[HOE] Re: Product Updates ( I feel a rant coming on...)

["Reuben McCallum" <bloopy40@hotmail.com>]

Okay, here goes...
It has been months now since a HoE or WW product has come out, and I am 
desperate for fix. Every friday I go into FLGS, hoping against hope to see 
an orange or green cover on the shelves, only to face the apologetic face of 
the attendant, and be forced to by some awful WotC product (joke!). 
Sometimes, cruelly, my hopes are raised by that bloody Hunter: The Reckoning 
game (must...hold...back...white...wolf...rant...). Now I understand PEG's 
having some difficulties, but hell! TOO MANY BOOKS!
I have now, officially, been annoyed.
When are we going to get a cybergames.com rep on this list so they can 
answer to us, the most fearsome and exacting group of inquisitors...I mean 
fans... this side of the dreaded Nepalese Nephilim players club! That was 
the great thing about this list; we could say something, and the guy who 
owns the company responds. Now I feel like I'm wailing against the tide.
I'm going to use an example.
Dream Pod 9 are the creators of Heavy Gear, tribe 8, and the liscence 
holders for Jovian Chronicles. I love Heavy Gear, but it isn't half the game 
the Deadlands Epic is. Yet every month, they have, without fail, put out a 
product for Heavy Gear ALONE. I know that DP9 is a different company, but 
How many Deadlands rulesbook/sourcebook products have come out this year? 
Five? This from an Origins award winning game that, IMHO, has only gotten 
better and more addictive.
This isn't a dig at Shane or the PEGGERS. It is a very focused dig at the 
folks at cybergames.com. If they weren't going to support this product 
adequetely, the shouldn't have bought the company. Hell, we should've done 
it (joke...mostly). I mean, have we seen any product since the cybergames 
crew took over? What about these electronic products?
Personally, I can't see the business sense. How are you supposed to make 
money off something if you don't put out product? Bake Sales? I know you can 
flood the market, but I don't think that's the case here. Someone who's 
going to bother buying any more products can afford it ONCE a MONTH!
I have a very real fear that Deadlands is going to start pushing up daisies 
soon if it isn't adequetly supported by an ungoing product range. If that 
were to happen, the cybergames folks had better stay away from clocktowers. 
I'm sure my fellow LISTERS will be with me, and with the number of hours 
I've spent training on time crisis, they'd better hope for a good joker draw 
(BIG JOKE!!!)
But seriously, I feel there has to be a change in attitude on the business 
end. From what I remember John Hopler had made a number of finalisations 
MONTHS ago on waste warriors. It's a book with guns! How is it not going to 
sell? Palladium have run an entire series of 30 odd books under that 
principle (please no flame RIFTS players).
I just can't, for the life of me, see the situation improving by NOT 
producing books.
All Ranted Out
Reuben McCallum
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