Official Wizards Feedback Thread - Take 2

[wotcpbarclay]

Originally Posted by champrjk

I have no hobby shops near where I live. We did have a WotC but it went out of business years ago. If big box stores cease to carry heroscape I'll be forced to buy all mine online.

If you're close to Portland, then you might have some options. Try these three (they all do Magic Friday Night Magic):
Guardian Games Portland OR (503) 238-4000
Loki's Games Portland OR (503) 774-8467
Other Worlds Portland OR (503) 244-0290

One of the biggest problems with FLGSs is not that they're incredibly rare (there are more of them than there are Target stores), but that they can be really hard to find.

[wotcpbarclay]

Originally Posted by Fronsac

Will the price for LGS owners go down now that WoTC has control of the brand?

Because one of the main reasons my LGS owner refuses to carry HS is that he is undercut pretty badly by big box stores and it seems like thats pretty much the case everywhere I've been. LGS' and hobby shops have to sell unit packs at 15 dollars (or more) and big packs at 30+, while Wal*Mart, Target and other places can sell the same stuff at 10 and 20 dollars.

Yes. With the changes we've made to discounts for FLGSs, they should find it a lot easier to compete with the big box stores.

[wotcpbarclay]

Originally Posted by Soul Shackle

Mr. Barclay

I hate to bring a negative tone to a thread everyone is so excited about, but I've recently sent in several rules questions to WotC via the Advanced FAQ link, and have gotten some truly rediculous answers. Some answers even conflicted with that same FAQ I know others have had this same issue, as I've posted a thread and gotten many in agreement. Could you give some kind of explanation and let us know if this problem will be fixed. You guys are the official source for answers now, we need the correct answers.

Thank you.

We're taking steps to make rules answers more accurate - you should see some improvements in the coming months. Even with the best system, however, there will always be incorrect answers. So, if you recieve an answer from customer service that you believe is incorrect, the best thing to do is to contact them and politely let them know (our CS folks have to be experts on every one of our games, not just on Heroscape, and that's a very hard job to do).

[wotcpbarclay]

Originally Posted by Kroc

WOTC: Are you going to continue trying to expand the fan base of Heroscape or are you going to focus more on the current fans?

The clearest answer would be a percentage of importance you put on current versious new fans.
I know you may not want to be clear because this could be seen as a loaded question, and it is, but my personal loading is different from what you may expect. I would be pleased to find out that while we are an important concern expansion is your primary focus. I hope to see a day when HS is in a Monopoly type of game. One everyone knows how to play (more or less).
In line with this I hope HS always keeps a focus on playability. Yea, special abilities are cool, but in the end of the day the game should be and is simple enough that you don't need to read the rule book before having a good time. (Contrast with D&D.)

Importance of current fans to the game's success: 100%.
Importance of gaining new fans to the game's success: 100%.

We need both, plain and simple. To that end, there's a fine line we have to walk between accessibility (simple, clear rules), and keeping people interested (clever, new mechanics).

[wotcpbarclay]

Originally Posted by Sherman Davies

For wotcPaul: Can you assure us that Heroscape is currently a profitable product?

Right this minute, it's profitable. We have some problems with some of our costs that we've got to get under control to keep it that way. It's not a major issue - we've solved much bigger cost problems before. Our aim is to make sure it'll be profitable for the next 5 years and beyond.

The real key to continued profitability is you guys. Getting your feedback is part of this. Another piece is going to be asking you to help us persuade store owners to carry it, and persuade players in those stores to pick it up.

Originally Posted by Sherman Davies

I ask this having recently browsed the Dreamscape forums on WotC's site, particularly the thread discussing the cancellation of that game. It reminded me a lot of the doom & gloom threads we had going here before WotC's announcement. It also showed me that some people seem to think that your company has a habit of not supporting struggling games, a reputation I hadn't heard of before. The timing of the cancellation (Oct. '07) also seems to coincide with this transfer of Heroscape to your company. I guess I just want some assurance that this transfer wasn't just to fill some perceived void in WotC left by Dreamblade's cancellation, and that Heroscape will be treated better than that game was. Thanks.

Heroscape's transfer had nothing to do with Dreamblade at all. That cancellation happend way before anyone even thought of transferring Heroscape. However, I think you're right - we do have a habit of not giving enough support to games that are going through change, and that's a habit that I want to break us out of. (I don't want to use the term "struggling games" because Heroscape is definitely not struggling)

[wotcpbarclay]

Originally Posted by chief

For the Wizards.

If we had a current order or an order to be called in with hasbro before the transfer would Wizards take care of us and our predicament?

It's still Hasbro (or one of our distributors) for now, depending on what the order was. After April 1st, it's definitely Wizards (or, again, one of our distributors).

[wotcpbarclay]

Originally Posted by that guy

Have you given any thought at all to the previously discussed 2(or more) terrain packs to every one large pack?

Yes. It's better than the current packout, but it might not be enough better.

[wotcpbarclay]

Originally Posted by aljovin

To Wizards:

Will you be supporting Heroscape in other languages than English? I'm thinking specifically French for the Canadian and European market.

Not at this time, but maybe sometime in the future.

[wotcpbarclay]

Originally Posted by Talos

I'd also be interested to hear Paul's response to this, but I can tell you for a fact that WotC Oz are already distributing HS down under and have been doing so since July '07. I have proof as they mailed me replacement figures for some faulty ones in my Marvel Set.

I asked about GenCon Oz as well, and WotC Oz replied that they would be there, but were uncertain about HS related activities.

There's a pile of history about Australian supply on this forum if you do a search RegMan...

"What he said." (actually, they've been doing the distribution all along, as Hasbro Australia and WotC Australia are the same people) I've known Dale and the team down there for years, and they're a great group. They'll know what they're doing way more than I would.

[wotcpbarclay]

Originally Posted by peteparkerh

I have a question about the sales strategy and how this is going to attract new players.

If Walmart and the big chains don't sell the Mastersets and the hobby stores only sell terain expansion sets, how will new players come to the game? I know I got hooked seeing the sets at Toys-R-Us.

I know you probably can't talk specifically about which big chains are on board, but could you answer this on more general terms.

The big chains are all still carrying the master set - I don't see that changing. And, we're providing some master sets to the core for a limited time at a price that will encourage them to carry the sets.

[wotcpbarclay]

[quote="guido"]

Originally Posted by nilfheim

Question for Wizards: You mentioned that we should be seeing some more scape hit the shelves in February (At least I think you said something like this a while back). Could you possibly be more specific as to what we will/might start seeing? Is it new (the desert set, which I kind of doubt that there was enough time to mass produce it but I could be wrong) or is it old scape? If old, what Wave or Waves. I am really excited to see my stores replace their overstock of wave six with something I need. Thank you.

It's existing product - it takes a while to make stuff in China and ship it to the US. I know there's Wave 3 out there (either now or soon), and there's some other stuff coming over from China too. Then, more Wave 7's going to start hitting shelves in April

[wotcpbarclay]

Originally Posted by Grishnakh

Maybe a broader question would be this: Would WotC support third party developers to produce officially sanctioned material in support of Heroscape? That would include, for example, publishing a book on how to customize Heroscape terrain tiles. Thanks!

We'd certainly be open to proposals. I'm not going to make any promises here, though, as any proposal would have to be run through Legal.