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Batman Kickstarter (w/discussion of FOMO sales method)
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- Michael Barnes
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Further, this is like 5-8 YEARS worth of a PRODUCT LINE that they are selling to you in advance and with no recourse either if you don’t like the base game or if you decide after playing it that you want expansions. Back in the good old days, a game would get published and if it sold well, the publisher would go ahead with expansions and extend the shelf life of the game for years. With Kickstarters like this, the consumer is being asked to gamble on the game’s quality...or be left out. Monolith has ZERO risk on the line here. If the game bombs critically, it won’t matter because they will have taken the money already. And owners will have piles of content that many will doubtfully ever use to its fullest extent.
I would really want to check this out if it were a normal retail release where the publisher was not lying about its infeasibility in distribution. But I am not going to get suckered in for $350 (shipping included) to see if maybe this palette-swapped Conan is better than that game if I go in and buy everything...because if you don’t...you miss out. This Kickstarter is 100% predicated on exploiting FOMO. Fuck these people, and fuck this game.
For $350, I could buy a LOT of the Knight Models Batman and DC miniatures and enough terrain pieces to play it. The figures are higher quality and the game is a proven success.
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- Jackwraith
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Stonecutter wrote: If Fantasy Flight can put Imperial Assault in a box for $100 MSRP, $75 online, then there's NO reason a successful Batman game should be more than $100. The whole "We can't make it for that price" is a load of crap. You can't bling it out to the degree that <5,000 or so whales who subsidize all of the board game kickstarters demand, and that's where the quickest buck is, which, whatever, capitalism sucks but that's the rules of the game, so cash in.
Hrm. Not saying you're wrong here, but there is a "production quantity" rule that's often in play. FFG knows that they have a built-in audience for both their games and their advertising, so they have some fairly accurate predictions on how popular their games, and especially their Star Wars games, are going to be. If they can go to their printer with some degree of confidence and say: "I need 50,000 copies of this set of miniatures. Cut me a deal and we'll talk about reprints.", then they can lower their costs in comparison to a smaller entity that doesn't have a built-in audience and doesn't have that effectively free advertising. That smaller company can probably go to their printer and say: "Hey, we need 5000 of these minis." and they'll get a flat rate. Smaller print runs will always cost more per unit than larger ones, almost by definition.
I'm not saying you're wrong that these guys are probably trying to exploit the KS model (and its money-to-burn audience) to the limits. But there are probably greater costs attached to this far more speculative, lower print run model of operation.
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- the playmats are excessive in terms of production value; should have just been flat cardboard
- the energy cubes should have just been cardboard tokens instead of plastic cubes
My decision to buy is going to hinge on the reviews for Conan and Mythic Battles, and the videos of gameplay for this Batman game. If the game design is decent, than I think the price is worth it due to the replay value, quality of minis, and quality of map tiles. If the game design looks too simple or problematic, I will not back this game. It seems like the Conan rulebook was buggy, but maybe they improved significantly with Mythic Battle and there won't be any significant problems with Batman.
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Michael Barnes wrote: Further, this is like 5-8 YEARS worth of a PRODUCT LINE that they are selling to you in advance and with no recourse either if you don’t like the base game or if you decide after playing it that you want expansions. Back in the good old days, a game would get published and if it sold well, the publisher would go ahead with expansions and extend the shelf life of the game for years. With Kickstarters like this, the consumer is being asked to gamble on the game’s quality...or be left out.
Yeah, this is where I'm at with these types of big minis games these days. Nice encapsulation.
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Shellhead wrote: By contrast, Conan has had ... no tv shows
Really?
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- Michael Barnes
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I am really looking at the Knight Models game now...thinking about getting the Batman and League of Shadows sets.
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- ChristopherMD
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Shellhead wrote: Sometimes ignorance really is bliss. I wish that I could un-see those.
Shame on you! Conan the Adventurer is one of my all-time favorite cartoons.
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- Michael Barnes
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Shellhead wrote: - the energy cubes should have just been cardboard tokens instead of plastic cubes
But .... they're cubes.
Is that where the money got wasted in this $350 behemoth? Making the "energy cubes" actual cubes?
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- Michael Barnes
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Clear red bingo chips.
NOT VIABLE AT RETAIL
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