Let there be no doubt: I appreciate MMP's efforts to produce ASL and I'm glad that at least somebody was able to take on the mess that Avalon Hill created.

That said, however, I'm not impressed by their public relations or their ability to produce quality ASL material in a timely fashion. Basically, I rate their stewardship of the game as "mediocre to poor".  Most people could produce the same results, many could do it better, and some people could do remarkably better.  

First topic: the timely release of ASL material

First, I was disappointed when MMP missed the original deadline of "Spring 2000" for the 2nd Edition of the rules. The revised deadlines of "Summer 2000," "Fall 2000," and "Christmas 2000" all came and went. The new rules finally were published in early 2001, a year late.  What bothers me about the lateness is that it had a discouraging effect.  If ASL is going to be around much longer, new people need to start playing. The lateness of the new rules got in the way of this, and possibly has turned potential newbies off from wargaming, or more probably to some other game.  MMP is letting new players slip away with their inability to meet production schedules and their general slowness.  It took far too long to get the new rules and the new Beyond Valor released.  Now, it looks as if the final module, Armies of Oblivion is going to be delayed a great deal, although the MMP website has it "coming soon" (which used to read "coming in 2002" and "coming in 2001" but they obviously missed those).  Furthermore, MMP continues to futz around, now splitting the Finns off into their own module, and causing massive confusion by splitting the reprint of West of Alemein into two modules (more on For King and Country below).  The end result of this mess is increasing delays in reprinting the rest of the core modules.  MMP is so far behind that even their ASL website hasn't been really updated since March of 2001.   The real killer is that Beyond Valor and the Rulebook are now again unavailable, and have been unavailable for over a year!  These are the only two things that are absolutely required to play ASL, and nobody can buy them (unless they get lucky and find a copy tucked away in a game store).  Sheesh.  Talk about failing to ensure the growth of ASL.  Yet at the same time, MMP continues to fritter away its time and resources on other projects.  Indeed, so far the only product released in 2003 is Out of the Attic, which is just a collection reprinted scenarios and articles.  Why not reprint the Rulebook and Beyond Valor first?

Second topic: public relations

The start of the Operation Veritable Historical Study (OVHS) pre-order system was a flop.  After just two and a half weeks of preordering, the order rate plummeted to about 2-3 per day.  Furthermore, store orders did not roll in until much later.  Why was this?  Partly, this was due to MMP's complete failure to aggressively advertise it.  There was no flyer mailed to customers for weeks.  There was been no "cross-polination" with The Gamers customers.  There was a belated announcement on the Consimworld news page.  And it took 18 days for MMP to finally get around to promoting OVHS on their ASL main page.  It was never advertised anywhere else on the entire MMP website.  They made no effort to assure potential buyers that FKaC (with the required British counters) would be ready when OVHS was sold.  Clearly, MMP's public relations leaves much to be desired.  They should have made sure that some other ASL product was published to reinvigorate customers.  They would have pushed aggressively and early for store orders, and they would have had a media blitz to ensure the visibility of a non-existent product.  Then, MMP does things like arbitrarily deciding to alter core components (vehicles) to the game, springing it upon players rather than releasing this information in a controlled fashion.

The ASL website is another problem.  It is hopelessly out of date and badly organized.  Some links do not work (try clicking on their link to the ASL FAQ).  It's been more than two years since any of the errata was posted to the site.  The ASL Player Directory is at least two years out of date (I'm still listed as being in Binghamton, despite the fact that I have not lived there since June of 2001 and despite the fact that I have sent updated information for the directory on several occasions). Finally, and most problematic, is that MMP continues to fail to post to its website all of the changes that were made from Version 1 of the rules to Version 2.  They promised they would do this.  It now appears that they flat-out lied.  

It is obvious that MMP is a poorly run business.  Either that, or ASL has fallen so low on their priority list that it's not even on the back burner any more, let alone the stovetop.  Bringing Keith Dalton on has helped a bit, at least in terms of softening the hammer blows from the other MMPers who repeatedly post terse, sarcastic, and arrogant messages to the Mailing List.  I feel sorry for Keith as he'll be the one dealing with unhappy customers when MMP makes another bad decision.

Third topic: overall stewardship of the game

By this I mean an assessment of how well MMP has maintained ASL as the premier wargame.  How well have they done to protect the integrity of the rules system?  I define "integrity of the rules" as: "the ability of one set of rules to be used by all players for all scenarios, simultaneously".  If two players each has a different set of rules, there is no integrity (indeed, there are two different-but-related games, which is definitely not desirable).  If a player must use a rule in some cases, but not in others, then there is no integrity (indeed this causes confusion, and the application of rules seems artificial and arbitrary).  In other words, there are two dimensions to integrity: spatial and temporal.  Spatially, the game should not change depending on who you play.  Having multiple versions of the rules makes this sort of integrity difficult to achieve.  Temporally, the game should not change depending on when scenarios were published, and under what rules they were playtested.  Releasing new products that invalidate existing ones makes this sort of integrity difficult to achieve.

In this writer's opinion, MMP has done a remarkably poor job in ensuring spatial and temporal integrity.  As noted elsewhere on this site, MMP failed to ensure that the second edition of the rules was fully compatible with the first (even though they made statements that V1 owners would not have to buy V2).  There are two related issues at work here.  First, rules were changed that significantly alter game play.  Second, MMP has completely failed to make those changes available to V1 owners.  By this failure, they have created a situation where there are two versions of ASL being played, and have damaged spatial integrity: there are "V1 players" and "V2 players" out there, as evidenced by the common pre-game disclaimer when encountering a new opponent (either "I don't have V2" or "I play V2 rules").  Further evidence exists in the form of the relatively frequent questions posed by V1 owners (or potential ASL customers) regarding what differences there are between V1 and V2.

Additionally, MMP has now decided in For King and Country (FKaC) that it is a good idea to revise vehicle counters and Chapter H notes as new information becomes known.  This is absurd.  The problem is that established components of games, particularly those as complex as ASL need to be just that: established.  This means of course that the original research and components need to be top-notch.  I think we're ALL in agreement that they are.  Changing these things "on the fly" creates confusion amongst players and confusion about when to apply the new rules and when not to.  This ultimately leads to situations where people have different versions of the game.  Again, spatial integrity is damaged.  Furthermore, temporal integrity is hurt, since now we have two batches of scenarios: those published prior to FKaC and those published with/after FKaC.  So, these changes are a serious problem, even moreso that they have now set a precedent at MMP that game components are up for review and may be altered.  MMP has even said as much.

And all for no good reason, and that's the key.  Fixing typos or other unintentional mistakes is one thing.  But were the vehicles actually "broken"?  Were the data so egregiously wrong that people were losing sleep, or revolting every time they played a scenario with them?  Most likely, people did not even notice that the counters or Chapter H notes were "wrong", and if they did, did they even care?  We know that some of ASL is "wrong".  It's been pointed out that the AP TK table has oddities.  The armor factors and MP values are fudged.  HEAT is probably too powerful, and Schuerzen are probably too effective.  We have a host of "the physics of ASL" issues that create strange effects.  So what?  We have a game that works.  It's withstood the test of time and is most certainly the best board wargame (I argue wargame, period) in the world.  Why wreck that by needless (mindless?) tinkering that creates problems regarding backward compatibility, confusion over rules applicability, multiple versions of the game, and ultimately (if this continues too much) an inability for players to connect?  My arguments on this issue, on house rules, on new rules, on ASLRBv2 changes, and on the availability of errata/updates have all been based on one simple philosophy: maintaining the integrity of the game system, as a whole, so that we always have ONE game being played by everyone, and ONE game for our entire collection of scenarios.  No splintering of the (already too-small) hobby.  No "gaps" between players so that it's harder to sit down and play a new opponent.  No pressure on established players to keep buying everything "just to stay official" like other game systems/companies.  No confusion about when scenarios were published and what rules might therefore apply.  So far I have yet to see, IMO, a cogent response from ANYONE as to why my philosophy should not be a goal for MMP.  Clearly, MMP is blinded by the "coolness" of having increasingly historically accurate rules and counters.  They apparently no longer care about the integrity of the rules, and are willing to sacrafice that integrity in a misguided search for realism.

Conclusion

MMP, I'm afraid, developed the dreaded "Avalon Hill Syndrome" which causes bad management, missed deadlines, and inferior products. The last 4 of the last 5 new modules produced under MMP...Doomed Battalions, A Bridge Too Far, Blood Reef Tarawa, and Operation Watchtower...have all been plagued with mistakes.  Even the new Rulebook has so many mistakes that replacement pages had to be inserted immediately.  Reprinted modules (such as Beyond Valor) have also contained serious mistakes, even on significant items such as counters.  I think that some of this is due to rushing the process after having fallen behind schedule. It also is due to one other thing: too many irons in the fire without being willing to relinquish some of the design and testing control.

It seems that the company sorely needs to hire a real staff that can help in the production process. We're talking nuts and bolts publishing stuff here, people.  Things like collating, proofreading, layout, graphics, etc.  This is stuff that any professional publisher can do; ASL material, once designed and tested ceases to be unique.  It's simply another thing that needs to get published.  I think MMP should seriously consider contracting out these jobs.  It would improve accuracy, free up MMP members' time for more important things (like design!), and ultimately reduce costs (fewer reprinted pages and counters...or entire modules in the case of Doomed Battalions).  Consider how the proofreading of the 2nd edition ASL Rulebook was accomplished: a large set of ASL players was used to look for typos.  While ASL experience was needed for some of the stages in the copyediting process (i.e. to ensure example accuracy), proofreading can be done by anyone.  Furthermore, by allowing people who are close to the material to proofread, you lose error catching ability.  Players started reading for content rather than typos.  Furthermore, those who are close to the material fail to find errors because they know what the text means...their brains will fill in omitted words or will automatically correct mistakes.  I know; I helped proof the damn thing, and I have served as a production manager for a political science journal, and my wife is a copyeditor.  There are professional copyeditors who can proof even highly technical material.  They are good at what they do.  Their error rates are practically nil.  I have suggested this option to MMP informally on more than one occasion, but never received a reply.

Quality and timely ASL products, quite frankly, are too big a job for the current MMP staff.  This problem is further intensified by the fact that MMP is no longer an "ASL Only" company. They have taken on development and support for a number of other ex-AH titles. This means that MMP's resources, which are already inadequate, will be further diluted.  Couple this with their recent purchase of The Gamers, and this problem is accentuated.  With all the work they have, plus their unwillingness to let any part of the production process be done by outside contractors save the actual printing, ASL module will be produced at a slower and slower pace.  The quality of new modules will also continue decrease.

This has all lead to a serious problem for MMP. The situation right now, for a gaming company, is not acceptable. Their slowness and  inability to ensure core module availability frustrates new players trying to enter the hobby.  They're upsetting current players with late and low-quality new products.  And their poor stewardship of the game will eventually destroy the integrity of the system.  And it's only going to get worse: with the absorption of The Gamers, and the attention they must give to other ex-AH games, the resources MMP spends (time, money, effort) on ASL will continue to drop.  We have four guys who are masquerading as a game company.  MMP can not have it both ways: they can either be a fan group dedicated to keeping ASL (only!) alive, or they can be a game company dedicated to producing a wide range of products.  If they choose the second option, they must increase their capabilities.  Otherwise they will fail.

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