I was asked to post something positive about FFG

By Shaneth, in UFS General Discussion

Posted at

After Worlds this year, I was extremely demoralized about UFS and the way it was being handled. Because of that, I took a heel turn. Since then, I have been very negative on the boards. I can sense a lot of people wish for me to be more positive. Here goes.

1) Fantasy Flight's customer service is real clutch.

One day at my local shop, I bought a Ragnar starter deck because I needed 2x Might Makes Right. When I opened it, it's contents were equivalent of the Astrid starter deck. I called up FFG and spoke with customer service, informing them of the mishap. They were not able to send a replacement Ragnar starter deck in time for Worlds as it was a couple days before Gencon. I told them that I am real good pals with Steve Horvath and James Hata and I will be seeing them at Gencon. What happens? I show up at Gencon and Steve personally hands me my replacement starter deck. That's pro.

I also have heard that FFG has sent players replacement booster packs when they claim to have not pulled a rare card out of a pack. Sending a replacement pack to a player is fantastic, especially when they are from overseas. That's real service right there.

2) Fantasy Flight is full of friendly staff.

I remember FFG staff very well in the dealer hall for Gencon 2008. MickyD and I were browsing what all FFG sold, since we were still fairly unfamiliar with the company. We found the UFS stuff and there were boxtoppers just chillin there. I asked one staff member what they were doing just chillin there, and without any trouble at all, he personally handed them to us. Yay for free BRT and Lord of the Makai. We proceeded to talk with him for the next 5 minutes and the dude was super awesome.

I don't know his name, but there is another staff member who I have seen at like... every major event. Kind of big guy with glasses and a cane. THAT GUY is SUPER chill. I remember we asked him at Nats 08 where the UFS CCG tournaments were being held at, and although he didn't know off the bat, he caught up with us later and asked if we found what we were looking for. Although that may not seem like much, it is 90x better than flat out ignoring us.

There's a guy who helped run UFS events for the past year. I sadly don't know his name either. He was definitely one of the funniest people I've met. I remember at Worlds 2009 when he handed me my pack of promo cards, I jokingly asked for another pack, and he told me no and that he better not see me at another chair waiting to recieve a pack. I jump to another chair down the table, he hands me a pack, and I look at him and say "Hey! Thanks bud!"


3) Steve and James are two great people for UFS.

Steve Horvath is always out for opinions and different views of the game. He is an indispensible friend of the players. Tapout has talked with him on multiple ocassions.

a) Steve has personally pulled me aside TWICE and asked me about how I felt about the game and how it was being handled.

b) At Nationals 09, when I approached Steve and complained to him about the prize support, he took my WHOLE TEAM to a private table and spoke to us personally. He waved off any outsiders, saying "Just give us a minute," focusing solely on Team Tapout. All five of us told Steve how we felt about being given dogshit as prize support, and as usual, he would produce counter-arguments, saying he thought the prizes were sufficient. We finally spoke about an event where we placed really high in (Team Worlds 2008, top 4) and what dogshit prizes we got for climbing that high. He finally admitted that we did get dogshit and apologized to us. Admitting truths is one of the most vital steps towards respect.

c) Steve has held Q&A sessions at every event. These sessions are a very rare moment to connect with the players and give them mental food to munch on. Something like a Q&A session may not seem like much, but in reality, very little people do one on a face-to-face plane.


James Hata is also an excellent asset to UFS.

a) His card design has been superior to any other in the past.

b) I must have jacked about 12 Hatas off him in the past year. He's very generous when he knows you have boys back home who cannot travel to events for various reasons.

Although we cannot fully rely on both these people, they are better than nobody at all. I have no idea what Steve is doing, but I know James has been extremely busy recently. He designed that Penny Arcade game, 4 sets of UFS, and is now working on "A Game of Thrones" I think?

This is all I can come up with on the spot.

Anyways, I apologize to everybody that I have been so negative. I am just really pissed of the way UFS is being handled.

This is the best way I can explain it.

You know how you meet this wonderful girl and she is being mistreated by her abusive counterpart? And you just want to flying armbar his ass into VoldOmar's palace? That's how I feel. " Stop mistreating my hobby that I love so much ," I guess is how I would put it.

Posted at

Shaneth said:

After Worlds this year, I was extremely demoralized about UFS and the way it was being handled. Because of that, I took a heel turn. Since then, I have been very negative on the boards. I can sense a lot of people wish for me to be more positive. Here goes.

1) Fantasy Flight's customer service is real clutch.

One day at my local shop, I bought a Ragnar starter deck because I needed 2x Might Makes Right. When I opened it, it's contents were equivalent of the Astrid starter deck. I called up FFG and spoke with customer service, informing them of the mishap. They were not able to send a replacement Ragnar starter deck in time for Worlds as it was a couple days before Gencon. I told them that I am real good pals with Steve Horvath and James Hata and I will be seeing them at Gencon. What happens? I show up at Gencon and Steve personally hands me my replacement starter deck. That's pro.

I also have heard that FFG has sent players replacement booster packs when they claim to have not pulled a rare card out of a pack. Sending a replacement pack to a player is fantastic, especially when they are from overseas. That's real service right there.

2) Fantasy Flight is full of friendly staff.

I remember FFG staff very well in the dealer hall for Gencon 2008. MickyD and I were browsing what all FFG sold, since we were still fairly unfamiliar with the company. We found the UFS stuff and there were boxtoppers just chillin there. I asked one staff member what they were doing just chillin there, and without any trouble at all, he personally handed them to us. Yay for free BRT and Lord of the Makai. We proceeded to talk with him for the next 5 minutes and the dude was super awesome.

I don't know his name, but there is another staff member who I have seen at like... every major event. Kind of big guy with glasses and a cane. THAT GUY is SUPER chill. I remember we asked him at Nats 08 where the UFS CCG tournaments were being held at, and although he didn't know off the bat, he caught up with us later and asked if we found what we were looking for. Although that may not seem like much, it is 90x better than flat out ignoring us.

There's a guy who helped run UFS events for the past year. I sadly don't know his name either. He was definitely one of the funniest people I've met. I remember at Worlds 2009 when he handed me my pack of promo cards, I jokingly asked for another pack, and he told me no and that he better not see me at another chair waiting to recieve a pack. I jump to another chair down the table, he hands me a pack, and I look at him and say "Hey! Thanks bud!"


3) Steve and James are two great people for UFS.

Steve Horvath is always out for opinions and different views of the game. He is an indispensible friend of the players. Tapout has talked with him on multiple ocassions.

a) Steve has personally pulled me aside TWICE and asked me about how I felt about the game and how it was being handled.

b) At Nationals 09, when I approached Steve and complained to him about the prize support, he took my WHOLE TEAM to a private table and spoke to us personally. He waved off any outsiders, saying "Just give us a minute," focusing solely on Team Tapout. All five of us told Steve how we felt about being given dogshit as prize support, and as usual, he would produce counter-arguments, saying he thought the prizes were sufficient. We finally spoke about an event where we placed really high in (Team Worlds 2008, top 4) and what dogshit prizes we got for climbing that high. He finally admitted that we did get dogshit and apologized to us. Admitting truths is one of the most vital steps towards respect.

c) Steve has held Q&A sessions at every event. These sessions are a very rare moment to connect with the players and give them mental food to munch on. Something like a Q&A session may not seem like much, but in reality, very little people do one on a face-to-face plane.


James Hata is also an excellent asset to UFS.

a) His card design has been superior to any other in the past.

b) I must have jacked about 12 Hatas off him in the past year. He's very generous when he knows you have boys back home who cannot travel to events for various reasons.

Although we cannot fully rely on both these people, they are better than nobody at all. I have no idea what Steve is doing, but I know James has been extremely busy recently. He designed that Penny Arcade game, 4 sets of UFS, and is now working on "A Game of Thrones" I think?

This is all I can come up with on the spot.

Anyways, I apologize to everybody that I have been so negative. I am just really pissed of the way UFS is being handled.

This is the best way I can explain it.

You know how you meet this wonderful girl and she is being mistreated by her abusive counterpart? And you just want to flying armbar his ass into VoldOmar's palace? That's how I feel. " Stop mistreating my hobby that I love so much ," I guess is how I would put it.

Yeah for being positive!!! Even though i disagree slightly.

Posted at

Just trying to make something opposite of a doomsday thread.

Posted at

Shaneth said:

Just trying to make something opposite of a doomsday thread.



We're drained dude. Good job!

Posted at

Antigoth said:

Unfortunately you, and your team mates are doing such a good job of demoralizing us in other threads... and your lack of positive contributions in other threads have all shown us the error of our ways.

We're drained dude. Good job!

Even if the great majority thinks the game is fine, even better than before, resembles an actual fighting game, stopped heavy control, actually ends within the time limits the majority of the time, and decks without attacks can't win anymore, there will still be a few that will say "well, that's your opinion, and you're wrong".

Opinions are like assholes. Everybody has one, and they're all usually full of ****.

Posted at

Antigoth said:

Unfortunately you, and your team mates are doing such a good job of demoralizing us in other threads... and your lack of positive contributions in other threads have all shown us the error of our ways.

We're drained dude. Good job!

And guitalex, I love the game where it's at now. It resembles a fighting game more than ever and we've seen probably the best UFS in two years. I have no problem with the game; only how it is handled.

Posted at

Shaneth said:

Is this a joke, sir?

I do believe he was being sarcastic. lol - Al

And guitalex, I love the game where it's at now. It resembles a fighting game more than ever and we've seen probably the best UFS in two years. I have no problem with the game; only how it is handled.

Posted at

Yeah, isn't Hata working on like... A Game of Thrones or something?

To be completely honest, I don't care too much for delays. Since I come from a very poor community, it gives me more time to catch up on obtaining cards. Also, if they keep delaying sets, guess what? Set Rotation gets delayed as well. Splitting releases from 2 to 1 set a release delays it even more. More time to play with hard-invested cards, right?

My main concerns are player communication and prize support.

Posted at

Shaneth said:

Yeah, isn't Hata working on like... A Game of Thrones or something?

To be completely honest, I don't care too much for delays. Since I come from a very poor community, it gives me more time to catch up on obtaining cards. Also, if they keep delaying sets, guess what? Set Rotation gets delayed as well. Splitting releases from 2 to 1 set a release delays it even more. More time to play with hard-invested cards, right?

My main concerns are player communication and prize support.

What exactly would you be looking for in means of player communication? I know there has not been a STOG in a while but what other companies really address the player base at all? AEG known for its high quality communication with its players has not been very communicative this time of year ie there is a Megagame happening in L5R and it was supposed to be announced in October, but they just announced that it is being delayed in November...it still has yet to be announced. I would have to assume that with Essenspiel, and FFG being primarily a board game company; most of their resources have focused on the upcoming releases of 1) Rogue Trade RPG 2) WHFRP 3) Warhammer Inavasion(I heard that Hata actually fixed the game!) 4) BOARD GAMES...seriously every board game I have played of FFG's is boss.

That said, Prize Support is a big deal. Not too sure how to fix it or even address it. Something needs to be done, even if its just an increase in promos, or alternate arts or something.