News:
by Russ Lockwood
We received the following press release--RL MADISON, WI - Controversy grows over the summer release of WARHAMSTER ROLEPLAY THIRD EDITION (W:3E), the most recent update of the infamous role-playing game first released in 1976. Upper management at GAMES DORKSHOP Friday reacted to the public resentment of the massive overhaul of the venerable system, best-known both for its ground-breaking use of subtle id-based character creation, and mindless violence. The latest controversy came over the announcement that John Wick ("Legend of the Five Rings," "7th Sea," "OrkWorld" and author of the popular "Hey, Fanboy! Bite me!" column at generic-game-mag-online.com) would lead the revision team. "I believe the use of the term 'pig-headed, ego-maniacle loon' from some quarters may be a tad harsh," said CEO John Kovalic. "But Wick is cheap, so we're staying with him!" The company made national headlines earlier when it announced that W:3E would use Wick's patented D1000 mechanics. It was later revealed that these mechanics would be made available to anybody at any time, making it painfully impossible to get away from: thus was the Open Sore Gaming System born. Originally designed by J. Jerry Jax, many players are skeptical of how Wick will handle the revision. "I'm trying to keep the integrity of the game while bringing it up to modern standards," said Wick. "The gaming industry has gone through many changes in twenty-five years, three months, sixteen days and four hours, and it's been a challenge to maintain the spirit of the game while, at the same time, making it accessible to a modern RPG audience." When Mr. Jax was asked how he felt about the revision, he said: "You CAN'T revise WARHAMSTER! It's the original! All other RPGs owe a debt of servitude to the jenerous creativity that was the jenesis of the jentle jelatinization of the long jeneology of jaming...er...I mean, gaming!" WARHAMSTER ROLEPLAY 3E will be previewed at GenCon in the pages of Dork Tower #10, right before a line of really expensive, really necessary, carefully crafted core rulebooks (carefully crafted so that all WARHAMSTER players must buy every one lest their already massive investment in the system becomes obsolete, that is) are released. GAMES DORKSHOP was created in May, 2000 by John Kovalic and John Wick, after forming and abandoning previous unfortunately-phrased companies like "Two Johns No Waiting, Productions" and "Margarita, Inc." "Dork Tower," "Warhamster" and "Games Dorkshop" are © 2000, John Kovalic. The mechanics for the D1000 Open Sore Gaming system are © 2000 John Wick. We can probably think of ways to © other things -- hell, we may even © "Nazi" if we feel like it -- so don't even THINK about pulling anything funny, buster. The official Warhamster Third Edition web site is at http://www.kovalic.com/warhamster.html. Back to 2nd Quarter 2000 List of News Items Back to Master List of News Items Back to Master Magazine List © Copyright 2000 by Coalition Web, Inc. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. |