22 replies to this topic

[garek365]

This has come up on the general GENCON Thread but I think it is important to separate this from the main thread as it is an important issue for those who will attend and may not otherwise read the other thread in its entirety:

 

I contacted FFG about product availability at gencon and this is the response I got:

_______________________________________________________

Stephen:

 

We currently are not planning to reserve core sets for tournament players. If you end up unable to compete, we will refund your ticket. Thank you for your email.

 

Best!

 

Ian Birdsall

Organized Play Associate

Fantasy Flight Games

ibirdsall@fantasyflightgames.com

_______________________________________________________

 

So if you signed up for the tournament and are worried about getting product, I strongly suggest contacting FFG and making your concerns known and try and get this decision changed. I am going to continue to push this with them as far as I can to have this addressed in a more adequate manner and will post any news received in this thread.

 

But to be honest if no one else is pushing them to change policy on this the likelihood of any change is small, the more of us pushing, the more influence we have.

[KennedyHawk]

I also let them know of this concern. Especially since the event that conflicts with me getting in the vendor hall as it opens is another one of their events!

[dboeren]

I just emailed my response:

 

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I just found out yesterday that FFG is not planning to reserve copies of Conquest for players who have tickets to the launch tournament at Gencon:

 

"We currently are not planning to reserve core sets for tournament players. If you end up unable to compete, we will refund your ticket. Thank you for your email."

 

Setting aside 64 copies of the game and keeping a list of tournament players seems like it should not be that big an effort (any which are unclaimed can go back in the common reserve after the tournament starts) and not doing so is causing a lot of stress among players who want to pick up this game.  We all remember the fiasco with the Netrunner launch and I'd hoped that we'd learned more lessons from that experience.  Now, maybe you're planning on just bringing such an enormous number of copies that reserves are totally unnecessary but even if so people would feel better if they could be assured that they will be able to play and other companies launching comparable products have already announced that they are keeping reserve copies for their tournament players.

 

The average Gencon trip represents a gamer's big vacation of the year and they may be spending a thousand+ dollars on travel, hotel, food, and purchases for it.  If someone is willing to give up the better part of a full day at the con to play one game, that means that it's important to them.  These people are your evangelists for the new game and I would hate to see them left with a bitter taste in their mouth when they could be your biggest promoters to help get Conquest off the ground.

 

I am writing in hopes that you can reconsider this decision to help ensure that the new game gets off to the best launch that it can and reassure players that their Gencon experience is important to you.

[Toqtamish]

Considering what happened with Netrunner I am really surprised this was not something they were already planning on doing. 

[dboeren]

I had thought so too.  There is still time for them to change their minds though so let's give them a chance.

[Toqtamish]

Very true. Perhaps they are not anticipating as crazy a demand as Netrunner got. Or they are bringing a lot more copies. 

[garek365]

To be honest, doesn't matter how many copies they are bringing unless chances are they will be sold out by 10h30 thursday morning, making it impossible for anyone not arriving first thing thursday morning to participate.

Good planning would have been to up the ticket price to include a core set plus the tournament... Like a sealed deck at magic.

[mnBroncos]

the problem with putting some to the side though is how many they putting to the side I would assume you are probably going to want two or three and putting three aside for everyone is a bigger deal. I think they learned from netrunner and will just have a butt load at gencon and so if planning on going I'd just plan on getting in line and pick up 3 copies. 

[Toqtamish]

Agreed. As not all players at GenCon will be buying the maximum quantities "needed" it's hard to set aside more than maybe 64. I'm sure there will be plenty available for those that go.

[dbmeboy]

Netrunner is really more like the exception than the rule.  X-Wing, which launched the same year as Netrunner and has proven to be pretty popular itself, stayed in stock into Saturday if I remember right.

[garek365]

While Netrunner is the exception to the rule, it is the closet comparison there is. WH40K like netrunner is a relaunch of an old game so you have everyone who played the game before wanting them, plus WH40K in itself has a large following and than you have all the LCG players... those numbers add up fast.

 

And while I understand that they cannot set aside 3 sets for each player, setting aside the minimum 1 per player should be reasonable, and any not purchased by the start of the tournament go up for sale at the booth.

[Toqtamish]

It's not really the same in one way in that it is not an old game being brought back. Netrunner came with built in fan base from fans of the old original CCG. 

 

Warhammer 40K has a built in fan base made up of fans of the setting and tabletop miniature game but this doesn't translate into LCG players as easily as it did in Netrunner's case. 

[garek365]

Actually you are wrong about that, This is the second incarnation of the WH40K card game, the original was released years ago by sabertooth games, and this game is based strongly on that one (FFG purchased sabertooth games years ago) so comparing it to netrunner is correct.

 

I know several ppl interested in this game solely because of the original CCG

[dboeren]

I don't think they should be required to hold multiple copes just because a player *might* want more than one.  We haven't even (to my knowledge) seen the card distribution for Conquest so at this point I don't know how many sets you're likely to want.  Will it be like Netrunner where two gets you nearly everything you need (making the 3rd copy sort of superfluous) or will it be a straight 1x like Cthulhu?  One copy lets you play, zero does not.  That's the big dividing line.

 

For X-Wing, it depends on what you consider "in stock".  There was something for sale on Saturday, but it was no longer the full set.  This is because in addition to Cores they also had four individual ships.  I don't remember days and times but I do specifically remember going by their booth and thinking about buying it but then deciding not to because some of the ships blisters were sold out.  If I remember correctly, the common feeling at the time was that you should get a core set plus an extra X-Wing and TIE Fighter as a minimum because then you had 2 ships per side which made for a much more interesting battle than only one.

 

I don't know about "strongly" based.  There appear to be some commonalities but I'm sure there's a lot of differences as well.

[Toqtamish]

I'm aware of the older CCG however this one is not related to that one. It will certainly help draw in fans of that older game however as they are obviously 40K and card game fans.  

[garek365]

Well, I receiced another update e-mail from FFG ont his matter, so hopefully news soon?

 

___________________________________________

 

Hello Stephen,

 

We will be discussing this today, if anything changes I will get in touch.

 

Thank you,

 

Stuart Wilson

Organized Play Associate

organizedplay@fantasyflightgames.com

___________________________________

[KennedyHawk]

I got a similar email. The hope lives!

[TGO]

If only they would respond to the email I sent asking about more seats being added to the tournament.

[Toqtamish]

Sadly where it is Gencon they have more control over reserving copies than number of seats they are allocated for an event. 

[garek365]

Got a response and it is good:

______________________________________

Hello Stephen,

 

We have decided to reserve 64 copies of the core set for tournament players. You can expect an email to registered tournament players describing how to get your copy from the reserved group - you will need to present your event ticket. Please let me know if you have any other questions, I'm happy to help.

 

Thank you,

 

Stuart Wilson

Organized Play Associate

organizedplay@fantasyflightgames.com