Wow, this thread's taken an interesting turn ;)


My POV as an ex-Warlord:

WK Envoys fell into two broad categories. Category one involved people who loved the game and were willing to sacrifice their own play time to organize and promote the game in their area.

Category two was made up of individuals who were not particularly talented at organizing or advertising events. Nor were they particularly knowledgeable about the rules. Heck, one I knew didn't even play the game or own a computer with which to keep updated on errata or rules. This second Category of Envoys WAS interested in obtaining Envoy support (swag).

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I feel that in addition to new mini game competition, WK experienced a period in which strong Envoys from Category one began promoting other games while Envoys from Category two became disenchanted with the Envoy rewards system.

Precisely when WK needed MORE and BETTER quality Envoys to promote their system, they were fielding LESS and LOWER quality Envoys (Those interested more in swag than promoting MK in their group).

Just my two focus ;)
Rob

Man, I was more into the game when I first started out as a player then when I became an envoy. Even the title change still bugs me. Enovy... bah, how is that intimidating? Warlord! Now there is a title people show respect!

See, everyone is angry by what I posted and then they make the same points. Sure, if you don't like the game, don't play. I'm not expecting disgruntled Warlords to stay around and make everyone else miserable. All I was doing was stating a fact.

Disgruntled warlord leaves the game and no one is left to run (I've seen a lot of posts on the realms about this very thing). Then, either the Warlord or another individual start pushing another game (and yes I do liken these C_G games to a drug :) ). So players can stick with a dead system (no prize support/tourney games) or they can run to the new system that's being supported.

I'm not saying it's the envoy's fault in every case. What I am saying is that this happens folks, like it or not. And yes, the envoy is to blame. Doesn't make him a bad person. Doesn't make me want to beat him up in a dark alley. Just a fact.

Isabee hits it right on the head in his post. Maybe it just sounds worse coming from me because I've been pegged as a WK patsy.

My theory is that if the game were still supported by envoys at many of the forums where popularity dipped/disappeared, then the game would still be strong. It's so much better now than it used to be (opening a new can of worms).

Later

THE SENTINEL [ag]

Yeah, envoy doesn't work for me either. Envoy vs Warlord? Come on Envoy is just way too wimpy but you know what really bugs me about the envoy thing is the part of the agreement about not publically criticizing WK. Personally, I think that "envoys" should post it in their sigs so that new people realize that their views have to be filtered. Seems sort of deceptive not to--kind of like an undeclared lobbyist or a telemarketer pretending to do a survey.

Heh- telemarketing. I'm suprised I haven't gotten any phone calls about anything yet. Well, then again, the PR dept. rep is well known, so I doubt I'd be getting a phone call about anything unless I owed them money,

but then again telemarketing could be the answer to building a new improved envoy system. By creating new commissioned remote envoys working in India, WK could really put all that personal data they've collected on players to use. "Hello sir, my name is Donald. I'm calling from Bombay, I mean Seatle to inform you about an upcoming Wizkids event near where you live...." Indian food rocks, if anyone can get things back on track for WK, it's the Indians.

Yea, those guys make some kickin' curry. Gets rid of my sinuses every time.

But think about that- what if WK worked out some mass marketing/telemarketing techniques? It would certainly promote the game in new ways, and doubtless it's something WotC hasn't tried yet.

I mean, if I got a call from an enthused warlord telling me about new and interesting things of the game, I would be more inclined to go with it.

That curry stuff is so strong, i bet you could smell it over the phone.

hot.