HER"s January letter

[Ndfan1234]

A phrase I heard recently seems to fit right into this... Rules with Respect bring Response, while Rules without Respect bring Rebellion. If you switch the word "Rules" with "Changes" then it fits right in with what they are doing. Let me explain more. If HeR had made some of these changes with respect to both their fans and Lani, then we would be much more understanding and responsive than we are right now. But since they treated us with such disrespect, we are all rebelling. We wouldn't even have had any idea about Lani getting fired if Lani hadn't been allowed to tweet about it. They never would have released this letter if we hadn't been nagging about it since we heard the news. I'm sure they would have liked to keep a cap on this until #33 and then ignore the backlash, instead of right now, but they couldn't so they're dealing with it now. I mean c'mon. I used to respect HeR so much because they actually listened to the fans! I felt like they gave us a lot of what we wanted and I'm always the first one to defend a game that the majority of people didn't like such as RAN or MED. But I'm done now. This is the straw that broke the camel's back. If they've decided to go off on their own and ignore the respect we all used to have for them, then I'm not giving them any respect back.

EDIT:

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.

And no, you don't. What a joke! The new CEO and execs are exactly like Goosey is saying. They're obviously not tuned in. The writers and marketers may know what's happening, but the higher up people sure don't! Give us words that are worth something.

[NDsolver<3]

And no, you don't. What a joke! The new CEO and execs are exactly like Goosey is saying. They're obviously not tuned in. The writers and marketers may know what's happening, but the higher up people sure don't! Give us words that are worth something.

Yeah! Tell us what's going on! not stuff that we already know about!

[Goosey]

It's not like they need to tell us the ins and outs of every detail, or even provide much of an explanation at all. I'm not sure if they really owe us that much information, but common courtesy and public relations 101 dictates that a simple, sincere acknowledgement that they have done several things now that will deeply affect their fans, most of whom have been around since the beginning or shortly thereafter, would really be in order. And not months after the fact. And not a generic reply that says nothing that we don't already know. And please, for the love of Nancy, don't call what we've been saying here "heartwarming". That clearly shows that the letter was more for business relations, and not for us.

[Maple Latte]

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.

I've been a long-time fan and player of the games since around fall 2004 when I entered the fifth grade. I was 10 going onto 11 soon and my parents brought a Windows XP desktop (wow, has time passed!) and I had seen the advertisements of the games in back of the Nancy Drew mystery stories and became intrigued. Since, my family finally got a desktop (my local library didn't allow the use of cd-roms into the disk drive for whatever reason) I was finally able to play my first game FIN and I got hooked onto the games so, yeah, it was the old ones.

Through the years, I've borrowed the games from the library and would play them on the computer. If I liked them, especially replaying, I would go and buy the games once a Target came to my hometown (Staples wasn't around and Office Max only had some games), so it was a win-win: I used the services of the library that my parents (and I) pay taxes to while supporting the company making the games. However, all that has stopped since like 2010 when my own local and the other libraries (to interlibrary loan) stopped and I mean completely buying Nancy Drew games and to this day. No one has it (I don't know about anyone else wherever they live or country, but it's nill) and now I watch walkthroughs on Youtube to judge whether I like it or not which I hate since I'm not actually playing the games myself (I judge the puzzles, difficulty, ect ...) then I purchase the game. If I didn't do that, I'd be like 15 games behind! And asking my local library for Nancy Drew games is like praying for rain to fall in the Sahara Desert: it's never coming, probably since libraries across the country (can't speak about the rest of the other countries) their funding is getting cut from state to state, including my state.

The games have gone down hill a long time ago and hearing the news Lani was fired from HER is really just the last straw. I really don't know what the company is doing, I mean to expand and become popular, there's really nothing that can draw people to the games except those who've read the books and recommended it to people. I mean, I sure when the Nancy Drew movie with Emma Roberts back in 2006 or 2007 was released, that perhaps helped the games ( I remember the big promotion in the children's section of Borders) and I'm sure that helped explode the games even further I remember the promotion on the website front page. The only buzz I could think a well-known celebrity, but seriously that would cheapen it especially if they had some Disney Tween Queen voice just screams out "desperate". Like all the Frozen products just to cash in on the buck (I mean come on, Frozen makeup targeted for adults?). Unless there's a Nancy Drew movie in the works we don't know about or their going to be at the Comic-Com (if that would make any sense) then I don't see how they could expand. Become a company on the stock market? Ads on TV, YT, books, magazines?

Hitting HER in the wallet is the best though since I'm familiar of accounting (which is dealing with the books of a business: capital, income, net loss, employees, ect . . . ). Basically a net loss would be a HER's expenses outweighing their income (what they bring in) and this could do several things:

1. They look at their earnings and it slowly sinks into their brains that their "new bright idea to become powerful or whatever Plan X is" didn't work and they go back. *wishful thinking though.

2. They look at their earnings and it doesn't register and they still keep plugging along, digging their own grave, building their own gallows, even though their already like 200 feet deep as it is.

3. They file for chapter 11 bankruptcy, either someone buys them or doesn't. New company can take over, maybe, maybe not.

Those are the only possibilities I could come up with. Since HER doesn't release their earrings like companies like Ford, Apple, AT&T, ect ... to name a few, we don't know their books. The only person who knows is the accountant.

Ok, rant over.

[paperstreet]

Changing the voice of Nancy isn't going to bring people to the series because the series itself is not well known. .

But if they bring in a celebrity, like Selena Gomez or Demi Lovato as Nancy Drew, it could get big exposure. The thing is Lani is a great voice actress, also she is a pro with a good reputation. Why would they get rid of her just to get someone that sounds like her. The new CEO is ex-Disney, and I can only think that they want to get a celebrity. The disney channel has tons of ex-child stars that are broke and cant find work but still have a big name

[NDsolver<3]

But if they bring in a celebrity, like Selena Gomez or Demi Lovato as Nancy Drew, it could get big exposure. The thing is Lani is a great voice actress, also she is a pro with a good reputation. Why would they get rid of her just to get someone that sounds like her. The new CEO is ex-Disney, and I can only think that they want to get a celebrity. The disney channel has tons of ex-child stars that are broke and cant find work but still have a big name

If they get some one from Disney to be Nancy's new voice then I will never buy another game again!

[Ndfan1234]

If they get some one from Disney to be Nancy's new voice then I will never buy another game again!

Same. It all seems to point back to this CEO. Can't we get Megan Gaiser and that other guy back?

[cutemartha6]

I hate to say it but I do agree that they might replace Lani with some Disney star. Ugh. I personally have absolutely no idea what I'll be doing with the games after SEA but I'm starting to think I'm just going to stop buying. For A few years already, the games have been nothing but gimmicky adventure games and firing Lani for no apparent reason is the last straw. We've been begging HeR for years to put the old magic back in to the games and since ASH it doesn't look like they've been trying at all. HeR can say all they want that they "care" but as others here have said: actions speak louder than words and they're going to have to start showing that they care pretty soon or they've lost me as a fan. If HeR thinks casting some Disney star to voice Nancy is going to help them widen their fan base boy are they wrong. It might be enough for someone to buy one game and then forget about it but it won't get long time loyal fans like the old games did and I doubt it will get them any fans at all. HeR is losing a lot of the stability of its loyal fan base because of the decision to fire Lani and it's really upsetting that HeR is willing to ignore all of its long time fans because of some imaginary fan base they think they'll get when they go off in this "new direction" whatever it may be. There's still a part of me that hopes that the games will still get better but from what we've all been seeing from HeR lately, I highly doubt it.

[Poppy Drew]

I really hope they don't hire a Disney star. Not that I would doubt the talent, but I think it would open the door to bring the game content to a silly, immature level. I guess, though, that would just be leaving the game content much the way it is - with all the relationship back-and-forth, the odd conversations, and silly drama, it could very well be a Disney show. I'm looking hard at MED for that one.

Either way, I don't think it would be helpful. Yeah, you may buy the game because your favorite star has a voice in it, or maybe marketing convinces you to. But I don't think it will hook players. Because at the end of the day, you have to like Nancy Drew in order to enjoy these games. I feel like hiring someone famous will isolate those who really, and truly, like Nancy and it won't keep the attention of any new players.

There are a lot of things I miss about these games, but I really think all the problems come out at the same place: we miss Nancy. The Nancy that is a detective, that is smart and classic, that has good friends, a great boyfriend, always gets into trouble, isn't afraid to snoop, etc....that Nancy.

Admittedly, I don't know the best "happy medium" when it comes to obtaining new fans and keeping the old ones. I just think that perhaps kids don't read all that much anymore, or at least not Nancy Drew, so less people are familiar with the books from a young age and then there are less people to get into the games. I do see what HeR is trying to do from that standpoint. I just wish they weren't so eager to isolate their long-time fans. I do think it would be helpful to do more marketing in the gaming world, as I think a lot of people would pick up Nancy being that she's a "classic" character and those are pretty big - but you'd have to keep her classic, and not make her a gimmick.

Ah, well. I guess we'll see.

[Royal Payne]

But if they bring in a celebrity, like Selena Gomez or Demi Lovato as Nancy Drew, it could get big exposure. The thing is Lani is a great voice actress, also she is a pro with a good reputation. Why would they get rid of her just to get someone that sounds like her. The new CEO is ex-Disney, and I can only think that they want to get a celebrity. The disney channel has tons of ex-child stars that are broke and cant find work but still have a big name

Oh no. No, no, no, no! If they end up doing this, that's it for me. I'll just try to focus on the good times by replaying the 32 games that Lani voiced.

[phoenix star]

It's not going to be a Disney star or someone famous. HeR doesn't have that kind of budget and I don't see why they would want to do that anyway. Even these new people who are making the decisions now know that that's just not what the Nancy Drew series is about.

[ChicaMisteriosa]

If they choose someone from Disney, I imagine it would be along the lines of someone who played a princess at one of the parks or someone who plays a recurring character on a new show, rather than a star from a Disney Channel show. This is weird, but Lani actually lent her voice to a Disney World attraction in the past. Two Disney stars voiced the Hardy boys in a game from another company a few years back and it TANKED! I hope HeR is smart enough to realize that famous voice actors don't mean big profit. It's such a huge risk that would probably destroy them if they failed. I can't see a point and click game suddenly becoming enormously popular. Nancy Cartwright (voice of Bart Simpson, among others) voiced a few video games that weren't related to any of her TV projects and none of them became best sellers. Famous voice actor doesn't equal an increase in sales.

[AutumnMemories]

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

THIS. Word of mouth is how all indie games get popular as far as I know. If a game is really great people are far more likely to tell others about it. If a game stinks, marketing might help it to some degree, but it's probably not going to get hugely popular just from marketing alone. Word of mouth is how the early Nancy Drew games got popular. They were great games that caught on largely BECAUSE they were great; if their first game was a stinker like, say, MED, I don't think the series would have ever taken off, no matter how much marketing they did. Sadly, it seems to me that Her is currently putting marketing as their highest priority, and it seems that not much effort is put towards making a really exceptional game. Her should focus on making really great games, and then word of mouth would do the marketing for them--if they keep making bad games I just don't think their audience is going to expand like they want it to.

Her is constantly active on social media promoting their games, but they rarely even talk about the upcoming game SEA or give us any concrete reason to be excited about it. It's just all "memes", contests, stuff like that...but nothing about the actual content of their games. To me that shows how they put marketing ahead of actually making good games.

And no, you don't. What a joke! The new CEO and execs are exactly like Goosey is saying. They're obviously not tuned in. The writers and marketers may know what's happening, but the higher up people sure don't! Give us words that are worth something.

Just wanna say that you guys know Mysty is Little Jackalope, right? So she's actually part of marketing/not one of the higher up people

[Miley133]

A phrase I heard recently seems to fit right into this... Rules with Respect bring Response, while Rules without Respect bring Rebellion. If you switch the word "Rules" with "Changes" then it fits right in with what they are doing. Let me explain more. If HeR had made some of these changes with respect to both their fans and Lani, then we would be much more understanding and responsive than we are right now. But since they treated us with such disrespect, we are all rebelling. We wouldn't even have had any idea about Lani getting fired if Lani hadn't been allowed to tweet about it. They never would have released this letter if we hadn't been nagging about it since we heard the news. I'm sure they would have liked to keep a cap on this until #33 and then ignore the backlash, instead of right now, but they couldn't so they're dealing with it now. I mean c'mon. I used to respect HeR so much because they actually listened to the fans! I felt like they gave us a lot of what we wanted and I'm always the first one to defend a game that the majority of people didn't like such as RAN or MED. But I'm done now. This is the straw that broke the camel's back. If they've decided to go off on their own and ignore the respect we all used to have for them, then I'm not giving them any respect back.

EDIT:

And no, you don't. What a joke! The new CEO and execs are exactly like Goosey is saying. They're obviously not tuned in. The writers and marketers may know what's happening, but the higher up people sure don't! Give us words that are worth something.

Same. It all seems to point back to this CEO. Can't we get Megan Gaiser and that other guy back?

THANK YOU!! You took the words right out of my mouth!!

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.

Your words mean absolutely nothing to us anymore. If you want us to believe you actually care about your long time fans, then SHOW us, because for the longest time, we've been sending in our feedback about critical things that we felt needed to be improved in the games and you haven't listened AT ALL. You can write however many bogus letters to us you want & retweet tweets of fans praising the games all you want to try and make it look like you actually care but until you actually start SHOWING us that you honestly take our feedback seriously, fans will continue to turn their backs on you.

--Derek

[Ndfan1234]

Just wanna say that you guys know Mysty is Little Jackalope, right? So she's actually part of marketing/not one of the higher up people

I didn't actually realize that, but either way, my point is that the company as a whole doesn't actually listen to us. I do believe that LJ knows what's happening, as she is one of the marketers, and I always enjoy her blogs because you can tell she enjoys ND and her job. I have nothing against her or Mysty specifically, no matter if they're the same person or not. I just wish they weren't forced to give us these responses that mean nothing. I feel like that's how it is. LJ can see our hatred of this change, but she can't obviously do anything except posting whatever the execs are letting her. LJ and probably a few others who have been there for the long run wouldn't stand for this. I feel like it's those that have just entered into power with no previous knowledge of the games or the fan base.