0FS The Battalion
THE BATTALION Pag# IB
THURSDAY, MARCH 20, 1980
Section B
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By ROY BRAGG
Editor
Closet warmongers, rejoice.
It is now possible to stage any war
- from interstellar dog fights to the
jnic Wars — with the purchase of a
ir game at a local toy store.
War games — based on historical
id fictional military conflicts —
tve skyrocketed in popularity in the
it three years.
Once reserved for students of
ilitary tactics and strategy, war
rie$ are now being played by peo-
e of all ages, said Tom Shaw, ex-
utive vice president for Avalon
B, the larges war game manufac-
rer in the world.
Shaw and local toy store owners in
SBryan-College Station area agree
| the way gaming boom is a by-
6du( t of the economic recession.
The high cost of entertainment —
••'•’■pe, movies and eating out —
sforced people to stay at home and
He alternative forms of entertain-
snt, said Frances Anders, manager
Kelly s Toylane in Bryan. War
mes, she added, present the logic-
solution to this dilemma.
The price of the average war
jne, Shaw added, is $15 — less
Ui the cost of going to the movies
fi eating dinner in a typical res-
irant.
lYou’re talking about three hours
entertainment for about $30,” he
n “When you buy a game, you’ve
t endless hours of recreation. Fif-
p bucks is the best doggone re-
jation buy possible.”
Another reason for the popularity
war games, Shaw added, is the
iphasis on history in the games,
■pat we have in war games, ” he
■Bis the better mousetrap.” Peo-
3; who do not like studying can
In a bit of history from war games,
■ most are developed with re-
i|;to the politics of the conflict
reived, he said.
p addition, Shaw added, war
mes allow an “unlimited amount of
lining” on the part of players.
The success of war games in
^an-College Station is due to the
fact that this is a war gaming com
munity, said Ann Hays, owner of
Circus of Toys in College Station.
“This is a fairly intelligent com
munity,” Hays said, adding that
most college towns have large war
gaming community.
Coupled with the upsurge in
popularity, war game sales are high
also.
Gross sales for war games are $25
million annually, Shaw said, but are
just a fraction of the billion-dollar
gaming industry.
According to an article in the Dec.
26, 1977 issue of Time magazine, tot
al game sales in the United States
were over $400 million for that year
alone.
Shaw said he did not know of any
such figures for total game sales in
1979.
“I don’t have the figures because I
don’t keep up with stupid games,”
He said in a telephone interview
from the company’s headquarters in
Baltimore. “I’m only concerned with
war games. War games fall into a
completely different niche. ”
Avalon Hill manufactures over 100
different games. The company pro
duces some sports games and other
games that Shaw calls “near-war”
games — games that involve war-
related diplomacy. But, despite
these other forays, Avalon Hill is
best known for its war games.
War games can be divided into
two categories: board games and
role-playing games.
The board games are exercises in
military tactics and strategy. They
are similar to traditional games like
Monopoly in that they come with
their own playing surfaces. The play
ing surface — the board — is usually
a map of the battleground or of the
warring nations. These maps usually
have a superimposed hexagonal grid-
work. The gridwork is used for
measuring movement by the player’s
armies.
The tactical games have titles like
Panzerblitz (about German and Rus
sian battles in World War II), Rich-
toffen’s War (aerial battles in World
War I), Kingmaker (based on the
War of the Roses), and Starfleet Bat
tles (Starships battling in deep
space).
In games of this type, players com
mand an army and try to achieve a
pre-determined objective.
In role-playing, players adopt the
persona of a member pf another soci
ety and make the decisions the char
acter would make in different situa
tions — the players become the char
acters.
The most popular role-playing
game is Dungeons and Dragons
(D&D). It is based on a medieval,
fantasy society such as the one por
trayed in “The Lord of the Rings. ”
In D&D, characters slay dragons
and other menaces trying to discover
treasure in the wilderness or in
underground dungeons. The over
seer of a D&D trip is the Gamemas-
ter (GM). The GM has a map of the
area in question and controls the en-
viroment and the flow of the game,
-x:
D&D is manufactured by TSR
Hobbies of Lake Geneva, Wis. The
game was invented by a shoe sales
man named Gary Gygax in 1974. To
day he is TSR’s president and is still
actively involved in the ongoing de
velopment of D&D accesories and
playing aids.
Over 600,000 people regularly
play D&D, said Will Neibling, vice
president for sales. Since 1974, sales
of D&D and the various playing aids
have doubled every year.
The $10 Basic D&D Set, which
includes all of the various dice and
rule books necessary for beginning
play, sells at the rate of $50,000 a
month.
The D&D craze has spawned a
magazine, the Dragon, a $2 monthly
with a circulation of 10,000. The
magazine contains related articles
and advice for players and fans of
D&D and other role-playing games.
The Dragon is published by a sub-
sidary branch of TSR.
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