Avalon Hill Admins

[Carico67]

i just want to say I've sent emails to a lady who's address seemed the head contact point on this new project, as did the president of Balance of Power (online A&A CD Club), with no response.

This worries me a bit. You have some of the games most active community members trying to help on the project and being snubbed. In my case, you have someone within driving distance wo is less than 1 hour away and is likely THE most involved member of the A&A community. I'm in the government of 3 clubs and 1 of 3 admins that run the A&A online world Championships...

I've worked with you guys (Larry and Rob ) on A&A Pacific testing in the past as well. So, to summarize, we of the community grow skeptical when we are constantly ignored. I am hoping this was only due to the inadaquacies of the lady I tried to contact in a link that talked about atari Games being involve, etc

Anyways, hopefully Rob or Larry could tell someone there are some of us that contact A LOT of the A&A community and that could help create a stir of excitement about it if we were allowed to assist in a game we are likely to spend countless hours on IF IT IS DONE RIGHT.

Thanks, appreciate any contact.

Chris Collins
Milford, MA
Carico67@hotmail.com Will email phone # in reply if wanted!

[Carico67]

http://www.timegate.com/content.php?section=pressrelease&id=3

Stacey Clement was lady I contacted, as did President of BOP.

[zooooma]

Hi Chris.

Almost three years ago there was a feature at AAMC inviting members to send A&A designer feedback to Larry Harris. As I recall, the purpose of this feedback was to assist in the creation of an revamped version of Axis and Allies.

I sent in my Ideas in winter 2001, and got this response:

"Luke,

Thanks for your thoughts. Frankly at this point, the game is very much
set
in stone. However, good house rules are always interesting and fun to
experiment with.

Thanks for playing A&A... Be on the lookout for A&A Pacific. I think
you'll
enjoy it.
Regards,
Larry Harris"

I also recall the mention of a remake of A&A at the old Delphi message boards which must also have been some time ago.

I mention this because it is possible that the R&D has long since been completed on this game, and that you are trying to help much too late. I am not really sure about your exact situation, but I think it's worth thinking about. If as I understood from Larry Harris, the game has long since been set in stone, then it is not really fair to consider yourself to have been snubbed at this point.

I'm sure the game will be excellent, well tested, and will please us all.

-Luke

[Y2UAsk]

A couple points of clarification:

1. Neither Larry Harris nor Rob Daviau are employees of Avalon Hill or Wizards of the Coast. Rob is a talented game designer with wide experience who works for Hasbro in Rhode Island. I haven't contacted him for several months and I'm not sure what his exact job is now. He has an abiding interest in AH games but they're not his bailiwick these days; all AH functions and management are now in the hands of Wizards of the Coast in Seattle. Larry Harris is a freelance game designer. Neither of them would be involved in a decision to create an electronic version of A&A, and they would be involved in the process itself only at the invitation of the developers.

2. Any electronic version of any AH game must be licensed and cleared through Infogrames/Atari (http://boards.avalonhill.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=000012#000001), by the terms of an agreement between Hasbro and that company. If you're getting no response from from TimeGate, you might try contacting Infogrames directly by mail, through the address at that link.

3. Electronic game publishers are notoriously tight-lipped about what they're doing. Beyond that, they are -- might I say "snooty" (and I mean that in only the best, most complimentary sense) -- in their attitude about the differences between traditional and electronic games and the usefulness of input from traditional gamers when designing electronic games. In other words, I wouldn't get my hopes up (about being asked your opinion, not about the game's quality -- I have no reason to think it won't be exceptional).
4. Other than that, I know nothing about this game. This is the first I've heard of it.

Steve

[ November 24, 2003, 01:02 PM: Message edited by: Y2UAsk ]