Thread by @TerriblyBland

i honestly have no idea what board game store shelves are gonna look like in november. this is going to be one of the darkest, emptiest holiday seasons of board game history, and literally no one has the power (or money) to prevent it

container shipping prices at this point have the possibility of *doubling* the manufactured cost of certain games right now, games that were paid for months ago. some people have paid tens of thousands of dollars on manufacturing, and their games are sitting stuck

it's just so phenomenally sad. none of us want to sit here and watch our creations collect dust or be held hostage. we want to put them into the hands of people we made them for

i know with my followers i'm primarily preachin' to the choir here, but i beg anyone with a doubt in their heart to think about this with genuine depth and compassion. just think about it

in 2018, you start making a game. maybe it's your first; maybe it's your 100th. regardless,

you work on it for a couple years. you (and/or maybe your partners) pay for a lot of the upfront costs, like art and marketing and development. you playtest it, again and again, and again. in 2020, with a lot of thought and concern, you put it up on kickstarter. it funds.

your heart skips a beat. even amidst a global pandemic, full of hope but just as much fear, you're able to make it *work*. the tragedy might have made things slower, harder, but you did it. you fuckin' got here. your game's gonna be REAL, and it's gonna be GREAT.

all the funds from kickstarter are gone immediately, of course. some of them go to kickstarter themselves; some go into the next wave of marketing. *most* of them go into the manufacturing bill, with some set aside for shipping. shipping is a multistep process, of course. you've

gotta ship packages to each backer, of course, but hey! they paid for that shipping, and that money is set aside or planned for. cool.

the other shipping debacle that has to be paid for is getting the product shipped from the manufacturing country to yours. for a long time, we

knew what that part of the process would cost. think, like, $3k to $5k per container, with some wiggle room. maybe you set that money aside from the kickstarter funds, but there's a good chance those are (as i mentioned) already gone. creating a board game is not cheap, even

beyond the simple price per unit.

so, your games are printed. you're currently a little in the red, but once those games are in your hands, every sale from retail and distro is gravy, or quickly gravy, baby! the print run itself will be a financial success, and being in board

games, you understand that print runs typically don't see their profit until *after* kickstarter fulfillment and *after* your retail sales start hitting the bank account. profit doesn't really happen until, like... weeks, if not months after an actual street date. we accept this.

so, what happens when you get a phone call that says, "your games are ready to ship to your country, but instead of $4k, we need you to send us $20k."

your heart sinks to the pit of your stomach. if you're a small publisher, that's...

impossible

depending on your print run size? that might be *all of your profit.* the words you just heard over the phone might translate into, "you could sell every copy at full MSRP, and you will still lose money on this game. it will have cost you thousands to create and SUCCESSFULLY sell

this thing you just put years of your life into."

and then you go on kickstarter, and with your heart breaking in two, you post an update. maybe if you're a big publisher, you explain it'll just be a delay but we're making it work anyways because we have the money (but god

at what cost? what project did you just have to put on hold because you just had to reroute a surprise $15k of funds to something you thought was fine?) maybe you're a small publisher, and you explain that you... you have to wait, and you don't know how long. no one knows

and then the review bombs start pouring in, slamming your game with 1's for delayed shipping by people who told you a week ago they were excited. death threats, paypal charge backs and fraud accusations, someone searching down every one of your inboxes to send the same message

of fury from five different directions.

THAT is what's happening right now. that is what's happening to

every

single

publisher

no matter how big, no matter how small. it's getting worse every day; people have agreed to contracts one day and had the price increase by almost

10% the very next day when they finally make the call to go "yeah, pull the bullet, we'll send the money." it's gotten to the point of... pretty much extortion.

it's just fucking SAD, and if you think you're sad because you pledged $40 and might get a game a year late,

dear FUCKING god please think of the designers and artists and creators that have been waiting *years* and now have to make a choice between going under today because of shipping prices or going under in six months because they had to wait it out and couldn't survive that long

this is nothing short of a tragedy for the entire board game industry. there are containers over the ocean right now of games, already printed and paid for and sealed and waiting for a home, that may very well rot there

if you have any ounce of compassion inside you as a consumer, now is the time to prove it

a couple of addendums based on some frequent comments/questions: the compassion goes both ways. none of us expect backers to *pretend* to be happy about this. none of us expect people to call us heroes or fawn when we make updates about the shitty situation

"your company is great! we believe in you! us fans have your back!" replies are sweet and uplifting, most certainly, but they aren't what publishers demand or expect right now. this situation is frustrating for customers too, and no one's trying to deny that

"i'll be honest: this is really frustrating news. i understand the situation's out of your hands, but i hope it clears up quickly" is a great example of how you can express yourself while still showing compassion. we're not trying to invalidate your frustration. this *sucks*

a few comments keep coming up about manufacturing product in the US or insinuating "this is what happens when companies take the cheap route and get things made overseas."

it's... it's not more expensive to get most board games printed in north america

it's IMPOSSIBLE

like, america does not have the factories, it doesn't have the manufacturing tools, and it doesn't have the physical *materials.* with many components, you're asking us to go shop at a business that simply doesn't exist in the first place