Hotline Malcolm Watson In Issue 9 I took various questions and comments from the Phoenix 7 feedback cards and answered these (where applicable).This was done to establish a link between SPUK and the S&T subscribers whereby we could bring into the open and discuss any aspect of our operation that might be bugging you. This section got a rating of 6.35 which suggests that it should be continued. If you have any pertinent comments to make, please feel free to do so either on vour feedback card or by letter. Comment Games in S&T should be supplied with minigrip polythene bags or they should be available from you. MW Polythene bags (7.5" x 5") are available at 18p. for 10, £1.50 for 100 or £6.75 for 500 + P&P of 50p. (on an order valued up to £2.00), 65p. (on an order valued up to £5.00), 75p. (on an order valued up to £7.00), 85p. (on an order valued up to £10.00), or £1.00 (on an order of above £10.00) from a company that specialises in the mail order sale of this commodity. I feel that we can match these prices therefore if you do want to obtain the small bags used for counter storage please work out your order on the above schedule. Question What happened to question 13 (Phoenix 8 feedback)? MW The numbers on the questions got out of sequence. There were, in fact, only 47 questions altogether. Comment Firefight is very popular, good rating, so who allowed the situation where I have to wait approximately two months before mine is delivered? MW One of the problems that we at SPUK are facing (and a pleasant one it is too) is the continued rapid expansion of our market. When an order is placed with SPI we estimate our stock requirements for 2-3 months in advance and in the case of Firefight, as with one or two other titles this year, our calculations were not as accurate as I would have wished. The problem with Firefight was aggravated by SPl's own inability to supply Firefight when our stocks got to the critical level. Presumably they too were low on stock due to the demand for this game. This last comment is not passing the buck but as you must appreciate, if our own source of supply dries up for whatever reason then no matter how accurate our forecasts we will not be in a position to maintain continuity of supply. The whole subject of stock level came under review recently and we have increased our level consider ably in an effort to avoid such shortages. I fear, however, that we will never entirely shake off the shadow of the 'Out of Stock' game! Comment You carefully feedback non-SPI games to see if anyone wants them but you tacitly assume that everyone wants to buy the SPI games on the market. By rating new SPI games as to their potential market, you might be able to reduce your stock and thus save some money. MW The earlier complaint tends to make a nonsense of your assumption that our stock levels are too high. As SPl's agents, we are bound to assume that SPI games will sell, that's what we are here for. As already mentioned, we recently looked into the whole business of our stock level. On doing so we found that, even though this level has been increased by over £11,000 in six months (a substantial increase for a small company like ours) we had to step up our buying even further to keep up with demand. Comment Why is 'Moves' £1.25 an issue? MW Why is the Guardian 15p. an issue? Because that is what the vendor must sell it at to make its sale worth while. The same applies to the price of Moves and any other item that we sell. Comment If I wish to buy WWIII, Panzer '44 or Patrol, then I am forced to purchase these as U.K.-printed games, regardless of what I think of the quality. MW (This comment was aimed at our question 'Will the physical quality attained encourage you to purchase further U.K.-printed games?'). Obviously, your statement is correct. However, when we sit down to think about further U.K. production we want to know if our quality is good enough. That is exactly what the question asks. Surely it is not wrong to gauge the reaction to what we have already done and base future policy on that reaction. Comment SPUK is not going to sell many games if Phoenix prints articles like that. What are you up to? MW (This refers to the Gilham article on 'Sorcerer'). It rather looks like we just can't win. When an article appears in Phoenix praising a game then we are accused of trying to boost sales through the magazine. However, should an article which criticises a game appear we are then called fools for hindering sales. Let me repeat what I have said many times in the past. Phoenix is there for wargamers to put forward their point of view on games be they SPI, AH or GDW, etc. The Editor, Ray Bowden, controls the content. No member of SPUK interferes with the articles that he chooses for an issue and if he decides to publish one that is unhelpful to our sales then that is our misfortune. I do not believe that we can be any more honest in our approach to the publishing of Phoenix and would think the Gilham article would prove this. Question How much is an SPI T-shirt? MW $5.00 for one, $4.50 each for two or more plus $1.00 handling and postage per 6 or part thereof. We do not import these since to do so would require a licence and the few enquiries received to date, less than half a dozen, do not encourage me to take the matter further. Comment Subscription facilities for Fire & Movement please. MW Sorry, no can do. Fire & Movement have asked us not to sell on a subscription basis for reasons best known to themselves. I suspect they may not wish to be held too rigidly to a set timetable. Comment Get SPI to stop treating SPUK subscribers as 2nd class citizens. e.g.- why not distribute 'Strikeforce' and get SPI to enable SPUK subscribers to benefit from the same offers as U.S. subscribers? MW I doubt that SPI would wear this one. If you subscribe to S&T through SPUK you are in effect taking that sub out with SPUK, not with SPI. This being the case, you are not entitled to SPI'S S&T subscribers' offers. Having said that SPUK's subscribers are not exactly poor relations. You get 10% discount on 1or 2 SPI games, 15% on 3-5, 20% on 6-11 and 25% on 12-plus SPI games. SPI's subscribers have to buy 3 games before they get 10% discount. To get 20% they must spend between £110.00 and £165.00 and to get 30% they must spend upwards of £170.00. On top of this, as games are produced in the U.K., our subscribers get the chance to buy the games at a discount of 25% or thereabouts (depending on the game title and whether it is boxed or not), All in all, I submit that U.K. subscribers do very well on special offers (what about all those non-SPI games that we offer at low cost in Phoenix?) and I do not believe that the term 2nd class citizen can in any way be applied in this respect. Comment I particularly liked the way you printed Messrs. Gilhams scathing critique on Sorcerer....it's very pleasing to see this kind of honesty in reviews of your own (not Avalon Hill, GDW, TSR etc.) products. MW As explained earlier, SPUK cannot accept praise or blame on this subject. However, I am glad to see that the article did serve a useful function for a customer even though at our expense. Comment Are Phoenix articles paid for? Not at present. However, the subject will come under review in the not too distant future. At present the Phoenix is financed from my advertising budget and this has been allocated up to March 1978. When looking at next year's budget I will bear in mind the possibility of paying for Phoenix articles in much the same manner as does Moves. Development in this direction will be announced at the appropriate time. Comment I object to being forced to pay, via my S&T subscription, for a magazine I do not want. MW Whilst initially we intended to ask for 15p. towards each issue of Phoenix, this has in effect fallen by the wayside. As alreadv stated, the Phoenix is now paid for out of my advertising budget. The full price of an S&T sub goes towards fulfilling that sub and the extra money originally intended to support Phoenix has gone towards meeting the extra costs of freight, packaging, labour and post that have crept up on us over the past nine months, therefore if you wish to discard Phoenix on receipt please feel free to do so. It isn't costing you a penny. Question Could you print a reminder on how to read S&T sub codes? MW With pleasure. The figure immediately following the letters 'ST' indicates your expiry issue. The figures following the expiry issue indicate the date your sub was taken out thus ST70/10/87 would indicate a sub taken out on the 10th (/10) August '77 (/87) which will expire on issue 70 (ST70). Comment Frontsheets whilst necessary to attract impulse buyers are not required by the majority of Z-Pack buyers so why not cut out the frontsheet on the mail orders and possibly reduce prices of games or replace with charts and tables on separate cards for each player. MW To drop out the frontsheet would make a minimal difference in price. That apart, since it is listed in the rules as a game component, we must include it with the game or risk prosec ution under the Trades Description Act. Furthermore, it would be totally impractical to chop and change game components to suit the requirements of any one individual. When you buy a pack of cards, you buy the lot, Jokers included, whether or not you ever use them. Why, then, should you expect to treat games differently? Comment It might be interesting to find out what proportion of British board gamers also wargame with miniatures and perhaps, like myself, transfer the game systems of 'Patrol', 'October War' etc. to the wargames table. This might provide an interesting field for future 'Phoenix' articles. MW I agree it would provide a good field for future articles but that is probably as far as the interest would go for SPUK.ln the first feedback we asked just such a question and found that a large number of boardgamers had been or still were tabletop gamers. We then asked if we should stock figures and were told quite firmly 'no!'. The UK is very well served in the miniatures field by a number of companies and I do not believe there is any room for us in this market at the moment. Comment Keep up the printing of games in U.K. MW It looks like we'll be doing just that, but not until about April 1978. Comment You've changed the size of Phoenix again. Why? MW Phoenix was originally produced to an American paper size which matched S&T, for no other reason than the fact that it did match S&T. When we were advised by our printer that we were not saving money by copying the S&T size it was decided to go to the full British page size and get more for our money. This has given us more space at no extra cost. Question What has happened to the probability of a game in Phoenix? MW This is still in the melting pot and has been put back for economic reasons (see earlier comment on the financing of Phoenix). Comment Countersheet prices are exorbitant! ! ! Two pounds each? Preposterous! I wanted to expand some of my games. This has effectively stopped me. MW As always, there are two sides to every story. To supply spare parts we must break down a complete game thus rendering that game unsaleable. To take the most extreme example then should you wish to buy a countersheet for War in Europe, we would have to take a £24.00 game out of stock for 2-3 months (the approximate time it takes to get replacements from SPI) to fulfil a £2.00 order. This is not a very economic proposal. Spare parts are priced in such a way to discourage all but the serious purchaser. If parts were not expensive we could find ourselves with no games and mounds of spare parts for sale. The problem is so acute that SPI themselves have advised us that they are to discontinue their spares service to us and their own customers. We will obviously have to follow suit on all but U.K.- printed games.