My $325 order has shipped

I feel like maybe this will be a controversial or unkind opinion, but I feel like people are holding Dragonsteel to a kind of unrealistic and uncharitable expectation for shipping right now and I don't understand it. I've backed a number of Kickstarters/BackerKit things and rarely are they perfectly on time. This one is moving along at speed by comparison and Dragonsteel a) has been pretty transparent about what's going on, b) likes to treat its employees like people rather than running them ragged, which I appreciate, and c) always delivers and delivers with quality and great customer service if something goes wrong, so I trust them. But, like, I don't understand, in particular, why people are so upset about the $325 tier taking so long. They just had a con (which is a regular, yearly occurrence; it was not like they did that out of nowhere), it's the holiday season, and this tier has over 23,600 backers according to the Pledge Level page. The other tiers that have shipped had a fraction of the number of orders to send out, without the complication of the timing (which was, in large part, caused by manufacturing delays from one of the products which kinda out of their control). And a lot of the other issues that have slowed things down have been a water main break, employees getting sick, and a big manufacturer defect for a different product that released (which wasn't made to their specifications) that they had to cancel and refund on orders on from their site... All of which is deeply unfortunate that it happened back to back to back and can be frustrating, but it's not really their fault? It just seems like it's a busy time of year, in general and in particular for Dragonsteel, and we're in the largest tier. Full disclosure in that I have received my copy of the book; my add-ons will arrive when they arrive, I trust Dragonsteel well enough to deliver on that. I got excited-impatient when things started shipping while waiting for my copy, but not upset. I just don't fathom getting that angry or upset about it when they're trying and they're doing what they can? They have, again, twenty-three THOUSAND orders in this tier; without anything else, that was always going to take a while to complete and to get to the tiers further down.

Now there are two progress indicators, one is the 325 overall pledge progression and then one for each specific order. Let's hope they can gather a good rhythm again and that no other event collides with the pledges :-) Looking at this from afar (got my pledge, waiting on for my WoK add on) is giving me the same feeling I got from the complaints at the munchkin big box crowdfunding (words like "sickened, disgusting, etc...). I believe the complaints are well deserved. I would not, however, address them at the team per se but at whoever is planing and managing. I get the impression that Dragonsteel’s name has grown faster than the company itself and they now find themselves at a position in which they are biting off more than they can chew. I believe the team is doing a great job, but whoever actually manages the company should take a step back and look at this as an opportunity for learning since there seems to be no contingency plan to palliate a crisis (or rather an unfortunate turn of events, I don’t believe this is an actual crisis). Anyway, let’s hope they get the stuff sorted out so they can focus on the crowdfunding campaign.