Gaming Community and Misunderstood signals?

Friends, I bid you welcome back to New Year, New Perspectives. It has been a couple of weeks since I have graced you all with some writing prowess. Well I am back to drop some mad word prowess on you all, so lets go!

This weekend was Magic Game Day and I was lucky to attend both  Alluring Treasures and Gamer's Path's Game Days. Both store had great players and cool deck lists to look at. What struck me about the events were how jam packed Gamer's Path was vs Alluring Treasures. At first, I thought it was because that same weekend we had a PTQ and as such our competitive group went out to do their jobs and bring home a win. However, I am not entirely sure if that is the case. I have a sneaking suspicion that Alluring Treasure's community, while competitive and thriving, does lack the close knit bond of a community of gamers.

Gamer's Path seems to have a community of people who know each other, seem genuinely nice to one another, and are not about what the next big event or deck is. At Alluring, I see players huddled around tables talking about the next big deck, events to go to, or what the hot card in Standard, Modern, or Legacy is. I rarely see people hanging around the tables, playing games, just bullshitting and enjoying the company of a community, a gaming family, mind you. I feel Alluring Treasures casual community is in need of a boost of rejuvenation, otherwise the shop may just degenerate into a shark pool. A place where players come teeth first into the store for product, discuss magic items and just leave. There seems to be little sense of making the community better, outside of Magic. While the player base continues to grow, the players themselves seem sequestered to pods o players they may be acquainted with, rather than a giant community where we can discuss things, Magic and Non magic items, freely.

Perhaps, I am misunderstood about this point. Maybe I am wishing too much for this community, when there is already a decent community in place. However, my feelings still stand. Where is the gaming community at Alluring Treasures? I would love to see some more gaming outside of Magic show up in the shop. More importantly, I would love to see casual players not feel intimidated by the experienced players at the shop. We all play Magic. Who says we can not be friends, regardless of whether we are good or bad at the game?

Also Congrats to Chia Lee for Top 8ing at the PTQ this past weekend! Get there brother!

Getting Kicked into Gear: KickStarter

Hey guys, long time no posting. I have been on a sabbatical trying to teach players Sentinels of the Multiverse. Other than that and getting into the groove for school, life has been pretty uneventful. That is, until I fell in love with a new website you all should check out.

Kickstarter is a site to help fund various projects with the help of everyday people like you and me. From videos, to games, to art and technology, Kickstarter houses one of the most unique opportunities for the public to enjoy. We get to see cool concepts and ideas, decide if there worth it, and prove it by backing those projects until they reach their goal line. Kickstarter, to date, has successfully funded 35,000 creative projects and that number rises with each day.

Kickstarter's appeal to me are the perks for funding at various levels in a projects. Take a look at the following: Boss Monster. This particular project has something for everyone. If you can only contribute the baseline, you get a copy of the game. If you tend to have more income to throw away, you can even name the most bad ass dragon for all copies of Boss Monster. This level of funding lets us dictate how invested we would like to be in the project, and if successful, what cool extras we would like to get out of the project. The idea of small to big incentives for funding is pretty cool and helps a project reach its funding goal

Overall, take some time out and head on over to Kickstarter today. I am sure you will find some cool projects that you may be interested in funding.

Sentinels of the Multiverse Review

Welcome fellow gamers and friends to another blog post about New perspectives. Today I am going to talk about a new board/card game I recently have fallen in love with. This cooperative game has you taking on the role of superheros and battling all sorts of evil villains. Sounds intriguing eh? Well take a look for yourself

First off, Thanks to Crits Happen and Greater than Games for bringing this game to my attention. This game is addictive and has quite a bit of replay value for such a simple product. Each of the heroes play differently than the last and even the mix of villains and environments never make the game seem like you have played before. Unlike many other deck building games, this game is about teaming up to take down a greater evil. All the players win or lose together. As such, it encourages fun table talk and planning to truly take down the villains newest schemes or stop an environmental hazard from ruining the heroes day.

The base game introduces 10 Heroes and their decks, 4 Villains and their decks, and 4 Environments and their decks. Each expansion introduces 2 new Heroes and their decks, 4 Villains and their decks, and 2 Environments and their decks. So far, Sentinels has the core game and two expansions: Rook City and Infernal Relics. They just recently funded Shattered Timelines, their third expansion, through Kickstarter and will be released in March of this year. With a steady schedule of releases and promos, this game promises to be one of the most highly re playable games for board and card gamers. So far, i have played the game 5 times and still have not seen all the cards from all 3 current products. Each game has been difficult and satisfying when you finally knock the villain down to size.

Sentinels is a highly rewarding experience for a card game and I strongly recommend you play or pick up a copy of it. I have my copy and have been encouraging new gamers to test it out. So need more convincing? Come hit me up and I will let you see one of the funnest experiences you might be missing out on from 2012.