I don't know when it started but it seemed rather odd to find some of these fellows missing. I can remember when I could walk into any retail gaming store and I could find their wares on every shelf from top to bottom. Nowadays, they are becoming less and less available and accessible. Of course I am talking about the company that produce the games we love, like and sometimes wonder "Where did they come up with this?" Here I am trying to break into the business and the well established are going, going, gone. I can name more gaming companies that have ceased production than I can roll two natural twenties in a row. What is causing the decline? If I knew that, then I think just about every gaming company would be begging me to come and work for them. Though in my personal opinion I think what is hurting the gaming community is the advent of the internet, computer games, collectable card games, and the media. When was the last time you heard of a gaming company doing any good for society? The press does not print any good articles concerning gaming--only the negative, especially when a young person commits murder and then it's found out he/she was a fantasy or scifi role player. Then it gets front page news, interviews with psychologists and somewhere down the road a book or movie is made. Ok, I'll get off my high horse on this subject. As for the internet, it kind of speaks for itself. Why spend more time, energy and, of course, money to attend a convention when you can sit at the home computer and play your favorite game for hours on end. Collectable card games also have hurt the role playing industry by offering big bucks to compete in tournaments and don't require time to develop a role but only know the rules. But, go into your local hobby/gaming store and just try to find a game from Mayfair, TSR before WOTC, and now West End Games and Avalon Hill. It seems pretty that the role playing games are getting quite bleak for gainers. Finally, and I have been rather lax about this, please welcome the following people to the "staff': Christian Untch, Sandy Salla, Jason Sizemore, Joseph Provenzano, and David Sloan. I also like to thank Christian Untch and Brian Wyant for their recommendations and comments for this issue and future issues of White Knight. Back to White Knight #9 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