On New TCG Players and Community Building
Plus an apology
Before we jump into this week’s topic, I want to say this upfront: I hate my Star Wars: Unlimited prerelease preview from last week. It didn’t say anything new, good, or useful. “Prerelease good” is hardly a revelation. Frankly, you can get better content on TikTok. Since Youtube Shorts and TikTok are the worst things ever, let’s aim for better, shall we?
I recently finished the book Fantasy Expert by Ron Shandler. Shandler is a longtime fantasy baseball writer who helped pioneer the career of “fantasy expert”. Fantasy Expert is a history/memoir of fantasy baseball and the fantasy sports industry. In his book, Shandler talks about the deterioration of fantasy content over the years. Shandler notes declines in quality of authorship, as well as less novel things being said.
Shandler may very well be “old man yells who yells at cloud”, but his message hit me very close to home. I don’t want to be someone who simply regurgitates others. I don’t want to be another 10 minute Youtube video explaining to you what a prerelease is and why it’s an awesome way to start a game. It’s redundant and boring. What’s worse, those are its best qualities.
I failed in that last week. You, as a Opossum Papers reader, deserve better. When you get an email in your inbox from the Opossum Papers, you should expect something you can’t get elsewhere. Even if I hold the mainstream opinion on something, there should be some unique reason for you to hear about it from me. One of my early qualms with starting a newsletter was “who cares what I think anyway?” Well, a surprising number of fellow opossoms read this, and I believe I owe it you to be a cut above the rest.
While I might sometimes fail and give you fluff, please know that I’m making a conscious effort to avoid that. We’re going to live fast and eat trash just like true opossums.
Shut up and give us the topic
Alright, fair enough. Since the SWU prereleases will happen after I’m supposed to release this newsletter, reactions and thoughts will have to wait until next week - if they even merit remark.
This week, I want to briefly touch on community building, gatekeeping, and fostering newness. SWU is coming out, new communities will be formed, and it’s important to discuss what that looks like.
I’m not going to address how Star Wars fandom, like most nerd fandom, has long been dominated by men. I won’t go into how these fandoms have long been gatekept for “real fans”. I wouldn’t be saying anything new if I did (there’s that conscious effort coming in). After all, I’m a cishet white dude. I have literally nothing to add to the conversation. Games are by folks like me, for folks like me.
Where I think I can add some insight, however, is from actually interacting with new players. A lot of people will be coming into a TCG for the first time with this prerelease, and it’s important we focus on them. There’s a lot of ways to inadvertently gatekeep. So I just want to reflect on an example that hopefully leads you to make a conscious effort in being more inclusive to new gamers.
Fantasy Flight live stream
I was watching an official Fantasy Flight Games stream the other day, and one hosts was listing cards without saying what they do or pausing to mention the mechanics. The other host stopped and said something akin to, “Let’s say what the cards do for people that are new to the game.”
As a person that doesn’t have 100% of the card pool memorized for a yet-to-be-released game, I really appreciated that. Anyone involved in the scene, from content creators to established TCG vets, needs to be aware that the concept of remembering 252 individual cards will seem ludicrous to new TCG players.
Two of my best friends, Matt “Flake” DiMarco and Darick “Charm3r” Oswalt, along with esport legend Erik “DoA” Lonnquist, host an excellent SWU podcast called Ice Cave Radio. Their most recent episode includes a crack a pack segment cutely named “Emergency Pack!” This segment involves opening a pack, reading the cards in it, and discussing “pack 1 pick 1s”.1
Emergency Pack!, a lot like other crack a packs, fails to note the stats or abilities of cards being listed. As a TCG vet, but still unfamiliar with the totality of the card pool, it was hard to keep up. I ended up a little overwhelmed. That happened to me, a guy who has been doing this for far too long.
Rather than assuming everyone knows what the various cards do this early in the game’s lifecycle, it would be better to read the abilities when listing the cards. This way, new players learn the card pool while engaging with the content. An excellent example of this is found in the Limited Resources podcast. When the hosts do pack 1 pick 1, they quickly read each card’s ability. This way, listeners learn the card pool over time. As the set gets older, they read less of the abilities, as they’ve taught their listeners the card pool over time.
For what it’s worth, I know my friends at Ice Cave aren’t intending to be exclusive. They’ve also done a bang up job with the spoilers that came out over the game’s marketing period. If they haven’t deep dived into 100% of the cards, they’ve gotten close. They’re excited for a game that they’ve been looking forward to for a long time. Their podcast literally oozes wanting people to be involved. I only bring this example up as a way of being conscious about how we’re being inclusive to people jumping into the hobby.2
Back to FFG’s video
I was also off put by the FFG host referencing “people that are new to the game.” The game is less than zero days old. Literally everyone is new to the game. Perpetuating the idea that some people are experienced with the game, while others are new and therefore “behind”, is not the ideal start to building a community.
Of course, the FFG host meant “new” relative to people that had been following the news of the game’s development over the years. They meant “new” in the way that I am not. Like most earnest people’s actions, they didn’t mean to create barriers with this sentence fragment.
The comment is just an example of things that are said with good intentions but can have negative connotations. It’s just a thing established people need to be thinking about if they care about building a community. It’s our obligation if we care about creating a space that grows.
Conclusion - what does this mean for me?
If you’re an established TCG vet, be patient with the new folks you encounter at your prereleases. This goes both for SWU and every other game. You’ve probably got decades of assumptions and heuristics built up over the years. Lots of things probably appear obvious to you. And trust me, I get that it’s sometimes frustrating to have to slow down and explain yourself. But I promise it’s for the good of your game’s longevity. The more welcoming we are the better.
If you’re new to the space, come on in baby the water’s fine! Be patient as you’re new to an environment and a whole world. You’re also allowed to be new, challenge assumptions, and ask questions when things don’t make sense. If you’ve found any decent place to call your TCG home, people would love to accommodate you; you just have to ask.
If you’ve read this far, I’d greatly appreciate it if you’d consider subscribing, for free, to this newsletter. The weekly newsletter will hopefully grow as I get feedback and experience, and I truly look forward to sharing it with everyone.
I’d also appreciate it if you check out the TCG podcast I co-host with my good friend Dan Norton (DJGigabyte). Quest for 20 started as a Lorcana podcast, but it’s morphed into a podcast for TCGs in general, and we will certainly be talking about all things SW:U as the game really takes off.
“Pack 1 Pick 1” is a term for when you open a pack and discuss what card you would pick first if this pack were the first one you opened in a draft. The idea is to get an idea of strength of each card relative to the others in a draft environment. It isn’t a “be all end all” exercise, but it’s a fun way to open packs.
I’ve also cleared these comments, and the use of their podcast in this newsletter, with Flake. I could have done this without naming ICR, but Flake was generous enough to let me mention the show directly.
As always, your content is as refreshing as blue milk. (I think that's good, right?)