War on Terror Blog
Saturday 8th December 2007
WoT Inking #01
"Plans are afoot to extend the amount of time that terrorism suspects can be held without charge to 42 days. At 28 days, the UK already has the strictest detention laws in the western world. Even Gordon Brown's security minister was 'unconvinced' about the the proposal ... unconvinced that is until a short meeting with the Prime Minister (and the persuasive power of a P45)"
War on Terror illustrator, Tom Morgan-Jones has decided to illustrate current events, showing our prime minister, Gordon Brown, shall we say, 'overpowering' Lady Justice on the matter of detention of terrorist suspects.
Tom says that he's intending to do more of these, so we optimistically labelled this 'Wot Inking #01', hinting at the future existence of at least 9 more. But you never know, this could be a valuable one-off, so click on the image for a larger one and use it as your desktop now before it's GONE FOREVER.
- posted by TerrorBull Games on 8 December 2007 - 0 comments
Friday 30th November 2007
War on Terror - a Year On
We all know that the real 'war on terror' has been sewing the seeds of democracy for years now in dark and primitive corners of the world. Evil-doers and terrorists, unable to bear the sweet scent of freedom, have had no option but to run and hide. So what of our own humble game - the unscrupulous sickness of a boardgame that our twisted minds conjured up from nothing but our own gutter-dwelling depravity and was in no way related to the insanity of real-world events? Our own private war on terror is just one year old and to celebrate, here's a little retrospective ...
Yes indeedy, a year ago today, we held a launch party at the Front Line Club in London. It ended in chaos with puke, wine and bits of terrorist pinata strewn about the pristine white venue. That mess - not all our own doing, we have to stress - turned out to be representative of the following 12 months: a glorious, technicolour, chaotic explosion of fun and accidents. Join us aboard the retro-rollercoaster that is HMS TerrorBull Games...
terrorists, unable to bear the sweet scent of freedom, have had no option but to run and hide To start, we have to go back a little further than a year to the time when War on Terror came into existence for many people as they opened the paper one Monday morning in September.
September 06 - starting with our local paper, the Cambridge Evening News devoting the front page, the middle page spread and the op. ed. piece to our boardgame, things rapidly snowballed. Before the week was up, the game had been mentioned in newspapers, on radio stations and TV stations all over the world. We particularly enjoyed the 'Sick' and 'Fury' headlines from The Sun and The Daily Mail. But more than anything, we got a crash course in media relations. It's rare you get a real insider's view of what the media claim the public think and what the public actually think. This is how illegal wars are able to start - because the media are completely unrepresentative of anything but their own corporate and power interests.
October 06 - Our first business relationship goes tits up. Charles Gee Group decide to terminate our contract by email just 4 days before they were due to ship 5,000 copies of War on Terror to the UK. We're also banned from our first Toy Fair in Essen, who (now infamously) decried the game as 'sick and ridiculous' and 'worse than a swastika'. Nuremburg, New York and London Toy Fairs are all swift to follow suit. We begin to learn what the phrase 'commercial leper' really means.
November 06 - First games arrive, although they are delayed at customs. Tensions mount as the pre-order list grows. Seeing a 12m high stack of shipping cartons labelled 'war on terror game' made us delirious with joy. We hold a protest game in Parliament Square (which ends in 'world peace') and we officially launch the game at the Front Line Club in London. Black militia men and Terrorist Bingo are among the highlights of an insane evening, all filmed by our own private documentary crew as well as Al Arabiya news.
December 06 - War on Terror turns up barely in time for Christmas. A last-minute rush means we average around 3 hours sleep a night for the last few weeks of the year.
January 07 - Uniservegate hits us hard. More and more deliveries go missing. Things come to a head when Mr Man-At-The-Top decides he has something personal against our game and puts a halt to things, literally.
February 07 - We're forced to close down the website while we sort things out with Uniserve. Court is narrowly avoided only when we drive down to their warehouses and refuse to leave without at least enough games to clear the backlog they've created. TBG HQ is transformed into a kind of box-maze with floor-to-ceiling War on Terror. Over the coming weeks, Uniserve chuck us out of their warehouse and hold the rest of our stock to ransom.
April 07 - After finally rescuing our games, we head off to the Home of the 'war on terror', the United States of America for our first Game Convention in Las Vegas. This involves, among other things, sneaking through customs with 40 balaclavas, unexploded bomb signs, 200 cockroaches and 150 square foot of camo netting; scavenging rubbish from the Vegas streets in the early hours of the morning for our booth (for which we later win a 'best in show' award); playing frisbee in the desert; driving to LA for the world's first War on Terror tournament and starting a fight between Princess Leia and Catwoman on Hollywood Boulevard. If that weren't enough, we also secured American distribution and received a glowing review in Playboy. Shout of the month goes to Mr Bill Gilman who single-handedly conceived of and arranged the WoT Tournament. You're a legend, Bill.
May 07 - War on Terror sells out in the US. We have to rush some of our UK stock over the seas to keep America in sufficient terror.
June 07 - We start work on the 2nd print run of War on Terror. Although we'd really like to tweak the rules a bit and bring out a 2nd edition, time constraints mean that we have to leave the game intact. We do, however, make provisions for a new, improved, lightweight balaclava.
August 07 - the game achieves a modicum of geek culture status by appearing on the set of Channel 4's hit sitcom the IT Crowd. We also attend our second game convention - Gencon UK in Reading and plant WMDs around campus.
September 07 - the game officially launches in the USA, available to distributors and retailers for the first time. Preorders go mental.
October 07 - back home, more and more shops are joining the coalition of the willing and are backing the War on Terror. The ICA, the political cartoon gallery, Nog Gallery and the Socialist Bookshop are among the welcome new recruits.
November 07 - just when it looks like all the obstacles are behind us and things are finally on the rise for TerrorBull Games, we're dealt the cruellest blow yet. Nope, we can't tell you any more yet, but it's a Motherbitch and it almost bankrupt us.
So there you have it, a weird, bewildering, funny and frustrating 12 months. We've gone from not knowing anything about publishing board games to selling 7,000 games worldwide. We've been on Arab TV, Colombian radio and lauded by Playboy and Amnesty International alike. War on Terror is now on sale in games shops, book shops, army and navy stores and art galleries in Europe, North America and Australia - and it's all been caught on camera for what will probably be a rather amusing film some day soon. You might think we're joking, but we're not really sure how we did it, Part of the answer is that we've done it with an awful lot of help and now's as good a chance as any to say thanks to all those people who have supported over the past year, whether it be some kind words of encouragement, or something more substantial, we're grateful to everyone for their help and of course everyone who has bought and played the game. We couldn't do it without you, thank you.
But now we've ended on a cliff-hanger. What will become of TerrorBull Games? It's like a soap opera, isn't it? Like any good drama series, you'll just have to tune in next time and find out ...
... and as the label in the evil balclava says, Play Nice!
- posted by TerrorBull Games on 30 November 2007 - 0 comments
Tuesday 13th November 2007
Washington, Iraq and the ICA
The War on Terror sure does get around. Just recently, we've had two of our EVIL challenges broken - one in Iraq and one in Washington - and now it's even in two galleries in London (the Political Cartoon Gallery and the ICA, in case you thought the title was a dyslexic rendering of CIA). Culture ahoy!
we got sent this amazing photo from a patrol base in Baghdad First we got sent this amazing photo from a patrol base in Baghdad, of troops taking some time out from the real 'war on terror' to play its boardgame counterpart. There are smiles all round, which is lovely to see, but we're not sure if it's post-modern irony, or simply relief that the violence is abstracted for once. We'd love to see more WoT-lovers on the 'front line', so if you have any photos, please send them our way. We'd also love to know what you think of playing a game about a war you're engaged in. Which one, for example, is more pointless?
It's obviously the season for EVILness as just a week later an enterprising fan sent in a series of photos taken during a trip to Washington DC. They're quite impressive, especially as the only security restriction they encountered was being told that they couldn't use a tripod to take the photos.
And, to bring the war back home again, we're very chuffed to announce that War on Terror is being stocked by both the Political Cartoon Gallery, just round the corner from the British Museum, and the Institute of Contemporary Arts, right on the Mall. Here's the lowdown on the ICA from their website:
"The ICA is home to the best new art and culture from Britain and around the world. A meeting point for exploration between artists and audiences, the ICA examines the questions that shape our culture, society and individual lives."
Hopefully, the next time the Queen rides by, she'll pop in and grab herself a copy.
Slowly but surely, WoT is mutating into what we always wanted it to be - a board game, a piece of art, a political statement, satirical subversion, lots of FUN and a free balaclava.
One day there'll be a category for just that in 'Toys R Us', but until then, we'll settle for the ICA.
- posted by TerrorBull Games on 13 November 2007 - 0 comments
Tuesday 18th September 2007
And the 'Most Inventive Medium for Propaganda' Award Goes To ....
Not sure how we missed this, but a recent trawl through our site stats revealed that we had won an award that not only were we not aware of, but also seems entirely invented for the purpose of bestowing upon us.
The rather low-key, but extensive (just check out their archive) Socialist Unity Network voted War on Terror, the boardgame the 'Most Inventive Medium for Propaganda' in their prestigious, annual Socialist Unity Awards.
Our response to this great honour is threefold: 1) Thanks guys! 2) Why weren't we invited to the awards ceremony? (Just because we drank all the booze once doesn't mean we'll do it again). 3) It's not propaganda, it's just a game, man.
In other news - and almost legitimising the above award - you may recall that War on Terror has been sneaking appearances in the background of the IT Crowd set. Well knock us down with a feather-tipped WMD if they weren't actually playing the darn thing in episode four. It's about 4 mins 20 seconds into this YouTube clip.
(For geeks though, they weren't paying much attention to the proper rules. Tsk!)
Breaking News: Oi oi Australians! You can now get the game cheaper by buying it from the excellent New Internationalist (who incidentally rated the game 5 stars). This is the first of hopefully many outlets in Australia, so our antipodean liberation starts...
- posted by TerrorBull Games on 18 September 2007 - 0 comments
Wednesday 5th September 2007
WMD's found in Reading University!
GEN CON UK Fri-Sun
The early bird of Akrilia catches the Worm of Hope...or in other words, a chap named Paul, got up early at a games convention, found a WMD card that was half tucked behind a registration board and presented himself to us, proudly waving his WMD.
So we had the first eagle-eyed winner of our game. Over the next few days more WMDs were coming out of the wood work or being peeled from fire hydrants, found on the underside of stairs, unstuck from walls. You name the place, we had them hidden. Not a lot of people believed the intelligence when we told them WMDs were out there but then who can blame them?
Possibly the best reaction to receiving a free game was this: 'I've found this, do I really get a free game?', 'Yes, here have this one' and before any more could be said the very happy figure left our stand running and screaming. We hope you enjoy it, friend, whoever you are! (You can catch some of the other slightly more static competition winners in Photo form in the gallery). The only WMD not to be found was, incredibly, the one lodged in the tray of the bar till. This was nothing short of a miracle, especially considering the bar was busy enough to be drunk dry on the first night. Luckily normal service resumed for each and every night that followed - of course with that amount of drink being drunk we’re not sure that the term ‘normal’ really applies.
Friday night saw us wander into a rather fine looking Fancy Dress party in the Students' bar (that should read 'LARP Party' - Role-Playing Ed.). They had all sorts of costumes that we didn't understand and a few we did, From Chewbacca in high heels (very sexy) to blood splattered zombies (level 7 grade 2 zombies from the shoecupboard extension pack of the now deleted 'Zombie Zombie') The night was great, even when Andy persuaded Tom to join all the entrants on stage. 'If you're asked, just say you're the character 'John'. Amazingly Tom wasn't asked and got a cheer when it was his turn to raise his arm. It was either big love or the drink, either way a great night was had by all and it ended when we staggered back to our rooms to try out a Laser chess type of game that we picked up from the Bring n Buy stall opposite ours (Andy won - Game Results Ed.).
The only WMD not to be found was, incredibly, the one lodged in the tray of the bar till Saturday saw more insults flown between the 'Bring and Buy Boys’ and ourselves via the medium of the humble paper airplane. The VIP artists and Tom were asked to create some new and original artworks for a crazy game entitled '1000 blank cards'. The basic premise runs thus: Name of card, card action plus an effect if desired, points awarded by said card ranging from -1000 to +1000. You play the cards (There were over 50 original superbly drawn cards by the VIP's - and a few from Tom) and you draw your own to combat the card you've just received! It's that simple, and a hellava lot of fun...it just gets silly! Luckily the set was the second highest article at the charity auction on Saturday night. Big up the VIP's. We blame Tom's interference for it not hitting the number one slot.
Saturday night's entertainments went on into the early hours which appears to be the norm at gaming conventions we discover. 5am Sunday morning and our guitar wielding group had a grumpy visitor wearing a medieval tunic of sorts: 'I was really enjoying killing Goblins but they keep blowing the candles out which is just childish so I've stopped', A few more Irish Whiskies and we set off to bed at 7am. Buzzing from caffeine and not able to sleep, we were fresh faced for Sunday Morning and the last day of trading. It proved to be our best day
We had a great time, met lots of wonderful gamers, tradesmen and tradesladies and wish to praise the organisation of 'Horsemen Events' for doing such a good job and for being so bloody nice to us all weekend. And now…We’re going to get some sleep.
- posted by TerrorBull Games on 5 September 2007 - 0 comments
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