Rant: White Dwarf and their goddamn Space Marines..

[Grish]

From what little I've seen in my 1.5 yrs with the hobby, is that stores cannot compete with online for sales. I'm not sure if this matters to GW or not, but in the long run it will hurt the hobby. People need a place to gather and play games, get advice, and enjoy the hobby. The stores provide this. However, you can get prices 20% or less cheaper online.

The stores should be the front of GWs strategy to expand and market. And I find most stores don't have a clue. They're people that enjoy gaming, but don't know how to market, socialize, draw in more customers, or create an environment that people enjoy being in. I know I have not enjoyed a single tournament yet; but it may just be here in Canada. The UK/Europe has many more members.

I'm curious as to what attracts more; WD or the myriad of WH forums on the net? Where do people really go for news, painting advice, gaming advice, views of models? I've flipped through a couple WD but 99% of my info is from forums.

I'm sure GWs intent is to grow the hobby and sell models. I personally think in this day and age, is to be as engaging as possible to your true fans. Those true fans will expand the hobby and drive the sales for you. The only reason I got into this game was because friends played it, and encouraged me into the hobby. It's much too daunting to start at square 1 knowing nothing and spend the amount of money that's required to have a tournament army. I'm not really sure how it works in the UK/Europe, but here, they're failing at the store level and it's my guess that it will kill Canadian expansion and interest.

 

[TMS]

I'm curious as to what attracts more; WD or the myriad of WH forums on the net? Where do people really go for news, painting advice, gaming advice, views of models? I've flipped through a couple WD but 99% of my info is from forums.

Agreed, the internet is where it's at for information these days. I can't remember the last time I bought a White Dwarf with an actual expectation of reading something that I didn't already know about.

 

[Grish]

I think the business model has changed and GW hasn't changed with it.

Where is the GW run forums? Where is their rumour mill, where are they soliciting feedback for what is liked/disliked, what works, using their customers to proof-read books/army lists before release, checking item costs, balance, etc? Where is GWs army list builder software? They have all these holes other companies are filling without them being in control.

Why release army books? Why not have incremental updates on the forum and drive things via model sales alone? A more flexible format, more responsive. I'm sure there's been tons of oversights that haven't been caught and make units overpriced, underpowered, too good, etc. why not a downloadable copy so that armies aren't nerfed and no longer played? Granted army books are nice, they're hard copies you can take with you, but I still think the format could be a lot better.

They could do all of that if they wanted. They should be driving it. But they aren't; thats why the community itself had to fill all kinds of gaps in the hobby that GW should recognize and control. Take the top tourney players and use them to drive army development/revisions like they've used Dire Wolf Council in the past.

I think the internet completely has changed the way businesses should be done and most companies cannot/will not keep up. I would love to have flowing army lists. A release of an army unbalances things? You can easily fix it, and not have the community figure out comp scores and such for armies. That should be GWs role. its their game; they shouldn't release a product that other people have to modify to make it fair/fun.

 

[SeldoM]

I think GW is slowly beginning to adapt to the new generation of advertising media albeit, at an extremely slow pace. They changed their old and horribly outdated site for a new and much more trendy one. Also, they introduced their daily blogs and the WD archive/astronomican. I think the latter additions were probably the best idea they've implemented in recent years. Nowadays I find myself going on GWs site once daily to read the blog and if it weren't for that, I'd NEVER check their site! Also, if I am not mistaken, I did hear a rumor about GW starting their own forums....But take that with a grain of salt.

However, it is true that GW has always been trailing in the advertising sector. They prefer word of mouth, which is fine but why not use your monthly magazine as part of that plan? White Dwarf is such an amazing yet untapped recruitment method...It's unfortunate the people working at GW don't spend more time and money on WD to make it a quality product. I could totally imagine luring my friends into the hobby by slowly easing them into the hobby. But alas, I'll never do that until they fix the joke of an advertising magazine its become.

Actually, the last time I bought a WD, I showed it to my brother who never played 40k/fantasy but liked the hobby aspect of the game and after reading it, he literally told me: "You seriously payed 12$ for this?". Believe it or not, WD actually managed to persuade my brother NOT to go any further with the hobby. :lol:

 

[BilboBaggins]

GW had a forum years ago and closed it with the lame excuse they couldn't police it to prevent adult contant getting on it.

Play testing seems to be non-existant at times.

They tried an army list builder for 40k years ago but lost interest. Guess: They didn't want to put the investment to make it right.

They want the sales of the books to add to coffers, limited print runs drives the cost of the army books up. I would think that pdfs of the list would cut too much in their beloved profits. Posting play test lists would take control from the game developers and GW corporate. The conspiracy theorist in me thnks that they want to destroy Fantasy to get everyone playing 40k.

They have stores and players that play in them. Invite the better players to play in closed sessions to test out changes in armies and the game itself. They used to put proposed changes in Warhammer annual, which they haven't produced since 2004.

GW has to decide if they are a Miniatures company that has a game to sell the miniatures or a game company that sells miniatures to support the game.

Yes, I'm still considering creating a new Fantasy game. But I need funds coming in the household to pay bills and I don't know if any company will pay me to create the game, but instead buy the rights to it after it's completed.