Dear current players of our remaining hit game: we’re smart. Dear everyone else: we’re still dumb

Or perhaps I should be kinder to WizKids and characterize their “Open Letter to HeroClix Players Worldwide” as merely mysterious. I mean, they must know that a focus on collectors and the most hardcore of hardcore fans is what almost destroyed the comics industry, right? And that you have to be pretty hardcore to attend a convention, right? And that the focus on things that casual players can’t get is the primary reason their casual players are dropping out like pregnant high-school students, right? So their motivation for drawing attention to all this in an otherwise content-free release must be subtle indeed. Fire up the conspiracy theories!

7 comments

  1. Well, I may go another route (oh, and I sure hope none of the powers that be edit this article, like I have seen done in the past at OC when a story is a little too “hard hitting”)

    Notice this guys signature line? “Brand Manager” for Heroclix. Well, hmmm. Is he trying to salvage his floundering brand by pandering to the players? Maybe, seems like a way too little way too late. He sure as heck is once again reaffirming that venues/retailers are not an emphasis in his “brand strategy” (assuming they have one)

    In the end, having written enough marketing speak in my day…he is essentially saying nothing, which is what we have been hearing from WK for a lone time now.

  2. It’s October, ladies and gentlemen – welcome to Q4, aka Layoff Season. Looks to me like nothing more than a brand manager trying to justify his existence.

  3. Chris: There’s hard hitting, and there’s unnecessarily over the line. Certain reporters have tended toward the latter in the past. Slamming big companies just because they’re acting like big companies, or because a retailer feels they need to be slammed, is not justification enough.

    That being said, I see nothing wrong or over the line about this story. So calm down.

  4. I beg to differ Allan. There have been many times where stories have been “changed” after posting, for no apparent reason other than to make nice with the manufacturers. What’s wrong with some straight up honesty?

    And as for “calming down”, I suggest you either email me personally with comments like that, or continue to harm your own credibility as a journalist…I am after all a loyal reader. Treating your loyal readers like that in a public forum is simply bad business.

  5. No offense was intended, Chris, really. You were discussing your thoughts publicly, and I responded publicly. Our opinions obviously differ on this, and I understand that. However, your input on the site is a valued addition to the site.

    The “So calm down” comment at the end of my previous post looks rather flip in retrospect, and I apologize if it came across that way.

  6. Ain’t no thang Allan. We are all friends here. It’s always hard to “hear” what someone is saying when it in print. 🙂

    No worries on my end, hope none on yours either.

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