Report To The Stakeholders

[ericbsmith]

Originally Posted by Owen Smith

And yet the upcoming 30th anniversary of GURPS didn't even get a mention, crowded out by the Munchkin and Car Wars anniversaries.

Look at the top 40 sellers. Like 35 of them are Munchkin. It doesn't surprise me that GURPS gets short shrift; the RPG market has gotten smaller and smaller.

[Phil Masters]

Originally Posted by PK

Personally, I say if we're able to get the Discworld RPG and GURPS Mars Attacks to print in 2016 -- *fingers crossed* -- that would be all the celebration I need. :)

Indeed. However, as fixing the GURPS print distribution/sales problem isn't anywhere on the list of priorities, I'm not holding out any hope.

[TorgSmith]

Originally Posted by Phil Masters

Indeed. However, as fixing the GURPS print distribution/sales problem isn't anywhere on the list of priorities, I'm not holding out any hope.

I believe the stakeholders report priorities are the companies priorities. i.e. the big things. Each person in the company have a priority list based on their job. For the people that work on GURPS, the time they spend on the big priorities probable only take a limited amount of their time. They have the additional priorities take up the remainder of that time. Those additional priorities won’t make the big list, but I am willing to bet they are important to the people working on them. If the company did not care, they would sell off or shut down the GURPS line as a cost savings.

[ArchonShiva]

The fact that GURPS still exists, and is being significantly supported in a format that's roughly compatible with materials dating back over two decades, is amazing in and of itself.

I wish we could have more, but realistically it's being given far more attention than either its market share or proportionate revenue remotely deserves.

Because it is so great as to be essentially timeless, and because the fan base is so damn reliable. And mostly writes the books themselves.

[elflord]

Phil,

Under Staff and Conventions, no mention of the MIB. Are we doing a good job?

[Phil Masters]

Originally Posted by TorgSmith

I believe the stakeholders report priorities are the companies priorities. i.e. the big things. Each person in the company have a priority list based on their job.

"Everything else is a non-priority, something to do after the priorities are under control."

If the company's priorities aren't the priorities of the company's employees, the company is in real trouble.

Originally Posted by TorgSmith

For the people that work on GURPS, the time they spend on the big priorities probable only take a limited amount of their time. They have the additional priorities take up the remainder of that time. Those additional priorities won’t make the big list, but I am willing to bet they are important to the people working on them.

The problem of not getting enough orders for GURPS print books is one for the sales and marketing people. The staff members specifically assigned to GURPS are editorial and production specialists. They're good at their jobs, but there's no evidence that they can do anything at all about sales and marketing problems. And a problem which isn't a company priority, is no priority for sales and marketing.

(And let's not talk about the fact that the report refers to the Discworld Roleplaying Game by a title which the company dropped fourteen years ago.)

[philreed]

Originally Posted by Phil Masters

(And let's not talk about the fact that the report refers to the Discworld Roleplaying Game by a title which the company dropped fourteen years ago.)

Thanks. I made that mistake. We're going to fix the error in the report.

[offsides]

I think the thing I like the best about this report is that regardless of the relative direction of sales over the past year and the other challenges they faced, SJG is going strong and looks to continue to do so for the foreseeable future. Cheers to Phil and everyone else at SJG for a good 2015 and continued success!

[Refplace]

Great work all around, except for the Sales and Marketing people.
They probably did better then the report leads us to think but definite hope for better this year.

[philreed]

Originally Posted by elflord

Phil,

Under Staff and Conventions, no mention of the MIB. Are we doing a good job?

Definitely doing a good job at getting the word out and keeping Munchkin active at stores and conventions. Thanks for speaking up because I should have mentioned the MIBs in the report.