After nineteen years, I wonder about "the state of gaming". I never thought I would see, what I considered, the giants of the industry disappear or that role playing games in general would decline as they have. I asked in my last editorial what if anything could be done and I believe I have found some answers at this years DragonCon. The answers come from two seminars that I attended. The first seminar was called Gamers Unite. This seminar looked for ways to increase the number of gamers and increase the interest in gaming. One suggestion was one that is overlooked by most older gamers, those who have been around awhile. The idea was to start recruiting younger people into the world of role-playing. I know this can be rather difficult since us older gamers, like myself, would rather enjoy a more mature game rather than hacking every critter in the game into tiny little pieces or have a younger gamer throw a tantrum when his or her character buys the farm. But if gaming is to survive and expand we older gamers take our time and a lot of patience to can teach younger gamers the better ways of role-playing. Another suggestion was for the current gamers to start to be more active in the world of gaming. To borrow a quote, "you guys are the people who play them so speak out." I think the message is quite clear, without us buying the games, sending in feedback the industry dies. The second seminar was the Sorry state of the Gaming Industry. I was a bit suprised by the influx of people from WoTC/TSR. For those in the gaming industry it has two sides to look at. The first is the business side the area where a company is suppose to make money. The second and overlooked aspect is development. I understand that companies are out to make a buck with their products, but how often do we ever see two gaming companies work jointly on a project without one suing the other? There are many gaming companies that have disappeared just because of the number of lawsuits filed by another gaming company. I don't believe it has to be that way. Sure a company has to make some money from their endeavors but suing another company over everything thing from idea concepts to minute details only makes lawyers rich and takes away from the industries ability to communicate. In other words, for those high priced execs who may read this: "Play nice in the sand box or else go home!" I am very fortunate that Unicorn Pegasus has both a business side and a development side. It calls for wearing many hats on my part, but as long as I know which hat to put on then White Knight and any future endeavors of Unicorn Pegasus may some day become more than just a part time adventure. Back to White Knight #10 Table of Contents Back to White Knight List of Issues Back to Master Magazine List © Copyright 1998 by Pegasus-Unicorn Productions This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com