(Message luke:61)
Date:    Tue, 18 May 1999 13:49:46 PDT
To:      <l5rinfo@frpg.com>
From:    "Luke Peterschmidt" <Lukeout@frpg.com>
Subject: Kotei Implosion

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X-ListMember: andy@cowell.org [l5rinfo@frpg.com]

Hey All,
    I've been reading all the post about the SE Kotei event and I have a
comment.

We really screwed the pooch on this one.

Steps are being taken, meetings have been called, and Luke has been less
than pleasant to be around.

After some probing, here is what I know to date about how that total failure
of an event happened -
	The DCI has a process that they use for their premier events. It includes
minimal print advertising, listing on the web page, flyers, and advertising
at earlier events. The MtG community is totally geared into these events,
and as time has gone on, less and less advertising is necessary. In
addition, the TO's usually do quite a bit of advertising. These TO's do make
money on these events and pay for the right to run them, so they almost
always do a good job.
When faced with running additional premiere events, the DCI did what they
always do- they posted them on the web site (where according to my sources
they had been listed for weeks), but they posted them on the WotC site, in
the DCI section (which is actually labeled the tournaments and leagues
section). Never having worked with Puck or the FRPG site, the thought never
crossed the mind of the person doing the posting. Adding to this, they went
back to their known quantity of their existing TO's for help in running the
events. These TO's are obviously not as piped into the L5R community as they
should be.
Lots of other mistakes were made. But in retrospect the biggest mistake was
me not staying on top of the situation. I had a little bit too much trust in
the people that were assigned to do the project. I also did a poor job of
instructing that person on where the L5R pipeline is (the list serve, the
FRPG website, Andy's site, etc...). It's pathetic to think that with NO
print advertising, we had 3500 players at Morikage and only 8 at the Kotei
event.
Clearly, when Mindy and I run the PR message, we can get it through (hence
the success of Morikage). But it is also clear that our skill in that area
come from years of exposure to the L5R fans and the focus that working on
just one event at a time brings.
I don't think the concept of running these types of events is wrong, and I
will try to do more in the future, but I do believe that the DCI has a lot
to learn about how to contact the L5R fans. I will try to teach them all I
know, and will get Mindy to do the same.
I hope you all realize that the failure of this event has nothing to do with
the commitment of WotC to L5R. MtG is the big kid on the block, but L5R
brings a unique value to WotC that MtG and even Pokemon doesn't bring. If
WotC really wanted to destroy L5R, we would. It would be a quick decision
and that would be it for L5R. We wouldn't screw around with planning events
and having them fail on purpose.

Luke Peterschmidt
Brand Manager; L5R, LBS


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