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Post by Jaymz on Dec 20, 2014 3:33:21 GMT
Another weekly update is upon us my little palladiumites...so f you do not like what I have to say do not read. Avoids the butthurt that way and away we go.. www.palladiumbooks.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=756:palladium-booksr-weekly-update-december-19-2014&catid=52:weekly-updates&Itemid=183"Every day has been a whirlwind of activity. With Christmas just next week, the Palladium Grab Bags/Surprise Packages have been pouring in and stealing away much of our time." That would explain why Australian backer pledges haven;t gone out yet.... "When I wasn’t working on Christmas Surprise Packages and immediate business matters, I’ve been wrapping and packing the gifts I send to our many freelancers as a thank you for their efforts in writing, illustration and other work." Isn't this more of a personal matter than a business one though? I get that they are freelancers but still....work is work and this isn't work. You keep saying how tight your time is and this s what you do with the "extra time you have? Ok then.... "This week there were meetings with two printers, a meeting with our UPS representative, a visit from a fan, art dropped off by Chuck Walton, planning for advertising, some discussion about book releases, reserving advertising space and other stuff. Like I said, a whirlwind of a week." We keep hearing about all this advertising you keep looking into and yet....no advertising to be seen in all that time. "UPDATE: The Rifter® #68 – Available now!" Finally..... "UPDATE: Palladium Fantasy RPG®: Bizantium and the Northern Islands™ – in production – January release" So.....March.....maybe. "UPDATE: Robotech® RPG Tactics™ This week we have had a few product discussions about Robotech®, and future areas to be addressed, including Errata, FAQ, advanced rules and additional product. " Uh guys? You've had info for a FAQ and Errata FOR MONTHS. DO IT. There isn't much to have to talk about on this. It needs to be DONE so DO IT. "Oh, I should also mention we are waiting on a few shipping quotes to Australia." Are you fucking serious? You do not even have quoted shipping prices yet? What. The. Fuck. *sighs and shakes head at the idiocy of such a thing* "Christmas Surprise Package Offer – EXTENDED to January 11, 2015" You know, why don't you guys just say Grab bags run till mid January instead of this fake "ENDS XMAS" when we damn well know you'll extend and have extended it every damn year. "I know many of you are not done shopping or wrapping, so I’m ending this Update right now so you can get to it. " I....what? Oye. Until next week....if there IS a next week being christmas. |
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Post by MacrossMike on Dec 20, 2014 5:31:46 GMT
"Every day has been a whirlwind of activity. With Christmas just next week, the Palladium Grab Bags/Surprise Packages have been pouring in and stealing away much of our time." That would explain why Australian backer pledges haven;t gone out yet.... I'm not sure what Kevin defines as a "whirlwind" of activity... he's always talking about how busy he is, but for all his supposed busy-ness he doesn't seem to be getting much of anything accomplished. Most of what he spends weeks on would be a matter of hours for any decent fulfillment center. "When I wasn’t working on Christmas Surprise Packages and immediate business matters, I’ve been wrapping and packing the gifts I send to our many freelancers as a thank you for their efforts in writing, illustration and other work." Isn't this more of a personal matter than a business one though? I get that they are freelancers but still....work is work and this isn't work. You keep saying how tight your time is and this s what you do with the "extra time you have? Ok then.... Somehow, that doesn't seem like something that should be taking priority over getting out long, LONG overdue shipments to overseas backers who've already paid for product in advance. That's something you do after hours. "This week there were meetings with two printers, a meeting with our UPS representative, a visit from a fan, art dropped off by Chuck Walton, planning for advertising, some discussion about book releases, reserving advertising space and other stuff. Like I said, a whirlwind of a week." We keep hearing about all this advertising you keep looking into and yet....no advertising to be seen in all that time. Well, if they're meeting with UPS representatives that means that they've finally doing SOMETHING about shipping... but the rest is just so much busywork. As far as advertising space goes, they're not going to salvage RRT with magazine adverts. The larger contenders in the industry have their own magazines, and the smaller ones just do web pages instead. Their best bet would've been advertising in a dedicated American anime industry magazine, but the big one is long dead (Newtype USA) and what remains is supermarket tabloid quality at the best of times. "UPDATE: Robotech® RPG Tactics™ This week we have had a few product discussions about Robotech®, and future areas to be addressed, including Errata, FAQ, advanced rules and additional product. " Uh guys? You've had info for a FAQ and Errata FOR MONTHS. DO IT. There isn't much to have to talk about on this. It needs to be DONE so DO IT. That'd be too easy. "Oh, I should also mention we are waiting on a few shipping quotes to Australia." Are you fucking serious? You do not even have quoted shipping prices yet? What. The. Fuck. *sighs and shakes head at the idiocy of such a thing* That would, presumably, be why they're meeting with UPS... but they made a lot of promises they're going to have a very difficult time keeping with respect to paying import fees for the backers. |
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Post by Jaymz on Dec 20, 2014 19:18:38 GMT
Or Animerica if it still exists or even Protoculture Addicts if IT still exists....but if they do, that would also be too easy to realize...
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Post by MacrossMike on Dec 20, 2014 20:06:41 GMT
Or Animerica if it still exists or even Protoculture Addicts if IT still exists....but if they do, that would also be too easy to realize... No dice there... Animerica was canned by Viz Media in 2004, Newtype USA folded in 2008, Protoculture Addicts died in 2008 when it was bought out, Anime Insider snuffed it in 2009, and Shonen Jump's US release died in 2012 as well. At present, the ONLY American-market anime/manga hobby magazine currently in circulation is Otaku USA... and it's of supermarket tabloid quality, for the most part. They don't seem to give one single solitary shit about butchered shows like Robotech or StarBlazers, though they did cover Macross Frontier's movies. There are two British magazines in VERY limited circulation... MyM and Neo. Tabletop gaming hobby magazines are in a similar bind. There aren't many, and most of the ones that exist belong to a particular company in the industry. Dragon folded in 2007, CHARGE! folded in 2013, Games Unplugged only lasted four years. I think Fire and Movement still exists, but like White Dwarf it's owned and operated by a game developer and a shill for their products alone. Kevin's up shit creek with no paddles in a canoe slightly less seaworthy than a colander if he's hoping to advertise in hobby magazines. |
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Post by Sci-Fi on Dec 27, 2014 8:58:01 GMT
Mayby the American market has just.... died for anime?
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Post by MacrossMike on Dec 28, 2014 0:28:58 GMT
Mayby the American market has just.... died for anime? The clowns at Harmony Gold would certainly like their fans to think that's the case... because they've been claiming exactly that as the latest excuse for not doing anything with their worthless franchise. The problem is... it doesn't tally with objective reality. Yes, the industry was in a downturn from 2008 to 2012, but things have been steadily rebounding as the industry adapts to the very same changes in the market as the rest of the film industry. The sales of physical media are down, but sales of anime to streaming services is up some ungodly percentage (last I read it was like 5 or 600 percent) and attendance at anime conventions is likewise up considerably from where it was before the recession. If I had to point to an explanation, I'd say the reason there are so few anime hobby magazines now is that it's a hobby with a seriously strong online presence. Hobbyists can get their news online, and with more comprehensive industry coverage, than they'd get in a monthly magazine... and since many such news sites are also "free" (ad-supported) that makes them a more appealing alternative to traditional ink and paper methods. |
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Post by Sci-Fi on Dec 28, 2014 2:08:45 GMT
It's possible. Comics are sort of the same way. THough I've always thought Anime has always been a nitch inside a nitch market.
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Post by Jaymz on Dec 28, 2014 3:13:16 GMT
It's a niche that is much bigger than many realize these days. My daughters are samples of that. They are watching any number of Animes for free online through various sites and such. The biggest problem I see is that Anime is STILL not really seen as a type of mainstream entertainment in North American and STILL viewed largely as a children entertainment by the powers that be in mainstream media in North America.
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Post by MacrossMike on Dec 28, 2014 3:25:03 GMT
It's possible. Comics are sort of the same way. THough I've always thought Anime has always been a nitch inside a nitch market. Oh, anime is absolutely a niche industry in the US just like comics are... they're just going in different directions. Like comics, anime is a niche product that American audiences have been indulging in for decades. Both are essentially fighting the same uphill battle against the public perception of that format being "for kids" despite it having more narrative freedom than traditional cinema. As a niche product, comic books have been on the decline for a good while now because the potential of the format is being wasted. The major players in the weekly and monthly Top 300 comics are almost invariably all superhero comics. With the vast majority of the high-profile titles belonging to a single genre rife with continuity lock-out, the appeal of the format is very low among general audiences. The publishers attempt to compensate for the loss of audience with by making the subject matter more "sensational" (usually by aiming for a social "hot button", or just ramping up the graphic violence, sex appeal, etc.), which has magnified the social stigma associated to being "comic book guy". Digital distribution hasn't really done anything to remedy this, since the continuity lock-out problem is only becoming worse with each subsequent crossover plot or attempt at a reboot... something comic book movies have exacerbated, rather than fixed. Anime, on the other hand, is a growing niche because the potential of the format is being exploited to the fullest. Where the "big name" comics are clustered around one genre, anime's "big name" titles are demographically all over the place. Go down the list of the anime industry's big sellers and you'll find war dramas and space operas rubbing shoulders with love comedies, slice of life shows, horror, and Japan's own versions of superheros. You'll find a fair few on the list that straddle multiple, often unrelated, genres and somehow make things work. With a major cable network and all three major streaming services pushing anime at the behest of American distributors, it's never been easier for people to explore a diverse selection of anime and find something to their taste that the viewer can jump into blindly and enjoy. The diverse assortment of titles and the easy availability of new titles without needing a separate, specialized subscription, has done a LOT to grow the niche. Unfortunately (for Palladium and Harmony Gold), the anime industry adapting to the online marketplace means that there's very little out there for companies looking to do things "the traditional way". With just one anime magazine in print in North America, Kevin's options to advertise RRT are very limited. Likewise, with Harmony Gold's exclusive focus on trying to peddle a new Robotech animated series to the networks is (quite apart from the flaws in their approach) doomed to fail because the networks that believe in traditional programming are no longer working to Harmony Gold's decades-old production process and are content to leave niche programming like that to a dedicated network that doesn't want it because it can get new material developed in Japan from distributors for a lot less money. |
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