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God of Nukes, Fire, and Death
Writer
Posts: 8867
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19,270 views tells me that only 800 or so people stopped by here in the last, oh, 2 weeks.
Oh well. For anyone interested, there's a new official poll on the Fan Input boards. This one has a tight 1-week deadline, but it's a fun one and I'll even let people see the results when it's done.
Oh, and I'm thinking of letting the yellow 'Mechs talk again. But this time, any more misbehavin' (as determined by me truly) will result in the offending yellow getting his digital ass banned from the boards. Or fired from writing for me. I'm not sure which just yet.... How does that grab you?
EDIT: Oh, never mind. I decided the information was really not important enough to pursue. Thanks for your time, folks. Sorry for the inconvenience.
- Herb
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God of Nukes, Fire, and Death
Writer
Posts: 8867
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20,741 views as of now. Wow. Almost 1,500 since last post. Not too shabby.
And I released the "yellows" on you folks again. Try and be nice to them; they've been ordered to be nice to you.
And that's where you guys come in: If you see a Yellow Mech (writer) acting all unprofessional and offensive, report the sucker. If I catch wind of it and agree the guy's crossed the line, I will be getting involved. And they won't like my responses. Punishments can go as far as termination, but hey, don't feel bad if your complaint got a man fired from writing for me around Christmas time or nothing. They know the rules. They're adults. And if they're smart, they don't only work for me anyway.
That's not sarcasm, kids. I'm serious. I gag order the writers for a cornucopia of reasons, not the least of which is when they start snapping off insulting remarks at the fan base. I also tend to do it right after I've told them all something really juicy. But even while I may get snarky once in a while, there's a limit to how far I feel a representative of Catalyst or its creative staff should go. And thus, I tend to tell them to stay the hell out of certain discussion threads. Our customer service doesn't bind us to taking abuse, or make us accountable to your complaints when they are mere differences of opinion about story and rules. (Errata and Honest-to-Cat rules questions are another matter entirely.) To be frank, in my mind, the customer is NOT always right (yes, I worked in retail; how can you tell?), BUT the customer IS the customer, and that merits at least some respect.
So, with that in mind, I have instructed my writers to refrain from posting hostile responses. If they want to tell you how they REALLY feel when you've ripped them a new one, they're not to post at all. This doesn't apply to PMs, by the way; I can't police what I can't verify.
So, now that you may all feel you have been given a shotgun and license to kill off writers, bear in mind this deal is contingent on my judgment. And mine alone. I'm not going to punish a writer who's having innocent fun with you. I'm not going to fire a writer because he refused to answer your question or your insistence that he MUST tell you what he knows about a given rule or story arc. I'm not going to punish a writer for refusing to take any crap. I'm only going to punish the ones who I find have crossed the line between professional-friendly and unprofessional-insulting. These guys are human, and they can get just as bitter and disgruntled at the most miserable among you, so please allow them to kid around once in a freaking while; these forums are supposed to be a fun place, not a gray and dreary realm where there is no joy.
Oh, and to reiterate also: Official answers--if you want those from a writer, you may ONLY ask them in a designated thread or board. Right now, said "designated threads or boards" are the New and Returning Players thread (General Boards), and all four Fan Input Boards. Any "official" answers you get elsewhere, well, I'll say it right now: anyone who gives you an official answer there who's not me, Ben, or Randall, is a big fat liar.
In other news? I'm busy. I just belted out a couple PDF-exclusive products I hope you'll all see soon. (No, I won't say what they are.) And now we need to put final touches on correcting A Time of War for final release.
- Herb
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God of Nukes, Fire, and Death
Writer
Posts: 8867
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21,684 views as of this moment. Not bad for a little over 2 weeks. Of course, I may have to stop calling this the Weekly Status Report Thread and admit it's the "I'll Get To It Whenever The Hell I Feel Like It!" Status Report Thread.
What to discuss? What to discuss?
Well, final comments and corrections for A Time of War are in. We just posted the first of the Experimental Tech Readout series. Another PDF-exclusive job should be on its way out for BattleForce and Quick Strike players to enjoy.
That leaves me to deal with rewriting the AToW Quick-Start Rules, getting the next big TRO rolling forward, and trying to see if Era Report: 3052's engine will still turn over after sitting in the driveway all winter. And did I mention Historical: Klondike? I didn't? Oh, well. There's that, too, I guess.
Let's see, what else? Oh, I finally got the "Diplomat" achievement in WoW, as well as "Argent Crusader", and I still hate PvP games....
Oh! And I'm thinking of bringing back the monthly BattleChats over on BattleCorps. Anyone who follows my random musings on Twitter may have already seen that. But it comes with a few basic changes: First and foremost, unless I say differently beforehand, each BattleChat will consist of myself and Jason Schmetzer (he doesn't know this yet, but should be THRILLED to find out!), with Jason primarily playing the moderator role. Secondly, there may be two held in a month, to accommodate the varied schedules of our worldwide fanbase. Why these changes? Well, the reason it'll only be me is, frankly, gathering writers up on a monthly basis when many of them are international is a herculean task, schedule wise, and it does them little good to come online only to be asked absolutely nothing! Another reason is my recent turn to "if it won't be done any other way, I'm going to take it over and stomp on the throat of anyone who offers help after I already had to get involved". This is a variant of the "if you want something right, do it yourself" philosophy, but allows for the possibility that I can, in fact, screw up, and that many of the writers may, in fact, NOT screw up.
Yeah, I'll let you guys know if I decide to try this for real....
Anyway, that's enough yapping. I'm busy!
- Herb
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God of Nukes, Fire, and Death
Writer
Posts: 8867
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22,563 views as of today....
So, does 3 PM EST on Sundays work for most of you...?
- Herb
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Hero and Life Saver
Administrator
Posts: 6608
We're doomed.
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Only once football season is over.
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God of Nukes, Fire, and Death
Writer
Posts: 8867
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23,676 views, and football season is over....
And anyone waiting on the return of the BattleChat may need to wait a bit longer as it seems the BatleCorps site's chat software is woefully out of date and needs a complete replacement. Such is life, but remember what I was offering: You guys would have only been chatting with me in real time once a month. And half of my answers would likely have been Standard. This is what we get in a day and age where folks would rather curse you out for missing a promise date or failing to deliver on a project you are even more excited about than they are--only to have cold reality smack you in the face like its bitch.
In other news, having production meetings via Skype is a great way to kill 2 hours of time while feeling like you're actually accomplishing something. It also gave me the opportunity to say "kick him in the junk for me" a few more times than is my normal weekly quota.
In still more news: At this moment, there are 19 Experimental Tech Readouts on my "to do" list, with two completed, two assigned, and 15 more to assign. What's going INTO them is also already assigned (much to the chagrin of the writers, no doubt), and because I'm generous and gluttonous enough for this kind of abuse, here's the title rundown, in no particular order:
XTR: Mercenaries
XTR: Pirates
XTR: ComStar
XTR: Gunslingers
XTR: Phantoms
XTR: House Steiner
XTR: House Marik
XTR: House Liao
XTR: House Kurita
XTR: Periphery
XTR: Boondocks
XTR: Primitives (volume I)
XTR: Republic of the Sphere
XTR: Primitives (volume II)
XTR: Corporations
XTR: Primitives (volume III)
XTR: Gladiators
XTR: Clans
The actual details of what's inside each XTR is, of course, a state secret, but each will come with 13 units, including a minimum of 4 BattleMechs, 2 Vehicles, and 2 Aerospace units.
Also, for those who follow my ramblings on Twitter, yes, there is another Tech Readout underway. And no, it is NOT a reprint, Revised, or Upgrade TRO.
The next Jihad series book is also (finally) in assignment phase.
And the next Historical has been outlined.
And we are considering once-a-year "special edition" Turning Points. They may be slightly pricier than the norm, but totally worth it!
Also, I'd like to remind folks not to send me any product ideas without a solicitation first. Seriously, I've reached the point where I fire playtesters for this....
And that's the wrap up for the... er.... week.
- Herb
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God of Nukes, Fire, and Death
Writer
Posts: 8867
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25,158 views...That's about 1500 view since, well, almost a month ago. Wow.
I should update more often.
Hey, uh, did you know Historical: Operation KLONDIKE is out (well, the PDF version, that is)? Yeah, we tried to delay it another year or two, but the damned book wouldn't stay down. Sorry about that, guys.
- Herb
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