ranzware
A new Kickstarter collaboration for Deep Rock Galactic has been launched, and it’s for “high quality mugs.” You won’t believe how high quality these mugs are. The project is being managed by Scorched Steel Industry and involves replicas of the in-game dwarven mugs. “The DRG Special Beer Mug: a beautiful and safe-to-drink-from pint mug, designed to be of the highest quality while still being suitable for your everyday use!”
How much? $55 dollars to you sir. And as with many Kickstarters, the sting is in the shipping: That total goes up to around $85 for one mug when you include shipping. I mean, even if you’ve had a particularly fruitful day in the mines, that’s a lot of money for a plastic mug.
Now, I’m not necessarily complaining. Grown adults can spend their money on what they like, DRG players adore the game, and the mugs look great. It should also be said that, with 30 days to go, the Kickstarter has sailed beyond its initial $200,000 target and is currently around $300,000, so lots of folk are happy to pay this price.
Still… hell of a lot of money for a mug. And what amused me about this is the rationale for the price. One person backed the Kickstarter for a dollar, only so that they could leave a comment for Scorched Steel Industry saying “$85 (with shipping) for a plastic mug is too expensive for many of us.”
SSI’s response is an instant classic. “We are aware the price of the mugs is quite high and not for everyone sadly. It is explained by the very high cost of the steel molds and the number of parts requisited [sic] for each mug. A few of the manufacturers we talked with told us it might be the most complicated mug made industrially on Earth, and amongst the most complicated projects for them.”
I’m not sure exactly how, but “the most complicated mug made industrially on Earth” feels seriously on-brand for Deep Rock Galactic. But there’s more! “We also chose a rather expensive polymer to get the best look and properties” and, very reasonably, “small batches of just a few thousand pieces are very expensive compared to mass production in the hundreds of thousands or millions.”
I didn’t want one of these mugs this morning, but I’m slowly leaning towards them. DRG fans are mostly mollified and amused by this explanation, though there’s still some grumbling about the steel molds argument (there are four mugs, but they clearly share the same mold).
“Yeah, I don’t think anyone who knows about Kickstarter stuff is going to say these are cheap,” says ChillyG27. “But still, you can make it to be the most high tech safe and secure mug in the world, but it still remains an 80 bucks plastic mug.”
“Made of neither rock nor stone,” notes SergeantSleepy1995 disapprovingly. HowlingHipster meanwhile makes the decent point that “people are treating these like fun casual drinkware and not collectors items. These come across like the millennial nerd version of the pink glass dishes my mom hoards in a cabinet.”
Speaking as a dad whose daughters are obsessed with Stanley Cups, and who deeply resented having to pay $45 for a god damn cup, I can tell you that no mug is worth this amount of money. But it’s all in the eye of the beholder, and very much you pays your money, you takes your choice. But let’s just enjoy that line one more time: “The most complicated mug made industrially on Earth.”
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Kurt Indovina
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