REVOMAZE User Group

As we are soon to enter a new RevoMaze age with the R2 and the ability to buy into the "Voyager" plan I thought that I would take a look back at how things started with Series 1 and what has happened along the way.

Before the any puzzles were sold directly to the public there were eBay auctions for the first 12 Blue puzzles in order by serial number (1 through 12). These had SE (for Special Edition) stamped at the end of their serial numbers. After the Blue SE auctions the same was done for the 12 Green SEs. Some of us who won Blue SEs attempted, and mostly succeeded, in winning the Green SE with the same serial number. After that we were given the option of pre-purchasing the rest of the main series with matching SE serial numbers. Also, the option was added to the site's store for anyone to pre-purchase the main series of 5 puzzles with matching serial numbers for those who didn't win the SE auctions. Early on there were two options for purchasing the puzzles, one was the puzzle by itself and the other was a deluxe package which also included a wood stand and pouch.

Since those early days many things that were promised, assumed, or just talked about have changed. Some for the better, some not so.

Here are some of changes which I'm not overly happy about:
- The end of the wood stands (single and the promised 5 puzzle one). We were even supposed to have an option for mahogany ones.
- The end of the deluxe packaging (goes along with the end of the wood stands).
- The Yellow puzzle which never happened.
- Somewhere along the way the serial numbers stopped being build order numbers and became somewhat arbitrary.
- The long delays for the Silver and Gold.
- The very long delay for the Silver V2 replacement cores for SE owners.
- Confusion about the naming of the plastic puzzles (eventually the Obsession line but at first they were the Extremes) and colored stickers used for some of the V2s (Black V2 has a green sticker, Blue Pro V2 has red).
- The lack of prizes for solving the obsessions and registering the certificate numbers.
- The Red Obsession which was impossible to solve without "cheating".
- There was supposed to be some sort of contest involving the lottery tickets in the Red Extremes but that never happened.
- The release of the V2 Extreme puzzles, which didn't seem necessary to me.
- The lack of feedback for our Orange designs.
- The dropping of the "Elite Group".
- The very long delay for the Handmades which were supposed to be made soon after we purchased them.
- The special case/stand for the Handmades never happened.
- The purpose and nature of the Gold algorithm.
- The nature of the Gold puzzle itself.
- The lack of map in the Gold puzzle.
- The way the series code winners were chosen.
- The proposed replacement wood boxes / display stands that never happened.
- Changing the regional competitions into the Purple lottery with very different qualification criteria.
- Completely throwing out the leader boards.
- The style of case for the Collector's Edition set (still very unhappy about this one).
- The ongoing long delay for the CE set.

There has been some good changes too:
- The Obsession line which has 1 unique puzzle (2 if you count the Blue Pro V2 as unique) and was the source for the Red Extreme design.
- The trainer (though I rarely use them).
- The RevoMaze calculators.
- More special puzzles than what were originally planned such as the Handmade and Lime.
- The coins for the SE set owners.
- Sending out free replacement Silver V2s cores after a problem was discovered with the V1.
- Alternate Silver V2 puzzles were made available to some Silver SE V1 owners while they waited for their replacement SE cores.
- Adding a plastic (Obsession) Titanium to the CE set which then changed to an extra metal (Extreme) one instead.
- The sale of some rare/prototype puzzles to collectors.
- The return of the pouches.
- An official mini-RevoMaze (coming soon).

And I also understand that along the way some unforeseen problems came up:
- The Silver V1 issue.
- Issues with the original engineering firm.
- The source for the stands dried up.
- Issues with the plating company (especially for the Red).
- Personal/private issues outside of RevoMaze that caused delays.

So why am I bringing this all up now? Well, because I see some similar promises for the "Voyager" R2 group. Sure, we are not pre-paying for the entire series like with Series 1 main puzzles and/or the CE set, but there is similar talk about collector's cases and advanced opportunities for limited and/or special puzzles. Things which just didn't work out according to plans the first time through. I hope that lessons of the past have been well learned and that everything goes as planned this next time. As it is, I did buy into the "Voyager" plan and am looking forward to the complete R2 series!

Thanks for that recap cause i was one of the later buyer and i didn't even know some of the problem you pointed....
Im whit you on the hoping part

Forgot to add the case for the Handmade...

Well said Stet and I completely agree with everything you just wrote! And I hope that soon enough Chris himself will grace us with his presence and address these concerns as well.

smiteo wrote:Forgot to add the case for the Handmade...

Thanks. I had forgotten about that, I have edited my post now to include it. Is there anything else I forgot or got wrong?

I agree with a lot of what you are saying. My main point of frustration and the number one thing that is keeping me from buying any more Revomazes or investing into the R2 set is lack of information we are getting back from the company. There really should be regular announcements letting people know what is going on, and in a place that is easily visible instead of buried on page 12 of 30 in a specific comment of a specific mazes thread.

People would be a lot more understanding of a lot of the problems that are happening if there was simply a good flow of information. I don't understand how responding to each individual question one at a time is more efficient than making frequent announcements either. When the company was starting out you were able to e-mail and get a response from Chris. As the company grew Revogirl joined on and now we have Revoguy even though we lost Revogirl. Unfortunately it is hard to get a response now even through use of PMs or e-mail which has resulted in complete disappointment for some people.

Another good thing about strong public communication is that the community is absolutely brilliant with ideas. If we knew about the problems with the competition there are quite a lot of us that could have come up with solutions for how to get it running. There is a convention that I staff on the East coast that is starting up a remote site at Las Vegas for the first time. They are looking to add events to their schedule. So that would have been a free venue, at Las Vegas, that can hold a lot of people and generate more interest in Revomazes for the sot of plane tickets here. I honestly cant believe that something similar couldn't have been arranged for in England. This community is based on finding ways to accomplish the seemingly impossible, why not use us?

I used to be an avid supporter and promoter of Revomazes but the down sides of the company have really gotten to me. If communication improves significantly and I feel that the community is important again I will return to being a Revomaze supporter.

I haven't been here from the beginning (otherwise I'd have a Black Exxtreme), but I've been here long enough to have experienced some of these things first hand. Many of the disappointments are the growing pains of a small start up company. This doesn't make them easier to bear on our side.

Many start-ups fail and this might have happened here too. They're still a small company but they're still here, still making puzzles and hopefully will be for many years to come. I think we'd all want them to survive as a company.

Out of at least 12 distinct designs I think only two have been disappointments. I'll leave it to you to figure out which ones I mean. The rest have been excellent, even if I can't open al of them. I think that's a pretty good record and they've provided some real puzzleing enjoyment for most of us.

Another good thing has been the way that the solutions have not ended up on line.

I'm also looking forward to the R2 puzzles and I hope they've learned from their past experiences. For what it's worth I think the manufacturing of a puzzle disc will be easier than the R1 cores without losing the Revomaze complexity. I hope they won't all be impossibly difficult. I already have a few paperweights and I don't really need some hockey pucks to go with them.

The main outstanding items are the CE sets and the Purple. After that it's infinity and beyond.

I agree with Peter. They are just growing pains. As they develop as a company, which i have no doubt they will, I'm sure they'll iron out all the little niggles that are bugging people. They just need room to grow and learn.

Before we know it, there will be R4+ out and there will be a whole workforce behind them, with their own machines making the puzzles and maybe even a dedicated support team. (speculations of course!!)

But they can't do it on their own. They need us and our support

A couple of more thing to mention would be the obsession prizes that were going to use the cert numbers of opened puzzles and the red lottery that were going to use our lottery ticket for something else. All and all, lessons need to have been learned to not over promise and under deliver.

I just want updates and information. Maybe once a week or at least every month. It isn't the whole world if they cannot keep the promises or are delayed, if they just keep us informed and explains why and give us the new forecast.