It seems like this game is bringing in people with a diversity or prior gaming experiences.

Some come from the computer gaming background - so, many people who have played the old X-Wing and/or/vs. TIE-Fighter game. There are others as well, though I'm not particularly well versed in many of them.

Others are coming from other miniatures-gaming experiences, such as WFB and WH40K. It seems like it's a great contrast to those, given that those are MUCH more expensive games, and have very annoying aspects to them.

Others still come from a SW-RPGing (tabletop) background, though these seem to be in a minority, and I'm feeling a bit of disregard for that group from the rest of the group. (Though, it may be just me.)

EDIT: StevenO also suggests another category: those who got into the game because they were initially drawn in by the attractiveness of the miniatures themselves before getting into the game they supported.

Are there others?

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I guess I come from mostly the second to categories, but mostly the last one. I did play those early video games and 'Empire at War', but very little of the others. As such, must of the stuff that FFG is putting out there are a bit alien to me. I also played WFB and WH40K long ago, but I found those annoying aspects to them a bit too annoying and turned my back on GW.

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But what are your backgrounds?

I grew up playing X-Wing and then TIE Fighter on PC.

I eventually played every SW computer game, including Rebel Assault I & II, Galaxies, the Dark Forces series and Empire at War. Hell I even played Star Wars Chess as a kid. Talk about weird -- it used all the popular characters to represent the different pieces, with animations of one character defeating the other. Watching C-3PO best the Emperor was a bit....strange.

I never touched a miniatures game. Board games for me included Scrabble and the occasional Risk, Monopoly and the like.

Playing Settlers of Catan opened a new world to me, so my wife and I started renting board games from my FLGS. I found a few good ones but was always upset at the fact that I could never try out that Star Wars X-Wing Miniatures game as it wasn't a game they rented out.

Eventually (I have no idea how the internet led me to it) I found the Youtube video FFG made that explained how to play XWM. So I thought to myself that it actually looked like a lot of fun.

I bought a core set, an Advanced, an A-Wing, a Falcon, and a Firespray. That was the point in which I understood why you couldn't rent this game out.

The rest is history.

Short version:

Videogames, graduated to playing MtG with some friends a few times. Played Heroclix for a solid year, was addicted to buying them. Got tired of all the money I spent on em, looked online for a Star Wars card game, found the LCG. Friend showed me X-Wing around the time he started getting into it. I liked it. Bought some X-Wing swag at Megacon 2013. *purchasing expansions intensifies*

Well I'm a bit of a toy collector nut. But over the last few years I got into vintage star wars /transformers,along with anything rare,or really cool toys.

Anyway I kept seeing these in my lgs and the detail on them is great.

I always wanted to buy just for the looks. At the time I didn't know if the money was really worth it because there just so many things I want to buy.

I you tubed the game see how it looked and thought it looked like a lot of fun.

Also a big fan of star wars since I was a kid, and have played just about every start wars video game made

I also play a lot of boardgames like risk, axis and allies and many others, so this was down my ally

My main hobby is competitive fighting games (video games in the same genre as Street Fighter), and my local community used to play at a tabletop game store. We played there for a couple years and I was exposed to tabletops games a lot but didn't really get into them too much until X-Wing came around. A friend was visiting from out of town and I took him by the store because he wanted to see what it was like. We saw the core set and picked it up on a whim and the rest is history.

As a kid I was really into Star Wars and especially the novels and X-wing and TIE Fighter PC games, but the marketing focus on the prequels (and the lack of many good or even passable Star Wars video games for the last 10+ years) kind of pushed me away during my high school and college years. The shift toward marketing the original trilogy era to prep fans for the sequels (which I think was key in allowing a project like X-Wing to get going in the first place) has brought me back.

3 reasons:

1. FFG are an awesome company that really, really know how to market and create excitement about their games. I always check out every update they post about upcoming stuff, even if I don't have that particular game, or even an interest in it.

Also:

- FFG have a video demonstration of how the game plays on the site AND provide the rules for free. They are confident about the quality of their games and it shows.

2. The game is really well balanced with a meta that is easy to follow. Lots of successful combinations from only 2 factions is a pretty awesome outcome.

3. I am/was utterly, utterly sick of GW's behaviour. I love the 40k/Fantasy settings, but their pricing and approach to 'balance' and the community is just pathetic. Also, being a time poor husband/father, I just don't have the time to put together and paint models in the numbers required.

FFG do games in the GW universes better than GQ does!

Finally - to be honest, I found the Star Wars setting initially something off putting. Probably due to the odour created from the prequel movies, it just didn't seem appealing to me. But getting into the game has reawakened my love of the universe, so well done!

I saw an ad in the back of my Star Wars Edge of the Empire RPG book. My in-laws were looking to get me something for Christmas, so I figured why not. Turned out I really loved the game.

I haven't felt any disregard from the community for being an RPGer, everybody seems really nice and there is a big community in and around where I live.

I saw a picture of the Millennium Falcon in a case on display at GenCon. I wanted one just to have.

After I picked up the main core set, I decided this looked like a fun game to play.

While I'm not a total geez like some of you, I thoroughly enjoyed Rogue Squadron 1 and 2 and Star Wars Starfighter 1 and 2 (despite the prequel backdrop these games are great too) and I used to be an immense Star Wars nerd.

When my girlfriends brother in law, big tabletop gamer, brought it for a game night I was hooked. I had seen the core set in Target and thought "looks cool, not enough ships." Little did I know there were expansions... and the end was nigh. That was January 2013, picked up my own core set the next day along with Y-wing and TIE Adv expansions, then another core, etc.

My poor girlfriend gave me her credit card last week to preorder my wave 4.

Saw Star Wars for the first time when I was maybe 4 years old - long ago enough that I don't actually remember watching it for the first time, it's just always been a beloved part of my life. Was a huge fan for many many years. Played the hell out of TIE Fighter & X-Wing on PC. Grew into other interests as I got older, but Star Wars has always been there.

On the gaming side, I got into Warhammer/40k 15 years ago or so, still have a huge collection (with many hours of painting still to be done) but haven't had the time to get more than a handful of games in over the last several years.

I first saw X-Wing Miniatures on Wil Wheaton's Table Top sometime last year, thought it looked pretty cool. Didn't give it much thought as I was working too much to have time for a new hobby/game.

Started a new job this year working with a friend who's as big a Star Wars nut as I am, he had picked up a pile of minis but hadn't played yet. Finally two months ago we got together for a game @ our FLGS. That did it, I was hooked! Started my own collection that day. Beautiful miniatures, great gameplay, easy to learn but hard to master... No assembly, painting, or ridiculously expensive rulebooks or terrain to buy & then replace over and over again... (when I started playing 40k they were on 3rd edition. Now they're on 7th). Plus - Star Wars!

To top it all off, great company, and an awesome community of like-minded & (mostly) friendly fellow gamers. Love this game!

I'll just go straight to the TL;DR.

Saw the game at an convention, doubted if I should buy into it. Realized I did not own a falcon, and every self respecting nerd should have one. Got one, got into the game.

I came to XWM from a (primarilly) miniature wargaming background. Mostly historical miniatures (medievals, 30YW, ACW, WWI/WWII/Modern), though I have a ridiculously large collection of Star Trek and Babylon 5 miniature starships for use with Full Thrust . and 1/300 scale sci-fi tanks, etc... for use with Dirtside II . Some fantasy (LoTR) stuff but I avoid GW stuff like the plague (pretty much don't like anything about GW Sci-Fi/Fantasy- their settings, their minis, their prices, their business practices... everyrthing except the talent of their painters/terrain builders). A few years back, I got into Flames of War/Flames of Glory WWI air combat miniatures, which have some similarities with XWM. I used to be a role-player (D&D and Traveller) but that was decades ago. Surprisingly, I never thought the SW setting was really that great/interesting/well-written/believable enough to do any gaming in before now.

Saw Star Wars as a kid and loved it; it is such a part of our culture to this day. A chance to play-out my childhood fantasies is the primary reason I got into XWM in the first place. The simple rules yet sophistication of play- and the beautiful miniatures- are what keep me, not to mention the great customer service FFG provides.

I was walking around Target with my wife and father in law, December 2012. He was in town visiting to watch the Texans play the Patriots. Naturally it ended up on the Christmas list.

I played TIE fighter years ago, but mainly I'm just a strategy game nerd and anything Star Wars is of course awesome.

Surprisingly, I never thought the SW setting was really that great/interesting/well-written/believable enough to do any gaming in before now.

Saw Star Wars as a kid and loved it; it is such a part of our culture to this day. A chance to play-out my childhood fantasies is the primary reason I got into XWM in the first place. The simple rules yet sophistication of play- and the beautiful miniatures- are what keep me, not to mention the great customer service FFG provides.

So, did XWM change your mind, or do you like XWM despite the failings of the setting?

Given that you did love SW as a kid, what made you (originally) think it didn't work as a game setting?

I had been out of war gaming for about 15 years then one day I saw the Falcon on an Amazon search.

I immediately discovered that there was a full X-WING Game by some company called Fantasy Flight...the rest of the story is on my Blog .

Visited the Fantasy Flight room they had at PAX a couple years ago to check out the Star Wars RPG Beta. The guys behind me were doing an X-Wing demo, and I marked my calender.

Love 4X strategy games and love assembling Miniatures/Modeling.

Got into WH40K around highschool, then into battlefleet gothic. Then Axis and Allies Collectible Miniatures Game. Now, after a one year break on Miniature games, I saw the rebel transport one time in a game store. Lurked on the forums for a month, then finally bought the core set with a friend.

After some games, I sold some Shock Lands that i got from booster packs (MTG cards) to a game store for a falcon and a b-wing. (traded 4 lands I never used and 5 bucks for a faclon and B-wing was the best trade I had made!)

After playing for a week, the Imdaar tourny started, and after meeting a lot of people at a game store, I am hooked!

Saw Star Wars for the first time when I was maybe 4 years old - long ago enough that I don't actually remember watching it for the first time, it's just always been a beloved part of my life. Was a huge fan for many many years. Played the hell out of TIE Fighter & X-Wing on PC. Grew into other interests as I got older, but Star Wars has always been there.

This, this, 1,000 times this. I as well do not recall the first experience I had with Star Wars.

Invited to beta test

The stories seem to be getting shorter; reduced to the first sight, rather than the backgrounds you guys have in gaming.

It seems to me that while people who like strawberry might also like chocolate, those who like a particular sort of game will want X-Wing to be like that sort of game and less like other sorts of games.

As a RPGer (not the automated computer variety), I want X-Wing to have a deeper narrative embedding, with campaigns and missions, and stuff like that. However, in response to expressions of this, I've been vehemently told that "X-Wing is not an RPG!" (which, I know, it isn't). (That's what I meant by the 'disregard' mentioned earlier.)

So, does my theory ring true? Do those of you with more tabletop battle, shoot/fly-em-up computer games, RTS-games, etc. have a distaste for narrative campaigns and missions?

Which direction would you prefer the game to go?

I was a big fan of WOTC's Star Wars minis from day 1. When they lost the license the community kept a close eye out to see who picked it up. I joined FFG forums when they announced they had the license, and have been an avid fan of X-Wing since day 1.

The stories seem to be getting shorter; reduced to the first sight, rather than the backgrounds you guys have in gaming.

It seems to me that while people who like strawberry might also like chocolate, those who like a particular sort of game will want X-Wing to be like that sort of game and less like other sorts of games.

As a RPGer (not the automated computer variety), I want X-Wing to have a deeper narrative embedding, with campaigns and missions, and stuff like that. However, in response to expressions of this, I've been vehemently told that "X-Wing is not an RPG!" (which, I know, it isn't). (That's what I meant by the 'disregard' mentioned earlier.)

So, does my theory ring true? Do those of you with more tabletop battle, shoot/fly-em-up computer games, RTS-games, etc. have a distaste for narrative campaigns and missions?

Which direction would you prefer the game to go?

(Sidebar, in addition to tabletop games, I have a bit of a background in RPGs & live theatre)

Guess you could say I love a good story just as much as a good game!

Had read about it. Thought it seemed neat. Wouldn't buy it for myself, but thought it would be a good thing to put on my Christmas list as a relatively cheap option for friends and family.

Christmas comes around, and my uncle ended up getting me a Falcon. Well, now I have to get a starter, right? And Vader. Vader seems cool. I have this $25 game store gift certificate -- let's get Slave-1 to balance. Should probably get a second core set, though. And the X-Wing and TIE expansions.

After that, let's just say that Mistakes Were Made.

Actually quite like the narrative behind any game. One of the things I loved about Warhammer way back when was that the game took place as a part of this massive universe where every model could have it's own unique history & character. With a little more free time I could buy right into a huge, story driven campaign for X-Wing. I'm also trying to come up with thematically powerful lists for one-off games & scenarios.

(Sidebar, in addition to tabletop games, I have a bit of a background in RPGs & live theatre)

Guess you could say I love a good story just as much as a good game!

Cool.

Stay tuned then. I'm working on an online engine that will allow this. I'm doing a face-to-face playtest this weekend. After I work out some bugs, I'm making it semi-public.

Star Wars addict all my life. Own or have owned every edition of the RPG. Discovered XWM from Wheaton's Tabletop. Investigated further, watched videos, read forums, bought in.

My wallet has never been the same since.

-Cal

PS: Until XWM I've never been a miniatures gamer.