I want an invite to Stern’s 2021 Holiday Party. I’ve heard it’s going to be a blowout.

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Gary’s going to be passing out bonuses, himself.
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Yes. Since this is a new special limited edition and is Lyman’s last game .... Stern should have built and included and toppers for free - shame on them for being lazy on this year’s cash grab. Where the hell is the topper for $25 thousand fucking dollars? Anyways, in addition to producing those toppers there should have been an announcement that the topper code had been expanded. It would now select among 5 random Cassandra screams and the topper light show had been enhanced too. Best yet the code works for all previous toppers sold. Notice I said there should have been an announcement? Well, Stern did not announce anything and the topper code gently weeps over what could have, what should have been done in the first place. It’s cool, but not baddazz Kool.

Newest code runs topper fine but does it in a limited way. In fact there is exactly one recorded scream that gets played. It is possible to trigger the topper sequence 2 -3 times per game. So three times you get the same scream. I am bemoaning that this is too limited. Also the topper could have been used in more ways, like the randomly occurring scream on gb gives the game some character. There could have been some really neat things brainstormed and implemented with the EHOH topper to give it a signature feel and make it worth what it costs.

But I am also complaining that Stern is making a super expensive “everything in it” edition of EHOH and they cheap out and don’t build and provide their own $1k topper, to allow buyer to tie his own room together. It is like Gary stands in front of a line of people who purchased a EHOH40. Gary stops in front of each and reaches out to firmly slap their face. “You’ll get your game, but no topper, Gary bellows”. “I think you are stupid, but more importantly, I thank you for buying this game. Rest assured you’ll have your game before Xmas and the premium buyers who ordered their games in Jan can go f* themselves. They’ll have to wait for next year til we build their games. Those cheap asses aren’t paying enough to make me care about them, let them eat cake”.

Stern could have produced 400 40 year anniversary EHOH toppers and sold each for $2.5k. Give the 40 year anniversary buyers first chance to buy. A million dollar cash grab that would have created a market frenzy. Missed opportunity.

Stern has the opportunity to release 41st anniversary edition topper beginning January.

The primary mistake Stern made was agreeing to run the 40th edition before existing premium orders. If it meant running both runs together then it would have been fine. But noooooo! Stern had orders on the books and they knew inserting new buyers would push existing buyers out by 10-12 months. That decision was wrong.

However there was another consequence of pushing the prem out, it means they are eligible for present and future price increases to the proud buyers.

The second bad decision Stern made was in not building and including the toppers in the high-roller edition. That mistake is merely laughable. Whomever decided that has large cohones and a poor understanding of what people want. They want the frikking topper, man. That decision was so stupid, there is still a chance to correct. Stern could announce a topper for 40th owners for $2k. But once again if Stern didn’t have parts to build previous premium games, they should not have agreed to release 40th edition.