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The Village Square: April 6, 2017

1

Make games and prosper
Wizkids has renewed their Star Trek license. What do they plan to do with it? Lots! Expect new expansion ships for their popular Attack Wing miniatures combat game. They will also produce unpainted miniatures for those who want to customize their fleets.  Plus Star Trek Frontiers, Tactics and HeroClix will all receive expansions, as well.
Source: http://wizkids.com/2017/04/04/wizkids-announces-new-star-trek-lines-expands-existing-star-trektm-offerings/

My game’s so bright I gotta wear shades
Get ready for Red Scare from Pandasaurus Games, a social deduction exercise where half the players wear 3D glasses that decode secret messages.  Everyone’s an FBI agent, but some are communist double-agents! Sweet artwork, too.
Source: https://www.tabletopgaming.co.uk/board-games/news/red-scare-is-a-social-deduction-game-with-soviets-hidden-messages-and

The Purr-fect pair
Next month Ultra Pro Entertainment will release a pair of frisky family games. Fetch is a tile-laying game where players get their furry friends to their favorite treats. Battle Kittens is a card drafting combat game where the fur really flies! Hopefully it also has lots of puns.
Source: http://acddistribution.blogspot.com/2017/04/fetch-battle-kittens-new-from-ultra-pro.html

Twilight in the return of two RPGs
White Wolf Entertainment, now owned by Swedish publisher Paradox Interactive, will release Vampire: The Masquarade 5th Edition early in 2018, followed by a new edition of its cult following Werewolf role playing game. More interesting, the company plans to expand the material across different entertainment media, like board games and in a new partnership with Asmodee Digital.
Source: https://icv2.com/articles/news/view/37162/new-editions-vampire-werewolf-rpgs

Board games as investments?
Generally speaking, no I would not recommend a portfolio full of cardboard. However, an original printing of Diplomacy (1 of 500) did recently sell for $5,234 on eBay. That’s not a bad return. Well, I don’t know how much the collector paid for it, I guess…
Source: http://www.ebay.com/itm/1959-DIPLOMACY-1ST-EDITION-1-500-Estate-Inventor-ALLAN-B-CALHAMER-/262911348603

The Good and the Bad
What makes a board game good or bad? While it’s not so clear cut nor objective, this in-depth well-thought article muses on some interesting concepts and insights.
Source: http://www.creakingshelves.com/can-games-be-bad/

International Table Top Day
Don’t yet have any plans for April 29th? Here’s a list of nationwide Barnes & Noble stores participating in the event.  Hit yours up soon and find out what they have planned to join in the fun!
Source: http://iellogames.com/wordpress/international-table-top-day-participating-barnes-noble-locations/

Upcoming Board Game Conventions
April 7-9. Gaming Hoopla. Gurnee, Illinois.
April 7-9. Protospiel. San Jose, California.
April 22-23. QC Game Fest. Davenport, Iowa.
April 27-30. Kingdom-Con. San Diego, California.
May 12-14. CMoN Expo. Atlanta, Georgia.
May 18-21. Geekway to the West. St. Charles, Missouri.
May 25-29. Game Fest 29. Atlanta, Georgia.
May 26-29. Gamex 2017. Los Angeles, California.
May 26-29. KublaCon. San Francisco, California.
June 14-18. Origins Game Fair. Columbus, Ohio.
June 23-35. Polycon. San Luis Obispo, California.
July 5-9. Dice Tower Con. Orlando, Florida.
July 15-17. Protospiel. Manchester, Michigan.
July 22-30. World Boardgaming Championship. Champion, Pennsylvania.
July 28-30. NovaComic-Con. Tyson’s Corner, Virginia.
August 17-20. Gen Con 50. Indianapolis, Indiana.
August 25-27. Coulee Con. La Crosse, Wisconsin.
September 1-4. Gateway 2017. Los Angeles, California.
September 1-4. Pacificon Game Expo. Santa Clara, California.
September 9-10. WashingCon. Washington, D.C.
September 15-17. GrandCon. Grand Rapids, MI.
September 15-17. Protospiel. Chicago, Illinois.
October 13-15. XPO 2017. Tulsa, Oklahoma.
November 17-19. PAX Unplugged. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Visit casualgamerevolution.com for more convention listings.

I have lots of kids. Board games help me connect with them, while still retaining my sanity...relatively speaking.

Discussion1 Comment

  1. Games as investments, eh?

    Diplomacy was published in 1959 so the investment takes 58 years to pay off.

    8% per annum would be a fantastic rate of growth, so to manage that over 58 years you’d end up with 7442% of what you’d originally invested.

    The payoff for this was $5234 on what was originally a $20 game. So that’s a 26170% return which seems pretty great.

    However this only works because we know how popular Diplomacy was. To actually do it you’d need to predict that a game was going to become as much a long term classic as Diplomacy is before its first print run is sold out. To match traditional investing you’d need to spend a little under $70 for each classic first edition you wound up with.

    So I guess it’s a sound investment opportunity if you can predict which games will become classics to an accuracy of at least 1 in 3? I’m pretty sure I know plenty of gamers who *think* they can do that 😉

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