How to Save Heroscape

[Karkadinn]

Too many people with kneejerk negative emotional reactions towards customs for this to be viable as a way of keeping the product's fanbase alive, unfortunately.
The mechanisms for creating organized, streamlined, uniform customs are already in place, too. It's just that people don't use them because A) old creators don't stay around, and B) new creators don't do their research. And even with a sizable bank of good customs, many many people will shy away from them because of the stigma bad customs cast over the whole thing. There's nothing preventing people from holding tournaments where, say, customs from the Barracks and Halls are allowed. They just don't wish to do so.

[Gomolka]

I didn't know that Heroscape needed saving. As of right now, it's extremely successful, and WotC wouldn't have taken over HS if they didn't plan on it thriving for many many years to come.

[J-Unit94]

Originally Posted by NecroBlade

And that just about sums up this thread.

But, really, that would never work. Does anybody remember that custom on EBAY? Nark the Snow Ork or whatever. Yeah, I don't want to be playing him in a tournament.

[Lord Pyre]

Well, Gulp, these are very good ideas, and I would be happy to help them out, but when the time is right. Gomolka is right; why would Wizards bother with it if they thought it was going to die?

[nyys]

Yes please, more posts about the impending death of Scape... that's fun.

[King of the Marro]

I think this should be a last resort. I doubt we'll actually have to rely on this for a couple years, in which hopefully, the prices of oil and all that will have gone down allowing them to continue making Heroscape without a problem. Just my .

[Gulp]

I know that Heroscape is not on death's door at this exact moment. That was part of my first post. With Wizards removing HS from everywhere but WalMart and local game shops, and with the recent discussion (specifically that involved an accountant at Hasbro saying to someone here that the future of HS didn't seem too solid), it appeared as if HS was doing well enough to survive for the moment, but definitely not 'extremely successful' as Gomolka said. If there's been a recent disclosure that HS is extremely successful, then I'm happy to be wrong.

This post was only half about Heroscape dying. The other half was about how to make it transcend being just a board game, and that involves the collective fans personalizing it, standardizing it, and allowing it to grow to a point where we'll never have to worry about it getting canceled.

Wizards stands to gain by encouraging such a transition because we will be buying more than just every Heroscape item. We'll also be buying other minis they offer. Heck, they could even post downloadable 'custom cards' and just say, "Here's the playtested card. Click here to purchase the non-HS mini that goes with the card." No repackaging, just selling to a broader market.

I look forward to receiving an email from WotC offering me a job where I sit around and come up with other ways for them to make money.

[holylink718]

Originally Posted by Gomolka

I didn't know that Heroscape needed saving. As of right now, it's extremely successful, and WotC wouldn't have taken over HS if they didn't plan on it thriving for many many years to come.

Realizing of course that it's the same company, just a different branch?

[The Scaped]

I will support this idea, because I fear that heroscape will end as we least expect it. Then what will we do? People will leave heroscapers, and heroscape itself. After that Wizards would stop making money off of it and stop producing it. There will be no new supporters. Soon some of the biggest fans would quit, twenty years after that the rest would be too old for heroscape. Heroscape would be officially dead.

[holylink718]

I think it's a wonderful idea. If you ask me, heroscape is dying. Does that mean it's gonna die? Not necessarily. It means that if things continue as they are now without changing, it will die.

Not that I think it's entirely wizard's fault. They can't really help it if TRU, Target, and maybe even Wal-Mart won't carry heroscape products. Though wizards really should send out more of the old stuff that nobody has. I think sales would skyrocket if they sent out waves 1, 2, and 4 back into the market.

Just some thoughts I have on the subject. Feel free to ignore as you see fit.

[jbbnbsmith]

The whole premise of this discussion is a bit confusing to me. If Hasbro stops producing Heroscape tomorrow, I fail to see how anyone who owns the game will be impacted negatively. I do not need a game to be constantly expanding to enjoy playing it. As far as I know, no one is releasing new figures with new abilities for Chess, yet that game seems to have been doing quite well for centuries.

I think there are two separate issues. One is the continuation of expansions, the other is the continuation of production of existing product line. Although custom units may provide a positive benefit for some regarding the former issue, it does nothing for the latter issue. unlike Chess, which is in the public domain, Hasbro will not give up it's rights to Heroscape simply because it is out of print.

When Hasbro pulls the plug on Heroscape, it will be sad. But as with any other out of print game, there will be those who sell off their collection and new gamers who buy the collections. The game itself will still be just as enjoyable as ever. So not only will I still enjoy playing, but my collection may possibly turn out to have been a smart investment!

[Onion Knight]

Perhaps, for the sake of discussion, we can all assume that Heroscape will never go away and that it is in fantastic shape...

None of you naysayers are commenting or even acknowledging Gulp's idea of having BoV type judges approve customs for tournament play.