As always I try to be as balanced as I can be about things. In my article about the Dreadball launch I pointed out I'd heard Mantic had, had some supply / manufacturing problems, and that it was good they were getting things out before Christmas. I also applauded them for moving the January pledges forward, however I also questioned the wisdom of Mantic giving certain stores preferential treatment and shipping to them first, whether this is a 'pre-release' or not, whatever the hell one of those is. I fully accept that I am now firmly in the slightly miffed camp, and as such I'm more than aware I'm not going to be as impartial or as even handed as I normally am... so if you want the other side of the coin can I suggest you go and take a look at this article on Quirkworthy, Jake Thornton's Blog in the interests of balanced reporting as it were, and getting a more rounded picture. Peace out!
I respect Jakes point of view but I don't think at this point it actually added anything to the discussion.
ReplyDeleteIt is balanced but regardless the issue at heart is one of a lack of a: clarity b: communication.
If you're just peeved does this ameliorate that emotion? And remember largely this is just an issue of emotion. Doesn’t really provide resolution for ardent naysayers.
Maybe not Minitrol, but I normally like to be evenhanded, or as even handed and rational as I can be. On this one though I have to acknowledge, as you say I'm now at a stage where I'm responding to it emotionally. For that reason I need to highlight an instance where somebody is putting the contrary point. Just for my own piece of mind really, that I am at least attempting to give people access to both sides of the debate.
DeleteLooks like Jake is making the same points that Catalyst had to make about their new Battletech starter box last year. They eventually broke radio silence and just let their suppliers have it in the neck though, which was one of those rare moments that you get to see behind the curtain and leaves you wondering why anyone would ever want to be there.
ReplyDeleteHiya, if Mantic have had problems (and I know they have) they need to communicate that better. Rather than trying to pretend everything is hunky dory. I said in my article I'd heard they'd had problems and it is commendable that they get the product out before Christmas, and I really do believe that deserves a pat on the back and recognition. As does the January pledges, Ronnie and co didn't have to do that, BUT, they did, adn again two thumbs up and 10 out of 10 from me. It's the issue of these pre-release events and the fact there are already copies of the game up on ebay. Maybe its a bit of the green eyed monster in me and others, but I just don't think it was right to:
DeleteA) those stores that didin't get pre-release copies.
B) those people who had already paid their money.
That's what the gripe is about.
I'm not making a value judgement on the situation because I didn't have a dog in that fight, I just find it really interesting that another company is getting shafted the same way. That said, this is one of the perils of Kickstarter, as described over on the Quest For Fun blog. Really I'm just surprised that I don't hear about this kind of thing more often.
DeleteWas this the article you were talking about:
Deletehttp://blackdiamondgames.blogspot.ie/2012/11/kickstarter-hype-cycle.html
THere are a few other interesting articles on there about Kickstarter, and in the main I have to say I'm sort of in agreement with the bloke. I actually think our industry has been significantly better at achieving and meeting expectations from crowd-funding than most, I'm still waiting for the big disaster story. I am though personally very interested in how people seem to be viewing Kicksater, I'm actually pretty much in total agreement with the first commenter or that article.
HAH! I didn't bother reading the comments because I never signed up for Disquss but Leperflesh is actually an online gaming buddy of mine and that's his FLGS' blog. He is spot on alright. That was just the most recent article, there was a previous one about hwy he as a retailer isn't supporting Kickstarters specifically because of the situation that, bizzarely, Mantic have managed to do the opposite of. I guess in some ways the consumer lost while the consumer won here.
DeleteI can kind of understand both sides of this, hopefully in the future Mantic will make a little more effort to communicate if there are problems like this again. I don't have any interest in this game myself but I will likely pledge to a Warpath one.
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting you bring up communication. I've had an email chat with somebody who has aid at least Mantic have been communicating with us. Now I've had to take a step back and look at that claim rationally. As somebody who has been in charge of communications strategies I have to say that there were two things I had drilled into me by some experts of the art:
Delete1) Only say something when you have something to say. Updates a press releases for the sake of it will be useless and people will stop reading them all because so many of them aren't illuminating.
2) Make sure you therefore have things that are illuminating to say on regular interval.
I think Mantic have I'm afraid been guilty of the first mistake. Lots of communications that in essence haven't said very much. In the end it just looks like somebody has got verbal diarrhea. They also committed the cardinal sin of communications and that is not informing people that they have had major issues.
A marketing guru once advised me and my bosses not to be worried about informing people we'd had major issues on a project because they were out of our control. And indeed out of our partners control. We wanted to keep it all hush hush and in-house as it were and just try to deliver the project on time. Eventually we caved to his never ending stream of emails...
You know what? He was 100% right. People are way more understanding of this sort of thing than we think they are. We've all had shit happen to us that is way out of our control haven't we? We know what it's like, and as such we're more inclined to cut people some slack. Well most people I know are.
I confess I have the mantic Dreadball updates from kickstarter going straight to my junk folder...
DeleteThe pace is good for forum updates, not in my view for mailshots.