When I was twelve, and just so that age has a reference, note that I am
twenty-five now, gaming was simply what I did. I would get together with
three of my middle school friends and play this game called Dungeons and
Dragons that all of our parents had summarily forbidden us from playing.
But when you're twelve, parental disproval only increases the desire. I
continued gaming all throughout high school, even though I was still,
technically, forbidden from playing the game. Even in my senior year of
high school in 1993 . . . . . 1993!!? That was 8 years ago!!!?!
Even in my senior year in high school, roleplaying was a big part of what I
did. And as I recall, it was a big part of what a lot of people did. The
second edition of Advanced Dungeons and Dragons was steam rolling ahead and
garnering new gamers everyday, Vampire the Masquerade was at the time the
messed up game made just for the Cure listening goth crowd, and while gaming
was still considered geeky and only for weirdos, the following was strong,
loyal, and eager for the next new release of their favorite game. And
during this time, in my home city of Houston, there were well over a dozen
high quality gaming supply stores in the city: NAN's, Third Planet, Midnight
Comics and Games, Larry's Hobbys, Phoenix Comics and Games, Hero Comics,
Empire Comics, Tarnaak's Lair, The Commissary, Comics and Cards, and a few
others.
About four years ago I noticed that one by one, gaming stores began to fall.
By 1997 we had lost a lot of our smaller gaming supply shops in Houston.
Things looked grim. So, in 1998 I hosted a gaming and sci-fi convention in
Houston. It went very well. My faith in my hometown's gaming community had
been restored. Four hundred people showed up and rubbed elbows with the
likes of Steve Jackson and Gary Gygax, C.S. Friedman, Susan Van Camp, and
got acquainted with all the gaming stores in Houston since 90% of them
showed up to support the event. Things looked good. I tried ran the event
the following year but I made too many mistakes and went too far in debt
during it so in 2000 I didn't run it. For the duration of 2000 I was
chained to a computer doing the final editing and layout for the mass print
version of Wayfarer Infinity, so I didn't really have any time to game.
Then, last November I crawled out of my hole, ready to game with my buds
again. First off, I'd hit my local gaming community and get some dice and
check out some new games . . . What? What happened to Comics and Cards?
Where did Hero Comics go? Empire? Tarnaak? Hello? Gone. All the small
to midsize gaming supply stores were gone. And 90% of the Comics and Games,
or Hobbies and Games stores had removed the "Games" from their signs. So
what is this? I turn my back for a year and turn around and find the
apocalypse that is the hobby store community.
I made the rounds to some of the ones who had stopped carrying gaming
products and received the same story from most of them:
The product wasn't moving
Most new gamers these days just play console and computer games
The manufacturers aren't doing much to keep the retailers alive
Houston's a very big city with around 4,000,000 residents. Which means,
statistically speaking, there should be at least 80,000 gamers in Houston
alone (.02%). That's a lot of dice.
The way I see it, gaming is a hobby whose participants are for the most part
very loyal to the pastime. RPG lines are to gamers what home teams are for
sports fanatics. Gamers like to see their favorite game do well. They
like to know that their hobby is thriving and appreciated. Playing
roleplaying games is subculture enough. Knowing that even the subculture is
jading it for sub-subculture is just debilitating.
For crying out loud people. Put away the Evercrack! What kind of brain dead
placebo entertainment is that. Click - Click - Whoosh - Whirl - . The opiate that is computer gaming is the most
mind numbing and thrill killing form of entertainment. Put away the damn
eye candy. Get your friends back to the gaming people. Invite new people
to game. Make one night a week a night where you get together with people
who's company you enjoy and stop playing busty rogues on fly by night
computer games just so players will give you free stuff because they think
you're a girl. Chatting for hours with nameless, faceless, freaks of nature
and bags of human atrophy is no substitute for a solid gaming night with
your real friends. Take a look in the mirror and look at the pallid flesh
and those sunken eyes and remember that the six hours you spent chatting
with the busty Valkyrie Lucy, was really six hours of chatting with a short,
bald, very confused forty-six year old Greek man named Costaki.
Get out there, encourage new players, restart your old group, invite some
new faces, break out the chips, pizza, and Dr. Pepper twelve packs, and play
a game once a week until the sun comes up. Stop writhing in the digital
prisons of flash in the pan cheap thrilless lackluster games.
Timothy Till
President Rune's Law Inc.
P.O. Box 73146
Houston, TX 77273
(281) 397-7595 Phone
(281) 397-6640 Fax
-- Makers of Wayfarer Infinity: Science-Fantasy Role Playing
-- Hosts of "I Think Therefore I Con" in Houston, Texas
