Does anyone think that this is an accurate number? i just cant believe that we only have that many players i know that we dont have as many as alot of other games out there....but still is there a way to get an accurate count without relying on what FFG says....we all know how that goes

my estimated player base is around 800 or so.

brislove said:

I wonder if there are enough players on the forums that theres at least one from every playgroup maybe i could get a rough estimate from that....

Why is this even a question? Of course there is less than 1000 players. this game has been on the decline since year three and evil shenanagans and the only possible conclusion would be there is less

but i just feel like there are more then that yeah maybe ones that only come to tourneys or whatever but there are alot of casual players as well

And im really curious as to how they got that number...did they go 2 every store and count...what about overseas?

BTW : The words used was significantly less.

I'd say it's more in a 500-600 ballpark - Keep in mind, we are talking about a quite unknown CCG that was not even commonplace in most specialized game shops.

Homme Chapeau said:

Which i believe is another reason why the game didnt do as well as it could have....

I honestly thought it was under 400.

Yeah.

Homme Chapeau said:

One of their original selling points is they tried to be only for "Hardcore" and Game Store only game... Truly I don't think the game would have had as much problems if it had been sold thru Target/Walmart/Local Corner Stores.

Probably true, but I think that the community would have suffered if it was.

Target/Warlmart/grocery stores did not want to take the game because it was not child friendly and had no cartoon based on it. I have talked to Steve about that before. Kingdom Hearts barely got to appear in Target for a few months.

jasco games said:

Pretty much - Well, I personally thought it was because it was published by an unknown company that hadn't really published anything mainstream.

I wonder ho much it would cost to buy airtime for commercials o_o.

I wonder ho much it would cost to buy airtime for commercials o_o. Although i suppose going from word of mouth isnt a terrible idea its just that there arent enough people to talk to about it.

Hayamachop said:

Here is some additional things to think about:

1) How many TV commercials do you see for Magic: The Gathering?

2) If you do have TV commercials - when do you run them?

3) Do you buy them Nationally? Or do you buy them from the local TV stations?

3A) If you buy the TV Commerical at Local Levels - where do you buy it? In cities that already carry UFS? That already have established player bases? Or in cities that don't have a playgroup? If you choose the later, do you have stores that already have the product available for people to go and purchase, along with experienced players to teach and demo the game?

One of the things I'm involved with outside of UFS is a Comic Convention here in Winnipeg. ( Central Canada Comic Con )

Last year we ran TV spots on local TV. Our turnout for the Convention was roughly 11,000 individual memberships.

This year we didn't run TV spots, and had over 17,000 individual memberships.

TV Advertising isn't as effective as some folks might lead you to believe.

Well, magic has been around forever >_> where as smaller known ccgs (or any smaller companies) need some sort of advertising. I don't know how MTG did it though...anyone know? Did they just give away stuff at conventions where they thought ppl would want it? Seems like a smart thing to do.

From my understanding that was basically it for MtG, that and the market wasn't nearly as saturated. I've talked to friends that still had sold Beta packs in the last 3 or 4 years and was really surpriseed they even had them, one guy said they were his dad's who got them in what effectively was a goody back at a concert. It was so well received at launch Wizards basically could run around throwing them in people's faces and they'd be hooked. Was just the nature of the thing in the early 90s. Problem with doing that now is things are different and you can't opperate the same way people got started 10 years ago, even 5.

Its a REALLY bad example, but I just got done reading some stuff about it. Duke Nukem Forever, the guys that made Duke Nukem 3D and had it be a super success tried to function the same way they had on DNF as with 3D, for a decade, and that just does fly when an enviroment changes every 6 months to a year. And it caused the whole company to dissolve and fall in on itself.

Hayamachop said:

Magic was - right time, right place, right product.

I was running my University Gaming group way back in 1993. Magic had been released at Gencon, and the idea just captivated everyone. It was a game you could play any time, anywhere, quickly.

Gamers picked it up to play while waiting for other guys to arrive for their D&D session.

I was told "Hey, this game is really cool! So Cool it sold out it's frist printing, you've got to try it!"

So we went out and bought a starter and some boosters. (Beta) By the time we went back to buy more, it had already sold out, so we had to wait for unlimited.

Everyone we knew got into it, it spread kind of like Facebook.

Eventually it blossomed into what it is today. But keep in mind... there wasn't always DCI. There wasn't always a limit of 4 cards to a deck. At one point in time the minimum deck size was 40 cards.

It was the first true CCG. And Richard Garfield & WotC got lucky.