Alfred Wallace: Greetings from Pennsylvania

Greetings from the road!  I’ve spent the last week-plus getting to my new apartment here in State College, getting some preliminary paperwork taken care of, etc etc.  Last week, when I’d normally be writing my Friday column, I was actually cursing the state of I-70 around Wheeling, WV.  Did you know that the entirety of I-70 in West Virginia is closed for construction?  Granted, that’s about 20 miles of road, but still.  It was emblematic of the entire trip.

I haven’t done/thought much about gaming in the past couple of weeks, I’m afraid.  I did drop by a game store in Indianapolis, where I got off the road, having been sick of the road.  (I drove through Indianapolis and Columbus, two of American gaming’s meccas.) The highlight was their giant display of Bella Sara.  Have any of you seen this CCG?  It’s heavily advertised in gaming trade magazines, telling game store owners that, by carrying their product, they can double their customer base--by bringing girls into their stores.  How does it manage this, you ask?  Bella Sara features two things thought necessary for the XX-Chromosomal market: Messages of vague spiritual uplift, and Horsies.  (One of the games suggested in the rulebook is to read one of the Uplifting Messages on the card, and ponder how it can improve your life.) My mother--math major, computer scientist, astronaut-trainer--raised me to be appalled at this sort of thing, but what do I know?  I’m not a girl, I had no sisters, I’m not a father of girls.  Anyway, I asked the clerk on duty how Bella Sara was doing for them.

“Fantastic!”

“Seriously?”

“No, not seriously.  We haven’t sold one yet.”

Naturally, one store does not a market evaluation make.  I do have one suggestion for the Bella Sara folks, however: Most gamers will refer to a multi-word game title by its initials.  Bear this in mind for your next product.

© 2007 Alfred Wallace

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Congrats on the move!  My brother went to Comp Sci graduate school there. When you need to unwind, head on over to Gettysburg and/or Antietam.... Posted by Jeffrey D Myers on Jun 22, 2007 at 10:06 AM | #

Welcome to PA!  I’m out near Philly, but I’ll be at Penn State for the state Kiwanis convention August 23-26 Posted by Lee Fisher on Jun 22, 2007 at 04:49 PM | #

The oddest thing I noticed about Bella Sara was a line on the bottom of a card that read: “Play with this horse online.” Posted by W. Eric Martin on Jun 23, 2007 at 01:21 PM | #

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