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- The Lone Wolf Development Team
Kickstarter communication
- Thread starter alientude
- Start date
There are a few threads regarding communication and the situation. Maybe you find some of the answers you seek there? I do understand though, that as a backer, you might feel a bit left out. I think they have announced recently to restart the newsletter again (are kickstarter backers not part of it?). If not maybe you should subscribe there.
Also you find every few months a posting from some lwd staff member describing some situation including some news on material that has been released (Did you receive it on your account?)
There was also some free-content released for everyone.
So hopefully these are some good news for you.
Also you find every few months a posting from some lwd staff member describing some situation including some news on material that has been released (Did you receive it on your account?)
There was also some free-content released for everyone.
So hopefully these are some good news for you.
Have a read through this thread. It explains what's been happening at LWD for quite some time.
http://forums.wolflair.com/showthread.php?t=61062
http://forums.wolflair.com/showthread.php?t=61062
Kickstarter requires that backers receive regular updates separate from any other communication the creators may send out.
I'll compare two projects. City of Titans is an MMO based, at least spiritually, on the City of Heroes MMO. It raised nearly $680k and is over 3 years late. But the backers get regular updates. If there have been any complaints I haven't seen them.
LWD doesn't do communication. All the backers are waiting on are stretch goals. Backers are angry.
What's the difference?
I'll compare two projects. City of Titans is an MMO based, at least spiritually, on the City of Heroes MMO. It raised nearly $680k and is over 3 years late. But the backers get regular updates. If there have been any complaints I haven't seen them.
LWD doesn't do communication. All the backers are waiting on are stretch goals. Backers are angry.
What's the difference?
Why couldn't this type of communication be sent to Kickstarter? It's coming up on 3 years, with the last message saying that the Paizo catalog is going to be available early 2016! BJ posted that she fully intended to make a RW update on Kickstarter "in the near future" over 6 months ago, and still silence. I don't understand why Lone Wolf treats their backers with such disdain.
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Maidhc O Casain
Well-known member
I'm firmly in the 'just waiting for something even better to happen' camp (Razor Coast...)
HOWEVER, I will say that I've backed 3 projects.
I know LWD has struggled personnel-wise, and that Rob has had health issues. I continue holding fast to the faith that the CM will be realized and that there will be much that I want to purchase there. I continue to love the software for what it can currently do/has done for my campaign management.
I also continue to long for calendars, the content market, and the Razor Coast.
HOWEVER, I will say that I've backed 3 projects.
- d20Pro (software) is still 'in development.' I get regular updates via Kickstarter, and am happy to keep right on waiting, because I know exactly what's going on.
- Shadowlands (campaign setting) went bankrupt (or some other such financial disaster, sat shelved for quite some time, and then was purchased by another publisher. The new publisher, while under no obligation to continue providing updates, rewards, etc (as far as I know) now provides regular updates to the backers and fully intends to honor all of the original rewards and stretch goals.
- RealmWorks (software)... Well, you know.
I know LWD has struggled personnel-wise, and that Rob has had health issues. I continue holding fast to the faith that the CM will be realized and that there will be much that I want to purchase there. I continue to love the software for what it can currently do/has done for my campaign management.
I also continue to long for calendars, the content market, and the Razor Coast.
I've got a query in to the Frog Gods asking when their KS rewards will be available in RW or whether they too are being blown off by LWD like the rest of the backers. Razor Coast and The Blight are both due when the store opens. They're overdue. They should have been delivered as backer rewards years ago.
FWIW, The Blight wasn't even kickstarted until 2016 and hard copy books didn't start rolling out until September of 2017, so the earliest that reward "could" have been delivered would have been in September of 2017, but as massive as it is, it's probably more than a couple of days of work, LOL. Happened to back all three of these, The Blight and RW and Razor Coast. I don't "know" anything more than that, so do what you want with it...
I gave them a bye on The Blight last year at release though they could have received pre-release I'm sure. Regardless, it doesn't take a year to key it in. I know as I've keyed in a good chunk of the FGG catalog. There isn't any excuse for Razor Coast though as it was out before the KS.
This thread and its implications are something that I'm now aware of. It absolutely warrants more than a quick response. As Desi is reputed to say to Lucy, "you got some splainin to do". 
Unfortunately, I have to finish up some critical stuff tonight that others are relying on to build upon tomorrow, and my schedule tomorrow is already a mess. So I will do some "splainin" either tomorrow night or Friday. Thanks for your patience!
Unfortunately, I have to finish up some critical stuff tonight that others are relying on to build upon tomorrow, and my schedule tomorrow is already a mess. So I will do some "splainin" either tomorrow night or Friday. Thanks for your patience!
This thread and its implications are something that I'm now aware of. It absolutely warrants more than a quick response. As Desi is reputed to say to Lucy, "you got some splainin to do".
Unfortunately, I have to finish up some critical stuff tonight that others are relying on to build upon tomorrow, and my schedule tomorrow is already a mess. So I will do some "splainin" either tomorrow night or Friday. Thanks for your patience!
Thanks Rob. Build first answer questions later....
@Rob: When 'splaining, please crosspost to the KS page so backers see it. It would be a very good step towards rebuilding some confidence if ALL updates regarding RW were posted there. And like many KS's that have not fulfilled their obligations after their proposed date, monthly updates would be appreciated even if that means no progress has been made. It's the least your public relations staff can do for us.
MaxSupernova
Well-known member
People have been asking for regular updates forever. It doesn't seem to stick. We get one update, and then nothing until either the rabble rouses loud enough or there is some major release.
With a community relations staff assigned, you'd think that even a weekly update would be feasible, even if it's "Here's where we're at even though it's not much different than last week".
At the very least monthly would be a big improvement.
When I read the first post in this thread, I was in disbelief. I thought it was a gross exaggeration - it couldn’t have been that long. Then I spent a chunk of time finding out what was real. And I was stunned and dismayed, because it’s absolutely true. So all I can do at this point is apologize, offer some context, apologize some more, and provide some info on the current state of things. Here goes…
Shortly after the Kickstarter, we hired someone whose responsibilities included communications with KS backers. That person left around April 2016, not long after the last KS post. Until a replacement could be hired, those duties were supposed to be assumed by another person, who is no longer with the company. BJ was hired that August, which was around the time I started getting sick on a regular basis and ultimately crashed. It turns out that BJ was unequivocally told by the interim person to not make any posts on the KS, and she acquiesced because she was brand new and was told by a very senior staffer.
At this point, I need to interject a brief note about my illness to fully explain the next two years. After being hospitalized, I was put on some very nasty meds that caused extreme brain fog and made it almost impossible for me to sleep for more than 2-3 hours each night – which ultimately made my brain even more foggy from sleep deprivation. My wife equates it to “baby brain”. Thankfully, I’m finally starting to taper off those meds and get a little clarity once again. If you really want some additional details, please see my post here: http://forums.wolflair.com/showpost.php?p=269351&postcount=18.
Once I became ill, I remained oblivious to this issue for a while. I just assumed – quite wrongly – that any basic RW information we shared in newsletters was being re-posted to the KS. When I was finally made aware of the problem, the KS page had languished without an update for a very long time. At that point, we were expecting the missing pieces we needed from the Paizo API to be available “any time” so that we could finish things up and launch the Content Market. We really wanted to post concrete, good news when we came back to the KS, so the decision was made to wait until we could do that. Unfortunately, the API we needed for the Content Market kept getting delayed, and the KS continued to languish along with it. It reached a point where we’d waited so long that posting anything to the KS that wasn’t concrete delivery details was probably worse than just keeping quiet, so that’s what we did for a while longer. In hindsight, our handling of this was misguided, and for that I can only apologize.
Late last year, there were many things that I had been mostly neglecting due to being sick, and the things I actually was dealing with were consuming my limited energy and mental faculties. So BJ was promoted in order to take over some of those things, which would allow me to focus what energy I had on development so that further headway could be made on that side. Thanks to this change, we were able to get started on a multi-phase plan for RW and deliver a few content items to KS backers around Christmas. However, we also uncovered some technical issues within the guts of RW that made it impossible to deliver some of the additional items until those problems were fixed. Unfortunately, those items were not reliably reproducible and buried deep inside the bowels of code that I had written – and I was the only one even remotely familiar with that code.
The obvious solution was to fix those bugs and get things out. The problem was that a foggy brain and sleep deprivation tend to make in-depth coding and bug fixing significantly more difficult. Since I know there are lots of software folks out there, I’m sure many of you are familiar with how difficult it is to debug something deep inside a complex piece of code that is not reliably reproducible. Now imagine trying to do that with a perpetual hangover and a splitting headache. Now imagine needing to solve a handful of these issues. Given the circumstances, I projected it would take me a massive amount of time to figure out the issues, and I wasn’t even sure that I could really trust any “fixes” that I might come up with.
So I made the decision to focus my efforts on less intensive tasks that would help us get Hero Lab Online out of the door. Based on what I was hearing from the doctors, I figured I’d be more clear-headed and able to tackle those complex issues in the near future. And since we were again being told that the remaining pieces we needed of the Paizo API would be ready “any time”, it seemed like a prudent choice at the time. Well, the months wore on, my mental clarity didn’t improve, completion of the API continued to be delayed, and there was no shortage of less intensive tasks that I could focus on. So I continued to work on those tasks, not really grasping how much time was actually passing.
Every month or so, the question would again arise of “what do we do about the KS?” The doctors would still be saying my clarity would improve shortly. And getting the missing API pieces was similarly going to happen shortly. So the delays continued. At the time, it was occurring in small increments, it didn’t feel like a long period of time, and the choice always seemed like the right one. Looking back now, things got pushed back so many times that it’s pretty ridiculous, and for that I must apologize.
Thankfully, this brings us to this past June. At the start of June, I finally got the green light to begin the 4-5 month process of getting off the nasty meds I’ve been on. Huzzah! I’m now past the half-way point and feeling significantly more clear-headed. In fact, I’ve already resolved one of the major issues down in the guts of RW, and I’ll be continuing with the others next week. Additionally, at the end of June, we were finally given what will hopefully be the critical remaining pieces of the Paizo API. That means we’ll theoretically be able to get the Content Market completed, although some last-minute changes to the API will necessitate a couple weeks of rework on our end. Our current target for the Content Market launch is the end of September, and content delivery to KS backers should occur prior to that launch. So the marathon wait for everyone is finally going to be over.
Please note that the set of content we’ll be delivering to KS backers won’t exactly match the items we originally promised. We’ve made some adjustments, added new content, and I think that everyone will enjoy what we’ll be providing to backers. At the time of this posting, BJ has already put together an outline of what we’ll be delivering, including some explanatory notes about the adjustments. Please look for that mid next week – on the KS page, no less.
Looking back, I’m honestly not sure if there was a better strategy we could have pursued with regards to getting something delivered, as the alternatives were just as flawed – simply in different ways. We were dealt a crappy hand and had to play it. That said, the companion strategy of staying largely quiet about things was clearly a poor choice in hindsight. I didn’t want to make my illness a fully public issue, even though it had a profound impact on everything we were doing with RW. At this point, it’s become a public thing anyways, so the effort was for naught. The one thing for which there is no debate is that we completely screwed up by not posting anything to the KS for well over two years. That ultimately falls to me, so my apologies to everyone for the way that played out.
I hope the above sheds a little light on things. It doesn’t excuse anything, but it hopefully provides some useful insight into the past two years. Please look for an update to KS backers next week with details on what to expect over the upcoming weeks.
Shortly after the Kickstarter, we hired someone whose responsibilities included communications with KS backers. That person left around April 2016, not long after the last KS post. Until a replacement could be hired, those duties were supposed to be assumed by another person, who is no longer with the company. BJ was hired that August, which was around the time I started getting sick on a regular basis and ultimately crashed. It turns out that BJ was unequivocally told by the interim person to not make any posts on the KS, and she acquiesced because she was brand new and was told by a very senior staffer.
At this point, I need to interject a brief note about my illness to fully explain the next two years. After being hospitalized, I was put on some very nasty meds that caused extreme brain fog and made it almost impossible for me to sleep for more than 2-3 hours each night – which ultimately made my brain even more foggy from sleep deprivation. My wife equates it to “baby brain”. Thankfully, I’m finally starting to taper off those meds and get a little clarity once again. If you really want some additional details, please see my post here: http://forums.wolflair.com/showpost.php?p=269351&postcount=18.
Once I became ill, I remained oblivious to this issue for a while. I just assumed – quite wrongly – that any basic RW information we shared in newsletters was being re-posted to the KS. When I was finally made aware of the problem, the KS page had languished without an update for a very long time. At that point, we were expecting the missing pieces we needed from the Paizo API to be available “any time” so that we could finish things up and launch the Content Market. We really wanted to post concrete, good news when we came back to the KS, so the decision was made to wait until we could do that. Unfortunately, the API we needed for the Content Market kept getting delayed, and the KS continued to languish along with it. It reached a point where we’d waited so long that posting anything to the KS that wasn’t concrete delivery details was probably worse than just keeping quiet, so that’s what we did for a while longer. In hindsight, our handling of this was misguided, and for that I can only apologize.
Late last year, there were many things that I had been mostly neglecting due to being sick, and the things I actually was dealing with were consuming my limited energy and mental faculties. So BJ was promoted in order to take over some of those things, which would allow me to focus what energy I had on development so that further headway could be made on that side. Thanks to this change, we were able to get started on a multi-phase plan for RW and deliver a few content items to KS backers around Christmas. However, we also uncovered some technical issues within the guts of RW that made it impossible to deliver some of the additional items until those problems were fixed. Unfortunately, those items were not reliably reproducible and buried deep inside the bowels of code that I had written – and I was the only one even remotely familiar with that code.
The obvious solution was to fix those bugs and get things out. The problem was that a foggy brain and sleep deprivation tend to make in-depth coding and bug fixing significantly more difficult. Since I know there are lots of software folks out there, I’m sure many of you are familiar with how difficult it is to debug something deep inside a complex piece of code that is not reliably reproducible. Now imagine trying to do that with a perpetual hangover and a splitting headache. Now imagine needing to solve a handful of these issues. Given the circumstances, I projected it would take me a massive amount of time to figure out the issues, and I wasn’t even sure that I could really trust any “fixes” that I might come up with.
So I made the decision to focus my efforts on less intensive tasks that would help us get Hero Lab Online out of the door. Based on what I was hearing from the doctors, I figured I’d be more clear-headed and able to tackle those complex issues in the near future. And since we were again being told that the remaining pieces we needed of the Paizo API would be ready “any time”, it seemed like a prudent choice at the time. Well, the months wore on, my mental clarity didn’t improve, completion of the API continued to be delayed, and there was no shortage of less intensive tasks that I could focus on. So I continued to work on those tasks, not really grasping how much time was actually passing.
Every month or so, the question would again arise of “what do we do about the KS?” The doctors would still be saying my clarity would improve shortly. And getting the missing API pieces was similarly going to happen shortly. So the delays continued. At the time, it was occurring in small increments, it didn’t feel like a long period of time, and the choice always seemed like the right one. Looking back now, things got pushed back so many times that it’s pretty ridiculous, and for that I must apologize.
Thankfully, this brings us to this past June. At the start of June, I finally got the green light to begin the 4-5 month process of getting off the nasty meds I’ve been on. Huzzah! I’m now past the half-way point and feeling significantly more clear-headed. In fact, I’ve already resolved one of the major issues down in the guts of RW, and I’ll be continuing with the others next week. Additionally, at the end of June, we were finally given what will hopefully be the critical remaining pieces of the Paizo API. That means we’ll theoretically be able to get the Content Market completed, although some last-minute changes to the API will necessitate a couple weeks of rework on our end. Our current target for the Content Market launch is the end of September, and content delivery to KS backers should occur prior to that launch. So the marathon wait for everyone is finally going to be over.
Please note that the set of content we’ll be delivering to KS backers won’t exactly match the items we originally promised. We’ve made some adjustments, added new content, and I think that everyone will enjoy what we’ll be providing to backers. At the time of this posting, BJ has already put together an outline of what we’ll be delivering, including some explanatory notes about the adjustments. Please look for that mid next week – on the KS page, no less.
Looking back, I’m honestly not sure if there was a better strategy we could have pursued with regards to getting something delivered, as the alternatives were just as flawed – simply in different ways. We were dealt a crappy hand and had to play it. That said, the companion strategy of staying largely quiet about things was clearly a poor choice in hindsight. I didn’t want to make my illness a fully public issue, even though it had a profound impact on everything we were doing with RW. At this point, it’s become a public thing anyways, so the effort was for naught. The one thing for which there is no debate is that we completely screwed up by not posting anything to the KS for well over two years. That ultimately falls to me, so my apologies to everyone for the way that played out.
I hope the above sheds a little light on things. It doesn’t excuse anything, but it hopefully provides some useful insight into the past two years. Please look for an update to KS backers next week with details on what to expect over the upcoming weeks.
Quick follow-up notes:
1. I haven't taken a break in quite a while and everyone is telling me that I'm going to regress in my recovery if I don't take a brief respite. So I'm going to be doing that this weekend. We also have important stuff I'm responsible for delivering next week. So my replies here will be limited and not likely to be quick.
2. I'll ask BJ about getting this cross-posted in some manner, but it's now late Friday (even later for her), so that probably won't happen until next week.
Thanks for your patience!
1. I haven't taken a break in quite a while and everyone is telling me that I'm going to regress in my recovery if I don't take a brief respite. So I'm going to be doing that this weekend. We also have important stuff I'm responsible for delivering next week. So my replies here will be limited and not likely to be quick.
2. I'll ask BJ about getting this cross-posted in some manner, but it's now late Friday (even later for her), so that probably won't happen until next week.
Thanks for your patience!
RE: medical privacy and vacations after long illnesses
I was on dialysis for 8 years and have now been post op from the kidney transplant for 2 months. I was often unable to properly manage my projects throughout that period due to the time dialysis takes, the fatigue and general malaise caused by being in kidney failure and the repeated hospitalizations. I did my best to not tell clients of these health issues, as I continue to not tell clients of my post operative status. Has that been a mistake? I don't think so. I also don't think it is a mistake for you to keep your health issues private from your customers. I thought long and hard before posting about them here and the only reason I did was to ask for people to sign up to be organ donors after I had gotten my organ.
I haven't had a vacation, besides trips to GenCon, since I got sick. As soon as I'm cleared to travel I'm headed somewhere with a beach. No phone. No email. No way for work to bug me for a solid week. If you need a break take it. Don't risk your recovery over worrying about this stuff. We've been grumpy, and we'll likely still be grumpy when you get back, but we're honestly not mad at any of you guys personally. We're just tired of the long wait as I'm sure you are. None of us want you to damage your health over this.
I was on dialysis for 8 years and have now been post op from the kidney transplant for 2 months. I was often unable to properly manage my projects throughout that period due to the time dialysis takes, the fatigue and general malaise caused by being in kidney failure and the repeated hospitalizations. I did my best to not tell clients of these health issues, as I continue to not tell clients of my post operative status. Has that been a mistake? I don't think so. I also don't think it is a mistake for you to keep your health issues private from your customers. I thought long and hard before posting about them here and the only reason I did was to ask for people to sign up to be organ donors after I had gotten my organ.
I haven't had a vacation, besides trips to GenCon, since I got sick. As soon as I'm cleared to travel I'm headed somewhere with a beach. No phone. No email. No way for work to bug me for a solid week. If you need a break take it. Don't risk your recovery over worrying about this stuff. We've been grumpy, and we'll likely still be grumpy when you get back, but we're honestly not mad at any of you guys personally. We're just tired of the long wait as I'm sure you are. None of us want you to damage your health over this.
ShadowChemosh
Well-known member
It's good to hear that you are getting back to normal health-wise, Rob. Don't let yourself relapse, as others have said here. I've seen too many self-employed people in the game industry crash and burn over the years and I would prefer to not have you added to that list.