It's posts like this that are helping chase people away. I have a legitimate complaint that I shared in hopes someone will listen and, sure as sunrise, a rabid fanboy pounces from the shadows to silence any and all critique of his pet game.
If you think the release schedule for this game is "refreshing", good for you, but it's not good for the game. You putting yourself ahead of the game though is touching. As long as it's good for you, who cares if it kills the game eh? And honestly, if one product release in a year is what's right for your pocket book...you may want to consider a new job.
And the game is NOT "picking up pace", as evidenced by the poor turn out at Origins and Gen Con last year. These things are telling, even for those with their heads in the sand shouting "all is well" into the darkness.
But thanks for stepping in to be snarky. Just puts yet another bad taste in my mouth for this game. If your goal was to help chase people away, congrats.
Hahaha. Sorry, couldn't resist. I hadn't got around to posting my thoughts on the subject when I read your post and had the exact opposite reaction to pretty much every point, so I used your post as a template - hence the obvious plagiarism.
My apologies if my post came across as "snarky" or chases people away. For a second, I thought that comment was written by someone reacting to
your post, but I guess some people could get annoyed by a "pouncing fanboy" like me. As for the new job, I certainly wouldn't mind something with less uncompensated overtime, but alas, it's sort of expected in the field I chose. But I have to admit both the time and financial costs of keeping up with, say, MtG or even Android: Netrunner are why I prefer Mage Wars. As small of a dent it would put in my way of life, I can't justify several hundred or even thousands of $ per year to play a card game anymore. That, and I'm already sort of committed to X-wing miniatures at the moment - so yes, I'm already paying hundreds per year to play a miniatures game - but that's another story.
As for drop in attendance at major conventions, have you considered that maybe Mage Wars (Arena mode) isn't particularly well-suited to live tournament play? Large tournaments with a game that takes > 1 hour per match, often requiring the need to be spread out over 2 days (or more, as in the case of X-wing now) when there are lots of other things you'd like to do at the convention just isn't appealing to some people. And as for me suggesting Mage Wars is gaining in popularity, I was merely referring to locally, where there was no organized Mage Wars last year and now we have a small (and growing?) group of dedicated players - and who are generally excited about the upcoming expansions and play modes. I can only imagine that new game modes will increase the attention Mage Wars gets as it becomes more appealing to people looking for shorter and/or tournament-friendly games (Academy) or longer and more in-depth multiplayer experiences (Battlegrounds).
And as for the release schedule, I personally like the pace, but I also appreciate that the guys at Arcane Wonders care more about getting the best possible product to market rather than getting something out every month or two. It's the reason that (arguably) X-wing miniatures is a much better product than Star Trek: Attack Wing, which is a very similar game but puts much more emphasis on spitting out new expansions at a break-neck pace rather than, oh I don't know, playtesting the expansions for game balance, for instance. Also, claiming to want more and then complaining when it arrives seems self-defeating to me, so I thought I'd share my opinion in a way that directly compared to yours.
