DM website update report #3: The CH Conundrum

Pitman

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Just a brief message to let you all know where I am with the update of the Desperation Morale "World of ASL" compendium.

With the exception of Critical Hit, discussed below, I have finished, and posted, the write-ups of all the ASL products released since April 2017 except for LFT's Fight for Seoul module and BFP's Corregidor. (if you notice something else missing, let me know!) Of course, the new Croix De Guerre, the new combined edition of Sof/HH (DASL) from MMP, a new Bonus Pack, and Koenigsberg 1945 are all due to come out soon, so I will have more work on my hands with those write-ups as well.

Still, the bulk of the write-ups are finished.

These write-ups are all without photos, except for a couple where people kindly sent me photos, who are duly credited in those entries. I can't thank them enough, nor emphasize how much I encourage you to send me photos. I suspect I will be taking some photos of my own this coming month, but not as many as I had been, because the whole process of taking and processing those photos is a real paint point for me.

That leaves Critical Hit. I have about 11-12 Critical Hit products from the first months of 2017 that I will be doing write-ups for.

How many other Critical Hit items have come out in the past 2 1/2 years? I requested a list of releases from RT but he just sent me a smarmy response, which I expected. So I began laboriously going through the CH website, looking at every release or announced release (it gets complicated because RT, possibly deliberately, often doesn't distinguish between upcoming and already-produced products on his site). I began incorporating these into a spreadsheet.

As of this morning, this CH spreadsheet has 242 rows to it. Does that mean 242 new items in the past 2.5 years? I wish. Because of variant maps, etc., many of those rows actually contain links to as many as 5 different CH items (but typically 3). This means that, to update the website, I will have to make somewhere between 240 and 1200 new entries or changes to existing entries (I think it may be around 700). These range from what would be an entire write-up for a new product to a small update to an existing entry, so the amount of work would vary. But it's a lot.

One of the reasons there are so many entries is, I believe, that RT has acquired a printing press capable of print on demand, at least for his map panels, scenario cards and rules and charts if not necessarily for die-cut counters. With print on demand he need not worry about warehouse/storage costs, nor put overhead into printing items that may or may not sell well. He can print exactly as needed, without the great loss in time and effort that would be required to do that on old non-POD presses. As a result, it is very easy for him to make many variations of a single HASL map--larger hex or even larger hex or winterized terrain or rubbled, etc.--and offer them as standalone releases or upgrades to the main product. If someone is actually stupid enough to pay him $100 for an extra extra large version of a HASL map that nobody would have space for, great, he's made some money. If they don't, well, all he lost was an afternoon, or less, working on Illustrator.

It is clear that this will be standard operating practice for CH going forward. I noticed several other apparent newish practices, too.

So, am I going to purchase all of these things? No. That would cost me thousands and thousands of dollars. Even if I didn't purchase any of the map variants, etc., he now prices his products so very high that I would be giving him an exorbitant amount of money--still thousands--just buying "baseline" products.

What I plan to do, then, is to document all these items, with the information I can find (which is difficult, because CH provides extremely little information about its individual products, what it does say about them is filtered through RT's bizarre stream of consciousness ramblings, and the few facts that it does offer (such as contents) are often incomplete or inaccurate. And of course, since he renames and repackages old content constantly, there's also the matter of figuring out pedigree.

I will also purchase, through a retailer, not directly, to limit the amount of $$, CH would get, a small number of these CH products that might be good to examine personally, and do a full write-up for those few.

There are ways you can help me with this. I am not asking anybody to donate to the site for the purpose of obtaining CH products, nor am I asking people to purchase CH products to send to em. BUT, if you ALREADY HAVE purchased a CH product that came out in the past 2.5 years, I WOULD APPRECIATE it if you could send me a detailed list/description of the contents of said products. I can give you credit for that in the entry for those products, or--if you prefer--keep you anonymous. I can understand why some might prefer confidentiality. And I will not judge your purchase habits. :)

Anyway, you kind of have in a nutshell why I stopped updating my site for 2.5 years--the frustration of taking photos and especially of documenting Critical Hit (for consumer awareness/protection reasons). I wish RT would retire and move to Hawaii and disappear from my ASL consciousness.

So that's where things stand now. Just thought some might be interested.
 

dur

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You could also just stop covering the new CH releases. It seems that most ASLers are in one of two camps: Those who purchase CH products and those who do not. Those who purchase CH products are likely to continue to do so without any further convincing.

Are reviews of CH products going to move any players from the latter group to the former?
 

Tuomo

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Even at this reduced level of CH coverage, it still seems like maintaining the database of CH stuff is just more time and aggravation than it's worth. I wouldn't blame you for calling it a useless time sink. It's not your job to document everything, much less review it.
 

Pitman

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You could also just stop covering the new CH releases. It seems that most ASLers are in one of two camps: Those who purchase CH products and those who do not. Those who purchase CH products are likely to continue to do so without any further convincing.

Are reviews of CH products going to move any players from the latter group to the former?
I don't write "reviews" of ASL products, just write-ups. Re CH, I feel that part of the role of my site is for "ASL consumer protection," which is why I would not want to have to ignore CH completely. I do think that what I say on the website can help at least some people avoid making bad decisions.
 

Pitman

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Even at this reduced level of CH coverage, it still seems like maintaining the database of CH stuff is just more time and aggravation than it's worth. I wouldn't blame you for calling it a useless time sink. It's not your job to document everything, much less review it.
Although people often call what I write "reviews," I don't make that claim. I refer to them as "write-ups." I certainly agree that, for me personally, all the CH stuff is more time and aggravation than it's worth, though I think it has value for others. Also, don't forget the power of obsession-compulsion. Just knowing there are ASL things out there that I haven't covered is agonizing. :)
 

General Mayhem

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My thoughts are that a list of CH products released and whether they are new or a reincarnation of an older product would be of value.

Other than that I think a general comment about CH products would be review/write up enough, something along the lines of the fact that reincarnations of CH products may differ slightly from earlier versions, may have a few extra scenarios and slightly changed maps, but basically they are the same product, together with your opinions on general CH quality, i.e. references to play-testing and map panels etc., and the fact that the actual contents in each product may require research by the buyer before parting with their hard earned cash.

I don't think you should spend an inordinate amount of time trying to ascertain the contents of each product, nor conduct a detailed review/write up of said products, especially if the company producing them is not being supportive of your efforts.
 

Houlie

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Personally, I would not miss the CH write-ups. I do not purchase their products and it appear many releases are retreads from previous ones. You'd probably save a bundle to boot.
 

Robin Reeve

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Don't spend too much energy informing about CH, Mark.
The way you explain you will do it is good, but only if it doesn't cost you too much time.
Most players now know that CH are doing a disservice to the hobby, so they don't need to be warned.
 

Michael Dorosh

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One of the reasons there are so many entries is, I believe, that RT has acquired a printing press capable of print on demand,...

It is clear that this will be standard operating practice for CH going forward.
Since you are merely speculating, I will do the same and ask why would anyone "acquire" a printing press for POD if they can use a third party service. In fact, this is the exact method you used to (self)-publish your scenario design book. For low demand items, this makes a lot of business sense. As you point out also, he can continually update products, which isn't so much nefarious as convenient. I've gone through a number of variations of my own book thanks to the POD publishing process, in my case to add new maps to the map listing and other minor variations not worthy of a completely new edition. I don't need my own printing press to do that.

An acquaintance of mine - aviation artist Robert Bailey - once showed me the in-house printing press he bought in order to produce his own art prints. For something as big as a map panel, you would need something incredibly big and expensive to use. If Tapio is doing as poorly as you allege one would also speculate about how he could afford something like that. My artist friend bought the in-house printing press because he was printing in high volumes (numbered prints with runs of 500 to 1000 each). Or in other words, the opposite reason you suggest Tapio would make a similar purchase.
 

Gunner Scott

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Whiskers is a nice guy, has sent me tons of PDF's in the past. Granted his tone could be tamped down a bit but other wise not a bad guy.

He goes around disliking tons of people's posts. He comes across as some sort of crank--or at least someone unfamiliar with netiquette.
 

footsteps

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He goes around disliking tons of people's posts. He comes across as some sort of crank--or at least someone unfamiliar with netiquette.
Aw, now I feel all left out. I've never gotten a dislike from Whiskers. I must be doing something wrong.
 

Danno

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I disagree. I appreciate Mark’s reviews of CH products. Helps to make informed purchases
I also appreciate Mark's effort to keep track of the blizzard of CH products. With many out of print and many of the same products having different names it is a good source to track what a specific product is. As Mark indicated CH is not easy to research on its own site or product descriptions. DM website is a gem especially for researching out of print products. With over 8000 scenario and over 2000 of them having more than one printed version, DM is a valuable resource. CH is the biggest practioner of multiple versions of the same scenario.
 
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