So I've been wondering about ways to present Mage Wars to people so that they will be willing to try it and won't be scared away. There are several things about the game that could cause people to run away without giving Mage Wars a chance, including its complexity, steep learning curve, time investment, and the fact that the core set costs sixty dollars alone if you buy it from the main site, which makes the game as a whole appear far more expensive then it actually is.
So how do we overcome these barriers and convince our friends and neighbors to play their first game of Mage Wars? I have a few thoughts, but I haven't had the chance to test them yet.
A lot of people, at least in my culture, have a double standard when it comes to what games are "too complex". To them, "too complex" does NOT include chess, or stratego, or scrabble or anything that's either a sport or already well marketed, with the exception of CCG's, which either are "too complex" or not, depending largely on (IMO) multiple cultural factors such as age. For some reason, these complex games are accepted and don't scare people away, while newer games with the same or relatively similar levels of complexity appear overwhelming to most people.
So far I've only thought of three ways for Mage Wars to overcome this bias. Firstly, if more people try the game, they will see that it is far more intuitive and fun and far less of a chore than they thought. However, since the bias in question prevents so many people from being willing to try the game in the first place, merely saying that more people should give Mage Wars a chance doesn't solve the problem.
The second way we could overcome this bias and convince people to give Mage Wars a chance would be giving them information about the game. Providing knowledge about the game and what sets it apart from other games and makes it so great could get people to be more willing to try it.
Or they might not really listen because of a gut reaction caused by their strong bias against learning new complex games because they believe it would take too much effort and time. In which case, I think the only way would be the third option: comparing Mage Wars to another well-known/well-established/well-marketed game of equal or similar complexity.
While it's important to stress that Mage Wars is its own unique game, I think comparing it to other games gives people a better context for beginning to understand what kind of game it is before they decide to try it. However, I do not think that we should be comparing it to CCG's very much at all. The similarities between games like Magic the Gathering and Mage Wars are usually superficial in terms of game play, even though they have several significant thematic similarities.
Instead, I think we should be comparing Mage Wars to Miniatures games, Tabletop RPG's, and Deckbuilding games, in that order. Chess, Go, Stratego, Warmachine/Iron Kingdoms, Dungeons and Dragons, Dominion, Ascension, Thunderstone, etc.
Especially miniatures games. Having all your cards out in front of you and not having to depend on lucky draws might seem like a very big innovation for card games, but in miniatures games it's not so much of a big deal. For example, Chess. Out of all the pieces in your army, you can move any of them that you want. You decide which one to move, where to move it, and then do so, without having to worry about "luck of the draw". In Mage Wars, out of all the spells in your spellbook, you can choose any two of them to cast during that round. You decide which of your prepared spells to cast, plan where you're going to cast them (limited by range of course, like how chess pieces are limited by their movement abilities), and then you can cast them. Sounds very familiar, doesn't it?
While it sounds great to say that Mage Wars is half card, half miniatures game and is combining the best of both worlds, the truth is that Mage Wars plays more like a minis game then a card game. If I were to succinctly describe what kind of game Mage Wars is, I think I would say,
"Its an extremely fun miniature wargame that uses cards instead of miniatures, in which two magic users fight to the death in a gladiator style battle. It's a very unique game, but I would say it plays kind of like a mix between 'Go' and 'Dungeons and Dragons'."
In terms of price, Mage Wars also more closely resembles Minis games then CCGs. CCG's have a low cost to get into, but a very high cost to stay into. Minis games have a higher cost to get into, but a lower cost to stay into.
The Mage Wars core set costs $40-60, depending on where you buy it. Each expansion after the core set costs a lot less. In Magic the gathering, a starter kit costs around $30, while a competitive deck usually costs around $300. In Warmachine, different starter sets vary a lot, between around $50 to over $100 or so, but then individual models cost somewhere around $5-$20 each.
The Mage Wars Core set costs $40-60 depending on where you buy it, but each expansion after that costs around $20-$30. Naturally, this is far less expensive then collectible miniature games like Warmachine/Hordes. In fact, I would even go so far as to say that using cards instead of miniatures might be one of the major reasons that Mage Wars is so much less expensive then other miniatures games.
Anyways, I'm hoping to try to eventually start a Mage Wars club at my university, so I need to be able to convince people that it's worth their time, in spite of the cultural bias against learning new complex games. How have other people's experiences been in this endeavor? What's worked and what hasn't? Since school is starting in less than a week, some advice/feedback would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!
