Theology of Games

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Bad News for Terra Mystica

MysticaCoverby Firestone I'm a fan of many of Z-Man Games' games, but sometimes their business practices just baffle me. (The fact that the second Pandemic expansion will be completely incompatible with my "old" edition still upsets me. If they think I'm buying a whole new set of the game and the first expansion to get that second one, they're out of their minds. Yeah, I know I can buy two compatibility packs, and they didn't have to offer that at all, but still... Grumble, grumble, grumble...)

Anyway, Z-Man has been posting EVERYWHERE about their highly anticipated new game Terra Mystica: Boardgamegeek ads, numerous posts on their Facebook page, over and over and over. Then, in the comments below an April 29th post about how the game is almost here, Sophie Gravel posted, "Guys, here is the very simple story. Terra Mystica oversold by approximately 100% of our print run. By the time the pre-orders were received from our distributors, the games were already printed and on our way to us so there was no way for us to adjust with a higher quantity. Another print run has been ordered and is scheduled to arrive at the end of the summer. Thank you for your understanding and making this game such a success!"

How is that in any way a professional way to announce that you screwed up? And it appears online game stores didn't get any sort of heads-up about this until they received their smaller-than-expected shipments of the game. It's just one more questionable practice from a company I'm increasingly disappointed in—even though I love their games.

So if you see a copy of Terra Misstica Mystica on the shelves of your FLGS for a reasonable price, you might want to snatch it up. And then mail it to me... :)

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