Rolling for Initiative is a weekly column by Scott Thorne, PhD, owner of Castle Perilous Games & Books in Carbondale, Illinois and instructor in marketing at Southeast Missouri State University.  This week Scott runs down the questions he has for manufacturers at the GAMA Trade Show.
 
I finished my annual drive to the GAMA Trade Show a few hours ago.  Honestly, the main reason I go to GTS is the opportunity to drive along old Route 66 every year.  I always come away with a few new ideas and thoughts based on what I saw, and this year was no exception. That is fodder for next week’s column, though.  This week, I want to muse over some of the questions I plan to ask this week.
 
Gale Force 9--Has your company completely dropped the miniatures accessories that it started out with?  Yes, you have a couple of great boardgames.  Both Spartacus and Firefly have done gangbusters, but you started off with stuff like flock, sculpting tools, files and other accessories.  Restocks of these have been non-existent.  Are you planning to continue with these lines or are boardgames your future?
 
Wizards of the Coast--So far, you have done a really good job building interest in D&D 5th/Next, but I haven’t heard a whisper about any organized play program.  You’ve seen how Paizo Publishing has leveraged Pathfinder Society to drive sales of the Pathfinder line.  Will you have something ready to go when the new Player’s Handbook releases at Gen Con?
 
Also, it would be really nice if you would modify your store locator so it sends out an annual reminder to check the locator and update store information.  If a store doesn’t click on the link within a reasonable amount of time, delete the store from the locator and get rid of the zombie stores in your system.  If Steve Jackson Games can do it, you certainly should be able to do so.
 
Konami--Could you modify your tournament software so that we can create and sanction tournaments the day of the event?  It would sure be nice to be able to sanction a tournament on the spur of the moments and give the players their Dualist points.  By the way, did you ever decide what you were going to do with those Dualist Points, because if you have, I certainly haven’t heard about it?
 
Geek & Sundry/TableTop--Did you ever come up with any sort of make-good for the stores that were supposed to appear in the live streaming during last year’s International TableTop Day?  Yes, they got a line listing at the end of the event, but that’s not the same as their five minutes of “fame”.  Also, I saw mention of a “premium package” for this year’s event but since ITTD is only two weeks away, I assume that’s not going to happen?
 
Games Workshop--I must admit, the weekly version of White Dwarf has done much better than I thought.  However, could you PLEASE start putting paper invoices/packing lists with the shipments again?  It would make my life so much easier.
 
WizKids--Are we done with the announcements of delays in shipping just days before the release of the product?  And could you please cut back on the number of releases? I swear, I thought Konami overdid it with their release schedule for Yu-Gi-Oh! but you are coming out with a new set every month.  Slow it down before your customer base suffers burnout.  And could you go over the War of the Light OP program again? I’m still not clear on how it will work.
 
I’ll probably have more questions as the week progresses but that’s enough for now.
 
The opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff of ICv2.com