Interest Saturation

= Interest Saturation
= May 9th, 2011

Periodically in the past I have taken a moment out of my already busy schedule to write a basic event report. These reports summarize how some of the events that often take more planning and preparation were actually executed and how successful they were, as well as any interesting rulings or other situations. After running the events related to the New Phyrexia Pre-release, I felt as if I had to sit down and write something more than a report.

Let me first say that the challenges that I see ahead seem very difficult to overcome. But the potential for growth on a personal and professional level is staggering.

=What Happened?

Those who were there saw it, were a part of it. Could not help to notice the fact. We had a sanctioned pre-release with only eight players in attendance. If you fail to see why this is not immediately flagged as a "Very serious problem" allow me to share some basic info with you. Since I started running pre-releases, the attendance at this type of event has been steadily increasing. Dipping into my history file I can show you the following:

Pre-release attendance: Main; Draft side event(s)
New Phyrexia: 8 ; 12
Mirridin Besieged: 18; 9
Scars of Mirridin: 30; 10
Magic 2011: 31; 14
Rise of Eldrazi: 19; 8

Obviously a pre-release attendance of 8 is quite worry some when we've hosted 20-30 people consistently for the past year.

=Why did it happen?

That day, a lot of people were asking the question "What happened?" But this is more appropriately phrased as "Why did we only get 8 people for a pre-release?"

Upon reflection, it is my belief that no single thing was the root cause of this. But If I had to answer with a single word I think that word would be "Saturation."

Every now and then there is a perfect storm. A collection of events and circumstances that have a combined effect far greater than their parts. This past Saturday was one such conflux. Allow me to share with you some of the things that probably contributed to our lowest attendance numbers yet.

Saturday was Free-Comic Book day (the first saturday in May). Normally this is very good for us as it brings people into the shop. The response this year was somewhat less.
Saturday was the Spring into the Arts Festival (held in center court of Clearview mall), and consumed space, and time (as well as tables and chairs).
That weekend happened to be Mother's Day weekend, and many people had familial duties or responsibilities.
That weekend happened to be commencement weekend (at least for SRU).
The past season (2-3 months) of regular magic events have successfully launched inconsistently at best (more on this later).

There are probably more circumstances that I am missing at this time.
Like I said, a perfect storm.

=Saturation

While several events saturated that single day. I'd like to talk about another saturation which has been increasingly worrying me, and contributes directly to that last item concerning our weekly FNMs not being held due to lack of interest.

And that is: Interest saturation.

There's a certain amount of interest in Magic by those people who play. That interest is finite because there's a finite number of people in a given area who have an interest in magic. A location that runs FNMs, like NDC Butler (the store where I work and run events most of the time), and the local community of players is best served when the pace of events match (but do not exceed) the available interest.

That available interest can fluctuate as people join the game, leave the game, gain new responsibilities (family, job, etc), as well as can be dictated by personal finance. It is a resource that we retailers need to carefully mine, without overextending.

If you are matching your area's interest you will get consistent attendance numbers over long periods of time. Thus far I've managed steadily climbing numbers for nearly two years. If you look at the long term, we're doing pretty good.

The biggest warning sign that you are exceeding the available interest? Or providing more events than there are people willing to attend regularly? - Poor attendance. What I've faced and seen happen locally for the past 2 months minimum.

=What can be done?

I read an article once where a local magic judge struggled to get the eight player minimum to run sanctioned FNMs for months. His solution was to only run events bi-monthly. His situation was vastly different from mine however, because he lived in a very rural area where players had to travel (sometimes up to an hour) to even attend the events he was hosting. While this certainly is a solution that works, I don't think this is the right solution for me in Butler, PA.

I'm still very much open to new ideas and approaches to solve this growing issue that effects all of us. However, I can say with utter certainty one way to bring our regular attendance back to the level it takes to run regular weekly events.

Generate More Interest.

While there are many ways to generate more interest, I think the one that stands out most in my mind is to cultivate more magic players. Both new players and players returning to the game after a long hiatus need to be given encouragement and room to grow. They need to be informed about sanctioned play, so they can make educated decisions about what types of tournaments they wish to try out (if any - some players are not and will never be tournament players).

Imagine for a moment that our location only has 10 or so tournament magic players. Each person would have a relatively large impact on if a successful sanctioned event could take place. Compare to a situation where a location has 30 or so tournament players. A few of those players might come every week (barring unusual circumstances), but if the bulk of them only come every 2-3 weeks - your still guaranteed to have an event just about every week.

=Community Building

Obviously, a lot of work needs to be done, and I for one am not sure where to start. But I know two things.

One: We can all work together on this, and should. Part of what makes magic awesome is that players as a whole are a community. We all share a common interest. The physical location where we play, IE: The FLGS (friendly local gaming store), isn't just a place to hang out, it's OUR place to hang out.

Two: Magic the Gathering is FAR from dead. Butler has a vibrant and strong Casual night that is PACKED nearly every Tuesday. The near future is also PACKED with awesome magic. Commander, is one that interests me. The most important however is Duels of the Planeswakers and Magic 2012 Core Set, and a national-level ad campaign put forth by Wizards to bring new players into Magic.

In the coming month I hope to read articles and gather information regarding the subject of Community Building. I will attempt to link interesting articles or otherwise pass along what I learn in attempt to facilitate the growth of our community.

Until then, may your interest flourish and grow.