COMMANDER OF THE GUARDIAN KNIGHTS discussion

[Xoxxala]

I don’t know about Gamestop orders, but BBTS orders still haven’t shipped. They still estimate December, tho.

[FainFlynn]

Gamestop still showing a date of 1/22 - what are the odds this holds?

[Kurgan]

My order is so old, the link they sent to my email has "expired."
But, I login to Gamestop and type in my order #, etc. and it says 1/22 (like yours, a day early!) with "In progress" and "awaiting product availability."

That's a Saturday (I'm assuming Ship Date, otherwise I'd expect to see it already if that were arrival date), so who knows. I've been burned before by this company, so until I see the tracking status showing it's moving in my direction, I remain skeptical.

I presume it will be in my hands sometime before the release of the Barbarian Quest Pack remake.

[FainFlynn]

It's just weird they've provided no update.

[Kurgan]

This is speculation on my part... I'm going to assume that Hasbro is getting them out in tiny batches (due to supply chain issues from their overseas factories), so probably they'll get those little bits, fulfill a few more orders, run out again and then we'll be waiting and they probably will fill them in order they were placed. It's all probably automated and the customer service employees probably are none-the-wiser. GameStop probably is operating on a pre-covid model of assuming everything will always be ready right on time and act like that to customers (which of course is a recipe for customer dissatisfaction). Again, speculation based on what we've seen and heard so far...

If they didn't already have enough good reasons to produce their miniatures domestically, here's one more.


I'm more curious now to know what is up with Hasbro Pulse customers not getting the bonus heroes with the retail version of the Game System... and why not.

[FainFlynn]

Meh, I am ok with retail customers not getting what was supposed to be exclusive to backers. Kinda takes away the illustrious appeal of it being exclusive if it's not longer....exclusive.

[Kurgan]

See, I don't see it that way. I kind of resent the whole "exclusive" thing in the first place (and I know I'm not alone there). Further, I'd be personally okay if retail customers got stuff pledgers never got, but that's probably an unpopular opinion. (why? because we can all go to a store and buy stuff, only a few people ever saw the pledge drive and got a chance to buy it).

As far as exclusives go (with a few rare exceptions), we all got the game way ahead of everyone else, and that's "compensation" enough. It does the wider community no good that we got a few extra things. I don't feel special because I can hoard a few pieces of plastic most HeroQuest fans will never have a chance to own.

But to me it's a bad thing for Hasbro to give the impression all along that certain items would be available AFTER the pledge drive ended, then quietly pretend that never happened. Maybe it's an oversight, but I'd like them to acknowledge it.

I mean, what if they just suddenly cancelled the game and stopped selling the whole thing in retail? Then we could all feel "special" that we had something that the general public didn't have available to them. We could make extra cash on ebay as scalpers. No thanks, that whole thing just feels slimy and annoying, when the whole point of HeroQuest, is to bring a simple, fun tabletop fantasy experience to the masses, not to be an exclusive collector's item for a small elite of collector/superfanboys (even if that's the "Hasbro way" it's greedy and I don't like it... the name Hasbro used to be associated with toys and games for the general public anyhow).

When I talk about the "bonus heroes" I'm just talking about the four gender swaps. We always knew the Witch Lord and Sir Rangar figures were pledge exclusives and we always assumed the "mythic tier" stuff was only for the pledge drive (I hope they release that stuff in retail anyway, but no proof they ever will). But the "pulse exclusives" were a different category. That implied if you bought the game through their Pulse website, you'd get those bonuses (rather than say from Best Buy or Gamestop or whatever). Still annoying with the "exclusive" but not time limited, not exclusive in the sense that they would not be offered after that tiny window in which the pledge drive happened.

We don't need a tiered community of "special" people who get special exclusives because they were online with their credit card in hand randomly at the right time and then everybody else who gets "less."

Yeah it doesn't affect gameplay, but still, I don't owe loyalty to a company that misleads its customers (and potential customers) and fails to deliver on its promises, even if they did good things in the past.

[FainFlynn]

But to me it's a bad thing for Hasbro to give the impression all along that certain items would be available AFTER the pledge drive ended, then quietly pretend that never happened. Maybe it's an oversight, but I'd like them to acknowledge it.

:

I ask this not to be argumentative but because I don't remember this. Where did they give the impression that Pulse exclusives would be available to the public? Everything I've seen pointed to the opposite. Every time I called about something else and asked they said point blank they don't plan to release the kickstarter exclusives.

When did they imply the exclusives would be available to the general public? If they ever said this and went back on it, I would agree that's not cool. But, I don't recall that ever happening.

[Kurgan]

Yeah I'm not trying to fight about it either, but I'm going by what is still posted here.

The text is a little ambiguous... it COULD be interpreted as meaning the 4 bonus heroes are exclusive to the pledge campaign, but the graphics imply they are in a different category than the "limited time exclusives."

Hasbro Pulse sells stuff, it's not just the place where you pledge, last I checked. You can buy the retail version from the Pulse website. Hence, that implies the "pulse exclusive" bonus heroes would be through the website, not only for those who pledged during the fundraiser.

4 Bonus heroes (gender swaps) "pulse exclusive," vs. "limited time exclusives" exclusive to the pledge drive (Sir Rangar, Mentor, Witch Lord).

See image grabs:

(I'm reminded again of "this version of" referring to Sir Ragnar, implying they plan to release some other version of him in the future).

[Kurgan]

And here... (sorry to get off topic).