Meeting Notes
- This morning my back was killing me. I think it’s because of my chair at home. Still, I limped into work and got on the call with Rich.
- Children of the Revolution hit the Red List stretch goal! We’re really pleased at how the fans pulled together to make this happen, and Rich and I spent half the meeting just discussing and breaking down various Kickstarter things, as well as the psychology of “set your own price” spending.
- Victorian Lost launched, and there’s a lot of buzz around it. Some folks seem a little disappointed in the size (although it’s bigger than New Wave Requiem and Mage Noir), but overall I’ve been hearing a lot of positive things about it.
- Mummy is still moving forward, and Aileen is stepping up to do layout on W20 (a nice cycle, since she started on Apocalypse books).
- There are lots of moving parts on the business end, and everything’s dragging a bit. We talked about some solutions to help with that, though — nothing to share yet, but it’s something we’re aware of.
Today’s Reason to Drink: Troy was sacked and burned on June 11, 1184 BC. Raise a drink and curse wooden horses.
Would it be correct to assume that before Hunter’s Hunted 2 goes live on Kickstarter, the V20 Companion will have arrived safely into my delicate paws?
Sorry about your back Eddy, hope it get’s to feeling better.
Anyway, onto Werewolf…man, when is this coming out? Man oh man, I’ve been re reading my second edition book, and my body is ready for a new Apocalypse book.
Glad that CotR got funded, and even hit the first Stretch goal. 🙂
I think part of folks’ issues with the book is that… well… we’re used to the old pricing, and used to seeing the books and getting a better idea of the products we’re getting. So when you have a higher price, and a lower page-count, folks feel let down (especially after some build-up for the product.) That doesn’t mean that they really have the right, or legitimate reason to be displeased with the product (especially when/if they purchase a book that says it’s 80 pages and wish it was something 150 pages, or more.) It’s going to take some time for folks’ paradigms for White Wolf book purchasing to change to the new format, but it’s a new world we’re going to have to get used to (purchase a book we really can’t peruse before buying in particular too.) Maybe there’s some way to utilize an already existing technology to allow someone to look through a book without allowing them unlimited access to it? (Maybe you can look through the book once each time you submit a new Email?) … just a thought. 😉
As for the business stuff, I’m sure you can’t share. BUT, if there’s anything we (the fans) can do to raise some noise in case CCP needs to be reminded that we’re out here waiting to spend money on good products, just let us know, okay? 🙂
I would suggest surveying, not only the backers for CotR, but putting out an update for the V20 Companion asking for input on if we, as the consumer, would prefer you seek a cheaper printing option for deluxe editions, rather than continue to print books that are perfect matches to the previous ones. That would give you a fairly good idea of how people are feeling about the current pricing model (which I think, though we intellectually know is fair and couldn’t go much lower from present printing costs, still rings as expensive on an emotional level) is desirable.
Also, if possible, provide projections for page counts and costs of deluxe versions ahead of time. I mean, honestly, will Hunters Hunted 2 cost the same as CotR? What will Anarch’s Unbound run, since you’ve stated it will be a larger volume? Is W20 going to be $100, like the V20, or will it cost more? I think this is all very new to a lot of people, and since there isn’t a lot of information on our end, many just become suspicious and frustrated.
I, and many others, know you’re not here to bilk us. You’re not trying to make this into some bloated cash-monster, punching the wallets from our pants. I definitely appreciate all the work that goes into this obvious labor of love. It’s a breath of fresh air, and a wonderfully delightful surprise, to have you guys back at cWoD, so please don’t give up just because people aren’t trusting. People are, for the most part, quite defensive of their purchases, so if they feel wronged (even if it’s a misunderstanding), it makes them feel personally affronted. Silly, yes, but a human response.
I know I didn’t back the CotR because it was outside of my price range (single father of three, full-time college student, and my daughter recently was hospitalized, so blarg, medical bills) and because I’ve never really like books centered around interesting NPCs (although the V20 Red List might be the exception), but it was absolutely not because I don’t want to support you guys. I hope this continues as a development avenue, and I hope it gets refined into a satisfactory exchange for more fans of yours, and for yourselves.
This is looking to be a bright start to a new era of printing books for your company. And a dark, desolate (in the best, most WoD way possible) for we fans of the damned.
Sorry for the wall of text. I took a specialization in diatribes and rolled a couple of 10s.
Actually, I seem to recall Rich sending out a survey for Children of the Revolution and whether we actually wanted a full leather embossed cover to match the Companion and V20. I remember that I voted no, largely because while I wanted the Companion to match the main book I preferred the supplements to match Dust to Dust and the reprinted Revised clanbooks. Still, a lot of other people didn’t feel the same way.
Rich had stated multiple times that CotR will be available in PDF and POD format. He also said that this and the Kickstarter are just the Deluxe leather edition, not the standard one. The book is being written and created regardless of whether or not the Kickstarter succeeds. White Wolf is using it to fund goodies and fund a premium print run of the book, not for us to fund the creation of the book itself.
I’m not an employee of White Wolf, but I’m presuming that you can purchase the edition of your preference from DriveThru to be printed (or purchase the PDF and have a legal copy printed and bound).
Good points guys. Just a few kind of random responses:
– While I realize that folks don’t want to get on board a new Kickstarter before we’ve even delivered the first KS sponsored book, I also can’t hold up creating and moving forward with projects by waiting until after a KS project is completely fulfilled before starting the next one. There’s a momentum to these things that needs to be maintained. If that means folks don’t get on board a KS or two until we’ve proved ourselves to them, then that’s their right and I respect that and I hope once they have the book they pledged for that they’ll find another of our KSs to back.
– At the same time, JA and I have said, a lot, that these are all experiments in finding the best way to get these books we love doing to the community that loves to have them. So I am looking at different deluxe treatments for HH2 that are intended to bring down the cost while remaining cool and deluxe. More on that as I get more info.
– If the community checks out the WWBlogs as Justin posts sections of each book, they’ll get a pretty complete look at both the process and thinking behind the book, but also they’ll see most if not all of the text. Folks don’t have to pledge blind if they can just pop over to read up on what’s going to be in the book.
– W20 is slated for September. Has been since we announced it last September. We’re going to do everything we can to hit that, but we are running a month late on our release schedule- but we do keep on trying to get it back on track. A W20 KS will go live as soon as we can get it together.
Hope those thoughts help clarify a few things-
Thanks for the answers, Rich! I wasn’t expecting that, so it’s cool to see a statement like this. There is a reason why I love you guys, and it’s damn sure because you love your fans and know how to iterate.
Any news on the future releases list? :3
Coming releases will theoretically be announced with the Big Announcement coming soon.
Any idea when the Big Announcement will be made?
I want to say I heard around GenCon but don’t quote me on that. With Mummy slated for GenCon I’d imagine the Kickstart for that will be in the near future? Sometime in July?
Last Rich said was “no later than GenCon,” so hopefully before.
Is there any way y’all could add an up-to-date list of active White Wolf Kickstarters to the blog somewhere? I’d really like a way to keep up with what’s kickstarting, and searching “white wolf” over at KS itself is not always fruitful.
Children of the Revolution is the only currently-active KS to the best of my knowledge.
That’s a great idea and I think deserves some sort of special section- we’ll keep a KS update area in mind. Belial. Big AnnouncementTM July 15th at latest.