I've been doing my best trying to build a player base in my local store by offering demos and explaining more about the game to anyone interested. Does anyone have any tips that might help win more people over? Here are a few of the things I bring up:

The game was designed by Richard Garfield originally and has been redone and adapted to the LCG format.

The LCG format ends up being cheaper to play than typical CCG/TCGs especially for competitive play.

The game has way more going on than most card games. I feel this complexity makes the game more entertaining.

There is already organized play happening(Worlds) and more on the way(Game Night Kits).

It will be updated with fixed expansions on a regular basis which should be starting within the next few months.

The game is doing really well having already sold out of the intial shipment within a month and a reprint is already in route for this month.

Best thing to do is keep the info to a minimum and throw down and play. After that when they start asking questions you know they are hooked.

Of course I like to get them playing right away since nothing draws someone in like gameplay but those are things I mention during the game or afterwards.

And are they not coming back for more ? Have you tried asking some of them for feedback to see why the game is not for them ? It might be something to do with the game itself and not something that you are doing or not doing.

So far it seems most people are just too invested in other games like YuGiOh and Magic and I don't think they want to spend extra money on another game. Yesterday I managed to actually find someone who showed some serious interest and will be looking into the game online and reading the rules then contacting me for a demo once he is more familiar with it.

Way I get around that is that this game can be bought for less than they would pay for any other TCG out there. Does not always work very well as a lot of people have invested a lot of time and money in to games like WoW TCG, L5R, Yu Gi Oh, magic etc. and they almost feel obligated now to play those games exclusively or the majority of the time as otherwise they feel like they have wasted their investment. It can be a hard thing to overcome. I just try to push the affordability of the the LCG's. Also LCG's have a much more balanced game as it does not come down to who owns the most rares, epics, mythic rares etc. Everyone has more or less equal access to the same cards and the game is much more about playing well and deckbuilding than being Mr. Suitcase. That has appeal to people who enjoy fair competition.

I have been trying to build a base of players in Wilmington, Delaware (specifically Between Books, Claymont, Delaware). Five of us play casually on Wednesday nights and Saturdays. Two of us have the core set(s). The store will be restocked soon. In the meantime, the two of us build decks and everyone just plays.

Toqtamish said:

This type of behavior is typical of Sorensen and Cranes definition of irrational behavior. When this comes up, ask them if they are still actually having fun with those games, in spite of the investment.

Toqtamish said:

I would love for LCGs to have a decent draft format. The only reason I consider playing Magic now is because of draft tournaments. I know WH:I has one, but it was never really fleshed out past the core set. Still, something like this would have to occur after a player base is generated.

To the OP, do you have any other friends that play? Maybe you could make a few buddies at the store, then run this as a part of a game night. There may be a lot of people who are willing to play, but don't like to come out to game stores to do the actual playing.

After several weeks of lack of interest at one store, I found another and things are looking more promising. I've set up a weekly time to be at the shop offering demos and several people have shown interest. I'm also getting a set of the playmats posted on Boardgamegeek printed at Office Depot to help explain the different areas of the playing field. With luck, I will have a group going by the time season 1 starts in Jan. next year.