Lists

Hi,

The end of the year always sees all kinds of lists appearing. The top
10 movies at the box office or the top 10 selling cars of the year
etc. I tend to find these lists amusing mostly because there's always
one or two items in there for which you go "nah, can't be, there's no
way people were stupid enough to watch *that* movie or to buy *that*
car.

Yesterday, while looking for a particular article in The General I
came upon something I had forgotten entirely : Avalon Hill used to
publish a list of their top-sellers each year and also a cumulative
all-time best sellers list. So we're back in 1985 - it's almost the
end of the AH era - which game do you think heads the list of their
all-time best sellers ? Is it Squad Leader ? Is it Diplomacy ? Is it
Third Reich ?

Nope, it's "Outdoor Survival" , followed by "Facts in Five" on the
number 2 spot. In fact 8 out of the top 20 games are not wargames at
all. An accountant looking at this would conclude that their hit rate
with non-wargames was higher than their wargame hit rate ...

Ok, so what were their 3 top selling wargames then ? Surely the ones
mentioned above ? Again, this is a bit surprising but the top-3
wargames were Panzerblitz, Panzer Leader and Tactics II - all entry
level wargames.

Surprising ain't it ?

Now, the reason AH made this public is probably because gamers like to
know what other gamers are playing. It influences their buying
decision as they get confirmation a game for which they've been
sitting on the fence is a hit. People are more willing to spend money
on something if they know lots of other people are buying it too. "<X>
items sold already" remains a powerful marketing slogan.

So, question : do you think it would be a good idea for wargame
publishers to publish such a top-10 list ? And would it influence your
buying decision ?

Greetz,

Eddy Sterckx

On 31 dec, 10:43, Giftzwerg <giftzwerg....DeleteThis@NOSPAMZ.hotmail.com> wrote:
>
> Is it?  There are always more students in CS101: INTRO TO PROGRAMMING
> than in CS520: COMPILER DESIGN.  That's the nature of introductory vs
> advanced materials.  

You're looking at it too rational

If wargame developers would look at it this way, wouldn't we see more
Advanced Tactics games and less War in the Pacifics ?

What I mean is : when I go over the list of wargames published this
year there are just a few "introductory" level wargames, but a high
number of medium level and even monster games.

Isn't that a bit silly from a sales pov ?

> I mean, who bought
> TR without already owning PANZERBLITZ?  

<raises hand> - I got them in reversed order

> I'm also not very surprised that the non-wargames were more popular with
> the gaming public; just yesterday, I used up some gift cards and bought
> BIOSHOCK, GEARS OF WAR, and SOLDIER OF FORTUNE: PAYBACK.  Not a wargame
> among them.  
>
> Maybe Matrix should start offering gift cards.

<sigh> It has been suggested in here before. *every* wargame outfit
should have a big red button on their main webpage saying "wargame
widows, buy a voucher here". A multi-publisher, multi-genre store like
NWS would profit from this enormously.

Vouchers may look like dumb gifts, but for me they aren't - my hobby
is too specialized for someone else to guess what I'd like or not, so
vouchers make a lot of sense.

The "loot" I got this X-Mas included 3 vouchers, 2 of them from a
military history bookstore run by a single guy who - according to the
one I got it from - told him he sells a truckload of them each year to
wives looking for a present for their hubbies.

I already planned when I'm going to visit his bookstore - and I'll
probably end up buying twice the amount of the value on those
vouchers.

There's no way vouchers aren't a great idea and neglecting to
implement it in your webshop borders on the criminal.

<end of pro-voucher rant>

Greetz,

Eddy Sterckx