An Open Letter to Fantasy Flight and Cubicle 7 -- Cut the "Foreplay" and Give Us the Good Stuff

[innerdude]

. . . Just because I happen to have a job and other responsibilities doesn't mean I'm not creative or don't use my imagination. It means that there are more important things in my life then gaming. The time I do have to devote to gaming goes into the current campaign. I'm not going to waste time designing something for a game that we might never play (emphasis added). I realize that might be hard for people to believe but I have better things to do with my time then do the job I paid someone else to do. I can repave my driveway, but I pay someone else for that and I expect when he's done that I don't have to go in there and complete the job.

Bingo, exactly, dead on. THIS is the point.

I was very excited to explore the possibilities of Edge of the Empire--until I heard that there were no true Jedi in the first game, that there were going to be two more "expansions" / standalone products AFTER this one. Crothian's exactly right---why would I invest in a game when I have no idea if the "Jedi" portion of the game is going to be anything that I even like?

 

[JZavoda]

Bingo, exactly, dead on. THIS is the point.

I was very excited to explore the possibilities of Edge of the Empire--until I heard that there were no true Jedi in the first game, that there were going to be two more "expansions" / standalone products AFTER this one. Crothian's exactly right---why would I invest in a game when I have no idea if the "Jedi" portion of the game is going to be anything that I even like?

If you like the game mechanics then you just need to expand them to include Jedi. Normally you'd buy an RPG because you like the game mechanics and/or the setting, but Star Wars (and LotR) are heavily laden with source material and there really isn't anything a company is going to add to the basics of either setting.

What makes FFGs and Cubicle 7's game mechanics so difficult that a homecampaign version of Jedi or Men from Rohan or adventures in Gondor are so difficult to create?

 

[Scars Unseen]

Bingo, exactly, dead on. THIS is the point.

I was very excited to explore the possibilities of Edge of the Empire--until I heard that there were no true Jedi in the first game, that there were going to be two more "expansions" / standalone products AFTER this one. Crothian's exactly right---why would I invest in a game when I have no idea if the "Jedi" portion of the game is going to be anything that I even like?

Well you could just not buy EotE and wait. Then when Force and Destiny comes out, buy or don't buy the game on its own merits.

 

[TrippyHippy]

A couple of points to throw out that i maybe missed:
1) star wars revenues did not diminish after episode 1 - according to
http://www.forbes.com/2007/05/24/star-wars-revenues-tech-cx_ag_0524money.html
It made up to 15+ billion dollars as of 2007, and given box office revenues and toy revenues most of that has come in later years, not pre- 1999.\.

The report is not particularly well researched and fails to account for things like inflation or the opening up of global markets in later years - whilst mainly serving as something of an advert for Lucas films. There isn't much in it that actually contradicts the point that their stockmarkets fell significantly in the wake of The Phantom Menace's release - as it largely sidesteps the issue and drowns out the issue in terms of figures from a later period. It's a bit of propaganda in short.

 

[TrippyHippy]

What is it with people insulting people today? ....

... I can repave my driveway, but I pay someone else for that and I expect when he's done that I don't have to go in there and complete the job.

What you fail to get is that you are being insulting by repeatedly insinuating that FFE are being deceitful or incompetent in the way they are marketing and developing these games, and assuming that you speak for some type of majority. People react to this in kind.

 

[Derren]

I really miss the time when jedi were something obscure from a past age and while they do possessing several tricks they are not unstoppable supersoldiers.

Original Star Wars: Vader lets stormtroopers board the Leias ship and when everything is secured comes in and interrogates the prisoners.
"New/Expanded" Star Wars: Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon hack through pretty much a whole ship single handedly, other jedi face armies alone and if thats to bothersome some of them can force crush entire star destroyers.

 

[Crothian]

What you fail to get is that you are being insulting by repeatedly insinuating that FFE are being deceitful or incompetent in the way they are marketing and developing these games, and assuming that you speak for some type of majority. People react to this in kind.

Fast Froward Entertainment has nothing to do Edge of Empire, I'm not sure the company is still in existence. I never claimed to speak for the majority of gamers in fact I never have claimed to speak for anyone but myself. I am honored that you think I speak for so many gamers though. If Fantasy Flight Game, the company that does produce Edge of the Empire, thinks I am being insulting to them they are free to talk to me about it.

 

[TrippyHippy]

I never claimed to speak for the majority of gamers in fact I never have claimed to speak for anyone but myself. I am honored that you think I speak for so many gamers though. If Fantasy Flight Game, the company that does produce Edge of the Empire, thinks I am being insulting to them they are free to talk to me about it.

I doubt they'd want to waste their time on somebody who is an avowed non-customer and represents their game in such a negative, repetitive and loud way.

 

[Crothian]

I doubt they'd want to waste their time on somebody who is an avowed non-customer and represents their game in such a negative, repetitive and loud way.

I own over 100 Fantasy Flight Games books and number of there board games and miniatures. You continue to make up things about the people you are posting with. I am friends with some of their writers who have moved on to other companies. I think talking about games in a positive and negative way is the point of these message boards so I'm really at a loss on why you would think that everything posted here needs to be of one single view point. It's find to disagree with me, in fact I encourage people to disagree with me if that's how they feel. But you should try to be a little more polite and not make so many assumptions about people you don't know.

 

[dm4hire]

I disagree with the argument that there are still Jedi, only they are force sensitive, just like Luke was at the start of IV. There was a least one full blown Jedi in that episode! If they were worried players would munchkin or whatever then just put in a limited ability list that conforms to what was seen in IV. It wouldn’t have been that difficult and you wouldn’t be hearing this argument. Players should be able to play full Jedi to the equivalent IV at the least. As has been mentioned not all the Jedi were killed or hunted down before IV so that also leaves room for that possibility. It should be left up to the game group to decide if Jedi are in or out.