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[saramin]

yes but I have found customer relations whe you do deal with them is wonderful.  at least with some of thier other lines I have actually dealt with them as a customer for...

[Yuna Twilight]

What I'm more concerned with is ... the game is out ... people have bought it and have it ... when exactly is it going to be possible for someone who wasn't at the convention to buy it at a game store or through mail order?

I'm even having trouble figuring out which Tactics figures are already on the market. There are at least a few figures that AREN'T in FFG's online store and ARE at Paizo.

I don't think it's FFG as a whole. I think they just need ONE more marketing person than they currently have, someone to handle "miscellaneous product lines." Just updating websites, maintaining release schedules, and so forth. It really is just a question of people wanting to be informed ... I don't care WHEN something is released, as long as I know how things are going and thus believe that it's still on the schedule.

(Kinda like GURPS Girl Genius, where the book is what, three years late at this point? but the GG website does keep mentioning that they're still working on it from time to time.)

[Anima Studio]

Hi Yuna Twilight. Welcome to the forum.
We hope that the book is soon released too ^^

[Swordwraith]

oh comme on guys!
Are you really thinking that FFG takes their hard earned money to buy licenses to let them rott because they are the evil overlord of the RPG scene?

No, I think they have the best of intentions, but they know where their money comes from, and its definitely not RPGs. Midnight is their flagship line (they made a freaking movie about it, for god's sake. A good movie, at that) and even then it doesn't see much hype or production.

Bottom line: Third party publisher and limited resources means the bulk of their effort is going to go toward the products that see the most profitability.

[Gimp]

I don't think FFG is trying to do Anima a disservice, nor any of their other RPG products.
 
In the dealings I've had with them over other games, including board games, they've come across as a company run by gamers rather than businessmen.  They want to promote the hobby, and want to promote the cool games they've found, but are rather weak on running all of the business aspects, especially online.
 
Like many game stores, they have the best of intentions, but not the greatest ability to bring those intentions to fruition.  They are getting Anima out in English, and will be working on the rest of the line, but it will continue to be a laborious process until they (hopefully) figure out how to do things better.
 
Translation is one of the hardest things they have to do, and an average RPG book is far beyond the effort needed to translate a board game's rules.  A rules intensive board game might go to twenty pages of rules.  Anima went well past 300, as I recall.
 
That doesn't mean I'm impressed with the way they're handling things.  It simply means I think I understand where some of the problems come from.

[Kire Immortal]

I live in Seattle (if anyone else does, send me a message!) and this last weekend we had a gaming convention called PAX, and FFG had a booth there.  They only had a few cases of Anima, and they sold out on the first day.  To their credit, they did have two large Anima banners up: one for Tactics, one for Beyond Fantasy.

I talked to the FFG employees there about poor support and the excuse given was that they didn't know when the thing was going to be released, and it just happened to get done right around now, and that's why it's for sale.  Because of the whole "not knowing when it's going to be done" that's why there was no hype or advertising.  The hope is that by putting the books out there to the hardcore fans, then we can spread how awesome the game is by word of mouth (something I've been doing quite a bit where I live east of the city).  So, to all you Americans out there: tell your local groups about it.

In FFG's opinion, Anima isn't even out yet.  They said that once it gets near the actual public release, they will have a big advertising push and gala for it.  So, we'll have to see.  That's their side of it.

[Hiro]

Like I said, not evil but just incompetent. They need to work on communication within their company.

[SaintV5d]

Hi all we in Atlanta just had Dragoncon and i picked up three copies of the book there, and my friend pick up 1. They had to cases and it took 4 hours to sell out. I really hope to get the game down in time to run it at AWA Anime weekend Atlanta.

[Sallust de la Iglesia]

Hey Kire, sent you a PM. A bunch of us Anima players were at PAX and we even had a small game at PAX on saturday evening. If you're on the north end of Seattle then I hope to see you at Fantastic games for a game sometime.

[Kaito Fujiwara]

call me a cynic, but I doubt i'll be seeing FFG selling any copies at AnimeDetour.
(which would be kinda sad, in a way)

[SaintV5d]

where is anime detour at