Friday, February 12, 2010

Session Report, in which I finally win Phoenicia

The latest Jerusalem Strategy Gaming Club session report is up. Games played: Dominion/Intrigue/Seaside, Aton, Saikoro, Tribune, Stone Age, Phoenicia, Le Havre, Bridge.

I don't know how to report Dominion when played with several expansions; I think I'll just call it Dominion from now on (like Magic).

Busy Busy Busy

I'm working hard at technical writing, and in my "free time" I'm working hard at building a game industry database. I'm trying to create the an exhaustive list of every company that publishes, distributes, and sells board/card games or game parts, from Macy's to custom miniatures - any company that is currently earning money from games, in any form. I'm only interested in the ones that are actually alive.

Trouble is, I'm never going to get every company. For now, I'm going to ignore every company without both a web presence and some way of contacting them (that probably takes out many - but not all - of the Chess piece factories in China). I'm ignoring games that are only available in console/computer format. Does a gas station receipt or cereal box with a game printed on it count as earning money from games? Borderline cases like these are difficult to categorize.

It's easy to find partial lists of game companies mixed in with other pursuits: games and toys, games and sports, games and education, games and marketing, games and gambling, and so on. I've never seen one that covers all games in all these areas, while excluding companies that don't make games at all. I've already learned something about 10,000 companies, and I'm working my way to 100,000.

And next week, on Thursday, I'm on my way to the US. I'll be in Oxford/Cincinnati, Columbus, Chicago, and NYC, returning to Israel on Mar 16.

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