Would you have backed the RRT Kickstarter w 1 year timeline?

jreece06 · Unread post by **jreece06** » Fri Apr 18, 2014 10:59 am

I know I would have, but I'm curious if others feel the same way.

Jorel · Unread post by **Jorel** » Fri Apr 18, 2014 11:16 am

I would have. I wish they would have done the research for everything involved and when they clearly blew past the $70,000 initial goal they should have adjusted their time frame for it. I think that time frame makes sense and even leaves time for error and if per chance they delivered early, great. At least then they would have the backers behind them with any delays, instead of jumping ship at every sign of any delay.

Daniel Stoker · Fri Apr 18, 2014 11:29 am

It wouldn't have effected me, but I didn't back it in the first place. Partly because like with what we were seeing with the NG crowd sourcing I figured it would be very delayed, but to be totally honest the largest part is my dislike of having to put together models in games like this. It's why I abandoned WH40K years ago as I have little patience to put an army together and unless i'm playing something like Necron which I could justify being all black or gray my painting skills suck. (And again are effected by my lack of patience.) At this point I'm glad I didn't toss any money in because I admit there's no way I'd ever get even half of what I would have bought together from what it seems is coming out and I also have no idea if I'd find anyone local to play against and I'm not interested in collecting for the sake of collecting.

Daniel Stoker

Raiden · Unread post by **Raiden** » Fri Apr 18, 2014 5:27 pm

I didn't pledge this kickstarter either since I don't have a whole lot of faith in the KS method. You pledge money for one thing, get excited for it, then it could potentially change into something you're not too excited about, and you're still out the money for something that you don't even really want in the end. (This opinion formed not because of RRT, it actually formed years ago when I first heard of Kick Starter.)

I used to collect and play WH40K (Space Marines, Black Templars chapter) so I had no problem with dedicating the time to building mini's. Now that I'm older, have a wife, and have far more interests outside of gaming, I don't have the time to spare to build tens or hundreds of mini's. When I first heard of the RRT KS, I had heard it would be hand painted, pre-built mini's, and I actually got a little excited, but due to money issues (paying off my car a year early, planning a wedding, and buying a house...), all I could do was cheer from the side lines when the KS smashed through their goals.

Now I'm burying my face in my hands at what this project has become. This whole thing has become a farce, a joke, a parody. I had all intentions of buying a few mini's when it came to store shelves, but now I'm going to save my money and put it towards other things. Once again, deadlines are missed, promises are made and broken, and the final product has changed.

Glad I was broke last year.

zyanitevp · Unread post by **zyanitevp** » Sat Apr 19, 2014 4:36 am

I have pledged to 8 RPG products- 2 are new, so discounting them, there have been 6 projects. 3 hit their deadline, 1 was early (Kobold Press is awesome) and 2 are horrendously late.... So, overall, I have been impressed with Kickstarter. 4 out of 6 early or on time is a pretty good record.

Forar · Unread post by **Forar** » Sat Apr 19, 2014 8:00 am

Would I still have backed? Yes, however I probably wouldn't have backed for as much, which would actually be a double win in terms of reducing pressure; a longer time frame to work in before we were even close to late, and less stress/frustration due to lower funds contributed and thus sitting out there in the aether.

Hindsight is 20/20, but there's only so much research the backers can do. In the end, the creator has to be trusted to have done at least basic research regarding production, and extrapolated their business plan to account for those extensions to the project (in terms of extra models and expanded backer rewards).

Simply put, the backers have no way of knowing exactly where the project stands by campaign time, or exactly what the time frame reflects (the old "maybe they just had the base box almost done!" debate, which is clearly incorrect at this point), or a full idea of just what is and isn't on the verge of completion. This campaign had issues along these lines due to the constant use of the whole "98% done" and "final ______" being thrown around. It was noted to have 6 months of work done on it before the campaign even began, and an aggressive timeline (intend to go to production within 45 days of the campaign ending, etc), so taking those statements at face value meant believing they could actually do it, based on an actual understanding of how far along they were and how much was left to be done.

Jorel · Unread post by **Jorel** » Sat Apr 19, 2014 8:43 am

Seams like there was a lot of misinformation during the KS campaign. And now it is falling on the backers to just accept the current state of facts, regardless of what we were led to believe. Really a poor business move on the part of PB. The backers and customers don't deserve that. I hope they do start giving dissatisfied backers refunds. It is the right thing to do considering they still aren't at the 90% or whatever they claimed was complete during the actual KS campaign.

Jorel · Unread post by **Jorel** » Sat Apr 19, 2014 8:52 am

Posted a link to this poll over on the KS pages. Hopefully more of those involved will vote and comment.

Asterios · Unread post by **Asterios** » Sat Apr 19, 2014 10:21 am

Jorel this question is not accurate since its not the wait most people are mad about, but the lack of communication and the not so great looking models as opposed to miniatures we were expecting and promised.

Jorel · Unread post by **Jorel** » Sat Apr 19, 2014 10:32 am

I didn't ask the question, just pointed out the thread.

Asterios · Unread post by **Asterios** » Sat Apr 19, 2014 11:10 am

Still the Question should have been worded like "If you knew then what you know now, would you have still backed this Robotech kickstarter?"

And would have posted this topic on a more neutral forum then this one here.

agent_orange · Sat Apr 19, 2014 11:52 am

yep I would, the project grew a LOT bigger than the initial plan so I'm not surprised it's taking longer than expected. I do agree though that realistic expectations and more communication are needed. a lot of the negativity seems to be being caused by people guessing what's happening because they don't know.

jreece06 · Unread post by **jreece06** » Sat Apr 19, 2014 12:29 pm

I realize the question is not what most would ask. My point here is mostly to get the numbers to show Kevin and co. That not everything has to be 90% done to get people interested.

That's why I phrased the question as I did.

Jorel · Unread post by **Jorel** » Sat Apr 19, 2014 1:04 pm

Asterios wrote:Still the Question should have been worded like "If you knew then what you know now, would you have still backed this Robotech kickstarter?"

And would have posted this topic on a more neutral forum then this one here.

So start your own poll instead of jacking this one for your motives. Then people will have multiple places to voice their opinions.

bielmic · Unread post by **bielmic** » Sat Apr 19, 2014 1:09 pm

Would I have backed it with a 1 year timeline or even multiple waves with separate paid shipping as additional things unlocked? Yes, in that theoretical situation I would have. Would I have backed it knowing now a year later that PB and ND completely misrepresented their current progress and ability to perform the task at hand to such a mind boggling degree? No, absolutely not. Nothing about the KS so far has come true. We've had inconsistent communication (which mainly was composed of empty UNTRUE platitudes for most of 2013 post KS), mediocre sprue breakups with ugly seams across front surfaces of minis and unnecessary part breakups, and a delivery date that went from 40 or so days till production to OVER 400 and counting to finish the project with wave 2 (and that will likely go on to approach 2 years for full completion based on their current progress). I don't appreciate being lied to and then brushed off for almost a year but that isn't anything new for Palladium given the history of both Northern Gun books.

jaymz · Unread post by **jaymz** » Sat Apr 19, 2014 1:28 pm

Yes as I did not buy in at hundreds upon hundreds or thousands of dollars. Merely one Battle Cry is all I bought in for.

However, if you add in that Palladium is actually the one running the show, which we were told they would not be originally, then I may not have for the same reasons I did not buy into the last two in house crowd source efforts. I went into this thinking Palladium was going to actually be hands off and until the KS closed they seemed to be. Then everything changed for whatever reason. For now I am biding my time but if Wave 1 slips from June/July into September (and let's face it, August is a black hole of non productivity at Palladium due to Gencon much like December is due to the Xmas Grab Bags) I will be seriously thinking of wanting out and waiting for it to go retail instead thus picking and choosing exactly what I want for my own nefarious purposes.

Jerell · Unread post by **Jerell** » Sat Apr 19, 2014 4:30 pm

Of course I would have. Going in I expected 150%-200% the estimated time to begin with. I can wait for a quality product.

Jorel · Unread post by **Jorel** » Sat Apr 19, 2014 9:15 pm

that last statement is very valid.

Maximilian Jenius · Sat Apr 19, 2014 11:41 pm

I would wait a year for what was promised at the beginning. However if I knew now what this was going to turn into I wouldn't have backed the project at all. Therefore I will not be answering this poll as the results will be misleading.

Forar · Unread post by **Forar** » Sun Apr 20, 2014 1:31 am

Xavaron wrote:I'm not as put out as I could be though

Give it time...

:-P

Seto Kaiba · Unread post by **Seto Kaiba** » Sun Apr 20, 2014 11:29 am

jreece06 wrote:I know I would have, but I'm curious if others feel the same way.

Not I, my friend.

When I was first made aware of the Robotech RPG Tactics Kickstarter, I took some time to read the developer's pitch and my experience as a tabletop war gamer left me with the distinct impression that they were committing to make a game that had zero long-term potential.

Part of it is that, in going on 30 years of trying, Harmony Gold has yet to produce a viable continuation of the original series or any original material worth speaking of. Robotech never grew past that original IP they licensed from the Japanese, so a tabletop game is going to run into the same problems that RT2E has in recent years... they'll run out of usable material really quickly. That meant the absolute best-case scenario was three sets and out... Macross, Masters, New Gen/RTSC. Robotech's only got a couple factions, so the in-game diversity and force-customization is going to be painfully low, and expanding the game is a no-go without an ongoing story at that point. Also, like everything else in Robotech, RRT will be forever looking over its proverbial shoulder for signs of legal action from the IP owners in Japan, so that will also stifle future developments and the creation of original miniatures.

Also, in my assessment it didn't bode well that Palladium and Harmony Gold were trying to enter a rather "locked-down" industry still trying to recover from the recession... and that they were doing it through a little-known studio and with a brand name that already has negative connotations in the industry thanks mainly to Harmony Gold's (admittedly justified) legal actions against BattleTech's owners.

Everything about that struck me as a losing proposition... and it left me feeling like Robotech fans were setting themselves up for another big disappointment, since many of them seemed to be expecting (or at least, were expecting) that Robotech RPG Tactics was going to be a top-shelf game which could rival the flagships of the industry's big guns Games Workshop and Privateer Press.

If I'd thought the game had better than a snowball's chance of success, I might've backed it. Instead, I saw catastrophe coming like the lights of an oncoming train... and decided to stick with my WH40K habit.

Forar · Unread post by **Forar** » Sun Apr 20, 2014 12:03 pm

I'm sure some were out there, but it's come up a few times among the backer discussions and I can't recall anyone doing more than joking about RRT lining up with the top dogs.

That said, one only needs to look at Wyrd and some of the other smaller games to see that there are shades of grey for success between "out of the way, GW" and "abysmal failure".

It's possible this will carve out a niche of its own yet.

But as noted across many threads, that's not exactly a firm belief for many, myself included.

rosco60559 · Unread post by **rosco60559** » Sun Apr 20, 2014 4:41 pm

Probably would have dropped half or less on it which would still be a ton of stuff. I knew to expect delays from what other friends said about kickstarter, heck I also expected delays due to multiple companies being involved.

I'm highly disappointed at what's happened on pb's and nd's side though, both we're commenting like mad till the end of the campaign and the surveys closed then almost silence. If we're lucky there is an update every 2 weeks or longer now and ZERO comments to help cut off the negative stuff. Heck in the last update the backers were promised better communication and that is looking like a lie since there's almost 1000 comments and none are from pb or nd, and the new update that was promised for this last Thursday never happened.

Seto Kaiba · Unread post by **Seto Kaiba** » Sun Apr 20, 2014 7:28 pm

Forar wrote:I'm sure some were out there, but it's come up a few times among the backer discussions and I can't recall anyone doing more than joking about RRT lining up with the top dogs.

You can find a fair few examples right here on these boards in recent threads where people have been very vocal about that having been their expectation...

Forar wrote:That said, one only needs to look at Wyrd and some of the other smaller games to see that there are shades of grey for success between "out of the way, GW" and "abysmal failure".

I agree there is a middle ground between epic success and ignoble failure, but I don't see RRT capturing that middle ground when increasingly large numbers of backers are howling mad about the minis, the rules, the release schedule, or all three.

Forar · Unread post by **Forar** » Sun Apr 20, 2014 8:49 pm

Seto Kaiba wrote:You can find a fair few examples right here on these boards in recent threads where people have been very vocal about that having been their expectation...

No offense intended, but these forums aren't exactly where I go for impartial and objective assessments of the matter.

I'm sure there are a couple of people here that think RRT will have GW in second place by the first week it's released. Those people are on the far side of the bell curve (which side and which curve, I'd rather not say in polite company) and are worth promptly ignoring.

Though to be fair, so am I. ;-)

Edit: awww, banished to the RRT subforum. Guess it's back to talking to myself here...

Edit 2: Not that it's bad to have an RRT subforum. I'm glad we do. But, like, precisely nobody of merit uses the thing.

Except me.

Though the point stands.

SELF BURN!

Seto Kaiba · Unread post by **Seto Kaiba** » Sun Apr 20, 2014 9:54 pm

Forar wrote:No offense intended, but these forums aren't exactly where I go for impartial and objective assessments of the matter.

None taken, so no worries. Like you, I wouldn't take what's said here to be an impartial, purely objective sample of what the customer base is thinking. What it IS useful for is a good representative sample from which we can get a feel for what Palladium's more passionate supporters and detractors are thinking. So on that note, if the parties on both ends of the bell curve feel that the game's been mishandled... that's not a good sign, y'know?

Forar · Unread post by **Forar** » Sun Apr 20, 2014 10:08 pm

On that I think there's general consensus.

The highest praise most people seem to be willing to venture is "well, I guess I'll wait and see what it's like when it gets here", either with an optimistic and patient undertone, or one of skepticism and shaken faith.

When some of the best you can get from people is "maybe it's not that bad", there's a problem.

I do think people should judge things as they are, and that some of the, ahem, less than flattering shots we've seen aren't necessarily indicative of every aspect of the product line, but as noted before, if people have concerns now is the time to voice them (and they have been).

'Once the avalanche has begun, it's already too late for the pebbles to vote.'

Alpha 11 · Unread post by **Alpha 11** » Wed Apr 23, 2014 10:25 pm

At this point, I think all we can do is pray the mini's are half way decent, and that the game play will we great. I know people are not so sure of the mini's, but everything I've seen of the game play looks great, and I haven't heard any complaints about that yet. Though I could be wrong there.

Jorel · Unread post by **Jorel** » Wed Apr 23, 2014 11:22 pm

Since I don't pray I guess I am SOL.

Jorel · Unread post by **Jorel** » Thu Apr 24, 2014 6:45 pm

It is a waste of valuable time with no benefit.

Jorel · Unread post by **Jorel** » Thu Apr 24, 2014 7:24 pm

At least I get a response and interaction when I post.

Seto Kaiba · Unread post by **Seto Kaiba** » Thu Apr 24, 2014 7:27 pm

Larry A wrote:Goals are something to be striven for. Better rules, not so hard. Add in some great minis, you're a long way there. Unfortunately, as evidenced by Palladium's own statements, the second part has been de facto abandoned.

True, but falling short of ambitious goals isn't necessarily something to be ashamed of either... unless an overly excited soul were to somehow give large numbers of potential customers the impression that they had an overly ambitious goal completely in the bag, got carried away telling everyone as much, and then completely failed to deliver. Some industries consider that grounds for summary dismissal... if not tarring and feathering.

Larry A wrote:I agree there, but deciding that "we can't beat GW, so let's not try" in miniature quality, plus GW level pricing = greatly increased chance of "abysmal failure", probably approaching unity. In fact, to really get much away from "abysmal failure" one needs to aim for "out of the way, GW!!!!"

Eh... I'm not sure the attitude they had was "We can't beat Games Workshop, so we won't bother to try".

Perhaps I'm being overly charitable, but to my eyes this smacks more of someone in management foisting an unfeasible design document on an utterly unremarkable developer with just enough inexperience to be able to mistake a fool's errand for a challenge. The small scale, plus the demands for pose-ability, and a firm insistence on making the models detailed... something had to give somewhere, and what gave seems to have been ease of assembly and a polished finished look.

(The last time something like this happened, it was called Robotech: Crystal Dreams for the N64... which had a design document full of literal impossibilities.)

Seto Kaiba · Unread post by **Seto Kaiba** » Fri Apr 25, 2014 7:18 pm

Larry A wrote:Good sentiments, except that we know Palladium had access to professional quality miniature designers, which means professional quality miniatures should be done... [...]

Respectfully, just because someone is a professional at something does not necessarily mean that they're actually any good at it. Just look at what passes for professional musicians these days. To be blunt, the phrase "professional quality" is all but meaningless... especially in an industry like miniatures, where you've got a surplus of astonishingly skilled amateurs and bewilderingly incompetent professionals.

I've had some time to look over the catalogs of both Cipher Studios and Soda Pop Miniatures, and what I saw there was of fair but unremarkable quality. The various anime art styles can be difficult for western artists to replicate convincingly. The quality of Palladium's own attempts to imitate that art style barely reach the level of the OSM's fanart at their absolute best.

Larry A wrote:[...] instead, we get badly designed miniatures that appear to be pirated from some old scale models from a decade or so ago. This is a failure on the part of Palladium itself.

Eh... it's consistent with the rest of Robotech's merchandise line then. It's pretty much unheard-of for Robotech merch to even approach the quality of what was made for the OSM.

Morgan Vening · Fri Apr 25, 2014 9:59 pm

Seto Kaiba wrote:
Larry A wrote:Good sentiments, except that we know Palladium had access to professional quality miniature designers, which means professional quality miniatures should be done... [...]

Respectfully, just because someone is a professional at something does not necessarily mean that they're actually any good at it. Just look at what passes for professional musicians these days. To be blunt, the phrase "professional quality" is all but meaningless... especially in an industry like miniatures, where you've got a surplus of astonishingly skilled amateurs and bewilderingly incompetent professionals.

It's good they don't just use "professional quality". They also throw around "mouth watering", and "world class", the last being part of the advertising on the Pre-Order entries.

Which also state "Spring 2014" as a release date. The latest PB Update says Summer 2014. And the Robotech specific post directly below it (where you'd expect to see it) says beginning of July in stores.

Forar · Unread post by **Forar** » Sat Apr 26, 2014 10:05 am

Aw, they finally updated "spring" but left June to Backers / July to retail in the standard text?

Because, yeah, that's not happening. We'll be lucky if the ship is arriving in port by July at this rate.

Seto Kaiba · Unread post by **Seto Kaiba** » Sat Apr 26, 2014 2:14 pm

Morgan Vening wrote:It's good they don't just use "professional quality". They also throw around "mouth watering", and "world class", the last being part of the advertising on the Pre-Order entries.

Convenient, isn't it? As a description of the product, "professional quality" is every bit as meaningless and impossible to objectively quantify as "world class" and "mouthwatering".

Morgan Vening wrote:Which also state "Spring 2014" as a release date. The latest PB Update says Summer 2014. And the Robotech specific post directly below it (where you'd expect to see it) says beginning of July in stores.

Well, where Palladium and Harmony Gold are concerned, release dates are a migratory species known to be from some parallel universe with non-linear time and a completely alien calendar system... :-?

Spinachcat · Unread post by **Spinachcat** » Mon Apr 28, 2014 2:16 am

I would have fully backed it with a 2 year timeline. I want a GREAT GAME with GREAT MINIS. I don't need a debacle. Also, I want PB to have a huge success in the market, not yet another PR disaster.

Jorel · Unread post by **Jorel** » Mon Apr 28, 2014 8:27 am

By rushing to get things out for GenCon they are compromising the quality and by ignoring the backers they are compromising the customer base.

Seto Kaiba · Unread post by **Seto Kaiba** » Mon Apr 28, 2014 10:18 am

Jorel wrote:By rushing to get things out for GenCon they are compromising the quality and by ignoring the backers they are compromising the customer base.

True enough... the latter is probably the more damaging one, IMO. If the game comes out to an audience made up of hostile backers, it's not going to sell in stores because word of mouth will kill it dead.

Jorel · Unread post by **Jorel** » Mon Apr 28, 2014 7:24 pm

I think it is more of a Rookie move than a planned one.

Seto Kaiba · Unread post by **Seto Kaiba** » Mon Apr 28, 2014 8:42 pm

Larry A wrote:Which is why I think the entire project was conceived as a slash & burn...or the sanity level of the management isn't all their...or the management is a bunch of incompetents.

Ah, yeah... I can certainly see why you would think that. I have a very hard time coming up with cogent devil's advocate positions as to why that might not be the case. There's always the possibility that this's just one massive rookie mistake or interference from Harmony Gold sending the thing to hell... but from my read of the situation, the most telling detail is where they chose to start.

The "2nd Edition" of the actual RPG chose to start as they meant to go on... with the core book based on what was intended to be the first part of the three- or four-part Shadow Chronicles OVA. That was effectively a statement that both Harmony Gold and Palladium Books were expecting the Fourth Robotech War story arc to be a lasting proposition and that they were in it for the long haul and expected this new property to become the flagship of Robotech. Now that that's failed to pan out, they're falling back on just churning out merchandise for the one saga people actually care about: Macross. There's no more statement of confidence in the future of the game or emphasis on the story going forward... they're not even willing to commit to make a second series of the game without another Kickstarter.

Forar · Unread post by **Forar** » Thu May 01, 2014 12:02 pm

"Campaign 2 has launched! The good news, we've got hundreds of backers already! The bad news, we've gotten a couple grand out of them, mostly across a dozen or so people. The ugly news; most of them are just making an absolute mess of the comments."

Jorel · Unread post by **Jorel** » Thu May 01, 2014 1:00 pm

I do have to wonder what kinds of lessons they learned from all this.

Seto Kaiba · Unread post by **Seto Kaiba** » Thu May 01, 2014 6:15 pm

Jorel wrote:I do have to wonder what kinds of lessons they learned from all this.

Hopefully... to set more realistic and achievable goals for themselves. A little pragmatism goes a long way.

Spinachcat · Unread post by **Spinachcat** » Fri May 02, 2014 3:47 am

Jorel wrote:By rushing to get things out for GenCon they are compromising the quality and by ignoring the backers they are compromising the customer base.

I fear the quality issue more. A great final product can silence tongues, but a compromised product will only infuriate.

Spinachcat · Unread post by **Spinachcat** » Fri May 02, 2014 3:55 am

Jorel wrote:I do have to wonder what kinds of lessons they learned from all this.

Many, I hope.

But PB doesn't want to learn how to do accurate forecasting. I just saw the new Murmur where Megaverse in Flames is both getting preliminary work and will be released in June. Those two sentences don't match and should never have been printed as it will only make people upset. Fortunately, I am patient for my Gleba-Awesomeness and know that Megaverse in Flames will arrive when it arrives...maybe for Christmas...Christmas 2015.

Jorel · Unread post by **Jorel** » Sat May 03, 2014 9:10 am

I wasn't gonna do the research for you to know they suck at hitting deadlines. That was up to you to do for yourself. It didn't take a prophet to see they wouldn't hit these deadlines either. Just a regular person who researches what they invest in so they don't get ripped off, or feel mislead.

Seto Kaiba · Unread post by **Seto Kaiba** » Sat May 03, 2014 1:45 pm

Larry A wrote:
Nightfactory wrote:I didn't pledge it because I knew things would turn out this way.

What is "this way" that you held prophetic knowledge of last year?

Late?

Of less quality than claimed? [...]

Probably both... after all, my reasons for not backing the Kickstarter were the same and I don't possess any prophetic talents. If I did, I assure you I'd be abusing those powers appropriately. :lol:

As Jorel and others have pointed out, it takes no great feats of predictive ability to identify such a well-established trend as Palladium's tendency to set an overly ambitious release date and then miss that target would likely continue into the future and would almost certainly extend to an ambitious project like Robotech RPG Tactics. Likewise, one doesn't have to be Nostradamus to predict that the quality's not going to be all that and a bag of potato chips when the companies leading the charge are new to the industry and few would argue that poor quality hasn't been all but endemic to Robotech in the going on thirty years of its existence. Even Harmony Gold has backhandedly admitted it and used it the official reason to justify disowning almost everything licensees produced for the series prior to 2001.

It would've been shocking and unprecedented if there WEREN'T problems of this nature...

Jorel · Unread post by **Jorel** » Sat May 03, 2014 3:13 pm

I would have blamed Aliens, and likely the Ancient type, not the burst out your chest type.

Forar · Unread post by **Forar** » Sun May 04, 2014 2:16 am

Statistically, only a small portion of a given userbase even bothers with comments or forums for a product. Back when I played WoW, Blizzard estimated roughly 1% of their userbase ever even visited the forums, and fewer yet used it regularly.

Also, it's impossible to say how all of those backers feel. Many of them might have simply given up, or can't be bothered to do anything but check in once in a while. Trying to assign a 'positive' or 'negative' label to anyone who hasn't specifically spoken up is disingenuous at best. It's far too common a tactic to try to proclaim that the 'silent majority is on X side', and does your statements a disservice by trying to invoke it here.

Furthermore, in this day and age of social media, PB had better pray it's not 10% that are 'disappointed and voicing it'. The average person who has a negative experience is vastly (like, orders of magnitude) more likely to not only speak up about it, but to tell more people about it as well. In this day and age of social media, that kind of negative buzz can do very tangible harm to a product, and there's already people talking about showing up at Gencon with mocking t-shirts printed up (horrific seam lines, 'I backed Robotech Tactics over a year ago and had to buy myself this stupid t-shirt', etc). I discuss the project on one of the largest miniature wargaming sites on the internet, and this project is a joke, a running gag, and an indication that PB can't find quality figures or a release date with both hands and a map, so to speak.

This was an opportunity to do some good, to rebuild faith in their ability to manage projects and rekindle interest in not only their current product, but older ones as well. Whatever the reasons, within their control or not, they have utterly failed to manage those expectations, and while I do hope the game is released and a success, I remain highly wary.

You want to talk about drinking the kool aid? How about the slick campaign that ND ran that told us they expected to go to production within 45 days of the campaign ending? Or how PB proclaimed how much work had been done in the 6 months leading up to the campaign itself, how they had world class sculptors working on "mouth watering minis", and then a year later we're shown a 25-30 part miniature that is an inch and a half tall and has seem lines running down its front panels in several locations.

In hindsight, my friends and I wish we'd contributed perhaps half what we gave them, and I'm looking forward to pitching at least half of what I have coming onto the secondary market, because I cannot foresee having the time to bother building 309 figures if that's going to come out to 6000+ pieces. Six. Thousand. Pieces. Hell, maybe seven thousand.

If the RRT Kickstarter stated a 1 year timeline for figures, would you have still backed it?