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I am now in contact with Jason Mical, the Communications Manager at Wizkids from 2003-2006! Apparently he was the one who created the constructible strategy game term! O_O
In this interview you can see that he was involved in the flavor text. From his LinkedIn page it shows that he was one of the people who oversaw the old Wizkids forums as well! For those reasons I think it makes sense to base the podcast mostly on those two topics – his involvement with the flavor text and Pirates forums.
Feel free to post your questions here! (try to keep them as related to Pirates CSG as possible of course)
General
What was your involvement with Wizkids like?
Since you worked at Wizkids before the Spanish Main set was released, did you have insight on Jordan Weisman’s thought process around the game?
Pirates was a success in every definition of the term; the game was an experiment designed to attract a certain Disney license, and we didn’t know it would sell nearly as well as it did.
^-Did Jordan Weisman create the game solely to get a Pirates of the Caribbean license to Wizkids?
What other Wizkids employees did you work with? Did you consult with the game designers for flavor text ideas? (Mike Selinker/James Ernest/Jordan Weisman/Mike Mulvihill/etc.)
How did the naming of the “constructible strategy game” term come about and go over with Wizkids?
The game started with historical fleets and toward the end of the game, it shifted in more of a fantasy direction. Was that a change in direction to gain a bigger audience or a way for the team to express their ideas?
Flavor Text
What sets did you design flavor text for? (all 5 from SM-SCS?)
Do you think it was a good idea from Wizkids to dive more into the fantasy concepts, or do you think they should have kept the game more historical?
Do you remember a favorite game piece you worked on? Did you design any directly?
Did you have a favorite “grand storyline” or overarching flavor narrative? (possibly spanning multiple sets) Least favorite flavor text/ideas?
Did you have a favorite set you worked on the flavor text for?
Forums
What was your favorite experience or aspect of the old Wizkids Pirates forums?
What was your least favorite experience on the forums?
Was there anything that started on the forum that made it into the game? (such as an idea for a game piece/flavor text/ship type/etc) Did you refer Pirates CSG community ideas from the forum to any of the game designers?
Any particular users that were helpful or notable?
Closing
Do you have a favorite ship type?
What were some of your ideas that never made it into the game? (including lore/story ideas)
How much Pirates stuff do you own, if any?
What are your favorite memories of Pirates CSG?
How did you get out of Pirates?
Do you know anything about why the game went out of print, or why it hasn’t come back?
If the game came back, do you think it would have a better chance as a physical or a digital game?
If Pirates CSG came back, would you want to return to it?
What are you doing now?
Where can people find you online?
Questions of the Day?
You covered a a couple of the questions I would have asked, but here is one that might get an interesting answer if he can answer it:
The game started with Historical fleets and toward the end of the game, it shifted in a more fantasy direction. was that a change direction to gain a bigger audience or a way for the team to express their ideas?
The game started with Historical fleets and toward the end of the game, it shifted in a more fantasy direction. was that a change direction to gain a bigger audience or a way for the team to express their ideas?
Good question in general, but possibly better for a game designer who was there throughout the later sets. Mical stopped working for Wizkids in March 2006, one month after South China Seas came out. So although he was probably around for some or all of the design process for DJC, there’s a chance that the time frame doesn’t quite match up. Still looking forward to asking the question though, thanks!
@uadoom: Just got word from Jason that although he didn’t work at Wizkids after 2006, he was contracted to write flavor text until the second to last set (Fire and Steel). So perhaps he’ll have more insight into your question after all!
We are planning to do the podcast around 4pm EST tomorrow (6/11), and I plan to stream it live on youtube!
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