The Night of the Long Wands

Word is that Wizards of the Coast laid off up to a couple dozen people yesterday, including some of the most talented members of its game design staff. Wizards has a long history of shedding employees in December, presumably to improve Hasbro’s balance sheet before the end of its fiscal year. They also often end up hiring again early the …

The Gen Con Drama Deepens

This morning, I wake up to find that the fine folks at ICv2.com have done some excellent digging around about the Gen Con takeover bid. First, they eliminated the most likely suspects for the mysterious backers of the Gen Con Acquisition Group. It’s not GAMA, and it’s not F & W Publications. Then they learned the truth–or at least part …

More LOTRO

The Lord of the Rings Online website features more LOTRO-y goodness. Look for “Hero’s Guide to the Silvertine Lodes.” As usual, Will Hindmarch wrote it, and I edited it. By the way, if you haven’t checked out the game, I recommend it. The Mines of Moria expansion really rocks. I’m also getting into Guild Wars these days. The fact that …

Blood Bowl on Comicon.com

A short while back, Jennifer Contino interviewed me for her Pulse column at Comicon.com. You can now read the results online. Jennifer clearly didn’t know much about the history of Blood Bowl as a game, and I suspect many comic-book fans might not either. I enjoyed having the chance to set things straight and give credit where it was due: …

Gen Con for Sale–But Not Really

My favorite time of the year–Gen Con–has been in bankruptcy since early this year. While the core business (Gen Con Indy) is sound, the company lost money trying to establish Gen Con So Cal and on a disastrous Star Wars Celebration III. As my pal Peter Adkison explained, the idea was to establish a strong showing at Gen Con Indy …

(My) Kids in the News

Last Friday, Ashley Rhodebeck came over from the Beloit Daily News to interview my family. She’d been assigned to update the local readers about our quadruplets and how they’re doing. The article appears in today’s paper, and you can read all about us online too. The kids had a ball talking with Ashley. When her car pulled into the driveway, …