An Interview with Molly Friedrich.

Alright, so several hours ago, I had made quite an interesting discovery on Kickstarter that someone had made a great board game and things didn't go well as planned, to put it lightly. So I decided to do the thing that most people should do if they are official journalists and have hats that say Press and are important and things, I decided to investigate this strange story about Ms. Molly Michelle Friedrich.

Taken from her Kickstarter page.

What I found was something more interesting and less shocking than most people would have assumed for how I painted Ms. Friedrich in the original posting. It garnered minimal attention but was still something I was at least interested in finding more about. I contacted her Kickstarter and also found on her project page, a link to her Facebook Profile. I decided to add her as a friend and hopefully sparked up a conversation.

Now, you have to realise, right now I'm on holiday in Finland visiting family and it's currently the time of the year in Finland where the sun stays up past it's bedtime. I'm meant to be enjoying myself and not writing but I really wanted to do something and I don't know why but this seemed important. I also thought Molly may never add me or that she might get back to me in the morning, but within a few hours, I was hearing back to her and I began to realise how real this situation this was.

So I decided to conduct an interview with Molly Friedrich to get her side of the story.

The following is a cleaned up version of a Facebook conversation. Links were edited in HTML and none of the sentences have been taken out of context. The italics are the conversation and the regular text is my interjections, clearly destroying the flow of the story and changing the situation as you read it.

HE: Hi Molly,

I just read about your Kickstarter card game and I'm wondering how the project is going and if you have any updates.

Thanks again, HE

Molly Friedrich: 

Hi, 

the design is finished. J

ust trying to work through a printing issue. O

therwise I have all the supplies and its ready for printing. Y

ou can read the manual here: 

http://porkshanks.deviantart.com/gallery/

Now, I'm going to make a quick stop here to go and look at that link above. Go there, have a look at that art, which is quite fantastic and is actually featured in the upcoming gaming, Katalyka. Now, we continue:

Molly Friedrich: 

and you actually see all the cards here: 

http://porkshanks.deviantart.com/gallery/35357028

HE: 

Is there anything you want to add from your last Kickstarter post?

I was genuinely nervous to ask this question, as I was unsure if the post was something genuine or it may had slipped her mind, as it was over a month ago.

Molly Friedrich: No, new news on printing. The production is still halted until that issue can be resolved.

I tried to be as honest as I could with my approach and I did want to get her side of the story and I did plan to write a follow up, so I was clear on my intentions.

HE: 

I'm writing a story about the Kickstarter project and I'm wondering if I can use these links and what you've said in this conversation for an ending to the piece

Molly Friedrich:

sure.

HE:

Thank you so much 

Molly Friedrich: 

I'm just really frustrsated by this printing issue. I know the game is fun and I want to get it in my customers hands. So feeling trapped like this, is annoying to say the least

I felt I had to at least ask about "the sun" thing, so I guess, I just went for it.

HE: 

Just to add one more thing about you mentioning the sun is obsessing of your game iin your last post and wondering if you're able to elaborate on that at all?

Molly Friedrich:

I feel like the mindset of the game was interesting enough and has some good elements and that something in the collective consciousness (at least here in America) grabbed it as soon as it saw what I was trying to build the game around... and it became the target of some nasty attacks

I was initially confused here but I realised she was still answering my question from before and I'd rudely interrupted.

Molly Friedrich: 

I've talked a lot about this in my journal posts on deviant art

Harrison Engstrom:

THe pork shanks one?

Molly Friedrich:

I was trying to actually resolve this all because I just wanted to use ideas that have been with me for most of my Life in a "fun-to-share" way. Yeah, porkshanks.deviantart.

Okay, now stop what you're doing and go here: http://porkshanks.deviantart.com/journal/?offset=1

Before she even told me about the link, someone on Twitter linked it to me and I didn't think she would bring it up or she would explain it in a different way, but she was clear as crystal about it. Now read a few of them, maybe a whole page.

No, seriously, read a few of the posts and just let that settle in and then continue reading the rest of this conversation. I was going to repost some of it here, but I didn't think people would believe me, if I'd copy and pasted it. Just read it and either you've read it and you think the rest of this conversation may be quite odd, or you are still genuinely interested to hear her side of the story. Of course, I was interrupting again.

HE:

perfect. Do you mind if I quote this conversation for the posting? Nothing out of context, no messing about, of course.

Molly Friedrich:

Everything seemed fine while I was designing the game. It felt really positive and then right after I got it all set and ready it felt like something turned and the whole process became a living nightmare, and I'm still unsure how to cope with that controlling mind.

Yeah I don't mind, if you quote

HE

Anything else you want to add

At this point, I thought, I'd gotten everything and that maybe things had just gotten out of hand and I just wanted to finish the interview up, but she had more to say and like a good interviewing, I should have kept my mouth shut and just listened.

Molly Friedrich

I'm sorry that the people who paid for the game already dont have a copy yet and I dont want to give up on them, in spite of this taking longer than I wanted. I have all the supplies, so aside from printing the cards its ready. Boxes, labels, dice, all of it.

HE:

Thank you very much Molly.

Molly Friedrich

Sure. What are you writing for?

The jig is up! Everyone head for the woods. I decided to be honest.

HE:

I'm writing about it on my blog. I was initially harsh about what had happened with the debacle due to a thread on Reddit, but I'm glad I have your side of the story now 

Molly Friedrich: 

Okay, thanks. I don't blame people for being frustrated, I feel the same way

HE:

I was quite dickish in my initial thoughts, but it's pretty much all cleared up and I'll make sure there are links to your deviant art to make it easier for people.I can't wait to see the game made. I even mention it in the piece I'm writing. It looks incredible. Thanks again, I'll make sure people hear your side of the story now.

Molly Friedrich:

That was part of the mind that wants to keep me from communicating the ideas in the philosophy of the game. This part is hard to explain, but the idea of the game is that entire star systems are meant to work as a unified whole with a common long term goal, and that is very threatening to something out there, and the more I learn about this (Please read my latest journal entry to see what I mean) the more this argument I'm in seems to be pointing to some rather huge things happening.

It still kind of feels surreal to me to be caught in the middle of this... I was taken by surprised by it

thats about all I wanted to say. Thanks for asking my side

HE:

A lot of people were surprised by your post and I do hope nothing awful happens in the future. I do wish you the best.

Molly Friedrich

I promise I never set out to rip people off. I still think this may partially be a miscommunication on some level.

And I said more thank you's and goodbyes and I want to make it clear, I am not the good guy in this scenario. I felt guilty and also curious about who this person was and what they were doing and whilst some people may see her as a charlatan, I think she just underestimated the amount of pressure and work it took into making a full board game.

I was quick to judge her post as somewhat mental and she was more than kind enough to speak with a total stranger and explain her situation but in the end, Molly is who she is and now what I wrote and will not take down. I learnt and I investigated and I'm glad I did what I did.

Molly Friedrich is just a struggling board game developer who made a post about "the sun" harassing her and that's what she believes. She has different ideas and thoughts compared to you and I but she's still trying to make a game and she's going to in the end. Just give her some time.

Thanks again to Molly Friedrich for the interview. Her game Katalyka is still in production and will be finished when she gets that printing error sorted.