Bob Walters
Senior Member
Even without reviews, Desperation Morale is incredibly useful. There is literally no other way to find the contents of some products.
I'm not sure what happened to your e-mail, although there was a time when the contact form on my site stopped working (which is why I had to switch to another). I appreciate your willingness to support the site. I do accept paypal contributions (you can DM me here to get an e-mail address), and some people have been kind enough to support the site in that way. I have only ever done one fundraiser, and that was in 2014 for the attempt to rebuild the site to its current look and functionality (some may remember the original site, which would have been very impressive in 1996). The support I got then was overwhelming and took care of 80% of the cost of rebuilding. Since then I haven't pro-actively sought donations, but contributions are accepted and greatly appreciated. So are contributions of photographs!Remember the early years when colourful comic adds of toy war games fuel our imaginations and excitement much like what the annual Sears catalog did to everyone in North America back in the day? I believe CH has successfully tapped (tapio'd) into this selling method of trying to seduce our thinking by not detailing the item's contents on purpose. The Desperation Morale site has been battling this style of deception for us in an attempt (IMO) to help all of us from falling into this underhanded ploy. I have emailed Mark in the past on his site but got no response from him when I inquired about how to send a paypal donation, but he's been really good at not wanting money. I would suggest that he opens up a link on his site so those of us who do buy the odd CH item can help support his efforts in this regard.
Says more about CH prices than anything else. When MMP charges a lot for a product, you get a lot of value (both playwise and component wise) in return. Same can't be said for CH.Thanks Mark for your work and dedication. I realise that writing well, with clarity and with a certain spark gives pleasure to both author and reader but I'm wondering if the length of your CH placeholders really warrant it? I'd have no problems if those entries were more skeletal - thus saving precious time for your other hobbies. Ofcourse the quality of content is your decision.
I must say I just shook my head when I read you'd splashed $1000 on CH products you thought might be worthy of further investigation. My goodness!!
CH has changed a number of things as a result of things I've said on my site over the years (which is one reason why RT often makes snide references about me, because I don't think he has liked having to make those changes), but it won't change its business model because RT can't or won't find another. Re the write-ups (I don't use the term review), I know there are people who find my write-ups of CH useful, because they write to tell me so. It's also worth noting that there are many ways people may come across a CH product other than from CH. For example, on the used market, whether via online auction, gamecon auction, or other places. It may not be a question, for some people, of ever paying full price for a CH product, but what if that same product was available used for $25, versus the $89.95 CH charges for it new? There are people out there for whom that might make a difference, and they want to know more about it.well done Mark. I do admire your dedication but I do feel you fret too much over 'the CH problem'. The reviews in a a large way are probably useless. Tapio and CH are the Trump of ASL you could say... divsive with a capital D and with few undecided. I suppose after 25 odd years CH has established a core customer base and I strongly suspect they don't fall into your social or playing community like mainly populate this site. Those who see ASL more a tool to further their interest in re-creating the history and less a 'game' ..competitive gaming where the importance of balance trumps all.
Though your effort is highly appreciated and sure as shit respected... it would be a shame to see you burn out over 'the CH problem'. For how many are they really useful? Either one takes advantage of the pricing system CH has and buys what they find of interest well before you could ever review it or they avoid CH like the plague (or satanic sex starved redheads with deadly aim with pots and pans when enraged) out of principal. For the few few undecided who might find the substance of your reviews helpful.. are just as likely choke over the MSRP they would have to pay later haha. It is strange business model for sure but it appears to work.. and with a very happy core customer base or else CH would have bit the dust long ago.. or changed its tune regarding some of your favorite taking points regarding them and their practices.
Stalker is as Stalker does...This is too f'in weird. Mark posts 2 or 3 times a month to complain about how sucky Critical Hit is and oh dear, how would he ever review all their stuff (which he considers dreck). And in the meantime some of the most anticipated and well received items from the first rate publishers have gone unmentioned.
28 Dec 2019: http://www.gamesquad.com/forums/index.php?threads/dm-website-update-report-3-the-ch-conundrum.155336/
18 Dec 2019: http://www.gamesquad.com/forums/index.php?threads/minor-desperation-morale-update-progress-note.155180/
9 Nov 2019: http://www.gamesquad.com/forums/index.php?threads/third-party-publisher-rate-of-publication-question.154528/
Call me crazy, but maybe he should just decide what it is he want his site to accomplish. If it's an encyclopedia of everything out there, then just list the stuff.
If it's a review site, then review the stuff deemed worthy of review.
Put another way, if he's not passionate about what he's doing, why is he wasting his time? He's paying out of pocket to run it and then complaining that the people he's trashing aren't good enough to be trashed by him, and oh, they produce so much dreck he is struggling to find the time to getting around to talking about them some more.
I thought most people got their reviews from YouTube and podcasts now in any event. He could make real money off of YouTube.
Thanks!Mark, excellent commentary on Red Factories and RP 17. Spot on.
Concur.I'll add my voice to the chorus of "stop writing about CH." It's obviously a time and energy suck for you. Frankly, at this point, you could include a note about the when and why of the change and let it go (a la the WBW disclaimer). Talking about CH is like arguing about fire tables: We do it out of habit, but nobody's mind has changed in a decade. I feel like this one thing has been the cause of DM's updates being much less frequent and timely over these last few years and you could solve that by letting it go. You could also take the approach of doing updates sans CH first and get to it if you can (though I think it's obvious that would end in a similar place). While I deeply appreciate DM and its value personally and to the hobby, this is, after all, a hobby and it's meant to be fun, even the adjunct stuff. And if it's not, life's too short.
Given CH's reputation, another (and also appropriate, ASL-wise) title might be...Critical Hit? More like Copied Hassets! (That's for my French friends out there.)