Daze of Wonder?

First off, let's not question whether DoW is a successful company.  They've probably made more off of "Ticket To Ride" and its associated spin-offs than several other small boardgaming companies combined.  They are extremely profitable.  This article is in no way indicating that they are in some sort of financial peril of any kind.


But at one point, DoW was on an amazing, non-Ticket to Ride tear.  You had Mystery of the Abbey which appealed to theme hounds who wanted a light, quick playing game but had a theme nicely applied.  Then there was the awesome one-two-three punch of Shadows Over Camelot, Pirate's Cove and of course Memoir '44, all within a two-year span.  It was playing Memoir '44 for the first time in awhile (against the Mad Gamer himself, Steve Weeks) that made me remember just how awesome DoW was and how I used to look forward to their games.

Fantasy Flight may have become the king of lavish productions, but DoW was and is right there with them.  Some critics have said that games like Pirate's Cove are shallow but you can't deny how awesome the production value is.  Simply put, Days of Wonder means a quality production.  And they're tackling a lot of great themes...WWII, pirates, Camelot, none of this town-building "impress the mayor" type stuff.


The excitement from ATers began to diminish, I think, with the release of Cleopatra and the Society of Architechts followed by the "pleased no one" Colosseum.  Just like that, we were veering way back into Eurogame territory, and you can't throw a brick without hitting some company, small or large, willing to peddle you games about trading or weaving silk or building junk...and that sucked because every high-profile publisher doing AT-style games mattered.  I mean, Rio Grande and Mayfair put out enough of a glut of Euros every year that you could buy a truckload of them and still not have played them all.  But high-profile AT releases were somewhat hard to come by.


The blow was more severe with the crumpling of Eagle Games.  Eagle was the third pillar in the "Big Three" at that time, and when they folded they took all of those big releases with them.  Eagle was a big deal, with games at Barnes and Nobles, Books a Million, even Walmart.com.


Days of Wonder thankfully came back swinging with Battlelore, and that initially appeared to be the monster hit to put them back on track.  Based on Borg's "Command and Colors" system and bolting on the AT-friendly fantasy theme, this seemed like a sure winner.

Problem is, I can't find many folks who have gushing praise for Battelore these days.  I must confess to not having played it, nor being able to justify a $70 price tag for a game system that I essentially already own, albeit without the cool fantasy theme and all the bells and whistles.  But from several reports, the game was failing with the very people it was supposed to appeal to.  This was going to be *it*....the all-engrossing fantasy wargame, custom made for expansions, and....



Well, that's just it, and it's really at the heart of why it's harder to get excited about DoW releases these days.


Not too long ago I wrote the article about Franchising, and that's exactly the mode that DoW is in.  Just look at their release schedule...the expansion for Memoir that finally released this year, yet *another* Ticket to Ride full box edition (of a game that was allegedly NEVER to come out on these shores), Battlelore expansions out the wazoo, the Shadows over Camelot expansion....and....nothing else that I can find.   Since the beginning of 2007, they've only had two "new" games (and "new" is pushing it in Ticket to Ride: The Card Game's Case).


Truly, they're in franchise mode.  And they've been stuck there for awhile.


Now, I know what you're saying.  "Fantasy Flight releases f'n expansions for EVERYTHING!"  That's true, it's the rare FFG title that doesn't receive an expansion of some kind.  But remember the article I posted about stuff that's coming up from FFG?  It was a HUGE list, and I even accidentally left some stuff off!  They can afford to pump out expansions because they also put new games, new titles, new ideas into the channel.  Look no farther than World of Warcraft: The Adventure Game.  They've just created a new cash cow, just like that, as we'll no doubtedly see character expansions for this for some time to come.  Yet the wheels keep on churning as Battlestar Galactica is next in the pipeline, along with their 'side' releases such as Tribune, and...well, you can see, all the eggs are not in one basket.


It would be hard to fault DoW for retreating a bit.  After all, Colosseum was supposed to be a "Big Deal" but from what I've read it fell flat and sales were less than expected.  So it's expected that they'd need to return to the tried and true.  But it's sad because this is a company that obviously has tremendous talent and could afford to take some chances, push the envelope.  If giving the market a heavier pure Euro failed, why not try a heavier AT offering?  One *not* based on the Command and Colors system?  Why not take a risk on a new game that shakes things up...can you imagine if Days of Wonder had ended up with Twilight Struggle?


Meh...this is all armchair quarterbacking anyway.  Like I said, I think DoW is doing fine in the money department.  But totally selfishly, I would like to get excited about a Days of Wonder release again, just for old time's sake.