You will get more people at GenCon is the normal thought. Even people who might not travel just to play aGoT will go to play aGoT 50% of the time and be able to do all the rest as well. Days of Ice and Fire was great, but even if it held 'worlds' I don't know if it would be required if I didn't live pretty close. And that was when GRRM actually attended himself! *shrug*

I thought the ACTION was unethical, not the people? I have been an a-hole on rare occasions, and have been called out for being so, but hopefully that doesn't make me an out-and-out a-hole I also didn't agree with FM all the time, but he was a welcome voice!

Rogue30 said: You are very optimistic person. Another game that needs proper testing? I am still a little confused here. I am not sure who we are comparing testing with? I have played (too) many CCG's in my life, and I would put the # of mistakes by FFG probably close to the bottom. As I said, AEG just banned a few, Magic has their share...YGO has millions of them, and a super-duper restricted list (although no rotation) if I remember right. It is part of the game, and overall I think FFG has done pretty well. Two full rotations have certainly helped that, in total card pool. I just have never seen any numbers that says that FFG has more erratta/bannings/restrictions than any other game. *shrug* Sidenote: I heard as well that FFG was not limited to one card game. Anything that brings in revenues with an accurate representation of the universe I am sure they will approve. Last note: Decipher's 1v1 Star Wars game was an unmitigated success, and even still probably has more competative players than many games after being 'dead' for - what - five years? More? The company itself disinegrated though bad decisions and an employee stealing a TON of money. I knew some people over there, and even after paying Lucas they were pulling good $$ out of that game all the way until they lost the licence to a company that could keep its house in order (but unluckily, put out a crap game).

Stag Lord said: Nice TR rings - you always provide good and entertining write ups - even though you are abd at deatils. FWIW - i agree with you on the competitive scene and the flavor of the game right now in general. People can say what they want - and if it works for you great: - but i have pulled way way back from the competitive scene and spend 95% of my time in casual meet up play and League Night stuff. Much more fun. I'm surprised its gotten to the point where its become teams and net decking adn that sort of scene just isn't fun for me. Glad I'm not alone in my sentiments. Nice TR. The two totally go together. If I would have been more excited about competative play (remember, I am the guy who has posted on the Monday afterwards for...um...8?...9?...straight years) I would have posted earlier and remembered (and had the want to post) more details. Being fairly releived to not make the 4-2 cut is a bad sign

goshdarnstud said: I thin I confronted him about this as well. I think we have a new player type Tyrion, I say I'm loyal to one house but instead I kill them and run to another. Oh, snap! I know Kennon and I DID talk about being more excited to play Lanni (he did give me a few ideas that I need to work on). They did only have kneel, and a couple of months of trait manip until it was decided that Ravens were too good (boo!!!!! Considering it won all of one Regional, and in the hands of Mathlete). Now maybe with a Clanman subtheme I am excited to mix a little kneel, a little trait manip and some other stuff together again after the box is reaized. I liked the Targ box pretty well, it just didn't make much of a splash. Too many cost 4 characters w/o enough protection (I would seriously KILL someone for Put to the ? again). Looks like there is a lot more of that coming up as well (of the bomb charcters, they all were 4 cost...oh, AND a 3-cost Ally - thanks!), so I am reserving judgement on Lanni even.

I always love the "i want to complain about people complaining...on the internet" posts Good, pretty well-written article though. MAYBE not the best ever, but still.

Why is calling out the ethics so infammatory? People have different standards. *shrug* You state your position to the contrary and move on. Personally, I would have tried to win the title for myself at the final table, no matter who was sitting across from me. Historically, that has been the case with the previous winners. That is a position, not any different than people who think since they didn't break any rules, there was no ethics issue. Sorry, I don't see the issue...I guess I have pretty thick skin. If my particular behavior was attacked, I would defend myself (if I felt I should) and move on, ignoring said thread. Heck, I think I did that a few months ago when I made the mistake of allowing FFG to call their own game's GenCon tourney "worlds". *shrug even more*

Rogue30 said: As for SW, I guess Wizards version made tons of $$ too? Actually it did to start with (it was the #2 or #3 selling CCG for a year). And then people realized they used dice in a CCG. Which sucks. I would still bet in the two years of operations, they had more revenues than any five year period of aGoT...because it is Star Wars. Decipher made a crap-load of $$ off it as well, before being stupid and having their CFO embezzle tons of $$, and etc. etc. Look at LoTR. I guarantee their base set sold 5X the amount that aGoT did. Through the grapevine I heard it was so popular, they had to change Star Wars to co-op 1/2 of the way through (from vs. - again total gossip).

Kennon said: I did wear a t-shirt at least! It was on under my 2C1C shirt and was the main reason I didn't button it up. I stand corrected. ~You move up to #18th in line now. I am (for serious) curious, when IS the last time you played Lanni competatively (~@ a championship level)? Did you last year? Not to say I did (Martell again), although I did play it the 1st LCG year and at Regionals/Kubla.

widowmaker93 said: @Rings - I hear War of Honor is really cool for L5R. It seems like they have a good system for playing multiplayer. Have you tried this or has AGoT Melee soured you from even trying it? I have heard good things as well (and even got the promo Ronin tiles), but have yet to try it. aGoT MP wouldn't sour me on it - I actually like casual agoT MP - but the old L5R multiplayer (which was total trash) did a little...I am trying hard to stop remembering L5R MP circa 1998 And by the low-brow responses above, you can see why I for-sure can't play MP in the future, everyone will assume I am giving out 'favors' if they do something nice for me. Everyone knows I only give out drinks. At the bar (like the time I bought 40 vodka and tonics and then tried to push in on my old bank's expense report)...during the Joust Championship...playing casual at 2.00am when the security guy with a tube in his neck takes all my booze...the list doesn't end.

Rave said: Wait wait wait... Didn't you play Martell Brotherhood this year? You might as well have brought a crossbow to the bathroom with you, traitor. ~ It isn't any secret that I play only Martell or Lanni at tourneys. I never assumed the mantle of Lanni master, I just have more of a resume than a certain Mr. Kennon who played Bara I think in the other large tourney I saw him in (Days of Ice and Fire). However, Rave, if you were still playing, THEN we would have a winner. I don't think I EVER saw you play anything but Lanni.

I know I am probably arguing with myself, but sometimes as a business owner, you have to do things that might not directly translate into $$ at that very moment. Many things in advertsing and give-aways are in this area. I own a bank (I think this is common knowledge). I have all sort of pens we give away. Can I really dedicate any of my assets/sales to the fact that we have approximately 50,000 pens floating around Northeast Nebraska? No. But, it generates its own sort of buzz (we are doing eco water bottles next week), and name recognition. At GenCon, have an avid tourney player base makes money, hard to track, but it does. Obviously there is a level between spending $5,000 and spending $250 dollars...I think most people posting think it is a bit too far on the $250 end

Rogue30 said: rings said: Remember, playtesting a ton doesn't make much money for FFG What if game becomes irritating enough to be abandoned by players? I may be wrong, but I think selling AGOT is much money for FFG. rings said: Making a new Star Wars LCG does Well, we will see. Besides, is that mean that SW will not be tested properly too? It's SW after all! It will sell anyway, even with zero playtesting, right? Being playtested in a small amount will keep 95% of the competative players, and 100% of the casual players. Being playtested 5X more will then keep 99% of the competative players. In a fairly niche market mind you. Then, compare that to a brand new Star Wars game. SW hasn't had a game in years. Again, it could have minimum playtesting and still make tons of $$, especially as a co-op where there is no competative environment. Day 1 of playtesting makes them money. Day 100 doesn't. A 2% decrease in aGoT sales compared to a 100% increase in Star Wars sales? I know where I would put my $$ if I was FFG. Dobbler: The bastard does, however, take off the 3-8 chains that an uber-character has on them, assuming they don't win the turn they put them on. I still think it helps.

Kennon said: Saturnine said: "Included with the Lions of the Rock expansion are two decklists, created with the aid of championship-level player Will Lentz, ..." That has to be the nicest way of saying "chump" they could have come up with What a sec, how the hell did I miss reading that in the announcement?! *goes to read it again before the remove it* WHAT?!? They asked Kennon to make the deck lists? Has he ever even won anything with Lanni? Does he stay loyal to them at GenCons? Did he even wear a Lanni t-shirt or anything? Here is the list of people they should have thought of: Mathlete, I am sure some Euro that plays them a lot, and (sorry) myself (having won or placed repeated times with Lanni in large tourneys). Kennon would be about #26. If he is lucky. I now have lost respect 100% for FFG, and for Kennon for allowing this and then playing Martell at Worlds. **(BTW, this entire post has a huge ~~~~~~~~~~ next to it, I just need to rib Kennon, it has been a week)**

Stag Lord said: And I aslo agree with rogue30 - the maester stuff, - like the Wildling stuff before it - is just way too good. I think design dropped the ball on those two cycles. Brotherhood and Shadows workes - these two didn't. I agree, although it is always a hard balance between making cards good enough to get people excited, but not too good to make everything else obsolete. Really I think Wildling and Maester were only one very minor change away from being designed very well with that balance in mind (the Wildling could have been -1 only if you had another Wildling in play or somethign, Maester could have said 'printed' or just not had the apprentice collar). Remember, playtesting a ton doesn't make much money for FFG (law of diminishing returns to be sure). Making a new Star Wars LCG does, however. They are putting their resources where it makes them money, as any for-profit business does.

Very excited. Looks to be awesome, and...well...it IS Lanni!

The fact is that if Corey wasn't part of a specific meta, and one that happened to be a very good player, many people don't think he would have won. (which isn't 100% fair, but close) So...if he was from 'Small-town USA away from a major meta' he wouldn't have won either Melee or the Overall (2 card designs, if you are counting). Makes people who belong to a small/no meta or a meta without as much other talent feel pretty good I am sure. Luckily, since I belong to that scenario I have written off Melee, and feel fairly vindicated after hearing 20+ people plus feel dirty by it.

Ratatoskr said: With Bastard coming back in the Lanni box, I don't think we need errata to the collar or the Maester agenda anymore. Bastard should do a good job paring back the Maesters. Totally agree. I said many times and loudly how much it woudl be good to have Bastard back. I got smiles in return, so I was hoping!!! Oh, and there is no requirements for FFG to listen to playtesters. Trust me...

It would be nice to be rewarded for coming X miles using X dollars to play your game. *shrug* I agree I got more at Kublacon, and that was from John D (Fieras) who did a great job with those gold tokens. Unluckily, with a LCG there is only so many things you can do (product is hard). But AEG (L5R) and other companies do a great job. Off the top of my head: 1. Deck backers. If you want to back your whole plot deck, or even your regular deck with cool pictures (put in facing the opposite side, in a sleeve). 2. Card boxes. Neat ones. AEG just made one that was a longer one, and it opened from the side instead of the top (hard to explain). The artwork on the side was a sword in a scabbard (well, a katana, but never mind)...when you open it the sword is 'un-sheathed'. *Mathlete keep your mind out of the gutter* Inside was a scroll with game information, a bunch of cool plastic dividers for organizing cards with art on them, a book of fiction. Seriously...that is out-of-the-box thinking. 3. Deck boxes. The leather ones were nice from a couple of years ago. Think up some new ones, or custom ones! 3. Playmats. Has not been explored enough. 4. Especially with the TV show, different memorabilia. Shirts, mugs, chains, whatever. 5. More power/gold tokens. 6. Bags for holding counters. Ram pulled out his old, wrinkled, yellow pouch (Mathlete...I am serious) that they gave out 3-4 years ago and got all sorts of 'oh-ah's'. BTW I liked the custom wooden box. Not as well as the CoC box () or WH box, but it was a neat idea in the least. Not especially useful. But neat. The sword was...so-so. I was just glad someone who drove won!

Geez...I can name 5 boards off the top of my head that are worse. Heck, look at the posts after ANY conversation about politics on the main news websites and see 1000% more vitrol than here. Very surprsing. ~So I guess I am saying 'be quiet you are wrong'.

fhornmikey said: widowmaker93 said: Let's don't turn this game Into M:TG. Please? You wanna talk infuriating to play against, let's talk about Kismet + Chronotog + Statis combo! Didn't the original poster complain about turing it into MTG and THEN complain about playtesting in the same post. That was funny. MTG has a HUGE budget and tons of time for testing, and still gets things wrong. aGoT has volunteers with a limited time. Mistakes are going to be made. That is the nature of CCG's (TCG/LCG's). Name a game with considerably less, and I would be impressed more by the anti-erratta/restrictions folks. FYI L5R (another game with more players and $$) just erratta/banned the best two cards in their World Champ deck (including the 'agenda' used). Personally I think if you can't find some broken combos or even infinate combos with either the chains (after all the packs are released) or Prince's Plan's...well, you really are not trying. Something probably should be done at that point. *shrug* I think the restricted list is good as is, unless Plans is being put on it (although it should also not hit itself, I would rather have erratta than restricted AND erratta). Storm is still pretty dumb, just because he isn't #1 on people's restricted list when Martell is crazy-popular doesn't mean unrestricted card draw each turn is a good thing.

How many for Days of Ice and Fire? Seems like we got about 25-30 last year? But last year we had George RR Martin, and that has not been confirmed thsi year. Hopefully there is a foot and a half of snow again so we can make fun of Kennon trying to drive in some southern belle vehicle And drink way too many chocolate cake shots.

Rave said: Mathlete is awesome! I remember one time I brought a friend to Gencon that was new to Thrones, and John made him believe he was also new to the game. Then at the end of their game, he busted out The First Snow of Winter and was like "Hey, whose name is that?!" I hadn't heard that story. ~Gosh, what an @ss

Word... +1 (more words to make post postable)

Ghaston Grey being played = Brotherhood sucks. *shrug* Congrats again guys, looking forward to seeing you hopefully in Minny and then for sure in the frozen wastes of rural Nebraska in January (ish).