The latest screw up from Pokemon- Dragon Vault and Regionals

[ZeroWing]

According to my distributor, that is the contractual street date, which is why I will not get it sooner. I am trying to convince them to ship it...but that does not seem to be working.

And no, it is not surprising, I understand that large volume vendors probably get preferential delivery or soft street dates...it just kind of bites when I have to sit on product because of a hard date, simply because I am a lower volume vendor and people already have bought the item even before I get it.

So, just to clarify, I am happy players will be able to get the blisters from some sources prior to Regionals. I would have liked to have been one of those sources...so the grapes are a little sour, but still edible. :wink:

 

[ogremarauder]

Those "other sources" are likely the chain stores that they make the biggest chunk of money from.

 

[ryanvergel]

:clap:

Thanks for updating the regionals page.

Is the tournament documentation updated yet?

 

[yoshi1001]

This is a guess on my part, but I think the reason you see stuff here first is even once everything is approved and finalized on TPCi's end, it still takes a while to get things up on the official site.

 

[solo59486]

I don't know why this is so surprising. I mean it isn't like the exact same thing happened last year. For those who don't recall NV had already gone through prerelease just before release, and in this case the release date has been vague at best.

Not taking sides, just saying is all.

Didn't NV become street legal sometime after regionals....

 

[Water Pokemon Master]

This is a guess on my part, but I think the reason you see stuff here first is even once everything is approved and finalized on TPCi's end, it still takes a while to get things up on the official site.

If that's the case, that's a problem. People like Dan B. and Dave S. (or whoever set the P!P policies) should be able to update the site as soon as they know something. Though I sorta remember hearing something a while ago about them having some trouble getting things up right away, so it's possible it's something that's out of their control and that it's upper management or the way the website's backend that's setup that's the problem. Hopefully us posting here puts pressure on whomever to improve these sorts of workflow issues (if they do in fact exist, that is).

 

[PokePop]

Hopefully us posting here puts pressure on whomever to improve these sorts of workflow issues (if they do in fact exist, that is).

Or puts pressure on them to hold all info until they can make an official announcement, delaying the information getting out to the players even more, because when they make an effort to get it out unofficially, they get bashed for that, too.

 

[Water Pokemon Master]

Or puts pressure on them to hold all info until they can make an official announcement, delaying the information getting out to the players even more, because when they make an effort to get it out unofficially, they get bashed for that, too.

Sorry, but that's a very poor excuse. There's Twitter, there's Facebook, heck, their Japanese counterparts have TWO blogs. Do you know how stupid-dumb it is to setup a Twitter account and post to it? It would probably be much faster than the red tape they seem to have to go through with their own official website - all of them could share the login info and post things as soon as they know it. There's absolutely no reason they should be channeling their official tournament policies through an unofficial website, especially when it involves real-life events that affect many players. I mean, the announcement that was posted on your front page wasn't even done right and left many people confused (though there were definitely good intentions). The word should be coming directly from the horse's mouth, not here. Again, what they're doing is not professional, and you guys doing it for them shouldn't even be your responsibility.

EDIT: And rereading your post, what?

Or puts pressure on them to hold all info until they can make an official announcement, delaying the information getting out to the players even more, because when they make an effort to get it out unofficially, they get bashed for that, too.

Your post, reworded, says this: "They try to get out things unofficially before they can make an official announcement."

How is anything TPCi says unofficial? Why, when telling you guys something, they can't make an announcement through a proper official channel and in their own words? I just don't understand your logic. Why does it need to go through you guys first to get to us? Why can't they just directly announce it?

 

[PokePop]

Chill WPM.
I'm just saying getting the word out via an unofficial channel rather than an official channel.

And I'm not disagreeing with the larger points being made here.
Yes, this kind of info should be gotten out as early as possible in as many ways as possible.
I was kind of surprised to see it on PokeGym only and nowhere else (official) myself, not even the PTO forums.

By the way - Judge Blog... no more.
Sad to see it go.

 

[SD PokeMom]

we have no idea just how many layers...for one example, legal...any website update has to go through before an OP document or announcement can be posted. from what we've seen lately, i'd imagine it's several layers...and a delay in any single one of them would hold up what OP can announce 'officially'.

jmho.

 

[Jaeger]

we have no idea just how many layers...for one example, legal...any website update has to go through before an OP document or announcement can be posted. from what we've seen lately, i'd imagine it's several layers...and a delay in any single one of them would hold up what OP can announce 'officially'.

jmho.

Your fully right Mom, but breaking though this red tape to make announcments quicker is something TPCI should work towards. They don't utilize Facebook, Twitter, or other social media and there website is incredibly poorly designed in the sense it takes way to many clicks to find the information your looking for.

 

[Water Pokemon Master]

Chill WPM.
I'm just saying getting the word out via an unofficial channel rather than an official channel.

And I'm not disagreeing with the larger points being made here.
Yes, this kind of info should be gotten out as early as possible in as many ways as possible.
I was kind of surprised to see it on PokeGym only and nowhere else (official) myself, not even the PTO forums.

By the way - Judge Blog... no more.
Sad to see it go.

I am chill, I was just trying to understand what you were saying.

we have no idea just how many layers...for one example, legal...any website update has to go through before an OP document or announcement can be posted. from what we've seen lately, i'd imagine it's several layers...and a delay in any single one of them would hold up what OP can announce 'officially'.

jmho.

That's a very true point. But if you're dealing with a system where these announcements are going to be made at the last minute, you either need to setup a better way of making sure they get out properly or make the decisions earlier so that said announcements don't get delivered in the manner we saw with this issue. Again, anticipation. Talking to PTOs or whomever and figuring out what might be an issue in the future and asking about it beforehand so that the announcements can be delivered "officially" and in a timely manner.

 

[TheRolesWePlay]

Your fully right Mom, but breaking though this red tape to make announcments quicker is something TPCI should work towards. They don't utilize Facebook, Twitter, or other social media and there website is incredibly poorly designed in the sense it takes way to many clicks to find the information your looking for.

Actually they do in fact have a Facebook and Twitter now. It's not fully utilized yet as they're fairly new, but they are now a part of their infrastructure.

 

[Water Pokemon Master]

Actually they do in fact have a Facebook and Twitter now. It's not fully utilized yet as they're fairly new, but they are now a part of their infrastructure.

The front page of Pokemon.com, their new Facebook, and their new Twitter account are all for marketing purposes. They would never advertise most P!P issues (or even tournaments in general, unless it's Worlds?) because that's not where the money or interest is. Remember, P!P is just to get people to buy cards. It's the absolute smallest aspect of the Pokemon franchise - it's an advertisement.

For what I'm talking about in my posts, they would (and should) setup something specific to P!P. The organized play managers could have their own little blog (where we get to know them and see their personalities!) or their own Twitter. This aspect of the franchise is so small that most people know most people. It's more personal than something like the TV show's fandom or especially the video game's fandom. That's why I think something like a blog could work, spare, of course, all the red tape they'd have to go through and whatnot to even have one. OR OR OR, they could just update that little news section of Pokemon.com related to P!P and change the route it takes to get updates posted there.

 

[Jaeger]

Actually they do in fact have a Facebook and Twitter now. It's not fully utilized yet as they're fairly new, but they are now a part of their infrastructure.

yes but I feel they are doing very little to utlize them.

 

[SD PokeMom]

they both just went 'live' this past monday 9/24...

 

[FirestormXVI]

yes but I feel they are doing very little to utlize them.

The Facebook and Twitter were put up on Monday because Black 2 and White 2 are launching on October 7th and they want to have a social media presence up ahead of that. They haven't even hired their Social Media Manager yet. Once that's done, they'll be able to set a strategy. Hopefully that person will work with Organized Play to increase the quality of communication. I don't check Pokemon.com every day and honestly it's not a website that's geared towards me so I find it frustrating to use. I check my Facebook and Twitter multiple times a day and am more likely to see something there.

 

[Jaeger]

they both just went 'live' this past monday 9/24...

Yes, so shouldn't this be the perfect time for P!P to start asking "what do you want to see from our social media?"

Trust me the person who knows the customer the best....is the customer.

 

[Trican]

I haven't friended/liked/followed/whatever it takes to be BFFs with them on either media yet, nor do I really plan to. My question to those who have done the above: Have you tried posting on their timeline or twitting on their feed saying what you hope to get out of it? I mean not being a follower of these pages I don't know if it's the sort of thing you can only comment on once posts are made, but just tossing it out that if you can, can't hurt to say "Welcome to Facebook/Twitter I really hope we can see X out of this attempt at increasing communication." It would be nice to assume that TPCi already knows this, but I can't count on one hand the amount of time "Out of touch with the player base" has come up on the boards. Again this is assuming you can post your comments on their feeds.

 

[bullados]

You can post comments on their posts, but you can't post directly to their timeline on FB. I know nothing about Twitter, cuz I don't use it.