War on Terror Blog
Saturday 25th October 2008
A night of Terror at the V&A
War on Terror will be making a spooky appearance at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London on the 31st Oct from 6.30-10.00pm.
The event is called 'French Connection Friday Late: Cold War Modern'. The nearest tube is South Kensington and admission is FREE.
You can play War on Terror as well as a host of other crazy things. The demonstration of our game will be in the capable hands of trusty WoT guinea pigs, Ben and Sandeep. Their experience of the game goes back to early testing days, so challenge them if you dare.
Our good friends from 'Class War games' will be attending. And the blurb mentions these attractive attractions: 'Cybersalon and Cybersonica will host progressive electronica music,audiovisual performances, screen-based gaming and sonic art through innovative performances using new multimedia technology.
'Here's the official link to the event, if you wish to know more, but quite frankly what more do you need to know? And don't cry and get panicky if you can't see us listed because we're not, it's all been a bit last minute. If you do make it, have a good one and buy Ben and Sandeep a drink on our behalf.
- posted by TerrorBull Games on 25 October 2008 - 0 comments
Tuesday 21st October 2008
Look Out, Europe, Here We Come!
Well we survived Las Vegas, LA, Reading ... um ... and that's about it. Now we're taking to the road again in a European convention double-bill.
First stop is Essen Spiel - perhaps the largest game fair in the world, with a reputed 300,000 visitors over four days, the very mention of its name is enough to give a thousand geekgasms. Sadly, we're still banned from the place but they never said we couldn't visit. How we go about networking and striking deals incognito is perhaps a little trickier:
- "So, who do you represent"
- "Erm, I'm not allowed to tell you"
- "What are you trying to sell me?"
- "I'll mime it for you".
If you're also going to Essen, drop us a line. We're having ein grossen Party mit vielen fun-und-games on Saturday evening at the Fantasy En'Counter game shop in town. Join us for some war on terror-ing. Play the game. Get your own signed, personalised copy of War on Terror. Win prizes. And there's also a rumour going round that we'll be unveiling a prototype of our new game. We started those rumours; they're true, just in case you were still confused.
There's a rumour going round that we'll be unveiling a prototype of our new game. We started those rumours. Next stop - Lucca in Italy for Lucca Comics & Games '08. This runs from 30 October to 2 November and we're actually allowed into this one. It's by far the largest convention we've ever exhibited at: about 85,000 people are expected over the four days. We don't really know how it'll all go down with the Italians, but their renown sartorial sense will surely appreciate our day-glo orange jumpsuits, if nothing else.
Stay tuned. We'll be posting updates from the road as and when we can. Oh and just in case it wasn't clear, the picture is of Andy T loading up 'Alfie the Ambulance'. Yes, we're going round Europe in an Ambulance. Somehow it's kind of fitting.
- posted by TerrorBull Games on 21 October 2008 - 0 comments
Tuesday 14th October 2008
War on Terror at the BBC
We were recently invited onto BBC radio to talk about global liberation, censorship, the police, balaclavas, money, fear, family and good old fashioned English queuing, all under the banner of our board game. What else?
You can read the BBC's article here, and with the wonders of modern technology you can even listen to the entire interview here.
It was terribly nice of the folks at BBC Radio Cambridgshire to invite us into their broadcasting domain. Very brave of them really. If you listen carefully, we might have even shot ourselves in the foot at one point by admitting to organised crime. But let's just keep that to ourselves... and...er...radio.
And to be serious for a moment, just in case it's not clear, the above photo from left to right, Andy T, Andy S and Tom. Rock on.
- posted by TerrorBull Games on 14 October 2008 - 0 comments
Wednesday 1st October 2008
Armageddon is a wonderful spectator sport
There's far too much going on to ignore, so in absence of us doing anything interesting recently, we present to you ... the world gone mad: collapsing banks, record bailouts and a presidential pantomime.
Firstly, don't believe any of these repeated assertions that the current financial crisis is because of the US sub-prime mortgage fiasco. Of course, that didn't help things, but what we're seeing now, without a doubt, is the result of 30 years of greedy, short-sighted, neoliberal policies, started by Thatcher and Reagan, coming home to roost.
The new breed of aggressive economists trumpeted that the market was king and yet those same people couldn't help themselves interfering in the market with "free trade agreements", tax breaks and other protectionist policies which all ensured that wealth flowed from the bottom up. The market was never trusted at all. Add a healthy dose of greed, embezzlement and dishonest accounting and you have the ingredients for global economic meltdown.
In a rare show of passion and genuine concern for people's rights, Senator Marcy Kaptur of Ohio (no, I hadn't heard of her before either) has given two fantastic speeches in Congress over the past couple of weeks regarding the criminal 700bn 'bailout' plan (otherwise known as the 'reverse Robin Hood' plan). Highly recommended viewing: here and here.
Also, if you can stomach it, here's a 50 minute talk by economist Dean Baker on how the 'free market' economy really works.
In the middle of all this, we had the two presidential candidates going head to head last week in possibly the most boring debate ever. The only fight we saw was the scramble to claim the middle ground first.
There are also delightful rumours going round that the Republicans have been doing anything they can (in vain, it appears) to stall tomorrow's (vice) presidential debate because of the small matter of Sarah Palin not being able to understand what she's saying unless it's written down and explained to her syllable by syllable.
- posted by Andy S on 1 October 2008 - 0 comments
Tuesday 2nd September 2008
GenCon UK
We've just returned from this years Gen Con UK in Reading and boy did we have fun. After last years triumph we were welcomed back with open arms. But this year we went one better, we replaced the plastic squashed rats with the one and only Andy Tompkins, with pretty much everybody agreeing this was an improvement.
This wasn't the only change we made to our stall, we emblazoned our frontage with quotes that we couldn't make up if we tried. And as a special treat for Gen Con 08 guests we had our beloved balaclava's on sale separately - made infamous recently by the Kent Constabulary. And we had pin badges for kids of all ages - with toddlers and parents preferring to go with the classic 'EVIL' design - We've never seen such grins.
It's a strange one for us, this once private joke becoming more popular each year. The amount of folk that now come up to us and rave about the game tends to freak out not just us, but other gamers who haven't played it yet. We are touched and must thank you all who have gave us such positive and constructive feedback.
The hard core gamers also appreciated the rave review we had on display that Frank Chadwick (a veteran games designer of high reputation) kindly gave us after judging the game to be in the top ten 'Historical boardgames of 2007' at the 34th Origins Awards. One Games designer who has known Frank for 32 years was amazed that we had such a positive endorsement from this man of such stature, he's apparently a hard man to please and wisely is not generally the endorsing type - So we have a new found respect for Frank and his kind words.
Fun was had on all four days and was rewarded by playing hard in the evenings which these dedicated gamers do well. We're not sure if it was the fine University campus setting that got us giddy or the 'potions' of 'gaming goodness' we were drinking. Either way we had a great time and met so many great people. Luckily we've been invited back next year and that will be about the right amount of time to recover.
The Charity auction was awesome and one of the highlights of the four days for us. Once again Tom scribbled some original terrorist based drawings for it only for him to later bid on his own work. He really needs to keep his ego in check or see a doctor about his memory, or stop drinking so much. But the highlight was Doctor Who (Colin Baker), who with very little persuasion compared and wooed the baying audience and whipped them up into a frenzy never before seen by Timelord or human. He was a consummate professional and now our favourite Doctor - Almost pipping the pretty girl companion in the leather bikini for best Doctor Who character of all time. Almost.
Grant from the charity bring and buy was auctioning off possibly the best thing that's ever been auctioned off - tattoo space! And miraculously anything we wanted!! So the three War on Terror boys rose to the challenge and ended up bidding against each other for this prime bit of flesh - and surprisingly one of us won. Poor Grant, what have you done? Watch this space for the result.
And the verdict from the good Doctor himself? "You guys are Cool Dudes." So TerrorBull Games are now endorsed intergallactically through time and space by Doctor Who. Universal liberation beckons.
- posted by TerrorBull Games on 2 September 2008 - 1 comments
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