Hobby Games: The 100 Best

[Erick Wujcik]

I've yet to see it myself, but I've contributed an essay to a new book, just released at Gencon, called 'Hobby Games: The 100 Best,' which collects the remarks and opinions of 100 different game industry folks, resulting in 100 different essays on 100 outstanding games. For more information:

http://www.greenronin.com/store/grr4001

Here's a list of a few of the role-playing games that have been covered:

Amber Diceless by Nicole Lindroos
BattleTech by Philip Reed
Call of Cthulhu by Monte Cook
Champions by Bill Bridges
Dungeons & Dragons by Richard Garfield
Metamorphosis Alpha by Gary Gygax
My Life With Master by Greg Costikyan
Paranoia by Steve Jackson (US)
Shadowrun by Steven S. Long
Traveller by Mike Pondsmith
Vampire: The Masquerade by George Vasilakos

As I said, are 100 contributors, with lots of big names, such as the guys listed above, plus Jim Dunnigan, the founder of SPI, who does the Afterward. As for me, I'm also in the book, writing about one of my all-time favorite boardgames, Steve Jackson's OGRE.

Erick

[Otha]

Oh!  Ogre!  Yeah, baby.

[Zachary The First]

My Life With Master by Greg Costikyan

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etuPF1yJRzg

[Otha]

Swine game.  Ignore it.  The designer thinks it's good.

[Christopher Kubasik]

Swine game.  Ignore it.  The designer thinks it's good.

Actually, no.  Greg Costikyan thinks it's good.

Here's Costikyan's review of My Life with Master.

Some of you might want to think about coming out of the bunker. Really. It's okay.

Back to the topic...

Erick, thanks for pointing this book out. The line up looks really great.

CK

[joewolz]

That's a pretty good review and an interesting way of looking at it.  Who's Greg Costikyan?

[James J Skach]

Actually, no.  Greg Costikyan thinks it's good.

Here's Costikyan's review of My Life with Master.

Some of you might want to think about coming out of the bunker. Really. It's okay.

Back to the topic...

Erick, thanks for pointing this book out. The line up looks really great.

CK

Bunker?  There's a bunker?

Funny, all I see in this post is a vaguely familiar tone of condescension.  I wonder why...

[James J Skach]

What is the process, if any, to determine if an RPG gets to be on the list? Is it simply that someone (with enough gravitas) decides to write about a specific game?

Thanks,
Jim

[joewolz]

What is the process, if any, to determine if an RPG gets to be on the list? Is it simply that someone (with enough gravitas) decides to write about a specific game?

Thanks,
Jim

The book is not all RPGs, in fact, it seemed to not even be mostly RPGs.

[J Arcane]

That's a pretty good review and an interesting way of looking at it.  Who's Greg Costikyan?

A bitter, irrelevant old man.

[Erick Wujcik]

What is the process, if any, to determine if an RPG gets to be on the list?

In my case it was pretty simple. They asked me if I'd like to contribute, based on the premise that I would be able to write about my favorite 'hobby game.'

Since my first choice (Acquire) was already taken, I got to write about my second choice, Steve Jackson's Ogre.

The basic idea was to find interesting game industry folks, and then give them the chance to rave about their personal favorite game.

I get the impression I was contacted fairly late in the process, but that's probably because I was in China for almost all of 2006, so I missed Gencon, Origins and the other big hobby game conventions.

Erick

[Otha]

I gotta get more iron in my diet.

[Erick Wujcik]

Who's Greg Costikyan?

Aside from being a personal friend, Greg Costikyan is a giant in both hobby games and electronic games. He started off as a youngster working for Jim Dunnigan at SPI (the greatest war game company ever!), and went on to be the main game designer for West End Games, and then made some of the best of the early computer games.

Here is his main website: http://www.costik.com/

His very long Ludography (list of games): http://www.costik.com/ludograf.html

His blog (which many consider to be the equivalent of RPGpundit in the Electronic Game Sphere): http://www.costik.com/weblog/

Somewhere on the web you can probably find an audio or video recording of Greg's acceptance speech, when he was given the 'Industry Maverick Award' at the 2007 Game Developers Conference (GDC). I was there, and it brought tears to my eyes and I applauded long and hard, along with thousands of others. In lieu of the whole speech, let me just reproduce this small section:

...I want you to imagine a 21st century in which games are the predominant art form of the age, as film was of the 20th, and the novel of the 19th; in which the best games are correctly lauded as sublime products of the human soul.

   I want you to imagine an educational system in which games are integrated into every aspect of the curriculum, in which everyone understands that games can illuminate things in ways that are complementary to but different from text.

   I want you to imagine a world in which games dare to tackle the most knotty, controversial, and difficult issues our society faces--and are not condemned but praised for doing so.

   I want you to imagine a world in which the common person is no longer ignorant of economics, physics and the functioning of the environment --things which are themselves interactive systems --because they have interacted with them in the form of games.

   I want you to imagine a world where it us understood that continuing to play into adulthood is not failing to grow up, but rather preserving the flexibility and ability to learn that is essential in an era of rapid technological change...

So, why did Greg get the award?

Well, back at the 2005 GDC, during an 'Industry Rant' when he started by saying, basically, that he might never get work again, but he was fed up with the direction of the (computer) game biz:

My friends, we are fucked. We are well and truly fucked.

The bar, in terms of graphics and glitz, has been raised and raised and raised until no one can any longer afford to risk anything at all. The sheer labor involved in creating a game has increased exponentially, until our only choice is permanent crunch and mandatory 80 hour weeks—at least until all our jobs are out-sourced to Asia.

With these stakes, risk must be avoided. But without risk, there is no innovation; and innovation is what drives growth in games.

But it's okay, because The HD Era is here, and big bux are to be made. It doesn't matter if all we do from here to eternity is more photorealistic drivers and shooters with more polygons on the screen; it doesn't matter if our idea of innovation becomes blowing into a microphone—because after all, look on the bright side. Bing Gordon's wallet will be thicker.

I say—enough.

The time has come for revolution.

Here's Boing Boing's version of Greg's whole Rant: http://www.boingboing.net/2005/03/11/game_developers_amaz.html

That was 2005. I remember it well. Not because I was there, but because I met up with Greg shortly afterwards, and we talked about it while we walked the darkening streets of San Francisco, and I was very, very proud of him.

In the coming year I had reason to be even more proud of Greg, when he committed his money, his life and his soul to back up the words. He did that by creating Manifesto Games:

http://www.manifestogames.com/

If you haven't heard of it, Manifesto Games is dedicated to publishing cool experimental games, and providing the creative outlet that's been in very short supply among the big electronic game publishers.

Calling Greg Costikyan "A bitter, irrelevant old man" is very wrong.

Erick

[James J Skach]

Thanks Eric!

I wonder...

The basic idea was to find interesting game industry folks, and then give them the chance to rave about their personal favorite game.

Pundit's interesting.  Ok, so sometimes he seems a lunatic, but he seems to generate interest.
He's now an official part of the game industry. He's new to the official part, having just published, with clash, FtA!.

• Would they ask him?
• What would he rave about as his personal favorite game?

[RPGPundit]

Ogre truly rocks, but I like it even better when its incorporated with GEV, it sequel.

Anyways, my own favourite game would be Amber. Were that one taken, however, it'd be pretty tough to choose.  If it were a computer game, I'd have said Nethack (or all roguelikes).  Were it a "hobby" board game, I'd say History of the World.

RPGPundit