More bad news about games I love…

In the rule book for the Pirates of the Spanish Main RPG, by Pinnacle Entertainment Group there is a reference to future books that explore other time periods with rich ocean-going themes.  Alas, my Typhoid Mary streak is still going strong.  The Pirates of the Spanish Main RPG line is defunct.  This is due to the restructuring of WizKids.

So RP sessions in Plattsburg Bay with gunboats on the lake or whaling off the coast of Nantucket will have to be home-grown affairs.

 

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The Typhod-Mary of products

I think I must be an unlucky patron or perhaps I’m just not good at picking winners. Futurama is cancelled. Disney is turning off Pirates of the Caribbean Online. EA killed Warhammer Wrath of Heroes. The World of Warcraft TCG is going away. I’m afraid to like or become interested in anything. As soon as I like it or start collecting it, poof! Discontinued. Cancelled. The company is moving in a new direction.

Maybe I can contract out to the completion. Sony could hire me to “like” the Xbox One (aka the XBone). If my track record holds true Microsoft will cancel it. Of course the XBone is already pretty self-clobbering.

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Weekend getaway

So I goofed off a little this weekend and spent some time at one of my favorite places.  The Sea

seacoast

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On-line work for Gamemeisters

I’ve been spending alot of time on the business plan for the store and setting up the on-line presence. The facebook, twitter, web site and customer forums are all up and running. Check us out at www.gamemeisters.com

I’ve been working with the Vermont Small Business Development Center here in Randolph and they have been a great help organizing the plan and getting all my ducks in a row for financing.

We have located a couple of places that might fit the bill as a store and home for Gamemeisters.  We are not ready for a press release quite yet…

 

 

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Using the survey data

I’ve got 56 complete responses to the FLGS Market Research Survey. I’m working today to put several new data points into the business plan. I’m quite pleased with how the numbers came out on several of the questions.

I’m leaving the survey up in case we get any late responders. It’s at http://www.skoda.net/survey/

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New public key

I’ve posted a new public key to the MIT keyserver and uploaded it here as well.  The new fingerprint is 1D2D B4E9 1679 C035 C147  4E27 63CD 9230 C91C 3606 I’ll be revoking the old key, so please switch over as soon as convenient.

VTC students: Don’t fret about your lab 7. I’ll correct them based on what I can see. If you sent me an unanswered question that you really really want answered you will have to repeat that step in the lab with this new key.

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Survey almost done

The two week survey run is almost up.  Please share this https://skoda.net/survey/

Right now I’ve got 52 completed surveys with a ton of great data that will help build the store to provide the goods and services people want.

 

 

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Peg-board flyers posted

I’m still watching the market research survey and we seem to have hit a plateau in responses.  To try to expand the responses I’ve posted flyers on the  community bulletin boards in libraries, grocery stores, pizza places, and other spots in hopes that I’ll get more people to respond and get a better sample for my primary market research section of my business plan.

I’m not convinced this will generate a lot of hits, but I’m hopeful that I’ll hit a few potential customers.

Later on we may use this same technique with discount coupons.  It would be interesting to see if we can get people to go looking for our “golden ticket” discount coupon.

 

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How to start a Friendly Local Game Store

I’m working on building a Friendly Local Game Store in Randolph.  So far I’ve been working in the business side of things: business plan, market research, financial matters, etc.  To have something meaningful in the primary market research section of the plan I started an on-line survey to get some market data.  The survey is available here https://skoda.net/survey/ I encourage you to take it and share it with your friends.

 

I’m going to chronicle my work, the things I discover, successes and set-backs here on my blog.  There is a lot of material on the Internet about how to start or why not to start an FLGS and I’ve read and read and read.  I hope to consolidate my lessons learned here for others who want to start a store or possibly to acts as a content consolidation for FLGS resources.

 

 

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Doing some research and YOU CAN HELP

I am looking into the possibility of opening a Friendly Local Game Store (FLGS) in Randolph.  This is a huge undertaking with a high degree of risk.  In order to get a feel for how much interest is out there and how many customers we might expect I’ve put together a market research survey.  It’s available here https://skoda.net/survey/index.php/62635?lang=en for anyone that wants to participate.   Take the survey only if you are in Vermont.  While I appreciate general market feedback friends and family in Colorado, Ohio, and North Carolina won’t be shopping at the store.

 

 

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