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.
