It has Blown Back
Dec. 15th, 2012 02:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cyranoA few years ago, while attending GenCon, I discovered a game, an homage to the Burn Notice television show, called "Blowback". In addition to successfully completing missions and not getting killed, there was a large focus on the personal relationships a burned agent maintains.
I didn't buy it right away. I didn't buy it the next year, either. I was on the fence, considering picking it up as a present for Amanda. The biggest hurdle was 'another damned system'.
This past summer, we heard the writer, Elizabeth Shoemaker-Sampat (sometimes just Elizabeth Shoemaker, I'm not certain what her current preference is), speaking on a panel with Jess Hartley, and I was decided. I managed to speak to her briefly, and I thought she told me that I could get the book at the Cubicle 7 Booth. But I could not.
So after the con I did some searching around. The Two Scooters page (the company that published the game) was unfindable. Most of the pages I found referencing the game led back to the same dead URL. And it was difficult to find any kind of activity less than six months old. So I was feeling a bit down at heart, and had begun to consider the possibility that the book was not to be had.
In fact, I was getting the impression that there had been some sort of traumatic upheaval in the recent past, one that I did not have enough data to paint a picture of.
And then I found a page off elizabethsampat.com where through the magic of PayPal I could order the book and the pdf! And I still had two months before Christmas! And so I ordered it!
And I waited. And waited. And then I started sending follow up emails. And I began to worry, because I hadn't even received a confirmation email. And I started bending ears with contacts in the gaming world, to see if anybody had information or a contact.
And then, a month after the order, I got email from Shreya (I don't know if he's officially a part of the company or if he was just pitching in and being helpful or what) who very politely apologised for the trouble, told me he thought my order had been sent out and that the very last Blowback book was mine, and that I would get tracking information ASAP.
And I waited. And waited. And, concerned that I had seen no tracking information, I sent him mail. And again. And I found him on the FaceBooks, and even though I felt like a stalkery teenager I messaged him. And he wrote back, and told me that, while it was late at that time, the next morning he would go through the shipping information in the morning and post it to me on that thread.
And that was a week and a half ago. And I've decided that this has eaten far too much of my life, and I'm going to let it go. If I haven't heard from somebody or received a package by January then I'll ask PayPal what I need to do to have my money refunded. In the meantime, I have an illness to savor, I have lines to try and learn, and I have a journey to prepare for.
Namaste
I didn't buy it right away. I didn't buy it the next year, either. I was on the fence, considering picking it up as a present for Amanda. The biggest hurdle was 'another damned system'.
This past summer, we heard the writer, Elizabeth Shoemaker-Sampat (sometimes just Elizabeth Shoemaker, I'm not certain what her current preference is), speaking on a panel with Jess Hartley, and I was decided. I managed to speak to her briefly, and I thought she told me that I could get the book at the Cubicle 7 Booth. But I could not.
So after the con I did some searching around. The Two Scooters page (the company that published the game) was unfindable. Most of the pages I found referencing the game led back to the same dead URL. And it was difficult to find any kind of activity less than six months old. So I was feeling a bit down at heart, and had begun to consider the possibility that the book was not to be had.
In fact, I was getting the impression that there had been some sort of traumatic upheaval in the recent past, one that I did not have enough data to paint a picture of.
And then I found a page off elizabethsampat.com where through the magic of PayPal I could order the book and the pdf! And I still had two months before Christmas! And so I ordered it!
And I waited. And waited. And then I started sending follow up emails. And I began to worry, because I hadn't even received a confirmation email. And I started bending ears with contacts in the gaming world, to see if anybody had information or a contact.
And then, a month after the order, I got email from Shreya (I don't know if he's officially a part of the company or if he was just pitching in and being helpful or what) who very politely apologised for the trouble, told me he thought my order had been sent out and that the very last Blowback book was mine, and that I would get tracking information ASAP.
And I waited. And waited. And, concerned that I had seen no tracking information, I sent him mail. And again. And I found him on the FaceBooks, and even though I felt like a stalkery teenager I messaged him. And he wrote back, and told me that, while it was late at that time, the next morning he would go through the shipping information in the morning and post it to me on that thread.
And that was a week and a half ago. And I've decided that this has eaten far too much of my life, and I'm going to let it go. If I haven't heard from somebody or received a package by January then I'll ask PayPal what I need to do to have my money refunded. In the meantime, I have an illness to savor, I have lines to try and learn, and I have a journey to prepare for.
Namaste
no subject
Date: 2012-12-16 04:48 pm (UTC)