Ptolus at Amazon?

[Crothian]

Monte is not to blame here. It is his choice what distrubitors to use. Amazon has been told of the situation and it is their responisibility to warn their customers and take down the pre order price if they won't honor it.

 

[Varianor Abroad]

As usual, when Malhavoc does anything, several people on a message board instantly complain about it. I pre-ordered it straight from White Wolf, and darned if I didn't get a free pile of pdfs of the text instead of having to pay separate! Had I found the FLGS I just found the other day, I would have ordered from them instead because the owner's so cool.

 

[Harker Wade]

Same boat

I have no local gaming store (by which I mean within 30 minutes - have you seen the gas prices!). I buy all of my books and most of my rpg books at Barnes & Noble because I work there part-time and I get a good discount, which is why I work there! I also buy a lot of pdfs because I like reading other people's ideas, so I buy from RPG.now, this site and Drivethru. I would be hard pressed to come up with $120 at one time and that's why I was thrilled (& used) the installment plan offered by Malhavoc thru White Wolf. And the ton of freebies from The Delver's Guild, the 5 print copies of the Player's Guide and the first couple of pdf sections for free have more then made it worth it!

 

[Dark Psion]

"If I do buy this book, it will be because I did get my hands on an Amazon gift card and if I never get it, it will not be Amazon.com I blame."

I don't get this statement. Monte actually went so far as to tell Amazon he would not be using them and they still choose to keep it up. In a sense they are using false advertising, but you choose to blame the guy that is TELLING you it will probably not be available at Amazon? Makes no sense to me, I thought it was pretty nice of Malhavoc to let people know about this. I also think it is great that they are choosing to support the FLGS's of the world. I always pay a little more for my RPG books when I go to the store, but that is because I like having a store to go to. It's nice to have a place to meet and talk with like minded individuals. And you don't have to by the book from WW, you can get the .PDF's from Drivethrurpg.com as well. Of course, I am an unabashed Malhavoc fan and preordered Ptolus so I may be biased....

I am also a unabashed Malhavok fan, but I do not understand his strategy with this book.

One, he has put so much into this one book that there has been virtually nothing else from Malhavok this year.

Two, if he had done this in normal RPG fashion, this one book would have been released as 3 or 4 smaller books over several months. I and everyone else would have spent the $120 over a couple months and not thought twice about it.

Three, by making one huge book at an equally huge price, it is almost a Marie Antoinette moment, "Let them play checkers" Like those poor people are not allowed to play in his world. I'm sorry if this upsets people, but that is the impression I am getting here. An opportunity to purchase this book opens and he slams it shut in our face.

Four, once again he and others forget for many of us, Amazon.com is our local gaming store. Sorry I do not have anywhere else to go. The book stores that stock RPGs only stock WoTC and the few actual gaming stores around here are not friendly or cheep. If they even stocked this book, it would proibably be more than $120.

Five, as to Monte telling Amazon.com they can't sell his book, considering their resources, they can most likely get it and sell it. And when it is a $30 book, that free swag at RPG Shop can convince me to buy there, but when it is a $120 book, the free swag is not enought, unless it is in gold pieces. The shipping alone on this book will probably be more than a normal book costs!

 

[Barak]

As usual, when Malhavoc does anything, several people on a message board instantly complain about it. I pre-ordered it straight from White Wolf, and darned if I didn't get a free pile of pdfs of the text instead of having to pay separate! Had I found the FLGS I just found the other day, I would have ordered from them instead because the owner's so cool.

Hey, I'm actually a pretty big Malhavoc fan myself. I run an Iron Heroes game, I have Arcana Unearthed.. (all ordered through Amazon, btw). I'm just a bit.. Puzzled by the decision of going out of your way to make sure Amazon cannot get the book.

Well, puzzled is the wrong word here, since he stated his reasons. They're fine by me, I guess, as far as it goes. But it leaves me having to order Ptolus through WW if I want it, paying full price without getting any of the advantage of buying at a LGS. Sure, there's the free PDFs, but I don't use PDFs for gaming, so that's not a big incentive for me (and why I wouldn't order it as PDFs from DriveThruRPG..)

Now to be honest, I wasn't planning on buying Ptolus anyway, since I wouldn't use it in the near future, as I already have too many games going on anyway. But if I -had- been, the decision to make it unavailable through Amazon would have saddened me.

Now sure, having it as "available" on the Amazon site when it (apparently) won't be, or at least not at the listed price -is- Amazon's fault, and I don't and wouldn't blame Malhavoc for that. But it -is- admitedly's Malhavoc's "fault" that it won't be. And it makes me wonder if Amazon will again be offering Malhavoc's products in the future. It would be a shame if they didn't.

 

[Glyfair]

Four, once again he and others forget for many of us, Amazon.com is our local gaming store. Sorry I do not have anywhere else to go. The book stores that stock RPGs only stock WoTC and the few actual gaming stores around here are not friendly or cheep. If they even stocked this book, it would proibably be more than $120.

There are plenty of game stores that sell online that you can order from. Sure, you won't get it at a below cost discount, as Amazon has been known to do.

Two, if he had done this in normal RPG fashion, this one book would have been released as 3 or 4 smaller books over several months. I and everyone else would have spent the $120 over a couple months and not thought twice about it.

This is a good point. Ptolus sounds very cool. I would love to own a copy because I'm sure I will mine it for ideas. However, I can't bring myself to spend $120 on something that I know I won't be using any time soon.

My FLGS owner offered to let me to buy it over time. My brother & I discussed taking him up on the offer and that's the conclusion we drew. We won't be using it soon, and maybe never (given how hard it is to find a regular gaming group now). Spending that much on a single book is just not going to happen.

If it did get released over time then I might have decided to pick up the first release and continued to get the products. Maybe a core release comparable to current settings and then bits and pieces over time.

However, this has become the Porsche of gaming. Yes, it's very high quality. However, don''t consider it unless you have a lot of extra cash to spend.

That's fine that he wants to hit that niche. However, I'm thinking experimentation is going to be needed at the other end of the spectrum now.

 

[6pakofdwarves]

Two, if he had done this in normal RPG fashion, this one book would have been released as 3 or 4 smaller books over several months. I and everyone else would have spent the $120 over a couple months and not thought twice about it.

Ok, but this statement doesn't make sense either. He IS releasing it in parts, as .pdfs. Their are 3 released already, and one of them is even free. And you COULD have paid for it over time, a whole years worth of time with the preorder.

Three, by making one huge book at an equally huge price, it is almost a Marie Antoinette moment, "Let them play checkers" Like those poor people are not allowed to play in his world. I'm sorry if this upsets people, but that is the impression I am getting here. An opportunity to purchase this book opens and he slams it shut in our face.

I am glad it is one big book, for me that is part of the allure. I want a very high quality book, and that costs money. And let's be honest here, RPG's are not cheap anyway. And he has offered several solutions to the high price. The .pdf's and the preorder serve to take some of the pain out of the cost.

 

[Angel Tarragon]

I canceled my Ptolus preodrer with Amazon last night after reading about the situation at Okay -- Your Turn. I seriously want Ptolus as I am a big Monte Cook fan, and my parents are helping me out. I'll be getting in my preorder in with White Wolf on Tuesday.

 

[Angel Tarragon]

I sometimes wonder if this is the book that will break Malhavok?

Well, A Game Of Thrones DLE didn't (2,500 print run), so it is a good guess that Ptolus will not either.

 

[Treebore]

Irregardless of the decisions and the reasons behind them I will definitely never be an owner of Ptolus. The Amazon thing clenched it. One thing I have learned in business, making your sales channels happy is a good practice, but getting your product to your customers is priority number one. The customer ultimately keeps you in business, not your distribution channels, because if all else fails you can be your own distributor. Monte has White Wolf to back him up. I see his reasoning, I admire his desire to help the smaller stores and distribution channels through his loyalty. But he failed to get his product to this customer.