One thing I noticed about this last preview was fewer players then there were for HOG. Or Infinite Crisis. Or X-men. Or...you get the idea.
In the past, a second flight would have to be opened right away to handle first flight overflow. Last weekend, the first flight was in no danger of "selling out" and they were scraping the bottom of the barrel to find the 16 players required to run a second flight. Why such a low turn out? Here are a few possible reasons:
Lack of Name Reconition: My mom knows who Batman and the X-men are. But "Legion of Super Heroes"? Even I don't know a whole lot about them, and I buy and read comics every week. UDE could have gone with calling this a Teen Titans set, but perhaps they feared that would confuse people with the other Titans CCG.
From a comic fan standpoint, I actually like it when UDE gives us teams I'm unfamiliar with. It gives me an excuse to buy even more comics (like I did with X-statics). That said, I love VS. so much that the new set could be an Obnoxio the Clown/Howard the Duck Team-up and I'd still buy it. I'm guessing the casual CCG player needs a bigger name to get really excited.
Bad Timing: I know it can't be helped if you're pushing 4 sets a year, but Dec. 2nd is a harsh time for an event. Think about the college kids cramming for finals (our Preview was in Berkeley, a block away from campus). Holiday insanity officially started the weekend before. For people with limited funds and a big family, $25 doesn't come as easy in the month of Dec.
Competition: The gaming competition is stiff this year. Old favorties (Magic, HeroClix) have been joined by new favorites (World of Warcraft, Dreamblade, HorrorClix). [And hey, speaking of World of Warcraft - is UDE shooting VS. in the foot? I think the short answer is "no" - at least not yet. I'll talk more about this next week, as I believe it deserves its own post.]
Since VS. is no longer a "new" game, I'd expect to see some casual gamer drop off in year 4.
All things considered, I think we'll see more people at next year's "Marvel Team-Up" preview. For one, it prominently features Spider-Man (who will be livin' pretty large with Spider-Man 3 coming out in May). It'll also happen in March(?), long after the holidays are over and players' finances have entered the recovery phase.
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