Jeff Alvarez's page

I've noted a mistake in the statement, but since we won't be able to edit it until tomorrow morning, I wanted to pop on tonight to correct it here in the comments as soon as I noticed it.

We held in-person anti-harassment training in 2018, but only instituted mandatory annual anti-harassment training in 2021. I apologize for writing that paragraph in a way that implied there had been continuous training since 2018. That enhanced program only started this year, but is annual going forward.

Again, sorry about the confusion.

I know people still have a lot of other things they'd like to hear from me, and I will do my best to get to those soon, but I wanted to address this item immediately.

Accusations that I have used offensive slurs about members of the staff are categorically FALSE. Many LGBTQIA+ members of the Paizo staff are close friends of mine, and I would never talk that way about anyone on our staff or in our community.

The recent departure of two long-time Paizo employees has generated a great deal of public discussion, including a series of accusations critical of the company’s management that range back several years. While Paizo cannot discuss personnel issues in public, we wish to strongly reaffirm the company’s commitment to the ideals of inclusiveness and diversity in gaming, both within our company and in the products we create.

From the day the company opened back in 2002 all the way to the present, POC and LGBTQIA+ contributors and staff have been a critical part of our creative and business operations, and our company has been at the forefront of these issues in the work we publish and the values we espouse.

We are committed to these values and work to do better every day, backed up by a tremendous staff at all levels of the company, all of whom share the values of inclusivity, diversity, and improvement. We are also working actively to listen to those employees and take additional steps to ensure that they feel their voices are being heard. By doing so, we believe we have become better now than we were 5 years ago, and that we will be better 5 years from now than we are today.

--Jeff

And another quiet week with no updates.

I thought I posted on Thursday but I guess it didn't take. No new updates for the week.

Thanks for the kind words, Raakam. I'm doing my best to provide what insight we have into Archon's processes but info is limited. And apologies for not posting yesterday but I'm on vacation and just had some time to post tonight. No new updates this week.

No new updates this week.

Unfortunately no new updates for today.

Quiet week so no updates.

There's no update on release as the product is still in transit to WizKids.

Thanks so much. I know you said you'd keep us updated, but I get the feeling with WizKids stuff and some other stuff (like some of Paizo's printed material) things just sort of sail on in whenever, without any real rhyme or reason when it will show up.

I'm keeping an updated list of WizKids prepainted miniatures over on Kor's Minisgallery, so it's always nice to be able to update there, even if just to stress patience.

We both manufacture in China and since the pandemic, there has been tremendous upheavals in shipping times and access to shipping equipment and that's what we are both encountering. Neither of our companies fly by the seats of our pants when it comes to releases, believe me. Manufacturing on our scales requires very sizable upfront payments and both companies are keen to recoup those as quickly as possible, so sticking to a schedule is the only way to make the business side work.

Unfortunately when you cannot get a container to put your product into in China, or a ship to get it out of China, or there are delays in the ports in the USA, or there are no spaces in trucks to get it out of the port, or delivered to your warehouse, or to get it from your warehouse to your customer, that slows everything down. Now think about the impact to your release schedule as you encounter several of those with one product shipment. That's what you are seeing here and that's what we are experiencing with our releases.

Everyone just needs to relax and give us both time to work through these issues because I guarantee you, we want to release the product as soon as we can.

As for them getting reviewer copies out there, those were likely packaged first and shipped separately from the cases, which would explain why they are here and the cases aren't. I met with WizKids yesterday and the answer I received was the same as it was last week and the weeks prior, it's all still on the way...

Nothing new to add for this week.

A couple online shops have started listing these singles on their website, although they aren't available for pre-order quite yet. Typically this is a sign that the set is soon to release. But it's possible they're just getting things ready because the official date on the WizKids page says August, and they don't know if that means early August or late August.

Paizo reps, can you confirm whether this is coming next week (August 4th) or the following week? Or is this still undetermined and possibly far off (like really late August or even September)?

I can confirm that NO ONE has these yet, not even WizKids, so those must be pre-orders. My guess is that everyone is still weeks away from any kind of release.

Yep Archon has posted Wave 4 details! This wave includes:

1x Starfinder Space Goblin Honchohead
4x Starfinder Space Goblin Zaperators
1x Starfinder Space Goblin Dual Wielder
1x Starfinder Asteray

Shipping is scheduled to begin on July 29th and pre-orders are open now.

Another quiet week with no new updates.

Is there a physical storefront at the Paizo HQ? I’m visiting Seattle and wanted to swing by if there was an actual storefront.

Unfortunately we do not have a physical storefront so there's nothing for you to come and visit. Maybe someday we will have an awesome shop and cafe like Games Workshop has but that's just not in the cards for us quite yet.

No further update this week.

When will Archon actually ship anything to backers without additional purchase? After Wave 6?

That is the plan Archon has provided to us, so as far as we know yes.

Just wanted to let everyone in this thread know that the Bestiary Unleashed miniatures set has been hit with some severe shipping delays and WizKids doesn't know when these will get to them, let alone when these will be set to release. We will keep the threads updated as we learn more and we thank you for your patience.

Big news this week...

Wave 4 should be releasing this month and Archon should have an announcement about this in the next week or so.

Wave 5 is in tooling and should be ready for release in August.

Wave 6 is in design and should be ready for release in September/October.

Appreciate that you keep checking in every week. Definitely stems the tide of anger at Ninja Division having the weekly check ins, but at this point I am not really believing Archon will meet that goal post of getting any mini's out to people who don't order from them.

I know there are no updates, but when was the last time you guys reached out and asked for a status report on intended progress...?

Have you checked in and they haven't responded with reportable info, haven't responded at all, possibly haven't checked in in a while?

Thanks again Jeff, your presence in the thread is probably the only thing keeping the pitch forks in the sheds, but no update or news for months is a bit exasperating.

We check with them on a weekly basis but most of the time we are met with little to no reply. I know that they are inching forward on a few sculpts but with minimal communication and no proposed timelines, it's hard for us to share anything with you guys.

What I do know is they haven't asked to pull out of the fulfillment project so I'd expect them to keep moving forward, even if it's mm by mm. And we will continue to email and call and try to learn what we can and share what we can.

Any updates on this? I'm interested. I found a site that claims 17 August release date.

We don't have a delivery date from our manufacturer yet so I can't say when these will release at this time. I can say that 8/17 is an interesting guess but even I don't have enough info to say whether that's reasonable or not quite yet.

No new updates.

Donald wrote:

Can Paizo confirm that it's because Troll & Toad will be selling their products and not because they've had a change of plans?

Just to Nip things in the bud, Andy.

Thanks.

We have not had a change in plans. We will not be at Gen Con or any con in 2021, physically.

Yes you are correct, Donald. They likely added us because we gave our exclusive to T&T. And Aaron is correct as well, we will not be there in a physical capacity.

Katina Davis wrote:

While the goblin is listed in the Battles section, it is not part of the actual Battles line and therefore should not receive the 30% discount. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news! I'll work on making a less confusing place to list it on the website.

Thanks for the response! It's not really a letdown on my end, as I no longer have the Battles subscription. I was just curious. But it's in my cart at the moment and it DOES appear to have the 15% discount attached to it, so I hope that's accurate.

By chance, do you know if Paizo or WizKids has a video review of this product? I've seen a few random videos on YouTube, but most of them are shot poorly and focus more on the unboxing and less on showing off the actual piece as a whole. I know there was a blog with some great pics posted, and that was helpful. But with something so pricey it would be nice to get a much more dynamic feel for it.

I'm trying to convince myself I really need this. I even have a great place for it in the school library for next year, very visible but out of reach from grimy Elementary hands! I was building up an army of young Pathfinder 2e players prior to the lockdown, and I plan to continue in the Fall. This guy would definitely go over well! Good news is I'm 95% sure that I'm passing on a competitors case of miniatures later this summer, so financially I'm already mostly there.

I'm not sure if there's an official video from WZK but these folks did a great unboxing video and it shows the goblin statue in pretty clear detail.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web& amp;cd=&ved=2ahUKEwjpqbTeu7PxAhXEu54KHUUOBjIQwqsBMA16BAgSEAE&url=ht tps%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fmoxiegamestore%2Fvideos%2Fmoxie-games-unboxi ng-the-wizkids-pathfinder-goblin%2F171271101408277%2F&usg=AOvVaw0umK7xO YVgd_UdmoxYxCVf

Another quiet week with no updates.

WizKids is experiencing some serious freight delays that will likely push the release date for the Bestiary Unleashed cases and premiums. It's not for sure but it is very likely and as we learn more, we will try to keep this thread updated.

No updates for this week.

That certainly would've worked; in the absence of that, I still need an answer to my previous post.

Check your private messages in your Paizo.com account for more info.

Sorry folks but no new update for this week.

I deleted some posts bickering about Covid guidelines and safety. There's no need to argue about who's right and who's wrong here.

No new updates for this week.

Thanks for being up front Mark, would appreciate if you passed the price question up the stream but I get that it isn't something Paizo controls. Just feels like a bit of a bait and switch that I remember one of the original justifications of the price hike was the huge figures....

Appreciate what answers you have for us, and appreciate what you guys do on the back end to get us updates too.

There's been huge price increases in China on substrates which has caused plastic prices to rise and WZK hadn't had a booster price increase for years so this is more of a line increase to match COGs increase than a cost increase based on mini configuration.

Honest question, if you have them in your warehouse already why do they need to stay there for another ~5 weeks before being shipped? Why not ship them now?

Kelseus is kinda correct, in that we do have a process for releases and it isn't throw them out the door the minute they hit the dock.

We have a multi-tiered distribution system to interact with as well as our direct to customer fulfillment and short-circuiting the system doesn't help anyone. We are following the same processes that we always do, month in and month out, you just don't see it because it all occurs outside of the general paizo.com customer experience.

Jeff Alvarez wrote:

Another quiet week so no update.

I appreciate the updates but I do have a question. Are you actively reaching out to Prodos/Archon each week or passively checking whether they've updated you of their own accord?

It is likely more passive than you would like but there's also no real way for us to make them talk to us and there's no real way for us to apply pressure on them to produce things at a faster pace. They took over the job of fulfilling this and were given a big empty hole to fill so they are working on filling it as best they can. They still need to keep their core business moving forward and are working on this as they have capacity.

The figures they have produced have been awesome and the future sculpts we've seen look equally great. We just need them to be in a place to release the next wave and I don't have any timeline on that.

Deleted some posts. There's no reason to bicker or bite at each other or speculate on these products any further. They have delivered to our warehouse and are scheduled for release on 7/7/21.

Let's try to remember that we all share a fondness for games and while that passion can bubble out in a lot of ways, the more we focus it in constructive and positive ways, the more we will all benefit from it.

Another quiet week so no update.

Any chance the physical copy is version 1.1?

We have not printed a version that includes errata yet so no.

I just hope that whatever agreement/contract Paizo has with Gen Con is not invalidated because they are not exercising their rights to the Sag. I would hate to return in 2022 and find that Baldman games or some other group had grabbed it out from under Paizo. I know there were A LOT of upset people when Wizards "lost" it.

There's no need to speculate on this topic as we've already had the discussions with Gen Con. We will have the first right of refusal on the Sag for 2022.

I don't think anything would stop a player from going to physical Gen Con, while also signing up for Gen Con online and choosing to do online Paizo events from their hotel wi-fi or phone hotspot for a few hours. Might be a decent compromise.

This is actually something that Gen Con expects to occur and they shouldn't have any issues with it.

I apologize that our messaging came out after the rollover deadline had expired and caused many of you unnecessary heartache. Honestly, since exhibitor badges work totally different than attendee badges, the rollover deadline wasn't even on our radar. We simply made our decision and chose to release the details when we did. If we would have realized there was a rollover deadline looming, we would have pushed to get our message out earlier.

Since our announcement, Gen Con has had two more big companies release similar messaging and they've announced that they're extending the rollover deadline to June 25th, 2021. This should allow those of you that still want to rollover your badges to next year's show to do just that.

We look forward to gaming online with some of you this year and we look forward to seeing the rest of you next year in Indy!

No new updates for this week either.

So, I totally understand if you can't answer this, but has the missing cargo container been located?

The container hasn't gone missing but it's being held up in customs at the port. This is reasonably common and occurs to us a few times each year but never to this level of delay.

Sorry folks, no new updates for this week.

Another week with no new updates.

No new updates.

Sorry folks but no new updates for this week.

Jeff - Ninja Division hasn't updated their KS page in over 10 months. As a US backer, I have absolutely no confidence in their ability that they can or will be able to ship Wave 1 out once (or if) Archon completes it.

You haven't received any updates from ND or Archon 'lately'; Archon's 'social media ninja' hasn't posted anything since their first intro message months ago.

This project is beyond dead - don't know how you can disagree given that you say you don't know more than we do based on your 'no news this week' posts.

Appreciate you trying to update us, but no news is still no news. I get Paizo is trying, but the others aren't.

Any chance the backers can get access to the STLs or anything? Is there something Paizo can do to help Archon be more successful with their StarFinder minis sales (ex: allow direct orders from your store) so they will be able to afford continuing working on the KS?

Thanks

Archon is working on the next wave of figures as far as we understand, but COVID hit them really very hard. Our main contact there had COVID and was very, very sick. He also lost both of his neighbors to it, so you can see how that might put a bit of a delay in things.

As for doing anything with the STLs, that's not something we've really discussed because Archon is still committed to completing the minis project.