With the E3 expo moving focus off of fans and attempting to narrow its targets onto the core business side of gaming, video game publishers have begun to move their promotional drives over to other large conventions. GenCon is no exception. While GenCon has had its share of videogame representation, particularly games related to RPGs, the video game side of things has grown somewhat in recent years. In addition, the video game industry (which some argue grew out of the board and RPG gaming industry) continues to filter back into the world of boardgaming.  While it has been a few weeks since GenCon actually happened, many of the newest games on display at the convention are only now appearing in your local game store.  (For example, Starcraft: The Boardgame is expected to be available later this month.)

One of the boardgame publishers aggressively pursuing video game licenses is Fantasy Flight Games (or FFG for short). This Minneapolis based game publisher is known for its large, combat-oriented games involving lots and lots of little plastic pieces. This year is no exception. The big news here is Starcraft: the Boardgame. The initial preview copies of the game sold out in the first two hours of the convention. The game contains great miniatures of most of the standard units from each of the four races, set in six different colors (two for each race). The game plays very similar to the computer game in that players build up their economies and vie for control of key production areas. Scalable for anywhere from two to six players this mega-sized game is definitely something to behold. Also in FFG’s hold is a new expansion to World of Warcraft: the Boardgame. This expansion based off of the online Burning Crusade expansion provides players with even more monster options to fight (including a new color – purple) as well as an entirely new map that becomes available partway through the game. While not based off a videogame license, Tannhauseris a squad based game of combat that developers claim plays more like a first person shooter than any other boardgame out there. The gameplay does appear to proceed at a fairly brisk pace, giving credence to the claim. In the most unique game mechanic I saw at GenCon, the game board is covered with colored circles to indicate the spaces that players can use. The circles are color-coded so that any figure has a line of sight to any other figure in a similar colored circle. Some circles even have multiple colors to indicate their clear line of sight into and out of multiple areas. And not to leave the younger (or young at heart) video gamers out, Fantasy Flight Games is also gearing up to publish a collectible card game based on the popular Kingdom Hearts franchise. Already popular in Japan, FFG is translating the game into English and publishing the game here in the states. Look for it some time this fall

The convention isn’t just about boardgames, and the line between digital and tabletop is becoming blurred with the upcoming release of The Eye of Judgment by Sony. Using a PS3 and its standard camera attachment the game reads codes on physical cards and then displays the card’s associated graphics on the television screen. So, if a player’s card represents a giant robot, when it is played on the gaming mat below the camera, the card shows up on the screen and an animated robot walks out of the card, ready to do battle. Of course, all the cards are collectible so be prepared to shell out some significant cash if you want to collect all 100+ available cards. While the marketing might be a little much, the game looks great on the screen and brings us all that much closer to Star Wars chess – just don’t forget to let the Wookie win.

Sony’s online division, SOE, was also present and promoting their various upcoming Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPGs). I had originally dropped by the booth to scope out the online implementation of Wizkids’ collectible constructible card game based off of Pirates. The game consists of plastic cards with punch-out designs that form cute little pirate ships and can be used to play a quick little naval battle themed game. The transition to online play has been fairly smooth with players able to sign on to the program and play the game in tournaments or just between friends any time they wish. Players can create their own tournaments and the online interface will even provide the winners with prizes (like new ship cards for use online, etc…) While checking out the online Pirates game, two MMORPGs caught my attention. First, Pirates of the Burning Sea is a game where players can take the role of a ships captain and sail as a pirate or for one of several countries in the Caribbean. Tasks and missions are undertaken as an individual as well as a captain of one of the many possible ship types. Hand to hand combat seems to have quite a bit of depth while naval combat looks to have enough realism to please at least a few die-hard naval combat fans. The second MMORPG I spotted was Gods and Heroes: Rome Rising. This game is fairly unique in that players take on the role of a primary character and develop a squad of followers over time. In almost a Pokemon manner, players can meet and convince other characters to join their party. These party members then join with you and adventure with you, gaining experience and improving their abilities as they grow. At the highest levels, players will have as many as four different followers (out of dozens of possible choices). Thus, five players could actually form up a 25 character raid group and do some serious dungeon delving. The graphics look nice, but a GamerDad warning should go out about some of the combat. At times it lapses into some serious All-Star Wresting moves during combat animations. That can be quite engaging to watch but is a bit more over the top than other games in this genre.

A final mention should be given to the other companies in attendance. Blizzard had a strong showing with kiosks available to play World of Warcraft and (more importantly) StarCraft II. From the little I saw it was looking pretty good. Atari continued to show off new content for their online RPG based of Dungeons and Dragons (titled, surprisingly Dungeons and Dragons Online). Look for a NeverWinter Nights 2 expansion coming later this month as well.

 If you enjoyed my mini-tour of this year’s GenCon with an eye toward videogamers, hope you’ll stick around.  As my first “love” (as it were) is boardgames, I tend to look at most video and computer gaming through the eyes of more of a casual or strategy gamer.  Hope my first post here at GameSanity was to your satisfaction.  Look to see more of me in the future as I weigh in on gaming and education, casual gaming, gaming with secondary students, and stragtegy gaming.

Tags: Misc