Festivus: the airing of grievances

  Welcome, newcomers. The tradition of Festivus begins with the airing of grievances. I got a lot of problems with you people! And now you're gonna hear about it! -- Frank Constanza

Two things have been stewing in my head for a bit, though one is a little more recent than the other. Let's start with the recent one. Alert: this is a long post, but you should be used to that from me by now.

Grievance #1: Quality of Service

I am not sure if this is a Covid thing or just something I can blame on post-Covid shifting in our human psyche, but I have found that the quality of service among various game-related companies has gotten bad. I am not going to name names, but I have had several issues where I placed an order, paid for the goods, and never got the product. These are not the heavy hitters like Games Workshop or Reaper Miniatures, these are the little guys. In one case, I placed an order in early September and waited, and waited... I did get a prompt email response that my order had been received and my PayPal account was billed. Finally, at the beginning of November, I emailed to check the status of my order...nothing. I did again in about the first week of December....again nothing. So, I called my credit card company and sicked them on the issue. It was funny because when the customer service rep asked me what kind of company it was I hesitantly said it makes wargame miniatures. I'm sorry, I know nowadays it's cool to be a nerd, but I come from an earlier time where at least in the USA, wargaming was looked down upon. I carry that baggage still today. She was very positive and said her brother is a gamer and plays D&D. She asked if I wanted my money back or to resolve the situation where the order is expedited and I get the minis. I chose the later.  A week later, I got an email from the company saying I was going to get a refund on my credit card. That was it. No apologies for nonexistent service. Nothing. 

In another case, I placed an order with a company that 3D prints their miniatures. Again, I got a confirmation that my order was received and I paid for the miniatures. I realize that 3D printing can take time. A Shapeways order would sometimes take up to five months, but they always sent update emails on the progress of their printing. After four months, I contacted this company on the status of the order. The person completely forgot my order. Yes, take my money, please. 

You are probably saying, "gee Chris, you are throwing out the baby with the bathwater. These are only two companies." Yes, that is true, but I noticed a deterioration of service from a number of companies I regularly order from. Companies that had excellent service in the past seem to be slipping. Orders seem to be very slow (I find myself sending more emails lately to enquire on the status of an order than in the past); they screw up the order multiple times and send me the wrong things; I get a pack of figures that are supposed to have multiple poses and get all of the same pose; or I email a company and never get a response. 

I am not an expert on business or business economics, but it seems that small, niche companies live or die by customer satisfaction. They need repeat customers. I get they are small maybe even one man operations, but at least keep your customers in the loop. And when your company does screw up, offer a small token to make up for the screw up. Will I order from these companies again? No way for the first case study and not likely for the second. The owner did say he will print the order but I won't get them until the new year.

Grievance #2: Historical Revision regarding Rules

This one has been really been bugging me for several years now. I blame it on the rise of Games Workshop and all the big box companies that adopted their business model such as Warlord Games. This may seem silly but it is as if table top wargaming with miniatures never existed prior to the 1980s or whenever Games Workshop went full corporate. Its almost Orwellian. 

I am not necessarily talking about where I went into an official, stand alone Games Workshop store and they stare at me blankly after I answer their question of if I have ever played Warhammer 40K, and I reply no, but I have played lots of other rulesets. Then, they condescendingly proceed to explain it all to me as if I had never picked up a miniature and some dice before. Yes, this happened to me several times. 

Its not so much that, but the ardent followers of these various games. I have had conversations with many younger gamers and have watched many YouTube videos on wargame rules. They seem to think nothing existed prior to the rise of these big companies, particularly with regards to rules. These YouTube experts go on and on about rule mechanics not bothering to do a little research of the past. The state that the latest edition of game X introduced this new mechanic innovative mechanic. Bullsh*t!! That "new" mechanic has been around for years and I can cite the rules where they are found. A number of times I have or wanted to say something along the lines of, "you do realize that rule mechanic X is not an invention of [insert big name company here]. It can be found in rules A, B, and C that were published in the 70s and early 80s." They give you a puzzled look. 

These are the same folks that if you criticize some aspect of a rule, they get all ballistic. I remember recently stating a game was over that there was a mechanism to resolve a hit didn't make sense and that another rule set did it better. My opponent didn't seem to realize that there were actually other rules of this genre out there and that this was how its done and that is that. I even dared to suggest it could be modified...nope, can't happen! I guess when you plunk down $100+ for a set of rules (hence, Big Box), they are perfect whether you really believe that or not. When I was in college the first time around (a whole separate story), one of my gaming buddy's (math and history double major) absolute joy was to dissect a rules and try to come up with a better mechanic that made more sense to him. Then, we'd play test it to see if his tinkering held up. Even back in high school, my high school buddies and I found the infantry rules for Angriff! the WWII rules awful and came up with our own that we thought were better. Were they better? I don't know but at least we didn't have this blind loyalty to the rules. 

I'm not saying that Games Workshop rules or any other big box company rules bad. I really like Warmaster and Lord of the Rings Big Battles rules. I think X-Wing Miniatures game by Fantasy Flight Games has a really neat mechanic. I just feel that there have been rules going back far earlier than when I hooked a ride, and this should be acknowledged or at least superficially "studied" before making bold, expert pronouncements and pontifications. 

Somewhat related, is sad to see that so many folks, particularly younger ones, are so hooked on the big box games that they won't even think about playing games using non-big box rules. Last spring, I attended a small local convention. The miniature wargames section consisted almost all Warhammer 40K except for one guy who put on a zombie vs alien vs rednecks invasion game using some rule set I can't remember the name of. NOBODY signed up for his game, except for me. It ended up that his older son and wife played to make up for the two other factions in the game. It wasn't the greatest game, but it was fun and entertaining and there were no arguing over rules minutiae.  

I guess I am old.