Ye Olde Inn

by **Goblin-King** » October 17th, 2013, 2:33 am

Exactly...

I believe Change.org sets the number of signatures needed, but maybe the Petition's author, Kevin Gordish, chose the amount somehow. His reasoning as to why the petition may work was based on another petition to Hasbro that successfully got a new color in production for the Easy Bake Oven. As for multiple signatures, that sort of thing is the nature of the beast with most any kind of sign up list. Change.org states it has protection set up against spamming. Waskally blue elves know how to get around such measures, probably with multiple e-mail accounts.

From the BGG petition thread, on the topic of the likely usefulness of the petition:

garygnu wrote:I meant halfway to the 2,500 signatures needed for petition completion. I assume you're refering the the number mentioned about the Heroscape petition posted above:

Omega2064 wrote:500 names is less than nothing. Hasbro would need a minimum of 10k to make it worthwhile.

The number 1,250 could also be more precisely described as 1/8th of the way there. Is that a lot? Not so much if it is compared to the total market number of 10,000, a worthwhile point. However, the petition doesn't need to reach the full requirement of the market. It merely needs to have Hasbro reconsider the market.

Hasbro recognizes the value of nostalgia. Should the petition reach its goal of 2,500 supporters, that would send a formal message to Hasbro upper management that a significant portion of Hero Quest's market would come from the nostalgia niche. Anyone who is not a Hasbro Suit can only conjecture what they will make of that, but they might realize if 2,500 buyers took the trouble to organize, there could be at least the same number of similar consumers who never came across or backed the petition that would also buy a remake. That's 5,000 buyers for them to consider. That brings us halfway there, but still short.

Now include the main market group--the 10-14 year olds that would want Hero Quest. With newer dungeon games out there, Hasbro wouldn't expect Hero Quest to sell the same. Still, Hero Quest was designed to be accessable to a group of inexperienced kids without a geek-dad to run things. in my opinion, more difficult-to-play games such as Castle Ravenloft don't appeal to these groups as well. Combine that with the fact that Hero Quest would be sold in anchor stores like Target. That reaches a significant portion of 10-14 year olds that never make it into a games store. Perhaps the Hasbro suits would expect Hero Quest could sell at least half as well in this environment. That should bring the market number well over the minimum of 10,000 buyers.

Of course, this is just guesswork. To learn exactly what Hasbro will do, join the petition

Sure, trying to bend Hasbro to our will has an ironic parallel to a dumb, big-headed hunter taking pot-shots down a hole at a wizeguy rabbit. In the cartoon, it was rigged by the writers so that Bugs could never get hit. It needed to go down like that so that the bit could go on. However, should we get a shot with the petition, the fandom might actually connect. Clever Hasbro may reason their bit can go on, as well.