One rant deserves another…

From tabletop gaming news, and my replies will be in bold:

Gamers can be a fickle bunch but they are ultimately interested in gaming and it is this desire to be able to always to play that has, I think, maintained GW in its position of prominence in the hobby. Its not difficult to find people who play 40K and Warhammer Fantasy and it is often not difficult to find their miniatures either.

Here’s something I’ve noticed with the resurgence of Magic (i.e. Wizards pulled their head out of their asses and made it fun/affordable again): The above is simply not a fair assessment. I don’t see lots of new 40k players. In fact, for the larger 40k tournaments, be they competitive or not, I can count on one hand the number of people I haven’t seen before, usually out-of-towners. Combine all the ard boyz 40k players from last year, and you have about the number of Magic players who show up on weeknights at two local shops–and none of whom play 40k, or any other miniature game, and have no interest in doing so. Often as not, they don’t even know a thing about it. I can more readily find a game of Warmachine than I can of competitive 40k.

Whatever its advances in technology, and lets be clear I think that GW makes the best plastic kits in the market, the one area where GW has always lagged behind has been in customer outreach and retention. Older, or longer-term, Games Workshop gamers have always complained about the lack of connection they have with the company. The perception has been, more some time now, that GW doesnâ€™t care about customer turnover because they are constantly getting new, younger, gamers to replace them.

See above for these new, younger gamers GW isn’t actually getting. GW has relatively few older gamers, those of us who have played 40k since it’s inception. About as many ‘new’ kids, so if the grognards are as plentiful as the new bloods, that’s a major failure. Go look at the dozens (sometimes, scores) of magic players playing then look at the small number of miniature players. If there aren’t large numbers of new kids coming in, GW will have to price their product accordingly. What, you think prices are 7$ per plastic fig that costs them way under a single dollar to produce from conception to finishing, but they still can’t turn a profit, for nothing? Be serious folks. Kodak and Canon did this too, and look at photography now, it’s dead–killed by the young refusing to pay 10 grand to ‘enter’ the field when a smartphone will do. Well, magic costs 10$ to get into. You tell someone they need to buy 10 boxes of Grey Knights, 6 Razorbacks, and 6 Dreadnoughts to make a competitive list, and they’ll look at the 330, 210, and 270=810 and translate that into 81 decks, or half a dozen decks and scores of boosters, and they’ll laugh in your face.

Whether this is true or not is irrelevant because ultimately the lack of response from GW makes this the dominant theme when discussing the company. By not contradicting it or acting to dispel the notion Games Workshop validates it and allow it to propagate until it is ultimately the â€œtruthâ€.

If you think GW ‘cares’ in any way, even a ‘customer service generates more revenue, let’s pretend we care’ way, something say Comcast, AT&T etc can’t even be bothered with (their motto is ‘fuck you bitches, we got your shit’), well, rest assured they do not, have not, and probably will not ever ‘care’ in any measurable way. What will make GW management care? Stock price hitting it’s accurate price (GW stock is hugely overvalued) or perhaps, plastic costs rising 1000%. So, don’t hold your breath waiting for a better truth.

Nothing really displays this arrogance more than the recent Adepticon 2011 event in Chicago. Adepticon is one of, if not the, biggest 40K and WFB events in the world. Gamers refer to it as their yearly pilgrimage and the event has such a large influence on the 40K gaming community that the Adepticon FAQ is often used for the game instead of the official GW FAQ.



It is? Hmmm. I’ve yet to play with it. So, since we’re into challenging truths, how about I’ll challenge that one. No one I know uses the Adepticon FAQ, which is actually Yakfaces Dakka INAT FAQ. Don’t write a good rant, and not get your facts right. I’m not sure which gamers refer to Adepticon as their yearly pilgrimage, I went year one, was unimpressed, and haven’t been back since. Just don’t tell Mathias, he nerd rages when I say that. Which amuses me greatly, but anyway…Adepticon is big, but is nowhere near the ‘best’ of what our community can offer, or really, should be offering. This is something nobody talks about, how everyone tries to make their event the next Adepticon. I wish people would stop trying to make their event ‘the’ event, and just make it a ‘good’ event. We need more small events, not fewer small events and a few large events. This is what toys-for-men systems on the decline do. Trains? Check. Europa/ASL? Check. Sense a pattern here? When you have no seed events for locals to play in, people stop buying your game, they stop playing your game, you start raising prices, and you die. No? Trains? Europa? How about board gaming? Yep, that’s going south and has been for years. How do you define going south? Lack of growth, fellas. As one idiot who runs a store locally believed otherwise, lack of growth is acceptable in a recession IF you can keep your sales flat (that means you are actually making sales, dumbass). In a ‘up’ economy, flat sales year to year means you aren’t growing. You are selling to the same people who bought your shit last year. Ask Walmart about this if you aren’t sure. How is 40k doing? Fantasy? Miniature sales in general? Well, if sales are declining, and it’s a recession, you can stick your head in the sand and blame the recession, but in a ‘up’ economy that translates to flat sales. That means…the same people who bought your shit last year, are buying it this year. Maybe your shit is overpriced? Anyone remember how well video games that cost 80$ instead of 50$ went over? How about Europa? 110$ in 1985! Compare to much better looking and quality games now, all of whom don’t want to make you spend over 50$, because that’s most peoples limit on an impulse buy. That’s why video games are 50$, and have been since I started buying them, in 1985. Yes, that’s right doofus, I’m a grognard. Thing is, if you go into a train store, what do you see? That’s right, 60-80 year olds. I’m not kidding. Nobody my age or younger plays with trains. Well, where do you think GW is going to be in 20 years? Where do you think they are going now? Wizards gets young people. GW? Holy crap, they just started a pretend blog? Wow, that’s…so 2002. Way to get with the times, GW. How can you convince anyone to get into a hobby that is literally a years worth of ‘free’ money to a teenager, and only produces one ‘deck’? Which might be shit by the time they finish putting it together, let alone painting it? Oh and some idiots in Chicago and on a non-official website put together house rules for the biggest event for this hobby, and the company itself has NO forum, raises prices without explanation or any value added, and doesn’t even run a tournament itself? Wait, what? You wonder why people quit? How about those who never join? Buy a box, figure out the reality, and they never buy another thing?

So you would assume that this would be a great way for GW to communicate with their fans and the event would be filled with GW personalities and staff helping to promote the game.



Well, GW used to do this, but the truth is many TO’s complained about Adepticon getting GW staffers. Who, oddly enough, at ‘official’ GW events, often just play games and don’t actually talk to us. Well, what the fuck is the point of having someone people from your shop fly to the US if all they are going to do is sign Codexes and play some games and shoo you away?

You would, of course, be dead wrong.

To the best of my knowledge, aside from some sales staff at the Forge World booth, Games Workshop had no official presence at the show. No speakers like Phil Kelly or Jervis Johnson. Not even a marketing intern from GW US. Who was at the event in force? Why Privateer Press of course. Privateer ran events, demos, brought their staff and had a huge presence at an event that only in the last two years has even run Warmachine events. It would be as if the largest presence at a Green Bay Packers fan event were officials and team members from the Pittsburg Steelers. Privateer also gave away a free Warmachine starter in the first 1000 swag bags given out to attendees. 1000 Warhammer and 40K fans opened their swag bag to find a free $50 Warmachine starter set and it wasnâ€™t long before those gamers started talking about playing the game.

Privateer Press is currently taking market share from GW. Of course they will be there. The best way to get new customers is to dive directly into the GW pool and come out with new friends. Which they did. Who isn’t already certain GW is run by fools? Now think about that. You invest hundreds, usually thousands of dollars, into a company run by idiots. Yes, feel the stupid. I certainly do anytime I think about it. 5 Grey Knights costs what a discounted video game does, yet will require me to buy much more, and suck time out of my life to no end? That’s great, just great. I’m a stupid bastard then, and so are all of you. Oh and while PP’s prices aren’t better really, you can get a reasonably good army by spending far far less–and unlike 40k armies, PP’s (and Battlefronts, maker of FOW) armies are much easier to expand upon. You like Americans, or Cryx? There are literally dozens of armies you can make, often with under a 100$ to add a new variant. GW armies? Yeah, good luck with that.

The Plastic Legions blog has an even longer post about this issue that really outlines the problem. Gamers went to an event that, despite its wider focus, is dedicated to Games Workshop game and found a swag bag that had a free Black Library preview book, that they probably already got for free at a GW store, and a free $50 starter box from Privateer Press. Dave Taylor took a photo of the contents of his loot bag. Finding the GW contributions is akin to reading a page of Whereâ€™s Waldo? And of course PP staff were at the event to run demos and show those same gamers how to play the game they had just received for free.

PP understands their competition is GW. GW doesn’t understand their competition is not PP, but themselves–and boy, do they keep fucking themselves.

The utter arrogance of this sort of treatment is astounding. Iâ€™m certainly not a fan of Game Workshopâ€™s management but I really do now have to question whether Tom Kirby and his coterie of managers have any interest in the company other than lining their own pockets? Kirby and some of his fellow managers are the largest GW shareholders and every time the stock price increases or the company pays dividends it is Kirby and his fellow managers than profit. Even if the reason for those â€œprofitsâ€ are short-term price increases that ultimately decrease the size of the GW fanbase. Short-term profit for the benefit of a few upper-management people appears to be the focus of the company.



The answer to that is no. Don’t be coy. Kirby and Co have bought and sold stock to keep the price up. Not small amounts either, but often the largest trades by volume are done by…GW. Go figure. GW is poorly run, and always has been. When will this change? When Hasbro takes an interest in low mass high profit gaming rather than the high mass low profit gaming they’ve been doing for a very long time. What nobody realizes is, if Hasbro actually bought GW, Kirby and Co would profit the most, they might not be fired, and once 40k product shows up in Walmart, the game is done. Don’t think so? Go look at the model hobby. You know, cars, airplanes, etc. RC cars are todays trains, but for MY generation (I never got into them). They too are dying. Look at the sections in Walmart for models, or RC cars. Cheap shit you snap together, or that runs on batteries you can never remove. Yeah, that’s a fail, but that’s where those hobbies are. Completely gutted to try and stay relevant, but what kid buys put-it-together models? You see lots of RC racing going on? Yeah, todays young, they race actual cars, dumbass. They give a shit about RC cars.

As long as the management of GW has no interest, or no reason to be interested in, the long-term health of the company we will continue to see this sort of arrogant and ignorant behaviour. If GW canâ€™t be bothered to come out to the largest gathering of their fans how long are those people going to be fans? Privateer Press has shown that it is interested in expanding and retaining their gamers and if a company like Privateer can do it then why canâ€™t GW?

Because GW can’t be bothered to spend money. When they do spend it, they spend it stupidly. Remember Vegas? Who the fuck holds conventions in Vegas? Companies with money! GW certainly can’t afford to run tournaments in Vegas. They could hold TWENTY GT’s here in SLC for the price of ONE Vegas event. Seriously. How epic fail is that? Note: This isn’t a shot at Dave Taylor, so don’t construe it as one. That’s just part of the fail that GW seems to embrace. LET’S GO BIG! Well, going big is actually bad when you aren’t actually BIG.

One is left to assume that Games Workshop management just donâ€™t care and while that attitude might not have been as damaging as it was a few years ago GW now have a competing company that now appears to have the resources to actively recruit the customer base that GW has relied on to continue to buy their ever more expensive products.

Let me challenge you here–that attitude was damaging years ago. That attitude produces shitty Codices like Chaos Space Marines (remove everything, and they’ll buy it, saps!) and Eldar (just reprint everything, they’ll buy it, saps!). Who doesn’t see a Chaos or Eldar army across the tabletop, and if it’s painted well, feel bad for the guy who you are about to pummel? That’s an epic failure. Oh, and I should buy more of that? What? Fuck you GW, I think I’ll buy some crack from the guy across the street.

Arrogance might not have been as detrimental in the past but when your most ardent fans now play your competitors games at GW events maybe it is finally time for even a management team as blinkered and ignorant as the one running Games Workshop to finally take notice.

Sadly I doubt they will.

Don’t doubt it. GW management is intent on riding the burning ship into the ground, and then parachuting to safety when some dumbass at Hasbro decides to buy GW to try and make ‘new inroads into a new highly profitable sector’.

Oh and I didn’t include what Mathias said. If you want to read his flowery prose, go visit tabletop gaming news and scroll down to the bottom of the original article. Boring corporate speak that adds nothing to the discussion.

Oh, GW stopped caring about tournaments. Well, gee, we figured that out a long time ago. Probably when they stopped running them. Good thing you were here to tell us the obvious. ^__^