Baldman Games & WotC On All Access Issues At Gen Con

There were a lot of complaints about the D&D All Access gaming at Gen Con this year. Charles Akins over at Dyvers Campaign has a great summary, so I won't repeat it here - but if you're interested, check that out. WotC and Baldman Games (who run the D&D events at Gen Con) appear to have heard those complaints, because they are taking action to address them - to the extent that they're giving All Access badge holders a free copy of the upcoming hardcover Out of the Abyss, and a free copy of Sword Coast Legends video game!

You need to fill out a form to get your goodies.

"I first want to thank everyone for the excellent feedback so far. We are gathering comments and discussing ways to improve all Baldman Games’ offerings going forward. We will have further posts this Fall asking for more specific feedback.

Baldman Games and Wizards of the Coast realize that we did not meet your expectations with our All-Access Program at Gen Con this year. The way production schedules lined up, it was difficult for us to provide the new products that had been offered in previous years. But have no fear! We want to make things right. We value your support of D&D and our programs at Gen Con and other shows. To that end, we have some stuff to offer to everyone who played in the All-Access program at Gen Con 2015.

Here’s what you’ll get:

One hard copy of Out of the Abyss, the TRPG adventure in the Rage of Demons story, before it hits store shelves, mailed directly to you
One code for a digital copy of Sword Coast Legends, the party-based RPG coming out on PC, Mac and Linux, on September 29th, sent to the email you provide.

If you are an All-Access player from Gen Con, please make sure to fill in the form below completely. The information provided will only be used to ship the book to you, send the code, and/or contact you if we have a problem doing so. It will be destroyed once shipping is completed.

Once again, we apologize for not meeting the expectations of the program this year, and we will work hard in the coming months to build a bigger, stronger, and more transparent program in 2016 and beyond.

David Christ
Baldman Games"

 

[Coredump]

Dave Christ (Baldman) is one of the best guys in the industry.

Which is good to know. But it doesn't mean he is any good at organizing and running events. Nor does it mean he is any good at "hiring" people that are good at organizing and running events.

 

[Matt James]

Which is good to know. But it doesn't mean he is any good at organizing and running events. Nor does it mean he is any good at "hiring" people that are good at organizing and running events.

Have you contacted them regarding your purchase? Or about your experience at Gen Con?

 

[obatron]

The link in the OP has been identified as having malware and/or virus by Bitdefender and a couple of other A/V solutions when I go to it. Not sure it's not a false positive, but figured I'd point it out in case the site got compromised or something and someone went to it without A/V protection...

 

[Mark CMG]

Basically, these people paid $150 and got the same thing as the people who paid $40 (who didn't sound real impressed).

Show was over, it's a small percentage of fans.

(. . .)

It was Baldman Games that provided the poor service and didn't provide rewards equal to the value of the tickets. They run WotC's organized play games at major conventions, and I believe they've been doing so for a decade.

So, why not give the "small percentage of fans" the $110 dollars back? The organizers have clearly made it known that they are aware of the problem and are seeking to compensate those who were overcharged. If I was a customer who was in this situation, I'd expect no less than the $110 refund. If they wanted to do more than that, they might also avoid potentially losing my future commerce.

 

[Corpsetaker]

It's actually been turned into a PR maneuver.

 

[Majoru Oakheart]

So, why not give the "small percentage of fans" the $110 dollars back? The organizers have clearly made it known that they are aware of the problem and are seeking to compensate those who were overcharged. If I was a customer who was in this situation, I'd expect no less than the $110 refund. If they wanted to do more than that, they might also avoid potentially losing my future commerce.

Not that I entirely disagree with you, but the real problem is that for the last couple of years the All-Access Pass was a big mystery prize. Baldman have said "You'll get your own DM for the whole weekend who is personally chosen by Dave Christ for their DMing skill, you'll get an area dedicated to the All-Access Players that is separate from the rest of the games and you may get a cool gift of some sort depending on what is available and given to us by WOTC. We want to keep what you get as a surprise so you'll only find out on site."

Dave admits in his recently post that attempting to surprise people was likely the major problem. People have been telling him this for 2 years. I signed up for All-Access last year and I was nervous about my decision for months. I paid $150 dollars and I had no idea what I was getting out of it. Sure, the DM and gaming space is nice, but I would probably only pay $10 more dollars for those benefits. That still meant I was over paying by $100.00 and HOPING that it was worth it. Even last year people were asking a month before GenCon if they could please be told what the surprise was so we could put our fears to rest and we were told by Dave that it would ruin the surprise and he wasn't 100% sure the prizes would show up properly at GenCon and he didn't want to disappoint anyone by getting their hopes up.

It was kind of a harrowing experience since I convinced my girlfriend as well as 2 people I was travelling with to sign up with me for All-Access and near the end they were getting a little concerned that I'd steered them wrong. Luckily, when we got early copies of the MM, everyone was happy with our choice.

But I understand where the people this year are coming from. However, I still think that signing up for the All-Access Pass is kind of a lottery to begin with. You understand when you sign up for it that you are throwing your money in and HOPING for the best since there's no real responsibility for Baldman to provide you with a prize of any kind since the description only promises that there MIGHT be.

Now that Baldman has responded by giving out prizes that are legitimately worth about $100, I don't believe that asking for your money back is a realistic thing to do any longer. Take the prizes, even if you don't want them and realize that you lost the "lottery".

And hopefully Baldman Games learns from this(which, by their post, they have) and next year no longer relies on a "lottery" to get people to sign up for the All-Access Pass.

 

[Corpsetaker]

Not that I entirely disagree with you, but the real problem is that for the last couple of years the All-Access Pass was a big mystery prize. Baldman have said "You'll get your own DM for the whole weekend who is personally chosen by Dave Christ for their DMing skill, you'll get an area dedicated to the All-Access Players that is separate from the rest of the games and you may get a cool gift of some sort depending on what is available and given to us by WOTC. We want to keep what you get as a surprise so you'll only find out on site."

Dave admits in his recently post that attempting to surprise people was likely the major problem. People have been telling him this for 2 years. I signed up for All-Access last year and I was nervous about my decision for months. I paid $150 dollars and I had no idea what I was getting out of it. Sure, the DM and gaming space is nice, but I would probably only pay $10 more dollars for those benefits. That still meant I was over paying by $100.00 and HOPING that it was worth it. Even last year people were asking a month before GenCon if they could please be told what the surprise was so we could put our fears to rest and we were told by Dave that it would ruin the surprise and he wasn't 100% sure the prizes would show up properly at GenCon and he didn't want to disappoint anyone by getting their hopes up.

It was kind of a harrowing experience since I convinced my girlfriend as well as 2 people I was travelling with to sign up with me for All-Access and near the end they were getting a little concerned that I'd steered them wrong. Luckily, when we got early copies of the MM, everyone was happy with our choice.

But I understand where the people this year are coming from. However, I still think that signing up for the All-Access Pass is kind of a lottery to begin with. You understand when you sign up for it that you are throwing your money in and HOPING for the best since there's no real responsibility for Baldman to provide you with a prize of any kind since the description only promises that there MIGHT be.

Now that Baldman has responded by giving out prizes that are legitimately worth about $100, I don't believe that asking for your money back is a realistic thing to do any longer. Take the prizes, even if you don't want them and realize that you lost the "lottery".

And hopefully Baldman Games learns from this(which, by their post, they have) and next year no longer relies on a "lottery" to get people to sign up for the All-Access Pass.

So basically you got sold a copy of a 40 euro book for 100.

 

[Mark CMG]

Take the prizes, even if you don't want them and realize that you lost the "lottery".

Naw. If I got no more than what the $40 people got, I'd want the $110 back. They'd be lucky if I didn't want the full $150 refunded. Giving a company money isn't a lottery. If they offer something for that money, even if some of it is just the promise of something of that value by the time of the event, then that is what I would expect or I would expect the refund. Handling it quickly with an apology and with a smile might even get me back the next year.

 

[Majoru Oakheart]

So basically you got sold a copy of a 40 euro book for 100.

Of course the exact price will depend on your location. But using US Amazon and Steam prices they are giving away a $32.70 book(sent to you before it is out in stores) and a $40.00 video game.

Last year using Amazon prices they gave away 2 $28.00 books. One was out a couple of months early and was signed by the devs though.

The All-Access Pass, as I mention above has always been kind of a crap shoot. How much a dedicated "better" DM, smaller number of players at your table, and an area just for you matters to you is up to each person. Just like how much someone values each of the "prizes" they've given out is up to each person as well. I know some people still felt ripped off last year because they already owned a PHB and felt like they were paying $100 dollars for a $30 Monster Manual.

 

[Mark CMG]

How much a dedicated "better" DM, smaller number of players at your table, and an area just for you matters to you is up to each person.

Did folks who paid more receive this this year?