Necessity requires that I ask my readers to please go to the sign, watch the video if you have not and then contribute what you can.
If you feel you cannot for some reason, please tell me what thing I could say that would convince you. Explain the post I could write or the subject I could address. Define the proof you need that would allow me to demonstrate my commitment and passion for this project. Help me to help you understand how important this is.
One thing is true: the plans I have hinge on the menu doing well. I think it will do well. I've had the opportunity to show it to complete strangers now, and the result is everything I'd hoped it would be. The immediate impression is startling; one might say electric. One fellow exclaimed quite loudly, in a public place, that not only was the menu unexpected, but that "It's like nothing I've ever heard of before! I've never even imagined that something like this could exist!" High praise.
Therefore, please contribute. Contribute and I will do my part.
Best of luck. I posted the link on the OSR subreddit, but I'm not sure how many will bite. Calvino.
ReplyDeleteThank you. I'm not connected much with Reddit these days.
ReplyDeleteThe menu looks amazing, Alexis! Can't wait to get my hands on it and use it in my game!
ReplyDeleteWow, you are up to more than 1/3rd of the desired funding goal. Not bad for the first day! Congrats, Alexis.
ReplyDeleteI shared the kickstarter with friends and will try to broadcast to more.
May want to consider either adding a lower tier for digital, or including digital with the existing tiers.
ReplyDeleteI think elaborating on or detailing the research you did would go a long way, even if it was just a vignette of what you went through for just a few of the items.
CG2,
ReplyDeleteI cannot see my way to providing an online version. The menu is a visceral, physical experience. It was designed to be tactile. I believe that providing its content online would be the best way to kill it as a project.
Likewise, the research done to produce the item is my intellectual property. Explaining it or detailing how the menu was made would be providing the specifications for the menu, which is something no sane business would do with regards to a product it has made. I'm not here to help you make your own. I'm here to sell mine.
Your reasoning for the physical v. digital decision is sensible.
ReplyDeleteFor the latter part I should have described what I felt was the issue rather than offering a suggestion that I should've assumed you already considered. To put it more clearly, I think that for someone unfamiliar with you the last paragraph of your Kickstarter alone may not be enough for convince them of the effort put in.
As a more concrete suggestion, you may want to include some images/excerpts in the campaign body instead of just the video. I think a significant number of people skip videos and even those that do probably aren't looking closely enough to ascertain the quality of the written content.
There's also no way as far as I can see to get both the coasters and the menu - would be nice to see what the logo on the coasters looks like too.
The logo is in a state of invention; so obviously they can't be shown, because they do not exist. One purpose of the kickstarter is to help with creating such things.
ReplyDeleteThe kickstarter page includes a screenshot featuring a portion of the menu, that clearly indicates what it looks like, font, flavour and nature of the content. The video clearly indicates the shape and style of the product. Further images would only extend the release of intellectual property for people who haven't yet paid for it. I don't see that as being practical.
I grant there are people who are unfamiliar with me; and I grant that those unfamiliar with me are unlikely to endorse my kickstarter. I think that must be true for every kickstarter. However, I'm not hiding myself under a rock. I'm not counting on "the last paragraph" to convince anyone. I'm counting on the video, the appearance of the menu, my tone, my presence, my overall stated intent, my name, the name of my blog, my EASILY researched presence on the internet and the ability of people to use google. This last, I grant, is RIDICULOUSLY NAIVE, yet there it is.
Moreover, I'm not sure if you're aware of this, but I've been marketing myself for many years now and I think I know my audience better than you do, CG2. Already you've made several suggestions which seem to be far more in your interest than mine. May I ask: are you contributing significantly to the kickstarter?
Hi Alexis, we've never talked. I read your blog occasionally, but we generally run in different circles in the "OSR" (or whatever you want to call it, no offense intended).
ReplyDeleteI saw your kickstarter and I was pretty excited, because I think it's a rad idea. Watching the video and reading the blog posts you've made recently about it, what you're doing makes sense: it's a premium, tactile game aid that's supposed to be a lot of fun at the table itself.
But that $100 CAD (I'm Canadian too) price is really, really steep. In one of your blog posts you mentioned having your costs be around $45 + 20 for shipping, which feels much more reasonable to me. I think you'd get more uptake from myself and others who are on the fence if you did the product price + shipping fee separately like many other kickstarters do, instead of this flat $100 worldwide. (If at this point the product price has increased to make $100 your minimum price to be worthwhile, I understand and respect that.)
I hope this helps somehow. You've obviously got a lot of energy and work put into this project already, and regardless of whether I buy in or not, you have a cool idea and I really do hope it works out well for you.
Thanks for listening.
Arivia,
ReplyDeleteThat is completely fair. You should understand that the $100 listed in the kickstarter is not a unit price. When the product launches, it will be $45 plus shipping; and you will be able to purchase it for that price.
Those who will pledge $100 or more are doing so because they are investing in my business, and not just the product. They want my business to get off the ground and be successful. They're willing to overpay, because they are supporting my continued writing and contributions to D&D overall, both in this specific product and in all the other things I do. They want to be a PART of what I'm doing, and this kickstarter is their best opportunity for doing so.
Therefore, they don't see the price as "steep." They see it as gratitude; and I, in turn, am enormously grateful to them. And as such will continue to provide many other products for FREE, such as the blog, the wiki and other content I may put on youtube.
Please feel free not to contribute to the kickstarter. I will be happy to accept you as a customer when I'm ready to begin selling the menu.
I apologize as I legitimately misunderstood what you meant by "if you feel you cannot for some reason, please tell me what thing I could say that would convince you. Explain the post I could write or the subject I could address. Define the proof you need that would allow me to demonstrate my commitment and passion for this project. Help me to help you understand how important this is."
ReplyDeleteAfter looking at the context of the sentence prior to that again, I see that it was directed only towards your existing readers and that you were not looking for general suggestions to increase appeal. I can see why my suggestions are unwanted and out of place after considering that, as well as why they "seem to be far more in [my] interest than [yours]."
On the image point - maybe I'm blind, but as far as I can tell there is not a single image on your Kickstarter page, unless you are referring to the thumbnail for the video, which cannot be interacted with in any way and is obscured by a play button, which also disappears and cannot be seen again if you happen to hit play. I was not suggesting that you include new content that wasn't seen in the video/thumbnail, just that it be placed in the campaign body so that it is more easily viewable.
Again, little things like those don't matter if you are relying on your clearly dedicated readers. Compared to most every other Kickstarter I have seen, yours is rather bare - but it seems like you've built up enough goodwill with your readers so far that you will be successful regardless.
Even if the rest of my suggestions ended up being meritless given your priorities, I do feel like my suggestion to add a way to get the coasters and menu was a fair one. I'm sure some of your fans would like a way to get both of the items you are planning to create.
I feel I've violated the rules regarding "derail[ing] with minutia," and "waffl[ing] on without addressing the content," so feel free to excise my comments - or leave them up if they provide you or your readers some entertainment or education.
CG2,
ReplyDeleteThe screenshot on the post above is from my kickstarter page; and while a tiny percentage is obscured by the play button, I can clearly read the words and descriptions for Gin or Jenever, Sweet tropic wine, Absinth, Gorzalka, Sippin' whiskey and most of Tilting wine. I can also see the words "hopped ale" and "lordly stout." Seems pretty easily viewable to me.
No, it's true, I have not spent a ton of money on glitz and glam, paying someone to create audio-visual flotsam and such to invent a "television appearing" ad selling beer or some movie. You're absolutely right in that. You're also absolutely right when you say I've built up goodwill. Goodwill is extremely inexpensive.
This should help convince my readers that I'm not in this to spend their money on marketing or glossy bullshit, but to spend it ON THE PRODUCT. I recognize how this confuses the "new youtube internet," but to me such efforts seem like wasted junk and infantile attention mongering. I went a totally different route.
Instead of rushing forward with loud noises and visuals, I began writing a blog and producing hard content 12 years ago. This was my devious, sneaky totally AMATEURISH way of gathering that goodwill you speak of.
Sorry it isn't more exciting on the webpage.
Alexis, I'm not sure how useful this will be for your present and future Kickstarter efforts, but some of the more addressable criticism I've encountered on the subreddit involves some typos on the menu as well as a questioning of how the pricing of the foodstuffs was formulated. You've done more advertising than I have, but maybe a note about how the price of Absinth would be in relation to say, a sword, or maybe what system you've worked this out for? Calvino.
ReplyDeleteCalvino,
ReplyDeleteEvery product will have its critics. The spelling is English and in some cases, Medieval or post-Medieval. It is system neutral, except that it's fantasy. It would be realistically impractical to create a menu of this form that would satisfy every person's personal gameworld.
As regards to how the menu and other products mentioned in the kickstarter will be gotten is through the mail, direct from my hands.
ReplyDelete