"Clean-up on Aisle 22" Post-Holiday Sale Wrap-Up

The 2022 Holiday Sale is in the books, wow. I remember that scene in the movie "Twister" (Helen Hunt, Bill Paxton) where people are coming up from the storm cellar and surveying the damage from a massive tornado--stuff all over the place. That's kinda what PLAAY HQ looks like right now, haha!

Time to start the clean-up, enjoy some Holiday down-time and then get ready for 2023. Let's start with a few house-keeping items from the holiday sale (we'll talk about 2023 in a future post)...

I was floored by the interest in the tennis game. It felt a lot like when the golf game came out--I couldn't believe so many people were interested in golf! Ditto tennis. To say the least, I vastly underestimated the interest level of this game. As has been our custom the last several years, we'll make the digital version of the game available again through the end of the year, and we're bouncing around the idea of a boxed version of the game sometime in 2023.

In the hours after the game was released, there were a number of game play questions, feels like most (all?) of them have been resolved now. The game borrows concepts from our already-released jai-alai and golf games, so I guess I subconsciously assumed that these rules principles were already out there and didn't require a lot of explanation. Apologies for that assumption! There are a lot of people who don't own either game, who picked up tennis. My bad.

PLAAY Gamer Cooper Gilbert has put together a very helpful FAQ for the tennis game, which Al Wilson has posted to the PLAAY Games Community Facebook page. Everything is pretty straightforward, but I did want to chime in with a few of my own thoughts...

• There was some confusion about what to do when a player doesn't have "7" in their return range. Honestly, it was my intent that every player have "7" in their return range, which would have eliminated this question. A couple of players slipped through, though, necessitating a rule. The best rule seems to be to check the player's qualities and award chips if called for, even if they don't make the return. Otherwise, these players will be at a real disadvantage. Contextually, it might not seem right to earn a reward (performance chip) for missing a shot, I get that.

• Along those same lines, my original intent was that if an opponent's well-executed shot takes away the "7" result, no chips would be awarded on a "7" miss, per the above logic (i.e., you shouldn't be rewarded for a missed return). However, to stay consistent with the rules, we're saying that you'll check the return player's qualities anyway and award chips if called for. (This is the way it's expressed in the FAQ.)

Heads up, though--future releases of the game, we may simply adjust cards so that everyone has "7" in their return range. If that happens, we'll go back to my original thought that you shouldn't be rewarded for a missed return.

• Rolling a "7" on a serve, there was some confusion here mainly because I made a late change to the rules set. Originally, you got a chip for rolling a "7" on a serve--period, end. Later in the play-test process, though, I felt like the surface qualities should come into play somehow in the point-by-point module. That's when I modified the rule so that you only get the chip on a serve IF you have the appropriate surface quality. I should have let all of the play-testers know about this change, that's on me.

• Having made that change, I didn't think about how it parallels the return rule. Contextually, it would make sense that if a server doesn't have the appropriate surface quality, it could be considered a "weak" serve (similar to a weak return), with the opponent having the chance to attempt a WINNER. This, actually, might be a good rule, I think. I will try it out next chance I get.

• Speaking of the qualities check on "7," there's some confusion on which die to check, the black or the white die. It's based on whether you are the underdog or favorite. Why did I do it that way? I often recall designer James Barnes answer when people would ask him why he used a base 8 system for his Statis-Pro Basketball Game fast-action card ranges. He said it was because he wanted people to think. Love that.

• I also love that people have discovered some of the subtle strategies of chip usage, especially in head-to-head play. I told a number of people who e-mailed, I considered putting a section about chip strategy into the rules, but feel like it's always more fun to discover for yourself!

With the help of Andy Lewis, who was instrumental in polishing up the original tennis rules set, we’ve re-written the point-by-point module rules to (hopefully) make them a little clearer for the next wave of tennis fans who get the game. The rules have NOT been changed, only re-worded. If your game play questions have already been answered, there’s no need to review this re-written section of the rules. But if you’re curious, feel free to download (button below).

We had a couple of other things that needed to be fixed as well, outlined below. We’ve combined all the corrected files into one “fix-it” download (above button), rather than have you download multiple items.

In our holiday release of the 1981-82 Pro Season for Hockey Blast, I got the name colors wrong on the second page of Edmonton players. The “fix-it” file includes a corrected page, you won't have to re-print the whole set, just that one page.

In our College Hoops PLAAY-Down card set, coach Kory O'Grady doesn't have an ENERGIZED range. I checked the data sheet and, sure enough, none is listed. I think we'll say that you can choose your own range for him, or start his range at "4," roll two six-sided dice and use the result as the lower end of the ENERGIZED range. In other words, if you roll a "7," his ENERGIZED range would be 4-7.

We also neglected to mention the scoring grid for the college hoops set--it's included in our blog post recap of PLAAY Dot Con 2022, along with a cool two-player game board and some other goodies. We've also whipped up a special "PLAAY DOWN" themed grid, which is included in the “fix-it” file.

In our 2007-08 Pro Season release for Highlight Maker Hoops, Detroit's coach Flip Saunders' card has "12" listed twice--eliminate the "12" for CLASHING, it should just be 11 (12 is ENERGIZED).

Finally, a few folks who picked up our lacrosse game during the sale were sent copies missing the strategy cards. There’s a PDF in the “fix-it” file, feel free to give us a shout and we'll mail you a printed copy.

That should be everything! Thanks for your patience and good will over the past few weeks, we certainly are grateful. Hope you'll join us for our online Christmas party next Thursday night! We have some fun stuff planned...