Rolling for Initiative is a weekly column by Scott Thorne, PhD, owner of Castle Perilous Games & Books in Carbondale, Illinois and instructor in marketing at Southeast Missouri State University. This week, Thorne comments on recent GAMA announcements and the passing of Robert Wieland.
Following up on last week’s column (see “I Was Right About the Next Magic Set“), here are a few thoughts on the not legal name change by GAMA and Game Store Day:
GAMA Name Change. GAMA’s board of directors voted to rename the organization GAMA The Tabletop Game Association (see “GAMA Board Renames GAMA“), at least for all press releases and public announcements. Legally, the organization remains the Game Manufacturers Association. I guess this is rather like renaming the Department of Defense the Department of War. GAMA can call itself the Tabletop Game Association except in legal filings and documents where it will remain the Game Manufacturers Association.
This is a change long overdue and more reflective of the importance of “creators, media, event organizers, publishers, retailers, distributors, and manufacturers that make up our community.” Retailers have especially pushed for decades for more central role in the organization and while the retail division has especially stepped up in terms of programming for the GAMA Expo, it is good to see the organization more explicitly recognizing the importance of all tiers of the industry. Retailers have tried to form a separate organization a few times over the years but those attempts came to naught (see “Three Noteworthy Events in 2016“), so I look forward to an inclusive GAMA, which has done a good job of including other tiers in the organization over the past decade and now has a name reflecting that.
Game Store Day. I was also happy to see the announcement of Game Store Day (see “GAMA Announces Game Store Day“). The book industry launched Independent Bookstore Day 13 years ago. Record stores have had Record Store Day for several years and ComicsPRO launched Local Comic Shop Day a few years ago. There are also Free Comic Book Day and Free RPG Day, but both of those focus on the product rather than on the outlet where the customer gets the product. Unfortunately, November 1 is not that far away and is the day after Halloween, which is the second largest holiday on the calendar, only exceeded by Christmas.
I appreciate GAMA wanting to use it as a lead into the American Library Association’s National Games Month and our store is reaching out to our local public library to see if how we can cross-promote the two events. I am assuming, given the short time frame, there will not be any variant game versions available to stores, as there are with Record Store Day and Local Comic Shop but this looks, at least to me, like a great opportunity for some enterprising game publishers to put together a promotion to get some extra product into stores for the day and month.
R.I.P. Rob Wieland. I was sorry to hear of the sudden passing of TTRPG journalist and designer Rob Wieland (see “R.I.P. Rob Wieland“). A game designer with credits for World of Darkness materials as well as work for Shadowrun, Star Wars Saga Edition and Dungeons and Dragons, he was likely best known for his work as an evangelist for the tabletop gaming hobby as a columnist for both the Milwaukee Record and Forbes magazine, bringing more awareness about the table top gaming hobby to the wider world. I imagine there is an empty chair for him at GameHole Con this weekend and at other tables throughout the world. Rest in peace Mr. Wieland, the world was better because you were in it.
Comments? Memories of Rob Wieland? Send them to castleperilousgames@gmail.com.
The opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff of ICv2.com.
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