“I spent way too much on the deluxe version.”
Have you ever heard someone say this? Or perhaps said it yourself? Sometimes it’s followed with, “And it’s worth every penny,” but not always, and there’s some level of guilt/remorse implied by the first phrase.
Super deluxe games costing $150 or more have become commonplace on crowdfunding platforms. Last week I had the opportunity to chat with Jason Perez at Shelf Stories about the impact of these budget-breaking games, and it was really interesting to hear his thoughts (see the full video at the end of this article).
Some of the projects we discussed in the video were as follows:
- Tsuro Luxury Limited Edition: currently 566 backers for the $350 reward
- Castles of Burgundy Special Edition: currently 2069 backers for the $279 reward
- Marvel Zombicide: 6205 backers for the $615 reward
- Scythe metal mechs: $200 for a full set (4 boxes); we’ve sold around 1750 full sets
Today I’m going to focus on one specific thread from the video, the topic of responsibility. That is, if a publisher announces an expensive deluxe version of a game, is the sole responsibility on customers to decide if it’s a good idea? Or is the publisher responsible to look out for the best interests of their fans?
As game publishers, we’re in the business of joy, yet sometimes the things we do result in feelings that are in direct conflict to joy:
- Guilt: I mentioned this in the introduction. Sometimes it’s a passing feeling, but other times it has a harsher impact, like if you go into credit card debt to buy something you can’t afford.
- Fear: FOMO stands for “fear of missing out.” In the tabletop crowdfunding space, this is the direct result of exclusive content–it’s literally a marketing tactic designed to generate fear.
- Doubt: Whenever we buy something, there’s the uncertainty of whether or not we’ll like it. This is magnified for new products that we’ve never had the chance to try (opposed to new editions of older products).
- Remorse: In contrast to doubt, people can feel remorse when a deluxe edition is announced for a game they already own.
- Despair: Jason shared with me a quote from the National Library of Medicine that says, “Our systematic review included 26 studies, mostly from high‐income countries. Nearly two‐thirds of all studies and five out of six longitudinal studies reported a statistically significant positive relationship between income inequality and risk of depression.” Basically, it doesn’t feel good when you’re constantly bombarded with reminders that other people have more money than you.
I’m listing these negative emotions to hopefully compel you to question the notion that the consumer is solely responsible. Yes, the customer ultimately either presses the button to buy or not buy. But the publisher put them in that position in the first place. Simply the act of putting a customer in that position can result in a customer feeling guilt, fear, doubt, remorse, or despair.
Knowing this, how does a publisher decide whether or not to make an expensive deluxe product? For each of the product examples I mentioned above, to me there’s definitely the sense of, “It would be cool if we made this.” On some level, these are passion projects, and the geeks at these companies–Stonemaier Games included–do stuff because we’re excited about it and because we think others will be excited too.
Also, fans ask for us to create things all the time. It was through a combination of fan requests and “it would be cool” that we made the Scythe metal mechs in the first place. I still doubted the decision, though, as they’re very expensive to make–I absolutely felt responsible for the impact their existence would have on Scythe fans. I’ve said no to other requests, but I said yes that time.
Overall, I think this is the key: When a creator has the opportunity to make something awesome that customers are actively requesting, it’s the creator’s responsibility to weigh the negative impact against with the positive. The ensuing context matters: What’s the price? Are there exclusives or are you not using fear as a motivator? Have all of your last few products been $150+? Do customers have a lower-cost option?
I’d love to hear your thoughts on this topic in the comments below, and I’d recommend checking out the full video for a more comprehensive discussion.
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Also, feel free to join me for this week’s live book club session for A Crowdfunder’s Strategy Guide; it’ll be on the Stonemaier Games Facebook page at 3:00 Central on Thursday.
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40 Comments on “$600 Games, FOMO, and Fans: Who Is Responsible?”
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I bought 2 full sets of the metal mechs when they first came out. I kept one set and sold the second on ebay for a lot more than I paid for both. Effectively, I got my set for free and made a small profit on top. I did the same with 7th Continent — bought three full maxed out sets, kept one and sold the other two on ebay… ultimately, my copy was free. However, I tried the same concept with two other kickstarters, and unfortunately, the games weren’t as popular, their resale value on ebay was less than my cost, so I decided to give them away to friends for free. I also buy a fair amount of KS games where I just get one copy for myself. Of the 30-some games I’ve backed, I’ve only gotten rid of one or two; the rest I’ve been glad to keep because they’re great games.
When I was a young man, I worked for a time at a dive shop in the Monterey Peninsula area. The owner’s basic policy was to take whatever his cost was for something and at least double it. This is how he stayed in business, and it opened my eyes to how business stay in business. Everyone involved in the supply chain — from product producer all the way to retailer — makes money in the process. No one is doing it from an altruistic position.
I recognize that there’s a fine line here: wanting to support kickstarter projects but not being able to afford all the games that pique my interest; using the capitalist market system to help subsidize my habit, but tempering the successes by trying to be generous when I know there’s no profit to be made.
Some people on BGG may liken what I do to a scalper at a sports event. I disagree, since buying sports event tickets comes with the warning that you can’t resell; there’s no “no-resell” warning associated with buying boardgames from retailers or game designers. If I put one of my purchased games on the resale market, it’s up to the buyer to determine what they’re willing to pay. If they don’t want to match my price, they can walk on, and I’m left holding on to my property. If they do match, then that’s their choice. There’s no requirement for me to lower the price just because they can’t afford it ’cause they have eighteen kids and an ailing grandmother, and if I don’t give it to them for free then I’m ruining their Christmas…
Let’s face it: board gaming is completely discretionary spending; it’s not food or shelter or health care price-gouging.
Different gamers have different needs/wants
When I was younger I had a lot of time for playing games and not enough money, the idea of paying $600 for a game never crossed my mind. If I had spent that much on a luxury I would have had a lot of negative feelings about it.
Now I have lot less time to play games but a lot more money to spend on them, fewer more expensive games fit with my current lifestyle limitations.
I value my gaming time a lot and I want it to be a premium experience, beautiful components, painted minis and custom inserts all add to that.
Companies need to provide for both types of gamers by making great gameplay at affordable prices with the option to upgrade (components) for those who can afford.
Its not just big luxury games. Prepaying for a Kickstarter game, costing over double that same game when it actually arrives 2 years later, is now common. That affects trust, and long term does no good to reputation of these big etsablished publishers.
Janye, I have to say I chucked at the “Why would you spend so much time on your yard? You could have bought a deluxe game instead” :)
There is yet another aspect to this:
Sustainability and use of resources.
In light of climate change and overusage of earth’s resources, there is also the question, if everything that can be done, should be done.
And here, the creators of games have a direct impact on these aspects.
When less is produced / offered, the negative impact on these apsects will be less, too.
Indeed, we talk about that in the video (it wasn’t the topic of this blog post, though).
Deluxifying might actually help this issue as you are perhaps more likely to care for your nice looking game than the old cardboard use and abuse version. As an example I have a game that I got from my uncle (after he was done with it) and that I intend to gift to the next generation when I’m done with it. That is a big contrast to the many cheaper games I have trashed through my life. It is also easier to resell a deluxe edition game than a basic version that often can be gotten cheaper when discounted new. I suspect it would be far better for the environment if we spent a lot on a few games (that we care about) than if we get a lot of cheap games sent from china to where ever.
And speaking of Scythe metal mechs (Yes I have a set of four); we know what is missing, right? We need the metal “Characters” to complete the game. I’m holding off painting the mechs till we have the metal Characters with compatible paints too. Please complete the sets with the metal Characters!
It’s already complete! :) We will not be making metal characters. The main reason is that we’re officially done making new Scythe content–we’ve already asked enough of Scythe fans! :) We’re just reprinting existing content now. The secondary reason is that metal made sense for the mechs, as mechs–if they were real–are made of metal. But humans and animals are not made of metal. :)
While I hear what you are saying, board games are an even more extraneous, optional purchase. This is like folks saying we should all drove electric cars. Until electric cars can be purchased for 20k, most people simply cannot afford to be green like that. In fact I would argue those who say we should just spend 60k on an ev are the tone deaf ones.
I think there are forever going to be reminders in a capitalistic society that some have more than others. I balk at any suggestion that publishers should not strive to make money. Most even offer retail or standard editions of these games. The truth is, fomo is a real thing. Hence why Shem Philips is such a great example of how to run a KS. At this stage, I am not interested in stretch goals and find them silly.
CMON priced me out of Marvel xombicide and I don’t feel bad about it. That to me was one bridge too far. I am also starting to turn away from these silly 150 dollar euro games that all of a sudden need minis.
Absolutely. Jason and I talk a bit about wants vs needs. And I agree that Shem runs a great Kickstarter; in fact, he goes out of his way to not use FOMO, and to great success: https://stonemaiergames.com/the-opposite-of-fomo/
I have no problems with purely cosmetic upgrades. If somebody wants nicer components, go for it. If there is a market for this, I still will be able to get these parts or something similiar in the future. The goal here, apart from making money of course, is to offer a nicer, upgraded expirience to the players.
Projects like Zombicide from CMON on the other hand are something that prey strongly on the FOMO factor. Releasing a “new” game with a bunch of expansions from the start drives a lot of people to just get everything, for fear of not having the oppurtunity to get those at a later date. I bet that most of those extra expansions will stay unplayed because of the sheer mass of content. The goal here is to just sell as much as possible. Instead of looking how to improve the existing products, just more similiar products are introduced.
I don’t think there is anything wrong with providing continual deluxified add-ons that eventually add up to a huge number. However, the KS should offer the flexibility to mix and match. The problem I have is with publishers who offer it only with a KS and don’t make it available for retail later.
A lot of good points in the video. In general I don’t see too much issues with a deluxe version of a game as long as the publisher is upfront about what you get and invests the time and effort to make the product live up to the investment. A bigger issue is games such as “Black Rose Wars” that adds lots of extra addons, then after their pledge manager opens they add some more stuff milking the Fomo to the max. This is made worse when rules and cards are badly translated or when some rules appear poorly tested. Worst example I have seen might be “Skull Tales” from Eclispe, that game’s manuals was just unreadable and the game had lots of rules issues and even some poor quality minis that they did not replace claiming to be too small of a company. As I see it an expensive game should be a decent production, if your not there yet then make an affordable one until you are capable to handle a bigger project.
There is also the issue is exclusive items that are not just cosmetic, that creates Fomo and makes people spend money they do not have as they can’t get the stuff later, one major issue here is digital currency and prices not giving the same feeling that a “real world” price would. Most would never spend that sort of money in a store, but online you do as the brain lose part of its ability to feel the actual cost. This is particular true for games such as “Black Rose Wars” that offers increments in investments during the campaign. In contrast my local brick and mortar store have plenty of deluxified games that they do not sell as people are able to evaluate cost vs what you actually get.
As for Tsuro not being worth a deluxification, that is simply wrong. If people are willing to pay for it, then it is worth it to those people, worth is subjective. Also your not just buying a game, your buying the artwork as a display piece. I have spent extra on a game simply to appreciate the craft put into the miniatures or components. I suspect this is especially true for the expensive version of Tsuro, people buying art to display it in their living room or similar.
If a game is by an established publisher, then I can usually buy add-ons & expansions later — a-la-carte as Shawn says below. In fact, I don’t even back KS by established publishers at the entry level because I know I can get a copy later. No FOMO on the deluxe.
The **only** urgency that I ever feel is to back a new publisher. But that’s not fear. That’s a desire to help somebody getting started as a publisher. For them, I’m as likely to back with cash (no reward) as I am to buy in for a physical copy because my goal is at least as much to help them as it is to get a copy of the game. So, again, no FOMO on the deluxe.
“[…]But the publisher put them in that position in the first place[…]
[…]When a creator has the opportunity to make something awesome that customers are actively requesting, it’s the creator’s responsibility to weigh the negative impact against with the positive[…]”
I disagree with those points. I am a customer, and I would never blame a publisher or creator for offering premium stuff. I will for exclusive content, and I will not partake in any project with exclusive content, but as long as the content is available for general public outside of the crowdfunding campaign, I am fine with it, no matter how deluxified it is.
I just think that the community is trying to create old problems on the board game industry. And I just don’t understand the reason. Is it because we want to be more progressive than anybody else?
But we are replicating issues that other industries have already dealt with, like if they were new.
When you buy a car, you always can chose a better brand or a higher model. Old problem. Why is it a thing now for board games?
Same with anything else: phones, computers, homes, hotels, clothes, college, vacations, etc.
Please, stop apologizing for making business decisions. You put your money on the line with every new product. That should be enough responsibility. Do not let customers guilt you for their bad conscience.
To be 100% clear: No one is guilting me for anything, nor is there an apology in the post (I’m not sure what you’re replying to, but it sounds like you’re conflating something that is not found in my post). I’m just exploring what it looks like to best serve our customers.
From the article:
“I’m listing these negative emotions to hopefully compel you to question the notion that the consumer is solely responsible. Yes, the customer ultimately either presses the button to buy or not buy. But the publisher put them in that position in the first place. Simply the act of putting a customer in that position can result in guilt, fear, doubt, remorse, and despair.”
I reject the premise on its entirety. The publisher is not responsible at all.
You say you want to best serve your customers. The best way to accomplish that would be to keep offering several options, even the very expensive ones.
That paragraph isn’t about anyone guilting me, nor is it an apology from me. Your last paragraph was, “Please, stop apologizing for making business decisions. You put your money on the line with every new product. That should be enough responsibility. Do not let customers guilt you for their bad conscience,” which doesn’t correlate to anything I said.
You’re welcome to express your opinions as such, but please do not twist my words or add things I did not say.
There’s another aspect to this: Retailer space. I’m close friends with my local game store’s owner and managers. These big kickstarters end up being a “one and done” thing, because of how much room they take up and because all those goodies are usually only offered in the initial release – or at such a discount that you can’t afford to pick them up later. So what happens is that I’ll see this big board game and have to decide, right there and then, if I’m gonna jump all in or not. Tidal Blades, Return to Dark Tower, Casting Shadows, Castles of Mad King Ludwig deluxe, Power Rangers: Heroes of the Grid… all these are items in just my collection where I bought all the extra goodies based on FOMO because I knew they wouldn’t be in my store forever. I’ve got a couple other big games, like Empyreal, where I only bought in after I knew I could get ahold of the expansion content.
On the other side of the coin, though, there’s things like warehouse space. Products that are produced but not sold will just cost.. someone… money in the long run, so it is important to the publisher to only produce what will be bought. And as Print on Demand can’t compete with factory-style mass production, that becomes a delicate balancing game too.
I personally will always prefer a model where you can buy in at a base level, and then buy add-ons as your budget and interest allows. This is probably why I supported FFG so heavily during the 10’s, as they didn’t really do much in the way of exclusives outside of Organized Play. But that gets back to the cost thing. I upgraded my Scythe slowly over many years, and I only really jumped on special stuff for Terraforming Mars with their last 3d deluxe parts set. But going back to my LGS, there’s a complete set of the Bloodborne minis game and the Vampire Rivals card game just sitting on their used shelves.. and has been there for quite a while. I can’t just pick and choose things.
I know I am lucky that I have a ton of disposable income. I guess all I can really do is keep an eye on my extra spending, and try my best to share stuff with others who can’t go all in.
Deluxification of Scythe is more than the metal mechs: metal coins + metal mechs + realistic resources + complete rulebook + legendary box… add up all these and the base+expansions and its right up there with expensive kickstarters. There is a huge difference though in deciding to upgrade a game’s components a-la-carte vs. deciding to buy a deluxified all-in version of the game: “I love this thing and want to upgrade (portions of) it” vs. “I hope I’ll like this and its the only chance at everything”.
I’m glad the Scythe upgrades are offered, and that they are offered in this a-la-cart manner. I think its a good/positive approach, and one I wish other publishers would adopt more as well (though maybe its not feasible for less popular games).
You’re absolutely right–buying all Scythe stuff would be quite expensive. It’s one of the reasons that I tried to put a hard close to Scythe at some point, as I wanted to do a better job of respecting customers’ wallets.
An interesting note is that even the super-fancy, everything-included version of Scythe on the 2015 Kickstarter campaign was $119–that’s a lot less than some of the deluxe all-in games we see today. :)
Of all of these options, Castles of Burgundy was the one that was most tempting to me – but they have missed the mark enough that I’ve decided not to pledge.
The art does not resonate with me, the cost is very high, there’s a lot of expansion content I’m unsure on, the miniature castles feel like they’ll make the game harder to play, the game boards seem fiddly.
If they’d made one base game with really nice acrylic tiles and art, some fancy dice, and been an $80-100 game, i’d likely have backed it.
But instead, they’ve done enough that it’s ‘too big’ and I don’t want to try to figure out what exactly I want to get, not sure if I want to devote that much shelf space, I question what the quality will actually be.
All of this led me to wait for retail. FOMO and Remorse have burned me enough that I’ve now got a visceral negative reaction when those feelings kick in, instead of backing more and more, I’m very likely to cancel completely.
I dig this topic.
My degisn philosophy with Anthromancer was to build the game as more like a system for making games. The components at the core are intentionally minimal and open-ended so that house rules and new games can be designed for the life of the product. In this way, most expansions won’t require any sort of new components be manufactured; instead, we’ll expand through text and new variants, game types, and by deepening the logic of the oracle system. If you buy the basic, super minimal first edition, you’ll be able to do all the same things that anyone who buys the (not yet created) super fancy gilded collectors version with the hardback codex, the foiled cards and board, the marbled luxury dice and the vinyl double album for the Hymnal, will be able to experience.
I figure if you can play all the same games, do all the same readings, hear the same music and connect with others in the same way whether you’ve got the print and play or the double-mega-crazy-opulence set…as a publisher, you are morally defensible. If someone is mad that there is a fancy version for people that are able to afford it, that’s not really something we can control, nor something we have responsibility to address. That’s something the individual buyer has to reflect on within themselves. I think it would be different if the fancier sets actually had something *mechanically* unique to them — at that point, you could easily see that as “punishing” people for being poor. But so long as you design expansions such that old versions are perfectly compatible — by focusing that creativity in, say, free to download .pdfs that add dynamism to the original product — I think people will basically be stoked regardless of their ability to buy the good stuff.
Thanks for always writing such thoughtful and interesting articles! You’re a credit to the community, and I hope to meet you someday.
The bigger struggle I have is with a scenario similar to COB. The all in pledge gets you 3 of the same pieces. (regular, acrylic,and 3D tiles) Typically if I get an upgraded component I usually end up throwing away the cardboard components. We opted for the middle tier to conserve space on our boardgaming shelves and the 3D versions feel like they would be more clunky for setup and clean up. I wish it was more a la carte like you guys do at Stonemaier. Then I can add what I want rather than feeling like I am being told what I should have.
A win for ala carte, right?! :)
Most everyone in the industry does really badly at this. Stonemaier gets it right, because you rarely have product scarcity. It’s morally reprehensible the way other companies seem to run their businesses on FOMO. But with Stonemaier, you can feel safe knowing you can just wait and get the thing later.
As for metal mechs, you’re targeting a specific sub-audience with those: people who paint. They’re nicer than the gray plastic that most companies consider “upgrades”, but they’re still not as usable as the base set, even with a colored base. Your metal coins are a better example—an obvious upgrade for anyone.
I agree that metal coins are a deluxe upgrade; it’s just that for the purpose of this discussion, I’m talking about really expensive games/products (anything over $150). Our metal coins are typically $30 or less.
Morally reprehensible? Let’s take Arcane Wonders Foundations of Rome. Game is only possible via KS. They barely broke even in their campaign, despite what they brought in. How is any KS exclusive morally reprehensible? That seems a bit much to me. Sure CMON preys on the fomo, but simply put, much of the KS glut of games is only possible because of KS.
I personally don’t go “all in” on any particular game, because I’m highly unlikely to get that much enjoyment out of it, but I don’t have any problems with other people choosing to purchase them. That said, I’m a sucker for metal coins.
My main problem is when a unique gameplay element is made as an exclusive to a deluxe edition, or to a crowdfunding campaign in general. I don’t always have a lot of cash to throw at a game I’ve never played, so I am reluctant to buy an expensive project. If I later learn that a game had KS exclusive content, I am very unlikely to buy the game, because I am unable to get all of the components I want.
For me, I feel like a lot of those issues go away when a company makes those products available perpetually as you and a few other publishers do.
The biggest problem is the “now or never” pressure that comes from crowdfunding. You have 30 days to decide if something you may or may not have paid is worth hundreds of dollars. If the nice things were available whenever I feel like treating myself, then it would just be something nice to look forward to someday when the timing is right vs feeling like I have to decide now.
I’m sure it’s expensive for the publisher to keep something in stock all the time and you don’t get the benefit of putting all your marketing resources in one big burst, but it’s much more consumer friendly to make things available for a long time.
My least favorite are these 10 day campaigns. Often if the campaign is less than at least 21 days I will not back it.
I don’t think it’s the publisher’s job to worry about FOMO, guilt, or any of these buying emotions that backers may or may not experience… sometimes the ‘super deluxe’ versions of a project offer some really cool stuff that may be worth supporting- and sometimes not. It’s up to the backer to budget for themselves, decide if the value of what is offered is worth it, and to pass on anything that may not meet that value/cost expectation, or that they cannot afford.
I was going to back the new Castles of Burgundy, but decided against it because of all of the additional material. I like to have a complete copy of a game, and as nice as the new edition is, I can’t justify all of the extra just to have a complete copy, so for me, that means just not backing. I’m not sure how many other backers are like me, but, they lost out on a supporter due to all the additional content I can’t afford.
They do have a basic level pledge for about $80. $10 more gets you everything related to gameplay however. It’s once you get to the $150 or $300 range that it gets nuts for me. However none of that stuff is needed.. so I was perfectly fine with the $90 pledge.
Yeah, I think it’s $90 USD plus shipping. Which, admittedly, is still a pretty penny. :)
As for the metal mechs: as the base game offers the same mechs in plastic there is totally no issue in my opinion.
I rather paint plastic or resin anyway. ;?
Hey Roy, yeah I feel the same way on this. The metal mechs are purely aesthetic and do not add anything to the game itself. I ended up just purchasing a single set for completeness and they do look really cool. However I fully intend on painting all the miniatures for the game so they fit more thematically. There are many who purchase the full set with the intent of using them in the game, but to me I feel they would be out of place.