I did/do some local outreach for Texas and it always surprises me when a store owner replies with "I have never heard of that" ... Maybe I am just too obsessive of a person but if I owned a card shop I would definitely be keeping up with TCG news as much as humanly possible haha. Great conversation!
Super interesting discussion! I run the UK discord with a friend, and we are noticing a lot of the same things in the UK. It feels a bit like the game was released too quickly, in a sense. The Kickstarter happened, the game is in the wild, but all of the supporting 'stuff' like bigger events, the marketplace, print on demand, etc etc, are all missing and leaving players frustrated. I am based in London and we have a decent weekly play group of 4-10 players, but beyond that, it's almost on the community to run events. We have run one 'Kickstarter win-a-box' event that got around 20 players, with some players travelling 1-2 hours to attend, but I had to donate the box myself from my personal collection for this to happen. As you mentioned, I would like to see a bigger marketing push from Equinox and to feel like they are doing more to promote their game, both worldwide but on a more selfish level in the UK specifically. It feels like they are relying too much on the player base and doing very little themselves (in the UK, at least). I want to do what I can, but I also run my own business so there is a limit to the time I can spend personally. As you said, Kawa, this all comes from a good place so I don't want to sound like I'm just moaning - I want to see the game succeed and do well! Lets see what the future brings, and hopefully I will catch you at Worlds! ;)
Part of the issue I see in my locals (Campinas, Brazil) is the struggle to get a proper deck together for many folks. The collection is huge and with such a small community playing locally, pretty much everyone going for the same staples, a lot of folks are just losing the hype after not being able to purchase singles locally or get good trades on our discord/whatsapp groups. I believe this will eventually get better with the marketplace and print on demand, but it's definitely holding the game back here as folks are cautious to jump in until these things are live.
It was a bit like this in South Africa with SWU until set 2 and stores started doing singles. With the set 1 reprint coming (still have the most staple cards for key meta decks), hopefully we will increase the numbers. But long run singles will be crucial since probably like in Brazil it is not cost effective to buy random boosters or order singles from EU/US (still beter than blind boosters). But...stores want at least to see some good booster sales and enough supply (set 1's problem) to make opening boosters for singles worth it. So the community bought lots of booster at start. With Altered only launching a week ago, everyone is very excited - 12 people first dedicated night at local store (For SWU we pull 12-15 every week for comparison) - but I see lack of singles being a big problem going forward...once people get tired of starters / known value of trades / run out of trades and don't wanna spend almost a 1000 of your money on booster (about R3400 or R3000 with SWU now). My wife Brazilian and if ever going to live in Brazil it is good to see TCGs being played outside the mega cities...hopefully also some English is spoken at game nights as well ;)
In the US in Michigan, we play at Draw 7 games. At the time of they are 1 of 2 stores is the whole state. Unlimited is dieing quickly, as is Flesh and blood. Top 3 games 1mtg, 2pokemon,3 lorcana, 4 one piece. In America people fall into 1 of 2 groups. 1 master set collectors. They want every cards. 2 competitive tcg players, I play in a locals in Michigan with players like Brain Courtade. People in the US hate they can't get every good card. I personally love the game of Aldtered, and I'm constantly going early to leagues to demo the game!
I have had a pretty hard time getting it going in Vermont. I have found one store willing to promote it. I finally got them to do an event Friday the 15th. I like playing in person more than online so I am pushing to grow it.
In SE Wisconsin, we have a group of 8-12 that have been getting together weekly, so it has been alright here. It definitely helps that we have players and stores that will champion the game though.
I am from Germany Cologne its a very big town and not a single store runs it hers. There like 3 stores in 1h30min reach and then alot more beyond that. But its like you guys said its like the same 4-8 people rotating these stores with like 2-3 different people depending which you go to.
I'm hoping it picks up more, but honestly worried. I'm in a mid-sized city and one store does has product and ran 4-5 events from release through Nov. 1st. Sadly only 1-2 other people other than me have attended and my LGS has not created anymore events since November.
I'm in AZ and Gamers Guild is the only major presence running Altered. Sadly not in my area. For me I have about 4 people at my LGS who will play a game. I have a box of all common decks to give away and have been offering learn to play after One Piece when I go. Going to bring a box in to have some packs to giveaway too. Really a fan and the people who have played all seem to like it, just need to hit a big enough critical mass to get people playing regularly.
Speaking on opening packs and getting uniques. The lgs I play at weekly, we all agree that there aren't as many good uniquea for certain factions as there are for others. Example, collectively, four of us (not Kickstarter backers) have pulled more Ordis uniques from boxes we've purchased than any other faction...
We have a local Discord and had a lot of hype going into release which fizzled out so quickly. We have three, maybe four stores that carry product. It mostly sits on the shelves. I believe the one store where I help organize is the only one that sees semi-regular play, which isn't even once a week. Draft tends to pull in the most people at six. Woo! And I think that points to one of the biggest issues with the game: We don't have a good secondary market. More importantly, we don't have the official Altered market. What my locals keep expressing frustration around is not being able to have a playset of the rares they need for the deck they want to play. And that's totally fair! Opening the product is a pretty awful gamble when you just want to complete one or two decks. Or want to build to one faction but don't open any of those rares (me with Bravos after four boxes). I am hopeful that once the official market is online our scene will pick back up, assuming folks haven't just given up and moved on by then.
Locally, we had a solid turnout for the first few weeks, but the lack of tournament software made the lgs just run “casual events” that were people sitting around being bored.
It's definitely really strange to see Altered doing SO well in France and doing, ok, elsewhere. It makes sense being a French game but I was sad to see after the 1000 player plus tournament the one in US the following week wasn't even 10% of that. Equinox definitely has an uphill battle with "the big 3" as Trickster put it and more recent games with massive IPs that are a pull on their own. I don't know how they tackle that, it's a big positive to see them at the events though and that will help build some grassroots but I'm not sure how I would sell someone on the game without just sitting them down to play it. BGA can definitely be a part of that but I think digital card games is not something they want to get into a big fight with as that opens up a whole other can of worms. The game itself is fantastic though, I'm yet to play any limited formats but am excited for that too. The OP packs are great but you need to understand the game to see their value first. I will always do my part at the low level, be up for showing people, bust out starter decks for a balanced first experience etc. I just hope anyone watching this that is ever in that position does the same but Equinox definitely need to think of something else. Perhaps store championships, perhaps some more launch style events with fairly low entry fees and potential high winnings to show **value**.
The promo packs are awesome. The adventure pass is awesome. I've been to 13 events and always walked away with at least 1 new unique. I feel well-rewarded for simply playing the game, which I didn't feel from other card games.
So far, Philadelphia’s scene seems to at least be growing. Have two stores nearby that sell, one of which is going to be running games soon with another shop thats a bit farther (40min+ drive) that’s starting to do locals with about ~6ish players.
I think another issue in the USA is/was the lack of support from Equinox. While it seems to be getting better now, it's really clear that the experience in general is not quite up to snuff in the Americas compared to the E.U. The local game stores in the US also seem really hesitant to get into the game but maybe that will change as it gains popularity. It's been a lot of fun at my LGS (I've been one of the lucky few with a store about an hour away that I can play at)
I'm in Tallahassee, FL so I'm super jealous that there's a place near me doing really well! What has worked to get that many? Just a lot of people who got into it early? We have maybe 2-3 people other than me here.
@morganpaxton not sure. I got my friend group into it. And there just happened to be another group of people that are super into it. Hoping the scene grows. There is a good scene in Tampa as well
I'm in fort Wayne, Indiana which is a fairly big city in Indiana and there's literally nothing here and there's pretty much a scene for every single other competitive card game. I have to drive over 2 hours to get down to Indianapolis if I want to play
In kalamazoo Michigan USA we have about 15 players we have an average of 8 10 every week we have found lots of couples playing together maybe that's a gate way
I talked to one of my LGSes and they are making a conscious decision not to support Altered until the marketplace is available. They want to see Equinox make good on their promises because they have been burned by other hyped kickstarter games in the past. Perhaps other LGSes in N.A. are wary because Altered in a kickstarter funded game too.
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I did/do some local outreach for Texas and it always surprises me when a store owner replies with "I have never heard of that" ... Maybe I am just too obsessive of a person but if I owned a card shop I would definitely be keeping up with TCG news as much as humanly possible haha.
Great conversation!
Super interesting discussion! I run the UK discord with a friend, and we are noticing a lot of the same things in the UK.
It feels a bit like the game was released too quickly, in a sense. The Kickstarter happened, the game is in the wild, but all of the supporting 'stuff' like bigger events, the marketplace, print on demand, etc etc, are all missing and leaving players frustrated. I am based in London and we have a decent weekly play group of 4-10 players, but beyond that, it's almost on the community to run events. We have run one 'Kickstarter win-a-box' event that got around 20 players, with some players travelling 1-2 hours to attend, but I had to donate the box myself from my personal collection for this to happen.
As you mentioned, I would like to see a bigger marketing push from Equinox and to feel like they are doing more to promote their game, both worldwide but on a more selfish level in the UK specifically. It feels like they are relying too much on the player base and doing very little themselves (in the UK, at least). I want to do what I can, but I also run my own business so there is a limit to the time I can spend personally.
As you said, Kawa, this all comes from a good place so I don't want to sound like I'm just moaning - I want to see the game succeed and do well!
Lets see what the future brings, and hopefully I will catch you at Worlds! ;)
Part of the issue I see in my locals (Campinas, Brazil) is the struggle to get a proper deck together for many folks. The collection is huge and with such a small community playing locally, pretty much everyone going for the same staples, a lot of folks are just losing the hype after not being able to purchase singles locally or get good trades on our discord/whatsapp groups. I believe this will eventually get better with the marketplace and print on demand, but it's definitely holding the game back here as folks are cautious to jump in until these things are live.
It was a bit like this in South Africa with SWU until set 2 and stores started doing singles. With the set 1 reprint coming (still have the most staple cards for key meta decks), hopefully we will increase the numbers. But long run singles will be crucial since probably like in Brazil it is not cost effective to buy random boosters or order singles from EU/US (still beter than blind boosters). But...stores want at least to see some good booster sales and enough supply (set 1's problem) to make opening boosters for singles worth it. So the community bought lots of booster at start.
With Altered only launching a week ago, everyone is very excited - 12 people first dedicated night at local store (For SWU we pull 12-15 every week for comparison) - but I see lack of singles being a big problem going forward...once people get tired of starters / known value of trades / run out of trades and don't wanna spend almost a 1000 of your money on booster (about R3400 or R3000 with SWU now).
My wife Brazilian and if ever going to live in Brazil it is good to see TCGs being played outside the mega cities...hopefully also some English is spoken at game nights as well ;)
In the US in Michigan, we play at Draw 7 games. At the time of they are 1 of 2 stores is the whole state. Unlimited is dieing quickly, as is Flesh and blood. Top 3 games 1mtg, 2pokemon,3 lorcana, 4 one piece. In America people fall into 1 of 2 groups. 1 master set collectors. They want every cards. 2 competitive tcg players, I play in a locals in Michigan with players like Brain Courtade. People in the US hate they can't get every good card. I personally love the game of Aldtered, and I'm constantly going early to leagues to demo the game!
I have had a pretty hard time getting it going in Vermont. I have found one store willing to promote it. I finally got them to do an event Friday the 15th. I like playing in person more than online so I am pushing to grow it.
Set 2 release is Jan 31st 2025
In SE Wisconsin, we have a group of 8-12 that have been getting together weekly, so it has been alright here. It definitely helps that we have players and stores that will champion the game though.
We are having a case tournament on Saturday in the northern Chicago suburbs. If any of your group is interested check out pastimes in niles.
I am from Germany Cologne its a very big town and not a single store runs it hers. There like 3 stores in 1h30min reach and then alot more beyond that. But its like you guys said its like the same 4-8 people rotating these stores with like 2-3 different people depending which you go to.
I'm hoping it picks up more, but honestly worried. I'm in a mid-sized city and one store does has product and ran 4-5 events from release through Nov. 1st. Sadly only 1-2 other people other than me have attended and my LGS has not created anymore events since November.
I'm in AZ and Gamers Guild is the only major presence running Altered. Sadly not in my area. For me I have about 4 people at my LGS who will play a game. I have a box of all common decks to give away and have been offering learn to play after One Piece when I go. Going to bring a box in to have some packs to giveaway too. Really a fan and the people who have played all seem to like it, just need to hit a big enough critical mass to get people playing regularly.
Speaking on opening packs and getting uniques. The lgs I play at weekly, we all agree that there aren't as many good uniquea for certain factions as there are for others. Example, collectively, four of us (not Kickstarter backers) have pulled more Ordis uniques from boxes we've purchased than any other faction...
We have a local Discord and had a lot of hype going into release which fizzled out so quickly. We have three, maybe four stores that carry product. It mostly sits on the shelves. I believe the one store where I help organize is the only one that sees semi-regular play, which isn't even once a week. Draft tends to pull in the most people at six. Woo! And I think that points to one of the biggest issues with the game: We don't have a good secondary market. More importantly, we don't have the official Altered market. What my locals keep expressing frustration around is not being able to have a playset of the rares they need for the deck they want to play. And that's totally fair! Opening the product is a pretty awful gamble when you just want to complete one or two decks. Or want to build to one faction but don't open any of those rares (me with Bravos after four boxes). I am hopeful that once the official market is online our scene will pick back up, assuming folks haven't just given up and moved on by then.
Locally, we had a solid turnout for the first few weeks, but the lack of tournament software made the lgs just run “casual events” that were people sitting around being bored.
This is too bad. I'd think any generic tournament software should be good enough and just ignore deck checks.
It's definitely really strange to see Altered doing SO well in France and doing, ok, elsewhere. It makes sense being a French game but I was sad to see after the 1000 player plus tournament the one in US the following week wasn't even 10% of that.
Equinox definitely has an uphill battle with "the big 3" as Trickster put it and more recent games with massive IPs that are a pull on their own.
I don't know how they tackle that, it's a big positive to see them at the events though and that will help build some grassroots but I'm not sure how I would sell someone on the game without just sitting them down to play it.
BGA can definitely be a part of that but I think digital card games is not something they want to get into a big fight with as that opens up a whole other can of worms.
The game itself is fantastic though, I'm yet to play any limited formats but am excited for that too.
The OP packs are great but you need to understand the game to see their value first. I will always do my part at the low level, be up for showing people, bust out starter decks for a balanced first experience etc. I just hope anyone watching this that is ever in that position does the same but Equinox definitely need to think of something else. Perhaps store championships, perhaps some more launch style events with fairly low entry fees and potential high winnings to show **value**.
The promo packs are awesome. The adventure pass is awesome. I've been to 13 events and always walked away with at least 1 new unique. I feel well-rewarded for simply playing the game, which I didn't feel from other card games.
I absolutely agree! Adventure pass is a huge win
i have been using proxies for my digital uniques. i play more locally than on BGA.
Along with NA market getting into the Asian market is huge been seeing more Thai players these days. That may become a hot spot hopefully
So far, Philadelphia’s scene seems to at least be growing. Have two stores nearby that sell, one of which is going to be running games soon with another shop thats a bit farther (40min+ drive) that’s starting to do locals with about ~6ish players.
I think another issue in the USA is/was the lack of support from Equinox. While it seems to be getting better now, it's really clear that the experience in general is not quite up to snuff in the Americas compared to the E.U. The local game stores in the US also seem really hesitant to get into the game but maybe that will change as it gains popularity. It's been a lot of fun at my LGS (I've been one of the lucky few with a store about an hour away that I can play at)
Decent scene of 8-12 in Augusta, GA
I'm in Tallahassee, FL so I'm super jealous that there's a place near me doing really well! What has worked to get that many? Just a lot of people who got into it early? We have maybe 2-3 people other than me here.
@morganpaxton not sure. I got my friend group into it. And there just happened to be another group of people that are super into it. Hoping the scene grows. There is a good scene in Tampa as well
@@RarecuisineSaucegod-ig8bc That's awesome for your area! I guess I just got unlucky with location.
I'm in fort Wayne, Indiana which is a fairly big city in Indiana and there's literally nothing here and there's pretty much a scene for every single other competitive card game. I have to drive over 2 hours to get down to Indianapolis if I want to play
In 🇺🇸 NWArkansas there is no place to play in shop. Just one called pack wars in MO
In kalamazoo Michigan USA we have about 15 players we have an average of 8 10 every week we have found lots of couples playing together maybe that's a gate way
the 2 nearest locals to me are nearly 2 hours away
I talked to one of my LGSes and they are making a conscious decision not to support Altered until the marketplace is available. They want to see Equinox make good on their promises because they have been burned by other hyped kickstarter games in the past. Perhaps other LGSes in N.A. are wary because Altered in a kickstarter funded game too.
great topic. before i watch i want to know if anyone experiences much higher unique prices from eu sellers than NA sellers lol
All of the prices are higher for sealed product and singles from EU sellers.