[G&&@$!nit. I'm going to hire a paladin to smite your smug ass. Laugh it up chuckles, you're going down.
Did I hear someone say "smite"?
Tagless posters are future customers.
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Although the room has gotten very fuzzy, I did want to respond to the OP.
You see, I may be one of the ones guilty of what you're talking about. Not that I mean it as a slight against people that don't subscribe to Paizo products for one reason or another. And heck, most of what I say specifically includes those who make purchases at the local game store. But, like Sebastian, I'm very concerned when someone starts talking about how everything should be done, or how they're never going to buy anything from Paizo again unless Paizo does this particular thing I strongly disagree with.
The time it was most apparent was during the survey regarding whether Paizo should switch to 4th edition or not. While there certainly are Paizo customers who don't have the tag, I believed then and I believe now that the subscribers - the ones who Paizo knows are buying the product - are probably a more important demographic than the people that Paizo doesn't know if they're buying the product or not.
That isn't to say that the opinions of non-subscribers aren't important. They are. That isn't to say that if a lot of non-subscribers have a suggestion about how to improve the company or the product that they should be ignored - good suggestions should be followed. But it doesn mean that when making a decision, the customers that they know are subscribed directly through them are the ones they can most count on. I just don't want to see Paizo 'fire' the customer base in the hope of picking up a whole new set of customers that may or may not materialize.
So, I don't mean to say that subscriber tags are important - but supporting Paizo is, and the tag is a tangible proof of that support. If someone doesn't buy Paizo products, and won't buy Paizo products, they can pretty safely be ignored. So, in long form, it kind of comes down to what Sebastian said. It isn't that people without tags are considered worthless, it just happens that a lot of the people that are worthless (meaning they're trolls out to start a fight and nothing else) aren't subscribers.
So, one particular subset of the tagless community is a problem (and a small subset at that), but that problem doesn't really exist among those with subscriber tags (but there are a lot of other problems with that group).
No more rambling.
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Stuff in post above...cut for space
You make a lot of good points, especially about how Paizo should consider their loyal supporters.
And this is part of the reason I think a "Customer" tag could help. It seperates those who purchase Paizo products in Paizo's eyes as well as in ours. I have spent more money than I should on Paizo products, just on the website alone, so I feel my opinion about the company is as important as someone who can afford to have a subscription mailed to them monthly.
I feel the need to point out (maybe again, I can't remember) that to mail the subscriptions to me would cost a little more than buying locally (and that doesn't include import taxes, exchange rates, but does include the generous Paizo mailing discounts). Paizo wins either way (actually, by having the product in the store is just as valuable as having people visit the website).
But I want to stress that this still isn't fair to the people who buy nothing from the online store, for whatever reason.
I don't know, maybe Paizo-Approved Stores could have something to tie into Pathfinder Society to give these people credit (not monetary credit!) on the website too...that is a lot of work, I am rambling too.
EDIT: But rest assured, in several months, once I get back into the teaching year, I will subscribe!
Nevermind, I just subscribed. I recalculated my costs, and it is actually $4 cheaper if I subscribe. I believe I was looking at individual modules before and that had me confused. Hurray for Paizo!
Ooo. Shiny tag!
ONE OF US.
ONE OF US.
Sorry Sebastian. You are a unique indivdual, Bella Sara Fanboi!
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Nevermind, I just subscribed. I recalculated my costs, and it is actually $4 cheaper if I subscribe. I believe I was looking at individual modules before and that had me confused. Hurray for Paizo!
Ooo. Shiny tag!
ONE OF US.
ONE OF US.
Heeheeheeheehee!
"Do you think they're cognisant of how bad they've got it?"
Why didn't anyone tell me of the Pathfinder Advantage!?
I just ordered a bunch of new minis, and saved BIGTIME!
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Are you perhaps suggesting that Paizo and its posters should only regard as 'worthwhile' and 'to be paid attention to' people with the money to make half a dozen subscriptions every month, DeadDMWalking? I don't think you intend your post to be read that way, but I'm seeing ways that it logically extends in that direction.
Not at all. Paizo should and does think that every customer is valuable, and they do a lot to prove that is the case.
That said, there are people that for some reason or another don't want Paizo to keep doing these things. I just finished reading a book on customer service called 'Raving Fans'. One of the 'hard parts' of the book talks about letting certain customers know that you can't help them because your vision doesn't match with what they want. Paizo has been really good at that, as well. It isn't easy to say 'sorry you don't like what we make here at Paizo, but we're committed to this particular path. Good luck finding the product you want'. It is so hard, in fact, that some companies try to accomodate customers that can never be pleased because the customer's vision is too far removed from the company vision.
Now, who are these people? How can you recognize them?
It isn't easy. Right of the bat, though, they aren't Paizo customers. That means that if you have a tag, you're not one of them. If you don't have a tag, that also doesn't mean that you are one of them, but it means that the possibility exists that you don't buy any product at all. Now, for myself, personally, I tend to believe people when they say they buy the product.
So, most of these people reveal themselves by saying things like "I don't buy any Paizo products because I play 4th edition. If you switch to 4th edition, I'll start buying your product."
This kind of comment bothered me much more when Paizo hadn't decided whether they were supporting 3rd or 4th yet. They were saying 'I'm not buying your product now, even though 4th edition isn't available, but I'll change my mind when it is.'
I felt that if they really cared about Paizo and influencing Paizo's choice, they should have subscribed until production of 4th edition became a possibility. THey were saying 'I'm not willing to support Paizo unless they give me exactly what I want every time I want something'.
You can't run a business that way. Sure, gamers, by-and-large, are a demanding group. They do want things a particular way, and they can choose not to buy things that aren't in that form.
But because Paizo has been so accomodating to their customers, I want to make sure that a lot of people who aren't customers don't convince them to change their mind about things that I consider important. The 4th edition example is a good one. There are still people that say they'll buy Pazio products if Paizo switches to 4th edition. Now, I know that I won't. I'm not interested in 4th edition, and it isn't a lack of money. If Paizo switches to 4th edition, I would stop buying their products. That sounds like the same as what the other 'would-be customers' are saying. They're not buying the product because it isn't what they want. I am buying the product because it is what I want, and I would stop if that changed.
So, if there were equal numbers saying that, who should Paizo listen to? This was Paizo's big fear - a 50/50 split. In that situation, I said and still say that the people with subscriber tags are the ones that should be listened to. Why? Because the 50% that say they'll start buying when Paizo switches might not be telling the truth (whether it is within their control or not). The ones with subscriber tags are buying the product, at least at that moment.
So, in short, all customers are valued and their input is listened to. And that is good, and how it should be. Non-customers who want to ruin it for everyone should be ignored. While it is impossible to say for certain that someone is not a customer (or future customer), someone that does or did have a subscriber tag can be known as a customer with 100% certainty.
Long story short, all customers should be listened to. The ones with subscriber tags are obviously customers. The ones without may or may not be customers, so in my personal opinion, their feedback should be screened a little more closely. They could be people that are trying to change Paizo's policy or stance in a destructive way for their own sinister reasons.
Does any of that make sense?
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This reads to me as if you are saying that you cannot completely trust Paizo's ability to make sound business decisions of which you can approve (and agree with), if they do not discriminate against posters who do not have tags- because those posters might not be customers at all, but the Paizo...
I don't mean to be offensive, and I don't mean to dismiss anyone out of hand. My point is simply that there are some people who do not have subscriber tags who are a problem. They are not customers and will not become customers, even if there 'demands' are accomodated. If you don't have a subscriber tag, but you purchase Paizo products, you're not in that category. If you have a subscriber tag, you're not in that category. So, 100% of the subscribers are Paizo customers. Something less than 100% of the non-subscribers are Paizo customers. That number might be 1%, it might be 99%. Now, Paizo will listen to everyone, and try to do what is best.
But who should they listen to more? If I say I'm leaving Paizo, they know which subscriptions they'll lose. They know exactly how that will affect their bottom line. The calculations are easy. If someone without a subscriber tag leaves, they don't know what effect that will have. Is that 1 Pathfinder Module every 3-4 months? Or is that every Paizo product they produce? The calculation is harder.
So, if 100 people with my tags say something, and 100 people without tags say the opposite, Paizo will still have to decide which is best for them, but the 100 people without tags will probably be given more 'weight' since they're the customers they already have. A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.
If they listen to the subscribers, worst case scenario is they lose 100 customers (best case is they lose 0). If they listen to the people without tags, they may lose 100 customers and not gain a single one.
So, yeah, I think all customers are valuable, and Paizo does a good job making sure that all customers realize that. But a good company recognizes it's good customers and makes sure to make them happy as well. Even though Paizo could basically count on me as a customer even if they didn't do things like throw random item cards in my orders, the little extras that they do go a long way to make people like me a raving fan. It isn't uncommon in business to give the 20% of your customers that provide 80% of your revenue a little love. And it isn't a bad thing. That doesn't mean the other 80% should be treated like dirt, but again, that isn't happening.
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So, to respond to a few comments made (mostly on this page) in general:
I agree, Paizo needs to make business decisions - if they need to know who is buying their products online, they can check that easily (with or without the tags).
I wanted to mention something: as a result of this thread, I became a subsciber (not from guilt or anything) and here is why:
1. I was waiting to make sure I could get Skinsaw Murders before investing in the APs. Once I got that, I purchased Burnt Offerings.
2. Coincidentally, while discussing in this thread, I was also reading Burnt Offerings. Once I finished the thoroughly reading, I was sold on the quality and content I would get every month.
3. Now that I knew I wanted the APs, I had to decide how to get them. Originally, I had made an error when pricing things, and figured it was about $4 cheaper per module to buy locally. Thanks to a friendly discussion, I double checked this and found my calculations were for buying each module alone, sans subscription.
4. Once I knew it was cheaper to buy online ($5 cheaper to be exact), I signed up. And I got a sweet Pathfinder Advantage on my new minis.
So, as a result of my recent conversion I can attest to at least the following: I liked Pathfinder enough that I subscribed, so Paizo can at least bank on that.
This does not retract my previous request, only augments it. Now that I have a Subscriber tag, people know where I shop. But I still care about the other guy!
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I have lotsa tags it doesn't mean that I support Paizo more then someone else it just means that for the time being I have the money available to be able to have products sent to me as opposed to going and getting it at some later date at my FLGS. It doesn't mean my posts are any more relevant or important than anyone else's, hey depending on my opinion it may even be less, "lets just all get along" people.
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1) Are you saying that there should be two standards of rules for posting, with non-subscribers being cracked down on more harshly for breeches of etiquette, and being afforded less latitude to post their minds than subscribers?
No. Absolutely not. I think that all the rules should apply to all of the people all of the time.
2) Are you saying that the Paizo messageboards should become metaphorically (maybe with a few areas set aside for 'non-subscribers') a 'private members club', to which only subscribers are afforded acess?
No. Absolutely not. I think that any community suffers by being too insular.
Before I go on, I do want to state, I made a typo in the section you quoted, where I said 'there' instead of 'their'. That drives me crazy. I publicly apologize for the error. I know the difference, and if it causes your brain to explode when you see it (as mine does), I hope you will accept my apology.
The original poster was saying that some people dismiss posts from non-subscribers, specifically in the context of making suggestions about what Paizo should or should not do. Or at least, that is my understanding. In general, this does not happen in threads that are not about actions that Paizo should take. So, a non-subscriber that posts in a thread about skills is not usually discounted. A non-subscriber that posts in a thread titled 'Paizo should covert to 4th edition' might very well be ignored or specifically told that their opinion is less important because they are not currently a subscriber.
That is a point of view that I ascribe to. If someone chose not to support Paizo when 4th edition was announced even before they could even consider choosing which way to go, I have a bit of a problem with that. I understand why some people said 'I won't buy anything else that is 3rd edition because I'll be converting to 4th edition within the next year - what's the point?'. But I do have a problem with that. Not with specific individuals, but as a group I do feel that we have an obligation to support the kinds of companies that produce products that we love. Paizo had lost their magazines. I don't know if they considered closing their doors. If it hadn't been for customers like me (and obviously it took a lot of customers like me) choosing to support Paizo when they were figuring out which direction to go, there might not be a Paizo today. Now, I don't think that the people who supported Paizo during a difficult transition should have any specical powers or considerations. We're just customers, like anyone who started buying Paizo products last week.
My point is that the people who are already buying from Paizo have an obvious interest in having more products made that are similar to the ones that they are buying. The people that are not currently buying Paizo products (potential customers) may or may not be won over by possible changes. For example, some of them would undoubtedly convert to Paizo customers if Paizo switched to 4th edition. However, that would pretty much mean losing the customers that they have now (or at least, it might). Obviously the current customers are happy to buy 3rd edition material despite the fact that the new edition of D&D has been out for over a month.
So, when Paizo makes a decision about what to do in the future (whether that's deciding on which edition to support or what line of product to launch next), I think that they should consider the opinions of their existing customers a little more carefully than the opinions of their potential customers. Gaining a new customer is harder than keeping an existing customer. And if they bend over backwards to give the potential customer what they want, they stand to lose existing customers, and may not be able to keep that new customer unless they keep giving him (or her) exactly what he (or she) wants.
So, the current Paizo customers should be given more consideration than potential customers when considering changes. But how should Paizo determine who is a customer and who isn't? Should they listen to everyone who says 'I just spent $300 on Paizo stuff, and I'll be doing that every month for all eternity'? The problem is that person could be lying. How does Paizo know that they're telling the truth.
They don't. They can't. Unless the person is buying directly from Paizo. So, while a customer that buys from Borders is as valuable or perhaps even more valuable than a customer that buys direct, I do believe that the opinions of known customers should be given more consideration than that of non-customers. As a result, sometimes the opinions of customers may not be given full weight because it is impossible to determine both whether or not the subject is a customer, and to what degree they are a customer.
This also has the effect of discounting my opinions to a degree since I buy Paizo products from my local Game Store. Things like flip-mats, map cards, item cards, etc, don't show up in my Paizo orders. So, when talking about what Paizo should do with flip-maps, I expect my opinion to carry less weight than a customer that Paizo can see ordered every flip-map available from the Paizo store.
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I think everyone is being too hard on Sebastian. There's nothing wrong with going to a pink and lavendar pony and brushing its hair to help oneself relax. Besides, none of us are Bella Sara Charter Superscribers like Sebastian. So we can't talk about his love of all things cute and pony because we aren't putting our money where our mouth is.
The problem is- they can't prove you are buying anything at your local store.
I buy all my books from one store. I will continue to do so until that store goes under. Until then, Paizo can make books as cheap as they want on their website- I'm still supporting my store.
But does Paizo know that? Of course not. They really have no way to know whether I have no books or all of their books. There's just no easy way to track who buys what, if you aren't buying it from them.
Any "tag" they let you put on without restriction, wouldn't be worth the bytes it took to stick it on there, because Anyone could put it on there.
I wish there Was a way they could do it for buyers-who-don't-subscribe but I don't really see a way at the moment. :\
-S
Fortunately, DeadDM's opinion is exactly that, DDM's. Paizo staff have generally responded to everyone as if they were a customer and appears to listen to everyone based on the merits of their posts on the board and the value of their contributions here rather than keying in on subscribers input.
Ultimately it boils down to wetware, and the Paizo staff seem to be pretty good at listening to and filtering the torrent of input from these boards.
In the end it makes no difference if you have no special subscription or you have everything. Paizo and any other company doesn't make decisions based on individuals. The only real "power" any consumer has is their money. If Paizo or any other company is doing something you don't like, don't buy from them.
Heck I ended my Pathfinder Subscription after the 12th issue because I have never been extremely happy about the Pathfinder set up, I thought too much space was wasted on fluff articles that I didn't care about. And them changing how the adventure was written by taking some of it out and making it a separate encounter/adventure just was going too far for me, drop the story part and slap an adventure in there and I would have stuck with it. I have voiced my dislikes on these boards, with my (then) Charter Pathfinder Subscription. Did it change anything? So now I am voicing it with my only real "voice", my wallet.
Doesn't mean I won't still buy stuff from the site, especially 3.5 material that goes on sale (come on we need another $5/$2 sale!). But I am not going to subscribe to stuff out of some misguide sense of "loyalty". I purchased items that Paizo made that I liked (well enough), I gave them money, they gave me product, that is the extent of my loyalty.
Giving a company money for making products you don't like or want is misguided, because all it does is keep them thinking that they should continue on that path. If you want Paizo to go 4e, you should not be buying 3.P products because you are not giving them any kind of motivation to change. Now buying 4e products sold by Paizo would help motivate them to see the value in switching. You can help support the Paizo company without being a subscriber to the Paizo 3.P product line.
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G@+!*#nit. I'm going to hire a paladin to smite your smug ass. Laugh it up chuckles, you're going down.
Someone call for a Paladin? Will a Ridiculous Servant of the Sunny Guy do?
Hopefully I can get a really cool scar, I need one for a job I'm applying for. Oh, wait.....it's for the tin-foil dragon.....guess I don't need to worry about getting any scars here.....oh well.Anyway, I do work cheap but my services far surpass most more expensive 'dragon' hunters'.
In the end it makes no difference if you have no special subscription or you have everything. Paizo and any other company doesn't make decisions based on individuals. The only real "power" any consumer has is their money. If Paizo or any other company is doing something you don't like, don't buy from them.
QFT and +1
I can see a little loyalty to Paizo continuing to buy 3.5 products to encourage them to stick with that product line... but not a lot. In general you and the market are best off putting your money where the best product is. Right now I think that is with Pathfinder.
My problem is that a subscription is going to provide way more material than I will be able to use. It's taken my current group over a year to get most of the way through Red Hand of Doom and that is no where near as big as a full AP. Second Darkness alone will be 2-3 years worth of material.
Nevermind, I just subscribed. I recalculated my costs, and it is actually $4 cheaper if I subscribe. I believe I was looking at individual modules before and that had me confused. Hurray for Paizo!
Wow. I'm in Canada too, and I can't figure out how you're getting things cheaper by subscribing and paying the shipping costs to Canada. Your "F"LGS must really have been ripping you off!
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Wow. I'm in Canada too, and I can't figure out how you're getting things cheaper by subscribing and paying the shipping costs to Canada. Your "F"LGS must really have been ripping you off!
They are charging $24.99 (CAN) for a single issue of Pathfinder, which is a reasonable markup considering they had them on the shelves back when the exchange rate was a little higher.
With a Pathfinder subsription, the cost is $13.99 (US) plus about $6.50 shipping fees (and since the exchange is even, no problem there). So I actually save money with a subscription. And that is shipping a single issue at a time, I can save more by holding my sibscriptions (which I do).
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I'm in Canada too (Oshawa, ON). I'm about to see what my FLGS is charging for Pathfinder modules one-off. Because I signed up for a "subscription" through them (ie. they get in one copy for me of every Pathfinder module, and I have to buy it - which won't be a problem, plus it probably helped that I reserved a copy of the Campaign Setting as well) they gave me 10% off. But they aren't sure what the price will be yet, as I'm starting with PF13. I suspect they will charge me cover price for it, as that's what they have done with other Paizo products. That means I get it for about $18 (plus taxes), and I can use my debit card.
I might have subscribed through the website, even paying a few bucks more per issue on a subscription, if they accepted Paypal. But they don't, so there you have it - no tag for me. However, my FLGS is happy, and either way I end up with the product, so I'm happy. :)
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I'm in Canada too (Oshawa, ON). I'm about to see what my FLGS is charging for Pathfinder modules one-off. Because I signed up for a "subscription" through them (ie. they get in one copy for me of every Pathfinder module, and I have to buy it - which won't be a problem, plus it probably helped that I reserved a copy of the Campaign Setting as well) they gave me 10% off. But they aren't sure what the price will be yet, as I'm starting with PF13. I suspect they will charge me cover price for it, as that's what they have done with other Paizo products. That means I get it for about $18 (plus taxes), and I can use my debit card.
I might have subscribed through the website, even paying a few bucks more per issue on a subscription, if they accepted Paypal. But they don't, so there you have it - no tag for me. However, my FLGS is happy, and either way I end up with the product, so I'm happy. :)
Sounds like you got a nice deal from your FLGS, you should definitely go for it!
My FLGS was just testing the waters with Paizo, but with me heckling them, they will get some stuff in, and let me run Pathfinder Society games too!
Hey, if you're in the 'Shwa, what store do you go to? Ever go to Silver Snail in Toronto?
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Hey, if you're in the 'Shwa, what store do you go to? Ever go to Silver Snail in Toronto?
Used to go there whenever I got into Tronna. :) A buddy of mine used to live just around the corner on McCaul (in the same building as Ginsberg and Wong... yummy stuff), so we'd go there for a bit whenever I visited.
I used to live in Peterborough, where there used to be a very good gaming store - Eyeball Soup. That's gone (at least it's mostly gone... I think they share space with a sports card shop now). In Oshawa I go to Worlds Collide. Nice store, lots of product (they actually split off into two physical locations two stores apart - one for all the comics and one for all the games).
I talked to him the other day about becoming a Pathfinder Society "site" (they have dedicated gaming space in the store, and have drop-in games, tourneys for Warhammer and War Machine, etc) - he seems quite interested, and also seems quite interested in Pathfinder RPG. So that's also good for me. :) I guess we'll see if he can sell at cover price once the new batch comes in... I don't know how much of a discount the stores themselves get, and they need their cut as well.
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RPG Superstar 2009 Top 8
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I used to live in Peterborough, where there used to be a very good gaming store - Eyeball Soup. That's gone (at least it's mostly gone... I think they share space with a sports card shop now). In Oshawa I go to Worlds Collide. Nice store, lots of product (they actually split off into two physical locations two stores apart - one for all the comics and one for all the games).
I remember Eyeball Soup ... wasn't that across from the bus station or a couple of blocks down? Geez, I think I remember that place from like 12 years ago.
They are charging $24.99 (CAN) for a single issue of Pathfinder, which is a reasonable markup considering they had them on the shelves back when the exchange rate was a little higher.
Ouch! That's particularly strange, considering the $CDN has been trading right around par since August 2007, when the first Pathfinder came out. I'm a little unsure of their excuse.
In any case, they charge cover price in $CDN ($19.99) everywhere I've seen near me (which, granted, isn't a lot since Paizo's stuff is still a little scarce here).
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RPG Superstar 2009 Top 8
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Yep - just down a bit, nearer the corner of George St. :) It's been probably 5 or 6 (or more?) years since it basically shut down (or moved in with Jeff's Cards and Comics... not sure, I've never gone in there).
Where are you that you would have the opportunity to be in Peterborough, Tarren Dei? :)
Grew up in Peterborough. Left there in 1995. Used to hang out at the Only Cafe, Union Theatre, Artspace, ...
Contributor
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Okay, coupla things. I grew up in Campbellford, so I'd go to Peterborough to get to the 'big city.' I used to shop at DeBy's hobbies, which is prolly long gone.
Also, my brother, the Scribbling Rambler, lives in Oshawa, and shops at Worlds Collide, and has been trying to get them to take an interest in Pathfinder as well.
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RPG Superstar 2009 Top 8
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Okay, coupla things. I grew up in Campbellford, so I'd go to Peterborough to get to the 'big city.' I used to shop at DeBy's hobbies, which is prolly long gone.
Also, my brother, the Scribbling Rambler, lives in Oshawa, and shops at Worlds Collide, and has been trying to get them to take an interest in Pathfinder as well.
But you live here in Ottawa now, right?
I remember Deby's. It had two locations but I can't remember which came first. I think Water St. was their last location. When I first started going in there for D&D stuff, the model trains were there bigger seller and took up most of the window space.
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Okay, coupla things. I grew up in Campbellford, so I'd go to Peterborough to get to the 'big city.' I used to shop at DeBy's hobbies, which is prolly long gone.
Also, my brother, the Scribbling Rambler, lives in Oshawa, and shops at Worlds Collide, and has been trying to get them to take an interest in Pathfinder as well.
Cool. Ross seems to know more about what's going on with Pathfinder, while Mark hasn't quite picked up on it yet (that's based on some very quick discussions with them, and the one with Mark was a couple months ago, so it may have changed a lot since then).
Either way, I'm sure between the two of us we can harass them enough to make it happen. :)
As for DeBy's, yep I think it's been gone for some time. It was always a little weird to go in there for gaming stuff because he seemed to hate gamers. If you had no interest in model trains, he had absolutely no use for you other than to grudgingly sell you things. But it was the only option for a while along with Dixons. That would be why I made occasional forays into Toronto to Silver Snail. :)
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You know, I hate to say it, but this is all kind of silly. Complaining about be oppressed by Paizo is like complaining about being intimidated by a pacifist. This is definitely one of the top 5 most customer-friendly companies in the history of the hobby, with some of the most involved and friendly staff in the history of the hobby. Staffers can and do hop on and answers questions of trivial importance all the time. Take a few deep breaths and realize three things:
1. If the staff doesn't know you as a troublemaker, they're probably listening to you.
2. If they're listening to you, they probably like you.
3. All you likely need to do to demonstrate your customer-hood is know a bit about Golarion and/or the PFRPG rules that's beyond what can be gleaned from a 20-minute skim of the website.
Sheesh.
You know, I hate to say it, but this is all kind of silly. Complaining about be oppressed by Paizo is like complaining about being intimidated by a pacifist.
The original incident was a fellow board member commenting about the lack of a subscriber tag. No one has complained about treatment from Paizo Staff.
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You know, I hate to say it, but this is all kind of silly.
Yah, I hate it when someone brings up something that has been basically abandoned as a discussion, too. Oh, you mean the actual OP issue... ;)
As Ogre said, I think someone mentioned along the way that they would feel it was justified if the staff paid more attention to what subscribers wanted than non-subscribers, but I don't know that anyone ever accused them of such things. I know I don't have a tag, am a good purchaser of Paizo product at my FLGS, and I've never felt that the staff show any level of preference for those with tags.
I don't think it's anything to worry about. The only tags I really notice are the ones that say "contributor" or have some job title after them. :)
I don't think it's anything to worry about. The only tags I really notice are the ones that say "contributor" or have some job title after them. :)
The ones that say RPG Superstar are nifty too, those are from people who won the various stages of the RPG superstar contest. The lower the number the better :)
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i subscribe because it is a) convenient, b) my work schedule makes it difficult for me to get to the FLGS, and c) i'd rather give my $ directly to paizo. i expect no preferential treatment for a decision made out of expedience, frankly.
and, i've noticed that the paizo staff doesn't play favorites (as far as i can tell from reading the boards, much to their credit), which is another reason i support this company. all customers (actual and potential) are important to these guys!
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I don't think it's anything to worry about. The only tags I really notice are the ones that say "contributor" or have some job title after them. :)
The ones that say RPG Superstar are nifty too, those are from people who won the various stages of the RPG superstar contest. The lower the number the better :)
Yah, those ones are neat, too, but those folks don't really garner any extra attention from me when I'm skimming threads (no offense meant to the RPG Superstars, of course). Staffers and contributors (which some of the RPG Superstars have become, I believe) do, though. I like the avatars for that reason, if the person is a regular poster. Oh, and Sebastian. I don't know why, but I feel compelled to read his posts as well - I think because they're often hilarious :)