Blog

Checksthesky

Hi there, it’s Ben Cichoski, your friendly Head Designer for the WoW TCG. You may know me from design and preview articles, commentary on our tournament live streams or for MC’ing the Bounty Tournaments at NACC or Worlds.

Patrick gave you a, ahem, thorough look into his journey to CZE last week. As much as I like to give Patrick a hard time (his favorite thing to call me is “a hard guy to love”), I do sincerely hope I can live up to his excellent writing standards.

Mr. Checks-the-Sky is a fan favorite, the voice of the Bounty Tournament. Everybody reading this, take five damage. 

I have been designing games on my own and professionally for over 20 years now. There have been two crucial moments in my life that have led me to this place and career.

Let’s set the scene. I was 14 and I had already been enjoying hobby games for several years  with my brother, his friends, and my best friend John. We played RPGs and Avalon Hill games for the most part (TCGs were still a few years away). I shared my mother’s love of the written word and my father’s passion for science fiction, fantasy (he was my reading teacher in 6^th grade; he introduced me to The Hobbit, still my favorite all-time story). I loved nautical fiction: C.S. Forester, Dudley Pope, Patrick O’Brian.  It was after failing to find a game with this nautical theme, that I had a stunning revelation-- I could make it myself. I called it Caribbean.

I remember frantically making the game out of some string, corks, index cards and push pins on my porch over the next few summer days (this must have been 1990). As I sat down to play with my family for the first time, I was terrified. While I certainly had no indication that this could be my career at some point, I wanted to explore this new creative, weird thing I had done. I had so many more ideas for games. What if it sucked?

While it is sometimes hard to distinguish my mom’s natural optimism and enthusiasm for everything I do from actual praise (she is the most positive person I have ever known) and my dad is a pretty reserved guy, they seemed to like it. They even wanted to play again. Moment #1!

They also told other people about it. Not in a “Hey, we have this weird son who makes games out of push pins, and we’re looking for a counselor” way, but in a “Hey, guess what cool thing our son did?” sort of way.

Fast forward to college, I bought my first TCG, played the hell out of tons of games instead of going to class (sorry Mom and Dad, but Oceanography was boring), continued to make games. I also met Danny Mandel.

Fast forward again to 2005. Danny is working on Vs. System at Upper Deck and I am in Fairfax, VT on the phone with him, pacing outside. My wife is pregnant with our first child, and Danny is telling me for the one millionth time I should come to California and give Upper Deck a shot. It is an impossible situation. I can’t leave her by herself in Vermont over the  winter while I traipse off to sunny California. I get off the phone, and trudge inside. My wife asks me what I was talking about for so long. I am hesitant to tell her, but I eventually do. She says “If you don’t do it now, you never will. I think you should go.” Moment #2!

What do you do in a situation like this? Who has a wife like this? Now, the cynics might say she just wanted me out of the house. That could definitely be part of it. Pregnant women are unpredictable. It made me feel better that my parents and my brother and his family were nearby and a couple of good friends were just down the road. And I knew they would take such great care of her while I was gone. And they did. I can never thank them enough or ever make that up to any of them. But they all encouraged me to take a shot.

Fast forward to today. I am writing about how to do this job. You should play games-- even games you don’t think you will like. Make games. Take the leap and play one with someone you love. Then play it with a stranger. Be humble. If no one likes it, they’re right. Be a critical thinker. Don’t like a game? Explain why. Love a game? Figure out why. Apply those lessons to your next game. Talk about games. Talk with friends, and make contacts in the industry. Have a real opinion. Prove you are thinking about games. Take a chance. Read The Hobbit. Thank your family and friends for putting up with you. Marry the right person.

Well, that’s my time for today. Thanks for reading, and I will talk to you again in the next couple of weeks. But right now I have to go take Caribbean out of the closet and dust it off. It’s almost time to play it with my son.