Original title: LOL board game $80 luxury? No! There are more expensive board games than it
A few days ago, the author’s Moments was swiped by a news that LOL was about to launch a Table Game product. All the relevant news headlines were such as "LOL Official Board Game Exposed: Priced at $80, Claimed to be the Most Luxury Board Game in History"…
There was an even more exaggerated headline, which called it: Extravagant Astonishing
Seeing this, the author is a little dizzy, priced at $80? More than 500 yuan? Is this called "luxury"? Also "the most luxurious in history"? As a board game related industry practitioner, the author decided to talk to everyone about the topic of board game pricing, maybe you will completely change the pricing of this LOL board game – even think it is quite cheap.
What kind of board game is LOL board game?
From the current news on overseas board game websites, the official name of the LOL board game version is "Mechs Vs. Minions", officially priced at $75. It is a cooperative competitive board game that includes layout and models. The latest news says that the release time has been postponed to 11:00 on October 31, and the Chinese version has been confirmed.
In the game, the player can choose and play a character from four different characters, each with different abilities, and the player needs to use the command card to manipulate these characters – these four characters are all heroes of LOL, and it is conceivable that their abilities in the board game will also be related to the original skills in the online game.
4 character models in the LOL board game
However, unlike LOL online games, the rules of board games are not "two-sided battle" like online games, but all players as a whole face victory or defeat in the game – that is, all players are teammates, and the enemy is the monster in the board game. By using different scripts, players need to achieve different victory conditions in different tasks.
This is a very typical fully cooperative model layout game, but it is not ruled out that it will introduce other rules in the future.
The packaging of the game also states that the theme is players against monsters
Due to the fact that the accessories of the LOL board game include 4 pre-painted character models, 100 enemy models, as well as double-sided game boards, cards, dice and various markers, in the introduction of the English website, the price of this game is described as "best value", which means very affordable – in fact, most players familiar with the board game will blurt out when they see the price of this board game: "Wow, good conscience!"
The quality of mold opening and coloring of such a model is definitely considered conscientious in similar games
If you still feel that LOL board games are luxurious, take a look at the pricing of other similar board games
Board games similar to Mechs Vs. Minions are actually not uncommon. Looking at the pricing of these games, you will find that Mechs Vs. Minions is still very conscientious.
The Endless Killing series: nearly $90
For example, "Endless Killing" is a series of board games that have been published in four independent games and multiple expansion packs. The background of the game is the story of survivors fighting zombies after the end of the world. The game also includes map boards, cards, dice and various models; it is also a Chinese version; it also requires players to unite in the game, fight the zombie models that keep popping up on the map in different mission scripts, and finally complete the mission conditions required by the script. The latest Chinese version of "Endless Killing" is "Zombicide: Black Plague" (Zombicide: Black Plague). The official price of its Chinese version is 599 yuan, which is $89.80 at the current exchange rate. The product price is nearly 15 dollars more expensive than "Mechs Vs. Minions".
The models of "Endless Killing" need to be colored by the player himself
Star Wars board game: 599 RMB
You may not have heard of "Endless Killing" and think it’s just a coincidence, so I’ll take another board game like LOL, which is also a well-known big IP background as an example. "Star Wars" everyone knows, right? Just last month, "Star Wars: Imperial Assault", the latest cooperative layout model game of "Star Wars", was released in Chinese, which is also a game that requires players to cooperate to complete tasks in the script. The game’s accessories include more than 50 map boards, 11 dice, 34 models, and various cards and markers. The official price of this game is also 599 yuan.
Have you found the one you are familiar with in this pile of models? Among them, you need to assemble the AT-ST walker armor model yourself.
Therefore, 300 to 600 yuan is actually the general price of a Table Game with more models, and it is not a luxury at all.
Changes in the selling price of board games
If you have only played Legends of the Three Kingdoms or Werewolf before, you will definitely ask: Why are the prices of board games so expensive now? Do you think inflation has only increased the price of daily necessities? In fact, the price increase of board games has lasted for 5 to 6 years, but because of the long time of price adjustment, everyone has not noticed it.
From 2010 to 2012, the price of layout games with more models was generally in the range of 368 yuan to 398 yuan. With the increase in labor, materials, and design costs, the price of games has naturally increased. Especially model games, because the metal mold of the model is relatively expensive (a set of molds requires at least a 6-digit mold opening fee), the price increase is more obvious. For example, in 2011, I purchased expansion packs for the first version of the "Descent" series of games, which included models, maps, cards, and many other accessories. Now, the expansion pack of the second edition of "Deep into the Jedi" has been simplified to contain only a few models + corresponding cards per box, or even only one monster or character model, but the price is around 100 yuan.
It turns out that this box of games was only sold for 260 yuan when the agent promoted the clearance activity.
Now a model costs about 100 yuan
One of the most famous board game models, BattleLore, was first released in 2006 and was hard to come by as early as 2010. The publisher refused to reprint it on the grounds that "due to higher production costs, the price of the reprint will exceed the psychological expectations of players." It was not until the rights to "The Way of War" were acquired by another company that the game background was changed, the model quality was simplified, and a lower-priced remake was released.
Look at the first version of the model, the clothing details of each character are clearly depicted
In contrast, the second edition was much poorer in order to control the quality of the cost model
Table Game with a large number of models, from more than 300 yuan in 2010, to more than 400 yuan in 2014, and then to 599 yuan in 2016, the price has increased by 40% in 6 years. But if Horizontal comparison of many daily necessities, or even the price increase of vegetables in the vegetable market in 6 years, such price increases are not large.
Real luxury board games
However, there are some board games that can really be called luxury goods. The value of a board game mainly comes from three aspects: the first is the material of the accessories; the second is the number of productions; and the third is the popularity of the game itself. Generally, board games that can be regarded as luxury goods in terms of pricing must meet the above three conditions at the same time.
The Lord of the Rings Hardcover Collector’s Edition: Priced at 3599.99 in US dollars
This is a layout war chess game, there is a normal version for ordinary consumers. But the Collector’s Edition enlarged the game as a whole, using a magic book-shaped wooden box as the outer packaging, lined with velvet, each model has its own placement space, and the quality of the model can be compared with the figure. How much does such a game have to sell for? 5 years ago, this game sold for 4,800 yuan on Taobao, and now… The price on Amazon is as high as 3,599.99 US dollars…
This game is really priceless, which makes me deeply regret why I didn’t buy it when it sold for $900
The 18K gold version of "Real Estate Tycoon": a dice is worth $10,000, and a set of board games is exchanged for a 100-square-meter school district room in Beijing’s Second Ring Road
This game might be considered a real luxury. Real Estate Tycoon or Monopoly Everyone should know that the chessboard, banknotes and various cards of this special set of Real Estate Tycoon are made of 18K gold, and the dice are made of 42-faceted diamonds. Each dice alone is worth 10,000 US dollars.
A set of board games for a 100-square-meter school district room in Beijing’s Second Ring Road is the most luxurious board game in history
Second-hand board games and collections
In this day and age, no manufacturer would be foolish enough to set a price for their board game products that would scare away consumers. So if you see a board game on Taobao that costs more than 700 yuan, it is usually a second-hand game. Yes, in the board game industry, sometimes you can buy a game and play it for two years and then sell it for a higher price than the purchase price.
If some games encounter avid speculators or collectors again, the price will rise to an irrational level. Legends of the Three Kingdoms, which is most familiar to Chinese players, also exists in this situation. For example, in late 2007, the Dragon Edition number "Legends of the Three Kingdoms" of 64 yuan was once sold by collectors to a unit price of 5,000 yuan.
There were many examples of games appreciating in value due to the popularity of collectors, and it was even more common among the major TCGs. The famous expensive card in "Magic Card" – [Black Lotus], the legendary card worth thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars each, many people who knew a little about board games should have heard of it. Of course, this was another story.
The legendary Black Lotus in "Magic" is worth thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars each.