Transparency Agenda Daily September 6th 2016 - Retailer Kickstarter Paradox

Transparency Agenda Daily August 31st 2016 - Is #ThinkGeek prejudice against #Blerd and #blacknerd fans?

Transparency Agenda Daily August 18th 2016 - Best looking comic book sto...

Transparency Agenda Daily August 1 2016 - RPGs cost too much...

Transparency Agenda Daily June 21st 2016 - Free RPG Day does not work...

Transparency Agenda Daily May 20th 2016 - Better late than never

Transparency Agenda January 2016 Special with Gary Ray

I would like to thank Gary Ray​ of Black Diamond Games​ who was kind enough to answer some interesting and informative questions during this interview. If you want to learn more about what retailers have to do with in the process of selling game and how to do it, this episode of Transparency Agenda is for you!

Less than a week until Transparency Agenda January 2016 Special with Gary Ray of Black Diamond

I have noticed only a few of you have signed up for the upcoming Transparency Agenda January 2016 Special with Gary Ray of Black Diamond and there are some who have not signed up to watch it. Let me tell you, if you are a table top game designer and/or publisher and you are NOT going to watch this, then YOU ARE AS A DUMB AS A BRICK and your company is going to fail. Period.

Are you kidding me?!?!?!?? I am getting one of the TOP gaming stores in the USA let alone the world and I am going to go complete BEAST MODE on him asking tough questions and getting to the heart of the retail / publisher issues like:

Why do retailers hate Kickstarter so much?

Or Why do retailers never want to support small publishers in the start, then complain when they can’t get their stuff in the store?

Or even, How much does it suck that Cards Against Humanity doesn’t care about dealing with retailers and shouts them out of making money?

I am sure there are some real tough questions you would like to ask a retailer and get an honest answer, and NOW is the time to ask them. Even though you will be able to see this later on YouTube, not one might ask the question you want to hear. So sign up and make sure you are going to be there. Hope to see you on Saturday!

Transparency Agenda #49: Retailers VS. Kickstarter!!! (+playlist)

Transparency Agenda #35: Reaper's Bones II does 1 million in one day...

Transparency Agenda #017: What kind of trouble can I get myself into...

Supporting Retailers with our Empire of Tears Kickstarter

Since we are planning to support retailers with our upcoming 2014 kickstarter, Empire of Tears adventure saga, we have created three levels of support that I think the majority of retailers will find very attractive reason to carry this Pathfinder kickstarter in their retail locations. Here is the levels of their donation:

Pledge $25 or more

RETAILERS STARTER KIT EXCLUSIVE FOR NEOEXODUS: Please contact us directly to learn about the Retailers Exclusive reward we have for this kickstarter. Retailers who will receive this award will have it at least 2 month before donors receive their rewards. This reward is also exclusive for retailers only. (This includes domestic US shipping - International customers please add $20 for shipping)

Pledge $45 or more

RETAILERS EMPIRE OF TEARS EARLY RELEASE REWARD: We will release two sets of the black & white editions of each of the adventures of Empire of Tears adventure saga (8 adventures in total) for retailer. In addition, retailers who will receive this award will have it at least 2 month before donors receive their rewards. This reward is also exclusive for retailers only. (This includes domestic US shipping - International customers please add $20 for shipping)

Pledge $60 or more (Limited to 25)

RETAILERS COMPLETE EARLY BIRD REWARD: Retailers will receive the Retailers Starter Kit Exclusive for NeoExodus ($25) and Retailers Empire of Tears Early Release Reward ($45) reward levels. Retailers who will receive this award will have it at least 2 month before donors receive their rewards. This reward is also exclusive for retailers only.  (This includes domestic US shipping - International customers please add $25 for shipping)

OK retailers what do you think? We are open to all responses.

Angry retailer tells me how he feels about Kickstarter, Paizo, Free RPG Day and his customers…

The biggest issue that I have run into with doing a Kickstarters is retailers. Many retailers seem to have a open hostility of the concept of Kickstarter and specifically what it means for their customer base and their potential retailing future.  Here is an email that I received from a retailer on sending him an email informing him about our Free RPG Day 2013 NeoExodus Adventure for Pathfinder Kickstarter and how they can become involved in this kickstarter. I have redacted some items to protect the identity of the retailer and their location:

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Kickstarter/Pathfinder/Paizo/In-store RPG players/Free RPG Day

None of these things generate any direct revenue at all, and effectively skip retailers like us. Printed RPG's are dead here in [REDACTED]. Digital downloads killed it. We accept that as retailers, and we have moved on.

It is an old story. RPG players take up a ton of space, make a huge mess. They sneak in bags of groceries, 2 liter bottles of soda and destroy our bathrooms. Any retailer will tell you that happens/will happen, or they have to constantly police that crowd with rules. They don't spend money anymore in our stores. As a group, they are gamer hobo's.

The smart retailer will be pushing Warmachine/Hordes, Magic, Yugioh, Cardfight, and Super Dungeon Explore. These publishers want us to sell there stuff with a good margin and don't compete with us.

RPG's used to be my #2 line, and now I am loathe to carrying. I play RPG's and so does my son and brother. From a player's perspective, it has never been better. Beautiful art, awesome content. From a retail side, it is over.

Pathfinder minis WERE going to be fantastic, until Paizo started selling them direct to players. That's like Wizards selling Magic singles on their own eCommerce website. Do you think that would fly?

From a business perspective, I think Paizo is brilliant. Skip the distributor, skip the retailer. What a huge margin. How about Fantasy Flight selling direct to Amazon this past holiday season? Like selling Netrunner at my cost with free shipping, gads. Paizo is no different.

I like this part of the Paizo website.

Warhammer 40k can be purchased online from Paizo with a discount. Still trying to tell me you are not competing with me, and we should be pals?

Does Paizo want to have their own retail stores too like Games Workshop, and offer us a 35% discount on an over-priced line? "These are really neat things we are coming out with, get them direct from us, and wave them in front of everyone at your local hobby shop."

You want me to support Kickstarter? Come on, that is just silly. "Hey gamers! Go to Kickstarter, give us your limited amount of money, and spend nothing at your local hobby shop when it comes out. They won't mind if you play it in their game store and grow their brand, instead of what they are trying to sell you." I do mind, quite a bit.

Paizo is not on our side at all, and Free RPG day does not make money directly or in-directly to cover any of the lost money making opportunities of hosting it. Please take me off of your email list.

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Once again, I find this WHOLE situation silly. Our kickstarter specifically focuses on getting players into his store to get people excited about playing games, which in turn get the retailer excited about selling products.  I have heard so many retailers complain that 3PP for Pathfinder does not sell in their store because there is no interest. I handle that by giving free product on Free RPG Day and offering them a retail starter kit and a VERY reasonable price (only $25) so if the people who like the Free RPG Day offering they can sell them product AT THAT MOMENT. I am offering you the free product to get them interested AND the actual product line that will generate money for your store, and STILL you don’t think you can support this Kickstarter? Really?

I was looking at Fred Hicks Fate Kickstarter and I noticed that only 43 retail store had signed up for his kickstarter. We currently have 11 retail stores.  Good products with good support with good margins and still some retailer cannot be bothered because, using this retailer’s words, “As a group, they are gamer hobo's.”  When you think about your customers as hobos, what must they think about you? Better yet, I have the feeling they have said a lot about you by purchasing this products in other locations than yours.

There is no longer a “hostage economy” in the world. You are now competing with everyone in the work who sells what you sell. What are you going to do to make your store unique and different to stand out? Here is an opportunity to do just that thing with and investment on only $25. To bad that retailer didn't see it for what it was.  Talk to you later…

The books are here from CreateSpace!!!!

Follow up to Gary Ray Post and Comments

The real reason gaming and RPG Retailers fail…

Yesterday Gary Ray of Black Diamond Games put this post up in his blog and from there they has been a FIRESTORM of comments from people on the topic of kickstarter and what it is in reference to the  retailer, what is kickstarter's responsibility is in the gaming market, loyalty to the retailer distributor model and so on. If you go to Gary’s facebook page, I commented in the thread about it.  Bur here is the comments that kind of changed it all for me:

Louis Porter Jr:  OK I have to ask as a Kickstarter publisher: Since you say "my" (I am talking in small publisher terms here) product will not sell in our store so you don't order it. But some of your customers seem to want to pick it up and fund my kickstarter. Better yet, I offer retailers a way to pick up my kickstarter project so you can have exclusive item at our location over your competition. But still you think I am "stealing" customers? I am confused...

Jim Crocker: Louis, I think it's reasonable to say you're 'stealing' the front-end excitement and heat that otherwise comes from a new product release in our stores. I am a little (a lot?) more forgiving than Gary on the long-tail value of KS product, but it's definitely not a 'win-win' for retailers. It's a compromise with the new model. (And by 'you'. I mean any publisher who uses KS as an end-run around the channel but expects their stuff to be carried there post-KS, not just you personally!)

Gareth Skarka: Now, now, Louis. Don't expect logic.

Louis Porter Jr: But here is the issue, we don't have to give you all the option as kickstarter. We could just leave you out completely AND just "take" your customers leaving you in the cold. But we are NOT doing that. We are being inclusive, and for some reason you are getting mad at us? I am sorry, WHAT?

Dusty Deal: Louis, you may be being inclusive, but the majority of Kickstarter projects I've seen lately have not been retailer friendly.

Gary Ray: I've never really carried your products so the point is moot. They haven't even been offered to me through standard channels. What we now see are many, if not most, small publishers who we used to be able to support, no longer work for us, and new ones, no longer rewarding us for taking chances on them.

Gareth Skarka: " I've never really carried your products so the point is moot. " And yet they wonder why retailers are being "cut out." Incredible.

Dusty Deal is the owner of MythPlaced Treasures. Since she is near Denver, I am going to have JP go over there and run some NeoExodus Legacies games to help build a customer base of those who might be interested in NeoExodus. Jim Crocker is the owner and operator of Modern Myths, Inc.

And with this I realized what the retailers want: They want to make ALL the money, they want to take no risk, the want to complain when they can’t get a product and they want to tell you it will not sell in their stores. 

I am sorry, but no.  Gary, I think you are a smart business man and understand your business well, but I hate to break it to you on this one, you are on the wrong side of history.

Kickstarter is the disruptive technology that retail AND distributors fear. It completely removes them from the Manufacture > Distributor > Retailer > Customer system.   With kickstarter is just Manufacture to Customer and best of all, you can raise more money than you asked for and have an actual profit on a products.  I used to support the distributor & retailer model because that is the way it was done. But now as a publisher I have MORE options: online digital sales, Print on Demand services and crowdsource funding to name a few.  Any retailer who thinks and acts like Gary, I am sorry but the future is going to get tougher and tougher for you.  I am sorry you see this as a point of conflict instead of a place for innovation, since this is going to be a LONG and painful road for you if crowdfunding continues to explode in success, like everyone suggests it is going to. Talk to you later…

Print-On-Demand Cards come in and Lucas knocks and comes in...

$30 Retailer Special Reward for NeoExodus Adventure: Origin of Man for Pathfinder RPG

For all the retailers that support Pathfinder RPG and Paizo, here's a Kickstarter project for you to support.

$30 Retailer Special Reward for NeoExodus Adventure: Origin of Man for Pathfinder RPG 

 For all you that have local game stores that might be interested in carrying exclusive NeoExodus product, tell them about our $30 Retailer Special Reward! For $30, five copies of the softcover book ($6 each, includes US shipping) will be sent to retailer locations without access to the design boards, playtest, and discussion. And if they need more copies for their stores they can add additional multiples copies of this reward, just add $6 for each additional book. All donation at this level will be confirmed before product is shipped. If the retailer store is outside North America, have them contact us first before contributing at this level.

Thanks for helping this project become a success! Click here to support this project!!!

Thanks to Gary Ray of Black Diamond Games for suggesting this!

Something for retail stores...Square Register

I have been a huge fan of Square since I first heard about it years ago but now it looks like they have added something very interesting to their business model. Introducing Square Register!

Nothing really to talk about...except Facebook, Webcomics Weekly...

This has been a busy week on the personal life so I have not had a lot to say or focus on with this blog. But, I will do a little self pimping and ask you to join the Louis Porter Jr. Design Facebook page so you can learn some othering hat we don't put up here at our blog.  For example, yesterday I had a online development session with JP Chapleau of a new feat, Craft Magic Candle [Item Creation] and a new magic item, Magic Candles.  We had comments from Gary Ray of Black Diamond Games who go to give us input what he though.  All of these done in real time.  We will be doing more of that, so don't miss out. Also do yourself a favor and check out Webcomics.com and  Webcomics Weekly and listen to their (semi) weekly podcast of what is going on wiht the webcomic world, which has a lot of ideas that can be (and I have) used in the RPG PDF world.  Just some stuff to be helpful.  Talk to you later...