Hi guys
Thanks for those two thread links, EvilDave. I'll head off and check those out in a few minutes, after I've jotted down my thoughts on this thread. And thank you berserkermonkey for your introduction ; )
CMoN asked me to join their team at the start of this year to primarily address quite a few of the issues you guys have raised over the course of this thread. Over the past year there have been quite a few staffing changes for a variety of reasons that need not be covered here, but all would be found in any number of companies, miniatures based or otherwise. I won't go into details, because there's really no need. Part of our goal this year is to clarify strong and robust internal processes so that everyone knows what's going on and we can continue forward regardless of staff circumstances. We are all incredibly hard working and passionate people who love and care about Wrath of Kings and Dark Age and our other cool products too : )
I'll try to hit upon the various points I was able to pluck from the thread and see if I can shed some light on them for you all.
• "New book for Feb 2016/two books a year" - Obviously we don't have a book for Feb, and we don't have one for another couple of months. We also are to likely to have a second book this year. Would we love to be able to present two books a year, including an excellent campaign setting? We most certainly would, but we have realized that at the moment that's biting off a bit more than we can chew. It's a great example, however, of the problem of releasing information too early, before we have it in hand. This is generally why we're reluctant to put too much out there. We will have a lovely book this year and a wonderful host of great miniatures too, bt our current plan differs from our plan of ten months ago.
• "Regular updates about stuff" - Having covered why we might be reluctant to release information we can't guarantee, I think that this poster is actually looking for something that we can provide. These "updates" need not be about new miniatures, but can be about to use the minis you already have. A lot of ideas could include: step-by-step painting guides for each house, ideas for terrain building, reviews of commercially available terrain products like mats and castles etc, battle reports, tactics articles, sharing the work of gamers around the globe, and so on. These things have been discussed and we'll be putting them into place over the course of the next few months. I see the "stuff" as being material that helps everyone become more immersed in the world, be it Arikania or Samaria.
• "Tough to recruit and there is little support to point to" - I see all the suggestions in the previous point as support, and there are other things that we can improve on too. At the moment I'm working with the CMoN Organized Play team (who are focused on the boardgames side of things) to create a solid and logical plan that can help bring more organized "support" to stores and conventions and give you guys, the champions of Wrath of Kings out in the wider world, something to point to. Is it tough to point to "support" now? Sadly it is. Are we working to change that? Yes we are.
• "Where is the inspiration?" - Wrath of Kings is a game that utilizes very few of the standard "tropes" found in other fantasy games. There are no "easy to explain" dwarves, elves, or orcs, just strange tentacled fishermen and pigs in armor. I think this puts even more pressure on us to get the "support" right. It will continue to take some time to get this all developed and presented over the course of the next few months, and in a way that is ongoing (for that regular drip of information). With the boost that we hope to see from the release of the two-player starter set (a must for any successful minis game these days) and the in-store demo table, we'll be talking with terrain manufacturers around the world to develop products that make the "world building" part a little easier.
• "A good write-up of the factions/a good elevator pitch" - This is certainly needed and is being worked on at the moment. The elevator pitch is essential to help everyone (us, store owners, champions like you guys) to help others understand what the game is all about. Without the help of the dwarves, elves, and orcs, it takes a little more time. Should we have always had this? Yes. Are we working to get it right now? Indeed!
• "More tactics videos/podcasts" - This is something we will continue, as soon as we get Michael some time to breathe. The first batch of these were done on his own time, a relaxing and cathartic thing for him. Since the last one was posted he has been non-stop with a wide variety of tasks and trips (including a week at Beasts of War filming our Dark Age videos). Do we like these and think they're important to have available? Yes. Will we continue with them? We certainly will, I can't give you a firm date on when, though.
• "A lack of community building" - Based on my experiences, community building is one of the toughest thing to do for a game. It can be long, difficult, and require personal interaction with almost every member of the community as it develops. It's not the fun and flashy side of the miniatures business, it's a hard grind. It's important to have a clear vision of what you're looking for and an ability to adapt and change your plans as you go along, yet be able to stick to the vision. It takes time, and constant work. Many of you have gone through that grind in your efforts to promote game X or game Y in your local areas. You know what I mean. One of the things we have needed is a vision for what the WOK community could look like, and it's another part of my tasks with CMoN - to help create the vision and work to help that community develop and grow. My aim is to ensure that no matter who comes after me, that the vision still stands and continuing the work happens, so that we have consistency and don't have to step back to square one at all. Have we done an inconsistent job of trying to build a community? Yes. Are we working to improve it? Yes.
• "Need more stores stocking WOK" - We certainly do. We need to do this in a three-pronged approach (much like a Hadross trident). We need a clear set of products and support materials (as discussed above) that we can present to stores for them to sample (our new two-player starter set and demo table combo is a good start here). We need your help, as champions of Wrath of Kings, to remain positive, continue to ask your local stores to try it out, and be ready to run demo games and recruit as you are doing now (other as part of the Legion program or not). And finally, we need to increase our visibility to those gamers who might never have heard of WOK. We have plans for this too.
• "A better gallery" - This is completely true. We need to update the gallery, see if we can include 360 degree spinners of all the excellent models in the range. We are working on this too.
So, there you go. A lot of answers to the questions I felt were being asked. I'm sure that very few of the answers were the ones you were hoping to hear, and that it might all seem like vague promises of "we're working on it", and I'm sorry if it does feel like that. We are working hard, our staff care about the wonderful games and minis we make, and improvements will be seen over time.
Please, keep the faith.
If I've misrepresented any of the questions here, please feel free to jump in and let me know.
Cheers
Dave Taylor
I would love to have more from CMON - no doubt - but there is also a lot more I can do to delve into the hobby if I'm not getting the amount of gaming in that I would like. 
