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I'm a little torn, really... I honestly saw the writing on the wall a while back, had it confirmed for me a couple of months ago when the one game store near me who actually carried Hecatomb told me that it was tanking. I expected them to crank out just enough to fulfill whatever contract they may have made and then sweep it under the rug. After all, when they had high level DCI judges demoing the game in the middle of Friday Night Magic, it pretty much shot itself in the foot before it even got started. But what I'm torn about... is whether I should even care about Dreamblade, since it'll probably just tank itself even faster because it'll try and take away Magic Players, and D&D minis players... or whether I should troll my local game shops and find out if I can buy their cases of Hecatomb off of them on the cheap just so they can get it out of their stores.

I stopped to buy magic years ago, and Hecatomb came. Now Hecatomb is lost and I gonna return playing on my computer

-Hmmm. We're worried about our profits from Hecatomb.

-I know, let's announce that we're cancelling the game BEFORE we release the last set!

-No way! Then people who would have bought the new cards will spend their money on something else...like....like something we didn't make!

Thing is Gaelin, for some of us, Hecatomb was the only thing getting us to buy WotC's product. I count myself among this group because until I found Hecatomb listed in Game Trade Magazine last year, I didn't want anything to do with the WotC Nazi's and their perversions of everything I had enjoyed. Hell, I had a higher vocabulary in the 1st grade than any other kid in school thanks to the 1st ed AD&D Player's Handbook. I'll never play d20, because I hate the system with a passion that makes other people's hatreds seem like a mild distaste. Even if I ever did succumb to the evil that is d20, it won't be a WotC product, it'll probably be Iron Kingdoms from Privateer Press, and if I can get away with playing it without buying the 3.5 players handbook, I'll do so. I haven't liked Magic since the The Rath Cycle, and well the Samurai's of Crap-agawa pretty much was the nail in the coffin for me ever wanting to buy any more Magic Cards. Besides, I haven't been tournament legal in almost a decade, nor do I care. And let's be serious, I'll never buy their silly miniatures combat games like Axis & Allies or D&D Minis because A) I like Wizkids better in that field, and B) I just don't have the money to drop on every minis game I come across, so I'll support the properties that I think are fun, like Mechwarrior and Pirates.

Now WotC comes here to Philly in a week for Wizard World, and they say they'll be having Dreamblade Demos. I'll take a look. I'll see what kind of interest it generates over the weekend, and I'll probably even try a demo of it myself (especially if there's some free swag ) But I'm not holding out much hope. I broke my boycott once for you people, and it happened to be a game that tanked because you cared in Game Trade Magazine, and you cared on your website, but it just didn't feel like you cared at all where it mattered most, at point of sale. Hell, when I'd ask a store in Philly if they carried Hecatomb, they looked at me like I grew a second head. They'd never even gotten any product information, never saw a demo, never even heard of it. Why? Because WotC didn't even put any teaser info in their shipments to the game stores. Never sent them a demo pack, like every other bloody game company does to get their dealers interested in their game. For God's Sake, when even Upper Deck can do it with their VS. game line, and they're happily pumping a hundred grand a year into their pro tour, you have no bloody excuse. If your company treats Dreamblade the same way they treated Hecatomb, and it's starting to feel like they are because I wouldn't have even heard of this game if I hadn't been nosing around on the Hecatomb website and saw a link to Dreamblade in the Wizards' splash page, then it'll drop like a burning Hindenburg, because Dreamblade will cost a lot more than a pack of Hecatomb cards.

I undestand why Icy's upset, but that's because I pretty much hate everything about WotC's product lines and refuse to waste what money I do have on them unless they really jump out at me, like Hecatomb did. I may not agree with his methods, but when does anyone really agree with anyone completely. What he's trying to say is that he feels like he wasted his money, maybe he was a league player, and now that the game is dead there is no more league, no more prizes, and while yes it's still a fun game, it's a game we can't share with anyone unless we have 10 copies of every card in the game. We'll be pretty much playing the same decks until the end of time because we won't be able to buy any new cards, or even any old cards once the supply runs out, they sure as hell ain't planning on making more. When that happens, for the most part all those cards I own, and you own, and Icy owns will collect dust and maybe get played with once every couple of years, if that. Darkling, you're a loyal supporter of WotC, and that's ok. If you lose a game line, you still have other products you wish to enjoy and support. I know I don't. For those in my camp, who think Magic has become the silly gimmick of the month club, or who think d20 is a sick joke that went too far, like Frankenstein's monster, we're kinda screwed. WotC let us down, again, and even though it's development team really fought to keep the doomsday device going, and I admire them for that in an industry that is quick to cut the chaff from the wheat as soon as possible, we feel kinda hurt that we trusted them again and they took our money and smiled while they signed the death warrant about 4 months ago. I'm not blaming the development team, and I'm not blaming Ryan, because he really had fun doing this and a team that cares anough about their product to create an RPG just to keep us interested before the game was released deserves my respect. I blame the company itself. This isn't the first time they've done this, and I should have known before I got started.

Ok, I let this post get waay too long, and so I'll let it go here, but I just don't like that the C*G (whether it be a CC or a CM) industry has become just a Caveat Emptor type of business structure.

Well, that's a bummer. First Mythos and now Hecatomb--what's an HP Lovecraft themed CCG gotta do to stay alive out there? These cards will migrate to the box in my garage.

Meanwhile, try UFS. Solid system, good licenses.