Show016: Interview with Mike and Kat Miller
So this one everything was working fine with the microphones, but I accidentally recorded over the first two minutes. Fortunately it appears I got everything important. I spoke with Mike Miller creator of With Great Power, and Kat Miller who is working on a investigative crime drama RPG called Serial.
We discussed both with Great Power, and Serial. Then we talked about Indie Games Explosion, something they organize for Dreamation, Origins, Gen Con, and other cons, plus we discussed Games on Demand something they organize for Gen Con. We talked about their motivation for taking on this organization, and tips for folks who might want to try the same thing.
I think this went really well, I can hardly notice that I didn’t have my usual outline.
8:40 pm on August 26th, 2007
Now that I realize you respond to comments, I’ll throw a comment I had about this interview (you’ve created a monster!).
Why are you so against the reservation system for cons? I run a local convention and we have advanced reservations and so far everyone has been really happy with it. I think we had 100% of people who reserved actually show up for their games. We also have on-site sign-up for remaining open slots or pick-up games. Is GenCon notorious for no-shows? We are obviously way smaller, so management is much easier to handle.
As organizers, it’s helps us get a guage of how many people are going to be in a room. As players, you can know what your schedule is going to be like ahead of time and strategize accordingly.
What alternatives do you think are superior? Why?
Thanks!
9:23 pm on August 26th, 2007
Hi Walkerp,
I’m not totally against the reservation system. I think it’s serves a good and useful purpose. What I’m against is that being the only option. I think there needs to be a good deal more room for open gaming than there usually is.
When I come to a con, I’m looking more to play with specific people than specific games. I’m also looking for a chance to be able to socialize and meet new folks and then decide to game with them, or escape if they are striking my bad mojo vibes.
Part of this is due to my previously limited con experience. I went to a few cons where everything was scheduled, so I had nothing to do not knowing I was going. I kind of went around and listened to what people were doing, and I heard some of the most horrible games I’d ever been around. Total railroads, GM’s girlfriend problem, clashing expectations, the whole nine. I swore I would never go to cons as they seemed to be horrible places and I associate that somewhat with the system, as it doesn’t allow you to make social connections before playing. It inhibits us making those before hand actually. Many years have passed.
Last year I went to Forge Midwest in Chicago. Totally different experience. I already had some social connections, and I ending up making new friends there like Mike Holmes, Thor Olavsrud, Luke Crane, Paul Czege, and many other folks. I had a great time and only one game was prescheduled and that was Acts of Evil. I’m now going to like 10 cons a year, but I approach them without any prescripted gaming and I think this is why I continually have fun.
My perception of people not showing up is totally based on listening to other peoples complaints. I haven’t registered for a game since that one game of Acts of Evil. As such I freely admit I have a very ignorant view of how the process is working today. Perhaps there have been changes in the culture.
Now I think there is a place for registering games. If you have none of these personal connections I’ve made, you need a way to meet people, and to know you’ll have something to do. However, I think the registration method needs a healthy dose of open gaming, and open scheduled gaming. What I mean by open scheduled is I put up I’m going to run Mountain Witch in the noon slot but we don’t allow anyone to sign up, and other folks follow the same process. At like 11:45 we can talk to folks who are interested or find out there is no interest and jump in somewhere else. I haven’t tested this method but I’ve heard of other Indie focused cons that have used it and apparently folks were happy with it.
What I’m saying is there needs to be a balance between prepared and spontaneous situations. To serve all our needs.
Have I hit all your points? Am I making sense?
10:50 pm on August 26th, 2007
Absolutely.
I think we have two advantages here at our con. 1) we’re building on our first year, where a lot of relationships were made. So now we have people signing up to play games with people they played with last year for the first time and liked and 2) we’re small.
We don’t have any totally open gaming. But we are still a small community and the supply of GMs outstrips demand. We always have open spaces at tables. We keep a list of all the games on the table. People who pre-registered have their names in the players’ slots typed in. We leave empty spaces (depending on how many spaces are available) for people to just sign up just before the event. This seemed to work out fairly well, where we had 2-4 people signed up before hand and 1 or 2 joining on site.
I would love to have enough players that we could just have a section with open tables and people coming in to run stuff. When I hear about the kind of energy and spontaneous group-forming that goes on in the cons you go to, I am pretty impressed. Our community here (Montreal) is very reticent and still growing. We have a tentative line on some Indie Game Explosion reps from Ottawa, but it hasn’t panned out yet.
One problem with the totally open gaming situation is that it can become a bit of a race and those who are less aggressive or quick may lose out. A friend of mine went to GoPlayNW and while overall he had a pretty good time, he didn’t know anybody and kind of felt a bit lost and left out of the process when it came to choosing games. A lot of people who were part of that scene or just better informed, knew what they wanted to play and were prepped to run up and sign up for the games.
11:36 pm on August 26th, 2007
Hi Walker,
Your last paragraph is why I think there needs to be preregistered games. I think it should be a three pack, and presented so we know why each option exists. One of the reasons I ran a preregistered game at this years Forge Midwest was to give an opportunity for folks who hadn’t been there to meet some folks.
1:01 am on October 15th, 2007
Wow! I’m almost famous!
That game of Serial was the highlight of Camp Nerdly 01! I saw it listed on the game chart, and I knew I had to play it. The Millers were great game hosts and the at-the-table experience was a blast.
I can’t wait to see Serial in print so I can play it with my local gaming friends.
Clyde, again, I have to salute your low key interviewing style. It really works.