i have broken down and started a blog over at BGG , for those interested

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/blog/545

subscribe if you want to , dont if you dont , but its easier for me to concentrate my creative posts in one place like BGG where i can post pics and blogs and files and everything .

and FFG is just dragging their feet a little to slow for the amount of ideas i have clogging my brain .

i will still be visiting here , but BGG is just so much more interactive , and lets me psot so much more , so much easier .

I'll put a link up on my blog. Good to know your starting one.

i am new to useing the blogs , so use this link instead .

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/blog/545/dust-is-warrrrrrrrrrrrrr

i kinda didnt have a choice . FFG is dragging their feet on this , and i have other projects to work on , so rather than keep mum on all the things i had been working on and planning , i figure i may as well try to spread some excitement since FFG doesnt seem to have the time to do so themselves , and doesnt seem to understand the major differences between minis gamers and traditional board gamers , so even though they have some one in charge of the dust games , i dont expect to see them actually do anything major for atleast another 8 months , or longer , if ever .

their loss .

what exactly do you want them to do, kris? we have a league kit with posters, they have a con presence, oliver leads a facebook group, they have banner ads all over TGN, they are promoting as well if not better than a lot of other gaming companies out there.

i dont think they want the cat let out of the bag just yet , so though i would like to answer , i figure i will let them have their privacy , but i dont feel like waiting another 8 months to move forward with my own stuff , though since i am moving forward , it will be at BGG , as opposed to here .

but i will say this , those promotions you mention fall far short of what many other minis companies do , what i am talking about is the difference between this lvel , and the next .

and even with as many people as play in the league events , there are alot MORE that dont , more pointedly look at the turnout for "regionals thus far ,

i in no way think i am so important to the game that i alone hold its fate in my hands , i am just one of many fans , that there is a community , and other resources that FFG knows about , has contacted , and is still not puting to use 8 months in , and nothing is any closer than the horrizon , which is where it seem to perpetualy be stuck .

while a face book page in nice for those that are face book fans , not every one uses them , but every company or person publishing a game out of his closet has a face book page . having a face book page only reaches a specific demographic , and companies need to realize having one doesnt seprate them from the pack , its just makes them part of the pack . if oliver is running it , then i would have to guess its more geared toward the models , not the game , because FFG has sole promotional rights to the game , and DG , DM , DT.com have all had to pull any real game support , and are not allowed by contract to engage in any promotions of the GAME of any kind , even if its for a charitable event . because thats FFG territory .

and while i understand this endevor probably costs me my spot , its coming down to drop load or get off the pot time , and i gotta start moving on . others can wait or move on based on thier own timetables , but i have more projects than just dust to work on so ...............................

There's bugger-all happening in tne UK, I asked about league packs for over here - no response.

I don't understand either. I thought FFG was doing ok with their marketing for DT so far as a board game. How long has DT been out? About a year now right? In that year we have seem:

• The base game come out and all of its components sold separately
• 1 Medium Range Walker for the Allies (Mickey)
• Sniper/Spotter squads for both armies
• Command squads for both armies
• Artillery walkers for both armies
• One expansion with new a new hero for each army
• Another expansion this spring with new heroes
• 4 new light walkers (2 per army) this spring
• 4 new squads (2 per army) by this fall
• Tournaments
• Appearances at several shows/cons including Wonderfest
• And most of all Premium Painted versions for everything.

I say the last because it is an impressive feat to release those alongside the regular versions and not have to wait. They must field an army of painters. I assume the first year or so was to make sure the game was a viable investment. They have certainly expanded on the base game quite a bit and that could not have been cheap. It cannot be said that FFG didn't spend a fair bit of cash on DT, though I do agree the marketing could be a bit more. But how much do you market a board game that may not be one much longer? The only big announcement I can think of is a release of table top rules. There is the possibility that the release of such may change the relationship of FFG and DT/DM as it would be a table top minis game now and not (just) a board game. So it may not be FFG dragging feet as much as legal, financial, or contractual requirements.

I have enjoyed some of the ideas you have brought here Kris, and hope you don't get too upset they are not moving as fast as we would like. My biggest gripe is that the forum seems to be for fans only and nobody comes down to chat with us. Perhaps I'll see you over at BGG. I've been wanting join there anyway.

Take care,

-Jeff

Ar first I hated there release schedule, I wanted it all, now, and boxed set so cheap. But I must admit their release schedual is spot on. Every few weeks we get a new model to paint and play, making the game that little bit different (and bigger) every month. And then they give us news of new releases a couple of month away, dangling the worm on the hook to keep us interested and I've taken the bait - well done.

I'm baffled by your stance too. FFG has done everything they said they would at roughly the scheule they said. What are they not doing to your expectations? New squads are hitting the market with relative regularity, there is a new expansion and new squads coming this summer. I'm not being sarcastic here but seriously asking, what do you believe they should be doing to gain better traction in the gaming world?

in reasponse to the regionals turnout, did you ever see any of Privateer Presses turnouts from 2001-about 2004? i live in their backyard and had to scrounge to get 4-8 people. 7 years later, theyre on top of the gaming world. give it time.

There's this game called Dust Tactics and I play it. Every now and again the company releases something new for the game and, if I like the look of it, and if my FLGs gets it in stock, I buy it. And use it to play more of the game with. Occasionally a few of my friends and I get together and we play it all evening. That's about as far as it goes for me.

Hanomag said:

thats just it , its not a board game , it never really was . but because its CALLED aboard game , thats how its being treated .

the only difference between playing on a table top , and playing on a table top with a grid , is a grid . using the grid takes the place of templates , and tape measures , thats all .

just releasing table top rules wouldnt change anything if they keep treating this like the board game it isnt .

but this game is treated and promoted like a board game and gets the same level of enthusiasim , promotion , and acceptance by FFG and game store owners as a fancy expensive copy of monopoly .

they quietly promote just to the people that are already customers ,not push to show all this game is . go look at the ads , go look at the main page , anyone looking at this game only gets to see a bunch of cool figs on cardboard , and presumes thats all this game is or can ever be . there are a few posts here with terrain , and nice painted minis and such , but they get burried fast in the forums , so sites like BGG become the only places you can see what this game truely is ; more than just cardboard squares .

a good example of what can be done . waizards of the coast announced the release of dream blade several years back , and when they did so they made the pitch and blogged and promoted the hell out of it before it even hit shelves , so retailers were already talking it up , and it hit the ground running . even though the game was flawed , it was a heavy weight that people were talking about well before it was even released .

when wizkids opened up , they got word out , they talked the game up . they sent reps out to have regional sitdowns to show off the product .

and blkdiamond , that was when the privateerpress was just starting up . FFG has been around for a while , they have a staff in place , they have experience and a distribution network in place , and contacts in game stores and a whole network of people they can draw on . but even with all that , i didnt see or hear anything about this game until i ran across a picture on BGG of one of the walkers that a member had posted . from there i looked up its page and got interested , and approached my FLGS . the retail manager had heard of it , but didnt plan to carry it . because of MY history of pushing games and getting people to buy in , they ordered starters , and are carrying it as a regular item , because of ME , not because of any adverts or anything FFG did ( because they are treating it like an over priced monopolygame ) . and i have read posts by others that are in that same boat , that their FLGS didntplan on carrying it based on what they had read or seen in product descriptions by FFG , in many cases it has been up to players to wring arms and twist wrists to get stores to carry this . so it wasnt just me .

even now , i can find more about the game on BGG than i can in a trade magazine or here at FFG's own website .

and THAT falls on FFG .

i just put up a blog post about tools i use , meant to help noobs , as i strrt posting stuff at BGG so they understand what i am talking about . .

Kris is right about this site and info, remember what a surprise it was when somebody on the forum told us Cyclone had Submarine tiles, which then gotus excited about it? And what about Gears of War I've just seen, no pics of all the mini's you get in that.

And yes, they need to hit the wargamer market to advertise and not the boardgamer. I only found out about the game by fluke, never saw an ad and couldn't find it in wargames sections of websites. This is a wargame, not a boardgame.

Major Mishap said:

as usual ....................................go to BGG ................................. THEY have pics of the minis and some of the cards .

Major Mishap said:

I asked for a game night pack for our gaming group.

We are on the West Coast of the US and had no tournament presence here at all. Myself and a few others are trying to spread the word about Dust and bring in the players.

It would be nice if FF could at least reply to an email.

Goodbye. I for one think this whole post should be deleted. Sorry, show a little class and respect.

Game on;

-John-

I for one agree with john. No affense, but you are bashing the company on their own forum. Then again if they wanted to do something about it then I would assume this conversation would be gone. I just think they need to advertise this game a lot more than they do and advertise it in places that Flames of War does or even historical miniature magazines, there are tons of them and most of them have Wierd War 2 stuff in it. The only reason I knew about the game was bc my store owner told me about it, when it was about to be released, when I said I'm getting tired of 40k. Now Charlie(my FLGS owner) has got some fans of Dust we have like 8-9 ppl. We have a ton of 40k players who would buy the game if they didn't spend so much on 40k, lol. Soon there is a historical wargaming convention in Williamsburg coming up and he plans on bringing it to his booth to show more ppl.

I asked for a game night pack for our gaming group.

We are on the West Coast of the US and had no tournament presence here at all. Myself and a few others are trying to spread the word about Dust and bring in the players.

It would be nice if FF could at least reply to an email.

I also live on the west coast and asked my FLGS to order the Game night pack for our group and after a lot of finger pointing we never got it in. So, I tried to go through FFG myself to get it and never recieved an email back. I want to help promote the game to play against more people, but it does not appear that it is not important enough to FFG to try and get more people to play.

Other than that I have no gripes about how they are doing with this game.

johnwiser said:

well john , you could always show one thing i have said that isnt true ?

well, in truth, none of what you want from FFG is a true/false, but rather a matter of opinion.

blkdymnd said:

then show me what opinions arent valid?

show me where they are actively promoting this game in a manner better or different than a regular board game .

point me toward the adverts or hype that they tried to build before this game was released , or since beyond banner ads that dont really say anything , and trade magzines that dont really show anything .

show me anything that promote this game , by FFG , on par with heroscape , the old D&D minis , STARWARS minis , AT-43 , games workshop , or any other miniatures game .

show me anything they are doing to get this game out there into the hands of nonboard gamers .

show me how they are doing even a tenth as much to talk this game up and excite potential customers as many of us have had to do JUST to get this game into our FLGS .

just puting out expansion doesnt really count , all the game companies do that . but go through a trade magazine and look at how the expansions are advertised . again , it is no better than if i were reading about a monopoly game .

and while we can see what expansions are being released , amazon.com is a better source since you can go there and see an expected sales date , as opposed to just " at the printer" , "on the boat" , etc ............

i am aware that they have behiind the scenes ideas , but there is a HUGE dif. between having ideas and executing them , and at the rate they are going , those behind the scenes ideas look that thats all they are gonna be .

in the past i have supported ideas that were taken with tis game , like selling individual unit packs as opposed to big box expansions , but my supprt for some of their ideas does not mean i support all their ideas .

and ya , i am here doing this in their own house , because i think they are valid points , and i figure this is the best way to make sure they see them since emails seem to be hit or miss . and amusingly , i see arkangle that even as you say you agree that i shouldnt be so bold , you chime in with a point that supports mine . we are here because we love this game , but just giving FFG a pass , just loading them up with rosie reviews doesnt serve a company or community when there are valid issues .

i have not stood here just screaming obsinities , i have not singled out anyone for ridicule , i have not ranted that we all need to drop this game or boycot FFG . i have stated an "opinion" based on experiece , and others have chimed in to agree or disagree , but i am not alone in this .

Why are you not running a company like FFG, sir? I respect your passion and really enjoy your custom work and while I would like to see "Dust Tactics" as huge of hit as you vision it could be, enjoy the game as it is because at the end of the day...it is just a game.

As for just releasing expansion after expansion not being enough, it is enough for me and I say "Keep rolling them out!" as I am more than happy to support this great game. AND should FFG decide at some point to stop with expansions (which will happen as this happens to all games), I will enjoy what they provided and still have fun playing.

On that note please also remember that this game is NOT even a year old yet and look at how many expansion we have seen so far and more on the way in the next few months (and from what I have heard the Alien faction will be at Gen-Con 2011 in which I will be there in hopes to see and take pictures to share). Not only that but you yourself have made some awesome looking items for your "Dust Tactics" game and already have home rules for aircraft and much more. If FFG puts out these expansions any faster I will have to be looking to take out a loan just to keep up.

I said it once and I will say it again, I respect your passion for gaming. Keep having fun and I look forward to reading your future post about other great custom work you are doing with "Dust Tactics".

Game on;

-John-

Anyone who spent good money on FFG products makes them a customer of FFG. And customers earn the right to gripe about the company, whether it's true or just opinions. And yes, even on the company's forum. And it is the company's responsibility to respond or react to customers' complaints / opinion / gripes. No valid posts or threads should be deleted until the company has seen it or respond to it. The only kind of threads / posts that should be deleted are those that market another competitor's products. Other than that, no one should be silenced for expressing their opinions, and everyone is entitled to their own opinions. Just my opinion.

johnwiser said:

johnwiser said:

the reason you have seen the custom things i have done is because i have posted links , talked them up , mentioned them in posts , and even more importantly , posted pictures . in other words , i have promoted it beyond banner adds with 2 sentences , and trade magazine ads with a crapy picture of a box and a blurb about its contents .

it takes more than puting out expansions to promote a game , it takes actualy promoting it with detailed ads and doing interviews , posting pics and articles by fans and pro alike . not hiding at the company offices and turtleing .

and these are all things that other companies find the time to do .

while i know it takes SOME effort to get things going , posting some articles and pics is easy to do . there are plenty of people here like bigwill that could make some wonderful contributions , but again that relies on FFG to solicit the articles and to post them . that is far from the effort of moving mountains

actuially commenting in the forums , is an easy thing to do , wouldnt even have to be very often , and its something that most other game companies have their line managers do .

going to other sites every now and then , like BGG , to chime in and comment on some ones post , or toss out a tidbit of info would be easy . the people from DG can find time to do so once in a while , so why cant FFG ?

actualy creating an FAQ , and tasking someone with its upkeep is easy , as opposed to posting a sticky , and never actually doing one .

why does BGG have so many followers on its DT page ? why does arcangle have a following on his blogs ? its because by comparisson , FFG doesnt have anything .

and ya the game is only about a year old , but how many years old does it have to be for them to step up and promote it ?