Do you think the game could do with a soft relaunch?

[dope_danny]

I know, i know, easy to say but its time and resources. But i don't think anyone can say the current state of the game in the eyes of consumers is 'healthy'. The game is great. Its Malifaux with a twist to allow for large scale fast and simple games to scratch that wargame itch in the universe we all know and love.

But, and its a big immolated rhino but, It feels like its fallen to the wayside. Most people blame rumours M3E leaked a year early and this was meant to be a year pushing TOS and wyrd had to scramble to adapt. Its business, it happens. But its made it quite hard to try and build a local scene both in my personal experience and from what i hear elsewhere. Every FLGS i visit has a social media page be a facebook page or forum where people want to play but either have trouble travelling often to find games or they tried to get people interested but the one "metagrog" ran the rhino cheese and demolished all the beginners with a "get serious or get lost" mentality right out of Warmachines infamous page 5 dudebro throwback mentality that put people right off.

 

I've seen Wyrd post elsewhere in the forums looking for playtesters which suggests a nice big errate is on the way and that feels like a nice point -along with things like the court of two finally showing up- to really try and push a "TOS 1.1" and get people interested again. Maybe a "the adventure continues" single page leaflet included in malifaux boxes like GW does for Age of Sigmar in Warcry and Underworlds boxes? Maybe resurrect their youtube presence for some tutorials to show how easy it is to get into?

Theres ways we as the players can push and shill the game till we are blue in the face but the consumer needs to see something from the developers to show its still supported and while i totally understand why their core game had to get the most love the last 6 months but with the faction books finally on the way and hopefully most of the core 3rd edition out of the way 'soon' maybe its time to wonder if TOS needs more than just new models and maybe need another push with stores and social media to get people interested? because i really like this game a lot and all the hooks like the fate decks and plug bases and reinforcements are unique and i really hope this game is another hit and not another case of a company trying to expand only for it to wither within a year y'know?

[yool1981]

Although TOS shows all the signs of being a good game, without proper marketing, my guess is that it will not last very long past the momentum provided by the existing Malifaux player base.

The problem to push a large scale game at the moment is imho the following:

_ Wyrd was too late by one year in the launch of TOS. There was a window of opportunity when Warmachine's Mk3 botched its launch (at least in my country) and when GW had not fully recovered its shine (with the floating moment between WHB 8th ed and AOS and with the previous debate over WH40k's 7ed).

_ Now, although I don't think WMH fully recovered, GW is up and running again and is proposing very good products, with an increasing model quality and very beginner friendly (kill team is an awesome set for example, Warcry looks amazing). Guild Ball also appeared at the right time and Infinity has a new edition (although they are skirmish games they compete for gaming time).

_ Malifaux itself is competing with TOS in terms of purchasing budget and gaming time.

_ Wyrd has not shown any ability to do marketing and promotion (at least on a large scale) for either Malifaux & TOS. Its distributor network does not seem to want/be able to/be in charge of carrying out the work. We are left with the good will of a player base that, in some places, is tired of having to do everything by itself.

_ Wyrd has not pushed anything massively beginner friendly in terms of sets so it is only aimed at existing miniature gamers who are already spoiled with choices. I have yet to see anyone starting miniature gaming with Wyrd's products (but perhaps in other places it is like this). I did some intro games but honestly I don't bother anymore.

_ TOS has an advantage over Malifaux in that there are rules in several languages but there is no visibility in LGS (at least here in France) so non-english speaker will favour GW's products most of the time.

_ I have purchased a few TOS minis just to see how it was and I own some of the latest GW as well. Honestly speaking, I find TOS' minis interesting but lacking and the plastic of a lowish quality. While Wyrd was imho above GW a few years ago, it is not the case anymore.

 

 

 

[solkan]

On 10/6/2019 at 9:59 AM, dope_danny said:

Theres ways we as the players can push and shill the game till we are blue in the face but the consumer needs to see something from the developers to show its still supported and while i totally understand why their core game had to get the most love the last 6 months but with the faction books finally on the way and hopefully most of the core 3rd edition out of the way 'soon' maybe its time to wonder if TOS needs more than just new models and maybe need another push with stores and social media to get people interested?

It's a game, and you're not a Wyrd employee, if it ever feels like you're "shilling", you need to stop and go find a job that pays money.

What you can point to at the moment is:

1. There was a balance errata to address the issues like the cinnamon terror.
2. The beta testing recruitment demonstrates that they do have products in development.

and then invite people to try the game if they're interested.

Honestly, the best thing I can suggest is organizing "Unpopular game night" at the local game store.  "I'll try the game you want to play, if you're willing to try the game I want to play."  Because there are lots of people with lots of different pet games, and that at least gets them each a share in the open.

[ChopC2W]

 

Quote

 

What you can point to at the moment is:

1. There was a balance errata to address the issues like the cinnamon terror.
2. The beta testing recruitment demonstrates that they do have products in development.

 

I think we can also look to the upcoming 2-player box as evidence of support.  The point about "Unpopular game night" is really well taken.  I need to get off my ass and run some of my locals through a game.

[DeleteAccount]

From where I stand, dead game is dead game.

So yeah, a sort of soft reboot with a strong push is pretty much a must at this point if there is any intent of getting the game to get some traction. Just releasing the Guild + spooky ghost set and having radio silence for half a year would achieve nothing. Hell, I'd be tempted to suggest at this point that they don't even bother releasing the 2 player set unless they can immediately follow it up with Kimon and Three Kingdoms starters as well, because trickle release just doesn't work in the current state of the game, no hype, no interest, no traction.

As others have stated, the game is fine, the latest errata I think cleans a lot of the stupid that was in the game, but I still haven't managed to get a game in and the current Malifaux League is going strong, while we had a The Other Side league be started and die a quick death where I was pretty much badgering my opponents to play.

And really, the model problem cannot be overstated. The material quality is bad. The bendiness is rage inducing and it feels crummy as well as dodgy gluing where I had to unglue part of the King's Hand because it wasn't even or another person that had the Artillery Team come completely deformed. The model casting as such is good and there is some solid detail, but I prefer firmness at this point. GW plastic almost feels like an unfair comparison, and I don't know how big CMON is considered, but both have much better sculpting material and the later also comes with prebuilt models and they are cheaper than The Other Side to boot.

Basically, without a true push (I believe those tournament packs still don't exist for example) and a reevaluation of material used for future releases, I don't really see the game ever getting any traction, and I would even dare say that it might not even be in Wyrd's interest since frankly, what I'm proposing ain't cheap, M3 seems to be doing very good on it's own.

[dope_danny]

Honestly -and i dont expect this to change- bad preassembelled models has put people off and i would prefer a kit. if i can assemble Molly's Necrotic Machine i can put a stalking portal together without massive gaps.

To say nothing of horror stories like that abyssinia bike model that was bent like a question mark that was doing the rounds a while back. That put a lot of traditional tabletop players i know right off.

[Joebill]

I nicknamed my Alpha Crawler "Mr Gaps". Even plastic like the Star Wars Legion models (not counting droids) would be better than these pre-assembled models. If they want to whipe the slate and do a relaunch down the road, they should definitely kick the pre-assembled stuff. Or they could figure out how CMON does it with Ice and Fire. I haven't had a problem with any of those.