Is this game dying?

[Baalbamoth]

I'm just getting into Malifaux, plan on investing some funds on new plastics... but I'm watching like 100 new kickstarters for mini games getting funding, hitting the presses etc.

 

when I look around the net for malifaux battle reports 80% of them are like from 2012.

 

Even In this forum I see a lot of posts that talk about Malifaux in the past tense.

 

Seeing some of the release schedule problems with Wyrd makes me really question if I want to drop half a month's paycheck on stuff for a game that is giving indications it may not be around long.

 

Please convince me that I'm total wrong in these fears, and my hesitation to spend hard earned money is unfounded...

[brdparker]

Short answer... nah, I don't think so.

 

At least not in my area (Connecticut); it's definitely on the rise as people are hearing good things about M2E. Thing about KS and other crowdfunding sites, it is a wonderful idea and many of the games that come out of them are excellent concepts that would never see the light of day from a publisher because... that's the way it is/was. It still has to be a good, well-designed game. For many people, the fluff and sculpt also matters (not so much for me, but that's personal taste). I sincerely hope that many crowdfunded games go on to become crowd favorites and get their publication run continued, but just because something is funded/not funded/published/not published speaks volumes of nothing as to the quality. A lot of KS has to do with marketing. A game could have gottten funded a hundred times over due to good marketing and fail after a second run due to poor game style.

 

Now, I'm rather new to the mini scene, but one thing I've noticed that is drastically different between mini and board games is that tabletop ganes NEED a following, and those that start with one have a leg-up on others. Does that mean others won't creep into popularity? Of course not; that's what malifaux did a few years back. But they'd have to have a rather novel concept (as malifaux did a few years back) to break through and demand players' 1) money and 2) time.

 

And if money's an issue (I know that feels), proxy. If anyone judges you, pull out an origami Nekima on a 50mm base and beat the snot out of them.

 

- Thoughts on the matter from an immigrant board gamer

 

EDIT: Not a minis game, but I think this one illustrates the point well: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/wishlessness/flatland-the-game-of-many-dimensions

 

This game's probably gonna be funded, but watch the video and think of the gameplay. I got drawn into it because I love the Flatland book and got excited at the idea of a multidimensional game, but... Well, the video started well, but I cringed when I saw how it played. Give it a watch, and hate me for it; I wouldn't blame you.

[CreepingDeath]

Its starting to become popular again. After book 3 in my area at least the game died a quick painful death and never recovered. Its coming back now though just real slow

[r4st4f4n]

I think Justin could try to put the old Beta forums visible, locked, but visible. Actually, you're right that more than a year of the most intense activity isn't there, but it is just hidden

[AgrilusHunter]

I think Justin could try to put the old Beta forums visible, locked, but visible. Actually, you're right that more than a year of the most intense activity isn't there, but it is just hidden

Spot on.

[valhallan42nd]

That would be a "no."

You might say it's "gaining ground." Huehuehue.

Kidding aside, the turn out at Adepticon and our presales for Nova Open (www.novaopen.com), along with a ton of new podcasts and groups like "A Wyrd Place" on FB lead me to believe that Malifaux is becoming more vibrant and vital. The store that I play at, Titan Games in MD, has a thriving and growing community.

[Inquisitor Wall]

Malifaux is becoming increasingly popular in my area, and the positive vibe behind the players is better than it ever has been. I think there was some initial "change is bad" when the game shifted to second edition, but my group has been loving the new version much more than previous and new players have been joining up. So I'd argue it is more popular than before. As for the kickstarter kick, I haven't seen kickstarter games really make much difference. People that buy in get them and may enjoy them, but I certainly haven't seen them expand to any players that were not part of the kickstarter, and I haven't seen any stores that want to stock them due to the great deals people got from the kickstarter.

[Ierocis]

Yeah, I'd agree with the others above, it looks like it is getting a new breath of life and is starting to come back. The new plastics are getting a lot of attention and with the rules being a touch easier to grasp quicker, seeing people more willing to hop into it.

[Mister Shine]

Past year or so has all been beta wave, beta wave, beta wave.

 

I mean, I personally have written a dozen or so batreps, but since they were for the beta they vanished when the beta forums did. Easiest way to check a game's health isnt online, its going down to your store and seeing if anyone plays. I've heard lots about KS games like Rivet Wars, but people are still playing Malifaux on Mondays at my FLGS and I havent seen a Rivet Wars mini

[Mako]

Like people have said, the public beta testing has been going on for a fair while, so the lack of activity is a bit of an illusion. Once the beta tests close, the test forums vanish in order to prevent people from seeing lots of arguments about rules that no longer exist, and giving the impression that the game is badly unbalanced (which is is at times during beta test of course, but new people to the game seeing a slew of 'this model sucks, that model is broken' will likely be put off before realising they're old beta test threads).

The game seems to be picking up slowly and steadily, there's been a lot of people saying their group had almost died out but is growing again, and with no testing goin on at the moment I imagine the forum activity will pick up more.

[Gorbad]

Lots of kickstarters are indeed getting funded, but from what I've seen most also disappear again. Not that they don't deliver, but I think we have yet to see the first game really make a good jump from kickstarter into a successful game that's being played and growing. There are some candidates around, but a lot of kickstarters seems to lose a lot of momentum between funding and delivering and the lack of store support/ access for new people also hurt. 

 

And as others have said, a lot/most of the activity for the past year have been in the beta tests, but those forums are no longer available. At least here in the UK it seems to be growing quite well. Many more events with more people have been the order of the day since M2E. It seems as if Malifaux have managed to make the jump up to a small, but played game. It's not challenging things like Warmahordes or 40k (yet), but it's played in lots of places.

[hypoking]

Yes and no. In my experience the beta pretty much killed the game for a while but that's over-ish. Now people actually have access to the rules they need to play the game, and play is ticking up as a result.

[Drool_bucket]

The game continues to surge forward in the New England area.  It is very encouraging.  We have great Henchmen that work together to keep the scene active and offering opportunities to play.

 

If anything the lack of plastic Crews and main rulebooks have been the major hurdles of M2e to this point.  Players for a long time couldn't get there hands on a rulebook and that was killing things.  Now, with the new Plastics being so awesome, but delayed, people are hesitant to go to metals.

 

The good news is that we are about to see another wave of Crew boxes, even if they are Gremlins!

 

So, if anything Malifaux is just starting to hit its stride, IMO.  I expect big things for the next 12-24 months when the vast majority of the line is plastic and supplies of rules/accessories are at proper levels. 

 

Does anyone know if Wyrd is transitioning over the old Ten Thunder plastic box sets to the newer, M2e, look?  I think some newer players suffer a tad of confusion of what's happening with those models...  whether or not they are getting redone/repackaged... 

[Mako]

I think Nathan mentioned in a thread somewhere (a day or so ago) that the 10T boxes would be getting the newer style of art on the boxes at some point. Until then, it's the M2E sticker method to tell you whether they've got the new cards or not.

[mythicFOX]

I'm something of a KickStarter skeptic. I've yet to see a tabletop miniature game come out of it grow / thrive after the initial burst of activity.

Malifaux in the UK is growing and thriving. Events are getting bigger and bigger and newer players are asking about the game all the time.

The other thing to take a look at is online stores. I don't know about the US market but the big UK online stores list Malifaux fairly prominently. It's more or less; GW, Hordes-machine, Malifaux.

[Shadowopal]

AdeptiCon had record numbers earlier this month. Over 100 individual attendees for malifaux events. So I would say no. Locally, the Chicago area scene had new faces every time I make an event.

[TehMik]

I haven't been playing the game on, but my FLGS started a growth league (think WM/H-style journeyman league) and it caught on like wildfire. I'd say maybe 20-25 people show up on mini gaming night and most play GW and WM/H. A good half of those jumped into M2E and I know I'm not the only one contemplating getting another crew box or two. Or three...

 

So, TL/DR, in my area (DC) it seems to be growing, not the other way around.

[Omenbringer]

The other thing to take a look at is online stores. I don't know about the US market but the big UK online stores list Malifaux fairly prominently. It's more or less; GW, Hordes-machine, Malifaux.

 

I would be a bit hesitant to cite online stores as a good measure. There are more than a few offering deep "clearance" discounts and it isn't just on the old metal sculpts either.

 

The community is re-building and with work and perseverance will grow. There are some things that could be done to assist with the growth but it will still take time to regrow the community.

[PeregrineFalcon]

Simple answer is no, the game is not dying. In fact I would say M2E has made the game stronger and brought in more players than ever before. The area I play in has grown so big that Henchman are having to be more conscious of other events in order to not stomp on each other toes. This is a good thing!

 

I suggest buying what looks good. Be rest assured you have rules for every model ever released by Wyrd (minus the Avatars). There have been some new batreps recently from bigbopper and guessingzero on Youtube, among others.

[Bigkid]

Keep in mind that anyone likely to answer 'yes' to the original question is highly unlikely to be posting on this forum.

Having said that, I'm seeing the game go from strength to strength in my local area.

[paradoxstorm]

I was a Magic player for several years and saw that game ebb-and-flow.  It happens.  The last time I was anywhere near Friday Night Magic (purely by accident) I was amazed by the number of players.  It was twice what I saw during the peak years that I played.  

 

I am glad I read this thread, I have been more frustrated than worried at the lack of recent content on youtube and am delighted to learn that a largish contributor has been the beta for M2e.  I hope that some newer stuff starts showing up again--especially tutorial things.   (So much still to learn.)

 

Since I am more attracted to the assembly and painting I won't be overly put-off should the game decline into death--but I sincerely hope that it merely experiences some of the normal ups and downs associated with all sorts of games.  Sort of a two steps forward, one step back growth pattern.

[AtomBalm]

It's definitely picking up here in Columbus, and i'm pushing it on everyone I can. The biggest issue i hear is that people get confused by what is new, what is old, what they have to buy cards for and what they have to print out. I help with clarifying that for them whenever I can. I think once the new decks come out, it will be in great shape. 

 

The thing I have noticed about kickstarters is, even if they get funded, you are looking at at least a year till you have a game to play, and then shipping delays and all that other garbage. 

 

If you like the way Malifaux looks, and enjoy the mechanics and lore i say BUY THE GAME  It's cheap to get started. Then start getting people to play. 

[Rwwin]

As someone that has recently taken up the game (three months), I found a couple of interesting observations when I checked out the game at the shops in driving distance.  First, there are two small but vocal groups unhappy with the game.   Some are unhappy with the second edition conversion, some are unhappy with the move to pastic.  Either way, these two groups, while small liked to make a LOT of noise about how Wyrd had ruined their lives in some way or another an tried to warn me from "making the same mistake they did".  Unfortunately, one of these folks is the manager at the store closest to me and it's to the point that he doesn't sell any Wyrd products in the store anymore.  On the other hand, two other stores which are more of a long drive have thriving Malifaux groups.

 

As for online, as Bigkid stated, you won't find many of them here, but they will certainly pop up at the other online forums around.

 

As to the OP topic on kickstarters looking more successful, I think that's a bit of a false comparrison.  I have contributed to at least fifteen board/tabletop kicstarters over the past couple of years and most of them are "flash in the pan" style games.  Generally I've gotten what was promised, but any expansions tend to come through another kickstarter, not a retail release and certainly not to a local shop.  I haven't seen one of the kickstarters I've backed make the leap from crowdfunding to general retail.  So while a kickstarter may look like a runaway hit with half a million dollars or more, that's still only coming from a player base of somewhere in the 3,000 to 5,000 range.

[Sannop]

The game is dead here. Second edition and the horribly run KS have killed it

Need evidence, look on eBay. Malifaux figs have dropped dramatically in price. I would sell my stuff but it isn't worth anything anymore.

[Ierocis]

The game is dead here. Second edition and the horribly run KS have killed it

Need evidence, look on eBay. Malifaux figs have dropped dramatically in price. I would sell my stuff but it isn't worth anything anymore.

 

I'd suspect the lull between release in rules and minis slowed its growth. Checked ebay... uh so there are people selling box sets for 120 dollars for desirable sets. If they are selling them for retail price on ebay, I rather just go to my FLGS than muck around with shipping, paypal, and ebay. It may be cheaper for Americans since most of the stuff being sold is shipping from there, but after calculating in SH&H, most of the ebay listings are retail price or higher.