Weekly Update Sept 25 2014

[Jaymz]

Gather round all ye faithful....a tad late I know (my apologies as work has kicked my ass this week and I had con prep for battletech to do and run), but finally here it is, this weeks commentary. For those who do not like my commentary, Do. Not. Read. It.

And with that here we go...

www.palladiumbooks.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=742:palladium-booksr-weekly-update-september-25-2014&catid=52:weekly-updates&Itemid=183

"Fire at Port Los Angeles"

If it isn't their poor decisions at times biting them it is most certainly bad karma to the extreme at times.

"UPDATE: Robotech® RPG Tactics™"

Well at least it looks as though the containers will be arriving in a relatively steady stream which is most assuredly a good thing. I really would have preferred to run RRT this weekend than BT or at east been able to run both.

"UPDATE: Palladium Fantasy RPG®: Bizantium and the Northern Islands™"

I am glad they are doing a fantasy book. I am still disappointed they still feel they will get so much done in so little time even though I am sure the rest of do not think so based on past performance.

"UPDATE: Dead Reign™ – Graveyard Earth™ Sourcebook"

I hope you are right Kevin. I really do, but your past performance tells me to take what you say in regards to things going to the printer with a grain of salt.

"UPDATE: The Rifter® #68 – Autumn Issue"

I;ve said before and will say again. Putting official material in the Rifter when you seem to have deemed it not good enough for the book is a bit of a slap in the face. Either it's good enough or not. If it is then don't make it necessary to buy a Rifter to get it, leave in the book, or put it in the section of your website that is perfect for this called "The Cutting Room Floor" which you can use regardless of if the material is good enough or not.

"UPDATE: Robotech®: Expeditionary Force Marines Sourcebook One"

You may say 2014....I see it as maybe by summer 2015.

"UPDATE: 2015 Open House – May 14-17, 2015"

Still planning my day trip. (y)

"NEW! Dead Reign™ Sourcebook 5: Graveyard Earth™ – Ships Fall - Ships Fall (shooting for September, 2014)"

"Robotech® RPG Tactics™ Box Set – Cat. No. 55100 - In stores September, 2014."

Kevin, can you PLEASE have someone check you copy pasting?

I can forgive the Graveyard Earth miss as it does say shooting for September 2014 but come one, we have all known for some time now that RRT will NOT go to retail in September. That is just plain laziness to not have caught after what 4 updates minimum that we all knew it would not be so.

Anyway that is all. Have a safe week all

[MacrossMike]

Sept 29, 2014 0:31:06 GMT Jaymz said:

"Fire at Port Los Angeles"

If it isn't their poor decisions at times biting them it is most certainly bad karma to the extreme at times.

Little does jaymz know, the fire is because the universe is dead-set on ironically showing Kevin how incendiary his bullshit really is.

Sept 29, 2014 0:31:06 GMT Jaymz said:

"UPDATE: The Rifter® #68 – Autumn Issue"

I;ve said before and will say again. Putting official material in the Rifter when you seem to have deemed it not good enough for the book is a bit of a slap in the face. Either it's good enough or not.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, this sort of behavior is practically the status quo in the tabletop gaming industry... it's not surprising that, having recently attempted to break into the tabletop industry, Kevin would imitate practices that have been serving the industry's big shots well for decades.  Games Workshop's own White Dwarf would be much-reduced in page count were it not for their habit of using it to publish rules supplements, new unit rules, additional scenarios, and all manner of other stuff that would ordinarily go into a game book.

Complaining about it is kind of a "welcome to fifteen years ago" moment...

Sept 29, 2014 0:31:06 GMT Jaymz said:

"UPDATE: Robotech®: Expeditionary Force Marines Sourcebook One"

You may say 2014....I see it as maybe by summer 2015.

Heat death of the universe or bust!

[Jaymz]

Thing is though, having not done it for so long, to start to do so now, especially for what he is doing it, smacks of "meh, let's get them to buy the Rifter" which many refuse to do since it is usually a book full of "unofficial material. Especially when their own website does in fact have a place FOR things of this nature. If he isn't going to do THAT then release it as a PDF for minimal cost and NOT in the Rifter. Ya know?

[damianmagecraft]

Sept 29, 2014 1:23:30 GMT Jaymz said:

Thing is though, having not done it for so long, to start to do so now, especially for what he is doing it, smacks of "meh, let's get them to buy the Rifter" which many refuse to do since it is usually a book full of "unofficial material. Especially when their own website does in fact have a place FOR things of this nature. If he isn't going to do THAT then release it as a PDF for minimal cost and NOT in the Rifter. Ya know?

The problem with just doing that is it feels like a slap in the face to those (and yes there are plenty of them out there) who prefer that extra material in hard copy format.
The best solution is to do both.
Put it up on the website and publish it in the Rifter.
Also note that the material may not have been cut because it was not "good enough" it may have been cut due to space limitations. Books are bound (and charged for) in 16 leaf (32 page) units; if the extra material only fills 5 pages (the rough average of past cuts printed in Rifters) you still have to pay for and use 16 pages. (how happy would you be to buy a book with 22 pages of advertisments or just blank pages? it is that or we wait for kevin to get inspired enough to fill those 22 pages which could take how long given his track record?)
I see the logic: we have a house organ that can place the cuts out one or two quarters after the release of the original work let's utilize it.
It is poorly thought out logic but it does work to a degree. It would be a lot easier to deal with if they also placed those 5 pages up on the net for availability as well.

[MacrossMike]

Sept 29, 2014 1:23:30 GMT Jaymz said:

Thing is though, having not done it for so long, to start to do so now, especially for what he is doing it, smacks of "meh, let's get them to buy the Rifter" [...]

Man, there's no pleasing you guys... Kevin finally starts properly imitating the "best practices" of some of the industry's front-runners, and you're pissed off about it.  You can either have Palladium remain obsessively backwards and unsuccessful, or you can have them act like a modern "traditional games" company.  You can't have both.

Yes, this is absolutely a ploy to get people to buy the Rifter.  It's also the first indication that Kevin's brain hasn't completely mistaken the bullcrap he usually throws out there in his news posts for reality.  He's noticed something that successful game companies do and made a not-unreasonable decision to adopt the practice in a manner that makes sense for his game lines and his bottom line.

Sept 29, 2014 1:23:30 GMT Jaymz said:

[...] which many refuse to do since it is usually a book full of "unofficial material. Especially when their own website does in fact have a place FOR things of this nature. If he isn't going to do THAT then release it as a PDF for minimal cost and NOT in the Rifter. Ya know?

Well then, now they'll have a good reason to buy it... because instead of being a book of unofficial material, it'll be a book with new official material like practically every other major hobby publication has been for the last fifteen years.

Perhaps you've forgotten, but Palladium is a business... they don't make this stuff for the fun of it, they're doing this to make money.  Why try to create a whole new line of publications to distribute this new content when they already have the kind of publication their betters use for exactly this purpose, which until now has been neglected by their customers?  This is a decision that makes perfect business sense, and no small amount of practical sense.