DG March Pledge-ness Bracket Contest

2015-DG-MP-WINNER

  • Pledge-ness Winner and Runner-Ups!

    Thank you to everyone who voted in our March Pledge-ness contest. In our Final match-up, Rome and the Barbarians beat Star Force Trilogy for the first slot in our 2018 line-up.

    In our Runner-Up contest, the rankings were as follows:

    1. Star Force Trilogy
    2. First World War
    3. Rats of Tobruk
    4. Panzaerarmee Afrika
    5. Franco-Prussian War series
    6. Olympic & Coronet
    7. Race to Mars
    8. Voelkerwanderung: The Wanderings of the People
    9. Westward Ho!
    10. After the EMP
    11. 1500m

    We are now reviewing the results and all the great comments everyone made about individual games as well as this new process of choosing a boxed game to enter our pledge program. We’re very interested in hearing your comments about the whole process, changes we should consider for how we will conduct this contest next year, and games or subject matter we should consider for next year’s proposals or groupings.

    Again, after consideration of our design, development, play test and art resources, and the interest we hear from customers regarding these additional game proposals, we may pick additional games to go forward with for our 2018 (or sooner) line-up. We’ll be discussing them in the topics below so join us there or email Doc directly.

    We set up two forums/threads for additional comments and discussion about the DG March Pledge-ness Bracket Contest.

    These are on the Board Game Geek site at: http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1328475/decision-games-march-pledge-ness-bracket-contest-s

    And on the ConSimWorld site at: http://talk.consimworld.com/WebX/.ee6b2cd/19940

    Or email Doc at doccummins@decisiongames.com

    Thanks for participating, and don’t forget to pledge for this year’s games (you’ll get 25% off the retail price!). They have already begun printing components and all three will be released by June so don’t delay, pledge today!

  • FINAL Round Intro

    Thank you to everyone who voted in Round Four. In our Final Four match-ups, Rome and the Barbarians bested the Franco-Prussian War series. In the other contest, the SF classic Star Force outpaced Voelkerwanderung for the win. So these will be our two finalists competing for the first slot in our 2018 line-up.

    In our Runner-Up Run-Off, we have the six games eliminated during Rounds 3 and 4 (Panzaerarmee Afrika, Franco-Prussian War series, Olympic & Coronet, The Wanderings of the People – The Voelkerwanderung, Westward Ho!, and Race to Mars.) plus the most frequently picked game from the previous rounds, First World War. In addition, we decided to include the most frequently picked from each of the original groups, thus adding Rats of Tobruk, After the EMP, and 1500m to the Runner-Up Run-Off.

    In our Run-Off, you can pick any or all of them, however only vote for the games you would be willing to pledge for should they be selected as an additional game to enter the pledge program. Again, once your votes determine the first selection to enter the pledge program for 2018, we will be reviewing the rest of the field for additional selections depending on the resources we will have to commit to accomplish the games already on schedule. Your votes in this Runner-Up Run-Off will help determine what game(s) we will give greater consideration.

    You Choose, We Publish!

    You can review the Round Four results here:

    – ROUND FOUR RESULTS

    We also thank everyone who took time to type in their comments. We read each and every response. We also set up two forums/threads for additional comments and discussion about the DG March Pledge-ness Bracket Contest. These are on the Board Game Geek site at: http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1328475/decision-games-march-pledge-ness-bracket-contest-s. And on the ConSimWorld site at: http://talk.consimworld.com/WebX/.ee6b2cd/19940

    Please come and share your suggestions on improving the selection process as well as any ideas for our pledge program and, of course, ideas for further games that should be included next year. Thanks for participating, and don’t forget to pledge for this year’s games (you’ll get 25% off the retail price!). They have already begun printing components and all three will be released by June so don’t delay, pledge today!

  • Round 4 Intro

    Thank you to everyone who voted in Round Three. Several commenters thought only a WWII game could make it to the finals, but your votes have proven them doubly wrong! Both pre-20th century game proposals beat out their WWII opponents and so Rome and the Barbarians, a new design, now faces off against an update of the highly popular Franco-Prussian War series.  Amazingly, another ancient themed title The Wanderings of the People – The Voelkerwanderung won in a close contest in the Euro-style group and now faces its strongest competitor, Star Force, which won in the science fiction group. So now we’ll find out whether it’s ancient times or 19th century you favor, or the far past or the far future. You Choose, We Publish!

    You can review the Round Three results here:

    – ROUND THREE RESULTS

    We also thank everyone who took time to type in their comments. We read each and every response. We also set up two forums/threads for additional comments and discussion about the DG March Pledge-ness Bracket Contest. These are on the Board Game Geek site at: http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1328475/decision-games-march-pledge-ness-bracket-contest-s. And on the ConSimWorld site at: http://talk.consimworld.com/WebX/.ee6b2cd/19940

    Please come and share your suggestions on improving the selection process as well as any ideas for our pledge program and, of course, ideas for further games that should be included next year. Thanks for participating, and don’t forget to pledge for this year’s games (you’ll get 25% off the retail price!). They have already begun printing components and all three will be released by June so don’t delay, pledge today!

    Late breaking Newsflash!!!! We’re going to hold a Special Runner-Up Run-off along with the Championship showdown between the final two games. We’re going to include the six games that lost in rounds 3 and 4 plus the most picked game that this week’s voters write in their comments box. Please pick from the 24 games that lost in Rounds 1 or 2 (see the bracket for titles). Only pick games you are ready to pledge for (but you can pick up to 5). We’ll add the game most frequently named as a wild card.

  • Round 3 Intro

    Thank you to everyone who voted in Round Two. In the history game groups, despite WWII games making up about 80% of the field at the beginning, it has come down to two contests: a WWII title (Panzer Armee Afrika) versus an Ancient title (Rome and the Barbarians) in the new game section, and a WWII two-game set (Olympic & Coronet) versus a 19th century two-game set (Franco-Prussian War and Russo-Turkish War) in the reprint/update section. Over in Euro-style games, two Americana themed games competed and a top rated game proposal (Eureka!) from the first round was trounced in the second round by Westward Ho! Also, The Wandering of the Peoples – The Voelkerwanderung grounded the Zeppelin empires of Luftmagnat Afrika setting the stage for the two games with migration/expansion elements to compete in round three. Finally, in the science fiction category, it comes down to a contest between the new game Race to Mars and an update of the classic game Star Force (Trilogy). You can review the Round Two results here:

    – ROUND TWO RESULTS

    We also thank everyone who took time to type in their comments. We read each and every response. We also set up two forums/threads for additional comments and discussion about the DG March Pledge-ness Bracket Contest. These are on the Board Game Geek site at: http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1328475/decision-games-march-pledge-ness-bracket-contest-s. And on the ConSimWorld site at: http://talk.consimworld.com/WebX/.ee6b2cd/19940

    Please come and share your suggestions on improving the selection process as well as any ideas for our pledge program and, of course, ideas for further games that should be included next year. Thanks for participating, and don’t forget to pledge for this year’s games (you’ll get 25% off the retail price!). They have already begun printing components and all three will be released by June so don’t delay, pledge today!

  • Round 2 Intro

    Thank you to everyone who voted in round one. We had several blow-out votes and some nail-biters that went down to the wire. Here are the results from round one:

    – ROUND ONE RESULTS

    We also thank everyone who took time to add comments.

    One item that came up was the option to vote for neither proposal. Although that is not a normal part of a bracket style contest, we’re going to try it for round 2 and see what happens. We also set up two forums/threads for additional comments and discussion about the DG March Pledge-ness Bracket Contest (and the DG Pledge Program). These are on the Board Game Geek site at: http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1328475/decision-games-march-pledge-ness-bracket-contest-s

    And on the ConSimWorld site at: http://talk.consimworld.com/WebX/.ee6b2cd/19940

    Please click over and share your suggestions on improving the selection process as well as any ideas for our pledge program and, of course, ideas for further games that should be included next year.

    Finally, some of the comments indicated a lack of familiarity with the games currently in our pledge program. Here is a recap from our October 2014 update:

    Releases in 2015

    We are releasing three boxed games in 2015: Napoleon’s Last Battles, Wellington’s Victory, and D-Day at Peleliu. NLB is an updated printing of the SPI/TSR/DG classic with new maps and counters, but minimal changes to the game rules. Wellington’s Victory is a complete overhaul, with a new map, counters, and rules (the game will be available as a Vassal module in April). D-Day at Peleliu continues the popular solitaire series from John Butterfield. All three games have started component printing, but there is still time to pledge for them and receive a 25% discount. They will be shipping in April/May.

    2016 and 2017

    Alamo to Appomattox, Campaign for North Africa, Free Mars, and Hand of Fate: The Vietnam War are all proceeding through design and development. We will let the pledges determine the order and timing of publication.

    We’re winding down on time to pledge for the 2015 games, and expecting to close out in preparation for shipping. All three games have already begun to print. Also a reminder: your pledges will determine  the next game to be published as we continue our tradition of “You Choose, We Publish.”

  • Round 1 Intro

    This description is for gamers new to Decision Games.

    Decision Games is one of the largest publishers of historical strategy games. We are best known for Strategy & Tactics magazine, the first magazine to include a history strategy game in every issue. We also publish two other magazines with games: World at War for World War II battles and campaigns, and Modern War for conflicts after WWII. All three magazines are also published as stand-alone magazines that you can find in most bookstores such as Barnes & Nobles. Strategy & Tactics is well known for its feedback surveys in which customers choose the games we design and develop for future issues.

    Decision Games (DG) also publishes several lines of games including traditional boxed war games, folio and mini-games, and science fiction games, and is considering several games for entry into Euro-style games. Like several other companies, DG has managed a pre-order system for many years in which customers pledged their support and waited to see if enough other customers would also pledge in order to move the game proposal into production. As reported in the DG Dispatch in September, we decided to re-boot our pledge program so the games in the pledge program were scheduled with a release date from the moment they were selected. No more waiting for years to see a pledge game published!

    We also wanted a simple mechanism we could utilize regularly for our customers to choose the games that would enter our pledge program. Our annual bracket contest has drawn thousands of votes each year, so we decided to put all our game proposals in this multi-round, head-to-head bracket contest, and let customers determine which game will enter our pledge program.

    The game proposals are divided into history strategy (war) games, science fiction, and Euro-style family games. In each head-to-head comparison for the first three rounds, the proposals will be from similar backgrounds, genres, or historical themes, although the variation will likely increase each round. In the final two rounds, the genres will go head-to-head. The first round starts Monday, 2 March. At the end of five rounds, we will have our customer selection for the next game to enter our pledge program with a release date of 2018 or sooner. After the contest is completed, we will be reviewing the results as well as your feedback through direct comments and in various forums. Based on that information and with consideration of our resources, we may place additional games in the pledge program.

    We hope you enjoy reviewing all the great game proposals we have and will come back every week to vote for your favorites and use the comment box to provide feedback. We also encourage you to post your comments in your favorite forum and let your gaming friends know they can help shape the direction Decision Games takes by choosing the next game to enter our pledge program.

    You Choose. We Publish.