Valley Games - Hopefully they are learning
Today I’m going to hit you fans with a double header. I’m not going to talk about a comic, movie or game, but rather a publisher themselves. Valley Games lately has been plagued by a rocky production and logistic process recently. The most recent debacle is with their re-release of Hannibal: Rome vs. Carthage. H:RvC was originally published by Avalon Hill and when AH was bought by Hasbro this was one of the many, many games in AH’s library which got the axe. Between that time and the time Valley Games re-released the game it became a Holy Grail of sorts for some gamers demanding prices of over $100 (US) on eBay or other retail sites for hard to find and out of print games. Valley Games has managed to do what many people thought was impossible, which is bringing this game (as well as another grail game Titan, also from the former Avalon Hill) back to the gaming masses.
During the process though, Valley Games has had been walking a very rocky and slippery slope. Since they are trying to position themselves as a company by gamers, for gamers they have ignored more traditional methods of communication with their customer base and took a very active role on sites like Board Game Geek keeping people updated on where the game was at in production to provide feedback to the people who pre-ordered the game (myself being one of those). VG offered as a bonus to people pre-ordering the game a set of very nice plastic generals to replace the printed ones that slide into those plastic stands so they stand upright. Truth be told this was the kicker for me and what made me decide to take the plunge.
Once I placed my pre-order, myself along with 500-750 more people started to patiently wait…and wait…and wait. Which I expected so no problem there. As I mentioned VG took a very hands on approach with keeping their customers informed (since patience is a virtue many people lack). Of course, being a relatively new company, they were learning the process on the fly and of course this brought about problems and animosity. Delays in manufacturing and shipping were abundant. Where Valley Games went wrong was being as open as they were. Many companies (like Fantasy Flight) keep their process close to the vest and between the time of game announcement and the time the games are ready for shipping not much is said except for vague seasonal ETA’s.
Myself, I found the process interesting and since I, like many others, fancy myself an armature game designer, I was interested to see what all was going on, where the boats were getting delayed and how manufacturers in other countries have different quality control. This of course got people all up in arms because they were hearing about this. It reminds me of the saying “Remind me never to show you how sausage is made”. The thought behind the saying is, customers do not want (or should not) know the inner workings of getting a product to market. Parts disgust people and could ultimately turn them off to the final product or the entire industry as a whole. Customers really do not care as long as the final product is tasty and enjoyable.
People were upset with Valley Games because of their openness and started to ride them for situations outside of their control. Like a person seeing pig anus and cow lips as part of sausage not wanting to eat the sausage because they know it contains pig anus and/or cow lips are in there, where before they’d just grin and be happy as tasty sausage juice squirts in the back of their throat - Does that sound as dirty as I think it does?. Sometimes the less the customer knows the better because it doesn’t provide people with ammunition to bitch about. (NOTE: I do not know if pig anus or cow lips are in sausage. I don’t want to know. Damn sausage is tasty!)
Previously I mentioned the pre-order bonus of generals. This is where I feel VG made a mistake. Not only were they learning game production on the fly, they were also learning miniature production on the fly. About a week back I finally received my generals and this was six months after I received the game. A funny story about that as well…I didn’t receive my game (even though I pre-ordered it) until after they were on some game store shelves and copies were sold at conventions, so though my money helped finance getting this game to production I didn’t see it for some weeks after people who didn’t pre-order it had copies in their hands.
Back to the generals though; the long delay was because the first batch didn’t meet VG’s standards which I commend. What makes me wonder though, is since my generals arrived with parts broken and some of them separated from their base, what did the first batch look like? I will note that Valley Games quickly recognized the problem and anyone who has problems can obtain replacement pieces; but, since I know how to work a bottle of glue so I’ll settle for what I have.
Through all the ups and downs of this process I must say that VG has provided me with a beautiful looking board game (one of which I still need to play but damn it looks good on my shelf). I hope they learn from their past and that the need to keep some things under their hat. At this point though I eagerly wait for Titan (which I didn’t pre-order this time) and anticipate the game to look as great and wonderful as H:RvC.
So Valley Games, Keep up the good work and I look forward to future releases but just make sure you apply the lessons learned and continue to grow. You are in a tough situation where people demand information, but are never happy with the information provided.
Looking at some feedback on Titan it does appear that VG has put on a little bit of a filter (and has thus become vague) because the backlash they have been receiving has unfair to someone trying to be open with their client base. I wish them the best of luck and sucess and if they are looking for other AH titles to re-publish might I recommend Gunslinger?
‘Til Next Time - Happy Gaming
LvT
