Being a TCG is a divisive decision, and one that immediate splits the community into passionate groups. TCGs are expensive, booster packs are predatory, and new sets mean you constantly need to keep up or you get left behind. Why can’t you just buy the game?
Well, at the risk of repeating what I said in The Big Sell, these same costs are what result in a dedicated player base, and directly contribute to you having people to play with. Call of Duty players need to buy the newest game every year or so, and Catan players haven’t gotten a new expansion in 12 years, but the Magic: the Gathering weekly has been plodding away at your local game store (even if it’s only Commander these days).
The beauty of a TCG is that the economics behind it offer distribution and retail channels the proper motivation to support you, and the rest of the community. By turning the customer from a sale into a revenue stream, TCGs create invested and dedicated players who are always happy to talk about your favorite game. If you’ve ever brought Aeon’s End, or Nemesis, Clockwork wars, or any other ‘big’ game to your local board game meet-up, you know how hard it is to get a bunch of people excited to play your game with you. These games are so hard to play, that you can’t even strike up a conversation, because nobody in the room has successfully finished the darn thing.
But with TCGs, you create an environment that is big enough that your favorite game is everyone’s favorite game. Maybe one person collects it, two people sell it, and eight people play it, but you’re all involved, engaged, and able to talk about your favorite Hobby.
Now, I’ve been talking about you, and at you, but not for you. You don’t want to be a revenue stream. Who has the hundreds of dollars that it takes to build and maintain a standard deck? Well, we think we’ve cracked that code for Manifold TCG. Check out A perfect balance for how we can make Manifold TCG affordable for players, so that you can be a revenue stream for retailers without being made the fool for our corporate overlords.
Leave a Reply