| From: | Brian & Sherry Carty <silver@*****.NET> |
|---|---|
| Subject: | The Future of Shadowrun TCG |
| Date: | Tue, 29 Sep 1998 21:51:03 -0400 |
the status of Corp War and 2nd Run. Both of which he said are ready to
go to the printer, but I didn't get much more info than that.
I don't know how many of you ever played Shadowfist (yes, _fist_), but
SRTCG seems to be following the same trend. Shadowfist is by far the
best CCG I've played; however, due to several blunders on the
designer/manufacturers' part, the game went under.
Shadowfist had high hopes. A number of expansions were already designed.
The latest was ready to go to the printer, but several key mistakes were
made, and not much has been heard of the game that I, and quite a few
others love.
From the first day I played SRTCG (at GenCon '97), I liked it, and since
Shadowfist was looking like it was becoming less likely to produce
further expansions, I thought SRTCG would become my game of choice.
Having played more CCGs than I can count on my fingers and toes, I know
that in order to get a game to sell and continue to sell, you need
support from the designer/manufacturer in a number of key areas:
1) Demo teams. Without a solid base of players and representatives
actively searching for new players, there's little chance that a CCG
will make a dent in the market. Nobody wants to invest in a game before
they've played it. Give gamers a good demo experience, and they'll help
support the game...hopefully, they'll teach others to play and buy the
cards. (and running good a good demo can be quite difficult. I
participated in the absolute WORST CCG ever at DragonCon for one of
Decipher's games, but I won't go into that).
2) Sanctioned Tournaments. What's a game without a system of showing off
how good you are? Some people don't care about winning on the national
level, but just about everyone enjoys a local tournament for a game
every now and then. Also, SRTCG has a big advantage in that it plays
well out of a starter and 2-3 boosters, so both sealed deck and
preconstructed deck options are feasible.
3) Expansion Sets. Everyone knows that no matter how good a CCG is,
without new cards to incorporate into the playing area, games become
stagnant. Players get tired of seeing the same style of deck over and
over, and eventually, they drop the game in favor of some other
game/activity. Resparking interest in a dead game is probably more
difficult than starting a new one and marketing it correctly.
After playing in the GenCon demo, I asked those at the Fasa booth if
there would be a program similar to the L5R Ambassador program to help
get the game into the hands and minds of players all over. I couldn't
get a definitive answer. Also, I asked about tournament rules, and they
said they would be out soon.
In addition, the initial Fasa's SRTCG Web Page promised a complete
spoiler list of all the cards & that it would be available within a week
or so. That same message was there for months.
In all, I'd say the game was put out as something to try to cash in on
the CCG market without much forethought into how to keep sales running,
despite the fact that they took time designing a game that is both
entertaining, original (to a point. I detect elements of Shadowfist &
NetRunner in the mechanics), and well designed graphically.
The latest trend in gaming is leaning towards the miniatures market. A
large section of Fasa's small booth at DraconCon was dedicated to their
new miniatures game, much in the way that their booth at GenCon last
year had a large space devoted to SRTCG. It seems the company is
following the trends of other companies and passing up on an opportunity
to make money on something that they already have put a great deal of
time and money in.
I e-mailed a similar list of these concerns to Fasa about 2 weeks ago,
and I've yet to receive a response regarding any of them. I also
forwarded a copy my resume to them in efforts of taking a
marketing/support position with them for SRTCG since its obvious
player/company communications are severely limited.
I don't think SRTCG is a lost cause; however, if Fasa doesn't fix a
number of key problems quickly, it will be.
Off my soapbox,
Brian
Fasa
