War on Terror Blog
Wednesday 24th January 2007
Return to the Toy Fair
We may not be allowed to exhibit at the London Toy Fair, but who's to say we're not allowed to drop in and say 'hello'?
So that's what we did. Packed up early and headed to London to take a look around. It was a bit quiet to be honest. We expected some sort of siren to go off when they scanned our badges, but there was just eerie silence.
Bit sad to see most of the small independents who were there last year no longer there. We did see our mate Joel of rathergood fame though, who had a lovely booth, spongmonkeys and all.
Over lunch, we decided to relax with a little War on Terror in the concourse. We took bets at how long we'd last and despite feeling pessimistic, we managed an entire 2 player game. Next year, it might be us driving around in tiny cars I don't think security spotted us, plus with Marvin the Magician disappearing bowling balls next door and a large guy in a tiny car weaving in and out of the tables, few people paid attention to Andy T drinking coffee in an Evil Balaclava. (The terrorists won, by the way).
After packing up the game, disappointed that we hadn't been thrown out, we took the proverbial (terror)bull by the horns and demanded to see the organisers to get some answers, face-to-face, as to why we weren't allowed to exhibit. After all, we were fobbed off on the phone with "you wouldn't fit in" but there were Stormtroopers walking around with GUNS and there was a game about getting away with MURDER and there was even a plastic kid's CROSSBOW on display. How do we not fit in? So we handed a game in to the Toy Fair organisers, along with a plea to at least look at what they'd decided to reject off-hand. Let's see what happens.
Next year, it might be us driving around in tiny cars.
- posted by TerrorBull Games on 24 January 2007 - 0 comments
Saturday 13th January 2007
Synchronised War on Terror World Record Attempt
Winter madness has set in. A sudden War on Terror demand means that 10 people show up for a game and there's nothing for it but to try two simultaneous games of WoT.
Everyone's slightly nervous - it feels like crossing the streams or something equally dangerous.
What follows is a perfect illustration of how WoT changes and adapts to its players. Team A, lead by Andy T, have a noisy, chaotic, shouty game, resulting in at least one billionaire and the banker having to sit on the money to prevent bank raids by the boistrous terrorists.
There was an instant behavioural shift from slouching, laid-back humans, to excited, screaming, red-faced fighting-chimps.Meanwhile, Team B, lead by Andy S, struggle to explain basic concepts, such as how sea routes work, to a novice boardgamer who's never set eyes upon a pair of dice in his life.
When team A were squabbling over nuclear proliferation, team B had only just discovered fire. When team A were surveying a planet sucked dry of its resources, bombed to crap and covered in terrorists, team B had just discovered Australia.
After four hours, both 5-player games were over and the post-WoT torpor sets in. That is, until we bring out the extra balaclavas!
We'd always wondered what would happen if you put 10 people in balaclavas in the same room together and we can now reveal the results of this experiment: people revert to monkeys.
There was an instant behavioural shift from slouching, laid-back humans, to excited, screaming, red-faced fighting-chimps. In a matter of seconds.
And as quickly as group insanity descended, the balaclavas came off and order was restored.
Now, what happens if you get 50 people together ...
- posted by TerrorBull Games on 13 January 2007 - 0 comments
Friday 12th January 2007
We're back...
The holidays are but a distant memory. It's back to the coal face for us. We got back this week to around 500 emails and a load of photos of people enjoying WoT over the festive season.
Funny tales abound: of families playing War on Terror on Christmas day; of devilish 10-year-olds double-nuking their parents; of a husband and wife each giving the other WoT as a present; of general tears and glory and possibly best of all - a photo sequence of some nutter skydiving in an EVIL balaclava.
We've also updated the EVIL gallery for your special enjoyment and perusal.
Meanwhile, we're 'mopping up' a few stragglers from last year's order orgy. If you have a 'problem order' and have heard nothing yet, don't worry, we know about you and we'll be getting round to it very soon. Apart from that, we're basically planning our assault on 2007. Lots of stuff in the pipeline, so looks like it's going to be a busy year.
- posted by TerrorBull Games on 12 January 2007 - 0 comments
Wednesday 20th December 2006
IT'S CHRISTMAS !!
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Of course there's a whole lot of you out there who couldn't give a shit that the season of mince pies and over-shopping is upon us. But for us independent board game publishers it means lots and lots of people buying things for friends and demanding that it's delivered before that special day, when Jesus was born.
Yesterday was our cut-off date for getting UK orders to you in time for xmas. For everywhere else it was last Friday, the 15th. Due to a poor bit of timing from 'the web community' we also got 'boing-boinged' on the 15th, which in turn caused a flurry of blog activity as lots of people decided to help spread the good board game word.
We're planning to descend into the dark depths on the 22 DecemberSo we, and our distribution partners, have found ourselves with something of a Christmas rush on. We're trying our best to make sure everyone gets their games as quickly as possible. Sorry if things haven't been too clear at times. We've made at start at better transparency with a delivery information page. Hopefully things will settle down in 2007, the large number of pre-orders followed by Christmas was a little tough.
On the 'tough' note, we've decided that WE NEED A HOLIDAY. Three years of fighting this particular 'war on terror' has taken it's toll and we're going to head back down into the bunker, smoke cigars, look at our maps and plan our assault for 2007. We're planning to descend into those dark depths on the 22 December and will not come up for air until 10 January.
Our 'Games Day' last Saturday in Cellar Bar 8 went well. We had a fair few Cambridge people come down and see what all the fuss is about. Pretty much everyone who came walked away with a set under their arms. Usually with some discussion as to who was going to carry it through town, as we had forgotten to bring bags. We also learned that one of the sets we sold was destined for Moscow, our first foray into Russia.
We're getting some great feedback on the game and some very silly photos, keep 'em coming. And just in case the game's not crazy enough with six players, someone's come up with a seven player version.
- posted by TerrorBull Games on 20 December 2006 - 0 comments
Friday 15th December 2006
We're Winning!
So the Foreign Office has asked ministers to ditch the phrase 'war on terror', just nine days after we filed our petition to launch an independent inquiry into the legitimacy of the 'war on terror'. They're running scared, but little do they know that we've already sold 40% of our stock and we can re-brand as many times as they do.
We're also just about winning the fight to get the games out to our customers around the world. It's been a chaotic few weeks here and we've come to realise just how much work it is to distribute a game to the entire planet. We're sorry about all the delays, do get in touch with us if you think your order is taking too long, include your Order ID and that helps us out.
"Spectacularly Controversial" - ForbesFor those poor people in the 'Rest of the World' who pre-ordered the game all those many months ago, your games should be arriving today, in fact, if you're in Japan, you've already got yours.
We've set cut-off dates for getting the game before Christmas, if you care about that kind of thing. For UK orders it's Wednesday 20 December, in the morning at some point. For everywhere else, it's now.
The small alternative bookshop in Cambridge has now sold 50 copies of the game, which is how many copies Borders Cambridge wanted to stock before they got told not to by head office. We've managed to get it into a few shops around the UK, we're hoping that list will continue to grow in the new year.
If you're in Cambridge UK and you're still not sure what to get mum for Christmas, then come on down to the Cellar Bar 8 tomorrow, Sat 16th Dec from 1pm to 5pm, as we're hosting a 'Games Day'. Come along, play the game, wear the balaclava, meet the designers and illustrator, buy the bugger and even get it signed if you want.
Other news, Forbes has declared the game "spectacularly controversial", we've had our first EVIL Challenge winners, our first semi-pornographic balaclava photos and we've been hearing interesting stories of pub games in Oxford finishing abruptly with strangers up-ending the board in disgust.
It seems people either love it or hate it, which is a shame, because it's all about the grey area.
- posted by TerrorBull Games on 15 December 2006 - 0 comments
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