completed Reaper Bones 4: Enthusiasm and Commentary Thread

[squarewave]

Just got my order in Vancouver.   Loving it so far, the only issue I have is that I didn't realize just how "small" Dance of Death was.  In my head I had it as a similar size Ma'al Drakar but it is not nearly that big.

[Disciple of Sakura]

The only pleasant ridge is no ridge at all.

 

To keep things on topic, if anyone has the Bones 4 Zombie Dragon and Ebonwrath, could I see them side by side? I'm wondering if my plan will work or if I'll need to scrap it...

Edited April 9, 2019 by Disciple of Sakura

[LittleBluberry]

I live in Woodinville.  You'd think that it's named for all the tall trees everywhere, but no it's named after the Woodin family that helped found the town.  There were so many of them people referred to the area as Woodinville somewhat sarcastically.  We're that kind of town.

 

And no, I won't be the only Woodinville showing up on the tracker, we're a geek-heavy population and I'm pretty sure that one of our gaming friends went in on Bones 4.  

 

<looks impatiently at tracker>  Maybe I need to make myself a poking stick...

[Guindyloo]

IMO Reaper has always had a communication/PR problem due to the way that they choose to structure the dissemination of information. ie. We can't post an update because it's not update day. We can't give an official answer to your question until we discuss it at our weekly meeting....but then we probably won't answer it after that either. When someone is unhappy with the service or product they've received, they are left to argue with other customers about it until the point that the exchange reaches a level of hostility that a Reaper representative only then steps in to lock, delete, or remove the altercation from visibility, but the original complaint is still rarely directly addressed and so the only result is that the person that was angry is not only still angry, they're additionally angry at the people that argued with them and that they were just left by Reaper to be yelled at by random people on their forum/facebook/kickstarter comment section/twitter, etc.

 

One of the biggest mistakes there is the under-utilization of social media and neglecting to cross-post across all platforms. Reaper instead treats social media like a quirky platform for them to make fun cameos on or drop hints/make semi-official teaser announcements on or drop exclusive contests that customers have to be in the know to participate in. In Current Year, that's a horrible misuse of social media. One only needs to check out any mildly successful streamer to see how social media should be utilized - you don't post about something in one place without mentioning/linking to it in all of the other places. You don't drop official info into an hour long livestream without accompanying it with an official text announcement across the other platforms. (That's not anything against the Reaper Live broadcast, which I enjoy very much. Though I would enjoy it more if they sorted out their ear-blasting audio issues - seriously, RIP headphone users whenever they switch over to that abysmal copyright free dance music they've inexplicably chosen to burst my eardrums with for every cutaway.)

 

Social media should never be abandoned the way that Reaper abandons theirs. Angry/upset/concerned customers shouldn't be left to defend themselves against other angry/upset/concerned customers. Just like you wouldn't allow an altercation to go on unaddressed in a physical store, you shouldn't leave such things to work themselves out on your official social media pages because it won't ever be worked out because social media fosters a hostile environment that rewards snarky, irrational, abusive, biased and bullying comments with likes. That's the reality of social media, (and I know some of you like to say that you don't participate in social media, but that's what an online forum like this one is, the more current iterations of social media just happen to have embraced brevity over the long form text of a message board,) and we're all guilty of that behaviour in our current society where every person and company is expected to have an online presence. 

 

Customer service is no longer just about standing behind your products and righting any mistakes that occur, it has evolved to require much more than that and Reaper put themselves in that position, so they can't just keep sticking their toe in the murky waters of social media, they need to fully dive in with a dedicated full-time social media presence that is trained and authorized to make sure that any situation that can be dealt with is and upset customers are turned into happy customers instead of ex-customers.

 

ETA: I wasn't expecting quite so positive of a response to this post. @Reaper Ron I know y'all are busy but I think this is a significant enough number of likes that y'all should be aware of what people are thinking.

Edited April 10, 2019 by Guindyloo

[pinkymadigan]

@Guindyloo, I'm mashing the like button.

[Chris Palmer]

Same here. I love it when somebody clearly states what I’ve been churning around in my head unable to voice. 

[Thoramel]

5 minutes ago, LittleBluberry said:

<looks impatiently at tracker>  Maybe I need to make myself a poking stick...

 

Like this?

 

 

Note: this is technically not a poking stick. It is actually a spider stick. But I don't believe it's time to escalate things that far. Maybe in a couple more days though.

[Ratmaster2000]

While I understand that social media can work the way @Guindyloo describes, unfortunately, it turns out to be the opposite of this. People from different departments come in, giving incorrect or false information, and you spend more time backpedaling the errors then focusing on what is really out there. That's why companies have one point of contact for just this purpose, so all that information can be disseminated correctly from the weekly meetings and such. The real issue (IMO) was that reaper HAD this point of contact, Bryan and Ladystorm. They kept us on topic and gave us the information we needed to hear (or sometimes not want to hear *cough* cat dragon). That honestly is the part I really question. You knew (for the most part I am assuming), that Bryan was departing, and the same for ladystorm. I am sure they were not sudden events, and you had the Kickstarter nearing the end, would you not have prepared for this contingency? Not a complaint, not a gripe, just my observation.

[Cyradis]

Mine arrived. Did a live stream at request of some buddies. I can sit in the box. Pros: I am impressed by the detail level. Bones material has come a LONG way. Cons: zombie shark missing lower jaw, and 1/2 of paint set is wrong set. Will know more soon. <back to wallowing> 

[Pineapple]

3 minutes ago, Cyradis said:

Mine arrived. Did a live stream at request of some buddies. I can sit in the box. Pros: I am impressed by the detail level. Bones material has come a LONG way. Cons: zombie shark missing lower jaw, and 1/2 of paint set is wrong set. Will know more soon. <back to wallowing> 

Any chance you can post the video somewhere?

[Sirithiliel]

maybe tomorrow things will start. i'm just going to stop checking the tracker and just occasionally check my email

 

on the subject of Red Deer, there is the European Red Deer so maybe the town is named after that. Wouldn't be the first time a town is named after a animal from a whole different country, like Monkey Eybrow in Kentucky (seriously...)

[TheAuldGrump]

4 hours ago, Cyradis said:

 

But only once? 

I thought I was wrong once, but it turned out I was mistaken.

 

Still no word from Ed McMahon Reaper?

 

The Auld Grump

[Disciple of Sakura]

9 minutes ago, Ratmaster2000 said:

That honestly is the part I really question. You knew (for the most part I am assuming), that Bryan was departing, and the same for ladystorm. I am sure they were not sudden events, and you had the Kickstarter nearing the end, would you not have prepared for this contingency? Not a complaint, not a gripe, just my observation.

Yeah, this is very accurate. I don't get why they seem to have done nothing to really replace ReaperBryan for communication purposes. There seemed to be a period after he left where they had someone who'd had no preparation attempting to deal with the information updates, and then it moved to being managed by someone who was going to be retiring. It just seems like there was no planning or regard for how vital that communication position really was. I'm hoping it was more having trouble finding a qualified applicant, but it's very weird.

[OneBoot]

I don't check the tracker; I just check this thread. I'll know when it starts moving faster this way, rather than digging through the two dozen open tabs on my phone (don't judge me ) looking for the one with the tracker and wating to refresh it constantly lol. 

 

Huzzah! 

--OneBoot :D 

[Guindyloo]

Just now, Ratmaster2000 said:

While I understand that social media can work the way @Guindyloo describes, unfortunately, it turns out to be the opposite of this. People from different departments come in, giving incorrect or false information, and you spend more time backpedaling the errors then focusing on what is really out there. That's why companies have one point of contact for just this purpose, so all that information can be disseminated correctly from the weekly meetings and such. The real issue (IMO) was that reaper HAD this point of contact, Bryan and Ladystorm. They kept us on topic and gave us the information we needed to hear (or sometimes not want to hear *cough* cat dragon). That honestly is the part I really question. You knew (for the most part I am assuming), that Bryan was departing, and the same for ladystorm. I am sure they were not sudden events, and you had the Kickstarter nearing the end, would you not have prepared for this contingency? Not a complaint, not a gripe, just my observation.

I think you're misreading some of what I wrote. I'm suggesting a "dedicated, full-time social media presence," the meaning there being staff of whatever necessary number that is only dedicated to social media. The "People from different departments come in" that you describe is what currently occurs in that different staff members pop onto social media from time to time to put up pictures or make comments. It is my fully unofficial understanding that their company policy is not to give answers to anything without official authorization, thus why you mostly get zero answers or non-answers. I think that you're ascribing actions to certain individuals when I'm talking about overall company decisions. These issues persisted before any prior employees left the company, it just wasn't as obvious because there was more of a presence here on the forum and in the kickstarter comments, but most information that was given was non-answers that at least made some people feel more like someone was listening, but didn't really address the overarching issues that I'm talking about.