How to increase the popularity?

By Thom Servo, in Star Wars: The Card Game

Does anyone (I'm talking to you too FFG) have any recommendations on how to increase the popularity of this game? I got to learn/play this when I was in Tulsa last week thanx to the guy @ Covenant Store and loved it. The only problem is that I can't seem to find anyone else in my area (Nashville, TN) that's interested in playing. Even looking at the list for the 2014 Regional Championships, there's only a handful of locations listed.

Once you get the rules under your belt this is a great game, it just needs more players it seems.

Suggestions?

Well for the regionals at least that's because the country was divided up into 8 regions this year and each region could have at most 2 regional tournaments. The Store Championship list is a bit more indicative of popularity (which included one somewhat nearby you in Murfreesboro, TN on the MTSU campus... I seem to remember having 9ish people there). I assume there's still a group playing in Murfreesboro, but they may not be as active during the summer.

As far as trying to grow a group, here's some general steps/ideas

- Find at least one friend you can teach the game to and play with, this gives you practice teaching the game to new people and a start on a group to play with

- Find a local game store with open gaming space you can play some games in

- Pick a regular time to play some games, weekly is great because it's easy to remember, make sure you post about the decided time and place on the various forums so you can find other people

- Pay attention to the people around you while you play, if they look interested stop and talk to them about the game, you may have your next player

- Probably a good idea to have an extra deck or two built to loan to people

- The FFG tournament kits make for great prize support to keep people coming. The game store can order them for you. They only cost $20 or $25, so not too expensive.

Some more tips:

- Like he said, don't play at home, but play at a shop. Attracts more attention.

- If you have gotten better than your opponent, sometimes, let them win. Players that lose at a time at a new game, might not want to invest in it. Time or money.

- Go to several game shops. FFG has a league sign up sheet on the support page. Take that around and if you are not afraid of giving out your e-mail address, put that on the sign up sheet at several shops and they will eventually come to the shop you play at.

- Be active on the boards here and other popular sites. Post open nights of play at your shop. tell about upcoming season tournaments, etc.

- Start a Facebook group page for your area. We started it out as a gaming group and turned players on to our SW LCG group and there we discuss decks, spoilers, and when we are playing.

It takes a little bit of work, but hopefully this helps.

If you set up a regular time to play at a game store, ask the owners to put up the poster that comes with the Core Set and advertise the group on their Facebook page. The group in Wichita has gotten a few new players because Hero Complex decided to do that.

If you set up a regular time to play at a game store, ask the owners to put up the poster that comes with the Core Set and advertise the group on their Facebook page. The group in Wichita has gotten a few new players because Hero Complex decided to do that.

This is a good addition. Also worth noting that the tournament/league kits also come with a poster that can be used in case that poster isn't easily available.

*edited for typo

Edited by dbmeboy

I live close to Nashville (Still about an hour and 45 minute drive) and I've been looking for somewhere around Gallatin or Lebanon and I have nothing yet. I have all the sets and multiple decks but usually just play with my friend over Skype. :\.

Ooo, I hadn't even considered playing over Skype. hmmm

I've started a thread here about Nashville.

We are meeting at the GameKeep on the 29th (this Sunday) to try to get a group going. if we have enough interest, maybe we'll get two groups going. Come on out if you can!

We'll be there starting at noon.

What I would like to see (or if it already exists, would like to be linked to) is some kind of "how to organise organised play" primer, because other than a sign-up sheet on the resources page the FFG site doesn't seem to really advertise its organised play information.
Especially if you look for information on what happens outside the US (fwiw, I live in Belgium).

Say that I know a shop that's interested in hosting a player group and I want to spear-head this organisation try to get some of us to make it to a tournament by the end of the year.

- Where can I "promote" our player group beyond the forums here? Is there some kind of "store-localiser" for player groups? Are there other forums with a dedicated "organised play" page/subforum?

- Where can we find information on how the FFG tournaments are organised? What are the "levels"? When and where are the tournaments held? (damned if I can find any information on that on the main page)

- How would we go about organising a store tournament? Are there special requirements to even run a store tournament?

- How can we find how the regions are organised for region championships? And where is the information when and where these regionals are held?

Most of that info is available on this site.

1) go to card game db

2) all the tournament rules are on the support page. And there is the games OP page which has the info all together including levels and regionals and store championship location info. Store champs are over but there is still a few regionals to go. http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_npm.asp?eidm=215

3) order a tournament kit. Do as you see fit for your store. Refer to Tourney rules and the tournament info pamphlet in every tournament kit.

4) all regionals were posted months ago on this site. http://tools.fantasyflightgames.com/iwp/2014-star-wars-card-game-regional-championships

Edited by Toqtamish

How much at tourney kits?

How much at tourney kits?

I believe they're $20 or $25.

Around $20. Only stores can order from FFG.

I just saw the release that FFG has a demo package they can send to stores for Netrunner. Maybe they can create something like that for ST:TCG too.

2) all the tournament rules are on the support page. And there is the games OP page which has the info all together including levels and regionals and store championship location info. Store champs are over but there is still a few regionals to go. http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_npm.asp?eidm=215

Thanks.

Knowing that the info is on the site, I started to dig deeper and I actually found the link.

Not exactly intuitive navigation though. I myself wouldn't have thought of searching for the "organised play" link on the SW support page. And certainly not squeezed away to the side like that.

And you can't even "logically" reach it from the main page. I discovered there's an "LCG Organised Play" link under the "more" menu item, but that leads to a generic start page that doesn't seem to have been updated recently and doesn't include direct links to the difference LCGs.

Personally, I would have expected an "organised play" menu option at the same level as "catalog" or "community".

So yeah ... I guess that an improved navigation on the site might improve the chances of people seeing "what's happening" and deciding they want to be part of the experience.

And thanks for the list of Regionals ... looks like I missed out on the European ones.

None were really close by anyway (Belgium or Netherlands). Does that mean there was no regional for Belgium yet or is there a bigger region that includes Belgium? Would there be an overview page somewhere on how the regions are set up?

The only country split in to actual numbered and set regions is the US.

As far as I know, the entire list of regional tournaments is this one. I will agree with you that the method to get to each game's support page is on the poor side. It makes perfect sense to have a link from the game's home page, but doesn't make much sense to get to the home page via the "catalog" drop down. Most people probably associate "catalog" with shopping for the games, not with the list of products with links to their home pages. Perhaps "products" or "games" would be a better label for them to use than "catalog."