Much-To-Do About Gleemax
Over the past several days there’s been a lot said about Gleemax, Wizards of the Coast’s new sinisterly-named, “next generation” (huh? buzzword buzzword), online initiative. ENworld, icv2, Kotaku, have all done a number on collecting lengthy stories and interviews, primarily with WotC’s talking head Randy Buehler, Vice President of Digital Gaming. To summarize what all the to-do is about: Gleemax is a new website—coming out later this year—hosted by WotC, which is planned to have online versions of strategy games, forums, blogs, networking, and other online content. Buehler says this is primarily WotC’s attempt to tap into the 15-year-old gamers of the world, who are more likely to be playing World of Warcraft then hanging out at game stores. Make the jump for the full disertation.
As an interesting aside, though, many folks have noted that Gleemax is a nerdy reference to a Magic: The Gathering card from their first jokey Unglued set. I spoke to a friend who worked at Wizards of the Coast in the early days, and they said the reference for that card had a deeper history, an inside joke between players and designers that Magic R&D had been taken over by an evil alien intelligence (Gleemax) that forced them to put out bad sets just to make more cash. Reflecting on this, I perhaps would have chosen a different name for my pay-to-play corporate gaming venture. But what do I know, WotC’s been putting out the next big thing in gaming for a long time now, and I’m sure Gleemax will be just as well supported this time next year as WotC’s big Gen Con debuts of the last few years… like Hecatomb and Dreamblade.
Buehler says Gleemax is primarily WotC’s attempt to tap into the 15-year-old gamers of the world, who are more likely to be playing World of Warcraft then hanging out at game stores:
"We're slowing down in terms of recruiting that next generation of hobby gamers. Today's 15-year-olds have such a different experience than a 15-year-old did five years ago or 10 years ago, or when I was a 15-year-old. So today's 15-year-old is online and doesn't necessarily have any reason to leave his computer because there's so much to do there.”
While the idea by in large sounds like another message board with a version of MySpace catering to middle-aged dudes glommed on, what does strike my interest are the online versions of Avalon Hill games. However, good things rarely come without a cost, and while much of the networking aspect of the site sounds like it will be free, Buehler talked prices in the second part of his icv2’s interview:
“In addition, the various games are where we expect to make most of our money and there will be a number of different business models built into the game. Magic Online for example, has a purchase model where we sell booster packs. The Goblin game is going to be pay for each instance of the game you want to play. The board game portal is going to be a monthly subscription to have unlimited access to all of those titles. The indie strategy game portal is the try and buy business model you see in the casual game space where you can download a trial version of the game, and if you like it, you have to pay us $20 to unlock the rest of the game.”
There’s also not a lot of talk about Gleemax and roleplaying games, but this sounds a awful lot like the “online initiative” that saw the end of Dragon and Dungeon magazines. Evil alien intelligences you say? Folks can check out Gleemax for the first time at Gen Con Indy this August.
Lectric Lich
Posted to Tabletop Gaming on 13 June 2007
· Comments (1)
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>this sounds a awful lot like the “online initiative” that saw the end of Dragon and Dungeon magazines
Oh geez, I hope not.