xtrain wrote:
You guys keep moaning about the effect these new games will have on the current players. Don't you understand that's just the point? Buzztime (and BWW) wants to attract new players who aren't collecting Social Security. I have been astonished that they have sat idly by while the number of players who play the current games has steadily decreased. This can't go on forever. I too love the more difficult and obscure trivia of Showdown, Six, and so forth. But if you've ever sat through a live bar trivia game (unhappily, I'm forced to every Tuesday at Mad River, while our table tries to play Buzztime at the same time), then you know they're not asking about Astronomy, Ancient Greece, or Grand Opera. Be thankful for what you've got, and pray that the new games attract an audience so that BWW doesn't give up on Buzztime altogether.
XT
I agree that attempting to attract younger players is the point. Unfortunately for BT and for us, it hasn't worked and most likely will not. I submit that the steady decrease in players is not because we're dying off, but because BT has been ignoring its actual demographic draw in favor of unsuccessfully courting younger players. It is a point I've mode to them over and over, from the perspective of a bar manager. The twenty-somethings have always and will always be at our bar. They come anyway and we don't need trivia games in BT format aimed at them to get them in. Moreover, those lame games (they think the cutesy jokes are stupid, too) won't keep them there or entice them to spend more money.
The BT demographic is those of us who like solid, well-edited trivia games. We are mostly, but not limited to, those of us born at a more comfortable distance from the apocalypse. The pace of BT suits us. We like to play against the whole country. The only reason we still have BT at Stewart's is that it continues to draw destination players to the bar to play. (Thanks to BT ignoring their core demo, a lot of that may be down to one somewhat charismatic manager fostering play *ahem* but that's not germane to this rant.)
I understand that the biz-school grads that keep trying to re-invent BT see the demographic breakdowns that show twenty-somethings are the customers spending the most at bars. I know that this makes them want to cater to them, but they are missing the point. They are the only company in existence providing the nationwide trivia that they do. Plenty of other companies out there cater to the younger crowds and are better at it and cheaper. We don't need them for that. They will continue to fail at that. They would be much more successful if they concentrated on what they have actually done pretty well in the past.
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This lil old grump must seriously question why these games are also being shown on Sunday, until now a day unsullied by narrowly focused crap. 
As usual, this question will be met with deafening silence. 
Hopefully others here and elsewhere that have hung in with this company (mostly for worse instead of better) will take a lil time to express themselves. 
Some additional observations:
