Oh, I forgot...

The only thing that really scares me is the lack of info. They must have SOMTHING lined up. right? The six outlaws mechs were mentioned earlier. where are those? where are the hints as to what will happen with Solaris? why hasn't wizkids given us ANY info about anything besides some picures of some random light mech with no descriptoin as to its capabilities at all?

well so far we ve seen 3-4 units from Vic Bonillas parting gift, if they will be part of the outlaws or some form of Apocalypse AP. remains to be guessed. i do expect to see something before April. basicly since AP support is known till Feb. so what would we see after that (another repeat of the 5 uniques? or perhaps we get a late Deception and Vindication but i doubt it)

The 1st AP that was announced should be Davion BattleForce (believe after that we ll see another format then 2x 3 sculpts.)

My dad always said " its better to have no news then to have bad news."

Great advice if you're a private individual; terrible if you're a company. The total lack of information out of WK isn't helping their cause in the slightest. Back when Kevin was in the driver's seat we were looking at at least two front-page updates a week, and often three, occasionally four. Now we're lucky to get one; when there are two, they tend to get dumped on us at once rather than parceled out. When we get an update, it's about cons most of us won't go to, or the distribution of products most of us purchased months ago, not the exciting products that are supposed to make us want to keep buying WK stuff.

Not only that, but they're going to have to tell us bad news eventually. Every time they've done it in the past there are a bunch of threads here and over on the WK forums about supporting WizKids and helping MechWarrior survive. So which do you think is going to be better received -- "we have a problem, but we're trying to fix it, please help us", or "we've had a problem for months but didn't tell you about it, so now we're cancelling the line"?

Not taht I am a total doomsayer on this, but we are not exactly getting a good hand right now. From the talks that I've had with the guys who run my local game stores, I can tell that almost all of the WK products for this year will not have a whole lot of hobby store support. MW maybe one of the more popular games in my area, but the stores are getting real leary about keeping product after this action pack nonsense. The doing away with random pack boosters is killing interest for new stuff amongst my group, which is mostly diehard battlemasters. I don't know what's coming but just so I can keep playing some game I have diversified my game purchases just incase WK gives our game the can. I keep seeing more and more news that is pointing to a grim future for MW. This news isn't as to weather the game is going to get cancelled or not, but it just doesn't look good. I would like to hear more about all the Solaris stuff and there has yet to be a word about it past the release of the idea. I'll continue playing MW till it dies but once it does I'll be looking to Privateer or another company to keep me gaming.

Come what may.


If wizkids falls and takes the game with it then so be it, if they stand and deliver then it'll be a glorious day. Worry, guessing, and venting only result in ulsers and hurt feelings. DivaMonkey said that he's putting a lot of work into the game and that he is not one to work on a black hole project. Take that how you will. Until wizkids decides that there is something to give us, in the form of information, there is nothing we can do but wait. Prize support has been posted through march so until they stop posting prize support and delivering prize support no good will come from getting worried.

Save your money, because someday mechwarrior will come back with all the fury and lust for battle imaginable. Do you want it to be the fallen under its feet or do you want to be the one at the controls?


Seyla

If Trevor's sneak peek (that sonofa...) and subsequent excitement about it is any indication, there are great things headed our way. Indeed too much time has been spent lamenting a lack of new product, when we really should be being inventive with what we have available now, and wait patiently yet eagerly for the surprises to come. Good post, Tirrex.

When I first started playing, I tried to get enough pieces to field two armies. I have a couple hundred now. If the game goes, I'll still be able to play with my pieces with anyone who wants to play.

Reading the entire article, I can boil the whole thing into, essentially: "This is the year that the hobby gaming market will completely collapse, to be subsumed by online and mass-market retailers."
Expanding a little farther gets, "all the current giants in the industry will get hit hard, and the only success stories will come out of small, upstart companies."

Essentially, he's predicting that the sky is falling.

While I won't say he's completely wrong, I suspect the magnitude of the problems facing the industry are being a bit overestimated. Guess we'll find out over the next 12 months, though.

I think the biggest problem is Topps business model Vs Wizkids business model, Topps is a mass market, flood the stores with millions of cheap paper cards and make a few cents off each, where Wizkids is a niche marketing company, designed to reach a specific group of people and keep them buying over the long term.
These are contradictory philosophies, and as the controlling entity, Topps gets to make the rules. Unfortunate, but true, Topps has no idea how to do niche marketing, and expects huge profits from its lines, while this may have been true during the MW boom, it is not now, with the current retraction of the player base.
The best thing that could happen for MW and Wizkids, would be Topps selling them to someone who had a clue, because if they stay in charge MW is dead, it simply does not turn the profit that they demand of their lines, so they will drop it and let it die from neglect.
I had huge misgivings about Topps buying Wizkids, borne of knowing how they treat the card buyers, baseball, football etc, if something is worth a lot, they release a new verision that usually drops the original releases value by 50 - 75%, because now the market is flooded with new versions.

Ditto for MW over the last two years, resculpts and plastic cards were the predominant product that was released, its cheaper and higher profit, and you don't need sculptors, so what if the "buyers want something different, we're the producers for gods sake and you will get what we give you" and be happy about it.
I haven't been active in the tournament scene in a long time, and i buy all my product on ebay, simply because, where i live, it's the only source available, other than one venue, which is hard to get to and has virtually no parking at all.
We have a game group, and are trying to set up a second one in the area, and this is the future as i see it, no organized play to speak off (at least here. anyway), few releases (if any) of new stuff, and play at home with your friends, along the model of CBT.
Wizkids needs to be free of topps control, and concentrate on the player base it still has, rather than let the Topps Management Vultures pick its bones until its completely dead and a sketeton of its former self...lol maybe if we took up a collection, we could buy it back, it would be a steal now.....

when you see a lot of the top players, really the staples of the game, selling off all their collections on ebay, and talking about "private communications" with company insiders and leaving, well, it smells like death to me.
I hope something good comes of it, I love this game, even with its flaws, but I am not holding my breath over the outcome, the patient is critical, and the operating rooms is full already, so the prognosis is not good

It seems odd to me that you bring this up, because as of late, I haven't seen this. The closest I've seen to this was the grand Oregonians vs WizKids employees battle royale, after which Trevor said he talked to WizKids folks, and said there were a lot of good news coming over the horizon.

Care to give some examples of top players who recently sold off their collections and talked about "private communications" with company insiders?

BAW, is selling some of his stuff. but I dont know if he is qiuting though.doesnt matter to me cuase I wont quit, i love playing Mwer

I really wasn't gonna point out any particular names.
if they want to post here, then that would be best left up to them, but yes, BAW, was one of the people i was referring to, as well as a couple of others.
i have read posts on a few sites from people who i know have been here for awhile, and i don't know all of the login names they may have on this site.

The point I was trying to make was we should all have alternate plans besides organized play, and that Topps particular business model, is not gonna work for a game like MW

if BAW wants out thats fine. he has had a wonderful run,you guys should find his stuff and buy it he has alot of things you would want. me personally I've ben buying stuff from anyone whos trying to get out,if they give it at a considerable discount,it isnt nothing of concern to me. what is, is new player recruitment. players always come and go, its the ability to get new players involved that makes the difference. besides new players spend the most money at the venues,which matters the most to wizkids.old players just buy cases

Just because someone sells some of there stuff doesnt mean there quitting, either it coud just be that he wants to reduce the amount he has. If I recall I read a thread awhile back that said that since he became a bm he wasnt able to play nearly as much as he used to. Maybe he has just decided that since he doesnt have the time to play to lighten his load per se. I sell alot of my paintball gear every winter cause I dont really get to use it and cant stand that it just sits there collecting dust. Doesnt mean I quit playinig cause every spring I get more gear. Also everyone needs to quit worrying about whats going to happen if Wk goes under, yeah it wont be great but it wont stop the game or the truly dedicated, look what happenend to Cbt. It kept going for how long after fasa went under before fanpro picked it up. Worrying wont change anything so why get worked up about it. The last ten words in the last line in my sig says alot.