Saturday, November 15, 2008
Should I Care?
Or, more accurately, should I be bothered?
In the wake of Monday's announcement by Topps (see previous entry) we've seen a great deal of activity from a fairly new front and backed by the fans. I remain too much in the dark, lacking information we're simply not going to have access to out here, but I'm trying to make sense of it and get some thoughts out.
The short form: Heroclix's final Brand Manager, Jake Theis, took up the banner of a Save Heroclix front. The thrust of the action is to form a company and make a bid to take over the property from Topps. He quickly set up a blog and began accepting donations (clearly solicited as such, not intended to be actual investments and completely, clearly un-refundable) to get the ball rolling. By the end of the work week the foundation of a new company, Pinata Games (apparently sans tilda over the "n") was laid. By Thursday the 13th they apparently bought the pinatagames.com domain, though so far they haven't done anything with it. At the pace they've been going, though, I wouldn't be surprised to see that change radically within the next few days.
The more detailed story as told by the insiders via blog posts can be found at their current website: Save Heroclix. Go there, go to the bottom and click on the last page to start reading from the beginning.
Anyway, my thoughts are as follows, and as I'd essentially posted on one of the fan sites early this morning:
It does seem contrary to reason that - if the product's been truly financially successful - Topps would pull the plug on the line if all of the sculpts, dials, etc. have long since been completed for a new set. Granted, it isn't as if poor or short-sighted decisions are unfamiliar territory in the world of business, and Topps may have simply decided that in the short term this would make an excellent fourth quarter tax write-off, though letting the brand/product line simply die would seriously erode the market value of what they bought.
It may be simple paranoia, a result of having felt "taken" too many times over the years, or the natural emotional reflexes born of just coming out of a roughly 24-month round of political campaigning, but there's a nagging sense of being played, possibly by more than one party.
If Topps does plan to jump back in, release Hammer of Thor within the first quarter of 2009 as originally planned, and continue Heroclix letting this fan tumult garner some extra attention for the line could work for them - though I wouldn't suggest letting it go too long.
I'm also concerned that Pinata Games could turn out to be more of a bit of opportunism than anything else. Indications are, based largely only on the speed of activity we've seen this week, that the new gaming company being formed on the focused good will of fans of a particular game wasn't a plan that just appeared from nowhere as the week progressed. There's an expectation that some other game or games is waiting to be pulled out of hiding as the "alternate" product for Pinata if no deal is forthcoming from Topps/Topps decides to move ahead with Heroclix on their own, sans the Wizkids brand. There's nothing wrong with that, but if things roll that way I'll likely always believe that that was the true, root intent behind this -- to start a gaming company -- and that the Heroclix situation simply provided an avenue to accomplish it more smoothly and quickly than would have been possible had he just decided to try to launch a company from a cold start. Especially in this economic climate, imagine how difficult it would be to pull cash and goodwill together - nevermind at this breakneck pace - if it was being done as just another business start-up.
I could see a scenario where it's to both Pinata and Topps' benefit for things to play out this way.
Jake gets a lot of good will, a marketing splash and start-up capital for a new company while simultaneously re-focusing fan interest in Heroclix - which will help draw more attention to the game, Meanwhile, Topps gets the opportunity to dissolve Wizkids if they found the last encumbrances of that company and its contracts to be a problem/burden, then either have a re-sweetened product line if they decide to come back in in "response" to the outcry of the fans/market to carry the game forward, potentially with (at least in the short term) less of a tendency for the fans to complain if there are further changes, say, to how Approved Play (or whatever Topps chooses to call it, if anything) is run. Oh, sure, some will hardly pause to draw a breath before complaining -- we're the Internet age, after all -- but I expect enough will jump on the complainers with "Dude, shut up. We almost lost the game completely. Enjoy the new sets or leave." We've already seen a great deal that over the history of the game even in the absence of the scare of a shut-down.
I suppose the end result is all that really matters - the fans are responding because they want Heroclix to continue, and if it does then to some degree it's ::ahem:: Mission Accomplished (will we ever be able to use that phrase again un-ironically?) - but I at least wanted to get some of these thoughts out as they've been persistent. I also wanted to get all of it down for my personal record.
While it'll likely only provide Pinata a better launch platform (and, hey, good for them) since they'll run straight press releases as articles, in hopes of shaking more details out and possibly forcing more hands I contacted Milton Griepp of icv2 (where I'd first seen the Topps announcement as an early afternoon newsflash on Monday) the other day to make sure he had all the particulars on Pinata's start-up, the Save Heroclix effort, etc. Milton got back to me early Friday afternoon to thank me for the heads-up and let me know he'd reached out to Jake and will be doing a story on his efforts and, presumably, the situation in general. Confirmations today let me know this will definitely be part of Monday's industry news.
Or, more accurately, should I be bothered?
In the wake of Monday's announcement by Topps (see previous entry) we've seen a great deal of activity from a fairly new front and backed by the fans. I remain too much in the dark, lacking information we're simply not going to have access to out here, but I'm trying to make sense of it and get some thoughts out.
The short form: Heroclix's final Brand Manager, Jake Theis, took up the banner of a Save Heroclix front. The thrust of the action is to form a company and make a bid to take over the property from Topps. He quickly set up a blog and began accepting donations (clearly solicited as such, not intended to be actual investments and completely, clearly un-refundable) to get the ball rolling. By the end of the work week the foundation of a new company, Pinata Games (apparently sans tilda over the "n") was laid. By Thursday the 13th they apparently bought the pinatagames.com domain, though so far they haven't done anything with it. At the pace they've been going, though, I wouldn't be surprised to see that change radically within the next few days.
The more detailed story as told by the insiders via blog posts can be found at their current website: Save Heroclix. Go there, go to the bottom and click on the last page to start reading from the beginning.
Anyway, my thoughts are as follows, and as I'd essentially posted on one of the fan sites early this morning:
It does seem contrary to reason that - if the product's been truly financially successful - Topps would pull the plug on the line if all of the sculpts, dials, etc. have long since been completed for a new set. Granted, it isn't as if poor or short-sighted decisions are unfamiliar territory in the world of business, and Topps may have simply decided that in the short term this would make an excellent fourth quarter tax write-off, though letting the brand/product line simply die would seriously erode the market value of what they bought.
It may be simple paranoia, a result of having felt "taken" too many times over the years, or the natural emotional reflexes born of just coming out of a roughly 24-month round of political campaigning, but there's a nagging sense of being played, possibly by more than one party.
If Topps does plan to jump back in, release Hammer of Thor within the first quarter of 2009 as originally planned, and continue Heroclix letting this fan tumult garner some extra attention for the line could work for them - though I wouldn't suggest letting it go too long.
I'm also concerned that Pinata Games could turn out to be more of a bit of opportunism than anything else. Indications are, based largely only on the speed of activity we've seen this week, that the new gaming company being formed on the focused good will of fans of a particular game wasn't a plan that just appeared from nowhere as the week progressed. There's an expectation that some other game or games is waiting to be pulled out of hiding as the "alternate" product for Pinata if no deal is forthcoming from Topps/Topps decides to move ahead with Heroclix on their own, sans the Wizkids brand. There's nothing wrong with that, but if things roll that way I'll likely always believe that that was the true, root intent behind this -- to start a gaming company -- and that the Heroclix situation simply provided an avenue to accomplish it more smoothly and quickly than would have been possible had he just decided to try to launch a company from a cold start. Especially in this economic climate, imagine how difficult it would be to pull cash and goodwill together - nevermind at this breakneck pace - if it was being done as just another business start-up.
I could see a scenario where it's to both Pinata and Topps' benefit for things to play out this way.
Jake gets a lot of good will, a marketing splash and start-up capital for a new company while simultaneously re-focusing fan interest in Heroclix - which will help draw more attention to the game, Meanwhile, Topps gets the opportunity to dissolve Wizkids if they found the last encumbrances of that company and its contracts to be a problem/burden, then either have a re-sweetened product line if they decide to come back in in "response" to the outcry of the fans/market to carry the game forward, potentially with (at least in the short term) less of a tendency for the fans to complain if there are further changes, say, to how Approved Play (or whatever Topps chooses to call it, if anything) is run. Oh, sure, some will hardly pause to draw a breath before complaining -- we're the Internet age, after all -- but I expect enough will jump on the complainers with "Dude, shut up. We almost lost the game completely. Enjoy the new sets or leave." We've already seen a great deal that over the history of the game even in the absence of the scare of a shut-down.
I suppose the end result is all that really matters - the fans are responding because they want Heroclix to continue, and if it does then to some degree it's ::ahem:: Mission Accomplished (will we ever be able to use that phrase again un-ironically?) - but I at least wanted to get some of these thoughts out as they've been persistent. I also wanted to get all of it down for my personal record.
While it'll likely only provide Pinata a better launch platform (and, hey, good for them) since they'll run straight press releases as articles, in hopes of shaking more details out and possibly forcing more hands I contacted Milton Griepp of icv2 (where I'd first seen the Topps announcement as an early afternoon newsflash on Monday) the other day to make sure he had all the particulars on Pinata's start-up, the Save Heroclix effort, etc. Milton got back to me early Friday afternoon to thank me for the heads-up and let me know he'd reached out to Jake and will be doing a story on his efforts and, presumably, the situation in general. Confirmations today let me know this will definitely be part of Monday's industry news.
Labels: Heroclix, icv2, Jake Theis, Save Heroclix, Topps, Wizkids
Comments:
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Those are all pretty interesting theories you brought up, and really, it has the possibility of playing out exactly like that. Still, Pinata Games will need more brands other than Heroclix in order to survive (though I doubt many/any of them will come from the defunct Wizkids).
And yet, to go back to your title, I find myself asking the same question when I think of who this debacle is really benefiting.
The way I see it. We can get the game back in its' proper form, and I'll be happy. Or we find out Topps and the newly formed Pinata Games used us for whatever benefit and clix returns as some hacked up version Topps or Pinata is pushing out without any real interest. then so be it, I'll move on. I'm cynical or depressed enough with life as it is to not really be surprised anymore.
I try not to have knee-jerk reactions to things or read in too much (though truthfully, if you see me speculating, it's for the fun of speculating itself).
-Tommy/Neverfate
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And yet, to go back to your title, I find myself asking the same question when I think of who this debacle is really benefiting.
The way I see it. We can get the game back in its' proper form, and I'll be happy. Or we find out Topps and the newly formed Pinata Games used us for whatever benefit and clix returns as some hacked up version Topps or Pinata is pushing out without any real interest. then so be it, I'll move on. I'm cynical or depressed enough with life as it is to not really be surprised anymore.
I try not to have knee-jerk reactions to things or read in too much (though truthfully, if you see me speculating, it's for the fun of speculating itself).
-Tommy/Neverfate
# posted by 
: November 16, 2008 at 11:37 PM
: November 16, 2008 at 11:37 PM Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
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