HeroQuest 25th anniversary crowdfunding!

[Maike05]

oh, I've read a lot of threads, here and on BGG.

I want to support GZ. I have the feeling that they try to release a superb product. from fans to fans.

I am fully aware that this crowdfunding is risky. I don't care. In my opinion, crowdfunding is always risky (may be this project even more). If I lose money, bad luck, I won't whine. And if GZ is able to produce a great product, I won't point to the naysayers of today.

I think I can back Phantom07 here. Although it seems that some Ye Olde Inn's members are against this product being released, I don't think you represent the majority of the 1026 members of the Inn. If someone does not agree with something fine, but do not let other enjoy it. We have very large audience on the inn and the Blog (see below).

I do not say I fully agree 100% with their design choice and whatever else you can think of. But I must say Gamezone is the only company who does try and gets its pants dirty. Would you prefer Gamesworkshop to release it at 150€ with limited numbers and of course an almost immediate and organized shortage (like it was the case with Space Hulk) ?? Or Hasbro who bought the license years ago and did nothing ?

I say that the people from Gamezone are the only one who try to release the game again and give it a second life. So I would like to being reasonable and show your divergence of opinion in an other way. Why not try to participate in it ?? We have a great community with countless jewels of creations hosted on the Inn.

On the Crowdfunding's page, it says the game is 50% finished. It means there is room for improvement. Why not be smart and instead of staying like childs in our corner, why don't we make a public statement on the blog about our worries and expectation ? We have on a daily basis an average of 150 viewers on the blog. Which is extremely high compared to the numbers of players.

Just take a look at the blog's statistics:

On the top left, you can see this month audience statistics : 150 daily viewers on average.
On the bottom right, the audience by country on a monthly basis.


On the bottom left corner, the numbers of page viewed by countries. You can clearly see that we represent the english speaking community, but not only. We have France, Germany, Russia, Spain, France.

Now you can clearly see that altough some members at the inn do not agree with the new design of the game, we have other people viewing our blog. So we have power to influence the future developement of the game. Like Phantom07 said, it's a game made by fans for fans, so why the hell are we not part in this ? Sometimes I do not understand you anymore dear YeOldeInn's folks.... Why are we making as much fanmade contents and cry when someone actually tries to release it ???? Don't you think about the tremendous possibilty that this crowdfundings campaign will allow ?? It means future expansions for the game! A chance for your fanmade content to be release ! I can think of Sir Ragnar Quest pack developped here at the very inn...

So what do you say ? Do we make a public statement in order to get answers from GameZone or not ??

[Maike05]

Here is a first draft, If you feel like doing so.

Dear GameZone,

It's with pleasure that we discovered the first crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter, only to see several day after that it has been shut down by Kickstarter itself because of a Legal Dispute. A moment later, you relaunched the campaign on Verkami, which also shut down...

We at YeOldeInn are very worried about your level of experience and professionalism in releasing the game. We feel terribly surprised not having been consulted before actually proposing the game on a crowdfunding campaign. You state that the game is made by fans for fans, but we did not have been consulted yet, which lead to a movement of mixed discontent and anger in the English speaking community towards GameZone.

If you don't reach us, we'll reach in to you

Here is a not comprehensive list of our worries and expections about this new release of our beloved HeroQuest:

1) Assuming you have consent from Hasbro Spain to use their IP they should be alright - at least for sales in Spain. A US company owns the rights to the title and has control over sales in the States. How this will affect internet sales and international shipping is still the elephant in the room (sajungzak)
2) It's the third round of crowdfunding campaign and there's NOTHING new. Nothing! No Concept Art, no bigger pictures, no greens, no freakin' nothing! (knightkrawler)
3) TO BE COMPLETED...

[chaoticprime]

3) Your designs make HQ look like every other fantasy product on the market since World of Warcraft was released. Changing this aesthetic is an act of hubris that should be undone.
4) Hire professional writers and game designers to write and design the Quests.
5) Hire professional writers and game designers to write the story and rules.
6) Change the name to 'SpaniardQuest.'

[Sjeng]

I'd be willing to write about SpaniardQuest on the blog, with all the worries we have.
It will be negative though, although I'll try to stay unbiased. But based on what we've seen so far, I do NOT recommend anyone to back this.

About your letter: first of all, I don't care one bit if GZ had asked us here at Ye Olde Inn or not, and I'm certainly not surprised they didn't. If they HAD, the first thing I'd have asked would have been to show us proof of their trademark/distribution rights or whatever they claim to have.

Dear GameZone,

It was with great surprise that we discovered your HeroQuest anniversary crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter, only to see it being shut down several day later by Kickstarter itself because of a Legal Dispute with Moon Design. A few days later, you relaunched the campaign on Verkami, which also shut down for the same exact reason... Now you're trying again on yet another crowdfunding site.

We at YeOldeInn are very worried about your level of experience and professionalism in releasing the game. You state that the game is made by fans for fans, and that you have legal rights for releasing "official HeroQuest material", which lead to a movement of mixed feelings, discontent and anger in the English speaking community towards your 25th anniversay release. During both campaigns on KS and Verkami, you were asked by Moon Design to present proof of your rights to publish new HQ material, but you have failed to do so. We feel you're making a HeroQuest-like product, with a few names changed to avoid legal issues (which in itself makes your claim to have "official HeroQuest materials" questionable), simply using the good name of HeroQuest as a means to generate a following. Basically, you are making a bootleg game, with false claims that this is "official".

Here is a not comprehensive list of our worries and expections about this new release of our beloved HeroQuest by some of our regular forum members:

1) Assuming you have consent from Hasbro Spain to use their IP they should be alright - at least for sales in Spain. (Proof of this is yet to be given). A US company owns the rights to the title and has control over sales in the States. How this will affect internet sales and international shipping? Is the elephant still in the room? (sajungzak)
2) It's the third round of crowdfunding campaign and there's NOTHING new. Nothing! No Concept Art, no bigger pictures, no greens, no freakin' nothing! (knightkrawler)
3) Your designs make HQ look like every other fantasy product on the market since World of Warcraft was released. Changing this aesthetic is an act of hubris that should be undone. (ChaoticPrime)
4) Hire professional writers and game designers to write and design the Quests. (multiple members)
5) Hire professional writers and game designers to write the story and rules, in decent English. (multiple members)
6) Change the name of the game to anything but HeroQuest, because we feel this is NOT HeroQuest. It's not official, and Moon Design doesn't want you to use the name either.

Anything else?

[chaoticprime]

"Let's make a game that we can only legally sell in one country on the planet because of its title, rather than a differently-titled game that we can sell anywhere."

Let's everyone give them our money that they are not legally required to reimburse in any way!

[knightkrawler]

I am staying in my corner like a child. If Sjeng starts a "I hate SpaniardQuest" kickstarter, I'll shove money and cheese up his ass.
GameZone, however, for the work they haven't done, gets nothing for this pile of crap and hubris and dishonesty from me.

7) Make some art and greens BEFORE a crowdfunding release. There's an investment to be done to earn money with this game and do not dare tell us that the Kickstarter serves that purpose single-handedly. It is not true and all of us know that. Art and Concepts are IMPERATIVE. Kellogg's doesn't sell cereal in plain black boxes.

8) Communicate with us, before, during, and after a crowdfunding project. I could have set up all your information - which is far too little, make no mistake - presented up until now, in good English and outstanding German within two days of work for free. I won't now, mind you.

9) Present to us the legal homework you have done, give the backers of the crowdfunding project a degree of legal security. Right now, this project feels like plain fraud.

[Maike05]

Please guys.... Try staying polite if we are ever to upload this to the blog. I don't want our community to be labelled as jerks...

[knightkrawler]

Well... we're being polite.

[Thantos]

^ I think there's a point there. Currently, this HQ reboot has done a good job to piss everyone off in every way it can possibly do so, be it lying to people about copyrights, hiring Manuel from Faulty Towers to write the background and websites, setting a terrible example of how to conduct business - running from crowdfunding site to crowdfunding site to try and avoid C+D notices which still apply since they are clearly selling worldwide, or having a serious lack of content and lousy ill though out stretch goals... ok ok ill stop there.

But perhaps we should get some folks onboard and try to steer this trainwreck in the right direction? Who has more experience making stuff for heroquest than us lot? (well maybe not me.. i only started a few months ago...). But im sure we could influence this to better things. If gamezone are actually serious about HQ they will have certainly visited the Olde Inn and will value the input from members here?

[Sjeng]

negative isn't necessarily impolite. We're just very very sceptical and wary about this.

I am staying in my corner like a child. If Sjeng starts a "I hate SpaniardQuest" kickstarter, I'll shove money and cheese up his ass.

YUM! I'm so starting this KS! Would a 1 million goal be too much?

^ I think there's a point there. Currently, this HQ reboot has done a good job to piss everyone off in every way it can possibly do so, be it lying to people about copyrights, hiring Manuel from Fawlty Towers to write the background and websites, setting a terrible example of how to conduct business - running from crowdfunding site to crowdfunding site to try and avoid C+D notices which still apply since they are clearly selling worldwide, or having a serious lack of content and lousy ill though out stretch goals... ok ok ill stop there.

But perhaps we should get some folks onboard and try to steer this trainwreck in the right direction? Who has more experience making stuff for heroquest than us lot? (well maybe not me.. i only started a few months ago...). But im sure we could influence this to better things. If gamezone are actually serious about HQ they will have certainly visited the Olde Inn and will value the input from members here?

*Rolls on Floor Laughing* @ Manuel part xD

But really, for me it's WAY too late for even wanting to help. If they had gone about this more professionally, I might have. But as it is, it looks like more and more of a fraudulent business, as they have once again found another crowdfunding site, even when they received a C&D, which is still in effect as far as I know.