War on Terror Blog
Thursday 27th November 2008
Cambridge Calling ...
Saturday December 6th, Mill Road, Cambridge - Cambridge residents will be familiar with the annual Mill Rd Winter Fair. It's the time of year when pedestrians fight with cars for a battle of supremacy and Mill Rd gets filled with loads of stalls and events, one of which will be the War on Terror - in the marquee outside the swimming pool.
It should be a lot of fun since we've not done that much in our home town. We'll be dusting off those WMDs for the old party favourite, 'Hunt the WMD' and all three of us will be on hand to sign, deface and devalue the best Christmas present out there. (We're talking about War on Terror by the way, so no smart arse comments about why we're defacing Wii Balance Boards or whatever).
To be honest, just the novelty of being able to walk in the middle of the road with a certain amount of impunity is reason enough to check it out. (We'd still suggest looking both ways before you cross though; remember the Green Cross Code).
Be there, or be in the Grafton Centre.
- posted by TerrorBull Games on 27 November 2008 - 0 comments
Monday 17th November 2008
War on Terror in Nobel Peace Center
The Nobel Peace Center, Oslo, representing perhaps the world's most famous arbiters of peace, and recognising deeds for 'the good of mankind' now stock our game.
We always intended for War on Terror to be a peaceful protest and debate instigator via the medium of family fun (that's not what is says on the box - ed) but even we were surprised and honoured by this latest edition to our stockists page.
This new home for our game is doubly exciting because the Nobel Peace Center are blazing a trail: they're our first Norwegian stockist - something that will be of great relief to Norwegian wallets. The postage costs from the UK were previously nothing short of pillage.
So if you find yourself skiing near Oslo, eating a spot of whale meat, or just enjoying the local firewater then do make time to visit the centre. It's got a hell of a lot more than just a list of peace prizes they've doled out. They've got a very interesting-looking programme of events and its dead easy to find the place: slap bang in the centre of Oslo, by the water's edge, opposite the two towered town hall. And don't forget to visit the gift shop on the way out to pick up everybody's favourite game of peace.
- posted by TerrorBull Games on 17 November 2008 - 0 comments
Thursday 6th November 2008
Lucca Comics and Games 2008
After a successful covert operation at Essen Toy Fair in Germany we sped down to Italy in our trusty ambulance. Along the way, we took in a bit of Bavarian history, a winding detour through the Austrian alps and an overnight stay in Verona, arriving relatively refreshed in Lucca but with just a couple of hours to spare for set-up. Luckily, a couple of hours is all we need these days, seasoned pros that we are.
The medieval and beautiful, walled city of Lucca has hosted an ambitious, large-scale comics and games fair for the past 17 years. This year they had a record 135,000 people show up - maybe somebody told them we were coming? They did apparently place us on their homepage as 'honoured guests'. Awwww...
Super heroes, bizarre comic book creations, lots of Manga orientated costumes and a healthy smattering of school girls The word "fair" however doesn't even remotely do it justice. It's more like a carnival. Imagine getting a hundred thousand extroverts, locking them away from public view for ten years and then unleashing them all at once on a dressing-up box the size of France. The result is Lucca town centre for four days solid. Imagine walking through winding, cobbled medieval streets and bumping into not one, but three Little Red Riding Hoods. Picture, if you will, a gaggle of Corpse Brides sheltering from the rain. Or more disturbing, try and visualize, under heavy skies, running into a group of 12 identical-looking blank-eyed girls dressed up as half the class from Battle Royale, carrying assorted weapons from frying pans to a ball-and-chain. It's nothing short of otherworldly.
But not everything was quite as fantastic as it sounds. Things got off to a slow start thanks in part to torrential rain that didn't show any signs of letting up until Saturday. We had real worries that the Italians maybe weren't as ready for playing an English game as the Germans were after we sold just five games on the first, wet and quiet day.
The sun came out for the for the weekend though and that's when the place really burst into life. More people descended on Lucca on Saturday than in the previous two days put together. Everyone looked amazing: super heroes we knew and some we didn't, bizarre comic book creations, lots of Manga orientated costumes and a healthy smattering of school girls for no other reason than it's an easy costume to make (not that we're complaining). We even had photo requests and shouts of "Terrorist!" while out and about in our orange jumpsuits.
Interest picked up dramatically and suddenly the 10 hour days were rushing by in a blur of demonstrations, signings, stilted Italian and frantic hand gestures. Somehow it all came good in the end and the entire hall soon recognised our megaphone siren that we let off after every sale. We even managed to achieve our goal of getting some Italian shops and distributors to take on the game. In fact, during a meeting with one of the larger distributors, Andy T and Andy S were trying to ally the manager's fears that WoT simply wouldn't sell in Italy since Italians don't buy games in foreign languages. As if on cue, a distant siren cut through the air from Tom racking up another sale back on our stall.
We ended our five days in Lucca far too soon. Happy with the result, but sad to be leaving. A long, non-stop, caffeine-fuelled drive back home through the night awaited us.
We'd like to sincerely thank all the Lucca staff who supported us so kindly. We'd also like to thank the generous and selfless store owners who helped us sell and explain the game in Italian for absolutely zero personal gain. And finally, all the people who put up with Andy T and Tom grunting, 'Do you speak English?' in pigeon Italian. Saying that, Andy T came up with the most ingenious way to communicate with the locals, hurdling international language barriers with nothing more than some pieces of card and a Sharpie. We think it might revolutionize the way the world communicates with each other. But we've said too much already - maybe one day this 'revolution' will need its own blog, or perhaps even its own website.
After such a mind blowing trip we are now following up some generous offers of rule translations, so hopefully at some point in the not too distant future we will be posting our rules in Italian. Bellissimo!
- posted by TerrorBull Games on 6 November 2008 - 2 comments
Wednesday 29th October 2008
How to Infiltrate a Toy Fair
It doesn't sound so hard to sneak into a toy fair. It's not like breaching the G8 summit or attending a meeting of the Bilderberg group. Essen Spiel is, as we've repeatedly been told, a family event – something that is open to everyone from toddlers to grannies. Everyone that is, except us.
Our initial plan was just to go as visitors. Meet people, talk shop, take a look around, all that stuff. But as soon as we arrived and saw what else was on offer, a whole new plan started to take shape. After all, we may be banned from exhibiting War on Terror, but no one said anything about anyone else.
For the first three days, we moved like networking ninjas in shadows, stealthily picking our way from one covert meeting to the next, gathering intelligence with all the zeal and determination of an Iraqi prison officer working on commission. We had very promising chats about our next game and about the possibility of both French and German versions of War on Terror but best of all we persuaded ten shops around the fair to trial WoT on the last day of Spiel.
Until then, our genial host and new best friend, Holger from the Fantasy En'counter games shop in Essen was acting as trailblazer, being the only trader selling War on Terror from day one. The lack of heat from The Man was encouraging and in fact War on Terror was Holger's single biggest seller. Would we, we wondered, be able to replicate Holger's success all over the fair?
Sunday rolled around all-too-quickly. We had our intelligence list, a little trolley and a van full of games parked outside. All we had to do was race round the halls delivering games before we got caught and thrown out.
Amazingly no one noticed anything suspicious. We even pushed our trolley full of War on Terror right under Dominique Metzler's (Spiel boss) nose as she gave a radio interview. Seems as if everyone was too occupied to notice our shennanigans.
By the time we'd completed a single round, it was time to check on the first shop again. Everyone was happily reporting lots of interest. One Dutch shop who had immediately set about making a War on Terror pyramid had already sold 9 games and needed re-enforcements for a larger foundation.
It wasn't until half way through the day, as we were pushing around open boxes of WoT, turning heads whenever we trundled past, that we realised we had a kind of mobile stand. A bit of sellotape, a few postcards and literally dozens of seconds later and we pimped out our very own 'TerrorCart' - striking ridiculousness and sickness into the heart of what is traditionally the 'family day' at Essen. And then imagine our mischievous delight when we found that one exhibitor had packed up early and left an empty booth just ripe for squatting. We did it. We got our stand at Essen.
While we hardly broke the bank (they're doing that well enough themselves right now), we did feel a little surge of triumph as we ended the day, collecting cash and chatting to happy shop owners who all promised to carry on stocking WoT. Against the odds, we infiltrated the largest game fair in the world, escaped unscathed, no man down.
We'd like to extend our sincere and heartfelt thanks once again to Holger for allowing three strange Brits to sleep on his floor and for all the kindness, support and help he gave us. It's the unequivocal geneoristy of these random friends we meet and make around the world that keep us going and make it all worthwhile.
Onto Lucca!
- posted by TerrorBull Games on 29 October 2008 - 0 comments
Tuesday 28th October 2008
Essen: Anatomy of a Ban
We admit it was pretty funny at first to be banned from a toy fair. But there comes a point where amusement turns to frustration and walking round Essen Spiel for the first time was that point.
To best understand that moment, we should review the reasons for our ban and see whether they measure up against what we now know about Spiel. Please allow and forgive us this indulgence; it's either this or we're going to throw the TV out the window, so for the sake of Anglo-German relations and the hotel we're staying in, we'd best vent our spleen on the blog.
Here are some of the reasons we've been given for our ban accompanied by photos that we took at this year's Spiel:
- "There are no war games at Essen"
- "It's a family show"
- "WoT is too political"
- "It's sick and ridiculous"
- "Nuclear weapons are nothing to joke about"
- "Terrorism is no subject for a game"
Some of you reading this will no doubt consider this petty, but we're not just crying foul. Essen is the largest games fair in the world. Some game designers literally make their living year-to-year by selling their game at Essen. There's no doubt about it, if we attended, it would constitute a major slice of our sales. Similarly, by not attending, TerrorBull Games suffers and loses out on a massive event that is open to all our competitors. And that just isn't ... what's the word ... fair.
- posted by TerrorBull Games on 28 October 2008 - 1 comments
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