Age of Annihilation - Backer Trend and Discussion

[Muskie]

I am new to crowdfunding stuff. I do really appreciate the discussion here since I have not been involved in one before. It is nice to follow a respectful dialog about the issues. I have been in this group for only a few years but dove into the game with both feet (I now own multiple full sets and all of the CV releases). Thank you for intelligent and respectful discussion in input. I am encouraged by the 150+ a day that are pledging (I have pledged as well). Hoping the support, marketing and information improve to keep things going.

[SuperSamyon]

Originally Posted by IAmBatman

I had to leave that Discord. You couldn't have a conversation that included any criticism without being attacked, so I figured it wasn't worth my mental health to stick around there.

Yeah I saw that you were getting dogpilled on. What's unfortunate is that many companies pay a lot of money to research the mindset of their customers. Avalon Hill is receiving that for free so any silencing of opinion by the fans only hurts the marketing team's ability to pivot their plan to respond to customer feedback.

I do understand that negative feedback can be a killjoy but it's much better to receive it during the campaign when you can still adjust vs. after the campaign in a post mortem which at that point its only useful for your next campaign.

[IAmBatman]

That was my ambition with my posts, yeah. To be fair to Avalon Hill, it wasn't their marketers who came after me and other posters who had criticism for the campaign, it was fellow fans of the game. That's going to happen, I suppose, it just felt a bit magnified in that environment, so I figured I'd be better off sticking to the community-run ones.

[Hogg]

We hit 25%.

The growth of this one has been different from most HasLabs, it has been steadier. Hopefully it continues or even picks up a little as the word gets out.

[IAmBatman]

We're in good shape as long as there's no big drop off, despite a lot of unforced errors by the campaign.

[Good Pig]

I thought it was funny how Raelin becoming evil and fighting for Utgar is kind of a polarizing thing. I'd have loved to see this be leveraged in the campaign.

For instance all backers get a vote to say whether Raelin stays with Jandar or defects to Utgar. The new miniature is 90% the same with the winged lion but the Jandar version looks less sinister and is blue. The power set for a new Jandar version would need to be different than whatever is planned for Utgar.

As it stands now if you want Raelin to not turn to the dark side your option is to not back the campaign.

[GamerDad74]

You all share some very relevant observations and criticisms. For a company worth ~$9,430,000,000, the marketing, design, social media, crowd-funding venue, etc. are all so poorly run. I mean, I appreciated the daily reveals of the last 50 days or so (which helped me decide to NOT back it--only cared at all for 1/6 factions and have tons of terrain already + no starter price or faction options), but everything else has been so, just . . . weird.

Let's face it, Hasbro couldn't care less about the game (the Creators are different for sure), they're just high-balling fans and seeing how much $ they can squeeze out of us. There's really no promise of future expansions (even thought they say there is). This could be a one and done--six weird, relatively unconnected expansions, unpainted, cards that don't match. It's kind of like Arena of the Planeswalker, only about 5 times as expensive. And I liked the AotP factions and miniatures and cards a LOT better--they looked and felt like Heroscape. I even actually like the cardboard terrain--use it as a base for Heroscape tiles. They could have done the same with a starter set (flat board, some 3D terrain, dice/glyphs/etc. and two factions of your choice for $100 or $125. Then have add-ons.) Would have been a blowout, and we'd probably be funded right now.

Like some here have said, how does Hasbro say with a straight face that they're trying to get new players into the game with NO details about the game and with a $250 entry fee? Absolutely insane . . . and stupid marketing. The time to capture attention was in the first few days. After that, fewer and fewer people are going to give it a second (or third) look. If you don't have all the critical information available at the beginning, you're losing SO many potential new backers. Like I said, insanely stupid marketing.

As for the designs, although I've regularly returned to Heroscapers.com, I'm not familiar with whether there were a TON of people clamoring for new factions and for a new direction. I don't think there were. I think most of us were just asking for more of what we all originally loved about Heroscape--historical humans from history battling it out with many other races. And it had the toy factor, not the collectible miniatures factor. That's what it really boils down to. Instead, they gave us mostly new factions (barely touched Einar and Ullar and Vydar, just a couple of bones to Jandar and Utgar). And why do we need even MORE factions? We already have Aquilla and Valkrill for that? Flesh those out some more (a couple of Aquilla, no Valkrill units?)!

Anyway, I hope they're listening. It's probably too late to make many changes now. I just want them to know how much they flubbed this. The designers have to be so frustrated.

[IAmBatman]

I'm hearing a gameplay video is on the way. At some point. I guess the nice thing about the 45 day backing period is it gives them more time to put together the campaign as it goes on.

[chas]

If I want to play Raelin as Good, you can't stop me. But I'm hoping there will be a "rescue Raelin" scenario toward the end, like there was a rescue a DND Elf Wizard figure at the start of the BFTU back then.

If we know little about the rules, we know even less about the scenarios, but it was said at PulseCon that they are "different from any that have gone before." Perhaps they take place in Laur.

[IAmBatman]

I just think the Manticore looks cool.

[chas]

Are Manticore's Evil, or just misunderstood?

[IAmBatman]

Originally Posted by chas

Are Manticore's Evil, or just misunderstood?

It's what's in their core that counts.