Reply To: First impressions vs sustainability. Are looks more important than rules?

[onlyonepinman 18109xp 0]

Battletech still has a fanbase (obviously) because people still keep buying the license.  But unless there is a supply of new miniatures,  it will struggle to grow.  Here’s how I think it probably works.

• A game is released, there are some miniatures.
• Game has an initial surge in popularity and players buy lots of miniatures.
• Sales slow a little as some players decide it’s not for them or the are happy with just the basics
• Once players have everything they need sales slow down even further.

At this point what does a company do to keep the game alive.  The only option they really have is new miniatures.  Ideally this would be entirely new miniatures,  or perhaps variants/alternatives of existing miniatures but unless they bring something new to the game, they may have limited appeal.  If the maker of the game cannot generate those sales the company will go under.  This doesn’t wipe the game or community away; people still have games and rules and can continue to play but how does one get new players in?  The only option would 3rd party proxies and not everyone is OK with that so community growth is now limited by lack of ongoing support.  Even if independent companies continue to make miniatures for the game (as happened with Battletech and RalPartha/Ironwind), publicity for the game will be limited, as is access to copies of the rules.   And so over time, the community itself will dwindle as the attrition rate will undoubtedly exceed the recruitment rate.

I think in order to survive a game has to have good rules and it has to have access to good* miniatures, whether produced by the rules writers or a 3rd party, in order to generate initial interest, retain players and recruit new ones and both the rules and miniatures need to be available all the time.

* Good is obviously subjective and I used it deliberately.  The miniatures need to be fit for purpose both in terms of their practicality and price.  If your game needs thousands of models, they need to be relatively cheap and easy to assemble.  If you need a handful of models you might consider more complex options.  So there is no single definition of “good” and much of will be driven by the needs of the game.