The Palladium Books/Robotech RRT Fiasco

Or 'A Troll By Any Other Name'

Some time ago I posted a rant about the delayed Robotech minis game and the response by a small, vocal, incredibly nasty group that had basically taken over the response board, turning it into the equivalent of youtube or yahoo.  Since then, I have spoken personally to the president of the company, Kevin Siembieda about it and the game is slowly coming along. 

He, however, finally got sick and tired of the trolls and posted what amounts to a 'screw off and let the real fans enjoy our game' post. For the most part I agree w/ it so I poked the bear a bit since we know for a fact that the trolls ARE a minority:

The trolls are a small, vocal, and sad minority that have not carried out a single one of their threats of trashing the game at GenCon, lawsuits, etc. Still waiting guys. Come on. Call me a 'White Knight' or some other insult. I'll just laugh as my minis get painted and I enjoy some gaming.

And I got the predictable response from the loudest of the trolls:

 in case you haven't been paying attention us "Trolls" as you call us have already started filing with the BBB and the Attorney generals of various states and the list is growing, so while those of you who sit and turn the other cheek think your getting wave 2, guess again your getting nothing because PB has nothing to send and when the law gets thru with them they will be lucky if they are still a company.

They've 'already started filing w/ the BBB..."

Yeah.  OK.  Three complaints so far out of over 5,300 backers.  Whoop dee frickin do.  I got more complaints than that from the OGRE sheets because I didn't start shipping out the same day as the main game and I hadn't even received them yet. 

AG's?  Yeah. OK. Sure skippy.  These keyboard commandoes have been making the same threats for the last year plus.  None have shown ANY evidence.  Why?  Because no AG is going to bother.

Kevin's shakin' in his boots.  I'm sure.

Just to emphasize the 'Troll' creds.... take a look at the profile.  ONE project backed.  Near 5,900 comments. Almost every one making threats, insults, and ridiculous claims.

Now screw off and let the real fans enjoy our game.

CIL-Con '15 Review

A bit back I was approached by some ladies who asked if I would be interested in running tables at a show they were putting on.  The flyer they gave me said it was called 'CIL-Con' (Central Illinois Con) and was a Paranormal/Horror/Anime/Gaming convention.  They said that w/ my combination of Surplus and Game related materials, I would make a good fit.  Table costs were very reasonably priced so I reserved some and prepped the hippy-mobile for transport.

As it turns out, this was originally planned as a 'paranormal' gathering but they decided to branch out into the anime and gaming areas for overlap.  This showed in the vendors that were present.  They were mostly paranormal and horror including some palm readers, psychics, aura cleansers and similar.  From what I understand, the 'Haunt' community are like 'Undead Heads', they travel and talk.  I know of some in Ohio that had heard of this event and vendors/presenters were from as far away as Alabama. Not bad for a start-up con. Besides myself, there was one other anime seller and the 'EndZone' game store ran a game room.

One of the neatest things though was the 'Mystery Machine' from Scooby Doo.

Friday night had a Velma and Shaggy cosplay team.  Sat. saw a little bit more cosplay w/ several Pokemon and a TMNT turtle:

Sat also had a local professional wrestling group, Zero1 USA, set up a ring and perform some matches for a crowd.  Several of them walked the mall in character hyping it up.  My favorite was 'Norman the Belligerent'.  They were just cheesily choreographed enough to be entertaining. 

Not sure how the various seminars and events turned out since I was behind the table the whole time. 

Pros-  

Very well organized. Tables were marked. Events were clearly listed.  Info booth . Outside of a few things, this was well done.

Advertising- Not only all over town but as I said earlier, this was heard about across the country. 

Uniqueness- Definitely not something normally done around here it was able to attract a diverse audience not regularly catered to.

Cons- 

Advertised as gaming/anime, there were only a few tables for it including mine.  They have said they are going to get more for next year.

Booth manning-  The info table at the main entrance was only sporadically manned Fri night and not at all on Sat.

Sat. Morn and Evening.  Some people mentioned that several of the events in the morning didn't happen. Not sure if this is accurate but it was mentioned.  Also many of the 'paranormal' vendors were bailing really early, like 6pm, hours before the scheduled end.  This looks bad.

Misc. Recommendations (for all my .02 are worth)-

Film Room(s)-  Movies, movies and more movies.  Get a screen, projector and a laptop to show anime, horror flicks, and gamer movies.  Plenty of empty stores that can be dark enough to do this.

Overall they were able to bring in a nice crowd of people that weren't the usual mall walkers.  The diversity in themes definitely brought out the 'Freaks and Geeks' who were able to be themselves in an area that doesn't have a well organized gaming community.   I certainly hope I get invited back next year.

Sunday Gun Day

Took Alpha & Bravo out for their 10/22 christening.  Started out w/ some balloons.

The boy did fairly well w/ adjusting to the iron sights getting 5/9 w/ his first magazine.  The girl decided she wanted to shoot w/o support.  Combined w/ learning the sights and some issues w/ her vision (we have an eye appt.), she did not do very well, only hitting one, and getting very upset. We talked for a bit and I convinced her to stick w/ supports for now and we tried out a pair of my older glasses on her.  It did help some for the next round. 

ZOMBIES!!!!

I found some targets at the 'Con I worked over the weekend.  Thought they would like them and they did:

Still trying to convince her to support both elbows but we all know how well kids listen. I got in a little shooting myself.

We finished up by emptying out their boxes into some cheap soda cans.  The foamy explosions are most fun.  Then back up to the house for some firearm maintenance (wipedown, etc) and putting everything away.

Next chore is getting the scopes on and zeroed for some more practice time.