The original post can be found here: http://www.councilofelrond.org/forum/vi ... .php?t=907
This thread deals with
Frodo wrote: Problem area 2: New players
How do we reach out to them? Next, how do we continue to make them feel invited, and want to remain, so the game can grow?
A – RECRUITMENT: OFFICIAL DEMOS, LEVELING OF MASTERY, FINISHING THE RULES
One of the first big issues related to recruitment of new players is how to explain this crazy game to them. It’s a complex game, and most of us I’m sure have not spent dozens of hours figuring out the best, most standardized way to teach it to someone. Ok, let’s do that:
Explanatory Documents: “How to Teach the Game to New Players”
The first item I see a need for is an explanatory teaching document or documents, COE-produced, that can be disseminated to already existing players. Such a document would explain the best way to teach this game to a prospective new player, taking into account such things as how many minutes you have for that person’s attention (she saw you fiddling with your cards at your office cubicle! now she’s standing at the water cooler asking you questions and your hair’s a mess! so you have like—five?), their previous understanding of card games, etc.
But the most important point this document should teach is that you can’t teach all of MECCG at once. You need to give prospective players just enough of a taste that they can immediately start playing some version of the game—which is, after all, the main goal, remember?
Here is how I envision such leveling mastery:
a. level 1: demo level game (northwestern side map only)
b. level 2: hero-only challenge deck level (they are already very competent if playing at this level, but they are not ready for skilled sealed deck play)
c. level 3: sealed deck/ “ARDA” deck / or “intermediate” challenge deck (at this point we must show them more cards. This also encourages collecting cards, at this point)
d. level 4: constructed deck, and casual tournament or playgroup play
e. level 5: high-level tournament play
Explanatory Documents: Level 1: The Demo-level Game (introductory)
I’m not sure what this game should look like, exactly. But I do know it should be a simple as possible in turns of site selection and available choices, and also lend itself to a descriptive, immersive narrative. I believe this was what ICE was trying to do with the Saruman/Gandalf Starter Deck game. However, it is my understanding that this game is boring and doesn’t appeal to new players. If that’s correct, then let’s design our own. Some ideas: it should consist of a fixed-order opening hand, a fixed-order draw pile of 10 cards, then another 10 cards that are fixed but can be in any order. And of course, an exciting, recognizable starting company (a hobbit, Aragorn, a Wizard, a scout, a diplomat) that can take advantage of the different types of resources you will be teaching the play to play (Concealment, Risky Blow, Ford, etc.). There should be a separate hazard deck or perhaps just a hazard hand (for the teacher): fixed-order, at least 8 cards, plus another 10 fixed but random in order. Finally, the only sites involved should be those in the upper-left corner of the map: the regions adjacent to the regions of Arthedain and Rhudaur and any regions adjacent to these (ending with the water and the Misty Mountain regions). In addition, I truly believe we need an altogether new region/site map to made that contains only this northwest section of middle-earth and, in addition, has every site and its picture and text running along the perimeter of the map, much like the Northern Waste and Bag End Scenario Games (but these should be real, standard sites). Such a map could be printed nice and large, bigger than the standard maps, to help new players instantly see where they can go, etc.
Projects Needed to Be Done for the Demo Game:
--Demo game decks
--Demo game directions
--Demo game MAP (I have some ideas; contact me if you wish to do this!)
Explanatory Documents: Level 2: Hero-only Challenge Deck
Not too much to say here. Challenge Decks are a very good thing; they have always been extremely popular, and even die-hard veterans love (prefer?) to play them, in part because not everybody likes to make decks (especially at first). However, the fundamental rule to remember, a rule that I have certainly broken, is that unless a player is already quite skilled at CCGs (beyond Yu-gi-oh) AND has a great pre-interest in the middle-earth game: Don’t start off by teaching a player a challenge deck! Use the demo-level approach, or you will scare them off too soon. Also, please: do not teach them minion challenge decks in the beginning! Only use the hero ones, and ignore sideboarding rules for a while as well. Challenge Decks are most complex to new players than they might seem to us.
It is quite possible, even likely, that after the demo or challenge deck game a player will want to purchase his or her own cards. But if not, they will probably get addicted to the collecting idea at the point which you show them sealed deck play.
Projects and Obstacles to the Challenge Deck Game—To be discussed later, in “Product Availability.”
Explanatory Documents: Level 3: Sealed deck / “ARDA” deck / or “intermediate” challenge decks
In order to get players ready for the “field” of players and decks they will face in open casual play, we must introduce them to the wealth of MECCG cards out there. Sealed Deck is perfect for this. The new “ARDA Shared-deck format”, developed by myself, Joe Bisz, is also perfect; I am starting to wonder if it is even better than traditional sealed deck. Finally, there have been discussions of an “intermediate-level challenge deck” project, where a new closed set of decks would be designed that used advanced combinations and strategies BUT were designed to be played only against each other. Rather like the regular challenge decks. Such decks would meet the needs of players who never become drawn to playing middle-earth on any level higher than level 3, because they only want to face a closed field of equal-strength decks, so as to put the onus of success or failure entirely upon their playing skills, rather than on the whimsical chance of someone stumbling upon a “broken combo” and making up a new killer deck. These types of players are sometimes players who do NOT play any other kind of CCG, but rather only strategy board games or video games that are not customizable, but have more of a “what you see is what you get” comprehensibility to them. We have to recognize the fact that many MECCG players will simply never wish to leave this level; and then make this level as attractive as possible for them.
Projects and Obstacles to Sealed Deck—To be discussed later, in “Product Availability.”
The other two levels do not need discussion at this point. I do want to point out one other issue that may not be obvious: it is not enough to rely upon ourselves to teach people this game. We need to have a method on the COE site whereby people who stumble upon or are directed there can teach or refresh themselves on the game. Solution: This seems so obvious, and it’s cheap and highly effective too: create a You-Tube video. Heck, create several You-Tube videos, and post links to them on the COE website. They should be staggered in terms of leveling what they are teaching. For example, one short video introduces people to the game in an overview, talks about the website itself, the newsletter, the community resources and tournament scene. The next video basically covers the Demo Game. Etc, etc. The point of videos is that they can be very friendly in tone but also more effective than standardized documents because they are visual. Some of the videos can even have the narrator referring to a rules sheet at one point, in order to illustrate the watcher how to use the rules. This can really take off: people might even see the videos on You-Tube itself because of the middle-earth tag, and become interested in the game that way. We don’t necessarily have to hold someone’s hand through every step of the rules. Give someone just a starter level of game knowledge, and if it’s well-presented so that we hook them, they will teach themselves the rest.
In short, I think we can do this, through proper scaffolding and creation of supporting documents and media. Feed any player limited enough information—that is, information in doses—and they can learn anything. It’s a fundamental rule of teaching.
Finishing the Rules:
Even if we explain the basic concept of the rules to players well-enough, the rulebooks themselves are still thick, complex, awkwardly written, scattered over several documents. Then there’s the expanded rules, or CRF… that’s right, it gets worse! And for anyone who doesn’t think this is big deal, remember even veteran players still get confused—constantly!
Solution: We must make it a high-priority to get the rules book at least to the point that a highly motivated player with a reasonable intelligence can make heads and tails out of them and thus, “teach the rules to himself.” Even an imperfect, one-book rules document would be better than nothing at this point—it could always be updated and perfected later. In addition, going along with the idea of leveling the game’s rules to new players, there should be a very short summary of the rules that’s available for players right away (and as a teaching aid). This could be Craig Ichabod from ICE’s summary, this could be a summary already being worked on that I don’t know about, but regardless, this needs to be done. A small example: I taught the game to a very intelligent friend of mine who loves Tolkien, loves games, and loves card. Sounds like three home runs, right? Then he asked me if there were so many new rules and erratta, where were they published? I hesitated… and when I started mentioning the internet, the forums, the COE digests, everything went downhill from there. If we can’t get HIM, who on middle-earth do we think we’re going to get??
Maybe some cards need a rewritting too.