Written by Cecil Miller
In The Beginning…
For those of you that has been around, you undoubtedly know the name Tiny Grimes. He is an accomplished player, or was, and he is The Godfather of Star Wars: Destiny Content Creators. I had a chance to have a bit of a conversation with him and am now going to write about it in this edition of the CCC.
Tiny is from the California scene. He has had major influence on a lot of new players. His videos of how to download and play TTS was the tutorial that everyone didn’t know they wanted. Tiny took multiple videos to show how to download TTS, how to then subscribe to Star Wars: Destiny, and finally how to play the game. He also did it in such a great and entertaining way. If ever you have the chance, go and check out his early videos, although they may not be as helpful, you will see just how dedicated he was to the game.
I call him the Godfather because he was the first person to do content on SWD. He puts out his content through YouTube, which you can find here, and posts updates on Twitter at TinyGrimesGaming. He also has a Facebook page at Tiny Grimes Gaming, that he updates while he is doing videos on games.
He started playing SWD as soon as the mod for TTS came out. At that time, only a few of the cards had been revealed. So he would play with those, but then as other cards came online, he would get a chance with those. “This was one of my favorite times playing Destiny.” He said when I asked him how he started. The player pool was as low as the card pool was then, but he could tell that this game was going to be special; something he would excel at. He was an early Mill player. He had a Vader/Trooper/Trooper deck that he played. It was one of his favorite decks. “Vader’s ability was so oppressive and there weren’t that many upgrades spoiled yet.”
He felt, like with a lot of FFG’s card games, that the early life of a games put out by them was the best. It was clear how the developer wanted it. That was also because often FFG would move the developers to start or help with other games.
Star Wars: Destiny’s Chilly Start
SWD had a slow start when it was first released. People were not enamored with a game that looked so reliant upon the luck of the dice. The randomness of this card and dice game had a lot of people skeptical about its possibilities, no matter what the intellectual property was. “I decided from an early time that my role in this game would need to be as (a) PR man.”
He knew that if he wanted this game to have a good showing, someone must be its champion. When you watch his early videos, you see that. He is upbeat and always hammering on the drum to try out this game. He knew that with his platform, that he could influence people to play this game and give it an honest shot. “I took my role serious as someone who would bring people into the game. It was a fun role, and I loved introducing people to a game that I was enjoying so much.”
“To be honest, I’m a bit surprised people even remember me. I feel like Obi-Wan forgotten on a remote planet, an ancient relic of the past.” He never saw past what he was doing to make this game great. It is what makes a great Content Creator. They care more about the content than they do about what people may think of them. After the Awakenings, BOOM!, where there were no such thing as extra booster packs, he felt like he role was no longer needed. By the time Spirit of Rebellion came along, there were plenty of new Content Creators covering the game. When Tiny saw the game he loved getting taken care of, he stopped making video. As I said, he never saw the importance of gaining recognition, it just never appealed to him.
The Fall
He didn’t have any inside information, but knew-from watching other FFG games-that the company wasn’t going to push this game forever. Other card games that FFG had, seem to always fail between years 3 and 5. “I get the impression that FFG isn’t excited about making competitive card games anymore.” It is a lot of work to get one of them up and to keep them running is also more work than just coming up with a new game style. Tiny also felt that SWD had stopped selling well, and was beginning to affect the bottom line of FFG’s already iffy financials. “{Another issue} is that FFG doesn’t do well supporting games of this type,” was another issue that Tiny had concerns about.
Tiny left the SWD scene just after the Legacies regional, which he placed 4th in with a deck he just threw together. The why he left was a bit more complicated. The LA scene had fallen apart, so he played with a friend, John. Playing together was fun, but it began to dawn on them that they were paying hundreds of dollars to play a game that they weren’t playing competitively anymore. There was also no support coming from the FFG stores. “It was frustrating to play a game that demanded huge outlays of money for how we wanted to play the game, but then was supported like a board game.” Because of that lack of support, a once huge scene in LA had been decimated. A new one would take its place, but not in the size or numbers. With that fact and the issue that his job needed more of his attention he stopped playing and putting out the videos.
A New Hop…er Horizon
With the Continuation Committee now taking over, it has brought an interested Tiny Grimes back to the game. He isn’t quite sure where it will go, and for how long he may stay, but he is interested to see what the CC is going to be doing. He has already put up, not only videos speaking about the committees work, but spoiler videos and even some game play videos as well. It has taken a little time from his Runeterra playing, but it is good to have him home.
In Conclusion
As I conclude, I want to tell you, the I Rebel Nation, that having Content Creators like Tiny Grimes talking about our game again is huge. We need his voice, along with a lot of the others, to come out and get behind the Committee. At the end of the day, our goal is to play this game for as long as we can. We, the people that enjoy the game, need to go out and give people like Tiny a subscribe. So that he knows we want to see more content from him. A rumor has it that he will have a few spoilers of his own coming up on his Tuesday Youtube video, check him out here.
Until next time Nation, May you always need what you roll and roll what you need!!
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