Behind the Counter
Over the years, I have learned a lot of games. Some I had to learn from rulebooks, some from demo's, some by just playing with friends. I prefer to learn from play, and for a long time I was demo-phobic and tried not to get "roped into" a demo. That has changed in the past 2 years.
As I have started attending more and more trade shows, game cons and gatherings, I have been exposed to an ever increasing number of game demo teams. Some are pretty good, some are fantastic - unfortunately, some are really bad, and they may outnumber the good.
The best demo I ever got was not for Magic or D&D or even Warhammer, all three of which I have spent countless hours playing. No, I learned Magic from the stupid little rule book in the Revised Edition Deck I bought. (I remember trading away my stupid Tundra for 5 islands!). I learned D&D by playing with friends, and I learned Warhammer from watching people play, then starting off with the army with the big cannons (Empire) and getting regularly creamed by the Dwarf army my x-business partner had. #@#)(**!! Gyrocopters!!!
Oh, I have had plenty of demo games over the years. Attending the GAMA TRADE SHOW (GTS) in March/April every year in Las Vegas, both Origins and Gencon for over 10 years now (though only 5 as a vendor), and going to other cons, and summits, open houses, and gatherings, I have learned a LOT of games by being demo'd them. Most, I never played again. Maybe the games were good - I wouldn't know, the demo was so boring I never wanted to play again. I could name 10 games I got horrendous demo's of which were so bad, I never even stocked the games in my store.
Heh, I have a friend who is an owner at Mayfair Games, Will Niebling. I like Will, he's a cool guy. He asked me for 2 or 3 years to take a demo of Settlers of Catan ( which may be the best game ever made) while we both were at BashCon (Toledo) or may have been UCON (Ann Arbor), or might have been another con - Will gets around!! and I avoided doing so simply because I thought if the demo went badly, I couldn't hang out with him anymore. :) Eventually, I got a demo of that game (and many other Mayfair games) by Will's son, William, and an employee of Mayfair, Alex Yeager, and I have to say - I have yet to see a Mayfair Game of any kind that I didn't enjoy, and which I didn't end up taking home and owning. Those guys know their demo stuff!! Will recently asked me if I like Settlers, and I said I hadn't decided - I've only played it about 500 times so far. (In fact, I have now played Settlers more than I have played any other board game, ever. Including Monopoly or Risk.)
A demo can make or break a game for me. And, a GOOD demo will do more to get me to buy a game than anything else (except possibly a free copy handed to me by the designer, which has happened a few times). For me to take a demo, there has to be some interest. I don't like train games, cause - I don't like trains. Try growing up in Battle Creek (home of Kelloggs and Post Cereals) and you may find an extreme dislike of trains. I have missed movies because of trains, missed dates, was late for a funeral, and missed my final exam once in highschool because of trains (though I never found a way to blame missing homework on trains. Yet.). So, as such, I don't play train games, don't take demo's OF train games (and the only train game I have ever played is Station Master by Mayfair, and I did like that one). But, I do like CCGs, board games, miniatures, RPGs and other games that aren't about trains. :)
So, if the subject of the game is not trains, I can likely learn to like the game, if:
- The game is any good.
- The demo is good.
- The person doing the demo is any good at it.
Which may be one of the reasons I like 20 Mayfair Games - the guys know what they are doing, and the games are also good.
I once got a game for Christmas once called Puerto Rico, and after trying to learn it out of the box, gave up on it. (I'm just not smart enough to learn most games from the instructions.) Later, I was taught the game by a guy who knows a little bit about games, Anthony Galella - and I loved it. (Anthony is the executive director of GAMA, and I learned the game while attending the Winter Retailers Retreat hosted by Ken Whitman, whose family owns/operates the Doe Run Inn, in Brandenburg, KY. I learn a lot of games there every February.)
Over the years, I have played a lot of games "avidly". You know, as a primary hobby, or as part of my primary hobby. Warhammer (fantasy and 40K), Mordheim, Star Trek (my first love of collectible games) and Magic. X-Files, Battletech CCG (though never the miniatures) as well as D&D, Call of Cthulhu, Nuclear War (I played almost exclusively one summer many years ago) and even Chainmail (the old one, from the early 70's predating D&D).
But, the best demo I ever got was from a WizKids staffer, at Origins 2006, for a game called Battlestar Galactica. Now, I am a fan of Battlestar Galactica, so I was all primed to be severely disappointed. I was actually nervous, wanting to like the game, but fearing that I would not. I was at Origins during set up on the Wednesday before the dealers hall opens, and Mark Tuttle (a bigshot at WizKids) called me over to see if I was ready for a demo of BSG CCG (Mark and I had traded messages on the Game Industry Network Forum about the game).
I said sure, and he handed me off to Dawn Roscoe, who proceeded to teach me the game. (And two other people at the same time).
Now, I was a bit tired form setup and all, but Dawn managed to make the game, which is complex, but not complicated, understandable to my under-caffeinated brain. The way the game works is a bit different than I am used to. There is no tapping, or casting of spells. Also, there are two victory conditions (and I hope I state them properly here) one is you can build your INFLUENCE points to 20 (you start with 10, or something close to it, depending on which base you use, also beginning hand size depends on your base, too) or you can reduce your opponent to 0 influence. You cannot be decked (if you run out of cards in your draw deck, you shuffle your discard pile, and then use it as your draw deck). Also, the way you have to opt to turn cards in your hand you might want to play into resources (which ties them up for the game) is unique (at least to my experience).
I ended up walking away from that demo very excited about the BSG CCG. Every day at the show I went to the WizKids booth, and bought 2 or 3 (or 12) boosters of the CCG at regular prices (as a store owner, can you imagine how long it's been since I paid retail for any game item? Quite a while!). And, I felt that excitement again when I read new cards, worked on combinations for my deck, and got foil cards for various personnel, ships, missions and such. It's a cool game, and I am enjoying it this week, and plan to teach my kids and staff to play in the coming weeks - and maybe get to play it some at GenCon. :)
Sure, I carry every game that WizKids makes - I still stock Mage Knight (which is now out of production) when I can get it, and carry Pirates, Heroclix, MechWarrior, and everything else, including the board games they make, and will be getting the upcoming HorrorClix. But, Battlestar Galactica is my new favorite collectible game. All because of a fantastic demo. The best demo I ever got!
If you'd like to know more about how to GIVE a great demo, then may I suggest you take a look at this link: http://www.wizkidsgames.com/battlestar/article.asp?a=40913
This is the write up done by my favorite demo gal, Dawn Roscoe. It's a fairly quick read, and certainly worthwhile.
Thanks to everyone who came up to me at my Origins booth, and said they enjoyed my column here on RPGnet. See you at GenCon!
Marcus King
Owner of Titan Games retail store, titangames.com site, 3FREEgames.com, the Titan Games Convention Caravan, and co-publisher of ConTemporal magazine.
Titan Games
637 Capital Ave SW
Battle Creek, MI 49015
269-963-3773
