I've been very lax maintaining this blog...but then, it was meant to be a plce for me to rant on things I see going on in the world of small metal and or plastic soldiers when the urge struck me. And so i have been once again struck.
Unless you've been living under a rock for the last few days (assuming you have any interest in these things) you'll have noticed that the great edifice that is Games Workshop ("Grandma Wendy" as some of us involved in a sadly neglected game system of theirs now refer to the old crone) posted a significant drop in their profits for the second half of 2013, and this - combined with some pretty heavy handed (for Granny that says a lot) backroom movements, and a general air of doom that has been hanging around regarding the catastrophic failures of their Games Day events - has led to all manner of rumours about the corporate quandry the company is faced with.
So: what's the state of play?
Let's face facts: Granny has been abusing pretty much anyone connected with her in the name of Mannon for the better part of twenty years, ever since the infamous takeover and stock exchange floatation took the focus off the products and customers and squarely onto the shareholders. Where once we had a chain of stores selling fun games, where said games could be played and the prospective gamer get advice about what he should be getting is now a chain of one-man operations. Granny has a history of aggression against independent game stores, wiping them out where possible and making sure the terms are insane for any store wishing to sell GW products where they held on. Where once the games were well regarded and fun, there are massive complaints of power creep and redundancy. Where once there was value, there are now high prices that are being easily undersut by the alternatives that have risen up.
There is a lot of rot set in around GW HQ (I've been there a few times...Bugman's bar is a quite a nice place to be but Lenton is not.)...maybe it's too late to save the ship...but I feel that there are several very straightforward steps that GW could take towards at least attempting to set things straight again.
Firstly, Games Workshop need to reconnect with their customers.
For years GW have chased down fansites, pursued litigation, closed their forums and facebook pages - in fact done everything possible to minimise their contact with the people who are playing their games. They are viewed as an inhuman corporate edifice, because that is how they behave. I'm sure there are good people at GW still. People who care about the games and an IP I am STILL, despite my apathy towards the actual games, fascinated by. I have met the much lambasted Jervis johnson...and you know what? he's a really nice bloke. A lousy games DEVELOPER (Blood Bowl Gold edition will never be forgotten...sadly...), but as a Game DESIGNER he's done amazing things...and he has gone out of his way to do right by the fans too. So GW - ACT HUMAN. Your customers are PEOPLE. Stop focussing on 12 year old Timmy and his Mum's purse...remember Bob, Steve and Jim who have been playing 40k in their Garage since there were instructions in a GW rulebook on how to make a Tank out of a Shampoo bottle (That would be 40k Rogue Trader btw).
Oh, and treating people around the world - wherever they may be - equally would be a huge help too. I hear there are some less than happy folks in Australia.
Which brings me on to point 2: If you're going to bring in Timmy, get Bob, Steve and Jim to help.
There is nothing more likely to stunt the growth of a game than the model GW are currently using. Armies are expensive to build up to a playable level, and finding a game is likely to be tricky while doing it. GW need to look at what other companies are doing. Specifically Privateer Press. (Disclaimer: I'm a bit of a PP fanboy. I still think this is relevant and unbiased).
Privateer Press have starter boxes for Warmachine and Hordes that can be played as soon as the glue is dry. GW starters - I am reliably informed - are not playable from day 1, being in fact a random mish-mash of stuff from an overpriced book which you'll also need, whereas with WM/H there are rules and cards for all the models right there in the box. Timmy and his friend Billy could walk into a shop, pick up one of PP's two player starters (which are incredibly good value btw) and be playing inside an hour. If they're lucky they may even have run into the Game shop's Press Ganger - who can use his own models to teach them the rules before they go off to play. Independent store owners are happy because they're getting sales through these new players, and you'll often find the players meeting at their stores to play and those players buy more stuff.
GW stores are now no play zones because they're one man operations. ONE MAN. To keep a store open six days a week, 9 to 6 or whatever. How is this poor sod meant to be a good ambassador for your product? Why are there no demos of your products going on in your store? When I was younger we used to go out of our way to get to the nearest GW. We took a half hour train ride and made a day of it FFS. We knew it'd be worth it. there were events and all sorts of stuff. When it came time for Games day you had pride in YOUR store.
You've abused the local LGS if you haven't forced it to close (no help there then), and you have no outreach program any more afaik...so what's your pull? if you treated your veterans and retailers better you'd be doing better.
so that pretty much covers point three : GW's own retail stores and the related policies need a complete rethink.
it also leads me to Point 4: You have competition
I'm sick to the back teeth of the "Games Workshop hobby". What a load of BS. We - Timmy, Billy, Bob, Steve, Jim and all of us myriad Daves (there's a lot of Daves in gaming.) are all gamers, and as much as we like our minis we are first and foremost in it for the rules. (To be fair there are plenty of people in the hobby as painters and modellers...and if i was one of them I'd be far more inclined to look at companies like Dark Sword, Kingdom Death, McVey - hey, remember him? he used to work for you - Reaper and Bombshell before I'd look at GW...especially after the Finecast fiasco).
Privateer Press have a super tight rules system that they rebuilt with the help of their players and passion for making a good game.
Wyrd miniatures - as much as I dislike the direction they've gone - are doing the same thing.
Corvus Belli's Infinity is growing and growing...the rules are a free download.
FFG's X wing is quick and easy enough to understand that I have my 7 year old playing it. The IP is well known and popular, and the minis are nice enough (as well as pre assembled and painted).
Whatever you THINK you are, you should remember that you are still a Games company. you are no longer the only game in town like you were in teh 80s. Your most recent rulesets have been deeply unpopular among the fans. From what I hear Fantasy is dying on its arse and 40k is a mess with major balance issues and your obsession with bloody Space Marines being problematic. You need to SERIOUSLY rethink what you're doing with your core business before it's beyond saving. Also...you know those nice little IP's you abandoned...the ones that the fans still love because they're some of the best rulesets you've made? Throw those guys a bone every now and again - once a year would be enough - and you would turn a small but significant profit off it. I bet if you had released ONE new Blood Bowl team a year it would have sold a lot. Not new rules...just a nice set of sculpts. Hell, get Forge World to do them. You MIGHT be able to reel those poor abused players back in if you tried REALLY hard.
So there's point 5: SAY YOU'RE SORRY.
We've put up with a huge amount of shit from you over the years, but at heart I think even the most jaded former fan would come back if you came out with a corporate statement that said something like:
We at Games Workshop lost our focus on what we should have been doing. We're going to try and regain our focus. We've made some horrible mistakes, we forgot how we got here, we forgot what we are and we want the people who got us to the top to help us. It will take a lot of time, but we are going to reinvent ourselves from the ground up. It will be a long hard ride, but it will lead to good places.
THAT and ONLY that will save you from what currently looks like the start of a long, slow, painful death.
