Bones Kickstarter #2 Pre-discussion

[klarg1]

I'm not sure what to expect from a Bones mk. II Kickstarter, but I nearly fainted when I saw the stack of leaflets in the GenCon painting area. On the one hand, I doubt I will ever paint all of the Bones I have now. On the other hand... Bones!

[Girot]

@Reaper communications issue: They're fulfilling orders, albiet with a few errors and a little off schedule (both of those being China's fault btw). I'd rather they use their man-hours packing and shipping our loot rather than kissing our butts and holding our hands. The air is salty with the tears of those with control issues. Excuse me while I go make margaritas.

[CashWiley]

 

 

Worked well for Rackham.

 

 

yep so well that it gone into a liquidation in 2010

 

Beware the sarchasm.

[Nocturne]

(both of those being China's fault btw).

 

Just to play devils advocate here, that's not entirely true. Myself and a few others were missing both Mr Bones and Hyrekkia, both figures that are added to the box at Reaper's end.

[Girot]

 

 

 

(both of those being China's fault btw).

 

Just to play devils advocate here, that's not entirely true. Myself and a few others were missing both Mr Bones and Hyrekkia, both figures that are added to the box at Reaper's end.

 

 

Crap. I forgot about those.

[Doug Sundseth]

@Reaper communications issue: They're fulfilling orders, albiet with a few errors and a little off schedule (both of those being China's fault btw). I'd rather they use their man-hours packing and shipping our loot rather than kissing our butts and holding our hands. The air is salty with the tears of those with control issues. Excuse me while I go make margaritas.

 

I got my shipment while the tracker was still running, so I don't have a dog in the current fight. Further, I both like and trust Reaper, so it pains me to say this, but Reaper's communications has not been good, has not been adequate, and has rarely reached the lofty heights of "[attributive noun] poor" since March. I sincerely hope that they commit to a weekly update after the end of the Kickstarter project, even though most of those will be "Still on track for 2042 delivery [or whatever]."

 

I have no sympathy for, "It takes too much time to write an update every week." It simply doesn't.

[marroon69]

hmmm seems like this is a little too soon to me, since people are still waiting for their stuff or to get orders fixed (waiting, waiting). Lets hope they support the local FLGS that have been carrying there product for years a little bit more. the current set can not even be ordered. I know my FLGS is still waiting on its retailer order from the last Bones Kick Starter. I know the internet sales are probable better for them but I still enjoy searching through the piles of minis at the store. With that said I will take a look and see what it is about.....

[Baugi]

As someone who missed the first KS, WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

[Girot]

hmmm seems like this is a little too soon to me, since people are still waiting for their stuff or to get orders fixed (waiting, waiting). Lets hope they support the local FLGS that have been carrying there product for years a little bit more. the current set can not even be ordered. I know my FLGS is still waiting on its retailer order from the last Bones Kick Starter. I know the internet sales are probable better for them but I still enjoy searching through the piles of minis at the store. With that said I will take a look and see what it is about.....

 

I would normally totally agree with this 1000%. However. The only FLGS in my area that carrys reaper stuff has a big stick up their butt about the KS. I can't even talk about it while I'm in the store without getting aggro from the owner's wife. This confuses the crap out of me. I would rather buy my stuff at their store before placing an online order but noooooo.

[Smokestack]

I am super excited about this.. Now I will have to look for gaming stuff around the house to sell... I hope they do some generic soldiers and mounted troops... Things I could use multiples of...

 

So, Backing Wrath of kings is gonna kill my budget for the year...and I still want Bones 2, and Stonehaven 2.... And Confrontation, and ..... gah.!!!!

[buglips*the*goblin]

hmmm seems like this is a little too soon to me, since people are still waiting for their stuff or to get orders fixed (waiting, waiting). Lets hope they support the local FLGS that have been carrying there product for years a little bit more. the current set can not even be ordered. I know my FLGS is still waiting on its retailer order from the last Bones Kick Starter. I know the internet sales are probable better for them but I still enjoy searching through the piles of minis at the store. With that said I will take a look and see what it is about.....

 

 

Reaper is very pro-local. They love the FLGS.

[MonkeySloth]

 

hmmm seems like this is a little too soon to me, since people are still waiting for their stuff or to get orders fixed (waiting, waiting). Lets hope they support the local FLGS that have been carrying there product for years a little bit more. the current set can not even be ordered. I know my FLGS is still waiting on its retailer order from the last Bones Kick Starter. I know the internet sales are probable better for them but I still enjoy searching through the piles of minis at the store. With that said I will take a look and see what it is about.....

 

I would normally totally agree with this 1000%. However. The only FLGS in my area that carrys reaper stuff has a big stick up their butt about the KS. I can't even talk about it while I'm in the store without getting aggro from the owner's wife. This confuses the crap out of me. I would rather buy my stuff at their store before placing an online order but noooooo.

 

 

A lot of stores are paranoid about Kickstarters, whether they have reason to be or not is something we really won't know for several years, as they think it's stealing all their business. When I was at gencon a few of the smaller companies, that did kickstarters to actually launch themselves, told me that about half of the stores in their various areas refuse to do any business with companies that have done kickstarters. So this makes it really hard for them to show up and do demos and try to get people interested in their game. there are also a large number of people I know on other forums that refuse to back any kickstarters because the feel the same way--though they're willing to buy stuff that was funded via a kickstarter in retail. The irony there is distributors don't like that they're being cut out of an old profit maker for them (helping small game companies get started for huge mark downs on the products) and stores don't want to carry them.

 

Also what's interesting is you're seeing the largest game stores, like the Warstore, becoming a distributor themselves (CMoN also does this) and they're picking up kickstarted stuff so what you'll eventually see is the large distributors replaced by hobby stores themselves if things keep going on the way they're going now.

[joshuaslater]

Hm. Much to ponder.

[KevinR]

 

Eh... We'll see.

 

The first KS is getting close to the end of shipping (in theory). But as many people have pointed out during the course of the fulfillment, its the communication that has been the biggest trouble for a lot of people. So far, theres a big if for me on a second KS that will depend on getting a lot more info from Reaper at the end of the current fulfillment about what went wrong and reassurances that they have a much better plan for communication than last time.

 

Im sure theyve learnt a bunch of lessons about size and logistics, but I want to see some evidence that theyve learnt how to communicate well before I back a second KS.

With respect to communications, it is obvious that their utter failures in April-May and July-present are by choice.

 

Go back to Kickstarter Update #70 from October 1. That Update has Ed apologizing for the September communications failures (relating to delays on the paints and cases and refusal to do separate shipping to international folks).

 

While I stand by my decisions, I will say I seriously dropped the ball by not keeping everyone abreast of the current situations. My tunnel vision of solving the problems blinded my to the equally important matter of communicating with everyone involved and for that I sincerely apologize to you.

In October, Ed recognized that communications were important and apologized for Reaper's failure to communicate. In April-May, communications again stopped and Ed couldn't even be bothered to apologize. Now, communications have failed again.

 

When you consider this upcoming Kickstarter project, consider these points:

1) Reaper has recognized for 10 months that they have an utter communications failure, and have chosen not to fix it. There is no reason to hope that communications on the new project will be any better (in the fulfillment phase).

2) At least some at Reaper (based on the KS comments two weeks ago) seem to feel that it is adequate that Reaper's customer service is better than The Forking Path, as opposed to the excellent customer service they used to provide.

 

If you can stomach a formerly excellent company like Reaper behaving like this, you can pick up some cheap toys in the next Bones Kickstarter. If you'd rather do business with a trustworthy company with good customer service, it seems you need to look elsewhere.

[naponatom]

We can only hope (and talk about, and flame on, and...) that this first Kickstarter teach Reaper some do and do not, so the next one will be much more smooth.

 

 

..

And I am in, definitely!!