How many people have you taught Academy to and what games were they comparing it to?
I've taught Academy to 4 players and Arena-Apprentice Mode to 40 players since August of last year. When teaching Arena I always talk about the available expansions including Academy and discuss the differences with Academy and Battlegrounds: Domination. I only have feedback from about a handful of players, but it always is along the lines that Academy is too similar (or familiar) to other games. However, they don't specify which games they are comparing against. The other players have not commented either way. When I do hear from new players, the distinguishing point always includes the unique movement around a board and the element that range adds to casting spells and making attacks across a board that they find fun about Arena. Perhaps it is just the visual appeal of a physical environment that has creatures and spells moving and interacting within it.
So you've only taught four Academy players, but you've taught forty Arena. Did you already have this opinion of Academy before you taught it to anyone? Because it's pretty hard to teach a game to people if you don't actually like it. And if those four people were already Arena players, then they're even more likely to get entirely the wrong impression of Academy.
Your numbers are correct. I misspoke earlier in my statement about "all players". I should have added "all players that have commented".
Arena was out years before Academy and I have played it since the beginnin. So I did understand the fact that the game play is different before teaching anyone.
I agree that passion for something is very helpful when teaching. Arena is my preference so when I create events to teach the game, I will follow my passion. However, if someone walks up to me at a convention and wants to learn Academy, then I have a copy available to teach or we will use the version they may just have bought. In the last event that I ran I had 5 new players learn Arena and they all agreed it was fun, but they would not have learned it without someone to walk through the rules and "coach" them. I see a strong link between ambassadors and growing a community of players.
Perhaps we should add a "Find an Ambassador" feature to the Mage Wars site. You enter your zip code and it provides contact information for players to locate their nearest ambassador.
