Spread The Word: Growing the Community

This is part 2 of my interview with Jim Dyson. Around the halfway mark, Jesse (from Boring Conversation pod) joined in with some of his thoughts.

Theres a lot of people who reach out and say “nobody plays near me”. How can we improve communication to try and help people stuck between thriving metas to find a group?

Jim: To those potential players: look for people on Facebook (“A Wyrd Place” group), or on Reddit. We have a regional discord, so if we meet them, we’ll invite them. We try to keep it fairly active, usually at least one conversation per day. 

Host events: big tournaments, but also grow leagues, like our New Year, New Crew grow league. Each event is a series of weeks, with some nominal organization, but mostly they are regular opportunities to get games. Once people are in the physical space, we can figure out the regional hubs and meet there. After that, you can pick a person in the area’s Discord and play them, you don’t have to meet in a certain store. In the Discord, add a tag by your name that says where you live. Provide tools to identify people in Discords so we know where we are, make it very open and transparent conversation. 

At shops, there are consistent nights to show up (ours are Thursdays and Fridays). On those days, someone will make a post (on Facebook or Discord). Put it into public facing spaces; people maybe not comment, but they’ll see it, and if they see it enough times in a row, they’ll consider it. 

Back to fishing analogies: it’s about putting bait out there, not manipulating but giving opportunities, and if they bite, follow through. In our area, we have a geographically dense meta (a small physical area, where most can travel easily), but that’s not always the case. Have a dedicated day where you can accommodate people’s schedules enough that you can have an open door. If it’s every Saturday from noon to 6 at this shop, people will be there. Making that physical space known so people can see it. 

Doug Bowman in Texas has a known monthly tournament in a consistent spot that is supportive; that’s a desirable, nice space, and there’s also a certain communal spirit to the group.

There’s a social theory called the Third Place. Every person has 3 places in modern culture. At home, you behave a certain way, and take certain actions. There’s a difference between work and home; work is a specific activity, it might not be the most enjoyable thing, but we do it because we need to eat. Home is where you’re resting, spending time with family, and the most “by yourself”. Between work and home is that Third Place: communal enrichment. Church, gym, for hobbyists it’s the game store, and people can have multiple. 

We have communities, and in each one you’re a different person. The way we behave is probably different than you and your wife, or you and your boss. This Third Place is an outlet for creative endeavors, to fulfill a desire for self-improvement, or maybe I just wanna meet with friends and play games. It’s about creating a space (physical and social) that’s desirable. In Texas its not just an event, you see the same folks time after time. You’ve heard Students of Conflicts, they went on a whole thing about food and baking. They’re not just transactionally there to play a game and bouncing, they are there to be engaged, and Malifaux is the means by which they do that. 

We are social creatures, and games were invented for that purpose. People want to be surrounded by people who make them feel good, people who make them feel appreciated. A lot of the themes today are about respect and appreciation. It boils down to: if you want to bring people into a community, make the community something people want to be a part of.

Do factions still have enough of a distinct play style or vibe that you point people towards them?

James: For context, I like flowcharts and diagrams, so I would love a flowchart to give new people to say hey follow this, boom boom, here’s the crew you should take.

Jim: It’s hard to identify factions by play styles. There are 9+ masters per faction now, each with title versions. Aesthetics is the main distinguishing characteristic between factions. I would say prioritize the flowchart by play style over faction. Do you want to be combat oriented or scenario oriented? (Fighting or scoring). If its combat do you like ranged or melee? Melee, here are melee crews for each faction (nephilim, mercenary). Ranged, here’s bandit, apex. Likewise for scenario stuff. A 3rd category could be: do you like combo, do you like resource management, do you like tokens, do  you like making terrain, do you like putting out debuffs? Reverse engineer it, and frame the flowchart around play styles, and work back to faction. Fill out each one with which models fit. If you like ranged, guild has 3 options. Build out play styles, then take each keyword and see where it fits. Getting into the game, with Ashes release, pick keyword over faction, if they are new. The volume of available models rewards being able to zero in on a keyword with some versatile, until you are saying I want to play at the top of the heap AND I’m playing the keywords that need out of keyword hires or versatile options to stay at the top. At the same time, a flowchart is not as helpful for somebody looking to be high level competitive.

How many games does it take for someone to get past the initial curve and know what they like in a keyword? 10-20?

Jim: Players can get frustrated with losing, and a lot of what causes new people to lose is not knowing what models do, as well as analysis paralysis, sitting for 10 minutes thinking I don’t know what to do. For this fun hobby, it’s all about endurance. If you enjoy this thing, play it. For the meta chasing dragons: if thats what they like, don’t tell them stick to one keyword. The average new player goes in on one crew and wants to play it a bunch, so encourage people if they enjoy it. I recently lost a player: he started with Asami, and her summoning mechanic made him frustrated, it just didn’t jive with him. So when you’re introducing people to the game, if people in the area have a “library” of crews for lending, letting people try before they buy, that can be very useful.

Jesse: Some new players here mirrored that, feeling like they need so many boxes to play a crew and eventually find it doesn’t fit with their play style. It doesn’t matter the advice, usually people will go with the Rule of Cool. Because for new players its hard to visualize a crew plays, they can feel stuck. Another problem: if theres a store just starting to stock product (Wyrd has a lot of skews), if a store doesn’t have everything they need, and it’ll require special order, it further frustrates them if they don’t like the keyword that much. It’s important to try getting advice from seasoned players and borrowing crews.

What keeps players engaged, so that they don’t get frustrated by losing too much, or lose interest  and fade away?

Jim: I’d ask: what does the person play the game for? Everyone has a reason, and gets something different out of it. Part of helping people stay in the game is learning why they play, and incorporating that into the games I play with them. A game is a game, there’s a winner and loser (sometimes there’s a tie). It’s not going to court, it’s not baby’s first steps, ultimately not that important: if you don’t like it any more you shouldn’t feel obligated to play. Now I am invested in having more players join than leave. If a player can have a great time losing, they’re getting what they need the hobby for out of it. If a player wants to play and winning is what they want and they’re losing, how can we help improve your play? That’s a different objective. I have yet to see it, but theres gotta be someone out there who keeps losing, but does not want to grow as a player: for them, this is not the game for you. It’s a skill based hobby; a lot of that you pick up by playing the game. You know what this model does, how it can be leveraged, you know what this model can’t do. A void wretch can’t one round Nekima (as a silly example). If you’re playing to win, are you winning or losing at a casual or competitive level? Cody [from Swampfiends] used to say, “Don’t play bad when your playing casuals, but challenge yourself. Do something different.” In a game, one person has to be more experienced than the other. Respecting each other, respecting time and agency, is important, because it is just a game, so I want to respect your agency and play how you want to play. 

Identifying what the player wants out of the game will help retain players that get discouraged by losing. Having more open information style games with those players  (almost coaching). It might sound silly to say “I’m teaching you how to play”, but it’s a skill like anything else. If a person wants to get better and win, there are ways to do that that will keep them in the game. Tell the person “I like playing with you and want to keep you here”, tell them “I value you”. It’s not just stomping them into the ground. “Thanks for showing up, lets make it worth your time to come here.” “Lets talk about things you can do to get better.” If they show up, they’ll play more games, and the other person shows they value their time and presence. 

James: Even when you lose, there are things to be learned. 

Jim: It’s about a growth mindset, looking at things and saying “what can I do better?” I’ve yet to see a perfect game of malifaux.

How can we get the henchman program official again?

Jim: It already is! Minions to Masters. It should release this year, its geared towards being a grow league style thing. So what did the Henchman program do? 

James: There was a designated person per store to point to, who organized events, the biggest benefit was prize support for tournaments. 

Jim: There’s good news: one does not need to be a Henchman to organize events, that's the hard part. Now for prize support, there’s a lot of opportunity for Wyrd and store fronts. Doug, for example, has a partnership with venue, and donates from his own business (3d miniature terrain design and printing) to events, which is a draw. It could be locals who can do that, or generate prize support. At our local shop, there’s wood cutting and a 3d printer, so one of our locals makes scheme markers with his face on them to hand out. For events, you can make model trays, strategy markers, little cheap things. 

Jesse: In my area, we have a community chest for events, made from our piles of shame. Someone got the Wong title box with the Backup Assistant because someone bought for just Von Schtook. That’s a good use for title boxes, having people donate the unused models. 

James: Very true, another option is free stuff you get from Wyrd sale when you spend X amount of money, the alt models.

Jim: Talk to store, get store credit or gift cards. Store might have 3d printer, they can make store specific markers to hand out and draw people, for the cost of resin. Most stores have someone who does commission painting, so get them to donate a free commission paint job for winner. That said, the legitimacy from Wyrd would be nice. However, Wyrd will donate prize support directly at certain number of players. If you have monthly tournaments and consistent game night regulars, those are metrics to show to the local shop, or Wyrd themselves, to sell them on prize support, saying we’ve got 8 players every month. Asking is free, worst they can say is “we can’t afford to this time”. 

Jesse: For larger events, I’ve rallied vendors, and every year or so I’ll reach out to new partners. That’s for a quarterly event, for a monthly that might be tough. And once you do get support, often you’ll get more than you need. Store credit for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd, and prizes for the rest. You can also build up a war chest of extra support to buffer. It takes time to build up, but at CaptainCon, I had so much prize support I had to tell people take 2 door prizes (things like paint brushes, token sets, individual models on sprue). It made me feel good knowing people can walk away with at least a few things they liked, and they also had opportunity to win something in a raffle. Starting out just do a raffle with what you have, over time you’ll accumulate stuff.

Jim: I usually do different classes of prize support. Locally we started painting contests. For a 3 round event, tell people to leave out their crew on a meal break. The event organizer goes around, and each fully painted crew gets a ticket, if you lose you get a raffle ticket, on lunch the neutral party votes and picks something. At end of event, there’s a series of prizes, for art specific give a painting-related reward. (ie I won a fire painting kit at an event because they liked my Nekima stuff) By giving out more tickets to players who paint and lose, you don’t tie prizes necessarily to winning. 

Jesse: In capital city, if you win you get a gift card, if you get your ticket pulled you get product, so there’s always multiple avenues for winning. If you pull someone multiple times you just skip them. By the end, you’ll almost always leave having gotten something.

James: In my tournaments, I usually have a bunch of random stuff, so I’ll end up giving the last place player of the tournament something, since most of the time they’re newer and need models the most.