HeroQuest 25th anniversary crowdfunding!

[chaoticprime]

The C&D doesn't even begin to cover everything that stinks about Gamezone miniatures and his decade-long campaign of IP theft and anti-marketing guerrilla warfare. The guy's a snake.

[knightkrawler]

German fans are still over this like flies. I just posted "I give up" there. Maybe someone asks.
They won't care; they won't listen to me.

[chaoticprime]

German fans are still over this like flies. I just posted "I give up" there. Maybe someone asks.
They won't care; they won't listen to me.

It seems like most Germans will just go along with anything.

[Sjeng]

CP pm'd me this, and I think it deserves to be posted.

I was going to post this in the regular forums, but changed my mind.

Its in response to this:

“There is a third risk we were not able to foresee: a sector of the hobby is opposed to this project. Although most is based on misinformation, it is real enough that some fans have chosen to actively stand against the project, even boycott. It is quite disheartening to see these views from our position, with accurate data and information in our hands. We are aware that their influence is great, but not enough to cripple the project. Moreover, we hope you will see what we do to change their minds and, ultimately, when the game is finally done, have them as more customers.”

If what I have to say next doesn't convince everyone away from this company, I'll just have to stop trying. I will present some information, and then I will ask one question.

I just finished with four hours of research into Gamezone miniatures and Spain's postal system. I know how it works, and unless I missed something very irregular, I should be totally correct.

The address on their website lists their address as:

Antonia Sáenz 4-6 local
41003 Sevilla (Spain)

> There is no mail-to name.

> The proper address should have had "Calle" before "Antonia Saenz" to indicate it as one street. This, I saw remarked on, is the most common mistake made by foreigners when posting to Spain.

> The "4" indicates building, while the "6" indicates which floor or flat/apartment.
Thanks to Google Streetview, I was able to get this:

I don't know much about apartments buildings in Spain, but that doesn't look like a place of business. It, however, is--though not the business you may think. Read on.

> The "local" caused me some trouble, but when I finally figured it out I was blown away. I found out that "4-6" didn't reference the building and apartment, rather the building and a mail-forwarding box number. The "local" part is used by companies like this one: http://spainbox.com/mailboxes/ that rent out mailboxes located in Spain to anyone, anywhere on Earth.

> And then what of this claim, "We are manufacturers and we cover the whole process from sketching , sculpting , mold making , production, packaging and distribution." Does not that refute parts of the following?

> On the 'About Us' (http://www.gamezoneminiatures.com/tiend ... 4-about-us) section is the following: "No, we aren't Germans. We are locate in Seville. What happens is that our distributor for Germany works extremely well and we have always received excellent there. We also been followers of antimarketing."

> Antimarketing--for example, would be getting attention with a false claim of an official license that caused an internet-wide scandal reported by every gaming news site with links leading back to a website.

> If they truly do live at their listed address why is it actually a mail-forwarding business? In fact, nowhere about their site can you find any information about the numbers of persons involved with the company, or their identities. You know one of them has white skin on their (probably male) left hand:

> I went looking for the ten-years of business they claim, and found the following information that Google cached in 2002: http://gamezoneminiatures.de/widerruf/

The interesting bit is here:

Gamezone Miniatures
Matthias Batzke
Mauerstraße 23
07407 Rudolstadt
E-Mail: info@gamezoneminiatures.de

My search also result in a majority of online distributors being German. If you search Matthias out, you'll find that he's uploaded hundreds--if not thousands, of Gamezone miniatures' product photos to dozens of online distributors.

> This is the domain information regarding http://www.gamezoneminiatures.com--http ... com/whois/ I thought I had a decent lead until I realized that all the personal information is from http://www.espaisvirtuals.com/--the owner of the company that produced the site for Gamezone. The site itself is hosted by an American IP.

> The German equivalent site was also established similarly--the company hired to make it has their name on it.

> There are three company registers in Spain, the Central Mercantile Register, Association of Spanish Property & Commercial Registers and the Comisión Nacional del Mercado de Valores. I had to paid nine euros to search the first register--no Gamezone. I dug into the ASP&CR and found squat. Guess how the last (and easiest) registrar turned out?

> I searched for similar registers for Germany--no dice.

> What this means is that there is a company named 'Gamezone Miniatures,' it just isn't legally registered as a "Spanish" company (or German).

You don't know his/her name.
You don't know where they are.
On TMP, Gamezone described their products as: "Fantasy miniatures (we currently have only our own products, designed, sculpted and casted for ourselves)."

Go through these posts (http://theminiaturespage.com/boards/search.mv), they go back years. You're going to see a theme--"where has Gamezone miniatures vanished to, now?"

Here is my question:

"Is this guy fooling everyone into paying for his toys?"

Plus this still hasn't been resolved:



GZ is on my blacklist. It's not a big list, it has 1 name on it. It is a list of companies I do not trust at all, and will never buy anything from.

Isn't this Dionisios then? 6.48m in.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2wsAka3Mg8#t=0h6m49s

[Sjeng]

German fans are still over this like flies. I just posted "I give up" there. Maybe someone asks.
They won't care; they won't listen to me.

Redirect them to this forum, or quote some of our research and worries. Especially CP's research.

We've gone from surprised and even enthousiastic to not so enthusiastic and disappointed to downright negative. People who backed at first on KS have dropped out, and have now seen this for what is really is: an attempt to generate a lot of money from a bootlegged product, abusing the name of our beloved game HQ. GameZone is fishy to say the least.

[chaoticprime]

I am ready to admit that I am wrong about any of my above points. I think there is more than enough there to create a reasonable doubt. Gamezone has spent the last decade stealing GW's IP with an anti-marketing tactic where you reduce the equity of the competition by copying their product and then changing it into something "better." Gamezone has been able to avoid GW's ire for so long because he gave them nobody to sue. Gamezone is more like a concept than an actual business. Its nebulous and could completely vanish at any time.

[IvenBach]

I would wholeheartedly like to back them but from gut feeling I wont. As I mentioned previous multiple C&D orders and vague and poorly written game info isn't a turn on. If this does turn out to be a true effort and comes to see the light of day I'll admit I was in error but I'll stick with my train of thought for now and see how it plays out. I'm hoping to see an anniversary HQ but out of all my BP I've only one left I'm saving for this in hopes it actually comes out.

[sajungzak]

They can sell and distribute in Spain. They say there is no problem shipping out of the country to individual buyers, legally everything is handled in Spain (taxes go to Spain) as it is a Spanish company.
Their marketing tactics worked perfectly. It got us all talking about it. Lose a few, win a lot more.

[Idomeneas]

Naysayers?
I think we "naysayers" have arguments abound for saying "nay".

you are the Knight who say ''NAY''

[knightkrawler]

Oi demande shrubberay!