| From: | Daniel M Perez <d028200c@**.SEFLIN.ORG> |
|---|---|
| Subject: | GAMA Trade Show Report |
| Date: | Tue, 7 Apr 1998 02:04:05 -0400 |
I must say that it was a blast, and I hope to be able to do it once again
next year. That said, let's go to what you want to hear.
Thursday night was the Punchline Live! forum hosted by Michael Stackpole,
featuring Peter Adkinson of WotC, Steve Wieck of White Wolf, And Jill
Lucas of FASA, among others. It was an interesting night as they all
talked about the state of the industry, present and future. Everyone
seemd optimistic about it, though, and between jokes and jokes, WotC got
slapped a couple of times by the other panel members. Ouch! It was funny,
though. Afterwards it was pretty much just hanging around.
Saturday was my first day at the GAMA show for me due to work the two
previous days (damn work, gets in the way of fun!). I arrived
mid-morning, hoping to catch some of the seminars for retailers, but they
wouldn't start for another hour and a half so I sat down at the Lounge to
organize my cards (sadly enough no one had Shadowrun cards to play, or
Star Wars, or Magic, for that matter. Everyone was playing Doomtown! It
was the rage of the show!). About twenty minutes after I met up with two
employees from Decipher Inc, Gold and Red Leader for Star Wars CCG (I am
a SWCCG Tournament Director, after all) and had breakfast with them.
After I went to the seminars while every exhibitor went off to set up the
exhibit booth.
I had to wait until 2:00 pm to enter the exhibit hall (I'm not a GAMA
member) so I sat outside chatting with different people, retailers,
manufacturers, and such. At 2:00 pm I went inside into gamer heaven. I
won't bore you with all that I saw from all the different companies
there, so I'll go straight to when I went to FASA's booth.
I actually didn't get too much time to check out FASA on Saturday, as
everytime I went by, the FASA people seemed to be chatting with other
manufacturers and distributors (bussiness stuff), so I just checked out
the booth that day, and picked up their new catalog.
I returned Sunday to the Exhibit Hall and actually got to talk to people
this time (I was racing through all the booths on Saturday, not wanting
to miss anything). As an added bonus I got to meet Michael Stackpole,
author of many Star Wars novels and at least one Shadowrun novel I know
of. He's a great guy and we talked for a while about games and gaming
and the show. I wish I could have found one of my novels for him
to sign, but it was late and I had to take the bus so I didn't have time
to look for one in the morning in the pile that is my bookcase.
But down to the goodies. I spoke to Jill Lucas on Sunday, and got some
info on upcoming stuff from FASA. The new expansion for Shadowrun will
indeed be Corp Wars, featuring Corp-sponsored runner teams, Corp
challenges and Objectives, new runners and more. It is scheduled for a
July release! After that, she said they were already working on the third
expansion. We'll have Shadowrun for some time!
I got to see the covers for the new Battletech Compenduim and Shadowrun
3rd. Ed. (pretty cool art, captures the feel of Shadowrun). As an added
bonus I got a deck of First Run, and some promo cards from Underworld! I
now have King of the Hill, Genetics Lab and The Skills to Pay the Bills!
I also got some Nerps! too (you gusy should've seen the stack of each
card they had!). I'll be saving them to give out at Shadowrun demos around
here.
That's pretty much all I got from FASA. I wish Mike or Jim would've gone
to meet them and talk to them. Everyone at the FASA Team was very
interested in how the game was doing; everyone likes the game and has
high hoped for it.
All in all, GAMA was a great show and a great weekend. I had tons of fun,
got to meet a lot of people from all tiers of the industry, played new
games, saw new products, and went home with tons of goodies! I hope I can
make it next year, too. Now, to see what other show I can hit this year.
Later!
Till paths meet,
Daniel M. Perez | Miami Star Wars CCG Tournament Director
highmoon@*********.com | Rebel Gamers of Miami - Rebel Leader
| http://www.geocities.com/~highmoon
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"Tears on the sleeve of a man, don't wanna be a boy today."
-Tori Amos, "Pretty Good Year"
