In the cold light of day, I can now consider how things went for me at Psychocon. How did it go?
My first mistake was to not enquire about the size of the convention. I had assumed it would be a similar size to The Cast Are Dice, around one hundred and twenty attendees. It was much smaller, only thirty or so - and probably ten of those are regular attendees of Beyond Monopoly my local games club. Would I have gone knowing that? Possibly not. The smaller size of the convention worked both in my favour and against it. With so few people, everyone knew I was there selling Border Reivers - my exposure was much higher than at TCAD. The downside was obviously that there were far fewer possible customers.
Once again, I'll be considering two conversion rates:
- The ratio of conference attendees to sales,
- The ratio of players that bought a copy.
I sold three copies over the weekend, so considering the thirty-odd attendees, that's a ratio of approximately 1:10. That's far better than the 1:26 I got at TCAD, and in fact, far better than the 1:20 I considered the best possible outcome from TCAD. So overall I'm delighted I went - that's an excellent rate.
When it comes to the second conversion rate I'd be hoping for at least the 1:5 I got at TCAD. I played seven games, all 2-player games, and I sold two copies to players - so once again the Psychocon result (2:7) is better than TCAD, so it really was worth attending.
On top of the three sales, I had four people who expressed in interest in buying a copy, and yet didn't commit to anything during the weekend. They might have been trying to placate me, or they might have been serious, I'll find out over the next few weeks.
Once again, one of my customers was a reader of this blog. Hugo of Bode Gueims was looking at the game, and when I approached to see if he wanted to play a game, he asked if I was the writer of this blog. Again I'm interested that the blog is attracting attention.
In summary, I probably wouldn't have gone if I'd thought the convention would be that small, and yet, had I missed it, in retrospect it would have been a big mistake. I'm still learning the ropes of this business, and I got a little lucky this weekend. That counts for a lot.
Posts
5 comments:
I'm really surprised how small Psychocon was... I guess having only been to Cast are Dice, I figured it would be a similar size.
Nick and Sue, who organised Cast Are Dice, must've done pretty darn well to get 100+ attendees in their first year.
Sounds like you made good progress on sales though... Any word from the American guy who thinks the 2 player version is broken??
Yeah, The Cast Are Dice was great fun too.
As for the customer who thinks the 2-player is broken, we've been discussing it via email. He's played the 2-player game six times (basic set-up only) and each time the game has been won by the first player through financial means. The second player has been trying to keep within striking distance cash wise.
I've suggested they play the advance rules (perhaps I should have called them introductory and standard - I'd intended the advanced rules to be used after your first play or two).
The main thing I've suggested is that the second player spend heavily, using cards and weight of numbers to force the first player into a position where they also have to spend heavily, and pull it back that way.
It's hard to break out of that mindset of "gotta keep up" on cash... Having said that, the three player game against Mason.. I spent up, but was unlucky not to have much to show for it.
Yeah, I tend to spend in the early turns, hoping that I'll get enough reinforcements to punish the saver to the point where they'll have to spend lots to defend themselves. Sometimes it works, sometimes you're unlucky.
Hello again Jack,
Thanks for teaching me how to play and, by the way, I really enjoyed our paralel-to-the-game chat.
And thanks for advertising Bode Gueims. I've mentioned Border Reivers in my comments of PshycoCon, but I intendo to make a more indepth review of the game later on.
Best regards,
Hugo
Post a Comment