On Mar 9, 2006, at 6:33 AM, Mike Schoessow wrote:
Here in Spain, the German-like boardgames are starting to get mainstream exposure. You can buy some (mostly Settlers and Carcassonne) in the toy section of most supermarkets. The problem is that they're not really advertised... but I guess they're getting decent sells...Well, yah, that's happening here too with those two games, and that's great, but it's very far from popular by modern business standards. Games that are terrible from a game-play point of view, often based on movie or tv show themes still typically outsell Settlers. But it's nice to see we're making progress :-)
Here I'm astonished at how the same crappy games they used to sell 20 years ago when I was small are still the most present at regular shops... only maybe rethemed, but it's the same games all over again... Incredible... But there's a bit of progress...
Cards are still very popular, and while not everyone who likes playing cards would have to like piecepack, a lot will... I think it's all about getting people exposed...I agree with this only to a very limited extent. Keep in mind that most card game players commonly play only one or two games, which are well known and well established, in most cases for more than a hundred years. It is a very rare instance when a new card game joins this elite group. Popular (I mean nationally or internationally popular) new card games don't arise overnight! And card players seem, in my experience, to have a stong aversion to any game bits other than playing cards sporting the traditional four suits and ranks :-) So this is from different from the world of German board games in which an SDJ winner can become very popular within six months among a majority of players. Although I love the idea, I don't see piecepack rapidly becoming popular with traditional card players, even if there were a reasonably funded advertising campaign behind it.I think you're right about this one... I wasn't thinking so much about the "tradicinal" card player, but more about cards as a family game, but it's true most people play one or two games mostly... Maybe younger people (if they still play cards :) are more open to new games...What I was thinking is if there would be more games that combine cards with piecepack, it could be a way...Yes, that would be great. I think piecepack could catch on eventually if it stays around long enough; I mean really long, like decades. What could really jump start it sooner is if there was a single piecepack game, that could only be played with a piecepack, and which became very popular with people in their 20's. I cringe (really cringe) to say this but I suspect that only some sort of gambling game would have a chance of doing this for piecepack today, and it truly would need to be a game that couldn't be easily converted to a card game. Once it gained major national exposure it's broad flexibility might then be able to get wide exposure.
I see the success of the piecepack based more on its versatility as a family game and as you said before, as an excelent system for solitaries... But that's just an opinion... I don't really know...
I was thinking, maybe big companies don't like the concept of thepiecepack system because it means 1 sell for 150 games instead of 150 sells for 150 games... they'd probably rather release each piecepackgame on it's own with specially themed components :DYah, that's a good bet! :-) Keep in mind too that piecepack is in the public domain, which is another mark against it from the point of view of the big companies.But isn't that more a problem for the small publisher, that could get swallowed by a big one very easily?...That's a good point, although all big publishers could cash in if it started to take off. Still, I can't see large companies wanting to be first to take the chance.
Yeah, they'll only publish it once it becomes popular... -Jorge