Print And Play Gaming: My New Passion

Okay, passion may be a bit of a strong word, but I am certainly getting a kick out of it. It's not exactly new to me either.

I have been playing them in dribs and drabs for sometime, but the effort that it took to actually produce some of them didn't seem worth it in the return that you got from gameplay. Don't get me wrong, these are free print and play games that we are talking about but, free shouldn't mean poor quality.

For clarity though, I'm not using quality as a measure of a games aesthetics, but rather the quality of the game overall. Has it been well thought out? Do the mechanics work? Does the game still have bugs? These are all things I consider when weighing up whether or not to print out a print and play project.

As well as quality, design is also a big consideration when I'm looking at a print and play project. I don't think that anyone wants to be sitting there printing and trimming reams of paper / card and, preparing specialised components (I certainly don't).

So when designing a game, keeping it brief and the use of common components (such as standard D6 etc) are big pluses in the print and play arena. They are big considerations for me at least. Also as I plan to start reviewing the print and play games that I play, it seems only fair to have a set of common considerations to measure them by. Factors that I think matter to the player.

An Amazing Month!

It's taken a while to get around to this, but a short break before work is plenty
enough to report back that last month, was an amazing month for the blog :0).

In fact, we broke all previous records for the number of folks visiting us by a clear 600 visits, over which I am quite stoked. Veteran bloggers may think, "well, that's not much" but, when you put that in the context of the relative youth of this blog and the previous record of 1,435; it's pretty damn impressive!

So, as ever, a big thank you to everyone that's dropped by. :0).

By this point, I imagine that at least a few of you are beginning to wonder, why exactly I am so obsessed with the figures? Let me say, it's more than a measure of success. Sure, I love to see that hit counter running up, it's a sign that I'm delivering content that you want, but it's also through the figures that I get a good idea of what's not working. Knightmare Re-Run being the most recent example.

Personally, I quite enjoy the show but, the subject as a whole has garnered little to no interest here. So, I figure, why waste space? If there's no audience for the content, then there's very little point in continuing to run it. The figures (and of course any comments you leave) are very important with this kind of trending, especially when I consider that the blogs remit is as wide a field as "gaming".

That's a whole lot of subject matter, and I only want to deliver the best.

As a result things are pretty much always up in the air here. It's not a bad thing. It just means that we're still feeling our way. Eventually we'll likely settle into a few regular features.. Once we work out what they should be.

So have your say! If there's something you like, dislike, would like to see or, like to see consigned to oblivion. Feel free to drop us a comment, they're always welcome.

Another Break

The 13th of the month and, only just getting the first post in.. Oh dear.

In fairness it was pretty much unavoidable though. All the rabid running around of the past month or so (both in and out of work) took it's toll, and facing absolute burn-out I took some downtime.

In truth, I am still physically pretty exhausted but I have enough steam about me to carry on (not to mention the fact that doing nothing drives me up the wall, being "somewhat" of a workaholic) and, am ready to take my blogging to task.. Although it'll likely be a couple of days yet before I provide any real updates, as work beckons, and lengthy shifts loom on the horizon.

Briefly though, my immediate plans for blogging are:

• An update and run down on last months achievements (we did good!).
• Print and play gaming: my new passion.
• Feature Abandon: Knightmare Re-run (It wasn't popular, it had to go).
• Print And Been Playing: A new feature, replacing Knightmare Re-Run. A review section for the print and play games that I have been playing, with a positive bias towards free print and play games.

Hope to see you all there! :0).