by QorDaq » Tuesday October 25th, 2022 5:11pm
I've got a variety of thoughts on this one, but I'll endeavor to go against my inner nature and remain succinct.
I too would like to see this fulfilled for two reasons; 1st for the fans that really want this to succeed, and 2nd for the possibility that were this campaign successful, it could be a good sign for the future of continuing support for Hobby gaming from Hasbro.
Unfortunately, I'm not sure that the approach to getting this game into production was very well thought out or executed.
My reasoning, however, is based on assumptions and minor frustrations I have as a HQ fan.
1) I wonder if Hasbro (Not necessarily Avalon Hill), greenlit this project with the thought that they "Could have asked for more from the HQ campaign," and now are hoping to soak the HeroScape backers for all they can.
Granted, there is a lot more plastic (Than HQ), and while the miniatures are not pre-painted like they were in days of yore, the tiles are. If simple in comparison to doing the minis. Even so, painted tiles (acknowledging that it would suck if the tiles weren't), add to production time and cost.
Add to this the already oft discussed changes in shipping and warehousing costs when compared to projections made in 2020, and there could be very legitimate reasons for the current pricing'
However...
2) The decision to make the game based on backer numbers instead of amount pledged is problematic. I have no way of knowing what the percentage of backers are, who are purchasing more than 1 copy, but it seems odd to require 8,000 unique backers instead of a minimum of 8,000 total orders.
I can only anticipate that this is either some bizarre effort to throttle the scalper market, or a somewhat disingenuous lack of transparency on what their actual sales goals are. Not that Hasbro need offer any transparency there, they don't owe anyone in the public that info. It just comes across as a little sneaky somehow.
Now, it could also be that Hasbro has much bigger aspirations for HS than they do for HQ. In that case the 8,000 unique backers may represent an internal gauge of worthiness to consider supporting HS in the long-term.
I am certainly glad that the HQ campaign wasn't reliant on a particular number of backers.
But it does give me pause...
3) And this one is more my own insecurity about the future of HQ than anything else, but it feels like out of the gate HeroScape got a lot more time (Marketing) and support from the outset, before the campaign could prove itself successful or not, than HeroQuest has from day one.
Seriously, HQ has been treated a bit like an after thought (in my opinion) when compared to the time and exposure HeroScape has gotten. Initially this concerned me because I was worried that if successful HeroScape could actually kill the future of HeroQuest. By this I mean that, a big company (like Hasbro), who is looking for the next big seller (their absolute right as the IP owner), may compare sales of two sort of similar and niche products to see which is more valuable to the bottom line. Now it has left me unsure of the meaning in the numbers, as here we are roughly halfway into the HS camapign, and they're not even at half the minimum backers Hasbro is asking for.
So yes, it has occurred to me that HeroQuest *Could* be treated as a proof of concept. "Can we get nostalgia sales off of a hobby game?" Asks Hasbro, and we answered, "Yes, yes you can. Take my wallet."
My main point being, we have evidence of a willingness to produce HQ, even new products, without reinventing the game and just slapping a name on the box. That's good. But we have been given very little information about where this thing is going. And each new product is minimally teased for months before we get solid info.
Whereas, HeroScape is not trending like HeroQuest did, despite it's better exposure. I have no idea what that'd mean to the budget folks at Hasbro, in the context of the worthiness of supporting hobby games.
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I assure everyone bothering to read this far down (so much for succinct), that I understand that even if HeroScape makes it to market, we don't know what that landscape looks like down the road. It could also suffer from similar minimal information and slow development progress. However, given that HS actually got time during PulseCon, not exactly riveting exposure, but better than a "Proven?" IP like HQ, which got a single humorous, if murky, box art tease as a joke reference to the Frozen Horror tease from last year, it makes me wonder if HQ is taken seriously as a sustainable IP when compared to Hasbro's hopes being pinned on HS.
Regardless, I do want to see HeroScape succeed, and I really hope I'm just being pessimistic because I want all the HeroQuest now, and it feels like it's being spoon fed to us. I just don't want to see HeroQuest get sacrificed in order to promote a bigger title like HeroScape.
For clarity and context, I did own a lot of the original HS content, though if I am honest here, it was mostly for collecting the pre-painted minis and terrain to use with other games. I think I played a dozen games over the course of several years, and often lamented when I'd hear HeroScape fans proclaiming that it was the spiritual successor to HeroQuest, a point that I have heard here and there since this current campaign was announced too.
Maybe that is where some of my angst is coming from.
maj! = Klingon word for "Good". Used in the context of "I approve".
- vay' DaneHbogh yIchargh!