The Manaverse Podcast

In today's episode we are going straight to the source and exploring what makes the WPN program tick, how to achieve that coveted Premium status for your game store, and how to make the most it.

Luke May is the Retail Experience Specialist for Wizards of the Coast in the UK and Nelson Brown is the Wizards Play Network Community Manager in Seattle, and they join me today to discuss the Premium program and what it takes for a game store to qualify as one of the best shops in the world.

What is the WPN origin story? Where did the idea for the Premium program come from?

What sets Premium game stores apart? What makes achieving Premium status awesome?

What are the main obstacles that store owners run into during the approval process and how can listeners avoid them?

What is the WPN program trying to achieve?

How can store owners make the most out of their Premium status?

Where can store owners go to get more information?

Retail Improvement Grant 50% (only available while supplies last)

Why We Buy by Paco Underhill (affiliate link)

Mary, Queen of Shops

UK Retail Expo

wpn.wizards.com

askwpn.wizards.com

WPN Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1659498737640125/

How to apply for WPN Premium: https://wpn.wizards.com/article/how-apply-wpn-premium-during-pandemic

WPN articles: https://wpn.wizards.com/grow-your-store

publishergamenights.com

Curt Covert is the founder, creative force and jack-of-all-trades at Smirk & Dagger. He’s worn all the hats including art director, copywriter, marketer and concept director, and in a past life he was also a creative director and marketing planner for promotion agencies servicing Fortune 500 companies and brands like M&Ms, Jameson, Dannon, Unilever, Disney theme park eateries, and more.

Today we're going to talk a little bit about the business of making tabletop games and then we're going to dive into the business of selling those tabletop games.

• Why did you decide to get into game publishing?
• For those who may not know, describe the ‘house style’ of your line and who you see as the key audience?
• What does Smirk & Dagger provide as retail support?
• You mentioned demo copies and demo scripts, what would you say to stores that don’t have the manpower or retail space suited to doing demos?

• What are some best practices for merchandising games that help game store owners move more product? (I will spend a lot of time here, doing a borrowed brilliance exercise )
• How often should store owners remerchandise?
• As a game publisher, what is one thing you wish retailers knew or would do differently?

• Retailer Resource Page: https://www.smirkandlaughter.com/retailer-resources
• SND Retailer FB group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/666949490455299
• Envoy: https://www.dexposure.com/envoy/
• Dized Interview: MVP096

If you want to be part of a community of peers on your business journey to share ideas with and continue learning, you can become a member of the Manaverse Network by going to manaversesaga.com/join. That's where you can get access to all the seminars from the recent 2020 LGS Success Summit as well as additional exclusive members only content, marketing reviews, and training.

On May 13th, 2021, Wizards of the Coast announced plans to move away from it's current iteration of Organized Play and phase out the MPL and Rivals leagues. The 2021-2022 season will be the final season of Wizard's foray into e-sports in it's current form, and it looks like they will be refocusing on in-person and local level play more closely in the future.

The new Organized Play vision is to balance the five categories of play away from the heavy focus on professional or “elite” play. The five categories include:

• Friendly play (local game store level)
• Aspirational play (drive to play at a higher level in stuff like States)
• Elite play (higher level events similar to Grand Prix or Pro Tour)
• Festivals (things like CommandFests)
• Digital (playing on MTG Arena and Magic Online as an on-ramp for players anywhere to have access to varying levels of play).

Key Points

• Magic is a poor e-sport and is not compelling to watch from a spectators perspective. This was a major hurdle that Wizards had to overcome to make Magic successful as an e-sport and this announcement indicates that it didn't achieve what they were hoping.
• Players shouldn't expect to make professional Magic into a career. Organized Play always has been a marketing strategy and always will be. It's not a way to employ people.
• The older paths towards high level play were simpler and easier to follow for the average Magic player, making them more aspirational and interesting, which drove sales. The current version is convoluted and messy, and reducing the complexity will certainly help.

What does this mean for the local game stores?

Overall, it's probably a positive change. With a renewed focus on local and regional events, the focus will be more on the average major player and using organized play as a way to support their enjoyment of the hobby, and the local game stores that support the community.

Future versions of the program will probably be simplified and recapture the original sense of excitement and achievability for average players.

Links

https://magic.gg/news/esports-transitions-and-getting-back-to-gathering

https://articles.starcitygames.com/news/2021-2022-will-be-last-season-for-pro-magic-play/

https://articles.starcitygames.com/news/weekly-mtg-answers-questions-regarding-op-announcement/

Molly Zeff, the cofounder of Flying Leap Games is on the Manaverse Podcast to talk about getting into the game publishing business and what she learned by visiting over 250 game stores all over the world.

If you're interested in discovering how to get your game published, Molly shares a number of valuable lessons on how to take a game from concept to manufactured product and then getting that product onto the shelves of retailers and the tables of customers at home.

We also cover some of the common threads that the most successful game stores share and how to incorporate them into your own game business.

2:30 Why did you decide to get into game publishing?

8:20 What was the journey for Wing It to become a tangible product like?

14:30 How did you begin selling the game and get it into the hands of retailers?

29:10 How creating real relationships leads to more business and sales

36:25 After visiting over 275 game stores all over the world, what are the common threads you've seen that the most successful business's share?

37:50-42:32 Gaming builds community

42:50 Without game stores to provide the community, the gaming hobby would barely exist

46:47-52:24 Welcoming all types of gamers means welcoming all types of people

53:10 Games create connections across boundaries including language, the story of the North American Magic player in Japan

56:08 The Wing It conversation club story

59:22-1:05:20 Go out into your local community and outside your four walls

1:07:31-1:11:30 Bring publishers to your game nights virtually

1:12:13 Diversify your offerings to protect your business

1:21:54-1:32:10 What is the best way to create relationships in this business?

1:32:45-1:38:26 Why you need to get your game store online now

1:39:07-1:47:13 Find a mentor and why you should cooperate with your competitors as much as possible

1:48:04 What does success look like for Flying Leap Games

Flyingleapgames.com

@penguinsoaring on Twitter

Reach out to Molly at [email protected]

BinderPOS

Shopify

Wix

If you want to be part of a community of peers on your business journey to share ideas with and continue learning, you can become a member of the Manaverse Network by going to manaversesaga.com/join. That's where you can get access to all the seminars from the recent 2020 LGS Success Summit as well as additional exclusive members only content, marketing reviews, and training.

Jouni Jussilla is on the Manaverse Podcast to talk about Dized, a digital companion designed to be used next to physical tabletop games. We all know that one of the biggest obstacles to picking up a new game is learning the rules, which is why we often refer to our friends to teach us. It creates a much better learning experience and gets us into the game faster.

Imagine having that exact same experience in a highly interactive and engaging app with an ever expanding library of tutorials that you can use to teach anyone how to play. No need to slog through a 15 page rulebook before you can even get set up. Just jump right into the game and learning as you go.

This is where Dized comes in. With Dized, players can learn games while they play and enrich their tabletop gaming experience and it can do everything from Smart Tutorials to full game expansions!

Dized brings the experience of the best video game tutorials to the board game table and we're going to find out more right now.

Questions

What is the origin story of Dized? How did you guys get into this business?

What is Dized and how does it work?

How much does it cost?

How the content creation tools work?

Who creates the content?

What are some of the best ways store owners can use the app to sell more games?

How does the advertising system work?

Where can listeners go to get started?

Dized is beneficial to all industry operators:

• Publishers can make their games more accessible with smart tutorials and more immersive with digital content. Dized has also proven to be very efficient at demoing games at expos!
• Retailers can use Dized as a “demo person” at the store, and Dized offers a great selling point: “If you buy this game, you can skip the rulebook and learn while you play!”
• Board Game Cafes can utilize Dized as “someone” who teaches guests how to play the game and is able to handle all the tables simultaneously!

Reach out to Jouni: [email protected]

Become a Manaverse Network member: https://www.manaversesaga.com/join

GAMA EXPO 2021 has come and gone so let's talk about what went well and what could be improved on. Today, I'm breaking down my experience with the Expo and some of the difficulties I ran into while registering for the event, as well as talking about some of the advantages of the Spatial Chat system and how it can be made even better for next years Expo.

If you want to be part of a community on your business journey to share ideas with and continue learning, you can become a member of the Manaverse Network by going to manaversesaga.com/join. That's where you can get access to all the seminars from the recent LGS Success Summit as well as additional exclusive content.

Links

gama.org

spatial.chat

[email protected]

If you’ve been open for any length of time in this business you’ve probably run into someone who thinks they deserve a special deal.

Maybe they’ve been a long time customer, maybe they’ve just rolled in off the street and feel like you owe them cheaper prices.

At the moment of this recording there is a surge of speculation in the Pokémon market with a huge number of people buying up product in order to resell and flip on platforms like eBay and Facebook. 

Depending on who you ask, this is either a great opportunity for store owners to clean up, or a problem that’s going to create a lot of unhappy customers.

Let's talk about how we should deal with speculators and crazy hot products in short supply, as well as the inevitable one star reviews and how we can use them as a marketing opportunity to reach your real customers.

Devon Chulick is the Founder and COO of Start Playing Games, a service that helps connect tabletop RPG gamers and professional game masters together to create amazing gaming experiences.

Devon has been involved in the eCommerce industry for over a decade with a number of businesses under his belt. He enjoys reading, volleyball, pizza, and Dungeons and Dragons, and today we're going to get to know Devon and how his latest project is bringing about the age of the professional dungeon master.

Questions

How did you get into tabletop RPGs?

What is the big idea behind Start Playing Games?

How can game store owners use the platform to grow their businesses?

What kind of tools do people need to become a GM and run great gaming sessions?

What are some best practices you've seen from the most successful game masters on the platform?

What do you have planned for the future of Start Playing Games?

How can game store owners learn more and get involved?

Links

https://startplaying.games/

dndbeyond.com

https://roll20.net/

Email [email protected]

Remember, there's always room to improve and opportunities available, and if you want to be part of a community on your business journey to share ideas with and continue learning, you can become a member of the Manaverse Network by going to manaversesaga.com/join. That's where you can get access to all the seminars from the recent LGS Success Summit as well as additional exclusive content.

Steve Port joins me on the podcast to discuss his latest project, Melee.gg and the future of Magic tournaments, online and offline. Learn how Melee.gg can allow your game store to run Magic tournaments more efficiently than ever, both in store and on Magic: Arena.

Find out how the platform works, how you can run events with minimal staffing and still have a smooth tournament experience for your customers, and how the Melee.gg team is changing the way events are run.

Melee.gg is a great way for game stores to run tournaments that was previously reserved for the likes of the Star City Games Tour and other premier organizers.

Steve Port

Steve’s introduction to competitive gaming was in the early 90's when he began organizing leagues for strategy games. This was followed closely by organizing sanctioned events for Wizards of the Coast.

This early hobby quickly turned into full time employment as he acquired contracts with companies like Wizards of the Coast, Upper Deck, and Konami.

From 2001-2015 Steve organized some of Magic’s largest tournaments while also starting and overseeing several companies connected to the tabletop gaming world.

He's heading up Melee.gg with Jason Flatford, Brad Nelson, and Adam Shaw, each of which brings something unique to the team in addition to their shared passion for Magic: the Gathering.

Steve was also one of my first interviewees on the podcast years ago. He appeared on episode 14 of the Manaverse Podcast back in 2015, and now he's back to give us the lowdown on Melee.gg and the future of running tournaments online.

Questions

How did you get involved in Melee.gg?

From a complete newbie perspective, how does the system work?

How do you capture payments? Is there a limit? How are prizes (if any) distributed?

What are some best practices for running great tournaments with the software?

What's the biggest tournament you've seen on the platform so far?

How should store owners be using the platform to run events?

How can they get involved and become organizers?

What's planned for the future of Melee.gg?

Links

melee.gg

Become an Organizer

Melee.gg Documentation

manaversesaga.com/join

Join me as I tell the story of interviewing for the position of marketing manager for Star City Games and my plan for improving the marketing strategy of one of the biggest Magic: the Gathering businesses in the world.

semrush.com

analytics.google.com

mailchimp.com

activecampaign.com

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