Sorry folks but I didn't really know where to put this and Eldritch Horror is one of my favorite games and one that I've been discussing the most lately so.....

My question is mostly, admittedly, to myself. I told some friends recently that I'd be willing to pay a moderate markup on FFG stuff if they promised to use it to create jobs, specifically jobs in playtesting or technology to make playtesting more cost effiecient.

I always try to vote with my dollar so if FFG were using the money to hire more real people you BET I would pay more! At our store FFGs balance issues are so much of an inside joke that there are some people that won't even look at FFG stuff unless someone else declares it "balanced." Don't ask me how they know it's balanced or what makes them the authority because I don't have a clue.

So I guess my question has two parts:

One: Have you experenced balance or other issues that you feel further playtesting could have countered with FFG products?

Two: Would you be willing to pay a moderate price increase on FFG products if you knew that money was going to be used to hire more real people to improve the quality of the games?

Three: (Yeah, yeah I know but this is more of a personal curiosity and kind of off-topic(ish).

Do you have people at your store who dismiss FFG "just because" or who need their FFG purchases approved by someone else who knows they are "good."?

Oh. I suppose I should answer my own questions: 1. Yes. 2. Yes. 3. Yes. Oooooor I could have just said that all my answers are yes....

Don't ask me how they know it's balanced or what makes them the authority because I don't have a clue.

A game is properly balanced when all sides are complaining equally. =P

One: Have you experenced balance or other issues that you feel further playtesting could have countered with FFG products?

Yes, many times. I'm not sure it's a problem with playtesting so much as rules writing, though.

The people who write the rules text on the cards and in the books need to spend more time thinking about how to phrase things clearly - and in particular they need to start writing rules with the assumption that expansions yet to come will add new rules that may bounce off the current rules in new ways. So many of the issues I've personally seen are a result of some expansion material that does something that was impossible in the core game, and when that new material interacts with old material, it creates holes that the game has no (satisfactory) resolution for.

And then they patch it up in a FAQ or something. However, had the core rules been written in a more general way, the loopholes could have been covered before they even existed. for some companies this sort of thing might be excusable, but FFG uses expansions as a business model far too heavily to not consider the idea that the rules as they are now will not be the rules in a year's time.

Two: Would you be willing to pay a moderate price increase on FFG products if you knew that money was going to be used to hire more real people to improve the quality of the games?

Yes, if I knew the money was going towards fixing the problem. Honestly, though, the problem as I see it can probably be fixed just with more care and attention to detail. I'm not convinced that hiring more people or otherwise increasing production costs is even necessary. But if they deemed it necessary on their end, and I "knew" the solution would work, I'd be willing to pay it.

Three: (Yeah, yeah I know but this is more of a personal curiosity and kind of off-topic(ish).

Do you have people at your store who dismiss FFG "just because" or who need their FFG purchases approved by someone else who knows they are "good."?

No, not that I'm aware of. There are people who like FFG games and people who don't like FFG games. I'm not aware of anyone who requires someone else to vet an FFG game before making the decision to buy it, though.

More generally, the people who like FFG games seem to think they're all "good" even before they're released. Meanwhile, the people who dislike FFG games are pretty set in stone against them. Different strokes for different folks, I suppose.

Why would you need to have your purchases approved of by anybody else? I will gladly discus the pro and cons of a game amongst friends and online. But when i'm at my local gameshop and i see somebody buy a game i don't like, i know better than to start yelling stuf like "thats a bad game! go buy something else noob!"

While I get its fashionable to bash GW (and they got themselves to blame for it), i don't see whats wrong with FF, well except for them killing wfrp 3d and warhammer invasion, and the scale in armada seems a tad off and the mandatory app for xcom is just horrible and-ok i start to see where some people are comming from...

FF seems to be quite popular at my local gamestore.

If they make Warhammer Invasion ONLINE I can pay 50$ box too! :D I hope they make it with online serious tournaments!!!