No hard feelings...

[vince hughes]

My last post on the subject now.

I will not go into much detail here, but I admit that I too thought AP was done for. I made a proposition to AP re: Placing a large order with some upfront money during one of those first sales that came after the 'dire straits' announcements.The events that followed before there had been any proper agreement actually worried me and I pulled out of the deal.

It had made me not confident at all that they'd get beyond another 6 months, let alone get box-sets out the door. So far, I have been proved very wrong.

[Shad]

My (limited) understanding of laser-cut countersheets is that you need far less cashflow to get them done. Granted, your margins are smaller, but it opens the door to much leaner operations which can only be a good thing for this rinky-dink industry.

[upintheattic]

In future, MB will have to have a planned vision for each product he sees fit to place on sale in that he will need to target market, glean numbers of individuals that will buy it or shops that will order it and somehow, based on previous sales, (NOT pre-orders), produce just the amount he needs to at the best price possible to him. That will be his way forward ................. using a focussed production plan.

That would be great, but to come up with a targeted marketing plan he'll need staff or volunteers who know what they're doing, and he'll need to listen to them. He had the former with Lys and later John Phythyon, but he's not good at listening.

[upintheattic]

Pennywise and pound foolish

Sage words indeed ......

BUT

How come I see that as no surprise on such a subject matter from an icon sporting the Scottish Lion (some things never change)

Wha, me? [insert smiley with highland bonnet]

[upintheattic]

My (limited) understanding of laser-cut countersheets is that you need far less cashflow to get them done. Granted, your margins are smaller, but it opens the door to much leaner operations which can only be a good thing for this rinky-dink industry.

That was the advice we got from a highly respected game distributor at the first con I went to with AP: Go for print on demand as much as possible to limit costs only to what is needed. Unfortunately, that took the form of the Printernator, which turned into a sinkhole for cash since it sat idle or underused far too much of the time and thus didn't justify the huge rental tab each month. Having it drove the production of all those ten-scenario zippies rather than glossy books or boxed games, and that was a mistake because distributors don't order zippies. Had easy on-demand laser-cut counters been available at that time, I think we would have put out a lot more glossy books at the very least, and few to no zippies or downloads.

[J6A]

With a few exceptions, most people are in this industry for the love of it. I know that Alan Emrich at VPG hasn't taken a penny of salary in 3+ years. Yet he keeps the company afloat for the opportunity it affords new designers and his students and because this industry is in his blood. VPG's designers make enough on royalties to, well, feed their game habits probably. What GMT pays its designers/developers won't replace a full time job. I'm pretty sure the staff at MMP are all part timers. GMT and AP are the exceptions with full time executive staff, and while GMT is doing very well (as Doug pointed out, diversification is likely helping a lot here), Mike is spent wearing a lot of hats at AP. And, like Alan, Mike is too damn stubborn to let "his" company die. Whatever missteps he's taken along the way, I give him credit for believing in his dream.

BTW, if it was me, I would have bankrupted AP, started a new company and just published the games from there with a clean slate.

[larry marak]

What we are seeing here is a rara avis, a cargo cult that actually succeeded in bringing in a new supply plane!

(Way down the line Mike has to do a support article for PG in the Pacific about aireal supply and the cargo cults of Micronesia.)

[Hugmenot]

Given what has been brought to light in this thread, I'm not sure you can even objectively call AP a company. More like some sort of quasi charity, except a lot of the participants didn't realize they were "volunteering" their services...

Has anyone ever stopped to think about why AP should be struggling so mightily to right the ship? Is there something achievable in the future that makes all this pain worthwhile? I'm not so sure.

Many, many companies run into similar or worse problems, and yet I would call each and every one of them a company.

Badly run, in most cases, but a company.

Mike had a publisher's blog up for a while (I can no longer find it) and it was clear to me he acknowledged many of the errors he made in the past and highlighted some of the steps he was taking to correct the situation. The steps outlined seem logical enough for me to believe AP has a reasonable chance of success.

I wish him and AP the best.

[Matt W]

Larry,

I just finished rereading Guns, Germs and Steel and your comment about the cargo cult resulting in an entire cup of coffee going to waste. On the other hand it proved to me that caffeine is another of those substances that is more quickly absorbed through the nasal passages.

Where should I send the bill for the keyboard?...

[Shad]

The steps outlined seem logical enough for me to believe AP has a reasonable chance of success.

I wish him and AP the best.

As do I, but I will requote myself because the question remains unanswered:

Has anyone ever stopped to think about why AP should be struggling so mightily to right the ship? Is there something achievable in the future that makes all this pain worthwhile? I'm not so sure.

What is the definition of success here? and if there is one, is it rational?

Some examples off the top of my head would be:

• clear all debts and print all promised titles
  
• retire the PG series and launch a new, successful series
  
• retire existing series (*WAS & PG) and ride off into the sunset
  
• claw up to wargame industry juggernaut status
  

I pass no judgment on the likelihood of any of those, just giving examples. There must be something to work for, otherwise you're going in 10 directions at once.

I work for a medical systems joint venture. When I arrived in 2009 our vision statement actually said we were going to become the best medical systems supplier in the world. This was beyond stupid, it was asinine. Why? Because we are a joint venture! In order to do that we'd have to somehow acquire BOTH our parent companies... not to mention all the other billion brilliant business decisions necessary to achieve global leadership in an industry.

It took a lot of pushing, but in the end I succeeded in changing it. Now our scope is reduced to in China. This is still a difficult, long-term goal... a vision! But it's not insane... and it gives employees a realistic target to aim for...

What's AP's target?