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Everyone wants to be Chad Thriftington III
United States
Oklahoma City
Oklahoma
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What do Betrayal at House on the Hill, Homesteaders, and Duel in the Dark all have in common?
They have all reinforced my belief that I would be happy paying more money to get a quality product printed in this country.
Game companies are in business to make money (not unlike almost all other companies) and they have to keep their costs as low as possible, I realize that. However, I'm unable to reconcile the problems I see with using Chinese printers against the benefits of 'savings'. So, let's take a look at the problems I see with using Chinese printers.
* Language barrier - I'm not sure how much of a language barrier there is, since I haven't ordered a Chinese printer to produce something for me. However, ANY barrier with regards to language has to add to the time involved to produce a game. Con, loss of time to the game publisher
* Time lag - There have been several reports of games being delayed because the boat is slow, weather is bad, pirates stole the boat, etc etc. Con, loss of time to the game publisher.
* Quality control - This is big elephant that is not only standing in the room, but dancing on the dinner table. Duel in the Dark had the horrible mold and smell problem. My copy (won at BGG.con) had both and I was able to get rid of the smell and Z-Man replaced the box/insert to compensate for the mold. I also had a BGG.con copy of Homesteaders that was almost dripping wet inside when I opened it up. Cardboard tokens were soft and fuzzy, wood pieces were molded, and the tokens were so off-center on the printing that if they weren't moldy, they STILL would have been unusable. Betrayal at House on the Hill (2) had the warping of tiles/ cards/ almost everything. Granted WotC is saying that they will replace all the damaged parts, but I have yet to receive mine. Cons, loss of money to the game distributor for replacements and loss of time to the game purchaser for not being able to use a purchased product.
* Bootlegging - I don't know if you've seen the photos of the warehouses full of bootlegged boardgames but, while it is astonishing, it isn't surprising. China plays by a different set of rules than the rest of the world and a publisher shouldn't be surprised that a country that views itself as untouchable by international law decides to make copies of all the artwork and components and print their own versions of your game. Con, loss of money to game publishers.
So, looking at the amount of time and money that a publisher can lose by dealing with shoddy overseas printers, I'm surprised that at least one company hasn't tried to cut a deal for printing here in the states. Can the cost difference REALLY be so different that you will risk your new game company's reputation by producing a box of mold (Tasty Minstrel/Homesteaders), or the savings is so huge that you can afford to reprint 95% of the game, have an entire department designated to handling the replacements, and can even ship out all the replacements and you can STILL come out ahead (WotC/ Betrayal)?
Of course, it's all a gamble. Not every game coming out of China is a steaming pile of meeple dung, and, of course, any game printed in the US wouldn't be without its own problems, but is it worth it?
I didn't even bother replacing Homesteaders and I doubt that I'll be looking at purchasing another Tasty Minstrel game. WotC and Betrayal taught me not to quickly buy a game that I have been looking forward to. I'm better served by waiting and letting other chumps take the hit on buying crap merchandise, because I would rather wait to buy a quality product than buying a game that warps and I can't play it & I lose months waiting for replacement parts.
All in all, cheap overseas printing is a thorn in my flesh and when a game company takes one on the chin by using it, I just shake my head and think "Ya get what you pay for and, sadly, so do I." And I wait for a good game printed in this country.
(I do know that there are well produced games that are printed in Germany. Believe me, I enjoy those and given a choice (game play being equal), I would buy a German printed game over a China printed game, even to pay more for it.
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