musings
Green Ronin bags another licence
But is it one too many? I was surprised to read that Green Ronin had signed an agreement with DC Comics to release a series of four books as part of their Mutants and Masterminds line. It makes me wonder how many licensed products are sustainable for a small publishing house like GR.
Joss and The Avengers?
So a little under a month ago shock waves of glee hit the geek community. Our demi-god, Joss Whedon, would direct The Avengers movie!
Now unlike many geeks I’ve never been that into comics, and those comics I have been into haven’t been the Marvel/DC variety. However Joss Whedon directing and no doubt being involved in the script of a superhero movie had to be a good thing, right?
Unfortunately though, during a conversation with a friend, doubt started to creep in. Joss was going to make the most amazing Wonder Woman movie ever as well… but due to “creative differences” with the studio it got shelved.
And as we all know he often has ‘creative differences’ with the studio, and there are only so many times this can happen before you really have to ask. Is it Joss or the studio that’s being difficult?
I think anyone who has read this blog will know I’m a huge fan of what Joss creates. Buffy, (most of) Angel, Firefly, Serenity and Dollhouse are all fantastic. Hell I even liked Alien: Resurrection. But I can’t help but feel that there is a measure of diva in what drives him and that diva means that he has a habit of throwing his toys.
I hope I’m wrong and that The Avengers is a fantastic movie that hits our screens in 2012. But I’m keeping a certain level of healthy cynicism till then.
What do you think? Am I being too harsh on The Whedon? Or is there merit in what I say?
Appealing to 11 year old girls
The other day I (along with some other female gamers) recieved an email from my friend Steve about what kind of games might appeal to a group of 11 year old girls. My first reaction was to suggest Best Friends or Blue Rose but I started to think of myself at 11 and wondered whether either of these games would have appealed to me.
The answer I came up with was no, they wouldn’t. Why? Well I think it’s mostly because I was a bit of a tomboy, I spent my time playing with GI Joe and Playmobile rather than Barbie. I also thought all things typically “girlie” were boring and lame. If someone had offered me a game of DnD however I no doubt would have jumped at the chance.
Had this been a group of 11 year old boys the DnD 4e would have been broken out and fun times had by all. So I wonder if perhaps this group of 11 year old girls would not similarly be interested in hacking and slashing their way through a dungeon. It’s interesting how we assume that most girls won’t, and that of course this assumption is based on generations of gender rolls that to one extent or another we all live. Now I’m not saying this is a good or bad thing, after all this blog is about gaming not gender politics. But I would love to know whether the girls had been offered DnD or if it was assumed they wouldn’t be into it.
I suppose this stream of conciousness is getting to a point of some sort which is; what is it about certain games that appeals to you or that you think you could pitch to your gaming group? Do you try to find new people to game with so you can play that cool shared narrative game because you’re convinced your regular World of Darkness crew would never be interested?
I’d be interested to know.