Age of Annihilation - Backer Trend and Discussion

[Lord Pyre]

Lol

[Grungebob]

Originally Posted by Hogg

I agree with all of that, but like it or not, this is the situation we have been presented with. There is nothing pointing to another attempt if this doesn't succeed.

Yeah there is. There’s the public sentiment that this could have funded if done properly, and there are the loyal core willing to lay out a thousand plus dollars apiece to help make it happen. Somebody will look at those numbers and see the potential.

[IAmBatman]

Which is probably the best argument not to pull backings at this point, right?

[caps]

Yeah this is late in the game to pull backing IMO.

[IAmBatman]

Maybe we should all pledge to pull it with an hour left if we're under 7k as a way to express our dissatisfaction. (Not that I really think that accomplishes anything either).

[Grungebob]

Originally Posted by IAmBatman

Which is probably the best argument not to pull backings at this point, right?

No, pulling backing would basically say: “Look, I backed 5 sets, but because you guys didn’t fight as hard as we did, I’m pulling my support just like you pulled yours.”

They know they had you, and they know why they lost you.

I’m not suggesting people do this, I’m wondering why it wasn’t the first reaction after the disappointment these last ten days have brought. I mean in my state the race for governor wasn’t close but the guy who was behind in the polls kept fighting to the end because his supporters deserved it, and his reputation is important.

[rudyvalentine]

Originally Posted by Grungebob

Of course we all still want to see it succeed, but there’s a difference between being hopeful, and increasing your pledge 5 fold to back a project from a company that hasn’t tweeted about this campaign in 10 days.

I agree with this. It’s just desperation at this point. But AH gave up on it. Probably after the last video dropped and got +20k views but the numbers didn’t surge.

[GamerDad74]

Originally Posted by Lord Pyre

Yeah they started with the statement “if this doesn’t fund, no more Heroscape”, and I personally felt that was pretty skeevy anyway. I’m not a fan of crowdfunding exclusives and everything, but this really felt like they tapped into desperation here rather than just having a good product. I’ve been sort of plenty of kickstarters and I’ve never once seen people feel the need to buy 2-10 full copies of the game just to keep it alive. That’s just…. Not right.

Yeah, when they first breathlessly announced that HS was "Baaack!!!!" I thought, "Wow, Hasbro is really putting themselves out there and taking a chance--they actually listen to and care about fans of their games." Talk about naive.

Like Lord Pyre said, Hasbro stating, "You fully fund this at $250 or else!" is really a slap in the face to fans. That's why I keep getting the feeling they were like, "Oh, you want Heroscape? You keep begging to bring it back? Well, we'll see how badly you want it." Slap in the face.

And it's absolutely ridiculous to me to see people back 5+ copies of this just to see it funded. I appreciate the passion, I love HS too and continue to collect and play it. But if you make a solid product at the right price, packaged and promoted in the right way, you don't need people to back multiple copies to sell it--it sells itself. They said they wanted 8,000 backers to show future demand. Even if it somehow miraculously funds, what percentage will be multiple copy backers (scalping this on Ebay, no doubt)? Maybe 25%? That doesn't help Hasbro or the future of Heroscape.

Again, I shared the example of C: DMD to show that most of the reasons Hasbro/AH gave as a rationale for why they're running the campaign this way doesn't hold water.

And how pathetic of them to just quit on this campaign at this point? They had a month and a half, 45 days!, to implement some of the suggestions of the community about what might make this more successful. Of course it would have been better had they bothered to ask the community BEFORE the campaign began.

What's too bad is that they will never give fans or backers ANY honest assessment after this likely fails. I think the reason a lot of us are so bitter about this is 1) they promised HS was back 2) they rolled out a terrible campaign 3) they didn't listen at all to the fans 4) they made it impossible to succeed. They deserve the grief their getting and will get if/when it fails.

[IAmBatman]

But they did give us "unprecedented levels of access!"

[caps]

They *did* make significant updates to the campaign page based on fan feedback and they *did* change the colors of the minis to be less garishly neon based on fan feedback. So they did listen to the fans somewhat.

I'm pretty sure that Avalon Hill's hands were tied by Hasbro on most of the other things we wanted though.

[Knox]

Originally Posted by caps

I'm pretty sure that Avalon Hill's hands were tied by Hasbro on most of the other things we wanted though.

This my thought as well. Again, I think $1M is a really great statement on how much the community loved the project and how willing people were to back it. They just did such a bad job with outreach to new players

[CapAp]

There's been something that mildly irked me since day 1, and I finally went over the pledge page to check the numbers. Of the 39 units that have minis shown, 9 (23%) have the name "X the Y" (example: Xenithrax the Soulweaver) and 8 (21%) have the name "X of Y" (example: "Raakchott Desecrator of Death").

In addition, most of them are names like the ones I just posted. Gorothox of Nakumberex. Albomond the Devastator. Markindrevek, Sunderer of the Cragnarines. I just made all those up but they would fit right in to any of the factions. Then you scroll down to the stretch goals which are classic figs like Sgt Drake, Raelin and Major Q-11.

This is the same point I tried to make 50 pages ago, when I was trying to explain why I wasn't backing, and I was told I was being ridiculous. Does it make sense that this doesn't feel like old 'scape to me? It feels like a very generic space fantasy universe where 44% of the units (44%!) have names that I can hardly tell apart. The green figures are all just green figures named Secumbereth of the Glades.

"Marcus Decimus" was a roman general. He came packed with "Venoc Vipers", who were snake aliens. The personality was immediately apparent and thick. Am I alone on this?