A few months ago I had a conversation
at the Friendly Local Game Store that illustrated how games with
organized play programs outstrip other, quite worthy and entertaining
games in popularity and hence sales through the very nature of
organized play and marketing.
The Little Guy – who’d enjoyed the
quick-start version of Fantasy Flight Games’ amazingly popular Star
Wars X-Wing Miniatures Game – wanted to try one the other games
he spotted in Daddy’s office...Ares Games’ Wings of Glory
(previously known as Wings of War when
FFG distributed it in America and from which the company blatantly
drew inspiration for its X-Wing game).
At the time the Little Guy wasn’t very good lining up shots in a
starfighter’s limited field of fire, so he always flew the YT-1300
with a 360-degree fire arc, lots of hull and shields, and a good
chance at surviving and fending off Daddy’s TIE fighter assaults.
Since Wings of Glory
has no World War I equivalent of the Millennium Falcon,
I asked the FLGS to special order a two-seater observer aircraft, one
with both a forward and a very wide aft fire arc. The
airplane arrived at the store
a few weeks later and I swung by to pick it up. The FLGS doesn’t
normally stock Wings of Glory,
though it supports the X-Wing Miniatures Game
and other fare driven by tournaments and organized play. I suppose it
shouldn’t have surprised me when the friendly clerk asked me about
the game; of course, I compared it to the familiar X-wing game, with
movement templates and fire arcs and such. Then he asked me the key
question:
"So,
how do you build a squad for this game?"
He seemed rather unimpressed when I
said you really don’t, you just field a few planes usually balanced
by the amount of damage each side’s aircraft can take. Both the
World War I and II versions of Wings of Glory attract history
and aviation aficionados interested in the different aircraft,
nations, and theaters of each conflict. Unlike the X-wing game you
can’t just slap a few pilot, weapon, and aircraft upgrades on a
World War I biplane to create a 100-point squadron. While that might
account for the lack of popularity, in-store play, and sales Wings
of Glory suffers from when compared with a powerhouse game like
X-wing, it demonstrates how a game based on a hot media license
combined with a marketing strategy founded on organized play can
outpace other well-designed games.
Genesis of Organized
Play
This is, of course, nothing new –
game companies have been capitalizing on similar strategies since the
beginning of the adventure gaming hobby – so I shouldn’t really
be surprised at this epiphany. It began only a few years after the
“birth” of roleplaying games with the formation in 1980 of the
Role Playing Game Association (RPGA) by TSR to promote the Dungeons
& Dragons game line through a form of tournament convention
play. Over the years the program evolved to include “living”
settings based on TSR’s popular game worlds. These efforts kept
players interested in the D&D game line and the new rules,
setting, and scenario product the company produced. For years the
RPGA kept Dungeons & Dragons a viable, living game,
especially during the time after TSR released second edition when
many felt the line, and arguably the hobby, was stagnating.
The RPGA’s tactics in encouraging
players and driving sales were tame compared to the powerhouse
organized play and marketing strategies pioneered by TSR’s
successor, Wizards of the Coast, which bought TSR in 1997 with
financial strength garnered from its wildly successful Magic: The
Gathering collectible card game. Magic as a standalone
card game among a handful of players had great popularity,
particularly in the way one could combine certain cards and effects
to defeat opponents. It’s collectible nature and “blind”
packaging – in which customers bought boosters with randomized,
unknown contents – not only drove sales as players sought
particular cards but encouraged players trading cards to complete
collections or build particular decks; so much so that a burgeoning
after-market blossomed in some game stores and online companies
buying and selling used cards. All these factors fed off Wizards of
the Coast’s organized play strategy encouraging regular gaming
tournaments in stores and at conventions, often with officially
sanctioned prizes and a point rating for players...a strategy so
well-proven Wizards still actively supports it more than 20 year
after Magic originally released.
Few games combined expandable game
mechanics, collectability, and well-supported organized play quite as
successfully as Magic: The Gathering. Many companies tried and
either marginally succeeded or outright failed...including Wizards of
the Coast. When the company acquired Avalon Hill’s popular Axis
& Allies brand it applied a similar design and blind-package
marketing strategy to its Axis & Allies Miniatures Game.
Players bought and collected units to point-build forces from a host
of nations involved in World War II; it even had a slight emphasis on
combining the powers of certain units to greater effect. But a
complete lack of an organized play program adversely impacted the
game lines (based on land, sea, and air actions). Admittedly the game
appealed to a far smaller audience – WWII aficionados – than the
fantasy fans and competitive players of Magic. But without
tournaments and prizes providing gathering places and incentives for
playing, the Axis & Allies Miniatures Game fell
by the wayside.
The former Wizards of the Coast
staffers who formed Paizo Publishing and pioneered the competitive
D&D alternative, the Pathfinder Roleplaying
Game, brought along the organized play mindset to their new
efforts. The Pathfinder Society releases scenarios and manages
organized play events in a common campaign setting, much like the
RPGA did in its day.
Organized
play wasn’t just for roleplaying games and card games. Miniature
wargames like Games Workshops Warhammer
fare and Battlefront’s behemoth Flames of War
World War II miniatures game used tournaments and regular in-store
play and painting events to provide venues for players and incentive
to buy and paint new armies to try on the battlefield.
Organized play isn’t going away; if
anything it’s becoming a key element in successfully promoting and
sustaining game releases. Fantasy Flight Games certainly had the
organized play aspect in mind when its designers created the X-Wing
Miniatures Game, including the elements of exclusive pilots and
upgrades available only in certain expansion packs, the point system
in building balanced opposing squads, and rules that codified play
spaces and obstacle placement.
Perhaps the latest organized play
development comes from Wizards of the Coast’s recent announcement of the D&D Adventurers League, a program designed to
enable players to advance characters and gain rewards through shared
campaign-world play at home, in stores, and at conventions. All of
these efforts remain part of a strategy to bolster interest and sales
in the latest edition of Dungeons & Dragons (the fifth
edition, sometimes called D&D Next) releasing gradually
throughout the summer and fall of 2014.
The Organized Play
Gameplan
Once upon a time people used to play
games for fun. They didn’t always play them regularly or
obsessively, but when they needed a diversion their favorite games
were there. Even before I engaged in the adventure gaming hobby I
recall occasions on which we played games: our family broke out
Monopoly when we sometimes lost power in summer storms, just
to pass the time; we played Chinese checkers and other basic fare
with visiting relatives. After discovering roleplaying games the
neighborhood kids and I played them regularly as enthusiasts. They
were part of a hobby we pursued more intently than casual
entertainment, given the rewards of character advancement, exciting
imaginary combat, and the chance to explore fantastic settings.
Playing games brought its own rewards. But we were fickle consumers,
buying games that looked interesting and playing them until their
appeal gradually faded.
Organized play is part of a marketing
strategy primary meant to sustain interest in and sales of game
product by rewarding players. In a sense organized play is a game
itself, something I’ll sarcastically call Gaming: The
Gamification.
Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary defines
gamification as “the process of adding games or gamelike elements
to something (as a task) so as to encourage participation” (what
does it say about gamifcation when the term, acknowledged as first
used in 2010, has an official entry in the dictionary?). Organized
play uses gamification to keep players engaged in their games, both
playing them and especially buying them. Ironic that companies
producing actual games use game concepts in their sales and
marketing.
Gaming: The Gamification relies
on rewarding players in various ways to encourage participation as
gamers and consumers:
Play Environment: Organized play
programs encourage places and events for people to find other
players. Friendly Local Game Stores run weekly tournaments, even
weekly game gatherings so people can prepare for tournaments. They
provide support for conventions hosting events. They provide a
framework for players to determine where they fit in the general
hierarchy of players through point standings, ratings, and rewards.
Rewards: People love getting
rewards, a key element in gamification. Certainly players can find
the actual gaming experience satisfying by itself, but goodies
provide effective incentives to continue playing. Tournaments, of
course, offer prizes for the winners, or ratings so players know
where they stand in relation to their peers. Some tournaments offer
small prizes for all participants, like exclusive cards, tokens, or
other souvenirs. Roleplaying game organized play often relies on
“official” magic items, equipment, and other elements to use
in-game or transfer to other characters in addition to some
recognition of a character’s experience point standing and level.
Rewards make participants feel good about the activity and encourage
them to continue it in the hope of gaining more rewards.
These benefits to players serve to
drive sales for companies running organized play programs. When
gamers have available communities in which to play and receive
rewards for their participation, they continue to invest time and
usually money engaging in that particular game. The competitive
aspect also drives sales. In a regular play environment participants
can demonstrate different victory strategies using various game
components, thus driving the need for players to acquire more cards.
miniatures, or supplements to increase their chances of success in
future games. Some of the more popular games employ a sales strategy
of new product that builds on previous releases that expands the
power and variety of play options, encouraging players to
competitively or socially “keep up” with a game. (I won’t even
touch on the issue of “power creep” and ever-expanding rules
necessary to fuel such game lines...perhaps some other time).
Organized play drives sales by requiring (or at least sorely
tempting) players to own copies of the game, fostering a social play
environment in which participants talk about the game, build
enthusiasm, and encourage purchases, hosting events in stores and at
conventions where product remains readily available to buy, and
rewarding participation with certificates and other “official”
advancement incentives.
Gaming: The Gamification
requires several essential elements rarely present in every company
or game:
Adaptability to Competitive
Expansion: A good organized play program focuses on an accessible
game platform with mechanics that easily accommodate supplemental
materials...new ships, pilot abilities, and upgrades in the X-wing
game; new spell cards for Magic: The Gathering; new classes,
powers, magic items, and other elements of fantasy roleplaying games.
Most of these games optimize their mechanics for this kind of
expansion, sometimes called “power creep,” as new elements
increase players’ abilities to dominate their opponents. This, of
course, drives sales of new material to enable players to compete
with each other at a reasonably equal level.
High Replay Value: A good game
enables participants to have a satisfying experience no matter how
many times they play it. While many board games have high replay
value on their own, they don’t allow for the kind of competitive
expansion as miniature games, card games, or roleplaying games.
Competition comes from the combination of game elements – ships,
spell cards, character powers and adventure situations – as well as
a flexible game engine.
Marketing Infrastructure:
“Organization” is an implicit part of organized play. This
requires corporate structure from the very beginning...building
adaptability to competitive expansion into the core game rules,
marketing the game to maximize visibility to consumers, working with
Friendly Local Game Stores to stock product and host events, and
organizing systems to track player standings, offer prize support,
and promote events on websites so players can find them. Powerhouse
companies already have or can better afford the infrastructure –
website designers, administrators, store liaisons, sales reps – to
run such a large promotional public relations operation. Smaller
publishers cannot.
For a practical demonstration of how
many of the elements of Gaming: The Gamification work, check
out my previous examination of how Fantasy Flight Games uses a tournament strategy to drive sales and interest in its X-Wing
Miniatures Game. I’ve actually enjoyed playing the game at the
Friendly Local Game store, which hosts players one night a week and
has run several tournaments (I even came in third place in one). I’ve
enjoyed meeting new players there. I’ve certainly purchased new
ships for my collection, though have resisted buying every bit of
“new hotness” that comes out just to increase my ability to win
games. It’s a rewarding experience on its own, but I also realize
the entire system is primarily focused on selling games. I also love
playing Wings of Glory; but, in part because it lacks huge
popularity and has no organized play program, I can’t find regular
players or events in my area (though I often find them at regional
wargaming conventions).
I’m sure some readers will take
offense at the tone of this feature. I hope to point out to those who
aren’t always aware of this that the powerhouse game publishers who
can afford to run organized play programs do it primarily for their
own financial gain, with secondary benefits to players, Friendly
Local Game Stores, and the adventure gaming hobby as a whole. In this
sense I view it as a necessary evil. It’s a shame that certain
games’ popularity – driven by organized play or other factors –
eclipses other, just-as-worthy games that could appeal to players.
Some readers would claim that’s the way our “survival of the
fittest” economy works. Organized play, the financial stability of
our hobby, and the lack of success some games experience are all
elements in the discussion.
Comments....
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