I posed this question in yesterday’s weekly livecast, and I thought the answers were really interesting. It’s actually two questions, one for the industry (publishers, designers, etc) and one for the community (gamers, social media participants, etc).

Here are the answers I’ve heard and my thoughts on them; I’d love to hear your answers too.

What’s the #1 Change You Want for the Tabletop Game Industry?

  • make fewer games: Gamers and game stores are inundated with quality games. I think it’s tough for a game publisher to hear, “Do less of the thing you love doing,” and it’s rare these days that I see companies pursuing quantity over quality. That said, I believe in printing only our best work and that the games we truly love will make a significant impact.
  • fewer campaign-only games: I think the appeal of lifestyle campaign games has greatly decreased over the years for a variety of reasons. That shouldn’t necessarily stop passionate designers from making them, but there appears to be an increasing interest in those games offering ways to play standalone sessions, not just campaign mode.
  • no more exclusives: It genuinely surprises me that exclusives (especially crowdfunding exclusives) are still a thing when there’s a perfectly viable alternative: Instead of forever excluding people who missed the campaign–especially if you’ve created a game that stands the test of time–offer a free promo pack with the campaign that you offer later at a cost.
  • better inserts: I must admit that I’m not particularly passionate about inserts as a gamer, but as a publisher I want to make it as easy as possible for someone to set up a game, and a good insert or organization system accomplishes that goal. This isn’t limited to plastic inserts; games like Wondrous Creatures and Kavango have excellent cardboard inserts.
  • more games where the core game and deluxe stuff are separate: This wish is about price accessibility. On crowdfunding, deluxe versions of games rule the roost. But after that, I think a lot of people prefer to get their foot in the door before deciding to deluxify.

What’s the #1 Change You Want for the Tabletop Game Community?

  • constructive criticism and questions instead of negativity and toxicity: For a community built on the foundation of joyful tabletop experiences, I’m continually bewildered at unwarranted negativity and toxicity, whether it’s directed at publishers, designers, or fellow gamers. This isn’t a call for unbridled enthusiasm and positivity–it’s okay not to like things, and it’s good that we can be honest with each other. But there’s a huge difference between “Your game sucks” and “I tried your game and liked the idea of the action system, but I never really felt like I was making meaningful progress. There was one memorable moment when a combo paid off, but ultimately the game wasn’t for me.”
  • more empathy and fewer complaints about fulfillment speed: I love seeing excitement from people–for games by any publisher–when their order is shipping soon. But it’s disheartening to see that passion manifest in harassment (or even persistent questions about order status and why my order wasn’t shipped before someone else’s order). From my crowdfunding days, this takes a huge toll–in fact, it’s the top reason we stopped using crowdfunding platforms after Scythe (which delivered in 2016 earlier than estimated after the November 2015 Kickstarter, and we were still inundated with these types of complaints and comments). There absolutely is a time to be worried about why your order hasn’t shipped yet, but that time isn’t the first day or even the first few weeks after fulfillment begins. Put yourself in the shoes of the hardworking folks at fulfillment centers–there is a physical limit as to how many packages a person can pack each day. And also put yourself in the shoes of the publisher who is receiving email after email from people asking why their order hasn’t shipped yet or for the status of their order. The status is that it hasn’t shipped yet; it will ship when it’s ready to ship; you’ll know when it ships because you’ll get a tracking notification. (I promise this isn’t directed at Stonemaier Games customers–while it’s all still true, especially for launch products when our fulfillment centers receive thousands of orders all at once, you are awesome about being patient for a few weeks while the orders are shipped.)

I think all of these are reasonable requests of this amazing tabletop industry and community, and I hope we can all do better together. What are your answers to these questions?

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