When it came out we literally had some people believe Awakenings was the next Alpha and even thought it would replace Magic: The Gathering as the local game groups go to game.

Over a year later, before the game has had it's first rotation, people aren't even bothering to show up for tournaments. Quite embarrassing.

Out at my locals, the game is still in it's peak with consistent, if not modest numbers for our locals. It's been a long time coming, but pretty glad over all.

It's definitely been a bumpy ride though, with scarce product in it's early launch as well as a few above curve decks that needed errata, the crowd has changed from what it started as. And I'm not gonna lie, I'm a little worried with so long a gap till next set, interest in draft has already dried up for the set's we do have, but I don't think that is so bad as to kill it at this point.

I think my local group is having a little GQ hangover, and some newer games have come out that folks are interested in. We'll see if things pick back up over the next few weeks.

Nope, still going strong! Holiday weekends and bad weather made March a little rough, but still had weekend tournaments and weekly meet-ups throughout the weekdays.

Also helps I run a league and have deck achievements and additional prize support (besides store support) each quarter. Running final month of Season 1. May will start Season 2 and new promos for us!

~D

Unfortunately it has pretty much died a death in my area. No draft, quarterly support or regular weekly match ups. Its a shame as I really do enjoy this game and even though I get to play at home with my kids I miss the competitive buzz that a quarterly tournament gives. I have invested heavily in all sets released so far but feel that to have any competitive play at my FLGS I will have to sell up and start playing MtG again.

Fairly so. Still a Monday night league, but the sheer cost of too many expansions released too quickly has caused my group to throw in the towel.

great game, we still play with our older stuff on occasion.

It has died down but I think it's because Legion just hit and everyone here is excited about it.

On ‎4‎/‎11‎/‎2018 at 7:32 PM, Shadow345 said:

When it came out we literally had some people believe Awakenings was the next Alpha and even thought it would replace Magic: The Gathering as the local game groups go to game.

Over a year later, before the game has had it's first rotation, people aren't even bothering to show up for tournaments. Quite embarrassing.

The SWD online community seems like one of the most supportive/inclusive/energetic communities I've seen in a long time. However, FFG hasn't seemed to have turned that energy into a sustainable local community based gaming community. These problems have been around since Day 1 (my long-term gripe being about their lack of communication can be seen in multiple posts), but there are a number of reasons we are at this...drought...in SWD, despite such a massively fun and diverse meta at the Regional/GQ level:

1. Too many new sets too soon - EaW seemed like it was out for maybe 1-2 months before Legacies hit. Or...kind of hit. With a soft release of Draft Kits in December followed by a small "Preview" release of Legacies boxes followed by a steady stream of Legacies...eventually. Things DID clear up...after a few months of scratching our heads, waiting for everything to come together at once. And that was just in the US...there are multiple reports on FB of other countries STILL waiting on draft kits and other primary products for the game. The EaW to Legacies gap was way too fast. Which makes the next issue even more surprising...

2. Too few sets over a long period of time - Legacies was incredibly exciting and offered the most diverse meta SWD has had yet. THIS is what most are saying should have been the first set. Very cool game interactions and love the set overall. Way of the Force? Nearly a 6 month wait. Announced in Q1 and told we are waiting until Q3. That's a huge gap, especially with all of these Regionals/GQs going on in the same time period. Without new product, it's hard to keep the current fans going when those that 'gotta catch them all' already have everything. Even draft (assuming you have that going on in your area) loses its appeal when you have 2x of everything. But at least there are those big events going on...oh wait...

3. Big events that are too far and too infrequent for many - I was fortunate enough to go to 1 Regional event. 86 people showed up, which was awesome. I drove 3 hours to get there, closest one I could attend. Some drove 5+ hours. That was in February. There was one GQ event that I could have gone to...but scheduling conflict...another 3-hour drive. Those were the closest to me and I know, for many fans, those distances are nothing compared to what they'd have to do. My entire state didn't have a single Regionals or GQ...which I'm sure is not uncommon. FFG said that more GQ events would be added, but I didn't see any that were anywhere near my location so no way to get there. The prizes are really cool...but if only the few and far between can get there, they mean nothing. You can't grow a competitive organized play field like this, which leads to the final point...

4. Too little support for the LGS - I think my LGS might have gotten a Q1 kit...at the beginning of Q2. I think it was one of 3 stores in the state and likely the only 3 in the state that tried. And we have yet to get a tournament off the ground since in order to give the promos as prizes. I don't think we ever got the draft kit in. We've managed to run a draft 2 of the 5 times we tried...with 4 people each time. 2 of which were myself and my 11-year old son. 1 was the store owner. Soo...I think we need more official support at the LGS level and the local community level to get this off the ground.

I'll stop there. I'm being critical, I know...but I really am passionate about this game and want it to succeed. I've been helping run Learn to Play events at public libraries, helped at local gaming stores, and been helping students with decks for months. I want this game to succeed. I see that same desire reflected in the multitude of content creators online and supportive community members overall. However, I would really love to see this same passion and dedication reciprocated from FFG. I know I'm just a lowly consumer who doesn't get to see how much they might be pushing things behind the scenes...but if you are going to keep this strong, passionate community going, I think FFG is going to need to step up their game. Or lose out on a number of great folks doing all the can to make this community grow/succeed.

In my area, there are only two players that I know that play destiny at a LGS, and that is myself and a friend - and even in our case, we rarely play as both of us would rather play something else. I think some of the problem has stemmed from the advertising as one action then another action to the days for 4+ action Rey, which is not the same game. It might not be a bad game, but it certainly isn't what I thought I was getting into. I think that is much of the problem in our area, in that we were promised one thing an got another. Not that the lack of play support from one store and the pitiful singles market at the other helped things of course.

We have a decent community in the Denver metro area. However I have been doing my best to try and grow it but I have kind of hit a wall.

wasnt really that alive to begin with, mostly just my friend and me. Theres others that play but were the only two that regularly play.
Though the past couple weeks we've had a couple more finally.

In Miami we have two FLGS near me, one has a stronger following then the other. Funny thing is they’re down the street from each other. However I’ve been told sales are strong at both stores. We may have more folks that play casual and at home instead of at the store. I play with friends at home with all my games, I only go to the stores to purchase items.

Yes it has died off in my area unfortunately.

There are just too many sets released too quickly with product held back and too scarce. This caused for card/dice values to sky rocket to near Magic levels without the same level of organized play of Magic levels (nor the prizes for that matter). The power creep has also been brutal in the first few sets.

Power creep really kills collectible games as it discourages players to seek out the current high value cards for fear of being over shadowed by a future card.

These days its just people trying to unload their collections.

I enjoy the game, but the local scene has died down. There are still 3 stores that keep a candle burning but the circus has moved on.

I learned the hard way to not buy the current set legendary cards as they will drop in value by 50-90% once the next set comes out. (There are a few exceptions, but not many).

For me this price drop destroyed the long term value and incentive to buy the cards. I hope in the long term the Awakenings cards will increase in value like Magic alpha, but that will take years.

Sadly I invested heavily in the first 3 sets and will not pump the same kind of money into cards going forward.

I think it would help if FFG increased the Legendary guarantee per box from 6 to 8.

I have since switched my focus to Legion. As a traditional wargamer I feel I get more bang for my buck if I have a big hunk of plastic in my hand rather than a few cards.

I can't say one way or the other, but I do agree with some of the comments here in regards to the amount of content released. It feels like there is just serious overkill on the releases and the collector in me is kind of looking at it going ... ok... I need to spend like 1,000 dollars to get everything I need/want.... do I really like the game THAT much.. simple answer is no. Its a fun game, I have a lot of stuff for it already but I also have a brick ton still missing and it feels like Im still trying to collect the last two sets and the next one is already on the way...and I just feel like.. screw it... its too expensive to keep up.

The timing of the Rivals release (well after folks had opened plenty of Legacies) killed draft pretty much DoA. We ran a couple drafts locally so people could try it out, agreed it was a fun format but most of us didn't need cards, and then let it be.

The fact that we've got nobody trekking to Worlds means nobody's keen on getting reps in, and the long gap before the fall set makes the local meta seem stale.

The post-worlds kits and new Store Champs season will probably remove interest. Nobody's announcing retirement or selling collections or decks en masse, weekly attendance has just fallen as people tend to other things.

I also am anticipating a stealth small set, a la 2-Player Box, to drop either at Worlds or with a rapid fire announcement there and release alongside Solo. It makes sense to boost up the size of the Legacies block on the assumption that we won't get a third normal set.

There wasn't much of a scene where I am to beging with. Thanks the product shortages with AWK. The one store that used to sell singles stopped after SoR, actually. They're selling boxes at $60 (except Legacies).

Personally, I've only been collecting lately. Only need the big $$ blue L but not willing to shell out now. I've actually been scouring EBay for old Deciper Star Wars goodies...

It never really got going. It is amazing that you can go into any gaming store in my town and see 20 plus people playing MTG even to this day.

It has died down to the point of just 4 of us and if one of us can't play, then we can't run a tournament.

Columbus, OH is down. Used to get 18-20 for a GNK tourney at the main stores. Now you get 3-6.