Metagaming Concepts

Metagaming Concepts

Metagaming Concepts was a publisher of board games from 1975 to 1983 owned by Howard Thompson. Metagaming created and popularized the microgame format. It specialized in science fiction wargames; titles included Ogre, G.E.V., Godsfire, Stellar Conquest and WarpWar. The company also published the role-playing system The Fantasy Trip and the The Space Gamer magazine. In its later years, Metagaming introduced more fantasy titles into its lineup, and also began to publish games with historical themes, including Hitler's War.

Game designer Steve Jackson got his start at Metagaming and retained the rights to Ogre, G.E.V., and The Space Gamer when he founded Steve Jackson Games. Among the other Metagaming designers were Lynn Willis and Keith Gross. Ben Ostrander, who was later the publisher of Mojo Press, served as the art director for most of the company's titles.

Metagaming published two magazines: The Space Gamer and Interplay. The former was started in 1975 dedicated to science fiction gaming and later expanded is scope to include fantasy gaming. It was sold to Steve Jackson in 1980. The latter magazine, Interplay, was a house organ, intended to be published six times a year. It ran for eight issues before the end of the company. The first issue of Interplay was dated May/June 1981, and the eighth was dated September/October 1982.

Games Research Group, Inc., which was initially part of Metagaming, was created as a separate entity on 1-Jan-1982 by Howard Thompson.[1] The Games Research Group, Inc. copyright appears on several Metagaming-released products, such as the counters of Dragons of the Underearth.

After going out of business, Howard Thompson disappeared from the gaming hobby, leaving most of Metagaming's intellectual property in limbo.

References

  1. ^ Letter addressed to Metagaming employees Kevin Hendryx and Norman Royal, http://micro.brainiac.com/mg2grg.jpg, http://micro.brainiac.com/grg.jpg, 1-April-1982

External links


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем написать реферат

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Metagaming (disambiguation) — Metagaming may refer to: Metagaming Metagaming (role playing games), a role playing game term Metagaming Concepts, a publisher of board games This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an …   Wikipedia

  • Metagaming (role-playing games) — Not to be confused with Metagaming Concepts. In role playing games, metagaming can be defined as any out of character action made by a player s character which makes use of knowledge that the character is not meant to be aware of. (Metagaming… …   Wikipedia

  • Ogre (game) — Ogre microgame cover image (Second edition, 1977) Ogre is a board wargame first released in 1977 as the first Metagaming Concepts Microgame, designed by Steve Jackson.[1] Its basic premise is that it is an asymmetric forces game[2] …   Wikipedia

  • List of board wargames — This is a list of board wargames by historical genre (and some sub genres) showing their publication history. All games can be presumed to have been published in English unless another language is noted.Historical* The Art of Siege (Simulations… …   Wikipedia

  • The Fantasy Trip — Designer(s) Steve Jackson Publisher(s) Metagaming Publication date 1980 Genre(s) Generic Fantasy System(s) Custom The Fantasy Trip (TFT) is a role playing game that was …   Wikipedia

  • Microgame — This article refers to small scale tabletop games. For their video game equivalents, see minigame. For Wario s microgames, see WarioWare (series). Metagaming Concepts s Ogre microgame, second edition (1977) A microgame (sometimes written… …   Wikipedia

  • The Space Gamer — was a magazine dedicated to the subject of science fiction and fantasy board games and role playing games. It quickly grew in importance and was an important and influential magazine in its subject matter from the late 70s through the mid 80s.… …   Wikipedia

  • Howard M. Thompson — was a wargame designer and founder of Metagaming Concepts. His first game was Stellar Conquest , a popular and well designed simulation of interstellar warfare.Thompson is most famous for his idea to publish small, low cost games in what came to… …   Wikipedia

  • WarpWar — Infobox Game subject name=WarpWar image link= image caption= designer=Howard Thompson publisher= Metagaming Concepts players=2 ages=10+ setup time= playing time= 30 minutes complexity= strategy= random chance= skills= bggid= bggxrefs= footnotes=… …   Wikipedia

  • Steve Jackson Games — Infobox Company name = Steve Jackson Games type = Private genre = foundation = 1980 founder = Steve Jackson location city = Austin, Texas location country = United States of America location = locations = area served = key people = Steve Jackson… …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
… Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”