So as promised the stats on the latest and greatest craze...the ratio of our prize shipping performance. For many of you, you've experienced great times with JACT. For others, well, times have been a bit rocky. 9.5% unemployment is pretty staggering! So here are some details...out of 1389ish orders that have rolled in during this time, we have shipped out 513 as to date. The remaining may seem a bit daunting, but it's a small fraction of the totals we have completed during our entire existence. So, 513 out of 1389 is the current status. The duration of the time of order has little to do with who gets what first. It's finding the right sponsors and resources to fulfill the demand.

We want to thank everyone during this Beta phase. It's a misconception that our initial push at creating JACT was all fine and dandy. We have had a pretty successful Beta period. We went from nothing but a thought to building software and a system to run behind the scenes that we are very proud of. We committed ourselves to REAL LIFE testing so that we could bring to market a viable product. Instead of having in-house testers hammering away 24-7, we decided to really test with real life testers like all of you all. Thanks for the support. We considered prize costs as the trade off for in-house testing costs. In the beginning, we thought that maybe 1,000 to 2,500 people would partake and give us great insight. What we were not prepared for was the sign-ups well beyond that. As the registration increased, we set out to start this engine and go out and try to get enough sponsors to support the growing community. This was the goal of our business anyways so we thought we might as well start now. So we were able to sign up a few sponsors to keep up with the demand. Almost instantly, more and more people signed up (which is great!) and we brought more and more sponsors. Suddenly, however, things took a slight turn to where our economy hit a rough spot. More demand than supply began to take it's course.

Let me make it clear, that we love the demand. Demand drives business and that's what we set out to accomplish. Coming full circle, we find ourselves working with a new set of challenges but stick with us and we will follow through.

So I wanted to address beginnings, motivations, and expectations. Years ago as we were all enjoying games we had an idea. Plenty of ideas stay ideas. They never even see the light of day. I will tell you what it all comes down to. We thought, "Wouldn't it be nice to have a rewards system like all the other rewards programs out there but for video gaming and make it cool...not purchasing or doing something obvious like complete these deals and buy this and jump through this hoop..." Credit card points mean your spending money. Airline miles means you are spending money flying thousands and thousands of miles. We wanted to find a way to give back to the gamers for giving so much to the industry. I mean my god, we made the video game industry the most lucrative entertainment media of all time! So yes, we had ambitious goals and yes we started with no exact calculation to follow. Can we achieve it? I think we can and I think we will. We ran this site in beta to make sure we could develop an honest system first and foremost. Going forward it's up to us to figure out the nuts and bolts of this. We didn't start this company with gobs of money and commercial backing. It was a few guys (and it still is a few guys (and gals) eking our way through to make this work. You want to discuss a start up lifestyle, well bring your documentary cameras and you'll capture life in its true essence trying to bring something to life. We're not some fancy New York/San Francisco dot com start up. We don't have uppity lifestyles or condescending ways of whisking around patting ourselves on the back. What you know about startups, STOP. Please, the world isn't so transparent.

So all the assumptions being made should check themselves at the door before they enter the world of JACT. If you believe in the idea, stick with us. If you don't, well, we were never meant to be anyways. We appreciate each and everyone of you. We appreciate you through the good time and especially through the tough times. If you cannot accept this than there is nothing more that we can do as we are doing the best we can with the resources we have available.

We always thought of ourselves as trying to make a difference. Yeah, our difference might not being curing diseases or feeding the hungry, but ours still seems like it could mean something. We appreciate all the questions, comments, concerns, and criticisms. Don't get me wrong. Just try to have some perspective on things. We are not delivering your health insurance or mortgage refinancing. We are trying to provide you with a means to have a more enriching gaming experience. I'll end with this. We've had almost 4 long hard working years of great progress. The last 8 months have thrown us a few curve balls, but I'll tell you this...you don't want to pitch us too many curve balls cuz we'll adjust and knock it out of the park soon.

Prizes and Events...related

Ok, so I’ve been working on the details for the prize shipments. Starting next Friday, I will give a general overview of orders sent, outstanding orders remaining, etc. As far as people asking about things in the forums, I appreciate all of you guys and gals who have been helping us answer them. It’s a huge help to us knowing that many of you support us. Please point them to the blog as well. Thanks.

I want to talk about the “Events” that have been popping up in the JACT world. First off, we hope you enjoyed the first one. We appreciate all the participation and feedback during the first Event, the WoW-a-thon. There is a new one we’re about to start this Friday that is along the same lines as the first one. We are happy that DC Home has partnered with JACT to bring you this event.

This leads me to some misconceptions I want to clear and naturally prizing is the topic. Some have suggested that we stop with the “Events” and focus on shipping prizes. I’m here to tell you that without these “Events” prizes will have a hard time being shipped soon. It’s not a trade off…I mean, it’s not like we are sitting on a mountain of prizes and we just don’t ship them because we are too busy putting on the Events. It’s because of these Events that JACT will ship more and more prizes sooner.

In the latter part of last year, when normal sponsorships stopped rolling in, JACT was stuck with a dilemma which has lead to our current hiatus in shipping. Last year, sponsorship and prize costs rolled in at a nice healthy pace. Then, sponsorships seemed to dry up almost immediately. Thinking that it was just a matter of making new relationships, we kept operating like we always had. Soon we realized that we were in a different landscape and changes had to be made. It was going to take more time to regain sponsorships. What seemed like an instant was actually 3-4 months. We fell behind and this is the quandary we were left with. At the time, it seemed like we could just work a bit harder and make the right relationships. Unfortunately, things were a bit more serious than we anticipated.

With that being said, we are getting back on our feet. Events are great for us to get what we want and for you guys to get what you want. So if you like the Events, please support them. If you have any suggestions regarding them, please let us know. We just have to be more creative and persevere. JACT will get back on its feet…hopefully in time to please the masses once again!

of the gamer, by the gamer, and for the gamer

Hey guys,
there are few things i wanted to point out here:

1) We could be jerks who care nothing of free speech and open mindedness and lock and delete this thread. We know that would be a lame thing to do and disrupt free speech, but we both know that it's done all the time on forums. Pretty lame right? Hell, it could be argued that this is terrible for our image. This may even hurt us when sponsors come here and get a feel for our community. We, however, feel this is great (for the most part) constructive criticism and (for our sake) well deserved praise. Yes, things could be better and yes everyone could be having the experience they all want with JACT, but unfortunately that's not the case. Let's try to be respectful of other's opinions. We are a community. We all like to game and apparently, we all like this world where our recreational gaming can produce some other benefits. We are open minded and that's how we approach all the threads.

2) If it seems like we are non-responsive, disrespectful to our users, or however else you feel we have neglected the communication you, consider this...we have been trying with some blog posts, answering emails, forum posts, etc. Because our staff is spread so thin, would you rather us be 100% perfect here or out pounding the pavement talking to sponsors and trying to get events set up so we can get back on track. Thanks to all that are responsive in the forums. Whether its positive or negative you are a spokesperson for us. Even negative comments, show that you care about the future of JACT. Otherwise, why waste your time here, right?

3) Many of you will say, "Well, that's not how you should run a business." I will ask how do you run a start up right now in this economy. Nevermind a startup...running a business right now is hard. This is a very serious statement: IF YOU HAVE A WAY TO HELP US OUT THROUGH ADVICE, SHARED CONTACTS, ETC., PLEASE SHARE!

4) Have we shut down and given up? HELL NO! How many people out there can honestly say they would take the plunge. No security, no guarantee, no glory, no one to pat them on the back...all we have is knowing that each and every day we come into work we are doing what we want. We are creating something we can be proud of. The people at JACT believe in it. We believe in it so much that we'd rather work nights so we can enjoy our crap paying day jobs. Can we go find other jobs that pay a hell of a lot more with a whole lot less stress. HELL YES! Call me crazy, but this is the fun part. I can't even imagine how much we'll appreciate this down the road. The highs just aren't as high if you haven't had the lowest of lows.

5) Who wants to be part of JACT? If being part of this community is causing you way too much anger and stress, for the sake of your happiness, health, and sanity, run as far away from us as possible. The last thing we want is to add stress to people's lives. We game to get away and relax. It is almost a Mike Tyson shot to the kidney to think that JACT could actually increase stress for you guys. I don't think it's what we envisioned when we started this gig. We want to provide enjoyment and an escape. We actually are pretty nice guys and genuinely want to do this for the good of the whole.

Hello friends, family, supporters, and critics!

Prizes have been shipping. As a matter of fact, more in the last 2 weeks than last month. I want to clear up some misconceptions regarding this order shipping process. The reason that orders have been slow to ship is not the fact that we are just "swamped" with orders. We are not sitting on a mound of prizes and just too lazy and overwhelmed with the physical labor of shipping them out. The problem arose when we budgeted a certain amount for prizes based on sponsorship support. Because many sponsors revamped their budgets, we were faced with a good few months of back logged, non-sponsored prizes. So as we are getting new sponsors, the older orders will gradually be taken care of. I hope this makes since to everyone.

Memorial Day Update

Happy Pre-long weekend! Here are some updates:

1) Prizes are now being shipped. I want to make it clear that while they are being shipped, not all will be shipped immediately. We just want to let everyone know that it’s going to be an ongoing process but it’s coming along. We have provided a link to our user review page for all shipped order confirmations, and hopefuly those recipients can confirm they received their order with the rest of the community. Optional, as always.

2) The Mall is also getting updated slowly. The Mall will slowly evolve as we reposition ourselves with sponsors. This is a process as well so please be patient. It will be updated with Prize drawings only until further notice.

Again, I want to reiterate that we have left the door open for you to decide how you proceed. We’ve given you the opportunity to cancel old orders for refunds. If you feel completely wronged by the whole process, take a break from JACT until you feel more comfortable with it. If you want to stick it out and be by our side during all this, well, we love ya for it. We appreciate your understanding we are trying our best to make sure we all get back to the point where we all want to be.

Lastly, I wanted to talk about our WoW-a-thon event. Thanks to all of you who have been actively participating in it. We appreciate all the feedback and feel great that there is a positive vibe surrounding events. We’ll continue to create new events for the future to allow everyone to have a chance to be involved.

Chasing the Horizon Pt. 2

The follow up to my Chronicles of Riddick analogy is not so cinematic. It appears we have agreed upon a plan of action. If you have visited the site in the last 10 min than you already have an idea of what I'm about to say.

Instead of shutting down the Mall, we will limit its prize quantity and move to a predominantly Prize Drawing model. This will allow us time to "reboot" and begin relationships with new sponsors without the burden of "chasing the horizon." This is how we will proceed and the evolution of the Mall will start from this “reboot.” Additionally, if you would like a refund of your BUX and cancel your current order, please contact us.

Prizes will begin shipping again starting May 15th. Our goal is to be caught up with all prizes by the end of June. As far as specific orders, we will try our best to ship the oldest ones out first although some prizes will be more accessible to us than others so they will ship immediately.

From this point we will be adding to the Mall weekly. Thanks for being patient with us and we have appreciated all the support from you guys.

Whew!!!! I’m drained from these last few posts. I thought having a blog would let us talk about fun and random things. Well, mark my words, the next post will be my take on the genius that is “The Big Lebowski.”

Chasing the Horizon

"We could make it.

Stay behind the night, ahead of the sun.

There's gonna be one speed...mine.

If you can't keep up, don't step up.

You'll just die." (Riddick)

So I was watching parts of Chronicles of Riddick over the weekend and the scene came up where they are on Crematoria where Riddick and Kyra escape the planet's continuous peril of the sun scorching the surface. I kinda laughed and said to myself, “This is an overdramatic, over embellished metaphor of our situation.” It’s partly true…

Prizes, Prizes, Prizes. Well, the weekend was a heated one. While many ideas were considered, the fundamental theme we all agreed on is that we are currently "chasing the horizon." It's so simple and yet so alluding. We have appreciated any and all suggestions and while some of these or a combination of pieces of these suggestions may prove to be a worthwhile strategy, we must find a way to ensure that the main problem is addressed; “chasing the horizon.” After weeks of deliberating the best path to take (and often arguing with ourselves), the problem is as clear as ever.

Going back to my planet Crematoria analogy…Yes, I understand that they weren’t really chasing the horizon but actually running away from the horizon, but they ARE chasing something that keeps moving. And yes, I understand that Riddick’s fundamental reasons for most of his actions are based on self preservation where I’d like to think JACT acts on more preservation of the whole.

Anyways, in normal times, we do have a Crematoria-like environment. The JACT world keeps spinning and BUX keep flowing. We were always able to keep up. We knew what kind of service we were creating and we were prepared to build that kind of business. Now it seems that we just need that world to slow down a little for us to catch our breath and regroup. Aren’t science fiction movies about evil undead Necromongers, Elementals, and the fight to save the universe from evil dead warrior priests a great way to help translate simple business?

I really didn’t cover much here except for the fact I probably paid too much attention to Riddick over the weekend. But in all seriousness, we are working on it.