To little to late?

Hello people,

What follows is an unashamed rant post. These are my opinions and I accept and stand by them.  I generally dont do tbis but on this occasion I need to vent, hopefully in a constructive manner. I'm not whinging, as much as it might seem like it and if it does then fair enough.

Thursday after work I headed down to Dark Sphere for some X-Wing. There's currently a well themed campaign going on and I've taken the chance to run some different lists to see how they work. If you get the chance then I heartily recommend getting involved.

Running Kavil I played a couple of games losing both, one closely, the other not at all closely. I still had fun and tested some ideas.

Coming home I found the third and final wave of my Dreadball Extreme Kingdom Kickstarter on the doorstep. Surely this should be a joyous moment of nerdgasm, tearing open the box to inhale aue'de fresh plesin. Not so much :/

What I actually did was open the box in disgust and dig out the contents so that I could snear at them! I then stacked the box in the Kickstarter section of my toys bookcase, which now measures at least three feet in height :(

I'm sure many of you are asking "why the rage hate Steve?". Some of you may remember that I've loved this game and previously credited it with rejuvenating my hobby a couple of years ago. That's right, I've have playing many, many games in both leagues and tournaments, much as I do X-Wing now.

Even as I became disenchanted with Mantic and their well documented crack addict employment of Kickstarter I kept my love of the game telling myself I saw the distinction between Mantic, Jake and the Dreadball community.

When the Extreme Kickstarter came up I told myself that I wasn't going to pledge but pick stuff up as and when it was released. The KS deals haven't always worked out as the best option , all of those "free" bonus figures never are and it's not as if figure quality has improved along the way.

HOWEVER.....when I saw the fluff and ideas involved I  couldn't stop so went in with a sweet spot £150 Frenzy pledge......LAST MARCH!!

Since then the only other project that's treated me as poorly is Heroes of Normandie and they're just two French blokes rather than a miniatures company with enough professional clout to pull down Mars Attack. However you look at it that's a major success for them but at what expense and to whom?
To me putting up a mission control simply isn't enough. Keeping backers informed is laudable but it's verged on the point of taking the piss.

In honesty I also backed Heroquest 25 which is also late and not saying a lot but I'm happy to wait given my fondness for the product and, again, they're not a big figures company dividing opinion within the community. Fair and objective? No, but that's my perogative. I'm sure Mantic don't care about my rantings, or anyone else's but that's their perogative.

As with any Kickstarter I had a choice and spent my money. After that you're locked in for the ride. Mantic have got my money but didn't get my time which I've since spent on X-Wing and Infinity. As such I no longer have the time or inclination for Dreadball or Mantic. In honesty I'd be tempted to Ebay it all but who'd take it off me? By the nature of events the market is now instantly saturated.

At the end of the day I'm more annoyed at myself than anyone else. I knew better but let myself get sucked in anyway. I've backed other KS projects, mainly graphic novels, which have been well run by decent people and delivered what they promised. Dreadball Extreme has undoubtedly been my worst ever KS experience by a mile. As a result I simply don't trust any other Toys KS and I won't back them. By the time that deliver I doubt I'll have the time or interest any more :(

Here endeth the rant, it's been very cathartic and more about myself than trying to influence others. By making the public statement I'm far more likely to hold to my convictions.

On a related note I turned 40 yesterday, ful membership of the Grumpy Old Man Club confirmed :)