HER"s January letter

[Tedbear2]

It really disturbs me that, seemingly, they don't care what their long-time Nancy Drew fans think. Without us, the Nancy Drew series might have ended after the first five games or so.

I won't be buying any more ND games after Sea of Darkness.

[NDsolver<3]

It really disturbs me that, seemingly, they don't care what their long-time Nancy Drew fans think. Without us, the Nancy Drew series might have ended after the first five games or so.

I won't be buying any more ND games after Sea of Darkness.

You're probably right about the games ending after the first five if it weren't for us!

[Ndfan1234]

It really disturbs me that, seemingly, they don't care what their long-time Nancy Drew fans think. Without us, the Nancy Drew series might have ended after the first five games or so.

I won't be buying any more ND games after Sea of Darkness.

Sadly, I probably won't either. :( It is quite disturbing that they retweet only those who give them praise. Of course we all have praise about past games, but don't hide the truth of the main source of conversations now.

[Mysty]

Official Response

It really disturbs me that, seemingly, they don't care what their long-time Nancy Drew fans think. Without us, the Nancy Drew series might have ended after the first five games or so.

I won't be buying any more ND games after Sea of Darkness.

Hi Tedbear2 - From all of us at Her Interactive, we want you to know that we DO care what our long-time Nancy Drew fans think. We constantly review every email, tweet, post and message board thread on anything and everything related to our games from our fans. Be it positive or negative...we listen to what you have to say. We always appreciate your feedback and always will. Thank you for providing us with your invaluable feedback.

[mdetective12]

I'm wondering if HeR will surprise us. Maybe the new direction may not be what you think it is right now. It will be totally different after SEA without Lani and with a new voice being Nancy but I am looking forward to the future of Nancy Drew computer games. I would still play and sleuth on in the Nancy Drewinverse even after Sea of Darkness. Just have to wait and see.

[Tedbear2]

Hi Tedbear2 - From all of us at Her Interactive, we want you to know that we DO care what our long-time Nancy Drew fans think. We constantly review every email, tweet, post and message board thread on anything and everything related to our games from our fans. Be it positive or negative...we listen to what you have to say. We always appreciate your feedback and always will. Thank you for providing us with your invaluable feedback.

While I appreciate your responding to me, I will expand upon my profoundly negative feelings about this issue. Knowing that a lot of ND fans are *extremely* unhappy with this decision to replace Lani, with many of us having played ND games for more than a decade or more (which description fits myself), and yet Her Interactive is not only not providing a single good reason why this decision was made but also providing *no reason at all* - this is what I will not forget, and what I believe the company cannot expect us to forgive. I have said it before, and I will say it again: Lani IS Nancy Drew.

I can understand and even appreciate the fact that Her Interactive may want to take some steps in a new direction, but getting rid of Lani as part of an attempt to revamp/refresh the series (I can only conclude that this is what Her is attempting to do), is to throw the baby out with the bathwater. It is a terrible idea that makes no sense at all. If the company had collectively sat down and said, "What can we do to alienate our fan base in the most sweeping and effective way possible?", the idea to replace Lani would have constituted the absolutely best way to do it. I have no inside knowledge, but I suspect that not everyone in the company agrees with this decision, but the person or persons who made this decision constitute Those Who Must Be Obeyed. Getting rid of Lani is a travesty, and I will never be okay with this. Never.

Her Interactive talks about the feedback and enthusiasm of the fans being heartwarming. Our unhappiness is about hearts, all right - but on our end, it isn't about hearts being warmed, it's about hearts being broken.

[phoenix star]

I'm just wondering how it took two months to come up with this letter that said nothing new that we hadn't heard over and over before. There has never once been a stated reason for why Lani is being replaced, and that really bothers me. It makes me wonder if they know we'd really stop buying if we knew why or what they're doing.

[magovani]

While I appreciate your responding to me, I will expand upon my profoundly negative feelings about this issue. Knowing that a lot of ND fans are *extremely* unhappy with this decision to replace Lani, with many of us having played ND games for more than a decade or more (which description fits myself), and yet Her Interactive is not only not providing a single good reason why this decision was made but also providing *no reason at all* - this is what I will not forget, and what I believe the company cannot expect us to forgive. I have said it before, and I will say it again: Lani IS Nancy Drew.

I can understand and even appreciate the fact that Her Interactive may want to take some steps in a new direction, but getting rid of Lani as part of an attempt to revamp/refresh the series (I can only conclude that this is what Her is attempting to do), is to throw the baby out with the bathwater. It is a terrible idea that makes no sense at all. If the company had collectively sat down and said, "What can we do to alienate our fan base in the most sweeping and effective way possible?", the idea to replace Lani would have constituted the absolutely best way to do it. I have no inside knowledge, but I suspect that not everyone in the company agrees with this decision, but the person or persons who made this decision constitute Those Who Must Be Obeyed. Getting rid of Lani is a travesty, and I will never be okay with this. Never.

Her Interactive talks about the feedback and enthusiasm of the fans being heartwarming. Our unhappiness is about hearts, all right - but on our end, it isn't about hearts being warmed, it's about hearts being broken.

You go, Tedbear2! My sentiments exactly.

Unfortunately, the response you received has only made matters worse, at least for me. IMO, it's nothing but canned and condescending rherotic.

I, too, have been playing Nancy Drew games for over 10 years. HeR can say they care about us all they want, but until they start demonstrating they do, their words are meaningless to me. Talk is cheap.

HeR continues to leave us twisting in the wind, engaging in speculation and conjecture, feeling dreadful and driving ourselves nuts about what might be happening. (I'm aware that not everyone feels this way, but it seems that many of us do.)

This all could have been avoided if HeR had just leveled with us. Isn't this what you do when you care about someone's feelings and know that withholding information will cause the person emotional distress?

They wouldn't have had to tell us everything. They could have just given us something that makes sense; something to hang onto. Instead, we've gotten nothing but platitudes and doubletalk.

I must say that I haven't been this worked up about something for a long, long time. I keep telling myself to accept the situation and move on, but it keeps coming back at me. I hadn't intended to post anything further about the issue. Yet here I am, posting something.

I've always found ND games -- particularly the older ones -- to be sources of comfort. For this, I'm very grateful to HeR Interactive.

Lani's voice has always played a big part in this feeling of comfort. In the 10+ years I've been playing ND games, I've become very attached to Nancy as a character, and to Lani as Nancy. In my mind, they're one-and-the-same.

The current situation has me feeling as though something bad is being done to a very good friend and there's nothing I can do to stop it. I feel upset and powerless.

These kinds of feelings can be intense and, as such, don't easily or quickly diminish. I guess that's why I keep coming back to these boards. It helps to know that others feel the same as I do.

HeR must know how miserable many of us have been feeling. They haven't even acknowledged it, much less addressed it. I have a big problem with being treated this way.

I hope I've made sense and haven't come off sounding like a lunatic...

[tsukiakari]

HeR can say they care about us all they want, but until they start demonstrating they do, their words are meaningless to me. Talk is cheap.

This sums up how I feel as well. I definitely do not want to sound like an ingrate towards Her - I know that many larger companies wouldn't even bother to release a letter or comment on their message boards - but at the same time, this brings to mind an old chestnut that my mother said to me many times when I was younger: "Actions speak louder than words."

Right now, I would gladly accept a statement saying "we're sorry, but we literally cannot reveal the reasons behind Lani's departure due to legal reasons", because that would at least explain why they're tiptoeing so delicately around the matter. Unless there are very complicated legal issues preventing them from saying that they can't say...in which case I feel bad for Her's employees

Like I said, I don't want to sound particularly cruel towards Her (and I do hope I haven't given that impression thus far), and I think I've exhausted my short supply of commentary on this issue as it is. I am still optimistic about SEA and the rest of the series and I won't give up yet!

[NDsolver<3]

HeR can say they care about us all they want, but until they start demonstrating they do, their words are meaningless to me. Talk is cheap.

Same here HeR can say anything they want but until they start explaining everything I won't have a care about what they have to say about Lani unless they're explaining why she's leaving of course!

[paperstreet]

I dont expect Her to give a reason, it probably is new leadership, desire to increase profits, to take the company from a small one to a massive one, etc. Obviously the old games are not doing this, they are just holding steady so they want to "shake things up"

I think at this point no one from the "golden years" of Her is on staff anymore. They cant make the games like we used to like them because the people who work there now have a different vision, and probably don't even understand what made the old games successful. For me the games really started to slide when they changed the music composer – the original one was sooo amazing, they just created such a perfect atmosphere. The current composer is great, very accomplished, but its just not that "perfect combo" that the original composer was.

That is why Lani leaving is so sad, she really was perfect for the role, anything that comes along now will just feel a bit generic, even though I am sure who ever they choose will be super talented, it will end up being like the music change, because you can't get better than perfection

The original company really seemed to care about the game first, now the game is just a vehicle, a brand, to create profits. It is what it is. maybe they will make some fun minigame apps or some games that are still better than whatever else is out there.

The creative team and vision of the company has changed, and as such, the game will never be what it was.

[Royal Payne]

I pretty much agree with everything being said, but there is one thing I'd like to add my two cents to:

I dont expect Her to give a reason, it probably is new leadership, desire to increase profits, to take the company from a small one to a massive one, etc. Obviously the old games are not doing this, they are just holding steady so they want to "shake things up"

This. Doesn't HeR also realize that it could go the opposite way? It's a huge risk they are taking here. What was so bad about 'holding steady'? By 'shaking things up', they could also drive the whole company into the ground. It seems to me like at least half of the fan base is in an outrage -- I don't keep up with Social Media, so I'm going by what I've seen on the message board -- and many are threatening boycotting! Has HeR even seen the petition to bring back Lani? I've never seen a petition grow as fast as that one. Doesn't that count for something? Yes, I saw Mysty's post, but this comes back to the points that Tedbear2, magovani and tsukiakari (who used this exact wording) made: Actions speak louder than words. It seems that HeR thinks we'll get over it or in a few months we'll forget about it, but we are very passionate about these games and I don't see that happening. After Sea of Darkness, it's very possible that most of the fan base in support of Lani will -- pardon the pun -- abandon ship. I'm afraid I may be one of them, and I never once thought I'd stop playing these games. (Then again, I never thought that they'd fire Lani either... )

Hypothetically, if they try this 'new direction' for ND33 and then decide to listen to us after all for ND34, it could be too late for them to redeem themselves; the damage may be done. The fans may be lost for good...


Edit: Uh... I guess I'll put in four cents instead of two.

Tedbear2: Perfectly worded. Throwing out the baby with the bathwater is exactly what they're doing. And what you said about broken hearts is right on point too.

magovani: Agreed. I think I am one of the ones driving themselves nuts over what might be happening, and I also thought I was done posting about the issue. Apparently, this bothered me even more than I originally thought.

tsukiakari: You are right on with 'Actions speak louder than words'! You are more optimistic than I am; I'm not sure yet what I'll do after SEA. I guess I'll see. Yes, I'd feel better if they posted even something saying they can't talk about it. At this point, I don't think they will though.

[ChicaMisteriosa]

I apologize if this post is disjointed; my thoughts are a bit scattered on this topic.
Changing the voice of Nancy isn't going to bring people to the series because the series itself is not well known. A better way of expanding at the audience would be to set up a booth at PAX. Each PAX conference has tens of thousands of attendees and PAX Prime is held in Seattle, right near their office in Bellevue. Despite my initial reaction, I've decided that if HeR has the new voice in the trailer for #33 at the end of Sea of Darkness, I will make my decision then. If the new voice actress sounds enough like Nancy (which I doubt, I have yet to hear anyone who can come close to the voice Lani uses), I will probably accept the change begrudgingly. The voice for Frank was changed a while back, and in my opinion Frank sounds close enough. (The change happened between TRN and DAN.) (On a totally unrelated note, Carson is voiced by the same person in every appearance, but sounds wildly different in CLK from ASH and SPY.) I'm not going to say I'm not going to buy #33, but I'm leaning towards not pre-ordering, since the bonus edition has been an extra egg, phone charms, and usually something else that isn't very exciting since TMB. I might wait to see how reviewers react to the new voice.

[MistyChocolate]

I apologize if this post is disjointed; my thoughts are a bit scattered on this topic.
Changing the voice of Nancy isn't going to bring people to the series because the series itself is not well known. A better way of expanding at the audience would be to set up a booth at PAX. Each PAX conference has tens of thousands of attendees and PAX Prime is held in Seattle, right near their office in Bellevue. Despite my initial reaction, I've decided that if HeR has the new voice in the trailer for #33 at the end of Sea of Darkness, I will make my decision then. If the new voice actress sounds enough like Nancy (which I doubt, I have yet to hear anyone who can come close to the voice Lani uses), I will probably accept the change begrudgingly. The voice for Frank was changed a while back, and in my opinion Frank sounds close enough. (The change happened between TRN and DAN.) (On a totally unrelated note, Carson is voiced by the same person in every appearance, but sounds wildly different in CLK from ASH and SPY.) I'm not going to say I'm not going to buy #33, but I'm leaning towards not pre-ordering, since the bonus edition has been an extra egg, phone charms, and usually something else that isn't very exciting since TMB. I might wait to see how reviewers react to the new voice.

This. If Nancy's voice changes (be it young, old, high or deep, female or male((all right, that one might get some attention))) nobody will care or even notice if no one is around to hear it. The only reason I got into the ND series back when I was 10 was because a friend spoke so highly of it and my mother thought it would be something fun and educational. Since then, I've written reviews on other websites and told friends about this series and they too became interested. If I hadn't told them about it they would have never played the games. It's word of mouth that Her should invest in, not gimmicks.

Hope what I'm on about is clear.

[Goosey]

It's word of mouth that Her should invest in, not gimmicks.

I think the only word of mouth that HER had generated with all of this nonsense is that the new powers that be at the company are clueless. What a disappointing letter. Sounds like it was written more for investors / corporate junk than for fans. Not surprising. I like that tinned can comment from Misty, as well! The "Official Response". I got a good laugh. Obviously they take what we say here very seriously, since we've been beating a dead horse for the past 10 years over why we don't like the new games. I've seen MUCH bigger studios than HER have way better customer relations than this, in times of good news and bad. The people in charge of this are not tuned-in.

I agree with ChicaMisteriosa that HER would do much better to just continue to get the word out there at conferences like PAX and through gaming magazines. Perhaps it's not in the budget to do some of these things, though. All I know, is they have created a very sour fan base out of what used to be a group of extremely loyal people. Look at how our words have changed toward HER. Perhaps they forget that word of mouth is a powerful thing.