Kickstarter no more

Yep.. I'm pissed.

 

Kickstarter just announced that they will no longer allow publishers to offer 'bulk or retail' discounts on their products...effectively shutting us out of the loop now.

 

As of this moment, I have spent over $2000 on products. I've helped support games for 4 Winds Fantasy Gaming, Reaper Miniatures, Pinnacle Entertainment Group, Flying Buffalo Inc. Crash Games and many MANY more.

 

For years, I've beat my head against the desk with the rise of PDF's. I've seen great games and gaming companies abandoning print runs for the domain of digital publishing. Looking at it objectively, who can blame them. It takes tens of thousands of dollars to bring a book to market, and then have to undergo the trial of market acceptance. It doesn't take many brain cells to figure out why publishers would rather go the route of digital pdf publishing for their RPG's, and even the occasional board game. It makes a whole bunch of financial sense for publishers to be able to eliminate that huge, up front, publishing cost, and go direct to their consumers.

However as a retailer, it chaps my ass to hear my customers talking about all of the awesome books they're getting online that I can't provide to them. Now, some people say that's just greed on my part, that I'm upset because I can't get a cut of it. The noble part of me wants to say "no...that's not it.. I like being able to present these fine things to my customers, and let them know that I care about them and what they want by having a diverse selection." However the realist part of me then says "OF COURSE IT GODDAMN IS ABOUT ME NOT GETTING A CUT!". I'm a retailer. I do this to - make money -, and when I see gaming dollars bypassing the retailer that DOES piss me off to some degree.

 

Or, as another man, far better with words said :

 

“About 50% of the human race is middlemen and they don’t take kindly to being eliminated.”
Captain Malcolm Reynolds

 

Now, kickstarter. It's a fairly recent comer on the scene, and I looked on with a little bit of amusement when I started seeing some projects some up on it. Then..I saw that one of them..the Far West game had a 'retailer support level' on it. At the risk of sounding crass..I touched myself when I saw that. Here was a game publisher, who was 1) overcoming the burden of initial print run costs. 2) significantly eliminating the 'well now we hope it sells now that we've spend all that money on a print run. ( now..points 1 and 2 sure do look an awful lot like the benefits of pdf...Buuuuuut...) 3) have a physical print book out there, that people can hold in their hands and flip through 4) let me as a retailer stock the product on my shelves and let me do what I do best. SELL BOOKS.

 

It was a glorious moment. I signed up immediately. I giggled like a schoolgirl at the thought of publishers coming BACK to the print market, confident if their project was funded that the demand WAS out there. I cavorted around the store with the thought of no longer having to wistfully look at DriveThru RPG and hope that some of the stuff there would one day make it to my shelves. I frolicked up and down the length of my RPG wall, giddy that my RPG selection (one of the best in the state, and I'd honestly put it in the top 10% in the nation) would have even MORE diversity. I needed a cigarette.

 

 

Now kickstarter comes along and tells the publisher that it can no longer offer retailer levels or 'bulk discounts'. *insert sound of a car hitting a wall at 100 mph*. Wut? All of a sudden now, I'm being cut out of the loop AGAIN. Now, with the pdf thing, there were some huge logistical hurdles there keeping retailers out of the loop, it wasn't JUST a 'money thing'

 

This TOTALLY is just a 'money thing'.

 

What was that Mal? “About 50% of the human race is middlemen and they don’t take kindly to being eliminated.” Thanks much, good buddy, glad ya got my back.

 

At this point I'm just reduced to an agape mouth, with a severe look of 'what the fuck' on my face. Yet again, I get to watch as a new distribution scheme manages to completely avoid me, the retailer, and in essence, take money from my pocket.

 

Some might say that 'just wait a little while...these products will end up in distribution...you'll eventually be able to get them.' That I highly doubt. The vast majority of sales on a product will be in it's initial release. If a manufacturer makes a game, and releases it through kickstarter, then THAT's where the majority of the sales will be made. Any sales through the distributor will be afterthought sales, and likely will not amount to enough number to make it worthwhile for them to carry. Also, it's likely that the manufacturers, using the kickstarter system will be printing enough copies to be able to even stock the distributor warehouses, as making a bunch of copies that you aren't sure are going to sell is sort of at counter odds to the whole approach of a kickstarter project in the first place.

 

So..once again, retailers are left out in the cold. On the outside looking in. And people wonder why more and more retailers are leaving the industry for greener pastures elsewhere.

 

Thanks again Kickstarter. Thanks for nothing.

Of Paint Racks and Planning

Interesting article on IcV2 here.

http://www.icv2.com/articles/news/22629.html

And by interesting, I mean "the first half of the article seems reasoned and well thought out, but the last half of it seems to be little more than a monkey throwing his feces at the wall."

In this article, Scott Thorne says....

"It would really have helped us out in terms of budgeting if GW had given us more information about this more than two weeks in advance. "

I was told by my rep, almost TWO MONTHS AGO, that the current line of paints were going to be phased out. We were told that instead of ordering them by the box of 6, we could order them individually, so that we could have a 'minimum stock on hand'.

Now, it doesn't take a mental titan to figure out what's going to happen.   We were also told...MONTHS AGO..to prepare for a 'large financial outlay'.    Again, it sure doesn't take a mind of Mensa to figure out what's going on here.

Now here's the funny part.  Scott here is bitching about an outlay of $2000 bucks.  Now, to a game store owner, 2 large isn't a small chunk of change.  It surely isn't.  But, if a person who was watching their money couldn't set aside the sales from all of the paint on their current rack (which will NOT be restocked), then I'd suggest a serious look at the way they do their financial tracking.    

Over the past couple of months, we almost completely sold out of the paint on our soon to be replaced rack.   The money from that, under normal circumstances, would go to pay for restocks, and then other sundry items, like rent, electricity.  Instead of putting that money into restocks (or, I'm willing to bet in Scotty's case... dumping those sales into other departments....) just set it aside.  When the time comes to shell out those bucks for that rack, one should have almost half of the money already set aside.

This is what we in the industry call "financial planning".

Now, in the interests of fair argument, this scenario doesn't take into account the fact that the range expanded from 70 some odd paints to 145. This means that, depending on the previous rack's stock levels, you'll have in the neighborhood of one quarter to one half of the new rack paid for. 

Now, for myself, hearing that the line was going to be expanding to 145 paints, I was fully expecting Games Workshop to want me to buy 12 bottles of each paint, putting the cost of the new rack system at about $3600.   When they came and said that it was only going to be 6 of each paint, that actually freed up about $1800 dollars in my budget. 

Still though, the point remains that anyone who possesses even basic observational skills should have been able to adequately prepare for the new rack. 

Now, onto his comments about the rack itself.

"Unfortunately, the new rack suffers from a design flaw, at least from the retailer point of view.  Unlike GW's last two paint racks, I guess in order to fit the wider range of paints into it, the paint slots fit at a much steeper angle, only holding six paints, unlike the older ones, which held 12.  Since GW ships paints in quantities of six, the store either has to maintain extras in backstock somewhere away from the rack or wait until paint runs out before putting in a reorder."

Really?  I mean....really? This is actually worth kvetching about?   Now, I noticed the same thing too, and for the briefest of moments my brow furrowed slightly at the fact that I wouldn't be able to store more than 6 points on rack.    My marginal disappointment at that was countered by the fact that now, with the increased angle, and another changes to the rack, All of the paints in the rack would actually slide down to the front of the rack properly.   Before, the rails that the paints set between were just a hair too narrow, and since they used a flat metal pan to slide on, there was much greater friction.  The result was many times people would buy a couple of paints, and the ones behind them wouldn't slide forwards.

 Sometimes, it would look like we were out of paints, when in reality we had plenty more, just tucked up in the darkest deepest recesses of that rack, unable to slide down into the light of day.

Now, we'll have to keep a box set aside with backstock paint.  I have several things that are in my backroom as backstock (and overstock too..which is another insidious beast).   It's not going to take too much for me to tell my employees to keep an eye out, and if they see a paint low on the rack, to check the inventory in the computer, and if there's plenty of inventory left, go into the backstock and get some.

This is what we in the industry call "inventory management". 

Is it a touch more inconvenient?  Yeah, I'll grant that.  Is it over the top inconvenient?  Not in the least.   It's more than made up for with a rack that has all of the paints slid to the front, and helping to make the rack look full and stocked.  As one of my retail mentors once said "if you can't afford to keep your paint rack stocked, get out of the business."  I'll take this rack six days of the week and twice on Sunday over that last rack.  My job is inventory management, and asking me to do my job isn't a 'design flaw'. 

Some people might think I'm just being a sightless fanboy, waving the games workshop banner in utter and loyal devotion.  People who know me will know otherwise, as I'm one who point out what I perceive to be flaws, but I also feel it's proper to point out when people only feel like whining about the potential negatives of a situation, instead of at least acknowledging the positives.

There are plenty of very legitimate things to bitch about concerning Games Workshop.   The fact that a retailer can't pay attention to some very basic signals, and seemingly can't be bothered to pay a little more attention to his stock levels, doesn't count among them.

Just an imprint.

I'm not a very happy camper right now, and it's because a certain snake has once again reared it's head in the Garden.  That Snake is Ryan Dancey and the Garden is RPG companies.

In an interview with Gamasutra, CCP's (The publishers of the MMO EVE Online,) Ryan Dancey had this to say about White Wolf Publishing. (CCP acquired White Wolf a couple years ago)

 "It's just an imprint... White Wolf used to have a fairly large staff. It doesn't anymore. It's focusing primarily on the World of Darkness RPG products. It's not doing some of the things it used to do; board games and other card games and things. The focus of the company [CCP] is on making MMOs and our legacy table top business is a legacy business."

This line might not be raising the dander in  many folks, as it did mine, so let me take you on a little history tour, and show you why this might make someone's blood come to a bit of a rolling boil.

Way back in 1997, Ryan was part of a company called Five Rings Publishing.  It was, in association with AEG, publishing/writing the hit CCG Legend of the 5 Rings.  That's quite an accomplishment, but Ryan managed to accomplish quite a bit more.   The deal that allowed Wizards of the Coast to purchase TSR inc was brokered by FRPG and Mr Dancey had a huge hand in it.  So much of a hand that along with WotC being able to buy TSR, they also purchased FRPG.

A few years later, the star of our show resurfaces when WotC publishes the Third Edition of the best known RPG of all time...Dungeons and Dragons.  Ryan's hand in this was quite big...he was one of the primary creators of the OGL and the D20 open gaming license.  He even was quoted at one point saying that there were too many gaming companies and too many gaming systems, and people needed to have just one good robust system with many genres, with everyone publishing stuff for the One Game. (Rumors that one of Ryan's first bosses was in actuality named Morgoth are unsubstantiated)  I'm sure that many of the publishers of then-successful games were a bit taken aback at this man basically telling people that his goal was either to drive them out of business or make them convert their companies over to being subservient publishers of HIS company's games.

Anyone who played RPG's a few years ago can certainly remember the D20 boom.  Everything was D20.  Games that should NEVER have been translated into D20 were (Deadlands.. I'm looking at you) and because anyone and their inept dog who could type a few words was able to put out a craptastic D20 game.  There was SO much chaff that it was nearly impossible to find the wheat.  Many gamers (and more than a few retailers) were getting burned by buying just the most horrible D20 products which eventually caused a significant backlash against anything and everything D20.   Where once the term D20 made eyebrows raise and people want to take a look, it became a warning sign, a pariah, and something to avoid, and a general source of ridicule.  D20 went from untouchable, to damn near unsellable.

Many good companies got their start off of D20 ; Green Ronin and Goodman games are two that come to mind, and MANY companies quickly started churning out D20 products.  Pinnacle, Atlas, White Wolf and frankly just about everyone involved in the industry, with the exception of a few.  ( To this day the thought of what would have happened had Palladium actually made D20 Rifts still makes me break out in a cold sweat)

It was a couple of years after D20 made it's splash, that Mr Dancey ran for Treasurer of  GAMA, the Game Manufacturers Association.  GAMA is the organization that puts on the Origins Game show as well as the GAMA Trade Show.  To many people, GAMA is as relevant as a third nipple, and to others its a vital part of helping to promote companies that don't have marketing budgets that resemble the GDP of small countries.  It provides educational material, helps to show gaming in a good light, helps game manufacturers network and make connections, and acts to give the gaming industry something akin to a unified voice.   The GTS is one of the only places that retailers can talk to publishers in a more business to business atmosphere.

Mr Dancey had been part of a group called FixGama.  FixGama was dedicated to...wait for it...Fixing GAMA.  GAMA wasn't perfect, not by a long stretch.  The problems with the Origins awards were long and too numerous to go into here.  Ryan Dancey launched an initiative to address these issues and reform GAMA from within.  This is all well and good.  Many of the things he advocated were things that really did need to get looked at and worked on.   He was elected Treasurer of GAMA along with a few other members of the FixGAMA cabal.

Then things went to hell.

I'll let the official press release take it from here.

Ryan Dancey tendered his resignation as Treasurer of the Game Manufacturers Association (GAMA), Thursday. Dancey, who was elected at the Annual Membership Meeting a month ago, disclosed to the board shortly after his election that he had penetrated the GAMA Board of Directors e-mail list and had been reading board e-mails for some time. He certified to the board that no one else knew about this breach and that information gleaned from the action was not disseminated to any third party.

Last week, the board of directors informed members of the former board. Wednesday, the board informed the Full-Voting Membership at large. In the wake of discussion on the FVM e-mail list, Dancey decided it was best to resign.

"Over the past several weeks it has become obvious to me that the important work the Board was elected to undertake has taken a back seat to dealing with the issue of my access to GAMA's internal communications prior to the election," he wrote in his letter of resignation. "As I am aware of the number and nature of the immediate issues confronting the Board, and as I believe that the Board needs to address those issues as fast as possible, I believe that my continued service as GAMA Treasurer has become an impediment to that work, which must be removed."

"I hope that Ryan's resignation will aid us in moving forward," GAMA President Don Perrin said.

Dancey's resignation became effective at midnight PDT on the 29th. A successor has not yet been selected. Perrin indicated that further information on that subject would be forthcoming soon.

Yes.  He got access to private e-mails, and though it's not mentioned here, he used the information he read about there to get himself and some of his cohorts elected. He took things that were said on those private forums and use them in very subtle and manipulative ways for his own benefit.  He violated the privacy of a good number of people, and damaged an essentially good organizations reputation.  He completely confessed to this, and the  issue is not whether Ryan was guilty at all, but how guilty he was.  At one point in time, there were considerations of criminal charges being brought against, him.  Sadly, that never happened as there wasn't a clear indication of monetary damages.

The aftermath of this was that Mr Dancey basically became something akin to a leper in most gaming circles.  There were some who saluted his "bravery" in doing what he did, but others saw through that smoke and saw a smarmy dickweed, who felt that anyone who wasn't WotC was one step underneath sewer slime.

Let's fast forward a few years, and this...person.. becomes CCP's Chief Marketing officer.  This is also the same company that has purchased White Wolf Publishing.  White Wolf, at one point the #2 RPG producer (and it's arguable that at some points they were doing better than TSR), at one point the producers of games that totally broke the molds of table top gaming, are now being told that they are.....

"just an imprint"

Just a little side company making little side things.  He even goes so far as to call them a legacy business.  You don't call something a 'legacy business' if you have much respect for something and/or it's future.  It's a very slick way of being very dismissive.  You use that term to refer to business that are "out-moded" or "obsolete".

CCP's Marketing director basically said that his "I give a crap factor" for White Wolf Publishing can be measured in microgiveashits.  There wasn't anything AT ALL positive in what he said.  No "we're looking for to working with them to bring out some great things".   There wasn't anything at all like "with White Wolf's publishing prowess, we can move EVE online into other markets".  There wasn't anything at all to give someone who loves White Wolf Games a glimmer of hope for their company's future.  He even made a SPECIFIC point to mention that the staff had been cut and how CCP's business model was MMO's.

Back in 2007 he even made some predictions for the industry.

"As a result of this change, look for White Wolf to become ultimately focused on its MMORPG offering, and by the end of 2007, to have reduced its paper-based publishing business to a shell entity, providing reprints of its games to a dwindling number of buyers."

You can almost hear the derision in that statement there.

He recently said that WoTC was in a 'death spiral' for it's reaction to pull PDF offering from places such as Drivethru RPG, and in a review of Warhammer Fantasy RP, he even called it a "a clever derivative of D&D 3rd Edition" despite the fact that though the revamp of WFRP came out after D20, it was still so based in it's original form which predated D20 for MANY years.

I think what we're seeing here is perhaps one of the greatest cases of Schadenfreude I've ever seen. The D20 bubble burst and caused a good deal of misfortune for many, publishers, retailers and distributors.  If D20 had continued to be the juggernaut that Dancey envisioned, perhaps he would not seem to bitter to the hobby that put him on the map. 

I truly feel sorry for White Wolf at this point.  I feel for the writers who toil to put out great books for it, and I feel for the fans.  I think it's obvious at this point that CCP's Director of Marketing will NEVER allow White Wolf to even try to be anything more than "just an imprint" and a "legacy business".  He's written them off, I cannot see anything but a long, slow decline into utter irrelevance for White Wolf now, based on this attitude from it's corporate parent.

It bothers me that this person, who at one time screwed over the biggest industry organization is now back in the circle again of having some influence over what was a great RPG company.

It bothers me that this person, who at one time basically wanted gaming companies to play by his way or hit the highway, can't even be bothered to feel that it's worth it to work to build the brand of what was one of the most popular RPG brands.

I guess it mostly bothers me that once again, this man is being given a platform to pontificate from.