Top 10 events of 2008
Part II
Jan 5, 2009

 

I hope everyone has had a happy holiday week.  I meant to get this out earlier this week, but have had too much fun with some rare family time.  So without further ado, here are the top five events of SWM from 2008:

 

5) Bloomilk.com – For the longest time we had Swshoebox to keep track of our inventories and post squads and look at other people’s ideas for using characters.  Unfortunately, it fell into disrepair for awhile.  Many went to Chuck’s minimanager.  It was a great way to do all that and more, but its interactive ablility was a bit limited because it was a program kept on your computer, not a net site.  Then Shinja(from the WotC boards) saw a need and set out to fill a need.  It does pretty much what both of the others do, and it is updated and corrected almost to the minute new info is leaked.  While I do not use it much, favoring Chuck’s site, this has become a fantastic and much loved site to many SWM gamers.  Great job, Shinja.

 

4) Sarah Richey – (AKA-WotC Sarah) – Sarah is, to use her own words, “I handle all brand activity related to strategy, marketing (ads, promotions, PR), and product development.”  Okay so what makes her so special?  In a word – WORDS!  It is no secret that SWM is the red headed step child of the Wizards gaming family.  We are often shunned and over looked by the powers that be.  In comes Sarah, while she had a bit of a rough start coming in during a dark time in SWM history, she quickly showed that not only is she listening to what we have to say, but she is talking to us!  In a community where info from the top comes along as often as a Tatooine snow storm, it was a refreshing change.  She and Rob even did a Q&A on SWGamers and answered a great many questions.  She is what the community has needed in a top power – a communicator!

 

3) MAPS!!! – OMG! After a Tatooine drought of maps, relief finally came.  After maps like Korriban and Ossus, many in the community wondered if a playable map would ever be made for the game.  Man, did we ever get a resounding yes on that one.  We even added the Hoth base map to the list of DCI maps.  In the wings we have Taris (my fav of the new maps), the train station, the new muunilist map, and Christophsis 1 and 2.  These maps could be a blast to add to the DCI list eventually.  Taris alone will be a crazy fun map that will be a blast to play.  If that wasn’t enough, we have at least three more maps coming in ’09.  Even if it takes awhile to get DCI updated for tournaments, open gaming now has a lot of options.  But wait!  That wasn’t all.  For the casual gamers, Jedicartographer came out with two different map packs that had some great balance and very nice artwork.  Each of his map packs had 6-8 maps, and all were wonderful.  Great job, JC.

 

2) Return of the Master! – After being put on carbonite for what seemed like an eternity, Rob Watkins, our beloved SWM Maker, was dethawed and returned to the community.  I haven’t met Rob, unfortunately, but it was no secret that he is a player’s creator.  In short, he loves to talk with the players and even returned with his Bothan transmissions (scrambled previews of future figs).  While he still has to guard his words carefully, it is great to have the Master back on the boards again.

 

And the #1 event of 2008 is:

 

1)      The Gencon/Pax debacle – I wish I could put a positive at number one, but there is no doubt in my mind that the whole handling of the Gencon/PAX championship had the biggest effect on the community.  Gencon had been the home of the Championship for as long as we have had one (two years).  Then word comes along that Gencon was getting sued for negligible payments to vendors/dealers.  It appeared that a rift had formed between wizards and Gencon because Wizards waited until pretty much the last minute to announce it would be attending and what it would be running.  Then it announced that PAX would get the “Championship” and not Gencon.  Many who had been to Gencon got to know “Godfather” Jim (AKA – Moses2813 on the Wizo boards).  He had (has) done a fantastic job running and coordinating Gencon, and many players formed a loyalty to him.  Also, the fact that everything was done at the last minute gave few people with Gencon registrations no chance to attend PAX.  This formed a major rift in the boards for a while.  PAX got the “title” but Gencon was by far the bigger success.  Only around 15 players attended PAX, while Gencon drew a whopping 70+.  It really wasn’t that there was animosity between PAX and Gencon as much as it was that it was all done at the very last minute and seemed to be flipping the bird at an event that was very successful the year before.  It was definitely a dark time for organized, SWM gaming.  Luckily this is an event that will not be duplicated in ’09 because it has already been announced that Gencon will indeed be the Championship this year.

 

Well, there you have it.  That is the top five events of 2008 as I saw it.  It had its dark times, but it also had a lot of energy injected back into the game with new maps, characters, and old friends.  I will go back to my regular articles next week (crosses fingers).  Next up is an article on the Muun Tactics Broker, and keep an eye out on our character review section as SWF82 and I review what we though were some of the top figs of the year.  If you have any questions you would like me to address, send me an email to sithdragon13@yahoo.com and put something star warsy in the title so I know it isn’t spam. J  May the Force be with you!