TL;DR Version: I get that the quality of the mugs wasn't up to Larian's standards, but when did Larian realize that no one could make the mugs, and why didn't they announce that in a Kickstarter update back when the change was made?
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Backers of the Kickstarter Collectors Edition - which, by the way, I still have not had one single e-mail about from Larian, HappyShops OR DHL - were meant to be getting a Dwarven Empire themed Dwarven Ale Mug. I liked the idea of a mug. I could have used a mug. Maybe not all the time, but it's a thing which has a use, much more so than the zero times I can use a statue.
It was only revealed that was not happening by omission, in the
unboxing of the Kickstarter Collectors Edition - only two weeks before the game gets released.
It's generally frowned upon, to put it charitably, for Kickstarter rewards to be changed without warning. Kickstarter doesn't even allow editing of the reward text after the Kickstarter goes live for that reason. But I'm putting that aside. Shit happens, plans never survive contact with the enemy and all that.
The change was only officially acknowledged in an
easily-missed comment to the update, not even as part of the update.
Hi guys! We started looking into making a different collector's edition once we figured out we couldn't do the ouija board (there is a trademark problem with that) and I think we announced that during the campaign.
We wanted to make something very special for our higher level backers off high value. We started looking at the mugs but the results were disappointing and eventually we evolved towards the (in my eyes very very cool) figurine.
An incredible amount of work went into making sure everything is of super-high quality and we're very proud of it. Obviously if you are discontent and really wanted to get that mug, we will reimburse you. All you need to do is send a message to kickstarter@larian.com.
The reasoning seems to make sense: they were not happy with the quality of the mug. But the more I thought about it, the more something struck me.
Was there really no company in Belgium or Germany (home of Oktoberfest!) which could make mugs? That can't possibly be right. Maybe the cost was excessive, but that seems like something which should have been looked at BEFORE launching the Kickstarter and announcing it as one of the rewards.
The only real explanation which I can think of is that Larian didn't start looking into making the mugs until very close to the end, and when they prototypes came back, it was too late to find a replacement. (Although NOT too late to make a Fane figurine?)
I just do not understand why Larian couldn't find someone to make the mugs, but more importantly, I do not understand why they didn't even have the honesty to announce the replacement until two weeks before release. They had to have known about the change well before the unboxing, and they said nothing.
Pretending that the mug never existed and never was going to exist is not really very respectful of backers. It makes me disinclined to purchase future Collectors Editions from Larian, or from recommending that others get one either.
So if someone from Larian could maybe clarify what exactly happened with regards to the mugs, that would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you.