We, the passionate few
Hello again, and thank you for supporting this petition.
Given the number of people who have been complaining about this product, it's pricing, and it's distribution, I'm so surprised that there are still so few of us. Sadly, too many people believe a big company like Hasbro / Wizards of the Coast won't respond to public pressure to make changes. I'm here to remind you that they will, because they have before, and I'll give you an example of it. Before I get to that, however, I implore you to please share this petition to as many places and as many people as you can. Every... single... signature... makes a difference!
How do I know Wizards of the Coast will listen when we ask it to consider a change? I am a co-owner of a game store who is part of an official Wizards Play Network (WPN) group on Facebook. Many times, retailers like me have gone to that forum to raise issues and concerns about products, practices, and trends pertaining to this game that many of us love. Some time ago, I wrote a plea for Wizards of the Coast to return to holding in-store Prerelease events prior to the online release of the cards on Arena or MTGO. Hundreds of other retailers added their comments to my request. The day Wizards of the Coast announced that they were going to hold the Prerelease for Streets of New Capenna in stores before the online release, one of the WPN reps reached out to me and told me that my passionate and well reasoned appeal was read word for word in a management meeting, and that it was very influential in the decision to make the change for Streets of new Capenna. As you may know, feedback about that change has been so positive that Wizards of the Coast has announced that, at a minimum, the next three releases will occur at Prerelease events in stores, rather than online. Why didn't they simply continue to have in-store pre-releases first in the interim? They wanted data.
Something important to realize about nearly every major corporation today is that decisions they make are typically data driven. When WPN liaisons to the retail community brought our feedback to management, they had statistics about how many comments supported my post, and how many other posts there were along similar lines. That data helped influence management to make a change. Business analysts at Hasbro / Wizards of the Coast have told them how much money they can potentially make by selling a product like 30th Anniversary Edition at its $999 price point. That's the initial data they used to make their decision. They are certainly hearing many complaints and anecdotal comments from around the player, collector and influencer communities about this product, but a handful of complaints and a few collected anecdotes are not data on which they can make a decision. If we get enough signatures on this petition, it can make a difference in how this product is priced and released, but we must act now.
When we get to 100 signatures, we can become one of change.orgs featured petitions, and that may help us gain even more signatures. If we can even get 1, 000 signatures on this petition, management at Wizards of the Coast will become aware of how much the community is outraged. Should we be able to reach 5,000 or even 10,000 signatures, that would be overwhelming evidence that their present course of action will harm their ongoing relationship with fans, players, collectors, and retailers.
However, we will never reach the next level of signatures without your help. I can keep sharing this as much as I want, but you have spheres of influence that I do not have. You know people I do not know. You may have different reasons for why you chose to sign this petition that are different than mine, and only you can share those reasons. Tell your classmates, family, friends, and social media contacts about this petition. Don't just share the link as if it doesn't really matter to you. Tell them why it's important ask them to help you make a difference.
I will continue to do so on my end. I hope you take up the torch and help from your end as well. Together, we *can* make a difference.
Andrew