Oh Yeah... GW's Financials Are Out...

by SandWyrm

With all of my preparations for Gencon, and general busy-ness elsewhere, I completely missed when GW released its financials for the year. If you were expecting any sort of big surprise on the financial end, you'll be disappointed. Sales & profits are down a bit (like each of the last few years), and dividends were cut. So you know... Same old same old. Nothing has changed in the long-term trends. Sales are up a little bit in North America & Asia, and down everywhere else. Royalties are back up (covering some for weak sales), and they've somehow found more operational expenses to cut to slightly increase their Operating Profit. Yawn...

The most entertaining bits though, as always, are in the chairman's introductions.

CBS & Paramount Finally Release Their Fan-Film Guidelines

by SandWyrm

I have no idea where the Axanar settlement talks are going right now, but CBS and Paramount have collectively released a new set of fan-film guidelines. Many of them are reasonable, some are a bit irksome, and a few are downright awful.

So I'll just go ahead and list them here, while I snowmobile my comments in. If you want to look at the original page of rules without my comments, follow this link.

Anyway, on with the snowmobiling...

The Codex Problem

By CaulynDarr

No, this isn't about the new Eldar Codex(not directly) or possible titles for Dan Brown's next book.   Most miniature game companies still update their game through periodic book releases adding or replacing existing rules for creating armies.  It's a dated approach, and it's time to come up with a better way.

Kickstarters, maybe not so great a thing for gamers

By CaulynDarr

Long story, start reading here,

Last summer when I saw that Battlefront was running a Dust Tactics Kickstarter, I went into immediate nerd rage mode.  I wrote a nice flame post on it, but deleted it before posing.  I was fairly sour mood when it came to Kickstarters at the time.  Robotech Tactics was quickly approaching a BS singularity, and I was getting a bit jaded about the whole concept.

But I figured it was Battlefront.  They'd have their backers backs; the Warstore pre-selling all the SKUs at a better price DURING THE KICKSTARTER thing notwithstanding.  All my bluster would look like another negative hit piece by an angry fan boy who just likes to piss in peoples' Cheerios(it is cathartic).  Well, I guess to paraphrase the great Captain Sparrow; there will be no living with me after this.  Thanks, Battlefront. 

So what did I almost say 8 months ago? 

Brighthouse Responds (Sort Of)

by SandWyrm

I'll say this, Brighthouse Networks (BHN) cares about its reputation (unlike some game companies we all know). Within 12 hours of my last post on only being able to access Netflix through a VPN the other night, I received an email from Gary Doda, a BHN forums manager. Gary is anxious to communicate his company's side of the story, up to a point. But while I'll admit that the issue is more complex than I initially thought, my own stance is largely unchanged.

Screw You Brighthouse!!!

by SandWyrm

So I try to connect to Netflix tonight, and either nothing comes up, or I get an error message saying that Netflix is having a problem. This persists for over an hour.

Suspicious, I then I connect to a VPN service, which encrypts my connection so that my ISP (Brighthouse) can't tell who I'm connecting to. Wanna guess what happens?

Netflix comes right up.

Robotech Tactics Gets Held Up by US Customs

By CaulynDarr

Sorry to push your positive news piece off the top of the stack, Farmpunk, but...

AHAHAAAHAHAAAHHAAAHHAAAAA-HA!!!!

That is the most real, authentic, hysterical laugh of my entire life.

Called it.  All that bridge burning with the backers to sell at Gencon, and they won't even have it ready in time.  Really serves them right.  Schadenfreude feels much better than it really should

GW Financials: The Rains Of Cash-Still-Here

by SandWyrm

Tom Kirby's wobbly-worded pre-ramble may have set us up to expect the worst from Games Workshop's full-year financial report, but what we actually see today is a slight improvement on the half-year numbers from January. Still bad, to be sure, especially from the standpoint of the institutional investors that they're beholden to (hence Kirby's panic), but nothing particularly catastrophic from the standpoint of the customer base.  Call it a slap in GW's face with a large Tuna, but not a shove over the side of the boat.

Stay Classy Palladium

by CaulynDarr

The Admiral is not amused

Man, I sure know how to pick Kickstarters.  This one for Robotech Tactics has turned into a real cluster frak.  One of the implicit understandings of a Kickstarter is that backers get the product first.  We put down money months to years in advance for a product that may or may not live up to expectations.  All because we want to see a cool idea come to life and be part of it.  And, if the implicit promise isn't enough for you, there's also the times when the creators make it explicitly:

In the end, you, our Kickstarter supporters, will be the first to receive a wonderful product that we hope will make you grin and provide endless hours of enjoyment. Thank you for sharing our dream. You, your pledges of support and unbridled enthusiasm are very much appreciated.

Emphasis mine.  So of course what is Palladium doing?  They are planning on selling at Gencon before they ship to backers. 

Amelial, the Void Herald

by CaulynDarr

I'm about 85% done.  There's still some clean up to do on her wings and base.  I might also re-do the faceplate of her helmet.  It didn't turn out quite like I wanted.  

Greed, Thy Name Is Electronic Arts

by SandWyrm

I heard today that Electronic Arts had released an iOS version of Bullfrog's old Dungeon Keeper game. So I decided to try it out. What I found though, was THE most player-abusive "Freemium" title I've ever seen. You think that World of Tanks is bad? Gold-rounds and premium tanks have nothing on this steeming pile-o-greed. Where every little action has been turned into an opportunity to fleece the impatient for money.

Fix What's Really Broken

by SandWyrm

Not too long ago, SinSynn posted an article over on House of Paincakes where he told the story of his struggle with drug addiction. Because he wanted to cut through the bullshit and tell people the truth about what it's really like to go through that experience. Well now, because of a comment on my last post, I've got my own real-life story to share. Not about drug addiction, but about how the confusion of psychology with science skews our perceptions of health. Which, for reasons you'll see, is one of my major pet peeves. Because it has affected me personally time and again.

What Are They Smoking In New Zealand?

by SandWyrm

Well, I've been waiting to see what Battlefront would do to combat their Plastic Soldier Company competition, and now we know. They're not going to do a damn thing.

That's NOT Just The Way It Is

by SandWyrm

Spag I think, speaks for a lot of regular folks when he says that Big Businesses are all the same. It's a fatalistic view, and one that also excuses GW's (and Disney's, and Microsoft's, and Apple's) bad and/or stupid behaviors. But it's just that. Bad/stupid behavior. Which is made worse by the incentives companies have to make bad decisions when they're publicly traded.

It's A Plastic Panther Fight!!! (Or is it?)

by Sandwyrm

Battlefront's John Paul has promised to 'think about' listened to their fans and compromised on their BF-only models decision for their own tournaments. But whatever comes of that (local money is was right on them switching to a percentage system as GW used to do), they're not relying on this ban alone to help fight off the gains that The Plastic Soldier Company has been making in the 15mm market. Because I noticed today that their latest update includes a new plastic Panther offering of their own. Welcome to the fight Battlefront! Let's take a look at what you have!

Battlefront's John Paul Speaks Up

by SandWyrm

I still don't agree with the new Battlefront-only model policy for their official FoW tournaments. After all, their openness in allowing other models to be used was a big reason I took the plunge into playing the game in the first place, and I don't think that it will accomplish anything but pissing off their adoring fans. But well... Battlefront still is not GW, and John Paul has proved it by commenting directly in their forums about the issue. It's thoughtful and worth a read.

Aww Battlefront... Why'd You Go And Do That?

by Sandwyrm

Given that I'm always comparing Battlefront to GW, and crowing about the lower price of playing their game, I would be remiss if I didn't comment on something Battlefront just did that I don't care for at all. Particularly as it will reduce what I saw as a healthy competition between manufacturers of Flames-compatable miniatures.

Stupid Dramas

by SandWyrm

There are some things that I need to clarify.

Something That Needs To Be Said

by SandWyrm

In reply to Hulksmash's comment to my last post.

How 6th Could Fracture Us

by Sandwyrm

Dodger3 had an interesting comment amidst the firestorm of my last post that I think needs to be addressed more fully.