HeroScape is coming back!

[Hahnarama]

Originally Posted by IAmBatman

All I know is you'd be crazy to buy unpainted directly from Renegade, since it's already significantly cheaper elsewhere.

I'm going to hijack your up painted thread....

If Renegade was smart, not saying they are not, they would post some "How to paint" instructional videos right now to increase sales .

[Master Roshi]

Originally Posted by wriggz

That said come on Irene? How do I get my 8 year old excited to play Irene? I can sell a vampire Kyrie and space pirates or even a marro in pirate pants... But a bear named Irene?

Yeah the name does sound odd to me; I have no issue with a bear having a female name, but Irene sounds too modern, mundane, and unintimidating for a giant bipedal polar bear with metal claws


Irene sounds like a friendly woman who works at the grocery store


It would work better if it was an original made up name because the character doesn't come from earth. This is what works with the Kyrie, since Raelin, Kelda, and Runa all sound feminine but also unfamiliar

[Dysole]

I hate Irene less than Oberon but that's because of my association of Oberon with fairies and it itches me to see the name used for Wolverine bear. I still wouldn't have chosen either name if I had been given creative control.

~Dysole, who also would have gone with fewer titles as well

[chas]

"Irene" seems unaccountably woke. I've never complained about that before in my life. I mean in the sense of inappropriate gender switching (a la the Marvel Universe). But we don't need that, because all the Kyrie are female, as are the Dragon and a number of other Dryans, the Empress of the Bugs, some Pirates, and etc. So what's the point? And I've never seen a mini that looks more masculine! You could argue tht no Clockworks are yet, but Renegade seem to be deemphasizing the whole faction idea anyhow. Yet even if you still go with female, the tone is completely off, as noted above.

It seems so dissonent that again one wonders if they don't know what they're doing to Scape, as others have noted in their inaccurate or imprecise card text. Sometimes, later tier creative folks make changes just to make the thing more theirs.

But in the larger sense, its not theirs--its ours. Well, I'll call the card what I like. We do have our own community nicknames anyhow, although I haven't been forced to use one before. Bacon, Mittens...make up a good one. Hairy?

[nyys]

It’s still not good but even Irene backwards (Eneri) would have been better.

[Retlaw]

Because I have too much time on my hands, I looked up the meaning of the name Irene:

Irene is a feminine name of Greek origin that means “peace,” derived from the Greek word eirēnē of the same meaning. In Ancient Greek Mythology, Eirene is the Greek goddess of peace, who was known to be the personification of wealth and harmony.

So, yeah, that doesn't make me think of a bear warrior

[Tornado]

Should of went with Tréximo.

[wriggz]

I really don't care about which gender a unit is or isn't, doest distract from the game if Major Q9 identifies as non binary. My problem is regardless of how I've tried to raise my sones, they care. Culture is still so steeped in the blue boys and pink girls that's it hard to sell them on Barbie movies, Ms marvel or a bear named Irene. So much of society tells them thats not for them that regardless of my efforts they won't be as interested. Though my youngest loves Rapunzel so I'm doing something right.

My problem is when decisions like this lead to fewer sales resulting in less of the product I love. If your fan base is turned off by the name Irene you will have a smaller fan base. Perhaps you think you will get a wider fan base by making more female characters, but that seems unlikely.

You want to sell product do the market research. I love me my spiderman but I worry bad box office for bad moves like madam web, or moves targeting young women like the Marvels, make execs think we have super hero fatigue. I loved across the spidervese, spider Gwen was an amazing character. No one complained it has her movie cause it was an amazing story with wide appeal about taking responsibility not about coming of age or sisterhood. By the way if you want to see great character development follow nebula through the marvel universe.

As mentioned Heroscape was fairly inclusive and I think the AoA is building on the trend. I know VC has build up on that foundation choosing to be as inclusive as possible. As an aside I love the Unmatched line as they are clearly breaking down gender stereotypes, but again getting my kids to play red Riding Hood will be a trick.

My other great love is lego, and that is a great example of how to move forward. Their core city sets do a great job balance genders some times dropping a character into a job dominated by the opposite gender, but it seems natural, and let's kids know they can be anything. More impressively they took their very successful friends line and started down playing the pink, hearts and majority female cast to invite in boys. Breaking down these barriers in a natural, non forced was, is the way forward. But more importantly the new lego friends products are some of their best. Top notch product is how you change hearts ands minds, like it or not. We didn't beat communism through politics or war, we beat it with better consumer products i.e. MacDonalds and Hollywood broke down the Berlin wall. Believe it or not Superman took down the real KKK. (Look it up).

I want more Heroscape and while respect creators enough to let them create their vision, I want them to make choices that lead to the greatest chance for success for the project I love. I just don't see how a bear named Irene is the right choice.

[ryguy266]

Y’all are really overthinking it. I’d apply Occam’s razor to this one. Someone liked the song and thought it was clever when it’s really just a dumb pun.

[wriggz]

Originally Posted by ryguy266

Y’all are really overthinking it. I’d apply Occam’s razor to this one. Someone liked the song and thought it was clever when it’s really just a dumb pun.

I think that's the point of my rant. A dumb pun is a stupid way to market your product, when your product is a skirmish game.

[IAmBatman]

Originally Posted by wriggz

I think that's the point of my rant. A dumb pun is a stupid way to market your product, when your product is a skirmish game.

I just read in another thread that gimmick over quality is when you know something has jumped the shark.

[Sherman Davies]

Originally Posted by wriggz

I really don't care about which gender a unit is or isn't, doest distract from the game if Major Q9 identifies as non binary. My problem is regardless of how I've tried to raise my sones, they care. Culture is still so steeped in the blue boys and pink girls that's it hard to sell them on Barbie movies, Ms marvel or a bear named Irene. So much of society tells them thats not for them that regardless of my efforts they won't be as interested. Though my youngest loves Rapunzel so I'm doing something right.

Y'know wriggz, for a whining, sniveling, backstabbing Decepticon you're okay in my book.

I have to add that I find the criticism that the bear's sculpt is masculine to be kinda silly. I'll bet the vast majority of people, if they saw a bear while walking in the woods, wouldn't be able to determine if it was male or female.