Heroquest remake by Hasbro - The BIG discussion thread

[Shadzar]

"All" games is not true:

there will also be a consumer products [division] covering toys and classic board games

It's not really clear which division Heroquest falls into. It's certainly a classic board game. Finished products like this get passed between divisions easily.

But even then, it's not adding any risk to the HQ remake. I would question whether they want HQ to be labelled as yet another D&D boardgame even if it was a Wizards release, they released a couple more of them last year.

Doesnt matter when HASBRO itself has fully bent the knee.



so no matter where HeroQuest and Avalon Hill land in the end, it will be Woke WotC or Woke HASBRO.

[Pancho]

Like I said before, the hard left SJW cult has no creativity and can’t create anything of its own, so it always targets existing stuff to subvert or parasitise. Even Mr Potato head is fair game for neo-Marxist thought

[cornixt]

This incel redpill doom-mongering is getting a bit over the top.

[Orc26]

Just a quick reminder that WotC and Hasbro are not Woke. They are manipulative corporations (that is some redundancy) that have done the math and decided that "being inclusive" will make them more money than "not being inclusive". Attributing their decision to anything else is foolish.

[Malcadon]

I have no idea why people are getting worked-up about the "gender" of a plastic "potato" thing.

Although, in all fairness with Potato Head: When you think of it, you can't get any more gender-fluid than a amorphous spud with freely interchangeable hard-points for masculine and feminine parts and features (short of anatomical attachments ).

Who here has not yet realized that Ms. Pac-Man is Pac-Man with a bow and lipsticks. Same with Clyde.. I mean, Sue.

[Pancho]

Just a quick reminder that WotC and Hasbro are not Woke. They are manipulative corporations (that is some redundancy) that have done the math and decided that "being inclusive" will make them more money than "not being inclusive". Attributing their decision to anything else is foolish.

You think corporations make more money by going woke? That’s quite a claim. It might have worked in a few cases but in many more well known examples the opposite has been true actually. For example you are writing this at the exact moment that Kathleen Kennedy has had to go into hiding following her latest woke stupidity regarding Star Wars, and their latest massive loss in revenue.

Hasbro will make money off Heroquest simply because it is Heroquest. A reprint of the game that many people loved in their childhood was always going to do well. When you add in the fact that 2020 was the year of panic buying, then it was primed to do what it has. I think we can all agree however that it could have done even better if the bonus material had been done more intelligently, i.e better Heroes than the 3 silly ones that they bizarrely decided to go with (arguably designed by SJWs for SJWs).


You are partially correct if you are suggesting that these people don’t fully believe in what they are saying. Their movement has no logical consistency and doesn’t work in the real world, so it’s no surprise that they are constantly making gaffes and pretending what they said last week isn’t what they really meant.

[wallydubbs]

Just a quick reminder that WotC and Hasbro are not Woke. They are manipulative corporations (that is some redundancy) that have done the math and decided that "being inclusive" will make them more money than "not being inclusive". Attributing their decision to anything else is foolish.

You think corporations make more money by going woke? That’s quite a claim. It might have worked in a few cases but in many more well known examples the opposite has been true actually. For example you are writing this at the exact moment that Kathleen Kennedy has had to go into hiding following her latest woke stupidity regarding Star Wars, and their latest massive loss in revenue.

Hasbro will make money off Heroquest simply because it is Heroquest. A reprint of the game that many people loved in their childhood was always going to do well. When you add in the fact that 2020 was the year of panic buying, then it was primed to do what it has. I think we can all agree however that it could have done even better if the bonus material had been done more intelligently, i.e better Heroes than the 3 silly ones that they bizarrely decided to go with (arguably designed by SJWs for SJWs).


You are partially correct if you are suggesting that these people don’t fully believe in what they are saying. Their movement has no logical consistency and doesn’t work in the real world, so it’s no surprise that they are constantly making gaffes and pretending what they said last week isn’t what they really meant.

I've watched the Potatohead video too and found it to be so irrevocably stupid. I found it just to be a publicity stunt just aiming at a very small minority who aren't going to buy the toy anyway. They're trying to be inclusive, yes, but I doubt their reasons are sincere. It's the fact that they announced it which shows they wanted to draw attention to it. I'm not sure if this has any relation at all to Hasbro's decision to include a Female Barbarian, Dwarf, Wizard and Elf to the reboot. Although I like the concept of including a female counterpart to the 4 original heroes and some orcs, it's not due to the fact that I like the idea of gender neutrality. In fact, I find the notion too stupid. Whatever genitals you have should distinguish your gender. I can't change that I'm Polish.
Just the same, are we going to get a Gender neutral Orc Bard (well maybe he already is) or Druid and Halfling/Warlock?

I also feel the need to wholeheartedly agree with Pancho about Kathleen Kennedy. The lack of direction between her, Johnson and Abrams, while trying to incorporate a political message of female empowerment. Although the fan backlash was big; the media, also owned by Disney, practically portrayed it as better then the original.

It was obvious in the Q&A that Hasbro posted about HeroQuest with the 3 stooges was filtered. They ignored the pivotal questions regarding why the new characters are more D&D like and why they're not shipping to Europe.
So, like Disney and Mr. Potatohead, they're trying to sell us on all the good aspects of HeroQuest (because they want our money) while completely ignoring the backlash for their decisions that didn't make any sense.

[cornixt]

You think corporations make more money by going woke? That’s quite a claim. It might have worked in a few cases but in many more well known examples the opposite has been true actually. For example you are writing this at the exact moment that Kathleen Kennedy has had to go into hiding following her latest woke stupidity regarding Star Wars, and their latest massive loss in revenue.

They didn't have a drop in revenue (well, you're comparing against some of the biggest movies ever from decades ago, so it might not be a fair comparison) for being woke, they lost out for making crappy movies with nonsensical plots. And people being attacked by other people with opposite political opinions is not proof of anything.

It's a bit weird to make a claim that misogyny and racism is more profitable, so that's what companies should continue to do.

[Pancho]

You think corporations make more money by going woke? That’s quite a claim. It might have worked in a few cases but in many more well known examples the opposite has been true actually. For example you are writing this at the exact moment that Kathleen Kennedy has had to go into hiding following her latest woke stupidity regarding Star Wars, and their latest massive loss in revenue.

They didn't have a drop in revenue (well, you're comparing against some of the biggest movies ever from decades ago, so it might not be a fair comparison) for being woke, they lost out for making crappy movies with nonsensical plots. And people being attacked by other people with opposite political opinions is not proof of anything.

It's a bit weird to make a claim that misogyny and racism is more profitable, so that's what companies should continue to do.

It’s a combination; new Star Wars has crappy plots sure, but that’s partly (mostly?) because it’s become saturated with SJWs who are preoccupied with making dumb political points. Remember “The Force is Female” loony stuff, and the Capitalism is evil casino planet in the Last Jedi?

I’m not even comparing losses against the original films. I’m saying that Disney have had a bad return from their initial (huge) investment in capturing Star Wars. To make it worth while they have to cash in big time not just on the movies themselves, but also the tv series’ and the merchandise. The Last Jedi (one of the worst and most disappointing movies ever made) actually did well initially, but it was when the fans admitted to themselves just how bad it was that the problems began. “The Fandom Menace”, or the fans rebellion then began.The subsequent Han Solo movie was punished accordingly at the box office. The fans also boycotted a lot of the merch that Disney had factored as projected profit. Do you ever see merch from the new films in the shops? Or do the retailers know that only the old characters/stuff is really desired? We liked the new characters to start with, but then lost interest when they were used as vehicles for the political rubbish.
The Mandalorian was doing well, but then the woke reared it’s ugly head again and Kathleen Kennedy fired a fan favourite for political reasons, resulting in all those cancelled subscriptions this month. Apparently the execs are furious with KK, and her pathetic attempt to pull the SJW “racist” card just backfired when the fans caught her making up lies about what was actually said.

Your last comment is one of the most ludicrous strawmen I’ve ever seen on the internet.
Remember, SJWs make up a very small (but noisy) minority of human beings. Normal people hate both racism AND Wokism.

[Kurgan]

As a Star Wars fan (of the old stuff) myself, I can sympathize with these fears...

Setting the other stuff aside (the Mr. Potato head thing was a pretty silly stunt), my six year old niece... who has no understanding of identity politics or critical theory of gender... she would LOVE any game that has "girl characters" in it (especially if they're "pretty").

Then again she also has no money, so any game she gets will have to be purchased for her by her parents or gifted by a family member (like Uncle Zargon).

As a company interested in profit and the loyalty of your customers, I would think it would be in your best interest regardless of what you personally believe, to treat them well and try not to alienate them. Unless something drastically has changed behind the scenes (even if it has) I don't expect to see anything too crazy here in HeroQuest. Hopefully any corporation will not make the mistake of assuming Twitter is their whole audience.

UK players got one female badguy in 1989. US players had female heroes AND monsters back in 1992. Making "good guy orcs" goes back at least to Warcraft II, if not earlier, in pop-culture. Even Tolkien supposedly lamented not giving them a little more depth in LOTR (the cartoon version of ROTK gave them a least one sympathetic song). In the end, we all play the game the way we want to, and most of the Orcs are still evil cannon fodder like always.

So my advice to all of you... let's not take the bait. Let's not attack each other and act like Twitter. This is a community of HEROQUEST FANS not angsty activists trying to eat each other alive for someone's amusement. This is why they put a warning against political debates. I hear the concerns, but hopefully I'm right about this particular franchise. Whatever they decide to do in the future, their bottom line will determine whether it was a wise decision.

And the last thing you want to do to get people on your side is to imply they are racist/sexist/whatever-bad-label for disagreeing with your creative decisions or marketing strategy to tinker with a well beloved franchise. Sometimes companies just make stupid decisions, even if they were super popular and in tune with their fanbase years ago. Customers resent being talked down to and called names, and are equally if not more likely to just move on, than to apologize and buy more products and pretend to like them to 'prove' their virtue. If you buy media in order to impress strangers, rather than because you enjoy it, I pity you.

We'll do more good by sending our concerns directly to Hasbro/Avalon Hill than yelling about it here, I think.

I don't hate anybody on this board for their politics, and I never will. I frankly don't care about that stuff when I come here to talk about a fantasy board game. If more people did that, we'd have a merrier world I think...