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FEATURES

Gen Con 1999:

Would you like to play?

By Steve Lieb

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My next talk was with Matt Nowak, PR guy for Hasbro/Microprose/Avalon Hill. Since the acquisition of AH by Hasbro - famed maker of everything from Milton-Bradley boardgames to G.I.Joe - there have been literal wails of anguish from the wargaming community. "Avalon Hill is DEAD!" they cry. "Hasbro? That's kiddie games!" they snort. Well, naysayers listen close because I'm here to tell you - we may just see a Renaissance in Avalon Hill wargames in the near future. And I don't just mean board wargames, either!

The first thing that struck me as I approached the H/M/AH booth (I hope nobody minds, I'm just going to refer to it as AH in this article, since the whole name is a pain to type.) was the signup table at the front. "Aha!" I thought to myself, "Free Stuff - wahoo!" There was free stuff (a little pewter coin) but more importantly was the survey they were taking of anyone who would fill it out. They were simply asking: What AH games do you enjoy? This was curious. If AH wasn't going to be a viable line for them to support why would they do such a thing. The fact is, Hasbro IS going to support AH and from the discussion that followed, I'm more optimistic about wargames than I've been in a decade.

First, let's look at the AH history. AH was always equipped with some of the greatest talent in the business, but has never been burdened by excessively skilled management. In the very early days, they dominated the wargame market. In fact, I daresay that most wargamers over 20 cut their teeth on an early title of AH - Tactics II, Gettsburgh, Panzerblitz. But they had no strategic direction to speak of. They flourished for some years, mainly reaping the rewards of SPI's worldwide advertising campaign. But when SPI shut down (since they were paying for the advertising but everyone was buying AH's games), nobody at AH knew how to advertise! The company struggled for a while, launching a couple of roleplaying game systems when that seemed like the key to success. They even bought the rights to another, but generally started ventures only to let them languish in the market, unsupported (the Advanced Squad Leader series being the sole exception I can think of offhand) until they died in the bargain bins. Reportedly, they were also burdened by a terribly expensive exclusive printing contract with Monarch, their parent company, which kept their prices extremely high even while their market was failing in the face of new competition from computers.

They even tried a few abortive ventures into the computer market with ports of their classic titles such as Kingmaker and Advanced Civilization. Adv Civ was a great port of a great boardgame. WS&IM was commercially pretty successful. But the wind seemed to be out of their sails. Finally, when the buyout offer came, it was irresistable.

But contrary to the fears, what I saw in the booth was clearly not a company on its last legs. Far from it - I saw the new version of diplomacy, which will startle old-time players with a genuinely attractive map and pieces. I saw several other boardgames that were being renewed and re-released. Matt said that Hasbro's strategy was clearly to make mileage out of the famous AH brand name. To let the company die a paper death, or to only put out crummy games would clearly devalue the investment, so there is a solid economic reason for Hasbro supporting AH and its fans. (And, despite what any press flack says about "loyalty to customers" or any such tradespeak, I feel a lot more certain about predicting the behavior of a company when I know where they see the $$$...). They are going to poll the market, examine the feedback, and see what people are buying. Yes, perhaps this means that you won't go to the game store and see 5 copies of "Outdoor Survival" that have been there since 1982. If that means they are going to make money and put out NEW games, I think it's worth it.

Further, they are going to narrow the distribution stream. Contrary to grognard fears of Panzer Leader sharing shelf-space with "Furby adventure playset"*, Matt said they were going to really streamline the retail system, so AH games are not on every Wal-Mart shelf. They are going to be sold only by GAME stores - again, not wasting money on wide distribution but only distributing to actual potential customers. [* although, if you think about it, a crossover title between these two might be pretty entertaining...]. They aren't even going to push the Hasbro connection too hard - the logo's shown above are the size relationship I saw on the boxes - a big "AH" and a tiny "Hasbro".

And I saw computer games. The first I saw, worth at least passing mention, is a re-release of Computer Risk. Addressing gameplay and interface issues, and sporting a lot of new eye-candy, as well as a realtively novel simultaneous-resolution battle system that lets online players A & B fight one battle at the same time as C & D fight a different battle. This should definitely cut the "wait time" common to most online, turn-based, multiplayer games. the game looks pretty good for the entry-level wargamer, or for anyone who just wants to have a good time without too much brainwork.

The second was a new computer Diplomacy. Now, there was an abortive release of a crappy computer Diplomacy years ago. I think everyone wants to forget that. But since that time Diplomacy has managed to sustain a huge following on the internet with no support from Avalon Hill at all. That's about to change - Diplomacy is seriously coming to the computer.

For those of you that don't know it, Diplomacy is set in the era immediately pre WWI, and is regards as the best "screw thy neighbor" game ever invented. As is true with many AH games, it lives up to the hype - easy to learn, hard to master.

Before you start to get nervous about digital Fascistii stomping all over the current online community, I can reassure you. Speaking directly with the producers of Computer Diplomacy, I asked them about this point-blank. They stated that, as far as they could tell (necessary corporate hedging) there was no plan to even confront the online community. As long as the trademark and copyrights weren't being threatened by what was done online, they said, it was really not something they thought much about.

The game itself was a good-looking product. The details of the interface - borders, graphics, etc - all supported the prewar atmosphere very well. The gameplay couldn't have been much simpler - click on the power you want to issue orders, click on the army/navy origin, destination (available destinations are highlighted), and voila - you've done it. Honestly, the game (as a boardgame) was about as simple as could be, and putting it into a computer interface shouldn't ever have been rocket science. But the way they implemented the multiplay and diplomacy interfaces is superb.

First, in the setup, the originating player (it's server based, but anyone can start a server) sets time limits for each and every phase, guaranteeing the game will move at a certain minimum pace. As in the original rules, these are hard limits. When the buzzer goes off, that phase is over (or, at least in real life, the negotiation phases can be interminable).

But I really liked the discussion areas. Like a private IRC session, you can invite whomever you want into negotiations. You can exclude whomever you don't invite. But whomever is not in a chat negotiation can see who everyone is with at all times, giving the player some value in "coming up for air" once in a while. Visible in any chat room is a map of the game for discussion purposes, with the current status plainly apparent.

Again, Diplomacy is not a complex, flashy game. It doesn't require a high-bandwidth 'net connection. It doesn't have 3d-accelerated graphics. It's simply not that complicated. What it does have is utterly solid gameplay, constant replay value, deep and engaging strategy, and a huge fan base. I predict that when this hits the shelves - and if Hasbro promotes it even mildly - this could bring a whole new group of people into online gaming. Moreover, I hope that as this comes to market, and the re-releases of the boardgames hit the shelves, the grognards will be pleased to see that an old favorite - Avalon Hill - isn't going anywhere but up.

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