Gamesday 2010 / GW's twisted thinking

[Chunky Von Waffles]

Gamesday,
Some people see it as a boring and "almost not worth it day-trip", while many look forward to it and some find it as one of their few opportunites to get tuned in with the wargaming community. Like myself and others in the Southern California.
Recently GW has started pulling out of Malls, due to the increasing rent. It just so happens that they closed the 2 nearest stores near me. With the closest being several hours away.
Put that on top of leaving me with a small, cramped, and majority anime/cards independent retailer.

ANYWAYS, on to Gamesday talk.
Last year Games Workshop announced that they would not host a 2009 Gamesday IN L.A.!
Even better news for me
The reason they gave us was that they wanted to expand their fanbase on the West Coast and that in 2010 they would be back, bigger and better than ever. o_o

Well it's almost 2010 and lets see...Oh look! An offical announcment!


"We have also made the difficult decision to only have one Games Day in 2010, which will be held in Baltimore on August 21, allowing us to focus our energy into one amazing event"

So not only did they take it from the West Coast, but they've taken it from everywhere else.
Online ticket sales only, none at the door.
Selling tickets THIS early too?

I've seen signs of GW's awesome logic before, but really?
GamesWorkshop, you sure know how to do something very well, and that is phasing out loyal customers.
I love your product, but I'm disappointed.


Here's the link.

http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/content/article.jsp?categoryId=300002&aId=5800004a&_requestid=298180

Sorry if I'm ranting a bit much, but I just had to put something out.
It's been such a dead season of warhammer over here. Painting my legions of the dead have me occupied at the moment though.

Ah well, maybe I can convince my "40k only" friends to get to Fantasy.

 

[Bishop]

That does seem kind of stupid... must be blamed on the economy.

I was considering GDs, as there was one normally held not far from me (in Toronto, Canada).

Hopefully in the coming year(s) they revert back to the model of having 5(ish) GDs a year.

 

[doombunny666]

Damn those City Bankers and their thoughtless lending...

 

[BilboBaggins]

The main costs of Games Day are displays, transport, staffing and leasing space to hold them.

They have to make the displays for one or many so using them more than one makes more sense than only one, spreads the cost out.

Transport is fixed cost depending how they design the displays (ease of packing/movement) and how many trucks you would need to transport it (and don't forget international transport to Canada). If they get a 1/3 of their displays from regional clubs for each Games Day each one will be different enough for some people to go to multiples (if living close to two of them).

Staffing isn't much of an issue other than housing some of their employees for a couple of days near each one. They take a couple of employees from the closest stores to each Games Day anyway, it will increase the cost of workers for those couple of days but the advertising should be worth it.

Leasing halls is slight problem, but Games Day should come out of their advertising budget and ticket sales and selling models at them also defer the costs of displays, leasing and transport.

If I ran GW I would have Several North American Games Days each year like this, changing cities each year:

1. NW US/Western Canada (Seattle, Vancouver, Portland) - March-April
2. SW US (Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Phoenix) - April-May
3. Southern US (Dallas, Houston, Oklahoma City, Little Rock) - April-May
4. SE US (Atlanta, Miami, New Orleans, Charlotte) - May-June
5. Eastern Canada/NE US (Boston, Toronto, Montreal, NYC, Philadelphia) - May-June
6. Baltimore - June-July
7. Mid West US (Chicago, Detroit, Indianapolis, Memphis/Nashville) - July-August

 

[Master Vampire]

Baltimore? Isn't that like half around the globe for you? o.o

 

[doombunny666]

uhm Baltimore is in America near D.C and New York

 

[BilboBaggins]

Baltimore is in between Philadelphia, PA (about hour and a half drive time) and Washington, DC.

 

[doombunny666]

Yeah thats it

 

[Master Vampire]

But that's far enough away for California...

Also, the half around the globe thing was a pun

 

[VvC]

Well where in SoCal do you live? I had a center close a little while ago for us too, the closest one for us now is out in Glendale.

 

[Chunky Von Waffles]

Well where in SoCal do you live? I had a center close a little while ago for us too, the closest one for us now is out in Glendale.

Yes actually, the nearest one to me is Glendale.

Let me guess...Northridge was your shop?

While I could always order an item to be shipped to my tiny local indep. retailer, so getting models and paints isn't exactly a major problem.

I just really miss heading out a mere 5 minutes and getting a great game going in a hobby center. The guys in red shirts there weren't clueless at all. Really cool guys actually.
There was always a variety of opponents and some kind of event every day. Always a conversation to come up and they were pretty well stocked all around.
Ahh, the good ol' days.
But, unfortunately I haven't seen any opportunity for me to get out there yet and check out what I've missed.

Quick update: Convinced some people to get into FANTASY :thumb:
A Lizardmen or Empire player, Wood elves, and Bretonnian player
So I guess getting them started will keep me occupied a bit longer.

 

[Master Vampire]

In the USA you also got the WarStore. Which is a beautiful online shop for all American players

 

[Trevy the Great]

The WarStore's shipping and customer service suck, I wouldn't recommend it.
EBay is better!

Usually I read rants like the one above ("GW is pulling out of my district and I'm so angry! I'll have to drive a whole thirty minutes to get there!), and I post something along the lines of:
"GW hasn't been in my state for over two years, the nearest independent retailer (which is a euphemistic term for someone who carries some GW products, but that's about it in the wargaming scene) is fourty-five minutes away and the nearest GW is two hours. Cry me a river."
Then I realize that I'm getting all angry about an expensive hobby that I only enjoy regularly because I am very lucky. Some people have to struggle to put food on their table and don't complain, and here I am crying about how far away the nearest adult toy store is in my comfy, heated transportation vehicle.
Its a good thing I refrained from posting about how far away my GW is.

Sucks about Games Day, though. I've never been, but I was seriously considering it until they moved farther away from me. Ah well.

 

[The Dark Sheep]

I'm happy I live close to the only GW store in Norway. They can't just pull out of a country entirely after all, so my store will definitely stay... I guess it's quite frustrating for you though.

 

[Master Vampire]

I'm happy I live close to the only GW store in Norway. They can't just pull out of a country entirely after all, so my store will definitely stay... I guess it's quite frustrating for you though.

Are you sure?

The WarStore's shipping and customer service suck, I wouldn't recommend it.

Why need customer service? I thought that sending stuff in the USA through WarStore is free. At least, it looks like that to me.

Ebay is way too irregular. After all, it's not a shop.

edit: this doesn't make Ebay a nice bargain-finding place.

 

[Trevy the Great]

Nope, if costs 6 dollars to ship within the US, no matter what the order size. That makes it wonderful for medium-size orders that wouldn't get any discounts from other stores, but smaller orders get charged the same and larger orders that might get free shipping from a larger store you still have to pay for.
War Store is also notorious for getting order wrong (we're all just humans, after all), but they aren't as good about making up for those incorrect orders, whereas GW will replace any problem kits or parts quite easily.

 

[Munkey]

Revealing how old I am... I can remember when GW used to have sales and offers at Games Days. You used to be able to buy plastic bags with unkown random stuff in. I managed to bag 4 greater daemons, in just 2 bags, for a fraction of the price. I still have memories of the tannoy announcing 3 for the price of 2 on blister packs just as a guy had bought an armful!

I haven't been to a Gamesday for many many years, possibly the early 90s. I rather spend my hard earned money purchasing products or attending tournements. I think the GT is quite good value - when you factor in the 2 days, the meals etc.

 

[Chunky Von Waffles]

Actually, at the last LA Gamesday, they were giving out the 25th anniversary fantasy army boxed sets for dirt cheap.
There was a huge buffet type store (many counters forming a big open square.)
At the end of the day they brought out piles upon piles of the boxes, along with smaller kits)
They got a bunch of staff together inside and then chaos ensued. Half the center mobbed around the counters. The staff holding up and yelling out the items.
People who yelled more and got their attention usually got it.
High Elf 25th Anniversary set got the most attention. Lol
around $90 I think the army boxes went for.
I grabbed a Skaven set, love Ebay XD
They gave out dozens of those things.
3 necron monoliths for $90, skaven bell for $15.

Was really amazing. No VC though

 

[Pietr Von Carstein]

Well in Ireland we don't even have a games day but I suppose having to go to the uk isn't as bad as going across the enirety of the us . And we only have 2 gw's in the country .