

Yes, it's primarily the same old level 1 experience you have in every other game. Kill grunts, gain xp, learn2play. But right away you start to see the difference. The Tome of Knowledge, for example, not only tracks what quests you're on, but tells you how many stunties you've killed (damn dwarves). Nearby a public quest is ongoing, as players struggle to kill the swarming squigs harrying a friendly giant. UI-wise, it looks like World of Warcraft redux, until you start to see all the extra doo-dads. My Goblin Shaman built up Waugh as he fought, which would have allowed me to heal more effectively had I been in a group. Morale rose as I fought too, allowing me to fire off special abilities just because I'd been fighting for a while. It's violent, it's fast, it's easy to pick up and play. And it's freaking hilarious. That dark British sense of humor seen in the tabletop game comes through loud and clear in-world, with everything from ability names (Brain Bursta, Geddup!) to quest themes. One of your very first encounters has you being tossed across a valley to the top of a dam, where you stuff unconscious dwarves into barrels and toss them over the side. I didn't even get a chance to check out Realm vs. Realm combat, the game's most exciting offering, and already I'm convinced of the title's potential. It's still in development, still getting the kinks worked out, but even in its half-finished state I think Warhammer is in a great position to turn heads next year.

Gods and Heroes

Perpetual's in-development Roman title, on the other hand, appears to be a bit adrift. At first blush it looks ready to succeed, with an inspiring and somewhat unconventional concept. The game focuses on combat in a mythical Roman setting where gods walk the land and monsters fill the wilderness. Combat with minion NPCs is the main mechanical draw. The minion system is a great addition to the genre, taking concepts seen in standard pet classes and the more advanced heroes of Guild Wars: Nightfall, and punching them up to the next level. On top of an interesting game setting and some new tweaks to gameplay, an ambitious animation system makes the game look as cinematic as it's described. Instead of blindly hacking at each other, fights involve stabbings, tosses, stamps, and throws. It's incredibly impressive when the animation system synchs up and pulls things off.

Unfortunately, there's a problem with that. Combat previously was 'locked', meaning that when two characters were fighting they were held fast so that animations could go off at set times. This looked really good, but playtesters found it too constraining. Perpetual listened, and has removed the locks. They're not working to tweak animation timing so that things will still look as cinematic as ever even without the lock system in place. It's still Beta, and there's time to get this stuff squared away ... but I have to be honest; the game felt like it was more than the two or three months away from launch than the company is claiming. When animations hit they look great, but right now combat is a mess to look at, moving through the world feels slow and cumbersome, and even the much-vaunted minion AI still needs to be tweaked. This game is doing a lot of things right, make no mistake, and I trust that when it launches it's going to garner some interest from players looking for something new. I just hope that the company gives Gods and Heroes the time it needs to succeed; right now it seems like it still needs a lot of work.

Fallen Earth

Big-name Massive games get a lot of press, but with the technologies behind MMOGs becoming ever better-understood smaller companies are starting to aim for a piece of that online pie. Fallen Earth is just such a game, backed by Icarus Studios. There's no word on a release date yet, but the little slice of the world I saw was fairly compelling. Assuming it goes live in the next six months or so, fans of the Fallout series will be able to sate their hunger on this post-apocalyptic treat. Fallen Earth imagines a southwest US ravaged by nuclear war and disease. In this bleak landscape you take on the role of an adventurer, working for the factions that control the vital resources of the area. Combat is a unique blend of FPS and RPG, with player skill determining if a shot hits and mechanics determining how much damage is done. The game feels like a fitting tribute to the complex CRPGs of yore. While it doesn't seem like it will reach widespread appeal, the players in this niche are going to have a lot to enjoy in this bleak, violent, and surprisingly funny Massive game.

Legends of Norrath

A collectible card game wrapped inside a Massively Multiplayer game sounds like crazy talk, but the folks at SOE are betting this will be a big hit. Certainly the concept is simple enough: give players of EverQuest and EverQuest 2 something to do while they're waiting for a group, or just as a way to mix things up a bit from the standard grind/kill/grind gameplay of a fantasy MMOG. While it's a simple idea, the execution is surprisingly robust. Players will be able to purchase virtual cards for a fairly low fee, or find them in booster packs dropped by in-world monsters. Decks can be constructed with the aid of a deck-building wizard (the software, not magical kind), and put to use combating players of both titles or NPC opponents. Gameplay seems to be of the 'easy to learn, hard to master' type that is quite prevalent in CCGs, with a few EverQuest-specific twists. The game will also offer up in-game loot from certain cards, just like a certain other CCG based on a MMOG ...

Pirates of the Burning Sea

I'll come clean: if the epic battle ever comes, I'll be siding with the buccaneers vs. the ninjas. It was a great pleasure, then, to get to have some more hands-on time with this most atypical online game. Although, again, I fear that broad market appeal may not be within reach, Pirates is shaping up to be darn fine game. The ship-to-ship combat is rock solid, immensely fun to play, and feels completely different from any other MMO experience you've ever had. There's a stateliness to the combat that makes the smoothly gliding schooners and soaring cannonballs somehow epic in scope. Swordplay is still a little rough, with the team still polishing in anticipation of a launch later this year. Even with the rough edges, this isn't your standard fantasy hack and slash. Players kick sand into the faces of their foes before a well-placed boot to the stomach takes them down. It's not fantasy, it's not sci-fi, it's piratical, and if you like Massively Multiplayer games you owe it to yourself to give Pirates of the Burning Sea a try.

Eye of Judgement

One of the few non-MMOGs at the event, this strange videogame/collectible card game/strategy game hybrid was drawing crowds simply because of its awesome visuals. The in-game art is definitely the first thing you notice, and is stunningly well-done. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this game, which has players angling for control of a three-by-three grid. Cards are played onto each square of the grid, where they're analyzed by the new PlayStation Eye camera and animated on the television screen. While it initially comes off as just eye candy, a few minute's play reveals the numerous layers of depth to the game. Cards have facings, for example, and must be angled to ensure their blind spots are protected. Grid squares are aligned with different elements, as are creatures, requiring players to not only control the board but consider where their thralls are placed. It deserves commentary at length, but suffice it to say that it's not going to get the kind of success it deserves. Given the strange hoops required to jump through to play, this inspired title is just not going to find the audience it should. If you have a PS3, though, I highly recommend at least giving this a unique experience a try when it comes out later this year; they're even including the eye for no extra cost.

Conclusions

Last year I was lamenting the decision to include videogames in Gen Con's mission statement, worrying that this would be the end of the convention I've grown to love over the years. That was, of course, before seeing the lackluster showing of the E3 Media event and the closure of Gen Con So Cal. "Gen Con Indy" is now the only Gen Con, and is one of the furthest east offerings for gamers when it comes to videogames. In short: videogames coming to Gen Con may be the best thing to happen to it since the move to Indianapolis. Between the MMOGs, the D&D announcement, and a huge number of attendees, the convention felt revitalized. There was a hum and a murmer to the hallways that's been lower key in previous years. It was, as always, a chance to see game designers in their natural element, and all of the folks at WotC seemed to have an extra spring in their step this year.

The tabletop gamer is a dying breed; it's well acknowledge that Massively Multiplayer games are killing them off. Playing with your friends is so much easier in your home from a PC, and is something that can be done regardless of what time zone everyone is in. This year, though, I had hope that maybe we might not be dying off so quickly as I thought. Fourth edition is an obvious strike back, an attempt by Wizards of the Coast to fight 'the enemy' on its own terms while applying eight years of careful observation back into the game mechanics.

It's incredibly risky, and the future of the most popular and well-known tabletop game hangs in the balance as a result. On the one hand, this could blow the tabletop hobby firmly into the mainstream. Dice rollers could take their place at the side of the World of Warcraft players, proudly explaining their misunderstood hobby to their relatives in terms they can understand. Or, this could completely alienate the D&D playerbase and collapse the house that the d20 built. I personally am excited. I'm excited about the possibility of a Dungeons and Dragons game without the kruft. I'm excited about the chance to play online with friends across the country. I'm excited about organized play tied directly into the core game. And I'm excited about the future of a Gen Con with no imitators on the west coast, new attendees drawn by electronic gaming, and ever-more-professional game design companies working on the hobby I love.

I'm also, sadly, excited about the future of the World of Warcraft CCG. Perhaps because of my exposure to Legends of Norrath and Eye of Judgement, my demo of the now-year-old game left me vulnerable to the dealers in the exhibit hall. I've spent the last few days happily tweaking my Blue Shaman deck, and look foward to running it against all comers at PAX. Anyone have a Parvink or two they'd be willing to trade?

bigstrat2003 writes "For the past day, Wizards of the Coast has had a countdown to "4dventure" on their web site. The countdown ran out at 6:30 eastern time today (and the web site promptly crashed), but stories are already appearing on the rest of the web. Wizards also has had their 4th edition forums up for a couple of days."