Jaded Gamers Diary: Numenera

Well over on Facebook every now and then they show you a 'memory' of something you posted that day a few years back. Well the other day it showed me one of something that I had sat off to the back of my mind. Two years ago I got really pissed off with the delivery of a Kickstarter and I started posting about it. Then suddenly several eyes were on me as I had caught some attention. Including the attention of the people behind the Kickstarter. Couple that with me being a generally unhappy person at that period of time AND having my fill of pent up anger that I hadn't vented in months. Well lets just say I got a bit bitchy. Looking back on it I wonder if I took it to far, then sometimes looking at other things I wonder if I didn't take it far enough.

Something in my mind clicked and an old name came to my mind. Jaded Gamers. Yes, this would have a made a great Jaded Gamers post. Maybe, just maybe, I need to pull the name back out. I'm sure those who were involved way back then won't mind. Actually I'm sure they will get a good kick out of it. So without further ado I shall make the first (of hopefully many) Jaded Gamers Diaries post. I'll do it covering this Kickstarter and the game it produced.

Perhaps you've heard of the game from that Kickstarter. It was called Numenera, ring a bell?

I can already here a few select people groan. But I must go on, I must.

Long story short on this. The print copy of the game (which is what I backed for, I'm a print copy kind of person) was released at Gencon before it could be sent out to backers due to how close the printing date was to the con. I completely understood that, Gencon is huge and there is no way any big company can pass up on doing a major release there. The day after Gencon it was on Amazon at their usually marked down really low prices. A couple days after that people were talking about their copies they got from Amazon and talking about the copies they picked up at game shops. Then Amazon sold out... and restocked. While people were talking about the copies they were getting at overseas game shops.

We backers were still waiting. Well except for the ones who picked up at Gencon and they told us to be patient. Easy to do when you aren't the one wondering where your backer reward is.

This went on for a month. Some mix ups at the distributor was pretty much what we were told over and over... oh and that it was fixed... over and over. Then the straw that finally pushed me over the edge. You see there was also a Kickstarter for a Numenera video game that came up previously... which I also backed but only for a digital copy of the game. But there was one backer level where you could get a copy of the regular print copy of the game as well. Those backers were getting their books now as well. Yes you read that right, people who backed another Kickstarter were getting the books from the Kickstarter that we had backed before we got our copies.

That's when I started bitching and asking questions. Somebody said they must have used a 'backers last' idea of fulfillment, they said they didn't, but damn if it sure didn't feel like they did. They said backers were a priority, but damned if it felt that way to us. I got loud on my social media about it and started attracting a crowd and a lot of emails from fellow backers who were also angry. Meanwhile they were bending over backwards to make sure a store got their copies as quickly as possible (UNLESS they were a store who backed them at the retailer level... then they were left waiting and told to be patient as well).

Finally I got an email they were sending me a copy directly over night, well two day since the USPS won't guarantee over night to an area as rural as the one I'm living in. They even sent me a signed copy to boot. Months of waiting and watching everyone talk about how great the book was and finally my copy had arrived. I flipped through it for a second tossed in a storage tub and it's been there ever since. A month later a second copy arrived from their fulfillment company also. Oddly addressed to Peter Amthor and not to my real name, which isn't what I gave for my delivery address. I took that one down to a local game shop to put on their shelf in an attempt to sell for store credit... it's still sitting there.

So back to where I was heading and no that wasn't short but fuck how can I expect to make that short. After all there is still stuff I left out. When I saw the memory of that pop up on facebook I headed over to Kickstarter to look at the project page and saw something. Well holy shit, imagine that, people still waiting for their stuff.

The Numenera Kickstarter comments section

Not anything like before but evidently they are still having problems with fulfillment. Or not really trying to hard to fulfill anything. As I said back before when all this was going on they appear more concerned with 'new money' from new people than with 'old money' they've already gotten from people before.

Apparently it's happening on a few of their other Kickstarters as well. People still not getting what they backed for.

The Strange comments section

Numenera boxed set comments section

So after seeing this I'm a still so glad I decided to never again back anything that Monte Cook Games does. Nor will I ever buy anything they do, or even play in a game they put out. I'm just to that much level of 'fuck this' with them.

If you want to buy their stuff I'll give you a link with my affiliate code attached. Because I'm like always needing a few more cents in credit at Drivethru to buy stuff I really want.

Monte Cook Games on DrivethruRPG

Also if you are interested in reading my old blog posts on this just look for the 'numenera' label at the bottom of this post and give it a click.

Now to go find something to complain about next time.  Because bitching about shit feels so good.