GUARDIANS OF ORDER OUT OF BUSINESS
July 28, 2006
I regret to announce that Guardians of Order, the Canadian games company that issued the GAME OF THRONES role-playing game last fall, is closing its doors and going out of business.
Although the GoO website remains open and there is some fan activity on the message boards there, it would appear that orders are no longer being fulfilled and emails to Guardians itself are going unaswered. The company's office has been vacated, and the company phone has been disconnected, When I finally reached GoO's owner and president Mark MacKinnon last week, he confirmed what many had come to suspect -- that he is shutting down operations. MacKinnon is presently attempting to place some of GoO's games with other companies.
I am not privy to all of the details of how and why Guardians is going under, but I do know the company's finances were very badly affected by the decline in the value of the American dollar against the Canadian dollar. Most of GoO's sales were in the United States, so a weaker dollar meant less money coming in. The massive and gorgeous GAME OF THRONES role-playing book, four years in the making, was finally released last November (for details, see the news stories in my archives) and appears to have sold quite well, but its success proved too little and too late to save Guardians of Order.
I am presently attempting to work out some sort of settlement with Guardians that would allow the RPG to continue with another company, but at this writing the future of the game (if any) remains unresolved.
Ironically, this announcement comes just as the GAME OF THRONES RPG has been nominated for four "ENie" awards as one of the best games of 2005. The game has been nominated in the categories of Best Production Values, Best d20/ OGL Product, Best Product, and Best Game. If you're a fan of the game and would like to cast a ballot, voting is open until July 30 at http://www.enworld.org/ennies/voting.php
Location: Walking down the road to death, trying to find a way off.
Posts: 3,974
Re: Guardians of Order - News from George Martin
At least he doesnt seem to have been soured on the whole concept of RP games or licencing out his books. And now at least we know for certain GoO are going out of business. But those are fairly small caveats against a big backdrop of
More illustrators and writers that will never get paid. I know that a few illustrators were owed money for Guardians of Order work and it is a shame that not only is the company going under, but that the freelancers now have nothing to look forward to from Guardians of Order. Nothing new in the rpg arena.
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"Forgive an aged man if he seem to dwell, as is the habit of the old, among the youthful recollections that have gathered to themselves the kingly purple of removed horizons and the strange glory that illumines irretrievable things."
--Clark Ashton Smith
Well, a couple of months ago it seemed like the writing was on the wall.
My condolences to those who may never see their money, including the artists, writers, and GRRM.
That said, I'm glad I picked up one of htose beautiful maps at Gencon SoCal...
It'll be interesting to see what, if anything, happens next.
EDIT: And I would have liked to have actually seen the adventure. I was supposed to get a pdf, emailed away for it, and never got the information back I needed to download it
Last edited by Old Scratch; 07-29-2006 at 10:41 AM..
It's sad to see it go (I've been a fan since BESM 1st), but it's good to get some sort of finality to the matter at this point. As I said in the other thread, I wish Mark luck in getting those various games hooked up with other publishers.
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