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rosco60559 wrote:
Jeffar pb seems to be easily distracted no matter what. They promise like 4-12 books the first 6 months of the year and barely get one out. They promised another 5 or 6 by the end of the year along with the rrt cards in pdf form. The card thing is happening but they might get 1 book and the delayed rifters. Their production schedule goes to heck way too easily when old kev talks business then yells squirrel and starts chasing it.

That was what my take on it too. Two weeks of time (cumulatively) organizing for an Open House isn't the big issue. I don't expect PB to work on ANY project non-stop. It's unrealistic.

I expect them to put in some significant effort on RRT at least a couple times a month. And that's not happening. And that's NOT because they're running a convention. It doesn't need to be one or the other. They should be capable of doing BOTH.

I don't believe for one second that not having an Open House will suddenly make everything else click into place. There appears to be an elasticity of procrastination that permeates. It's the only thing that can explain how they work 12-16hours a day, 5-6 days a week (a claim they make often), AND GET NOTHING DONE. Sorry, you've got 3+ employees working 180-280 manhours a week, and you have one book to show for the year, and next to nothing to show on a $1.4M side project? Yeah, it's not a small convention that's causing that ratio of "generating revenue vs office jackassery" to dip into dangerously incompetent territory. That level was already well into the red.

I don't know what the answer is. But I do know that it just makes them look worse. Cause it makes it look like they're either not capable of doing this relatively minor thing, and that having to do it via Kickstarter means they don't have the money to do it, or they don't have faith in their fanbase to do it. Either way, just like the handling of RRT the last two years, it's not inspiring confidence in the viability of the company.

It's not 3+ employees working. It's one idiot spinning in place with 2+ staff kissing his butt.

With the three-month long, Surprise Package season upon us, nothing else is getting done over there.

I'm surprised anything gets done there. Oct. to the end of Jan. is surprise packages. Several conventions over the rest of the year kill off 2-3 weeks at a time. For us the Chinese New Year kills another month, you know for the quote gathering, like it did for postponing wave 1.

I admit I was bored one time last year and checked out the staff of pb section on their site. It lists 6 people including kev's dad whose been gone(dead) for a long time now. So there's only really 5 people and for the most part Wayne is the youngest one. that company might disappear due to death and retirement before wave 2.

rosco60559 wrote:
I admit I was bored one time last year and checked out the staff of pb section on their site. It lists 6 people including kev's dad whose been gone(dead) for a long time now. So there's only really 5 people and for the most part Wayne is the youngest one. that company might disappear due to death and retirement before wave 2.

From your lips...

rosco60559 wrote:
Jeffar pb seems to be easily distracted no matter what. They promise like 4-12 books the first 6 months of the year and barely get one out. They promised another 5 or 6 by the end of the year along with the rrt cards in pdf form. The card thing is happening but they might get 1 book and the delayed rifters. Their production schedule goes to heck way too easily when old kev talks business then yells squirrel and starts chasing it.

Well I have been waiting for an update version of Recon that's compatible with the standard megaversal rules since the 1980s, so I understand a bit of that.

Just pointing out the stated reasons.

Lulz.

One good thing if there is another Open House - there will be pictures of the warehouse area so we should be able to do a visual count of how much RTT overstock is still left...

Don't forget Kevin has been busy micro managing his Rifts IP with Pinnacle for the last year to be bothered with silly things like content for multiple new books he promised or a half completed $1.4 million dollar project years overdue.

Other than the occasional phone call to get "quotes" that is.

It may be an oversimplification but I suspect any one of us could as a full time job produce more finished product than PB full time staff could produce.
Considering they have contract staff for artwork and even writing, the only hard skill would be for layout.
I have read many of their RPG books so I can easily omit editing as a skill needed.
Maybe how to operate a forklift, since they do seem to have a stocked warehouse.

I know I am being mean but really, other than the occasional new text added to the beginning of the notification of the week: what do they specifically do? Really?
RRT in particular I am at the point I do not want to know: it would only irritate me.

The issue is they all wear too many hats. The in house staff is performing both creative and administrative functions.

When Palladium was at its height the creative and administrative in house staff didn't overlap much.

Then again, at the same time their warehouse guy was stealing everything that wasn't nailed down.

The release of 2 Robotech RPG tactics cards a day in PDF format should tell you everything you need to know about their pace of work.

Man, has anyone ever suffered as hard for the sins of others as Kevin Simbieda?

Did this team of self-sacrificing supermen somehow suffer some great loss that reduced their productivity to a standstill over previous years? The reason I ask is that their comical lack of productivity has to be a big surprise to them, because if it's not, at this point, and after this many years, continually falling far, far short of their stated, published goals, well, that would just be lying.

And a great man like Simbieda would never do that.

They've lost touch with what is considered actual productivity.

They've had happen what happens to any business that has a measure of success. There comes a point where a home-grown business becomes too much for the single person to manage it an also have a direct hand its day-to-day operations. Where that individual brought a vision to the company that brought it success, at some point they become an obstacle to the company's continued success. Either that individual has to step aside for growth to continue and the company to evolve to serve a larger customer base, or the company stagnates and eventually dies with its owner.

That is the state of PB, and it reached that point back in the 90's during its hey-day.

Back to blaming the crisis of treachery?

 n815e wrote:
They've lost touch with what is considered actual productivity.

I beg to differ. They produce plenty each and every day, it's just a shame that the only room they can produce anything in is a small one with not much room due to all the Porcelain in that small space.

Right now they are producing two cards a day!

In reality, I think its pretty clear that any "work" they really do is all on the warehouse side. Writing and art is all done by their freelancers and the actual people at the office are probably spending any productive time bagging, shipping or collating TP reports - the rest is probably waiting on Kevin to approve whatever pile has sat on his desk for the last 6-8 months.

 Stormonu wrote:
In reality, I think its pretty clear that any "work" they really do is all on the warehouse side. Writing and art is all done by their freelancers and the actual people at the office are probably spending any productive time bagging, shipping or collating TP reports - the rest is probably waiting on Kevin to approve whatever pile has sat on his desk for the last 6-8 months.

Pssst.....years not months.

Autarch wrote:
Don't forget Kevin has been busy micro managing his Rifts IP with Pinnacle

Any info to back this up? I'd like to know if this is actually happening. Thanks!

It's easy snark to throw around, but didn't the SW:R pdfs already go out, at least vaguely on time, with the print materials in the works?

Whatever interjection Kevin may or may not have done (or been able to do), that campaign seems to be proceeding pretty well, at least from the last time I glanced at it (which admittedly was a while ago).

My understanding is palladium was hands off by and large aside from fluff text and art approvals.

jaymz wrote:
My understanding is palladium was hands off by and large aside from fluff text and art approvals.

If only... As we have seen with every other thing PB does, Kevco just can't leave well enough alone.

[MOD EDIT - "FTFY" 'Quotes' are frowned upon here - they're oftentimes viewed as against RULE #1 - thanks! Alpharius]

How can Kickstarter ever claim that a campaign that has not fulfilled it's base rewards in 3 YEARS is working enough not to have considered it a failure?

I predict that any campaign in the future that involves PB has a 98% chance of failure. [saying they will be hands-off may not be enough to save a particular campaign. We were all under the impression PB would be hands-off on this campaign, and look how well that turned out.] I certainly have a 100% chance of never having anything to do with them again.

If PB throw the same B&S trick as they did here with ND, then I have absolutely no sympathy with anyone who backs a campaign that involves them now.

It's certainly going to be interesting watching how the 98% Not PB Rifts board game KS unfolds.

ced1106 wrote:

Autarch wrote:
Don't forget Kevin has been busy micro managing his Rifts IP with Pinnacle

Any info to back this up? I'd like to know if this is actually happening. Thanks!

Kevin alone has been involved in the approval process for every bit of IP related fluff involved in Savage Rifts Kickstarter and additional material they were working on at the time (and not just artwork as he's indicated in his weekly updates). How do we know Kevin is a one man band? According to Ross Watson (Evil Beagle contributor to SR) when Kevin broke his arm, they had to come up with a WORK AROUND (his words) in order for Wayne and other PB staffers to step in to continue the approval process while Kevin was recovering. Hardly something they would have had to do if it was already a team effort and not Kevin's usual one man bottle neck. Now that he's recovered I'm sure it's back to business as usual. No doubt Kevin's broken arm slowed production down on PB's other projects, but not to the tune of one book and a deck of cards this year which is pathetic even by their low standard. No, the lion share of his time has to be overseeing the Rifts IP translation to Savage Worlds and the additional products for it being worked on post Kickstarter.

...which, to be completely honest 1) have not been particularly delayed so far and 2) are the only thing even marginally interesting to the gaming world at large, outside of Kevin Siembieda's personality cult.

Yes it's all academic to us what Kevin does, this half game is dead. Although I do find the speculation about combining wave two with Carmen's boardgame minis interesting.

Me, not so much.

Don't believe PB have the funds to do anything when they still can't get the resin stuff out.

The resin components are going to be much cheaper to get moulds for than plastic, so if money is tight, they should be the first thing out the door because it would shut down so many complaints for the minimal cost. They have, after all, shown pictures of the resin SDF-1 - although we still don't know if that was a cleaned up prototype or a production piece.

Getting SDF-1 models, resin bases, and objective markers would restart the clock on how long they have had since viable, provable progress has been made. [P.S.] And it could give the fans something to work on in the meantime, taking focus off how long it has been overall.

I am sorry, but I just can't see how combining W2 with anything will have any positive benefits at this stage. I just don't believe there is enough polish left in the world to make this thing revivable, and it would take years worth of top grade glitter to make any difference.