It would be a good business move for the lumpy distribution games like Netrunner. Because most people just buy one core. If they had a completion set, that would be free cash all day long!
You have a very peculiar definition of "free."
It would be an awful business move.
Except you probably aren't looking at $5-10 more, it's likely higher than that. Then factor in that you're likely to be a statistical outlier; the current price point is about average for a boxed game. In reading that makes it likely FFG will attract less new players.
Hope that was a joke. As high as it were (just adding a couple more copies of some cards) it would never be double the price as buying two core boxes so... no excuse like that and it isnt average as you say. Theres increasingly more expensive games and for a LCG thats got some special characteristics (a card game mixed with a role play element) it was worth it to be a bit more expensive than the "average" price point and just give a complete set in the "starter set" in one box (what attracts more players in the end... "average price point or a complete game in one box? - reading the forum here most guys interested in playing dont care to buy a second box and complain why a complete core set doesnt come in the core box)
Thats the only negative point in FFG LCGs in my opinion.
Edited by Kentaresreading the forum here most guys interested in playing dont care to buy a second box and complain why a complete core set doesnt come in the core box)
And so the only data points you have are the vocal minority who post to complain. FFG use actual marketing alanysis and sales projections data to make their decisions. As I posted in another comment, the majority of people who buy LCGs - ANY LCGs - only buy single cores anyway. But they aren't the hardcore players who obsess over the game and drive the metagame.
reading the forum here most guys interested in playing dont care to buy a second box and complain why a complete core set doesnt come in the core box)
And so the only data points you have are the vocal minority who post to complain. FFG use actual marketing alanysis and sales projections data to make their decisions. As I posted in another comment, the majority of people who buy LCGs - ANY LCGs - only buy single cores anyway . But they aren't the hardcore players who obsess over the game and drive the metagame.
And those people would be likely to buy a completion set.
Edited by Toenail
reading the forum here most guys interested in playing dont care to buy a second box and complain why a complete core set doesnt come in the core box)
And so the only data points you have are the vocal minority who post to complain....
Now I know youre joking... Most guys here say they didnt (or dont) want to buy a second core and they still are the vocal minority!?!?!? (you know "most" as in "majority" is the opposite of "minority" right?). I never talked about hardcore or casual players... You did.
I only made a comment about what those people would like the core box to be and its pricing if so. Nothing more.
Edited by Kentares
reading the forum here most guys interested in playing dont care to buy a second box and complain why a complete core set doesnt come in the core box)
And so the only data points you have are the vocal minority who post to complain. FFG use actual marketing alanysis and sales projections data to make their decisions. As I posted in another comment, the majority of people who buy LCGs - ANY LCGs - only buy single cores anyway . But they aren't the hardcore players who obsess over the game and drive the metagame.
And those people would be likely to buy a completion set.
You misunderstand. Many of those people buying single cores? That's all they buy for the game. Ever. No deluxe expansions, no cycle packs. Nothing.
They just buy the core and play it out of the box. Or they buy the core just to try it out, and don't continue. Or it's a kitchen table game and they don't care about being competitive. Or whatever. FFG's discussed this on several occasions.
The set of players that won't buy an additional core box (and for Arkham, it's only one), but would buy a completion set is a tiny, tiny minority.
Vocal complaining on message boards doesn't indicate the contrary, because message boards themselves are a small minority of FFG's overall customer base for any given game.
^This. Vocal minority vs silent majority. It's not hard.
^This. Vocal minority vs silent majority. It's not hard.
Vocal minority wins in politics, why should this be different? And besides, methinks the majority is fairly vocal (and only a slim majority, if that)
Edited by Toenail^This. Vocal minority vs silent majority. It's not hard.
Ill try to keep simple so you can understand.
Buying something one time (complete) and spending Y or buying the same thing (incomplete) so that it makes you buy it twice and pay X*2 when Y < X2
Which one is better for the one whos spending money? Is this simple enough?
Vocal minority wins in politics, why should this be different?
I don't even know where to start. Neither business nor politics works the way you apparently think it does.
Edited by BD FloryCan we just agree to disagree before this gets ugly? Because I fear that some members might start a true flame war up, and nobody wants that.
Which one is better for the one whos spending money? Is this simple enough?
Oversimplified. Businesses that look only at what is best for individual consumers don't last long.
You have to balance what's good for the most customers with what's good for the business. Which, as discussed, is what they're doing.
Most either do not care about playsets, or are willing to spring for an additional core box (or two, for some games). If that were not so, FFG would change their model, as they did many years ago when AGoT and Cthulhu chapter packs didn't come with playsets.
There's no reason to believe they wouldn't make the same change to core boxes if it makes business sense.
AH lcg is in a good spot for me. I only need to buy 2 core for completion which i needed for 4 players play anyway. There would be some extra unused cards but i think it is acceptable considering the other lcg before it. There are improving, perhaps future lcg will be even for cost effective.
Those who balked at buying a second core can perhaps just wait until there is a sale somewhere to make the purchase worth it.
AH lcg is in a good spot for me. I only need to buy 2 core for completion which i needed for 4 players play anyway. There would be some extra unused cards but i think it is acceptable considering the other lcg before it. There are improving, perhaps future lcg will be even for cost effective.
Those who balked at buying a second core can perhaps just wait until there is a sale somewhere to make the purchase worth it.
Or just to wait that those who bought 4 of them will sell them
I found that description of how many players can play the game is incoherent.
"You and your friend (or up to three friends with two Core Sets) become characters within the quiet New England town of Arkham. "
"As the Ancient Ones seek entry to our world, one to two investigators (or up to four with two Core Sets) work to unravel arcane mysteries and conspiracies."
https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/products/arkham-horror-the-card-game/
Edited by wirbowskyHow is that incoherent? It seems pretty clear to me.
Which part is incoherent?
It seems to me that on one page they say you can play up to 3 with 2 core sets. And on the other page, they say up to 4 with 2 core sets.
There's one page that's poorly worded, and says something to the effect that you and a friend can play, or with an additional core set, up to three.
It means you and up to three friends, so four players.
It seems to me that on one page they say you can play up to 3 with 2 core sets. And on the other page, they say up to 4 with 2 core sets.
What is means to say is: You and a friend (2 players) or You and up to three friends (up to four players). The wording isn't super-clear.
Aha, i got it. Thanks for the clarification. I counted myself in my friends
That's actually a good point. If they go this way, they'd set a new standard, and raise a lot of critiques toward their other LCG lines. Don't know, honestly.
We could also argue this: we know that some smallish packs will be coming, right? How many copies of neutral cards will be in them? If they go like they did for LotR, it means 2 copies of each card (LotR has 3, but you can have 3 in your deck). If you're playing the game 2p or 3p or 4p, you'll always get that 2 copies of neutral cards while technically you could use up to 8 (2 copies of the card in each deck when playing 4p). What happens then? Do you get 4x the expansion pack only to max out the neutral cards? Or do you plan on economy, get 1, and you know only 1 character will use them?
I'd love to see a game like this one structured in a different way:
- 1 core set with encounters and locations and all what's needed for the Mythos side
- 1 core set with player cards and all what's needed for the player decks
- deluxe expansions containing all the adventure cards and locations for all the packs of the cycle (costing more than the 30 bucks retail price, I don't care)
- small packs where each pack has all the cards coming out in a cycle for 1 player (so 2x all the Guardian cards, for example, in one pack; then another pack with the Survivor set; and so on)
in this way, everyone can buy exactly what s/he needs, without wasting resources.
Clearly, it'll be *a lot* less profitable, so, no one will follow this route, I think.
Whilst that would be great for many people (I would love that). I don't think it would happen as its probably more costly to produce, and more importantly would be confusing to people buying it. Nice idea though.
Hmmm, I did read all the comments and it seems that you're forgetting a one crucial fact about the game. You're focusing only on player cards without thinking that the mythos cards are also needed to play a 4 player game.
Lets talk about $ - for example price of the game cards will be set to 30$ so rest is tokens , manual, box and such. There is around 200 unique cards splitted in half 100 for players and 100 for mythos. RicoD wanted full player set so it's around another 100 cards so it's +15$ price. Now game costs around 55$ for full player set... And i cannot use this full player set to play with 4 players. Why? Because each round each player need to draw a mythos card from the deck, So it's almost certain that we need to use another set of encounter cards. If that's true i need to buy another core set to play with 4 players. So price of 4 player game pack is 110$ - and that's a lot for a game. Many buyers in my country, are having no more than 100$ for a game rule. Normally, to play a 4 player game i need to pay only 80$ (i am saving 30$). And how many cards i have still sitting in box and being unusable? Act cards,agenda, special cards and location cards only. In other words - i am not using only doubles of the scenario specific cards - it's only approximately 50 cards. 50 cards - out of around 500 cards. i am not using only 10%~15% of all my cards that I do have. I think that sounds like a a good result for that price.
I don't think we would need 2 sets of encounter cards for 4 players. We just need to reshuffle the encounter stack when it run out. Otherwise, we would also need to buy 2 deluxe sets for a 4 players game.
With LOTR I was fine with just one Core Set for a long time. I eventually did get a new one and it was nice to wait because I got some reprinted errata in the new Core set plus got a fresh supply of tokens which had started to fade a bit at that point. Since it's not a competitive game, I don't feel a need to have a "complete set." Also, the claims that you needed another Core Set, for LOTR anyway, were not true. You could still play 4 player with one core set. Threat trackers were the only thing missing and that's easy to substitute with something else. I'm going to only be getting one copy of AH to start.