From the Gnome's Perspective is a weekly column by retailer Pat Fuge, who owns Gnome Games, a two store chain in Green Bay, Wisconsin.  This week is part two of his review of organized play programs:

The annual review of organized play programs continues with a review of Collectable Miniature Games programs.  As we look toward 2006 we evaluate how various manufacturers organized play opportunities worked for us and their potential in 2006.  This group of products includes only those miniatures designed as collectables and doesn't include non-collectable miniature games.  We'll review those programs next week.

The collectable miniature scene at Gnome Games features offerings from three manufacturers - WizKids, Wizards of the Coast, and Bandai.  Each company offers a different style of organized play, all designed, on the surface, to help the brick and mortar retailer.

WizKids (Grade B+) -- MechWarrior, Mage Knight, HeroClix, Pirates, Rocketmen

WizKids has one of the most comprehensive organized play programs available, averaging about 1/week/game.  Each of these events is supported with prizes in the form of Limited Edition or 'special' figures to be given to the participants.  On the surface it's exactly what every retailer wants and or needs to sell the game.

The challenges we find with WizKids Organized Play are in the allowable scheduling of events and tournament management and reporting.  While neither is significant enough for us to stop offering WizKids events as part of our organized play calendar they do present significant room for improvement in the WizKids OP system.

WizKids event registration requires 4 hours between each event unless we use multiple envoys and doesn't allow scheduling of events on weekdays before 4pm. These limitations inhibit cross exposure of the games, playing 2 of them at the same time, and our ability to run events during the summer or on days when school isn't in session.   They are the only manufacturer to limit their event hours and we believe this limits us far too much. 

The reporting process for WizKids events is post-event and there is no tournament management software available.  This means that staff spends additional time reporting after an event is complete.  This also means that there must be some external process used for larger events to manage pairings and results. Simply put, in this area of Organized Play WizKids gets a poor grade.  If there were a tool to manage tournaments and send the data (similar to the Wizards of the Coast's DCI Reporter or Upper Deck's Mantis) it would make event management easier. 

WizKids takes great pride in their prize support and they provide the best free prize support in the business.  They provide more prize support in the form of promo and limited edition figures than any other manufacturer.  As a retailer this appears to be a good thing - as free stuff given to players always sells more product, or so the WizKids business model would seem to indicate.

In our analysis of the manufacturer's organized play it appears that too much of a good thing can actually hurt the game's sales.  The quest for LE's has created a very lucrative online market for the LE's that has led at least some retailers to sell prize support - often before they are actually available through tournament play.  In fact, the lucrative sales of the LE's and the distrust of the retailers is one reason cited for limiting the hours open to supported organized play, so WizKids is aware of the problem they have created with free figures.  While we expect this to continue to cheapen the WizKids OP experience as time progresses, we don't feel it will decrease the effectiveness of it enough to drop it in 2006.

Wizards of the Coast (Grade B+) -- Dungeons and Dragons Miniatures, Star Wars Miniatures, Axis & Allies Miniatures

Wizards of the Coast runs organized play through two programs.  They offer the DCI for formally sanctioned tournaments and Premier Store League kits for prize support and league play. 

The Wizards DCI Reporter program is one of the best in the industry for tournament registration, management and reporting.  It is easy to use, allows for quick player registration, and determination of DCI number through the name lookup features.  It also manages a variety of tournaments very effectively and automatically reports tournament results with a few keystrokes.  It is free for approved tournament organizers and a must have for any retailer that runs tournaments.

The WotC League Kit program provides alternate paint scheme miniatures, miniature templates and scenarios to Premier Stores for a nominal fee.  While not free prize support, the value included in the kit is more than a fair value.  They provide very effective ideas for league play and overall provide high quality prize support for any tournament.

The only drawback for the WotC miniatures organized play is in the once a month frequency of the league kit prize support.  It would be nice if a prize support package were available each month in addition to the League Kit to increase excitement for the line and increase participation, thereby improving sales.  

Bandai (B) -- Navia Drapt

While we have heard that this is a seemingly stagnant product line over the past few months, the organized play from Bandai for their Navia Drapt product line has been supportive and has maintained a stable player base.  Each month there are select miniatures available for tournaments with enough variation to encourage players to return for multiple events.