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"

 

[billd91]

I'm with Jester Canuck on this one. The inflated price of these tickets is a prestige buy. You're paying for privilege, not compensation. It's one reason I've never bought into them.

 

[Shasarak]

I unfortunately dont agree with Jester Canuck. If WotC wants to focus on gaming at Gencon then they need to make sure that they focus on gaming at Gencon.

Running around after the fact to fix the problems that they had at Gencon is not going above and beyond, it is just customer service damage control. Just like how replacing customers books that have fallen apart is not going above and beyond.

So if Baldman Games is promising things that they can not supply that makes WotC look bad then obviously that needs to be addressed by WotC.

 

[Majoru Oakheart]

So if Baldman Games is promising things that they can not supply that makes WotC look bad then obviously that needs to be addressed by WotC.

Except that Baldman delivered exactly what they had promised. They said that they'd give the same DM for the whole weekend as well as 6 person tables and a dedicated area for the All-Access Pass people. They delivered that. They made vague statements about trying to find some interesting surprises, if possible.

When the people got there, they were surprised with certificates that grant special bonuses in Adventurer's League that can be gotten nowhere other than being an All-Access Pass member at Gencon 2015.

Some people complained afterwards that they expected the surprise to be MUCH bigger for the extra money they had paid. At first Baldman apologized that they didn't have anything else to give out and they never guaranteed anything other than what was delivered.

Now, because of the number of people that were dissatisfied, Baldman has offered everyone who had an All-Access Pass a free advanced copy of a book and a free copy of a video game to make up for the lackluster "surprise". Along with a promise that there will be no more "surprises" in future years so that people can better judge the value of the All-Access Pass BEFORE making the decision to purchase it.

The issue was the lack of a surprise that wasn't really promised in the first place. Baldman made up for it with a significant value of "surprises" when they realized people were dissatisfied.

I'm not sure, at this point, what they've promised that they've failed to provide.

 

[EternalDungeonMaster]

I do have to agree with the people indicated that straight-up refunds would be too much for BMG to bear. If all 276 people received refunds (264 refunds at $150 each, and 12 refunds at $140 each), that's north of $40 grand. I do, however, remain adamant in my opinion that BMG has not been showing adequate signs of improvement over the years they've been running these organized play events. It is incumbent on Wizards of the Coast to demand accountability and change from BMG, or to replace them altogether.

If this were any other type of industry, they would be gone already because people would simply take their time and money elsewhere and the laws of supply and demand would kill off BMG. But we RPG fans are a stubborn, tenacious, and demanding lot. We tend to entrench ourselves deeply in our hobby. That has the positive effect of making us one of the best types of hobbyist in the world, but it has the negative effect of allowing a group like BMG to linger in mediocrity way past its time.

And I certainly don't want to attempt to paint the experiences with BMG events as all bad. There are some incredible volunteers who run some excellent games. Some of the best DMs I've played under have run BMG events. It's just a shame that those stellar storytellers have to spend so much time apologizing for the organization as a whole.

 

[Tyranthraxus]

To be honest, lets just take the Mystery out of things. You order a hamburger, you get a hamburger. You want your law mowed, you pay someone to mow your lawn.

Attending a roleplaying convention should NEVER come down to the 'mystery' of the level of access you paid for .You should know up front that You get A and B. David essentially stated that in his email as well. Someone above stated they went on the 'HOPE' they might get something. Im sure a lot of other people rushed online at whatever time it was and did the same thing.

THe problem is in this case mystery drove the made rush to log in and get passes and tickets etc, and the same mystery came around later on to bite them in the but.

Lets save the Mystery for the actual scenarios and games we play .

 

[tomBitonti]

Eh, the percentages don't matter, and the cost of refunds doesn't matter.

Folks paid for something that wasn't delivered.

If the company doesn't deliver, they've committed a serious wrong. (By not delivering, they are not entitled to the funds which they were given. They are obligated to make good on their promise, or issue a refund.)

And if they don't see that they need to deliver, they really aren't a company that you should do business with.

From what is written above, the offer of the products partially satisfies the delivery promise.

Also, from what is written above, the promise wasn't completely satisfied because the game experience was not of a quality to justify the added expense.

I'm not trying to be overly critical of Baldman: I have no idea, really, what challenges they faced, and they might have been dealing with very considerable ones.

But from a promises/obligations point of view, unless the challenge was truly exceptional (say, there was a fire in their warehouse), none of that matters.

Thx!

TomB

 

[mlund]

Folks paid for something that wasn't delivered.

And that's the lie at the heart of the matter.

Folks paid for exactly what was delivered. The seller simply charged too much.

- Marty Lund

 

[Mistwell]

Except that Baldman delivered exactly what they had promised. They said that they'd give the same DM for the whole weekend as well as 6 person tables and a dedicated area for the All-Access Pass people. They delivered that. They made vague statements about trying to find some interesting surprises, if possible.

When the people got there, they were surprised with certificates that grant special bonuses in Adventurer's League that can be gotten nowhere other than being an All-Access Pass member at Gencon 2015.

Some people complained afterwards that they expected the surprise to be MUCH bigger for the extra money they had paid. At first Baldman apologized that they didn't have anything else to give out and they never guaranteed anything other than what was delivered.

Now, because of the number of people that were dissatisfied, Baldman has offered everyone who had an All-Access Pass a free advanced copy of a book and a free copy of a video game to make up for the lackluster "surprise". Along with a promise that there will be no more "surprises" in future years so that people can better judge the value of the All-Access Pass BEFORE making the decision to purchase it.

The issue was the lack of a surprise that wasn't really promised in the first place. Baldman made up for it with a significant value of "surprises" when they realized people were dissatisfied.

I'm not sure, at this point, what they've promised that they've failed to provide.

Eh, the percentages don't matter, and the cost of refunds doesn't matter.

Folks paid for something that wasn't delivered.

If the company doesn't deliver, they've committed a serious wrong. (By not delivering, they are not entitled to the funds which they were given. They are obligated to make good on their promise, or issue a refund.)

And if they don't see that they need to deliver, they really aren't a company that you should do business with.

From what is written above, the offer of the products partially satisfies the delivery promise.

Also, from what is written above, the promise wasn't completely satisfied because the game experience was not of a quality to justify the added expense.

I'm not trying to be overly critical of Baldman: I have no idea, really, what challenges they faced, and they might have been dealing with very considerable ones.

But from a promises/obligations point of view, unless the challenge was truly exceptional (say, there was a fire in their warehouse), none of that matters.

Thx!

TomB

I'd be interested to see your response to what Majoru Oakheart had to say. What is it you feel at this point was not delivered that was promised?

 

[Morrus]

Eh, the percentages don't matter, and the cost of refunds doesn't matter.

Folks paid for something that wasn't delivered.

If the company doesn't deliver, they've committed a serious wrong. (By not delivering, they are not entitled to the funds which they were given. They are obligated to make good on their promise, or issue a refund.)

And if they don't see that they need to deliver, they really aren't a company that you should do business with.

From what is written above, the offer of the products partially satisfies the delivery promise.

Also, from what is written above, the promise wasn't completely satisfied because the game experience was not of a quality to justify the added expense.

I'm not trying to be overly critical of Baldman: I have no idea, really, what challenges they faced, and they might have been dealing with very considerable ones.

But from a promises/obligations point of view, unless the challenge was truly exceptional (say, there was a fire in their warehouse), none of that matters.

Thx!

TomB

That's a long and opinionated response - but I suspect it's not based on any familiarity with the situation.

What, exactly, is the promise you say has not been met?

 

[tomBitonti]

I'm working from what was written. Folks complained that the higher price did not provide the expected higher quality experience. Folks also complained about the lack of extra objects, but, as I stated, that was remedied. But that's only a partial remedy.

Whether the experience met the higher quality expectations is debatable. I can't evaluate that other than by what folks have written. However, there does seem to be some basis for that statement.

If it's true, my comments follow.

I find odd that the conclusion is thought overly strong or opinionated. I accept that a premise may be incorrect, and I'm very interested to understand more details of the experience, or to hear any statements to correct what was stated about the experience.

If you order 10 widgets at $10 each, pay $100, but only receive 5 widgets, aren't you due 5 widgets or $50 back?

Thx!

TomB