Tribes of Toy Nations: The Board Game Advocates

Nate Scheidler is an advocate for board game play. He funnels his passion into action via his Chicago Board Games Meetup, the largest organized playgroup of any kind in the city of Chicago. Aimed at people of all ages, Nate’s group now numbers over 1,000 members who meet regularly to play board games.

People like Nate have the ability to grow board games sales at the grass roots level. Here is my interview with Nate:

Q. What makes the Chicago Board Games Meetup unique?

A: What makes us unique is that we are actively and aggressively developing and marketing our group. With the help of my sponsors and local businesses, we are actively working to raise awareness of our group and traditional board games in the local market.

Q: Who are your members?

A: We have a very diverse group, but it is fairly easy to break most of them down into 2 broad categories: social and strategic.

Social game players are drawn primarily to demographics that closely match their own.  They look on games as entertainment and a means to get introduced to new people. They are also the hardest people to retain, purely because generating good demographic matchups in a group my size is challenging.

Strategic game players are drawn primarily to the content, and playing the games is almost like a meal; it’s a satisfying experience.  The more unique and interesting the experience you provide, the more apt they are to return.

Q: Is this a business or a hobby for you?

A: I consider it to be more of a business than a hobby. I have a large number of sponsors for my group, such as Rio Grande and Out of the Box. I treat them as investors. Where typically they send out promotional support to groups and hope for the best, I collect information on product usage and player behavior that I can provide them in return for their support.

I also function as a marketing outlet for the Chicago Toy and Game Fair. When the fair returns in mid-November, I will have distributed its marketing message out into the local and regional community.

Q: What advice do you have for other people interested in starting groups of their own?

A: It’s all about relationships. Build partnerships with businesses in your community. If you have members that are regularly attending your events, try to get them involved with organizing events too. Talk to other group organizers in your surrounding areas to help develop a larger community. When more people start working together, you can do some really incredible things.

I’m connecting with other organizers nationwide. This summer at Origins and Gen Con I am holding seminars in hopes of getting more organizers together in one place to share ideas and best practices.

Q: Do you have any final thoughts you would like to add?

A: I think we’re at a turning point in the industry. Everywhere I look in the news, I see pictures and mentions of breaking out the Scrabble set. Recent stories regarding the decline in video game console sales helps highlight a growing desire for a new entertainment experience. There are tremendous opportunities for changing the marketing and sales models for traditional toys and games, and it starts with getting the products into a position where people can interact with it. The world is ready to be re-introduced to the importance of play.