Cheat To Win; The Tasty Minstrel Way...
Posted by Michael Mindes on October 13, 2010
In Purple Cow, Seth Godin asks the question, “Why aren’t you cheating”. He does this after giving examples of several successful companies that are successful and growing as a result of ignore the “old rules” and moving forward on their own path.
- In this way, Starbucks cheated by reinventing the expectation of coffee.
- Amazon.com cheated by increasing selection, organizing selection, and lowering cost through efficient storage, shipping, and inventory procedures.
- Vanguard cheated by giving people an easy and low-cost way to match various indexes.
- Southwest airlines cheats by not having the burden of unionized workers and being ruthlessly efficient getting planes back off of the ground.
When it comes to the world outside of games, I am in favor of “Cheat to Win”. Obviously I do not endorse doing anything illegal or immoral. I am however in favor of ignoring the old rules and creating a new way to do business. The result of cheating is that you play by a different set of rules, which makes the “game” easier for you to win.
How Tasty Minstrel Games Cheats Too
When in the board game industry, it is easy to cheat. This is partially the result of existing institutions that define the “rules” based on 10+ years ago. These rules as I have learned them are as follows:
- Print your games, the game play needs to be good but not awesome AND the artwork is not that important.
- Take your games to the GAMA Trade Show, Origins, and GenCon.
- Take your games to Spiel in Essen.
- If you can make it to the NY Toy Fair, and other shows that would be great too.
- Advertise in industry magazines, such as the Greater Games Industry Catalog, Alliance’s inventory magazine, etc.
- Go to as many conventions as possible to teach people how to play the game.
Of all of those rules, Tasty Minstrel only follows one. We take our games to the GAMA Trade Show, and that is partially a result of the cost being low for us. We setup shop at PSI’s booth (our fulfillment company), we drive from Tucson, and we pay for a hotel.
So we don’t follow the rules set out for us by the standardized advice…
Our Own Methods – Rules For The Digital Age
If we are not following the old school rules, then what are we doing? This is always evolving, but has always included:
- Gathering email addresses of interested individuals, so that we can communicate directly with those that want us to. This includes upcoming products, launch deals, and requesting feedback about our products.
- Advertising online with sites like Board Game Geek. There are very cost effective ways to directly reach people that are 100% within your ideal market.
- Involving our audience/customers in some of the decision making processes.
- Ruthless desire for fantastic game play. Whenever you buy a Tasty Minstrel Games product, I want you to know it is a good game. It might not fit your tastes, and you might not like it… But you should know it is a good game.
- Great artwork. I am adamant about the fact that great artwork elevates the quality of a game.
- Concise and clear rules. For me, nothing ruins an initial game play experience faster than not understanding the rules going into the game. This is why we vet and release the rulebook for a game prior to making it final.
Of course, doing these things is only a mild form of cheating. Really, all game companies should be committed to the awesomeness in game play, artwork, and rules. Now, onto how we can are such vicious cheaters that we can price games so aggressively.
Cheat To Win – Pricing, Pricing, Pricing
Lower prices leads to more sales and more sales lead to more exposure, which in turn will lead to a quicker adoption rate and domination of the gaming market. So how do we manage to price things so aggressively?
The simple answer is that I choose to. I look at the low cost as a marketing tool, as building a brand, and allowing a game to be more easily adopted. All while retaining profitability. This choice however is enabled by the following facts:
- TMG has no physical overhead. No warehouse, no rent, no storage costs, nothing.
- TMG has no labor overhead. No employees, no salaries, nothing. Anybody that does work for TMG is on a royalty or performance basis.
- TMG has less than $500 a month in other overhead. This includes all technology, Free Game Friday gifts, everything.
- TMG has a long-term outlook. Everybody involved has employment that most people are envious of. There will need to be a compelling reason to switch over to full-time, such as multiple hits. So that is what we are looking for.
- TMG saves tons of time on lots of mundane tasks. The fulfillment company I use, PSI, allows us to worry about making games and living our lives. They handle warehousing, marketing to distributors, shipping, and collecting money. All for a small performance based fee…
When it comes to rules in the real world, they are not always the best to follow. Laws need to be abided by, but generalized rules for an industry… Break them and set new ones.
Getting Better At Cheating
Any active observer can easily tell the methods under which Tasty Minstrel Games is cheating. As it becomes more obvious that these methods work, then they will start to become the new rules of the industry.
That is why it is essential to always be finding better and more effective ways to cheat. For example, right now I am actively looking for non-English language partners for our successful games. I am not looking for partners to reduce my up-front risk or to fund the initial printing of a game.
I feel that will just lead to printing less-than-awesome games, of which we are seeing more and more released annually. What I am looking for is partners that want the following:
- A market tested and confirmed game.
- Low and reasonable licensing fee which includes artwork.
- Low minimum required print runs for each language.
- First access to future games in their language.
- Multiple year license contracts so they do not have to worry about renegotiating license fees.
Basically, I want to treat them the way I would like to be treated. I had an Italian design group approach me once about licensing their games in English. It was embarrassing what they had and what they wanted. Yet my love for game had me thinking about their proposal, I am embarrassed to say.
- They had a game that looked like a direct competitor of a very successful existing game.
- Priced at almost the same cost of the other game, yet with significantly less stuff in the box.
- They wanted me to pay about 70% of what I would make selling through distribution for several thousand copies.
Looking back I wonder why I even thought any further about their offer. It was probably because I thought the game looked cool, a game designed to my utmost desire. However, looking back I like to think that I thought about it so that I would know how to treat potential partners.
I want potential partners to really be able to share in the profitability of the game, while helping to expand the popularity of it, and get some no risk income to me as a result. But not at the expense of not having a quality relationship.
Conclusion
When it comes to running any business, the old rules are there because they worked for those that survived in the business. The old rules are based on the results of the past.
In the new world, a large number of people have high-speed Internet access, and with some creativity it is significantly easier to reach these people. Utilize this truth, keep your expenses low, and you will be surprised at what can be done.
How are you cheating in your business? I would love to hear about it.]]>
