Well the Shikami's a pretty obvious fuck up on their behalf. If CB didn't want to spill the information about the uprising incoming, and didn't want to delay the original Shikami release till after, like the second Shikami, It should've been released as a Merc that plays for JSA, not for Yu Jing. That solves the problem of people like me, who only play Vanilla, buying the Shikami and getting pissed off. What could've been said in an official capacity in retrospect? How about an official apology for misleading people such as myself into buying one and an explanation for how they managed to create the entire problem in the first place, and what changes they're making to not do that again, so I can have some confidence that they won't screw me over again in the future. As opposed to sitting there tight lipped pretending they did nothing wrong and a portion of the community isn't pissed off with them. What should they have done as they announced uprising in regards to IA? Well, for starters, they should've announced IA and told us exactly when it's dropping. Things would be alot less bitter if this is how the Uprising announcement was structured Yu Jing players will receive a replacement sectorial in November, Invicible Army. (this is putting aside the fact that the Uprising should've been done the other way around with Invincibles dropping first, and segregating the JSA on paper at the same time, then doing the uprising story after to coincide with the minis being released) These are the units from your existing collection that will be a part of it. Tease link teams with ??? spots in them if necessary. Release the unit dossiers for brand new units as done during the year over time. Explain that there are storyline driven reasons for Yu Jing restructuring their armed forces, and that traditional IA profiles (i.e. Tiger/daofei) now serve with different branches for reasons that will be made apparent later. While some people may not like the fluff change, it solves the problem of players getting bad advice on what to buy to prepare for their army, because shit there's even a thread on these forums somewhere where we're telling the guy to buy and paint Tigers for IA. Yu Jing players will get the profiles for Invincible Army in November (or whenever the planned release date is. No need to mention 3rd Offensive here). While profiles are out in November, first wave of models will not hit shelves until first quarter 2019. Here is our new proxy model stance to tide you over in the mean time, have fun playing IA at tournaments while you assemble your Invincible Army, again, here are the models you can buy and paint right now to prepare for Invincible Army. And if you want to get top marks for handling a shitty situation the best you can We will be addressing balance changes for Vanilla Yu Jing in the short term. Make a commitment to adjust and apply some fixes to some of the less valuable troopers and profiles like Ninja fixes (more than 1 good profile, thanks), giving them the FO like the other 2 factions, bring the MMLX Lunah buffs forward early, Guijia buff like the Raicho, etc. Make a show of being understanding that the situation sucks and providing something else as compensation in the meantime does a hell of alot for improving community management. And before someone says "but muh CBLs" those things sucked ass and you know it. Providing something of value is important. If you do all this you assure your player base that they have something to look forward to in the relatively near future, and that you aren't hanging them out to dry or have forgotten about them. They know you know it sucks for them and you aren't taking the piss, and they have a direction they can choose to push their collection in. Additionally if you make small improvements to their existing collection, it gives them something to focus on and play with, rather than having not much else to do but twiddle their thumbs at varying levels of aggravation. What you don't do, from a marketing perspective, if you don't want to come across as a Blizzard "DoN't U GUys HaVE phOnEs?" level of tone deaf stupid, is immediately poke fun at customers you've caused grievance to for various reasons. Just a note for you @Bostria Additionally, under community management. If you're good at your job. When you accidentally have a leak, like the Invincible Army artwork, that gets extrapolated with teaser drops you've already done this year at conventions into hype for the disastrously wrong thing you get on top of that and quell those rumours ASAP, you don't let them fuel themselves into a hype machine for Invincible Army being the next sectorial instead of Uprising, because that's like... the hell kind of response did you think Uprising was gonna get after that? Of course people are gonna be mad. Because when you fail to stay on top of that stuff, the following quote is basically how the Uprising announcement ended up blindsiding us and turning into a total PR shitshow: You can avoid that by communicating even at a basic level with the player base of "Oops, didn't mean to leak that it's not IA sorry guys."
Also, lest we forget, it needs to be communication in line with their vision for what they’re doing moving forward and the plans they have for their game and company.
I still feel that bait and switch was deliberate; regardless of the merits of blatant capitalism (and it grated with me, too) - and when do you see a company apologise for making money like that? Not that I'm justifying it, at all... The community engagement is a different matter, and your suggestions are all solid, if you aren't evil capitalists that is. I reckon the plan all along was to get as many Yu Jing players dabbling in the new factions (it was Ikari which tempted me first with the mix of Yu Jing and JSA). If that's the case, releasing any playable version of IA is going to distract from that. If you're being that blatant, last thing you want to do is actually get into arguments about it with people who have genuine grievances about it - short of admitting everything, you'll be fighting a losing battle and scorching a lot of earth.
I agree, that's why we stick to the same timeline of IA's release schedule that has been used rather than pushing it forwards. The only real difference is we've been more proactive about community engagement and making sure the negatively affected players are being attended to attempt to smooth the transition over.
Or, cynically, you see how many players buy into the new factions in the vacuum. The reason I'm still playing is that painting and playing JSA has been an enjoyable experience, and I always have a good time playing in the group I'm in.
I mean, if you want to gain a reputation as being assholes, sure. Didn't work so well for GW and they had to clean up their act in the end.
For sure. I wonder if they see the community as faction players, or Infinity players. I also wonder how strong their anglophone community engagement is; previously they've used the Beasts of War platform to announce to the English-speaking world, which perhaps suggests a lack of confidence (although that's changed in recent times). Maybe they just don't get the strength of feeling in identity, and projection even, that comes with the geek territory.
And frankly, Shikami's considered bad (and my group says it is bad) on JSA. He really shined when he was in Yu Jing, very distinguishable and useful tool for much situations. In JSA.. Personally I don't feel him as an actual threat comparing from former YJ Shikami. So much for the fluff. So much missed opportunities...
Releasing IA before Uprising would have been much better. Assuming that Uprising still releases before IA: In the Uprising announcement, where CB said it's going to be a rough year for YJ? Add "but wait till you see what's coming next for YJ" and show the IA logo. Would have taken 10 seconds. Adding some temporary tweaks to Army composition to make up for the lack of JSA units in vanilla anymore. Not having Invincible Army written on the Tiger Soldier dossier if that wasn't true then would have been really nice. Fixing the Daofei's fluff in N3 if it wasn't going to be in the Invincible Army then (that decision had been made by then, IIRC). Paying more attention to the forums would be really good. (I'd suggest CB hire a community relations manager or two, whose specific job is exactly spending time on the forums) Giving a new player suggestions on what to collect and paint to get set up for IA. Some designer's notes about why the Daofei and Tiger Soldier aren't in Invincible Army, @Bostria
@Triumph that was a great response to my question. I was honestly expecting either a very dissimive, or snarky, or overly mad post. That way incredibly well written. In my head I was already thinking on one is possibly gonna have a good answer or it's just gonna terrible toxic garbage. After reading that I can definitely empathize alot more and I really think my position has shifted a bit on how they've handled stuff. I may not agree with every single thing but you've definitely gotten me to agree with ya more. Again truly well done response and I appreciate it. Much respect.
Yes, of course. Here we go: Because the face plate of the Daofei is white. Because there are already the LiuXing in it. Boy, that was hard. We should hire someone to do this stuff. Have a nice weekend.
*be me* *be reading a thread called 'why so serious?'* *watch people be SO SRS* *SRSLY SO SRS* *watch someone be SRS and shout to the heavens "Oh great lord of Infinity Trolling, come and grant me the SRS BSNS I demand!"* *wait patiently for the inevitable* *be absolutely satisfied with results.*
Ha! All my minis have blue faceplates! Stick that in your design space!/sarcasm Seriously though, everyone thinks I play PanO until told otherwise. It seems like they have monopolised the colour blue, since I never see this confusion happen with any other faction. The man does have a good point about community management though, it really doesn't require dedicated staff, especially on such a small platform. I now worry for the design team, however. If one of them goes colour blind, we'll lose all sense of faction coherency.
Thanks for the PH 13 Suryats btw @Aspect Graviton gets sad whenever I remind him my Mobile Brigada are beefier than his Morats, its great.
