Opinion piece: GW's image

So I saw an article on Spikey Bits the other day that got my head juices flowing and I wanted to take a second to expand on said juicy juices.  For those interested in the original article I will post a link here: Spikey Bits Article

The author posits a question in that how can Games Workshop regain their tarnished image that has been acquired over the years?  That's a great question and it's not something to be taken lightly all things considering that has happened.

To start off let's consider a quick summary of how Games Workshop appears to the community from my experience and history.  Remember this is an opinion piece so if you agree/disagree with me that's ok and we can have different opinions (we gamers get so mad about our games sometimes :p).  If you are up to snuff about GW's history then feel free to skip ahead to the question mark dude, otherwise enjoy :)

Seems about right for the wargaming community

Games-workshop is definitely one of the most well known modelling companies out there and the quality of their kits show that they are considered by some as one of the best.  Most of their plastic kits are easy to assemble, convert, and play games with and have been used over the years.  They own one of the most prolific IP's in wargaming and almost everyone who plays war games will be familiar with the name Warhammer in some fashion.  They have been a staple of wargaming for decades now and many players own a least 1 army for Warhammer, if not more in some cases.  When you look up videos on painting tutorials, battle reports, and hobby tips more often than not you will run into Warhammer 40k.  Many people love 40k for the game, for the hobby, for the lore, and many other reasons not mentioned here.  In other words when one thinks of war gaming, one will inevitably see Games Workshop's touch in some way.

Now many people are divided with GW as a company as it stands today.  The previous CEO, Tom Kirby, made many decisions that affected the community and company as a whole and left many people angry, estranged, and downright upset with the great Gee Dubs.  To some they are still a great company that pumps out great miniatures and content.  To others they are seen as a soulless company who is only concerned with your money and could care less about the hobby or the consumer, overpricing models for no real reason other than greed.

How I imagine GW feels when they shaft the community

In my opinion I fall into the latter camp which sees the greed that sums up the previous upper management and company direction.  They raised prices each year making entry point into the hobby ridiculous (some armies for 2000 pts could cost you about 500 at minimum, in many cases more easily) and making new players and veterans interested in a new army discouraged.  The company made it quite known that they were interested in making sure profits were high at all costs.  So they did things like sued anyone who even dared to threaten their IP (a quick google search of Chapterhouse Studios and Spots the Space Marine will give you some examples).  They closed down many stores, shut off social media contact/accounts, and made it so no one could sell their stuff online except under some very specific circumstances.  On top of that any presence they had in the tournament scene slowly dwindled and support became a rarity (from my understanding).  Also don't get me started on the rules of the game itself, which can be the biggest debate of them all for many people.

Yes, yes, what does it mean? Ook. Ook. Eep.

From various articles I read the methods behind a lot of these changes can be summarized as thus (please keep in mind that I am in no way an economist or understand business practice, but this is just how I understood the articles): GW is operating under the belief that the majority of people who buy their models do so because they want to assemble and paint the things, not play games.  Games Workshop would raise the prices of the models so that each unit sold would equate to the same revenue of what several units of a lower price would get.  They would make less models, and have less business expenditures through the closure of stores/firing employees, and therefore make more money.  So it didn't seem to matter to Tom Kirby or GW if there were less people buying their models, because the few people who were still buying would make up the difference.  Meanwhile they would target anything that threatened their profits and would work towards ensuring that only they could get the money.  A short-term strategy I would imagine, because eventually even the hardcore fans will eventually fall to the cost and relent to slowing/stopping purchases.  To many people this seems like a terrible road and in the vacuum of power many other companies rose and now GW has some legitimate competition that is stealing profits (Privateer Press, FFG, and Corvus Belli come to mind).  In the end what mattered was the profit margin and not the spirit of the hobby game.

So we come back to the question, how can GW salvage their image? Remember this is just my opinion.

Good question mate

For me I think GW can lighten the hell up about their IP and not be such a stuck up ass-hat when it comes to the community.  Open up social media connections, get back in touch with the people who support the game, be involved and build rapport!  Also for God's sake do some market research and realize that the majority of people who buy the damn models play the game and aren't just spending hundreds on models "to collect and paint them for fun."  They could use their IP and expand their product line to new avenues and insert it into some cultural memery (put a Khorne berserker on a shirt and make it "Khorne flakes" or some bs like that).  They could make a lot more money and new-comers if they would remember their roots and remember that having things like a bits store and decent White Dwarf articles that weren't just fancy ad-spaces kept people coming back for more.  To remember that if you make people loyal customers instead of temporary ones then we will spend more money in the future instead of looking at different options.  Prices of course would be nice for a change and from the gamer/community standpoint I would prefer cheaper boxes that more people bought than expensive ones that few did.  It would mean more people were playing and that is never a bad thing.  Also the rules, oh lawdy the rules.  Do some playtesting and work towards balance. 

I had been around when GW had friendly stores, helpful customer service, and you could start a new army easily without having to feel like you sold your child's inheritance.  At one point I had several more armies than I do now.  Chaos, Blood Angels, Eldar, Necrons, Tau, Orks, Imperial Guard, and Tyranids were armies I used to own.  Now due to the rising cost of models I had to sell off all but the first 3.  The point is, the access to the models were not at a point that it took pains to start and you could.  I am sure there were many more like me and I think GW had a good thing going for awhile in the early 2000's.  Even with all these changes I'm not sure if they will be implemented, or if they are even feasible.  Hell to a degree it just might be looking back at the "good ol' days" and reminiscing, wishing for the positive aspects I remembered.

I have heard the new CEO is starting to maybe fix the bastardized company Tom Kirby left behind and has been making some changes such as bringing back Specialist Games and offering some discounts (something I still have a hard time believing).  They even made the Betrayal at Calth boxed set an absolute steeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaal if you wanted to get into 30k.  Hell even for a start of 40k Space Marines it's friggin amazing.  Does this mean that Gee Dubs will turn itself around and start to recover their image in the community?  I'm not sure.  I've been burned baby, burned bad.  I will be skeptical about the future with Games Workshop but until I see some real heartfelt change I will still be careful about spending any hardcore money on their stuff.  I will love the lore for a long time (except Age of Sigmar stuff, that never happened in my books) and will still play 40k whenever I can.  I hope GW gets back into good graces and does well for itself, but we'll see.

Thanks for tuning in folks, have a good one and happy gaming!