unforum

[EvilGenius]

I have it directly from Adrian Hon, executive producer and director of play (who was kind enough to respond to my latest diatribe to MC about the state of play here outside the UK), that if a store outside of the UK doesn't have the new cards it's because they haven't asked for them for whatever reason. I'm told this has nothing to do with stock the or the willingness of MC to provide the cards. I can only assume from this that our retailers are dissembling bastards who are lying to us here in the provinces. Oh, and Adrian suggested that the experience of players in the UK and Australia is evidence that countries other than than those in the UK are not being ignored so you struggling in Austalia must be in the same boat as me.

[ambskunk]

[EvilGenius]

I will let you make up your own mind about Adrian Hon has to say on this subject. I wrote this to him:

"Well, now that only four cards of the new wave remain to be solved, do you folks think that maybe now we can get some of the wave three cards in my local store? It took forever to finally get the wave two cards and here we are a month behind with this wave. Honestly, why am I spending money supporting this enterprise when we are treated with such contempt? Bad enough the card package composition screws devoted players but at least there ought to be cards in the stores should I choose to waste my money on them (and I would). I'm leading my country yet falling behind everyday for lack of anything to do. . . Surely you understand that people outside of the UK are playing so where are the cards? Why must we wait until it's no fun anymore (it would be nice to at least have a chance to solve a card first)?"

To which Adrian Hon replied:

"I'm sorry that your local stores aren't carrying wave 3 cards. However, that's their decision, not ours. It is not a question of us not having enough stock, or not wanting to send cards to Canada - it's a question of Canadian stores actually requesting wave 3 stock. I imagine that if you asked your local stores to look into sourcing wave 3 stock and they were convinced that they had sufficient demand, they would get the cards.

In general, we unfortunately do not have the resources available to JK Rowling and cannot push the cards into retail as quickly as we would like to. We are making progress and I imagine that in the future it will become easier to get new PXC cards quicker.

Again - we are not withholding wave 3 cards from Canada on purpose. We are not treating Canadian stores with contempt. We are not ignoring countries outside of the UK; witness the US and Australia as examples. We obviously would like as many people as possible to play Perplex City, and we would like to sell as many cards as possible. However, Perplex City is not Harry Potter quite yet, and so we have to work harder to make retailers aware of Perplex City and stock it, and we also have to work to create demand.

And if you think you have things bad in Canada, imagine how much longer it takes for US or Canadian products to reach the UK... "

Adrian has been very communicative on the matter and I appreciate his effort to answer my concerns. I think that the distributors have some 'splaining to do.

[ambskunk]

Hmmm, maybe I should start selling these cards properly in Australia. Looks like there is pretty much no competition.

Just out of interest have any Aussies managed to buy Wave 3 in a store in Australia?

[chimera245]

Just to prove me wrong of course, my cards finally arrived in the mail yesterday. In fact, though I made comments about the delays in Australia Post, I totally understand the card distribution issues.

On the retail front the problem here (and probably in Canada with similar demographic issues) is lack of concentrated interest. As a case in point, I popped in to Al's Card Shop (one of the two vendors listed here in WA) to see what the news was from the distributor - and how PXC was going down among the specialist trading card market. I was rather sadly informed that as I was the only one who had bought cards from him in the last 4 months he would not be getting any more even if there were any available. I can't really argue with him - if I were in business I would do the same. I have spoken to the other vendor on the phone with a similar outcome.

The population levels, and more importantly overlying cultural tendencies, act against this sort of game ever getting that critical level of interest that is enough to support even a specialist card vendor stocking product. WA is a state the size of several western european countries put together, with the population of Bromley. You are never going to get the sort of head of steam here that you would in London, Manchester or Birmingham. Without that head of steam - why would you as a retailer buy the stock.

None of this of course is Mind Candy's issue, and none of it is affecting my enjoyment of the game. I can take part with everyone else in the solving of cards from the images thoughtfully posted on these forums - and store up my answers for when they finally arrive. I can contribute online according to my skillset, whenever I like. If there is every an online PCAG type event, I would take part in a flash (timezones willing), including if necessary organising an antipodean team to challenge all you northerners for the bonus points.

[EvilGenius]

I totally agree with you but that isn't my local problem. My local dealer wants to sell the PXC cards, he is desperate about getting his hands on them for us, and he's been trying for an age to stay on top of PXC. He is just told that the cards aren't available. Demographically we aren't much better off than you Aussies but, in our case, that doesn't matter to us, though it may to the distributor . . .

[ambskunk]

[chimera245]

[achenar]

[chimera245]

[EvilGenius]

[ambskunk]

[UKver2.0]

[EvilGenius]

[chimera245]