"Laurie J. Rich" <knitmeapony@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Nov 12, 2007 4:33 PM, Jorge Arroyo wrote:
>Furthermore, as this is about selling sets: No individual game is
going to drive people to buy
>a second set.
Not true. Although I may be the exception that proves the rule, that
fits my buying pattern perfectly. I don't buy something because it's
endlessly flexible. I'm a lazy gamer. I don't design games, I don't
want to. I don't want to buy something and -then- go digging for
games from an expansive list.
I DO want books like 3HOUSE (and 2HOUSE and 4HOUSE, should they ever
exist) -- and a few sets of solid rules put together as 2HOUSE would
drive me to buy a second set, just as one game in 3HOUSE drove me to
buy two more sets.
I buy something when I have
concrete proof I like it. One good game
will do that for me. I consider myself less of the pieceniker/game
designer/hardcore gamer and more of the consumer gamer... and I think
those are the sales we're really trying to push, and will be harder to
push.
I'm not involved here, but I'd like to add a chime of agreement to Laurie's comment. I think my comments to this go somewhat to the history of the pyramids, but it was actually the game Zendo that motivated me to buy some treehouse sets. I had read about this cool boxed game called Zendo and after some trying to get it eventually found out it was out of print but that the company that designed it and some other boxed games using the same kind of plastic pieces had continued selling the pieces in nifty little packages they called by the name of the game they designed for it called Treehouse. That was when I found out I could still get Zendo by buying
enough Treehouse sets. In comes Playing with Pyramids, which I bought because not only did I get the rules to Zendo but 11 other diverse games I could use to get value out of my 5 tubes of pyramids.
Still, after all, I came to buy
5 Treehouse sets primarily because I was looking for
1 good game I had read about: Zendo.
I don't know. I feel like I'm getting into the area of debating about the relative virtues and limitations of the old and new marketing paradigms (my story illustrates how the two ultimately worked together: I bought my sets at the time of transition) and I don't want to go there. I know that ultimately the 2HOUSE book (and 4HOUSE, etc) will present polished games that seem as if the pieces existed for the purpose of playing them. I just wanted to say Laurie has a point: a
single
game can most certainly motivate a buyer to pick up
multiple Treehouse sets.
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