We've seen how the franchise has gained traction in the gaming world over the past few year and a half or so with X-Wing blowing up, but things are starting to get a little crazy since this particular thing showed up on the internet a while back:
I thought I'd take a moment and talk about Star Wars at the Wargate, and our plans for the future. The franchise has some life back in it now, but we've been planning a resurgence of our own for a few years now. We had great campaigns earlier this year, and that just happened to coincide with the release of the new movie.
Most of us have fond memories of Star Wars of ancient times. Playing with action figures with our lil' buddies, watching the movies when they were first released, buying the glass cup set from Lucasfilms' promotional partners, etc. Dropping Boba Fett to his death from the dizzying heights of the swingset slide. I know I was overly fond of watching things fall and hit the ground when I was a child. That's not creepy - I never dropped any of my brothers off a ledge or anything. Action figures were not a protected species, however.
So about four or five years ago, there was a motion to bring Star Wars to the Wargate in the form of a supported season, but at the time the franchise and setting were regarded as passe. People were more in favor of FASA's Star Trek or Dr. Who and showed absolutely no interest in the Force. I didn't really understand all of that, but the focus group had spoken: not only was Star Wars right out, but in a sense we found that the whole thing was an object of derision and ridicule.
For us, I think the biggest reason we hadn't supported the franchise was the failure of Sony's Star Wars Galaxies than the prequel trilogy, which are widely maligned and at first glance you might have assumed that's why Star Wars got a bad rap. Yes, in 2003 we at the Wargate were total Star Wars nerds. Somewhere, it turned sour for us - probably born of that experience with Sony. Lucasarts, if you're listening then take note there. Your licensee was a total failure and cost you big - at least with this small club of gamers.
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| "Actually, I'm kinda 'meh' about this hyperdrive right now." |
We even started buying lots of the old Wizards of the Coast prepainted miniatures...something we hadn't done before the Pathfinder Battles line came out and showed us that prepaints didn't have to suck. X-Wing was a dealbreaker - everyone fell in love instantly, even most of the ardent Star Wars detractors. Then I finally started watching The Clone Wars animated series and began to understand what we had been missing this whole time.
I was still on the fence about The Force Awakens at this point in time. The first trailer (above) didn't really titillate me for some reason - maybe it was just the *bleh* of the prequels that kept my fervor from rising for the movie, even as the club's enthusiasm for the setting and, most importantly, the games continued to rise. Then, the second trailer came out. I had been hearing about it for a week, as it had broken the intenet. I avoided it, however...as is my wont with things so...mainstream I guess you might say. Everyone was on that wagon, and you know how that goes. Then, one night very late at night while I was by myself and about to crash out I was browsing YouTube and said "What the Hell?". I clicked the button.
I don't really know how to describe the feelings that washed over me as I watched that, alone in the dark and half asleep, for the first time. I felt an unfamiliar feeling as my face contorted into a grimace, and tears welled up in my eyes. For those of you that know me and know full well I don't even have emotions, let alone cry about things will know that this is highly peculiar, but it's true. I cried tears. It was weird.
It moved me. I was mad about it though, and started combing the internet for the week's worth of information I had missed. I was literally mad that it had touched me in a place I didn't even know existed and I wanted answers.
Turns out, I wasn't the only one. The first thing I found on the internet was this gem. Someone had made that. It was exactly how I felt. I have never, ever felt closer to Matthew Mcconaughey. Not even when I watched Magic Mike.
Turns out, I wasn't the only person this had happened to. It was like that trailer was perfectly designed by mind-control experts to tug on the heartstrings of nerds like me, i.e. brought up on or greatly influenced by Star Wars. And it worked like a charm.
So, we started getting models. We drafted Star Wars stories and began our RPG campaign. We played X-Wing...and loved it. The setting has things that appeal to everyone, even if they don't admit it at first (looking at you, Star Trek guys). What's more, people readily identify with Star Wars. I think the only other setting that's close to the familiarity folks have with Star Wars are the World War II games...and generally speaking are far more familiar with the space opera than the real world history. Star Wars was not only on the upswing for project enthusiasm here at the Wargate, it's picking up a lot of momentum in the mainstream.
A padawan might call this mainstream momentum "hype"...but true Jedi understand that this resurgence in the Force could very well herald the dawn of a new age. The amount of money that's behind this is only thrown at it because of the amount of excitement among it's target demographic is phenomenal. Perhaps even unprecedented. They aren't trying to brainwash you into watching the film, they pretty much already know you will (most likely whether you have any desire to or not). No, all those mainstream TV / product tie-ins are there because the demand is there.
We'll leave all the film speculation to other corners of the internet, as what I want to focus on here is what that means for us as gamers. The Force Awakens was titled conspicuously from the very beginning, in my mind. It long signaled that Disney wanted to revive the franchise long-term. I knew there would be at least six more films, judging simply by the release schedule. 3 films in the new trilogy (part 7-9) and then three stand-alones.
The idea that the franchise would be officially supported by the "hype-machine" helped us make the decision to keep Star Wars on the Wargate schedule long-term. 2020 is pretty much the foreseeable future, and we all want our investments to pan-out. However, apparently there is a lot more in store even than that, and that points our meters to an upcoming golden age of Star Wars gaming, headed up by Fantasy Flight.
Star Wars will be occupying Season 3 of next year's schedule. Next year will be slightly different in format, as there will be 3 four-month seasons instead of 4 three-month seasons. In fact, Star Wars will probably be our Season 3 setting for the foreseeable future, as it titillates us to no end that at the end of each season we'll be treated to a full-on Star Wars movie. December will be full of even more fun here at the Wargate - Krampus at the beginning of the month, and Star Wars movie release at the end!
Don't worry though. We're not going to build any new Death Stars. We'll leave that to Disney, and explore the Star Wars universe outside the immediate vicinity of certain types of artificial moons (i.e. with planet destroying super-lasers).