Just to compare the anticipation of Heirs of Numenor to Khazad-dum. Before the first deluxe box, there have been a total of seven article previews (not including any adventure pack announcements of the Dwarrodelf cycle, of course). This time round, so far there have been two articles for Heirs of Numenor which is schedulled to be released in November.

Either the schedulle is wrong and we will see it later (hope not), or FFG just doesn't give as much attention to this cycle/their customers compared to last time. Or, Tolkien prevent, both actually.

When was Khazad-dum released?

cordeirooo said:

i seem to remember at the time it was meant to be pre new year, however it was delayed until (late jan?). either way i agree that there was alot more build up to khazad dum, and the forum was in general more excited.

im trying to keep that excitment for HoN but being honest im running out of topic to talk about on the forum….not that im saying its to this point yet, but theres nothing worse than a dead forum.

you can hardly blame the forum though…as it has been said many times before no news=no talk

bad for us,, bad for ffg, just generally bad all round.

i said this last time about the news and i actually am serious- one of us could (and would) easily write the articles for them..for free. at least i would (though there will surely be better suited people to the job)

rich

cordeirooo said:

I just counted the articles from the "more news" link. At the time, there were also not only preview articles but others like Boromir's Guide to Deckbuilding or shortly after that Heroes at Redhorn Gate series, both consisting of three parts. The last time ffg did something like that was for Shadow and Flame.

Richard, yes, I think ffg should indeed consider a freelance writer. It is an easy task to work on these from anywhere in the world. And yes, some of us would probably do this for free, me included, though I'm not a very good writer in English.

That's bad then.

This lack of attention may mean they are more worried with other games; that could mean we are entering a bad season for LotR LCG or… nothing, nothing at all.

I would LOVE a freelancer writer, specially someone with great Middle-Earth knowledge (:cough:Rich:cough:). That would make us keep entertained and the conspiracy away.
In fact, we could request that in a friendly way. Anyone knows a good venue for that?

EDIT: Sorry to disagree with you, lleimmoen, but I read and like all of your 20 Heroes topics and even though I disagreed with some points, it was an overall good reading all along.

i am not sure where you could request that cordeirooo, perhaps just message ffg directly?

thanks for the shout -though i am afraid if it were up to me your articles would come rather late and full of spelling mistakes haha

rich

As for 20 Heroes In, thanks for the compliment. As far as the content goes, some of it is very dated now, partly due to the errata too. I might do a follow up when the next cycle is over.

And I consider this a very friendly request. I have purchased all items this game has offered (some of it multiple times), so I feel entitled to raise a small concern, or just notice a trend.

i feel it is rather worse in this case as i see HoN as a real milestone in this game. afterall gondor is a key area of middle earth, and im guessing the artwork of the citadel and so on will be amazing…..why not show us? hell id be up for just a news article with two pictures and thats it

not just that but i remember that about an hour after the news article they would already have 2 pages of posts…….now were lucky to get 2 pages before the thread is buried………mmmmm (ok that smily isnt really the one i wanted but nevermind)

rich

PS- actually the whole forum is like that now. i remember when i asked for sub catagories the reason was topics were getting second paged in 24hrs….cant imagine that now!

richsabre said:

I agree rich, two pics of cards, no text would be great, but just remember that painting of Cair Andros (or at least what I thought was Cair Andros) on deviantArt, I mean WOW!!! ("Ramparts" by ~daRoz)

John85 said:

exactly- and i recommend you keep checking for non-official spoilers (sometimes they get taken down )

richsabre said:

Where where?!
Deviant Art? Other blogs? French forums?

cordeirooo said:

here or deviantart.com, search fantasy flight games, then go newest

theres a sword and elf garden, not sure if they this game….must be right?

Thanks Rich.

The crescent blade seems too sci-fi to LotR-LCG art standards, the knife a little bit less.
The garden is not only beautiful, but seems to fit as well.

I'll keep an eye on this page.

cordeirooo said:

ah yes you may be right there….i wonder (if it is for this lcg) where the elf monument comes into the game….thranduils halls?

I'm not worried bout the future of this game, since ffg is still hiring people too work on it

http://boardgamegeek.com/article/10521793#10521793

IMO there are just too many things going on so ffg can't focus too publish as many articles as we've seen in the past. maybe this will (hopefully) change in the future

OnkelZorni said:

yes i saw that today, good for the guy (though if i were ever offered a design postition….which i wouldnt of course…then i would have to decline..it would sort of spoil the game for me)

Yeah, I think there are a lot of possible explainations as to why there's less previews.

In addition to your two options, it could also be that the game's actually more STABLE so they don't feel the need to hype it as much. They know there's already plenty of people who love the game.

Also, they could be understaffed (hence the frequent Job postings on the main page) and need their staff to be working on actual game development instead of giving us our previews…

also, they seem like they're growing a lot and have a lot of new products coming out, they may need to spend more time writing articles about new products instead of already well established games.

If anything we should take less previews as a compliment! although I'm as bummed as everyone when we don't get one every week.

On a positive note, Heirs of Numenor is shipping to retailers!!!

richsabre said:

The Elf Garden artwork is used in Rune Age, as the monument for the Latari Elves.

Just thought I'd mention it…

I am so tired of the post counters on this board. They remind me of a nest of hungry birds sitting there with their mouthes open and demanding that their ever empty bellies be filled.

And then there's the endless speculation that the game is dying because there hasn't been a spoiler in a week or three.

Here are some things to consider:

In the last few years, while the economy in the USA has been struggling, this small company has been growing by a factor of 10 (maybe even by a larger factor than that).

FFG games are now found on the shelves of the biggest chain stores in the USA such as Target and Walmart. Next to games by the giants of Hasbro and Milton Bradley.

Despite this rapid growth, the company has not lost sight of its base. Those who have dealt with the company at GenCon or know people that work there, know that they are very well-connected with their fans. They do listen; they do care. Their interaction still has to be weighed with what is going on in their world. The boards go dead the weeks before GenCon and people are surprised? Well, that's because their getting ready for their biggest trade show of the year.

FFG has also launching their new product Star Wars, which has a fan-base 100x the size of Lord of the Rings. This company still is not Hasbro or Milton Bradley and launches of this size can be an all-hands on deck situation.

This game's market is growing along with the rest of FFG. I've seen this game stocked in Barnes and Noble book store now and not just game stores. Will the adventure packs some day be available in Target next to the Magic cards and YuGiOh? Maybe.

This company is looking for creative and talented people in its fan base. They just hired someone to design this game who was doing so out of love for the game.

I don't care how big your game company is, you are not going to hire a person to do a full-time babysitting of one games forum. That's just bad business. A couple of their recent job postings suggest more personnel will be coming into their website management team.

Here's my approach:

If you want new content on this board, then I'd suggest you make it. That is the primary reason these boards exist, so that people like us can form a community and enjoy ourselves. When FFG decides to drop in and add something to the sandbox that they built for us to play in, I appreciate it. But I'm not going to sit around waiting for it or sent my clock to it.

i didnt suggest they hire someone- i suggested they do exactly what you say- get one of us to do it, but you forget we dont have anything left to talk about

there used to be several members regularly putting content up, including me, but there is just little point when we have over done the 'speculation' threads already, there just isnt the interest in tolkien lore, and there has been so little to talk about in several weeks. so at the moment you have the all the new threads pretty much split up into either:

-I am new, what packs do i get?

-How do i play x rule?

-what does this deck look like?

-occasionally someone like me or others will put up a tolkien related thread to keep things going

no one here is doomsaying- we had that thread months ago before HON was previewed, we are just asking, nicely, for something to be thrown our way a little more regularly.

well thats my opinion anyways, but others think differently and i respect that. im a big fan of this game, and i will continue to play and buy as i have always done regardless of whether ffg post news more regularly or not at all

in any case- consider these threads as giving hungry birds like us something to talk about ….at least it shuts us up right?

rich

richsabre said:

Well, now that you mention it (just kidding)

Golbin King,

feeding little birds is a natural process of reproduction; comparing it to something you despise says something about your character. As for creating content, yes, this thread has created some discussion - rarely seen here lately. The reason for this thread was to show a trend; it was done by someone who has the best wishes for the future of the game (whether the reason has any bearing or not) and on the ground of hearing negative feedback from around the boards not only for the lack of preview but also (and probably more importantly) toward the incosistent wording, problems with errata, etc. Finally, you mention Star Wars having a fan-size 100 times that of the Lord of the Rings; are you trolling or just ignorant?