What are point costs for really?

In a recent debate on Wizkids, Facebook page, I came to a revelation. All points are not created equal.

The general complaint is that 140 point Chun Li is not worth that many points. The feeling is that other figures of 140 points would stomp her flat. Some also feel that she should have more than one space on the dial of 3 damage. It's also suggested that most of her cost comes from her team ability. But how accurate are those statements?
They really aren't in the big picture.

In all the comparisons, I came to learn something. Just because a figure is 150 points, doesn't mean it's comparable to all 150 point pieces. Why? Because they don't all do the same thing. Different pieces have different purposes and combinations of abilities.

Consider this: Chun Li for 140 pts and the new upcoming Superman at 150 points. Now, because their points are similar does that mean that Chun Li should throw down like Superman? Of course not. Chun Li isn't halfway close to Superman's league. Should she constantly do 3 damage or have more than one space of 3 damage on her dial? Maybe, but what kind of damage is she doing? She's not a White Lantern, or guy in an enhancement suit. She doesn't have super strength. What kind of damage is that? Despite her longer dial (for martial artists) it's pretty basic damage. Seriously, how often could Chun Li hurt Superman just by kicking him? In the books, wouldn't happen. Superman would just stand there while Chun Li kicked him a dozen times or so. He would wait for her to get done with her hissy fit and that would be that.

Still, she's 140 points and not all for the team ability either. You get a lot of options for those points to include hypersonic speed, leapclimb mixed with the carry ability, indomitable (built in willpower), consistant stats across the dial, and her team ability. If anything takes her points over the top, it's her special power, hypersonic, and the indomitable.

Points don't make pieces equal or have anything to do with how hard they should be able to brawl it out. It's for what they do at a strategic and power level. How many powers they have, how long their dials are, what they numeric stats are, what their range is, how many targets they cans shoot at range, if they can fly or swim, if they have a trait, etc... all go into what a piece's points will be.

Chun Li is a powerhouse among the martial artists and with a supportive team, she can be lethal. Here's a thought, pay five points and give her the Gem of Cytorrak. Is that evil enough for you? She costs for what she does. If you can meet the challenge of how to use her, you can be a force to be reckoned with. But maybe she's not your style.

So remember, not all pieces are created equal. They may not all have great or what we see as fair points, but there is something of a pattern after all.

Marketing the sub sets

I recently posted a question on Wizkids Facebook page about buying a set with figures you never heard of. Would you? There weren't as many answers as I might have hoped for, but the ones I got were fairly diverse with good reasoning. I think they may be a good representation of the buying community for the most part.

Most said that they needed to know the characters and have an interest in them. One said he would probably buy and I do know of a few die hard collectors who will take anything Heroclix. Another commenter mentioned that the mechanics would have to be very good to get him to buy characters he had never heard of before. He would even research the character if he liked it enough. I found that interesting too.

When Invincible came out, I have to admit, I never heard of the characters in it before. What can I say? I just hadn't. I still bought the set. A commenter suggested that the sets at the time and Indy was a matter of experiment. That may be. I think the greatest failing of Indy was having awesome figures that you could only get in the UK or US. An interesting marketing ploy meant to work by geographic marketing sector, but a failed one. People were upset about having to go out of their way to get missing pieces for the set. Along with that, there may not have been too much in extra cost to do separate packaging for all that, but it had to be time consuming. Time creates cost.

Now there's some new subsets coming out and I wonder if there's any experiment intended with these or if some marketing research was done? Let's take a look at two sets upcoming.

STREETFIGHTER: I think this set is going to sell hot. There's been a long time cult following of this game. It's very well known and bridges genres from video game to table top. Not a bad idea at all. Cool characters with cool abilities. I'll be interested to see the translation. Could this mean other video game related clix in the future? Maybe, but licensing could be a nightmare. Streetfighter has all it's characters in one place. Halo saw some popularity, but I never bought it. Here's something to chew on, I think Streetfighter's sales could be hotter than Halo. What do you think?

MEGADETH: This one is tricky. Megadeth is popular, I like them, but music tastes are more fickle than gaming tastes could ever hope to be. I could see this as an experiment to see if music tastes could bring more players in for heroclix. It's a small set, so sort of safe as a test launch subject. There are plenty of metal collectors and there have been plenty of genre cross overs in the past with music to comics. Just look at KISS. Timing could also be crucial in getting a good sell out of a music based set. Megadeth's next major US tour is in July with them in Europe for March and April. It could be good for cross marketing of the tour and I could see that as a marketing tactic. I also wonder, is Dave Mustaine a clix fan? And does this mean we could see a KISS box set sometime? Rock and Roll clix? Hey, in the video game genre's Rock Star saw a nice long sell. Maybe, but I'm not counting on it and probably wouldn't buy it myself.