(rant) "Your Best Game Ever" has me much more bummed than I should be

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Luca

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So, I backed the MCG KS on their generic RPG supplement, partly because I was curious as to what Monte (and the rest of the contributors) would have to say and partly because it promised to be a good-looking book. So I splurged for the deluxe version.

And now, at the end of the (long) last update, in a pretty nonchalant way, MCG informs the backer that the book is misprinted. One eassay (by Matt Colville) is missing because another (by Ajit George) has been included twice, by mistake.

Now, on an intellectual level, I know the misprint is probably pretty minor. A few pages at most...

... but I'm FUCKING BUMMED, GODDAMN! How the hell do you send a collector's edition to the printer without realizing your FUCKING BOOK IS MISSING PAGES.

Sorry for the rant but I really need to ge this out of my system. So annoying.
 
First I've heard of this KS and (1) I agree that it looks pretty darned good, and (2) I'm stunned that they would screw up so badly.

Sorry they messed this up. I would rant, too, if I had spent deluxe money and was getting a misprint. :sad:
 
They’re fixing the PDF version, so you will have the content. Think of it more like the first print run of Deities & Demigods with the Cthulhu and Melnibonean pantheons...
 
I'm very glad I backed for pdfs only. I love Monte Cook stuff, but the appeal of YBGE for me wasn't very high. I finally backed it when the stretch goals became appealing enough. This sort of mistake is very atypical of MCG at least.
 
This does sound like a mess. If it was on the printers side, they'd be able to ask for a reprint. I have to assume what they sent the printer was wrong, and thus MCB has to eat the mistake.

They should try to make it up to the backers somehow. Maybe some bonus PDF content. Something that doesn't cost a lot of cash for printing, but is a nice add-on.
 
Yeeeah. I gave OPP a pass on the Scion print issues, but missing an entire section of real content is much worse than the meaningless backer credits. Also I like Colville, so that annoys me in particular.
 
TristramEvans said:
No, I'd be upset as well, this should have been caught by even a cursory proofread.
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It's also pretty standard with kickstarters to send out the PDF version to backers before printing so you get a lot of proofreading for free. Either they didn't do that, or they randomly sent some earlier version of the PDF to the printers.

I don't know if this will hurt them too badly in future kickstarters as they are well-established company. TSR had the incomplete Gamma World 3rd Edition, and Atlas Games kind of forgot to include most of the covenant rules in Ars Magica 4th edition. If a company has strong support, it can get away with the occasional screw-up like this.
 
It's a major screw-up to the extent that I feel a bit sorry for the MCG. On the other hand, this is such an amateur error that it's hard to forgive an established company like MCG. I don't think there's much they can do about it now but learn from their mistakes. But it also looks like backers are complaining that they tried to bury the lede when they reported this issue, which is an extremely bad look.
 
Heh, of course they buried the lead, they screwed the pooch on a Collector’s Edition that people were paying a premium for, almost double the normal book cost
 
Honestly, I don't know how they are structured, but if they have a dedicated community manager I feel super bad for him right now. Cause he probably had no hand in all the printing stuff, but he's the one who has to deal with all the bullshit being caused.
 
As someone who pledged for the Collector's Edition, it's definitely a bummer. But, on the plus side, that means that in thirty years, I'll be able to sell it on eBay as a distinctive collector's item for a whopping $10! Plus shipping.
 
I haven't pledged to a Kickstarter in years, because my bank has trust issues with the Kickstarter site, but you know what? Blessing in disguise. If your stuff is any good I'll happily pick it up when it's out.

I am a bit sorry I don't get to support my favorite creators (Autarch, Sine Nomine, Hydra) but they do get my money in due time. :smile:
 
I'm just a PDF only backer, but I can understand those getting the subs being disappointed. They are up front about it, and there have been larger companies that screwed up with misprints. (I remember the old DMG having a few). Plus this company has one of the best KS track records I see.

But MCG needs to make sure they are careful in the future. They are using Kickstarter to produce these print runs, for expensive products like Invisible Sun, and people are sometimes paying a premium with KS.
 
Just as an update: 3 days ago I wrote a comment in this KS general comments section, pointing out I was unhappy AND letting them know there was no mention of the misprint in their preorder page. The same day, I got a reply from MCG so there's at least one man belonging to the company who read that comment.

Today I got an update from another MG's KS (Arcana of the Ancients). In the update they also promote this book, linking the preorder page. Neither the update nor the preorder page mention the misprint anywhere (at least at the time I'm writing this post).

I wrote one more comment each in the two KS but as far as I'm concerned, MCG at this point is frauding the customer by willingly selling them a defective product.
 
Very odd as usually you get a print proof before doing a full print run. Sometimes there can be mistakes in a print run but the printer is responsible to replace those.
 
Luca said:
Just as an update: 3 days ago I wrote a comment in this KS general comments section, pointing out I was unhappy AND letting them know there was no mention of the misprint in their preorder page. The same day, I got a reply from MCG so there's at least one man belonging to the company who read that comment.

Today I got an update from another MG's KS (Arcana of the Ancients). In the update they also promote this book, linking the preorder page. Neither the update nor the preorder page mention the misprint anywhere (at least at the time I'm writing this post).

I wrote one more comment each in the two KS but as far as I'm concerned, MCG at this point is frauding the customer by willingly selling them a defective product.
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That's more than a little eyebrow raising
 
Voros said:
Very odd as usually you get a print proof before doing a full print run. Sometimes there can be mistakes in a print run but the printer is responsible to replace those.
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Unless the printing proof wasn't checked correctly and the print went ahead with the misprint in it.
 
Luca said:
So why the hell they carefully avoid writing a note about it in the preorder page?
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I should think it's obvious. The same reason they mentioned it only at the very end of the update. They're hoping consumers won't pay enough attention and they can still sell the misprinted books at full price. Classy. Caveat emptor.
 
Dumarest said:
I should think it's obvious. The same reason they mentioned it only at the very end of the update. They're hoping consumers won't pay enough attention and they can still sell the misprinted books at full price. Classy. Caveat emptor.
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1st edition L5R had page 146 printed on page 246, too. But back in '97, you quite often didn't catch misprunts like that until long after you got the book home. Fortunately, the missing text was just an afterword, but it was still annoying.
 
I think this misprint is worse than most. They lost the entire article submitted by Matt Colville. Matt's huge on youtube and a big draw for the project - a number of commenters have cited him as the reason they backed the project. That's a really big fuck-up that you can't fix with errata. They should consider losing money on this one because their reputation is taking a massive hit.
 
Yeah, very disturbing that the preorder page makes no mention of the printing error.
 
I can understand that it might not be financially feasible to do another print run (though it seems to me worth going in the black temporarily just for goodwill of the customers), but it's really kind of iffy behaviour to not mention the mis-print on the pre-orders. If I was in their position, I'd probably offer the misprint at cost for anyone who wouldn't mind to offset the cost of a new print run.
 
TristramEvans said:
I can understand that it might not be financially feasible to do another print run (though it seems to me worth going in the black temporarily just for goodwill of the customers), but it's really kind of iffy behaviour to not mention the mis-print on the pre-orders. If I was in their position, I'd probably offer the misprint at cost for anyone who wouldn't mind to offset the cost of a new print run.
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I'd bet they could probably unload them even at a higher than at-cost price if they threw in the corrected PDF. There are likely plenty of people curious enough to buy it who wouldn't have been curious enough to pay the deluxe price. That's my feeling anyway. There are things I wouldn't have bought at MSRP that I did buy when it seemed a better bargain. Either way, they owe the correct print to everyone who put up money for it and doing anything less than offering a replacement is sleazy.
 
Yep this doesn't garner good will from their customers. Plenty of other game designers to back.
 
I keep looking at MCG stuff and, when I get over my not very helpful side, keep thinking they really aren’t playing to monte’s strengths very well.
 
Raleel said:
I keep looking at MCG stuff and, when I get over my not very helpful side, keep thinking they really aren’t playing to monte’s strengths very well.
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What would you say Monte’s strengths are?
 
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