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World Wide Wargames, or 3W, was a wargame company founded in 1977 (as UKW, UK Wargamer) by Keith Poulter. [1]
| | This article needs additional citations for verification .(August 2017) |
World Wide Wargames, or 3W, was a wargame company founded in 1977 (as UKW, UK Wargamer) by Keith Poulter. [1]
3W Inc, also known as World Wide Wargames, was a wargame company that began publishing in 1977. [2] : 106 Originally launched in England, the company moved later to California. In addition to producing boxed wargames, 3W published the magazine The Wargamer .
TSR published the magazine Strategy & Tactics from 1983 – 1987 and then sold the rights to 3W, who published the magazine from #112 (June, 1987) to #139, and when founder Keith Poulter left the business, 3W sold Strategy & Tactics to Decision Games. [2] : 101
Diverse Talents, Inc. published the game magazines Space Gamer/Fantasy Gamer, Fire and Movement, and Battleplan, until the company was bought by World Wide Wargames, Inc. on June 1, 1988. [3] 3W was looking to get into the role-playing industry, and began publication with Space Gamer/Fantasy Gamer #83 (1988) followed by licensed adventures including City of Angels (1989) for Twilight: 2000 , The Liftwood Conspiracy (1989) for Space: 1889 and Operation Overlord (1989) for Traveller: 2300 . [2] : 106 According to Shannon Appelcline, "Under the 3W ownership, the quality of the Space Gamer magazines improved but they still looked somewhat dated. 3W decided to resolve this problem following the release of Space Gamer/Fantasy Gamer #85 (January/February, 1989). Afterward they 'rebooted' the magazine. Space Gamer Vol. II, No. 1 (July/August, 1989) featured a much more professional cover and somewhat improved interior contents. Unfortunately the new Space Gamer only lasted through Vol. II, No. 2 (October/November, 1989). In that last issue, the editor rather angrily decried White Wolf Magazine who had said that they were 'the only independent magazine left in the market'. But, for all purposes that statement was largely true. Though considerably improved from its worst DTI days, the times of Space Gamer influencing the industry were over." [2] : 106 3W left the RPG business towards the end of 1989 after some failed expansions resulted in selling off properties, and 3W sold Space Gamer to Future Combat Simulations, who released only a single issue, Space Gamer #88 (March/April, 1990). [2] : 106
After that, the company also took charges of the magazine Moves for several years before selling to Decision Games. The company was known to be extremely prolific and to produce simple games, with a lot of scenarios available in each game, and always at a reasonable price. They also published the magazine Schwerpunkt . The company closed in 1995.
Avalon Hill Games Inc. is a game company that publishes wargames and strategic board games. It has also published miniature wargaming rules, role-playing games and sports simulations. It is a subsidiary of Hasbro, and operates under the company's "Hasbro Gaming" division.
David Lance Arneson was an American game designer best known for co-developing the first published role-playing game (RPG), Dungeons & Dragons, with Gary Gygax, in the early 1970s. Arneson's early work was fundamental to the role-playing game (RPG) genre, pioneering devices now considered to be archetypical, such as cooperative play to develop a storyline instead of individual competitive play to "win" and adventuring in dungeon, town, and wilderness settings as presented by a neutral judge who doubles as the voice and consciousness of all characters aside from the player characters.
Strategy & Tactics (S&T) is a wargaming magazine now published by Decision Games, notable for publishing a complete new wargame in each issue.
Flying Buffalo Inc. (FBI) is a game company with a line of role playing games, card games, and other gaming materials. The company's founder, Rick Loomis, began game publishing with Nuclear Destruction, a play-by-mail game which started the professional PBM industry in the United States. Loomis added games and players while introducing computer moderation and soon incorporated into the company Flying Buffalo Inc. The company published games in other genres, including card games such as Nuclear War and a role playing game called Tunnels & Trolls, a game similar to Dungeons & Dragons. Flying Buffalo acquired its 10,000th customer account number in 1980 and reached its largest size of 21 employees in 1983.
Moves was a wargaming magazine originally published by SPI, which also published manual wargames. Their flagship magazine Strategy & Tactics (S&T), was a military history magazine featuring a new wargame in each issue. While S&T was devoted to historical articles, Moves focused on the play of the games. Each issue carried articles dealing with strategies for different wargames, tactical tips, and many variants and scenarios for existing games. As time passed, reviews of new games also became an important feature. While the majority of the articles dealt with SPI games, the magazine was open to and published many articles on games by other companies.
Ares was an American science fiction wargame magazine published by Simulations Publications, Inc. (SPI), and then TSR, Inc., between 1980 and 1984. In addition to the articles, each issue contained a small science-fiction-themed board wargame.
The Wargamer was a magazine devoted to the hobby of board wargaming. Originally published as a British bimonthly magazine by UK Wargamers in 1977, it was subsequently published by World Wide Wargames, which then moved to the United States. The magazine ceased publication in 1990.
Battleplan was a bimonthly magazine which was headquartered in Long Beach, California. It was devoted to providing variants, scenarios, and articles on game strategy for wargaming products by a variety of publishers. The first issue appeared in March/April 1987, with the last issue, Number 9, appearing in 1989. The first six issues had been published by Diverse Talents, Inc. until DTI was bought out by World Wide Wargamers (3W), who continued to publish the magazine for three more issues. In 1989 Battleplan was merged with Wargamer.
Tactics is a board wargame published in 1954 by Avalon Hill as the company's first product. Although primitive by modern standards, it and its sequel, Tactics II, signalled the birth of modern board wargaming for the commercial market. Tactics is generally credited as being the first commercially successful board wargame.
Bryan Charles Ansell was a British role-playing and wargame designer. In 1985, he became managing director of Games Workshop, and eventually bought the company from Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone. Ansell moved Games Workshop from London to Nottingham and refocussed the company from role-playing games to Warhammer wargame and miniature products, which became very popular.
A board wargame is a wargame with a set playing surface or board, as opposed to being played on a computer or in a more free-form playing area as in miniatures games. The modern, commercial wargaming hobby developed in 1954 following the publication and commercial success of Tactics. The board wargaming hobby continues to enjoy a sizeable following, with a number of game publishers and gaming conventions dedicated to the hobby both in the English-speaking world and further afield.
War of the Ring, subtitled "S.R. 1418 to 1419", is a licensed wargame published by Simulations Publications, Inc. (SPI) in 1977 that simulates the events described in The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien.
Keith Poulter is a publisher and an editor who has worked on both magazines and wargames.
StarSoldier is a science fiction board wargame published by Simulations Publications, Inc. (SPI) in 1977.
Tyrone S. Bomba is a prolific American board wargame designer, credited as the designer of over 125 board wargames and game items. Bomba is the recipient of the James F. Dunnigan Award, has been inducted into the Charles Roberts Awards Hall of Fame for his contributions to the wargaming industry, and several of his games have won Charles S. Roberts Awards.
The Chronicles of Talislanta is a supplement published by Bard Games in 1987 for the fantasy role-playing game Talislanta.
A Naturalist's Guide to Talislanta is a supplement published by Bard Games in 1987 for the fantasy role-playing game Talislanta.
Talislanta Sorcerer's Guide is a supplement published by Bard Games in 1988 for the fantasy role-playing game Talislanta.