News Digest Brainwaves Episode 135
This is a copy of the “script” we used to organise Brainwaves Episode 135. It is not a full transcript but should give you an overview of the news as we reported it. Quotes are in italics.
Headlines
Hasbro cuts workforce in the run-up to Christmas
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/dec/11/toymaker-hasbro-layoffs
- Throughout last year we reported on the very healthy financial numbers that Wizards of the Coast kept posting for their parent company Hasbro. Over the course of the year, they were one of the only parts of the company that kept making money.
- Well the reward for that success was revealed in the run-up to Christmas and it was the loss of many jobs. Merry Christmas?
- Hasbro had already cut 800 jobs earlier in the year. CEO Chris Cocks said in an email to staff
- “While we’re confident in the future of Hasbro, the current environment demands that we do more, even if these choices are some of the hardest we have to make.”
- In an internal memo given to newspapers, he went on to say
- “We entered 2023 expecting a year of change including significant updates to our leadership team, structure, and scope of operations. We anticipated the first three quarters to be challenging, particularly in toys, where the market is coming off historic, pandemic-driven highs.
- “While we have made some important progress across our organization, the headwinds we saw through the first nine months of the year have continued into Holiday and are likely to persist into 2024.”
- The losses were not limited to the toys area of the company as many high-profile Magic: The Gathering and Dungeons and Dragons team members publicly confirmed they were no longer working for the company. Dicebreaker posted that game designer Dan Dillon had been let go and Senior Developmental Editor Eytan Bernstein also lost their job. The latter had contributed to several major D&D books including the upcoming Vecna: Eve of Evil. Director of studio operations for D&D Digital, Wendy Despain and D&D Beyond host Amy Dallen confirmed they were laid off.
- One of the oddest job losses was of Megan Galbraith Donahue who had led the Universes Beyond creative and production teams. These products saw Magic: The Gathering bring in franchises like Warhammer 40k, Doctor Who, and Lord of the Rings to the game. These were hugely popular, especially the Lord of the Rings tie-in.
- Although he had lost a lot of goodwill from the community in recent years, Mike Mearls was also laid off. Mearls was part of the team that made the current edition of Dungeons and Dragons.
- Reports from computer game company Larian Studios said that all the staff at Wizards of the Coast they liaised with while making Baldurs Gate 3 were now gone. Baldurs Gate 3 was Game of the Year for many sites and has been hugely successful.
- Chris Cocks took home 9.4 million dollars in 2022. He has a base salary of $1.3 million dollars.
- We are linking to the Guardian UK article about this as other sources were behind paywalls
Wizards under fire for AI art. Again
https://www.polygon.com/24029754/wizards-coast-magic-the-gathering-ai-art-marketing-image
D&D Beyond on AI
- Sticking with Wizards of the Coast for a moment.
- A recent advertising campaign by Wizards of the Coast for Magic: The Gathering, was accused of being AI-generated. The image was posted to the official Magic: The Gathering account on X (formerly Twitter) on January the 4th.
- Initially, Wizards of the Coast denied the claim saying it was created by humans and not AI. However after fans spotted some oddness in the art, like a gauge having nonsense text on it, Wizards were forced to issue the following statement on January the 7th
- “Well, we made a mistake earlier when we said that a marketing image we posted was not created using AI,” the Magic account said in a statement posted to X on Jan. 7. “As you, our diligent community pointed out, it looks like some AI components that are now popping up in industry standard tools like Photoshop crept into our marketing creative, even if a human did the work to create the overall image.”
- “While the art came from a vendor, it’s on us to make sure that we are living up to our promise to support the amazing human ingenuity that makes Magic great. We already made clear that we require artists, writers, and creatives contributing to the Magic TCG to refrain from using AI generative tools to create final Magic products. Now we’re evaluating how we work with vendors on creative beyond our products – like these marketing images – to make sure that we are living up to those values.”
- Wizards of the Coast stirred up a lot of problems for itself over the last year with regard to art. In August 2023, art from Bigby Presents Glory of the Giants, and Dungeons and Dragons supplement, was found to have been AI-generated. Wizards issued a statement saying that they had parted ways with that artist and would source alternate art in reprints of the book. Later in the year, they found that one of their artist on Magic: The Gathering had effectively plagiarised another artist’s work by heavily ‘referencing’, basically painting over, a piece. They also had to bat away criticism of one of the covers for the forthcoming edition of the game that was accused of being AI art but wasn’t.
- The community is obviously on edge about these issues and D&D Beyond, the online portal for all things official D&D, issued a statement on the matter on December the 19th 2023.
- For 50 years, D&D has been built on the innovation, ingenuity, and hard work of talented people who sculpt a beautiful, creative game. That isn’t changing. Our internal guidelines remain the same with regards to artificial intelligence tools: We require artists, writers, and creatives contributing to the D&D TTRPG to refrain from using AI generative tools to create final D&D products. We work with some of the most talented artists and creatives in the world, and we believe those people are what makes D&D great.
Tabletop Mentorship Programme joins Unpub
Punchboard UK Link
- The Tabletop Mentorship Programme has been running for a good few years now. The organisation aims to arrange mentorship by tabletop industry professionals for folk looking to get into the industry or just expand their skillset.
- Iain has participated in the Tabletop Mentorship programme both as a mentor and mentee and enjoyed the experience both times.
- Well, now the programme is getting a boost by becoming part of the Unpublished Game Network, often referred to as Unpub.
- Unpub was founded in 2010 by John Moller and is a place to find out about playtesting events, network with artists, designers, publishers and others in the tabletop game design community and generally support folk in creating new games.
- Michael Belsole & Grace Kendall, the creators of the Tabletop Mentorship Programme, said this about the collaboration
- “We are thrilled that the Tabletop Mentorship Program is joining Unpub! The program was growing at an incredible pace, and it became difficult for us to steward by ourselves. With Unpub’s support and leadership, TMP can flourish to help more and more designers, publishers, artists, and anyone else working in tabletop games. Unpub was a huge part of both of our design journeys, and we couldn’t be happier to be able to contribute to strengthening their already fantastic organization.”
- Michael and Grace had done an immense amount of work over the last few years and they had posted a few times about the strain of continuing the programme. This partnership with Unpub will see the programme become a regular part of the Unpub calendar.
- Heather O’Neill, Managing Director of Unpub, said
- “We talked about their issues and how Unpub could help. We had been looking to add a mentorship component to Unpub so it made sense to partner up!”
- The Mentorship programme ran online for a few weeks each year. It will stay the same but Unpub will help expand the offering including Mentorship throughout the year, some in-person events, and a dedicated board at Unpub to organise the programme.
- The first Mentorship programme under the Unpub Umbrella will happen sometime mid-2024 and we will let you know when that begins
Updates
Brooklyn Strategist Unionises
- Before we went on our break over Christmas we had reported on two New York Game Cafes reaching the decision to form unions. Both Hex and Counters and Uncommons had formed Unions a month or two ago. In the run-up to Christmas a third cafe, the Brooklyn Strategist, joined them.
- All 3 of these cafes are owned by the same people, owners who have been accused of union-busting tactics to try and ensure that these organisations did not form.
- The unionisation efforts of the Brooklyn Strategist and Hex and Counters are in collaboration with Workers United NY/NJ, a joint board of workers united. Workers United are the representatives of Starbucks Workers United which has led to 360 Starbucks stores across the US forming Unions.
- At the time of writing none of the unions formed by these organisations have been formally recognised by the owners.
- Discussion: Great to see the Union train keep on chugging.
News
Votes for Women wins Summit Award
American Economic Liberties Project,
- In our first awards news of 2024, we are looking at a new award to us. The Summit Award. This is given out annually by the San Diego Historical Games Convention (SDhist). In a recent press release, they explained the award and announced the winner for 2023.
- The San Diego Historical Games Convention (SDHist) is proud to announce the winner of the second annual Summit Award. The Summit Award aims to recognize a historical board game published in the preceding year that most broadened the hobby through the ease of teaching, ease of play, uniqueness of topic, novelty of approach, and/or effectiveness as a historical game. The 2023 Summit Award winner (for games published in 2022) is Votes for Women.
- Votes for Women, designed by Tory Brown, is published by Fort Circle Games. It features art and graphic design from Brigette Indelicato and Marc Rodrigue and development from Kevin Bertram. Dr. Rachel Michelle Gunter served as historical advisor and Kimberly Himmer served as copy editor.
- The other finalists for the award were
- Fire & Stone: Siege of Vienna 1683, designed by Robert DeLeskie and published by Capstone Games
- John Company 2nd Edition, designed by Cole Wherle and published by Wehrlegig Games
- Stonewall Uprising (designed by Taylor Shuss and published by Catastrophe Game)
- Much like the Zenobia Award which aims to help diversify the designers and topics that wargames traditionally cover, the SDhist is designed to do the same. From the page announcing the award:
- The mission of SDHist is to create a diverse and supportive gaming community dedicated to playing, discussing, designing, and promoting historically-based board games. Through this commitment, SDHist seeks to serve both the existing historical board gaming community as well as grow it through the addition of new voices and perspectives.
- We aren’t done with this particular game just yet. It was recently reported by the site Boardgamewire that despite the success of the game and its positive critical reception, Fort Circle Games is having trouble advertising the game on Facebook. Kevin Bertram, founder of Fort Circle Games, told Boardgamewire that a series of adverts had been rejected by Facebook because they feature
- “sensitive social issues”
- Which
- “Could influence how people vote and may impact the outcome of an election or pending legislation”
- This came just as the campaign for the second print run of the game. Kevin told Boardgamewire
- “The campaign is a modest success – we should finish at about $120,000 – but we are missing out on a huge potential audience and this may cost us as much as $60,000 in funds raised. Most Kickstarter creators will tell you that Facebook advertising is a crucial piece of the crowdfunding puzzle.
- “A woman’s right to vote is not a ‘sensitive social issue’. It is established law and fact. A board game about historical events from over a century ago is unlikely to ‘impact the outcome of an election or pending legislation’.”
- Tory Brown, the designer of the game said
- “The struggle for equal representation and a political voice was at the heart of the suffrage movement.
- “If you’re concerned about the outsized role that huge corporations like Meta now play in who gets to be heard, consider joining or supporting an organization like the American Economic Liberties Project, Public Citizen, or the Open Markets Institute.
- Kevin Bertram, the head honcho of Fort Circle Games, is a Patreon of this cast and both Kevin and Tory are members of The Giant Brain Discord.
Amazon secures 40k series
https://www.warhammer-community.com/2022/12/16/warhammer-starring-henry-cavill/
- If you are a fan of grim dystopian futures then hang onto your space marine helmets as Amazon has secured global rights to Warhammer 40k TV shows.
- Last year it was announced that Games Workshop had attached Cavill to a series set in the grim, dark future of the 40k setting, but at the time no company had bought the rights to produce and distribute the series. On the 16th of December, 2023, Games Workshop announced the deal with Amazon Studios in a press release.
- The release says that the deal will cover films, TV series and more, and it is worth noting that Amazon does have a computer games studio simply called Amazon Games.
- Head of Amazon Studios, Jennifer Salke said
- “Warhammer 40,000 has captured the imagination of fans of all ages, from all walks of life, and all over the world. We are excited to work with Henry, Vertigo Entertainment, and Games Workshop across our Amazon entertainment businesses on this brilliant, immersive franchise for our global customers to experience for years to come.”
- Henry Cavill became famous over the lockdown years for appearing on Instagram pursuing his nerdier side: painting miniatures and putting together gaming PCs. He has always been an unashamed advocate for the hobby.
- He said of the deal
- “I have loved Warhammer since I was a boy, making this moment truly special for me. The opportunity to shepherd this cinematic universe from its inception is quite the honour and the responsibility. I couldn’t be more grateful for all the hard work put in by Vertigo, Amazon and Games Workshop to make this happen. One step closer to making a nigh-on lifelong dream come true.”
- Cavill will not only star in the series but also act as Executive Producer.
Nightfall Games picks up on AI art
- Scottish RPG company Nightfall Games has recently discovered that some of the art in their forthcoming Terminator 2 book for the Terminator RPG has some AI art in it.
- Jared Earle, who we interviewed on the site last year, realised that some of the art they had recently commissioned bore some telltale signs of AI art generation. The company ran it and other pieces by the artist in question through an AI identifier and many came back as a 99% match to something generated by Midjourney, an AI generative art programme. They consulted with illustrator friends of the company and came to the inescapable conclusion that they had paid for AI-generated art.
- Nightfall Games have updated backers on the situation and it is unknown at this time how these issues will affect the delivery of the game that Kickstarted back in 2021.
- Nightfall games said in that update
- “It matters because AI art is theft. It creates art from a massive, massive portfolio of art and images, that have been created by real people. It then splurges out poor mockeries of these arts without any consideration of the artists and can be done by any Tom, Dick or Harry, [sic]” it reads.
- “We do not want to cheat artists (we are artists), we don’t want to cheat you (our backers and customers). We are a small company, who focus on good and original art and pay well for it. We find this situation abhorrent, upsetting and depressing.”
Kelp counterfeited before release
https://wonderbowgames.com/en-uk/blogs/news/counterfeit-copies-of-kelp
- Publisher Wonderbow had a recent successful Kickstarter for their game Kelp. This is a 2-player asymmetric game with an ocean wildlife theme
- They posted to their website recently to warn people of the existence of counterfeit copies of the game. These games were coming from sites like Amazon, eBay, and Fruugo (another marketplace-style site). Kelp is not expected to reach backers until October 2024.
- The publisher has this plea to people in the press release
- If you bought Kelp from an unofficial source (other than Kickstarter or our Pledge Manager):
You will receive a fake copy or no copy at all. Counterfeits compromise quality, gameplay, may have parts missing and often lack essential legal info. - If you come across a counterfeit copy:
Kindly report it to the platform where you found it or made the purchase. Feel free to link to this blog post as evidence.
- If you bought Kelp from an unofficial source (other than Kickstarter or our Pledge Manager):
- The company has pictures of a counterfeit copy of the game with poor card and mat quality and a lego shark as part of the components.
Steamforged partners with Lucky Duck
https://icv2.com/articles/news/view/55980/steamforged-partners-lucky-duck
- Steamforged Games, the UK publisher of board games based on computer game IPs Horizon Zero Dawn and Dark Souls, just announced a collaboration with European publisher Lucky Duck Games
- The deal will see Lucky Duck localizing Steamforged games for different regions of the world in their local languages.
- Toby Davies, commercial director at Steamforged said
- “As two leading games publishers come together in this exclusive partnership we’re excited to bring iconic titles like the Gears of War card game, Sea of Thieves Voyage of Legends, and Medici to new horizons. This collaboration represents our commitment to delivering immersive gaming experiences to captivate and engage players worldwide through the brilliant teams both at Lucky Duck and here at Steamforged Games.”
Chess back in the news
- It seems we can’t start the new year off without a good scandal and it is the turn once more of chess to bring the strange.
- However, we are not talking about Chess as we know it. This time we are looking at the world of Chinese Chess, or Xiangqi (shang-chi). This game has been popular for hundreds of years and there is a thriving competitive scene.
- Now back in 2023 we covered a lot of controversy in the Chess scene as accusations flew between then world champion Magnus Carlsen and a rival Hans Nieman. Cheating allegations abounded and at one point it got so odd that Nieman was accused of using Anal beads to receive signals that allowed him to cheat.
- We thought that was the last time we would say anal beads on this cast, but it was not to be so.
- 48-year-old Yan Chenglong beat all comers to win the title of Xiangqi (shang-chi) King in a national tournament hosted by the national association for the game.
- However, the title was soon stripped from him as he was caught ‘disrupting public order’ and ‘displaying extremely bad character’
- The association said
- “Yan consumed alcohol with others in his room on the night of the 17th, and then he defecated in the bathtub of the room he was staying in on the 18th, in an act that damaged hotel property, violated public order and good morals, had a negative impact on the competition and the event of Xiangqi, and was of extremely bad character,”
- The association was also forced to deny that Yan had used Anal beads equipped with wireless transmitters to send and receive signals. The allegations surfaced on the social media site Weibo.
- The association said of these allegations
- “Based on our understanding of the situation, it is currently impossible to prove that Yan engaged in cheating via ‘anal beads’ as speculated on social media,”
- Yan likely lost out on thousands of dollars in prize money, though the final amount was not disclosed by the association.
Obituaries
Bernward Thole dies
- It is with much sadness that we bring you the news of 3 important people who passed over the 2023 festive period.
- Bernward Thole, the Honorary Chairman of the Spiel des Jahres jury and a doctor of literature and media studies passed away on 18th December 2023 at the age of 87 in Marburg, Germany. He dedicated his life to board games with the goal that they would be recognized as culturally significant.
- As he said himself, he always wanted to “arouse interest and joy in playing.” His focus was on encouraging people to engage in a shared activity, that would connect them beyond everyday boundaries such as gender, age, social class and background.
- During his career, he reviewed board games for a number of popular German newspapers and magazines, including “Die Zeit”, “Frankfurter Rundschau” and the “Oberhessische Presse”. His reviews were not simply repeating rules and ticking boxes. Instead, they were a dialogue with the people who were playing the games. As he said himself: “When one sees the type of games that make people want to play them, they are games with spirit, games with a certain depth, in short: playful games.”
- He will be truly missed.
Bryan Charles Ansell dies
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bryan_Ansell
- Byran Charles Ansell died on the 30th December 2023.
- Bryan was the person who formed Citadel Miniatures with Ian Livingstone and Steve Jackson and would eventually go on to become Managing Director of the company. To some controversy at the time, Ansell shifted the focus of Games Workshop away from RPGs towards being more focused on miniatures and the Warhammer line of products. He initiated a management buyout of the company in December 1991 and refocused on Warhammer Fantasy Battle and Warhammer 40k.
Jenell Jaquay Dies
- Tabletop designer Jenell Jaquay, who was involved with the early days of Dungeons and Dragons at TSR, has passed away at the age of 67.
- She was best known for her work with TSR and other D&D publishers, writing Dark Tower and Caverns of Thracia for them.
- She would go on to work on items like the Dragon Mountain adventure in the D&D’s 1993 box set and has worked for Chaosium, publishers of Call of Cthulhu, and several videogame publishers. She helped convert some cabinet games, like Pac-Man, and Donkey Kong, to their console versions and worked for ID while it developed the game Quake.
- Her work on Dark Tower would garner nominations from Dungeon Magazine in the list of the thirty greatest non-TSR published D&D adventures. She also accrued several nominations for the HG Wells Award, as a short story competition.
- She was inducted into the GAMA Hall of Fame in 2017.
- The thoughts of the Brainwaves team are with all the loved ones of those who have passed at this difficult time.
Jobs, Opportunities, and Events
https://www.facebook.com/groups/TabletopJobs
Cardboard Edison Awards Open
https://cardboardedison.com/award
January 1: submissions open
January 31: submissions close
Interview with Diatoms Designer
Patreon Shoutouts
Kevin Bertram
James Naylor
Shaun Newman
game-a-lot.fun/en
facebook.com/gamealotboardgames
Our Patreon
https://www.patreon.com/thegiantbrain
Metallic Dice Games
https://metallicdicegames.com/
Promo Code: ROLLWITHBRAINS
Sir Meeple
Outro
Jamie
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/404983/monopoly-knockout
- Straight out the gate for the year I have some hot Monopoly news for you all. Now what popular game has Monopoly not been crossed with yet? That’s right, Shuffleboard.
- Monopoly Knockout has individuals or teams slide tokens down the 3-foot board to land on properties or knock opponents into opposing properties or jail spaces. At the end of the round money is collected or paid.
- The game boasts boasts an over 3-foot long board and plays in 20 minutes, from 2 to 8 players.
- According to Wikipedia “don’t use us to get all references and research from. Use other things.” But Shuffleboard was first referenced in Tudor England, as being played by Henry the Eighth for stakes.
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