>Well, I just returned from GenCon, to my knowledge the largest gaming
>convention in the world, where nary a word was heard about ILH2. No one
>knew anything about it, not distributors, not retailers, not other
>publishers... no one. In fact, most retailers had all their HQ products
>on clearance and some commented that the game was "dead" or "Is that
>still being published?" Made for a difficult weekend trying to carry the
>torch.
>
>I realize that the true fan base of HeroQuest lies in Europe. But the
>fact that pre-release copies of ILH2, not to mention the God Learner and
>Hendriki UFWs, were available at relatively small cons in Germany and
>England, but not at the largest con in the US is disappointing. Not to
>mention that no one knew who might have any of the other Moon Design
>products.
Well that looks like the source of the problem - Moon Design is just one of hundreds of small scale games publishers who can't afford space at the big commercial cons. And would probably lose money trying.
I'll agree distribution needs sorting out because there's a delay of months between publication and availability in retail outlets in Britain. I can only assume Rick is working on this but I suspect that there's a lot of work involved and most retailers get their info from distributors who've been saying for over a year that Steve Jackson Games are no longer publishing HQ.
By comparison Mongoose had their RQ August releases at Continuum and in the shops within a week.
-- Donald Oddy http://www.grove.demon.co.uk/
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