Age of Annihilation - Backer Trend and Discussion

[keglo]

Originally Posted by SuperSamyon

I think what is missing in this conversation is an understanding on who the Heroscape customer was back then and who they continue to be today.

When Heroscape was sold at my local Walmart, it was placed right next to the Monopolies and Candy Land’s of the board gaming world. Games that usually retailed anywhere between $10-40. At the time, Heroscape was considered a premium board game with a premium price. This was a time before Kickstarters so spending that much money on a board game was considered a luxury.

Heroscape captured middle America who for the first time, experienced a version of a tabletop miniatures board game. These are individuals who probably had a little spending money each week making the booster model of Heroscape a perfect fit for them. These were consumers who didn’t have the desire to join the hobby miniatures world, nor the funding to support what is a very expensive hobby. Heroscape was a mass market game that any income class could enjoy.

Fast forward to today and one of the criticisms I see levied against the Heroscape consumer is that they are very insular and don’t understand how much board games cost today followed by a statement of “if only they knew how much of a bargain this all is.” Let me turn that phrase around and say this: the hobbyist board game collector who lives on Kickstarter is in fact very insular and doesn’t understand that the rest of the world thinks spending $200+ for a board game is absolutely insane.

As much as we would like to say that Kickstarters and other community funded projects are the norm, they aren’t. They are still a niche market in the overall board gaming industry. And Tabletop miniatures gaming? A niche of a niche. There’s a reason why no one outside your gaming group has even heard of these things.

There are many reasons why people keep asking for lower price points. The main reason, in my opinion, is because they simply don’t want to spend more than $50 at a time on what they consider a board game that is in the same vein as Monopoly. To them, spending $50-100 on any board game is already a tall ask.

That is your mainstream Heroscape customer. Someone who wants an affordable board game that they could expand at their leisure. These are people who would happily spend $250 on Heroscape through the course of a year. These are not people who would spend $250 all up front.

Avalon Hill wanted the Heroscape consumer to adopt the Kickstarter mindset, while the Heroscape consumer wanted Avalon Hill to adopt the Monopoly mass market board gaming mindset. Hence the massive disconnect in the product meeting the expectations of the consumer.

From a "mainstream Heroscape customer", very well said. In my opinion, you are spot-on.