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 n815e wrote:
Scott hasn't done anything to us, outside of coming into the game really late and being the one who gets to deliver us no news. Scott didn't steal our money, make irresponsible choices with it, generate lies over the years (yes, he repeats what he is told).

I think that people sometimes get caught up in their anger or frustration and forget that these are people. I don't know what Scott's personal situation is and I don't care. If he had to deal with something and it prevented him from posting an update, that's fine.
Someone else at PB should have posted in his place. But be it that they are afraid of us, or they are incompetent communicators, or whatever, that's on Scott's boss, not Scott.

This I agree with 110%


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Merijeek wrote:
Riftee™, not Riftee.

Now you're trying to leave him open to legal action through his DOG? What kind of monster are you?

Shhhhh... stop giving Kevin an out.

 n815e wrote:
Someone else at PB should have posted in his place. But be it that they are afraid of us, or they are incompetent communicators, or whatever, that's on Scott's boss, not Scott.

The problem is, the "goodwill" is gone.
The "culture" of Palladium Books is readily available to be found which a background check of a perspective company to apply to would be a reasonable thing to do.
It was already identified that a somewhat hostile audience would be dealt with so extra efforts would have to be made to prevent backlash.
I just do not see a degree of professionalism that is supposed to be there.

I have been put into the situation of dealing with very angry customers that have felt "betrayed" and dealt with it.
I guess I made this list since it seems to outline what PB should be doing and why I get so upset when those methods are not met.

Ask:
- Ask what is the #1 thing they want addressed.
- Ask what they wish done as well as the main job.
- What was done badly that they want corrected?
- What was done well that they want us to keep or keep doing?

Do:
-Address directly what the customer needs: information or actions to be taken.
- See if any of the customer "wishes" are easily done and can be offered on top of the needed item.
- Ensure what was done badly does not repeat (customer is sensitized to that behavior).
- Ensure what they like being done continues, it may have been the one thing that kept them from taking drastic action AND make them nervous if it stops.
- Keep the customer informed of the steps being taken and time-line / series of steps to be taken for being resolved.
- Answer directly questions they may have as they arise.
- If the job is "bad" or not readily done: refund the money and refuse the job (with any added bonus for the inconvenience) OR eat the cost and get the job done.
- Bad news: Inform them honestly and tell them what steps you are taking. They get less nervous if they think you will inform them good or bad (no imaginary scenarios going on in their heads).
- Admit if mistakes were made. You were not taking on anything difficult if you had not made mistakes. Brutal honesty in this regard can be bad... admit where it looks like it has merit.
- Take responsibility to answer the questions, even if to commit to getting the answers if you do not know them.

Do Not:
- Inconvenience the customer, it is noticed and will upset them knowingly or not.
- Make them chase you, see the above statement. It makes them nervous that bad things are happening.
- Hold back bad news.,
- Ask for more money if unexpected expenses arise.
- Take full blame for all problems.

Nothing like having a customer go from yelling at you in your face to sending you a card saying thanks.
Respect? Maybe that is the short answer? Just respect your customer and it all works out.

Exalted!

Someone should send that list to Scott/Palladium ASAP!

Essentially that list has been sent - multiple times, and it either never made it past the goon squad that protects Kevin from Bad Things(TM), or he's flat out ignored it.

Whether Scott posts or not is of little import. There was a glimmer of hope we would get regular communication with PB, but little to no hope anything would actually happen. However, It is clear he has become absorbed in the PB mentality (he's a pod person now?) and we can't depend on him to break the wall of silence around this project nor does he have any pull to get anything done. He was a posting drone, little more - and I think things have broken once again.

I just find myself wondering how bad of a financial hole they are really in and exactly what does go on at that place from day to day. Because whatever it is that they are filling supposedly 10-12 hour work days with, isn't the business of RPGs. And I sure as hell can't figure out how they are financing keeping their doors open.

 n815e wrote:
Scott hasn't done anything to us, outside of coming into the game really late and being the one who gets to deliver us no news. Scott didn't steal our money, make irresponsible choices with it, generate lies over the years (yes, he repeats what he is told).

I think that people sometimes get caught up in their anger or frustration and forget that these are people. I don't know what Scott's personal situation is and I don't care. If he had to deal with something and it prevented him from posting an update, that's fine.
Someone else at PB should have posted in his place. But be it that they are afraid of us, or they are incompetent communicators, or whatever, that's on Scott's boss, not Scott.

We all know that it was going to have zero useful content, so it matters nothing at all.

I don't think many people have animosity towards Scott. At most it's a kind of weary cynicism, based on Scott's initial claims that he wanted to turn things around, and that he'd been given the tools to do so, and then spending the better part of three months doing exactly what PB spent the last three years doing, just on a more frequent basis. That he's now missed a promised Update (for valid reason or not), again reflects the PB tradition of promising something and failing to deliver, after having followed other PB traditions like ignoring questions and answering ones that noone asked, often in a patronizing or condescending manner.

For the most part, it seems like any flak he's received is less about him being the one responsible for the state of the clusterfeth when he took over, and more that he took over and has seemingly done nothing with it. He's supposed to be PB's business manager, but isn't involved in several important negotiations. Simply, he came in insinuating he was either in charge, or at least responsible for getting things done, and has failed to show it. Some flak is due.

Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Stormonu wrote:
I just find myself wondering how bad of a financial hole they are really in and exactly what does go on at that place from day to day. Because whatever it is that they are filling supposedly 10-12 hour work days with, isn't the business of RPGs. And I sure as hell can't figure out how they are financing keeping their doors open.

That's a point I've made several times on the PB Forums.

If they work anywhere near as much as they claim, where's the resulting payoff? Assume it's just the equivalent of three of them (Kevin, Wayne, Alex, Chuck, Scott or Jeff before him). Cause I figure there's obviously some non-creative stuff that's needing to be done. Working 5 days a week, 8 hours a day average (they claim MUCH more than this a lot of the time). And that's resulted in the production of <400 pages (224+160) of new product in just under a year. And 320 pages in the year before. With some of that work being completed well before that. It's just simple math. Assuming 8 weeks off a year (some vacation, and varying cons affecting capacity to work). That's 44 weeks. At 40 hours a week. Times three people. Or 5300 man hours a year. To put out 350 pages. Or 15 hours per page. I understand there's more to it than just putting pen to paper or the like, but that still seems glacially slow. Even with PB's formatting putting them about 1200 words per page at peak (based on pg 13 of Free Quebec, a page with no headers, page breaks or art), at half the average typing speed of 40wpm, that's still only an hour's work. Assuming another hour is spent on outlining and developing, and another hour is spent on editing and formatting, where's the other 12 hours go? And that's a CONSERVATIVE estimate based on Palladium's claims.

It's the same when you do any kind of sum for Robotech (my more usual argument). What's a good number for "working on it"? Two hours each a week from Kevin and Wayne? That'd be the bare minimum most people would consider as being even close to acceptable for using that statement, right? Well, that'd be 176 hours a year, or almost 500 hours since Wave 1 delivered. With very little new content in that time to show for it. Show me the money? No, show me the timecards.

So either they're doing nothing and lying, doing something and hiding it, or faffing about and doing something that results in nothing. I'm betting their in-house garbage-bin basketball league is awesome.

EDIT: As to the financials, yeah, I have no idea. That Kevin was overexcited about selling 120 copies of the only book they'd released this year, over almost three full days, at one of the biggest conventions on the calendar, which wouldn't have even covered the cost of the booth space, let alone ancilliary costs like transport, wages, food or accomodation, indicates new releases aren't keeping them afloat. Back catalog might make up for some of that, but given the reported lack of retailers stocking PB's RPG's, it's hard to say that'd be a significant revenue stream. Because again, math. Assuming after production costs (printer and artists, if not also authors and/or distributor prices and/or CGB discounting), that PB make $10 average on each book, to have 5 permanent staff at minimum wage (almost $9/h) and a standard business overhead of that again (rent, utilities, insurance, tax, adverts, etc), would mean nine books an hour. That doesn't seem like much, but that's ~70 books a day. Which is almost twice the rate that caused Kevin to be overexcited about 120 Secrets of the Atlanteans in three days thing. It does make the allegations they tapped into RRT funds to keep the doors open seem at the least, a credible theory.

All Kevin works on his Palladium weekly update. Some of those babies have 3-4 pages of new text as Kevin rambles on about how great he is, how the fans love him/Rifts and how much work he's doing. It takes him all week to polish it to perfection, then copy/paste in all the Rifts promotional gak.

Don't forget Kevin's ego insist that he rewrites EVERYTHING to insure his name is top billing on the byline. So this should slow productivity by at least half.

And from what has been revealed by Coffin and others, the remaining time is filled with Kevin parking his bum on the corner of someone's desk revealing his most personal issues and problems in the most uncomfortable detail. Add whatever is the latest hot topic TV show/movie/pop culture that could be worked into the next publication and that probably accounts for the rest of their time.

Autarch wrote:
Don't forget Kevin's ego insist that he rewrites EVERYTHING to insure his name is top billing on the byline. So this should slow productivity by at least half.

And from what has been revealed by Coffin and others, the remaining time is filled with Kevin parking his bum on the corner of someone's desk revealing his most personal issues and problems in the most uncomfortable detail. Add whatever is the latest hot topic TV show/movie/pop culture that could be worked into the next publication and that probably accounts for the rest of their time.

I was taking that into account. I noted (but didn't factor in) author expenses, but didn't do so for actual writing. I assumed someone wrote or rewrote every word, because of Kevin's tendency to do (or at least claim to do), that very thing. That's why even with me being conservative with my estimates, that only accounts for 20% of the time they have available. That percentage could well be half that, if not more.

And I'm aware of the Coffin and others anecdotal testimonials, that was part of what made me do the math in the first place. Coupled with several mentions of Kevin and crew working much longer than a 40hr work week.

It just boggles my mind that even with the fanatics they've got, they've been able to keep the doors open for three decades (especially this last one).

That's why when Scott said he had all the "information, introductions, and tools I need to be successful in my new position", Scott's claim literally the sentence before that PB has "the potential to become a giant in the gaming world is definitely present" (Update 199) made the claim that he wasn't a yes-man reminiscent of Kevin's claim that his staff doesn't blow smoke, but they just came in and said the latest writing was "redefining the genre" or some such gak.

One thing to keep in mind is that I would be very surprised if Scott was a full time employee. All of them may have "day" jobs and their work with PB is just part time.

That makes the financials of the company make a lot more sense to me as well as the apparent inability to produce anything in a reasonable amount of time.

Morgan Vening wrote:
I don't think many people have animosity towards Scott. At most it's a kind of weary cynicism, based on Scott's initial claims that he wanted to turn things around, and that he'd been given the tools to do so, and then spending the better part of three months doing exactly what PB spent the last three years doing, just on a more frequent basis. That he's now missed a promised Update (for valid reason or not), again reflects the PB tradition of promising something and failing to deliver, after having followed other PB traditions like ignoring questions and answering ones that noone asked, often in a patronizing or condescending manner.
For the most part, it seems like any flak he's received is less about him being the one responsible for the state of the clusterfeth when he took over, and more that he took over and has seemingly done nothing with it. He's supposed to be PB's business manager, but isn't involved in several important negotiations. Simply, he came in insinuating he was either in charge, or at least responsible for getting things done, and has failed to show it. Some flak is due..

When a new spokesman says:
- He will answer questions "I will answer as many of them as I can as quickly as I can."
- "I am Palladium’s business manager, not Kevin’s yes-man "
-"I have been working hard to get an accurate assessment of where Palladium Books® stands, not only overall, but specifically with regard to Robotech® RPG Tactics™"
- "I’m here to make a difference and to help grow the company. "
- "From here on out, I personally will be posting updates every two weeks - even if nothing has changed I will check in to let you know. "
It would take literally less than an hour to find out the status of Wave 2 including time extracting information people would be hesitant to give (camp at their desk).

The "ire" we have for Scott is he offered hope.
A stupid hope, but one all the same.

His initial statements seemed to indicate he was here to see things happen and "grow the business".
Creating text to stave off litigation I guess is one of those tasks.
His initial statements quickly are found to have no teeth to them.
He is now "stuck:" and going through the motions and is rightly in need of ridicule.

I have worked for narcissistic bosses (I am sorry to say yes, plural... ).
The best plan is update your resume and get out of there before your reputation takes a permanent hit.
The longer he drags on this farce the more deserving he is of customer slander (it is not slander if it is true right?).
I do not feel sorry for him, the situation he found himself in is as much his doing as his co-workers and boss.

This is why each post from Scott is just that much more burdensome: it becomes utterly obvious he is knowingly misleading owed customers (completely ignoring key questions is a telling sign).
The people posting in the comments sections are increasingly calling him on his lack of integrity.

He's supposed to be PB's business manager, but isn't involved in several important negotiations. Simply, he came in insinuating he was either in charge, or at least responsible for getting things done, and has failed to show it. Some flak is due.

Perhaps. More likely, in my mind, Scott was hired with the job description of having certain responsibilities and authority. He started out strongly in his posts and PB's communications overall have improved. Working remotely, having to rely on Kevin and Wayne, it was a pretty fast slide as the quality of Scott's updates dropped drastically, his writing started resembling Kevin's in tone and -- last update -- he was presented with information that was a flat out lie to give to us. Kevin refers to him as "my business manger" rather than by name, which is somewhat diminishing. I think Scott had an idea of what his job was to be, started working on that, then hit the wall of poor work ethic and incompetence that is PB. I also think that Kevin probably hired Scott to clean up PB's image/reputation and had all sorts of Kevin-style pipedreams of what that would mean, but then Scott started wanting to know things and telling them to do work and his improvements didn't result in magical overnight improvements in reputation and lots of gRifts money pouring in, so Kevin just went back to being Kevin.

If I were Scott, I'd seriously be looking for another job.

I think you really hit the nail on the head. I think Scott came in to help straighten up PB, and Kevin was behind the idea - until the rubber had to hit the payment.

I've read a self-biography of Kevin before, and from it I quickly came to the conclusion the man could not survive working for anyone other than himself, and that at that, would accept nothing short of utter praise for his efforts in anything he did - any sort of criticism of his half-baked ideas would be crushing to him, and the only way he could get past it would be to trivialize/ignore it.

 Stormonu wrote:
<snip> I quickly came to the conclusion the man could not survive working for anyone other than himself, and that at that, would accept nothing short of utter praise for his efforts in anything he did - any sort of criticism of his half-baked ideas would be crushing to him, and the only way he could get past it would be to trivialize/ignore it.

Actually typical behavior of narcissists: they suck up to their direct superiors with no sense of shame, bad mouth them when they think they are not listening, make light of their peer's accomplishments or criticize them and treat as dirt anyone beneath them.
That is why Kevin likes to call customers "fan-friends" it allows him to trivialize his customers and ignore them.
For added fun, they are NEVER wrong unless expressed as a grand gesture (I am TOO trusting!!!).
Criticism is not crushing so much, it is just not tolerated, it is considered a direct attack on their self image which will be ruthlessly defended.
It is ignored (you are considered his lesser) or aggressively shouted down (you are a threat and considered a lesser) or shift blame to someone else (you are considered an equal or threat or boss) or erased (the information is considered "threatening" and better to not draw attention) or will get revenge if you somehow managed to make something stick (got to teach a lesson to everyone to think twice before taking a run at him... litigation is a favorite tool.).
What is gold for them is to get "reasonable" people to sink to their level, it affirms that what they do is fine and good: "everyone else does it too!".

Whole different type of human being.
Some people have challenges where they simply lack empathy or have some mental challenges, narcissistic glory hounds have actually made a choice that their needs are greater than everyone else, so that is why Kevin is the son of a gun that he is and gets zero sympathy and trust from me.
Just looking at how his employees act around him speak volumes never mind some of the rants that were posted by prior employees.

Anyway, not a fan.

The reality of the matter is that Scotts' professional reputation is taking a hit just by being associated with Palladium Books (regardless of a part time or full time capacity).

I can only presume from a certain viewpoint of what has occurred, and this is by no means total defense of either Scott or Kevin. Scott likely came into the situation not aware of the background details of the company, it's culture (or lack thereof), dysfunction and the stagnation with this kickstarter and along with the Rifts Board Game failed kickstarter. Having been hired by the chief window licker himself, Kevin likely pulled a hat trick and told Scott one thing only to pull the rug from under Scott when it came time to make hard decisions. Scotts' first warning flags were when we were told he wasn't allowed/invited/instructed to come to GenCon and to sit in on manufacturers' meetings (presuming those meetings in fact took place). If you were hired to be the business manager, and you were told to not come to these events or meetings it stands to reason that you are not being hired to perform the role you applied for. Scott should have looked at Kevin and bluntly asked him why was he hired to be the business manager if Kevin will not allow him to manage the business?

Yes Scott came out of the starting gate saying he is stronger than a locomotive, faster than a speeding bullet, and able to leap tall buildings in a single bound, but he's not Super-Business Manager (That messes with the narrative that Kevin is Palladium Books). Scott may have been hired to be the business manager of Palladium Books, but the actual day-to-day business decisions are, from and by Kevin 'I AM PALLADIUM BOOKS' Siebieda. Scott is limited by the confines of a role that apparently is not defined in the manner Scott thought/expected it to be (After all Kevin knows what he is doing and anyone else isn't capable of doing the job so deftly and expertly as he). The limitation being that anything Scott says or does has to go through Kevin first (because if its not what Kevin would do, why would it be done?). It's well documented that Kevin is a control-freak and it shows in how Scott has responded to us by the 9 updates he has made to date (because Kevin can do no wrong, can he?).

While Kevin may have been behind Scott to straighten up the business (until it runs contrary to Kevins' vision which has never really been explained in a coherent manner), Scott may have come to realize that it has become a moot point. Damage had already been done and is well beyond the point of no return for repair, Scott can't be expected to repair the Titanic when its already sunk (unless of course you are Kevin Siembieda).

 Seawolf wrote:
The reality of the matter is that Scotts' professional reputation is taking a hit just by being associated with Palladium Books (regardless of a part time or full time capacity).

Spoiler:

I can only presume from a certain viewpoint of what has occurred, and this is by no means total defense of either Scott or Kevin. Scott likely came into the situation not aware of the background details of the company, it's culture (or lack thereof), dysfunction and the stagnation with this kickstarter and along with the Rifts Board Game failed kickstarter. Having been hired by the chief window licker himself, Kevin likely pulled a hat trick and told Scott one thing only to pull the rug from under Scott when it came time to make hard decisions. Scotts' first warning flags were when we were told he wasn't allowed/invited/instructed to come to GenCon and to sit in on manufacturers' meetings (presuming those meetings in fact took place). If you were hired to be the business manager, and you were told to not come to these events or meetings it stands to reason that you are not being hired to perform the role you applied for. Scott should have looked at Kevin and bluntly asked him why was he hired to be the business manager if Kevin will not allow him to manage the business?

Yes Scott came out of the starting gate saying he is stronger than a locomotive, faster than a speeding bullet, and able to leap tall buildings in a single bound, but he's not Super-Business Manager (That messes with the narrative that Kevin is Palladium Books). Scott may have been hired to be the business manager of Palladium Books, but the actual day-to-day business decisions are, from and by Kevin 'I AM PALLADIUM BOOKS' Siebieda. Scott is limited by the confines of a role that apparently is not defined in the manner Scott thought/expected it to be (After all Kevin knows what he is doing and anyone else isn't capable of doing the job so deftly and expertly as he). The limitation being that anything Scott says or does has to go through Kevin first (because if its not what Kevin would do, why would it be done?). It's well documented that Kevin is a control-freak and it shows in how Scott has responded to us by the 9 updates he has made to date (because Kevin can do no wrong, can he?).

While Kevin may have been behind Scott to straighten up the business (until it runs contrary to Kevins' vision which has never really been explained in a coherent manner), Scott may have come to realize that it has become a moot point. Damage had already been done and is well beyond the point of no return for repair, Scott can't be expected to repair the Titanic when its already sunk (unless of course you are Kevin Siembieda).

Kevin should hire a more deserving frontman to catch the rotten fruit & vegetables... I again nominate Casey.

 JohnHwangDD wrote:
Kevin should hire a more deserving frontman to catch the rotten fruit & vegetables... I again nominate Casey.

If "Casey" was truthfully unwell enough to try to end it all... I may give him a free pass.
That situation was a fine example where his loved ones should have pointed out to Kevin: "Not your shield." for using an unfortunate event to his advantage.
The problem with all the lies is a part of me is still unwilling to believe it happened but I have to pretend otherwise, in order to not be insensitive or a jerk.

 Talizvar wrote:
So in summary: a hired front man, sock puppet or minion.
I would expect Scott to read the writing on the wall and leave.
It would not take 4 months to get a handle on that "sinking feeling" unless you are fine with the cool-aid being offered.

Scott has had 9 "updates" to get a handle on how his "work" is vetted by Kevin.
It would only take one.
The difference is, I am not believing Scott is an unwilling/uninformed participant, definitely not now.

I do not believe Scott is posting in good faith any more than Palladium Books is moving forward with Wave2.
What is that phrase? "The cake is a lie."

Not sure on the hired front man, the sock puppet or the minion. I think that describes Wayne, NMI and Carmen more accurately... but that's my observation based on the conduct I have seen to date.

Scott is in a damnable position any way we shake a stick at it. So it wouldn't matter if he did everything right as we'd still hold him accountable for it. Is that fair? Do you yell at the McDonald's employee at the register because they didn't get enough Szechuan dipping sauce in? Or do you take your anger out on the Manager who is paid to deal with it. Scott is in a similar situation. He was hired to perform a function that is ill-defined by a narcisstic tyrannical manager who can't be bothered, but can be bothered when it effects his narcissitic view of himself in a community that has shrugged and moved on to better games and products.

 Talizvar wrote:

 JohnHwangDD wrote:
Kevin should hire a more deserving frontman to catch the rotten fruit & vegetables... I again nominate Casey.

If "Casey" was truthfully unwell enough to try to end it all... I may give him a free pass.
That situation was a fine example where his loved ones should have pointed out to Kevin: "Not your shield." for using an unfortunate event to his advantage.
The problem with all the lies is a part of me is still unwilling to believe it happened but I have to pretend otherwise, in order to not be insensitive or a jerk.

I have always assumed that Kevin cravenly and cynically lied about Casey's "suicide attempt" things.

Without independent third party proof or evidence that Casey really attempted suicide, I will continue to assume it was all a ploy concocted by Kevin to deflect criticism.

 Seawolf wrote:
Scott is in a damnable position any way we shake a stick at it. So it wouldn't matter if he did everything right as we'd still hold him accountable for it. Is that fair? Do you yell at the McDonald's employee at the register because they didn't get enough Szechuan dipping sauce in? Or do you take your anger out on the Manager who is paid to deal with it. Scott is in a similar situation. He was hired to perform a function that is ill-defined by a narcisstic tyrannical manager who can't be bothered, but can be bothered when it effects his narcissitic view of himself in a community that has shrugged and moved on to better games and products.

Disagree here.

Scott's not some peripheral employee. In your example he'd be warehouse or phone staff. Scott took a position where he's the frontman for the project. Where he took responsibility for updating backers, and therefore must take some of the blame for not doing so.

That it's a thankless job seemingly doomed to failure is irrelevant. A small amount of research should have shown him how difficult his job was, and he was at it for about a month before it was made public (to make sure he "fit"), and he chose to go ahead anyway. Then he spent another three months doing bugger all from a public perspective.

Yes, Kevin still gets the bulk of the blame, but Scott's job is to protect him from that, and as long as he's still willing to take the paycheck, knowing what the situation is, and enabling it, he deserves to share in the backlash.

I thought Scott was a fan friend and/or Megaversal ambassador so not sure he's totally innocent or oblivious of Kevin's shenanigans (though I'd buy kool-aid drinking self delusional).

Anyone find out what his issue was? Did a brief recon of social media (shudder) and got the impression his wife's sister died. Don't quote me on that.

Autarch wrote:
I thought Scott was a fan friend and/or Megaversal ambassador so not sure he's totally innocent or oblivious of Kevin's shenanigans (though I'd buy kool-aid drinking self delusional).

Anyone find out what his issue was? Did a brief recon of social media (shudder) and got the impression his wife's sister died. Don't quote me on that.

Is there any independent truth to that? Or is it yet another lie by Kevin?


ETA - yes, I honestly believe that Kevin is craven and venal enough to lie about these sorts of things to hold onto the money a little bit longer.

I agree with Scott signed on as a project manager / Social Media coordinator. He has also been on the job for about six months now,
So no matter how bad companies get quotes back to them, which shouldn't take more than a week in real life. If a project six months
in hasn't started a ordering process at this point it never will. I think Scott realizes he can not say any more and being palladium's
"business manager" is not working since Kevin will never make the changes recommended.

The other sad thing is their face book page is still getting updates from the account that was clearly coming from Scott as of a few weeks ago.
Just proof that they cannot prove where the money went and don't want to say there is no money.. so just say nothing instead of reapeating
the same thing over and over like a Kevin's Parrot.

We are back to dead silence on RTT Kickstarter, with any future update being "we are working on it" so you can't do anything about it because Palladium
lawyers say that's our only way out.

I hope it's not the cause that Autarch mentioned, but the fact that it could be something serious is part of why I'm not remotely worried about the delayed update, nor onboard with the people belittling him in the comments.

He's not a robot, he's a person. He has a job, not a blood oath/suicide pact. If something serious happened to a family member or other loved one, I'd expect no less from his priorities.

At the end of the day, the fault lands at PB's (in general) and Kevin's (in particular) feet. If something serious has happened in Scott's life, they've had a week now to write something up in his stead. They managed it for years (infrequently) and are presumably the source from which much of his information arrives, so it's not like they'd be filling in for an unfamiliar role.

Maybe he got a papercut, maybe he is busy saving the world from alien invasion. If his life/availability make him unable to post a couple pages of pablum for the masses and take heat as a faceless name on the screen in Wayne or Kevin's place, so be it. That blame is rightfully theirs in the first place.

As Morgan pointed out, we've had around half a dozen names sending us info (or failing to do so) for over 4.5 years now regarding this campaign. If his era was Spicer'ian and has concluded (or is going to), that doesn't really change anything at all from my perspective. He signed up for a crappy job and frankly was better at it than several of the past people who held it. Doom and gloom is our bread and butter here, most don't believe we're getting anything more anyway, so I don't see why it really matters who is willing to walk into no man's land on any particular month.

At least with him we were getting updates regularly again (until whatever has happened recently). It was something more than the months of silence we had leading up to his time in the role.

It's frankly amazing where our imaginations go in the comments just after a few days of missing posts.

I kinda thought Scott would make an attempt this week - at least touch back, but the back of my mind is telling me I should have know better.

Alas, it looks like we are back to radio silence and full-on speculation. There was a short time our ears were perked, seems like we can go back to hating on Kevin, his company and anyone within a 10 mile radius of His magnificence full bore once again.

Dammit, I wish they'd just come clean on the whole state of this mess, but that's obviously too noble for Kevin's ego.

Maybe Scott has realised that it's hopeless and has already quit.

The silence would then simply be Palladium's business as usual.

It kinda makes sense, right?

I was actually thinking the same thing this morning Soul Samurai. This seems a bit odd given Scott's adherence to the schedule he promised when he started and while sometimes life happens not being able to even put out a "Sorry life is crazy, things should return to normal at X date." seems odd.

So...he got fired then?

Was he revealing...too much?!?

I have to agree it does seem weird that he worked so hard to get a schedule started for updates to all of a sudden abandon it.
And when your boss refuses to call you by name in a product update is not a good sign either...
Personally I think we all know the ego Kevin has and being told what to do and in what order is painful to him..
What leverage does Scott have against him if Kevin doesn't do what is recommended??
After months of a list of things that need to get done so projects can move forward are not done, what does Scott do?

As for the imagination comment.. what else do we have to go on??... There is no real facts that anything is truly getting worked on since wave one..
There is nothing out there at all except Palladium's word that "they are working on it".. but when it comes time for the action they said was
complete, there is nothing to show and the action is repeated with a new date. Wash, rinse, repeat....
So we are only left to guess what is really going on as other Kickstarters that started years later are getting finished.

Internet 'personal matters' always seem to trump the real world. When my mother passed I was absolutely devastated, crushed, world upside down and I got three days of bereavement to get my self together and couldn't do it so I tapped into my personal vacation to get the week off. Sometimes these nebulous 'personal reasons' give a ticket to languishing around for months and if you suggest maybe they should get back on the horse you're an insensitive kneebiting jerk for not being sensitive to their personal reasons.
Again, you could say it's 'just toys' so chill out but really it's a $1.44M project that Scott's supposed to be managing here and the actual product is irrelevant. Not surprised Scott has gone deep and silent as he really has no vested interest in managing this project at all.