War on Terror at the BBC

We were recently invited onto BBC radio to talk about global liberation, censorship, the police, balaclavas, money, fear, family and good old fashioned English queuing, all under the banner of our board game. What else?

You can read the BBC's article here, and with the wonders of modern technology you can even listen to the entire interview here.

It was terribly nice of the folks at BBC Radio Cambridgshire to invite us into their broadcasting domain. Very brave of them really. If you listen carefully, we might have even shot ourselves in the foot at one point by admitting to organised crime. But let's just keep that to ourselves... and...er...radio.

And to be serious for a moment, just in case it's not clear, the above photo from left to right, Andy T, Andy S and Tom. Rock on.

Armageddon is a wonderful spectator sport

There's far too much going on to ignore, so in absence of us doing anything interesting recently, we present to you ... the world gone mad: collapsing banks, record bailouts and a presidential pantomime.

Firstly, don't believe any of these repeated assertions that the current financial crisis is because of the US sub-prime mortgage fiasco. Of course, that didn't help things, but what we're seeing now, without a doubt, is the result of 30 years of greedy, short-sighted, neoliberal policies, started by Thatcher and Reagan, coming home to roost.

The new breed of aggressive economists trumpeted that the market was king and yet those same people couldn't help themselves interfering in the market with "free trade agreements", tax breaks and other protectionist policies which all ensured that wealth flowed from the bottom up. The market was never trusted at all. Add a healthy dose of greed, embezzlement and dishonest accounting and you have the ingredients for global economic meltdown.

In a rare show of passion and genuine concern for people's rights, Senator Marcy Kaptur of Ohio (no, I hadn't heard of her before either) has given two fantastic speeches in Congress over the past couple of weeks regarding the criminal 700bn 'bailout' plan (otherwise known as the 'reverse Robin Hood' plan). Highly recommended viewing: here and here.

Also, if you can stomach it, here's a 50 minute talk by economist Dean Baker on how the 'free market' economy really works.

In the middle of all this, we had the two presidential candidates going head to head last week in possibly the most boring debate ever. The only fight we saw was the scramble to claim the middle ground first.

There are also delightful rumours going round that the Republicans have been doing anything they can (in vain, it appears) to stall tomorrow's (vice) presidential debate because of the small matter of Sarah Palin not being able to understand what she's saying unless it's written down and explained to her syllable by syllable.

GenCon UK

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We've just returned from this years Gen Con UK in Reading and boy did we have fun. After last years triumph we were welcomed back with open arms. But this year we went one better, we replaced the plastic squashed rats with the one and only Andy Tompkins, with pretty much everybody agreeing this was an improvement.

This wasn't the only change we made to our stall, we emblazoned our frontage with quotes that we couldn't make up if we tried. And as a special treat for Gen Con 08 guests we had our beloved balaclava's on sale separately - made infamous recently by the Kent Constabulary. And we had pin badges for kids of all ages - with toddlers and parents preferring to go with the classic 'EVIL' design - We've never seen such grins.

It's a strange one for us, this once private joke becoming more popular each year. The amount of folk that now come up to us and rave about the game tends to freak out not just us, but other gamers who haven't played it yet. We are touched and must thank you all who have gave us such positive and constructive feedback.

The hard core gamers also appreciated the rave review we had on display that Frank Chadwick (a veteran games designer of high reputation) kindly gave us after judging the game to be in the top ten 'Historical boardgames of 2007' at the 34th Origins Awards. One Games designer who has known Frank for 32 years was amazed that we had such a positive endorsement from this man of such stature, he's apparently a hard man to please and wisely is not generally the endorsing type - So we have a new found respect for Frank and his kind words.

Fun was had on all four days and was rewarded by playing hard in the evenings which these dedicated gamers do well. We're not sure if it was the fine University campus setting that got us giddy or the 'potions' of 'gaming goodness' we were drinking. Either way we had a great time and met so many great people. Luckily we've been invited back next year and that will be about the right amount of time to recover.

The Charity auction was awesome and one of the highlights of the four days for us. Once again Tom scribbled some original terrorist based drawings for it only for him to later bid on his own work. He really needs to keep his ego in check or see a doctor about his memory, or stop drinking so much. But the highlight was Doctor Who (Colin Baker), who with very little persuasion compared and wooed the baying audience and whipped them up into a frenzy never before seen by Timelord or human. He was a consummate professional and now our favourite Doctor - Almost pipping the pretty girl companion in the leather bikini for best Doctor Who character of all time. Almost.

Grant from the charity bring and buy was auctioning off possibly the best thing that's ever been auctioned off - tattoo space! And miraculously anything we wanted!! So the three War on Terror boys rose to the challenge and ended up bidding against each other for this prime bit of flesh - and surprisingly one of us won. Poor Grant, what have you done? Watch this space for the result.

And the verdict from the good Doctor himself? "You guys are Cool Dudes." So TerrorBull Games are now endorsed intergallactically through time and space by Doctor Who. Universal liberation beckons.

THANKS, ZAVVI!

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What mighty shenanigans. We've got to say straight off, thanks to everyone who came down to Oxford Street and queued patiently for the game. It was a genuine pleasure to meet so many excited people and we had a lot of fun. We hope you did too.

We didn't really know what to expect. Since we didn't want to tip Zavvi off to our mischievous antics, we only let loose with the news the previous day. B3ta.com and Graham Linehan kindly helped spread the word, amongst others, but you never know with these things. We had visions of having to chase people down Oxford St to get rid of our games. Imagine our delight, when, as we rounded the corner at 12.25 loaded down with games, a cheer went up from the waiting crowd.

Two things on Tuesday that made us proud of this country: 1) The great British public's love of free stuff is bottomless - you can put a smile on almost anyone's face by giving them something for free and 2) We really are the best country in the world at queuing patiently and politely. Good job queuers, we're proud of you. Despite the fact that there were clearly many times more people than games, the queue stretched round the corner into Tottenham Court Rd for the entire duration of our stay and everyone was all smiles.

All in all, an epic day of happy mayhem that will make us smile for a long time to come. We were also very happy to meet so many people who had already played the game and had been following the War on Terror for a while. It's easy to feel isolated, working in The Bunker all the time, so we appreciate it, really we do.

So our original plan was to send everyone with a game into Zavvi, find a member of staff and thank them for the free board game. We felt this was only polite. Zavvi however put the kibosh on that almost immediately, refusing entry to anyone in the queue, which is strange because surely they'd be happy with us sending 100s of people into their shop?

In the end, we had to be content with getting everyone to pose with a "Thanks, Zavvi!" speech bubble, while Zavvi security and a mysterious man in a suit glared at us from the front entrance.

Highlights of the day included: hearing how an entire office emptied on 12.30 on the dot to rush down; the sight of a constant queue of excited people stretching down the road; the police showing up and being very good humoured about everything and to cap it all, Graham Linehan came down in person and watched on bemused for several minutes. Being a big fan of Graham's work, it was lovely to get a chance to chat with him, even if it was under rather bizarre circumstances.

All in all, an epic day of happy mayhem that will make us smile for a long time to come. It was just so wonderful to see people carrying War on Terror up and down Oxford St with a great big grin on their face. It made us want to do it all over again.

A special thanks to all our helpers on the day. You all did such a fine job that the police even complimented us on our organisation, so nice one - you did us proud. Also, a big 'sorry' to everyone who came down, queued like champions and went away disappointed. We love you too, we just couldn't fit any more games in the car. Sorry.

Once again, it was wonderful meeting all of you and our very sincere thanks for taking the time to come down and show your support. Yes, we know you only did it to get your grubby mitts on free booty, but allow us our moment of sentimental delusion.

For instant smiles, watch this YouTube montage of everyone expressing their thanks to Zavvi

Free Boardgames! (Thanks, Zavvi)

We're going to be giving away over 100 copies of War on Terror tomorrow for free. But rather than tell you how, we're going to make you read an entire blog entry first. Ha!

So: brief history lesson first. Quiet please, no fidgeting at the back. OK, back in July last year, we got very excited when Virgin Megastores decided to buy 5,000 games of War on Terror for all of their 130 stores nationwide. If that weren't awesome enough, the final decision was made after a meeting of store managers was shown this Powerpoint presentation we made. The last thing we expected was for them to come back to us and say, "Yes, please".

If Zavvi didn't pay up, we'd have to get another buyer immediately or face bankruptcy. Regular readers may remember vague, teasing comments like "we have big news ... stay tuned". Well, dammit, we should have kept our big mouths shut. If it's one thing that's certain, it's that every plan we have gets screwed. It's like a law of Nature. So we weren't overly surprised to learn that - on the very day of release - our games were recalled and pulled off the shelves, apparently because the MD of Zavvi (the chain had meanwhile changed management - and name) didn't like the look of it.

Faced with a mountain of unwanted games, Zavvi refused all further delivery and then refused to pay us. That was a bit inconvenient since we'd just borrowed a load of money in order to get 5,000 made for them. If Zavvi didn't pay up, we'd have to get another buyer immediately or face bankruptcy. Have you ever phoned up a shop and opened with "Yeh, so this other major shop are too scared to stock our game, would you like it?". We were basically laughed at; it wasn't looking good.

The next eight months were about as much fun as dealing with lawyers and fending off debt collectors can be. Eventually, though, we prevailed and things ended in our favour without having to go to court. Zavvi agreed to pay us for all the games they ordered and we got to keep the games they refused delivery of - about half of them.

So we've got a tonne of games we hadn't counted on and we thought it only right to share this rare stroke of good fortune with you. We're going to give away as many games as we can possibly fit into a car - about 100, we estimate. And what better place to do this, than in front of Zavvi's flagship store on Oxford St?

Tomorrow! Tuesday 19th August. 12.30pm - outside Zavvi on Oxford St, near Tottenham Court tube station.

This good time celebration has another purpose too, however. This is basically the only way we can get War on Terror onto the High Street - by giving it away. We want to show retailers that there's nothing scary about the game. No one's going to flip out. No one's going to run away crying. It's a good game, with an important subject matter. Why not let the public decide if it's 'unsuitable' for them?

So please come down, say 'hello' and grab a free game. And don't go ruining our special message by freaking out and running away crying, okay?

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If you're really interested or bored, or you're a journalist, there's a full Press Release available to download. We've also written up the full Zavvi experience on our Coalition of the Unwilling page.