Grendal
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Megaverse Ambassador
Posts: 32 
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Post by Grendal on Aug 24, 2015 13:59:53 GMT
I have been thinking, with all the Fan made models, and paper cutouts would PB have been better off just marketing the rules and not getting into the miniture business? For those who know table top history this is how 40K started. You had a rulebook and they made some core troop models, but the rules on vehicles and troop proxies were 'make it yourself, field it and have fun'.
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Post by captkaruthors on Feb 29, 2016 15:34:40 GMT
I think that the kickstarter was too ambitious. I think that the kickstarter should have been only for the core boxed game. Market it well and then use the left over money to make the rest of the stuff and schedule those additional boxed sets in staggered releases much like GW or PP does. Committing to releasing the entire line of the Macross saga was stupid. They made the mistake of never thinking about how the miniatures market works...and they paid for it dearly. The game is going no where because of their short sightedness. This is a failing of not bringing in industry experts from the marketing side. Sure they got Ninja Division to make the sculpts...but what about the logistics people, the production people, and marketing people that will ensure that your venture into the miniatures market is sustainable? Releasing the amount of product they did in Wave 1 crippled their efforts to grow this business into something sustainable. Furthermore, the lack of Wave 2 and the mistakes that have been made with it has damaged this game to the point that it's most likely dead. Their hopes of "relaunching" the game will only be possible if they: Redo the core box models into models that can snap fit together or are only 2-4 pieces to assemble. Redo the size of the box...as the size of the box is ridiculous and is probably too expensive and making a smaller box makes saves some money. The game needs to be marketed on their website better, it needs to have a professionally shot demo video with competent people doing it. They need to market the models visual appeal better by having professionally painted models photographed, displayed, and have them placed amongst pro built scenic tables. They need to have an organized play packet and league packet ready to go. Their webpage needs to feature the game and models significantly more than they do right now. All these things need to happen. However, PB constantly misses the point of all of this...and because of that...this game will die..and only be played by die hards. It's a shame too. The game is actually really fun...and for the most part balanced well.
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Post by talizvar on Feb 29, 2016 16:29:07 GMT
I agree with captkaruthors of what should have happened.
The problem is PB is run by Kevin and he has no real interest in the game.
He had interest in the potential money but it is not an RPG so will get cursory attention from him.
There is now some kind of financial problem or some issue at the die manufacturer and I think we are at full stop.
So there are many promises of wave 2 happening but nothing to be said on detail for over a year.
PB has downsized rather than increased their staff since the kickstarter, so the list of people above would not happen.
Plus salaries for 2 of them would eat up $100,000 in a year at least, which means even less money for tooling and shipping.
What I feel is the real crime, is PB is willing to go after anyone who will try to move the IP forward.
They look at it as potential lost revenue IF they decide to make the product.
PB has a history of leaning on fan-friends to do all the literal heavy lifting for them.
BUT they want it all sent to them with a nice little bow to be released months or years later by them with little or no credit given.
I must admit, I was surprised to see as little as there is done in under 5 years.
It is so hard to determine their motivation or lack of it with RRT.
I really like what our community around the Robotech IP has been doing to support what we can.
I just feel PB is increasingly being a barrier to any measure of promotion to this old but favored anime.
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Post by captkaruthors on Feb 29, 2016 22:15:39 GMT
The funny thing is...some of the models from Wave 2 are essentially completed. Here PB sits on Female Power Armor and Male Power Armor model molds and does nothing with them. Sure they are metal. But seriously, how hard is it to get GHQ to sculpt a set of different arms or legs that attach to the main bodies of the exclusive figures (thus making the exclusive figures still exclusive)....box them up into a box set of 3...put the cards in the box and sell the fuckers as "Male Power armor box set" and "Female Power Armor box set" and could have fulfilled part of Wave 2. See, PB was also stupid for committing ALL of these models to be plastic. If they were smart, they would have committed to the core box contents to plastic...and the rest of the stuff to either be resin, or pewter. Why? Because I as a Zentraedi player don't need hoards of FPA...that's why. They are so expensive points wise that a squad of 3 is 1/3 of my 300pt army. I don't need that many. So why waste development time for these in plastic? Additionally, things like Zentraedi infantry could easily be cast as single pose models and done rather quickly. They have very little in upgrade options...so why bother making them in plastic? This is the part where an industry expert tells PB how this shit works in the miniatures industry. If, in the future they want to rerelease the models in plastic they can do so. But only when the game is sustainable and making you money. Look at how long it took GW to phase out their pewter and finecast models and make them all plastic. Same with PP. The only holdout is Corvus Beli. They can get away with Pewter still...because Infinity doesn't require that many models. Again, PB bit off more than they can chew...because they didn't do their homework before committing to such a huge undertaking. Ninja Division wasn't the right partners either...since they cut an ran after the sculpting process. The kickstarter money funding should have stayed for the core box + the additional money to pay the salaries for the additional personnel they'd have to hire. Face it, PB is no where near equipped to handle a miniatures line...they can barely write fucking books at this point...and rely on artists that need better art direction to get better results. That will never happen because Kevin thinks he's an art director when he's clearly not and has no idea what an art director truly does. Hell, they don't even have real editors either. So with that being said...what chance do they have to make sure this game lives on when they can't even make an effort to give it more visibility on their own website (which wouldn't be that hard). If I won the power ball...I'd buy out PB and all their IPs...and make it better.
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Post by talizvar on Mar 2, 2016 21:48:21 GMT
captkaruthors: I do not doubt you could do better, you have demonstrated that in a few things. The difficulty is they are on the hook for a fair number of miniatures spread across some 5000 backers. I suspect we are reaching near the limit of what to expect from spin-casting (never mind the weight in shipping. Not saying it could not have been done in the time they have been dragging this out. At the very least they could have focused on getting the resin product out of their hair fairly readily. They could have been selling a Monster quite a while back. Barely able to write books is a funny comment, I must admit, me being a negative type was rather surprised of the colour rule book in the starter box (GASP!). I figure just trying to move-on and make/get your miniatures somehow and still get your Robotech fix without PB toying with your emotions. The promising of wave2 for what may potentially be forever is rather draining. Oh well: time to break out the molding materials.
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