| Games Workshop Should.......; How could our favourite (?) company improve? | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: 11th February 2012 - 08:20 PM (932 Views) | |
| Sleboda | 12th February 2012 - 01:23 AM Post #16 |
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Pensive Penguins Fan
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They never were. When they started, they were distributing D&D out of the back of a van (literally) as a way to cash in on what TSR was doing. They then started selling other games and toy soldiers, again, for cash. Eventually, they decided they wanted to come up with a way to sell more toy soldiers so they tossed together a set of rules that made use of the models they were selling. This went well for a bit and so they decided to focus on generating as many sales as they could for highly profitable toy soldiers, which brought them to Citadel Miniatures. Down the line, they added White Dwarf to the portfolio, purging it of all things that they did not themselves make a sell. This got them to be big enough that they decided they could get really rich if they went public. Which they did. This gave them a huge influx of more cash and made some people at the top very wealthy. It also meant they now had one...single...purpose in life, and that was to increase shareholder value in the stock. That's it. That's all _any_ public company tries to do. Make the stock more attractive so that more people want it and/or it increases in value which then increases their market capital. With increased market capital they become more attractive to bigger investors who will lend them cash against their cap so that the company can do something to make even more money, making top execs and boardmembers (who tend to be among the largest shareholders) even more cash. A public company ceases to be about what go them there. If their board of directors thought they could make more money selling shrubberies than Necrons, that's what they would be obligated to do. GW is not a company that wants to "create fun games for gamers that like to game." They pretty much never, ever were. They are, rather specifically, a company that wants to "make miliions off gamers." That's, be definition, what a public company _must_ try to do - make money no matter what. EDIT: Don't get me wrong. There are _lots_ of people working there who really do just want to make cool stuff (assuming they are paid at least enough to meet their personal expenses). Truly there are some excellent folks there. I'm just saying that if it came to it, those people would be told to hit the road so that the -business- can make good looking quarterly statements for investors to look at (gee, you would almost think I had witnessed this happen a dozen times over...oh, that's right, I have!). See my sig. Edited by Sleboda, 12th February 2012 - 01:27 AM.
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True scholars have more than just one book to study.
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| Grey Seer Kwokka | 12th February 2012 - 02:30 AM Post #17 |
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I'm a rat, I'm a rat, I'm a clever-clever rat!
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All business' aspire to do this; what's your point? Your post reeks of straw-man. It's proven that in the world of gaming (not just miniature/tabletop), that there are organizations of people that "listen" a great deal more and they often get rewarded in loyalty and cash flow. Look at Valve with Steam; Paizo with Pathfinder is an even better example. It's ultimately the customers that get them to where they are today and the reason why customers flock to these business' is intelligent product (or platform for product) design and desire to keep things fresh. Giving up on the concept of the company putting the fun back into the business is asinine thinking, because you operate this view under the assumption that the cash flow the company seeks to maintain is consistent and without source. Business savvy and customer satisfaction are not mutually exclusive and both of these are tied with the clever design and marketing of their product. Admittedly, this cannot happen without the people doing the hard yards on the front line, but if they were to go, people would follow them. It's simply easier to call these individuals by the collective (the company) rather than individually until such a time that the collective is wounded enough for it to be interpreted differently. |
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| Kimzi | 12th February 2012 - 09:13 AM Post #18 |
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The one and only.
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I can never understand a business existing just to make money. Why pick a certain path (like creating fun games and minis) if your only reason it to get rich? They must have picked games and minis because they like them and they want to make people happy. |
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| WillQueek | 12th February 2012 - 11:07 AM Post #19 |
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Got Nerfed
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Perhaps once Kimzi...... As far as I can see (ok.... i can't see that well) they are only focussed on money making now, |
FOR THE GLORY OF THE HORNED RAT OF COURSE!
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| Flem | 12th February 2012 - 11:20 AM Post #20 |
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A blood curling cough a day, keeps the assassins away
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I indeed remember a few years back when every thing was way cheaper. GW there point of vieuw seems to change more and more towards the corperate side of the hobby then the actual game. I mean many of the veteran workers in GW got fired because younger equally as talented people would work for less. GW has how ever , at leats IMO , been making their efforts towards the public a little better and better. -Working on a new site -Making sure updates and new books follow each other fast enough(although this is also a finaciel gain for them) -Releasing some cool campaign / scenario books like the badlands and storm of magic one Flem, |
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| snowblizz | 12th February 2012 - 04:06 PM Post #21 |
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Ph.D.
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Normally you are weighing in several different factors such as competitive pressures, market opportunities and all kinds of arcane stuff. Not mention what you actually can do. I would say people seldom pick a path solely with a view to making money, after all then we should all be robbing banks. Or even better, owning them. Dear god, they did (for 40k) and it was so amazingly bad it made Armybuilder look competent in comparison. It came in 2 versions, good and evil armies, and if you had more than one army odds were you had to buy both. Imagine the official Interactive Army List (it's actual name, IAL for short, btw) that is updated less frequently than the FAQs are. The problem with a program like that is that it needs to be developed and maintained. The last part was here GW failed. Also it was impractical and expensive. 3 times as expensive as the competition and it only covered 40k. In theory it should work but it'd require skills and GW once again venturing beyond their core business idea. (Don't even get me started on their attempts at in-housing a MMORPG). Edited by snowblizz, 12th February 2012 - 04:22 PM.
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| Sleboda | 12th February 2012 - 05:07 PM Post #22 |
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Pensive Penguins Fan
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=> For many businesses (as an ex-salesman, it pains me how many are this way) the idea of maximizing profits is not high on the list of goals. There are plenty of business that are content to make just enough to pay the bills and keep doing what they love. My point is that when a business becomes public, _all_ other concerns are secondary to maximizing cash. They become beholden to stockholder expectations and _must_ put aside things that do not deliver on these expectations. You are correct that there are ways to to make "good" decisions on the path to profits. I'm no arguing that. I'm just saying that this idea that GW should be about making cool stuff for fun and enjoyment is naive. No offense to Kimzi, but "wanting to make people happy" is only good in so far as it gets them to spend money. Period.[/quote] Edited by Sleboda, 12th February 2012 - 05:09 PM.
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True scholars have more than just one book to study.
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| Mathusala0 | 12th February 2012 - 08:45 PM Post #23 |
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The Evil Underlord
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You know what games workshop *should* do? Stop being stupid. Because you know they are, their buisness model has been "powervamp+big monster+price increase =more money. When In reality, chaos dwarves,+ lower prices + better rules would = more money. Furthermore. GW will forever be the stupidist company on earth for the following reason blizzard says they want the warhammer lisense to make a rts game Gw thinks an rts game would not be successful and says no. Blizzard makes the warcraft series, becomes a part of the largest video game company on earth, gw is still struggling to keep its profits up. And when blizzard asked for the warhammer 40k game? Gw said no again... And when starcraft came out. Gw filed a lawsuit, and managed to push sc2 back a decade. Well done morons. |
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| WarlordofRictus | 12th February 2012 - 08:49 PM Post #24 |
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Manipulative Grey Seer
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#1.) I for one, miss all the FUN off-shoots they used to do. (none of this "BUY MOAR MONSTERS!") This is my "old-school" nostalgia, even though it was only 5 years ago... Or so... General's Compendium, Skirmish, Warbands... Those books were incredibly fun and encouraged conversions, small games, campaigns with narrative. For those of you who have seen these books, some of the scenarios are just incredibly fun. Hell I like buying old OOP models just to really drive home the nostalgia when playing rules from those books. #2.) I agree with the idea of more extensive playtesting. I think GW should get more involved with the HUGE community of gamers and get their feedback with things they are thinking about implementing. Everyone on here, at UnderEmpire, is fair. Even in house rules. Nobody WANTS to be super-godly-OP. I've even heard people suggest ideas to better balance what we have now! (HPA, etc.) Point is, GW can LEARN from its fan base, and we could collectively provide incredibly balanced and (despite the fact that we prefer our chosen race) unbiased feedback on what's OP, what needs a buff, what needs a nerf, etc. And the Warhammer community would do all this FOR FREE! #3.) I made a thread about this before, but I miss the old site. I miss all the terrain building articles. Sadly, individual metal bits are a thing of the past, but the old website used to have SO MANY painting and building articles, it was awesome. Even White Dwarf lacks terrain building articles now. It's all about selling their excessively skull-laden kits. Which leads me to my next point: #4.) I understand this is a corporation, and they need to make profit. I know they're trying to sell more models. And that's fine. But with the buff big blocks of Infantry got in 8th, now the focus is on selling more models. I do not think that is coincidental. I can't even tell you how many boxes of Clanrats/IoB Clanrats I've bought, and I'm sure some of you on here have even more than me! I miss when the focus was less on sheer number of models sold and more on getting people into the hobby. I drew my friends in with small games, Skirmish, Warbands. So they don't go, "Wait. This is gonna cost me like $250-$300 for a 1,000 pt. army?! And I STILL have to build and assemble them?!" They can still make profit, but in my opinion, if they focused more on drawing people in without the massive financial and effort-based commitment that is this hobby looming over their heads, they could get more people hooked, then the selling would follow suit. #5.) I wish they'd update things quicker. This ties in to #2. There are a few examples of things in army books that stand out as being blatantly OP for what they cost. I'm a little bias because I am racist against the Druchii, but the "unkillable Lord" and Ring of Hotek spring to mind. These things could easily be nerfed via a quick FAQ update. Instead of something OP being realized, and exploited till the next army book comes out (which is sometimes years), they need to jump on it and fix it right away. Nobody likes flavor-of-the-month gamers, and this could all but put a stop to that. #6.) I want to see models for almost every choice in each army book. Remember before they released the new HPA, most people do not have the sculpting prowess or skill to make something to represent such a bizarre creature. The Heirotitan in the Tomb Kings codex is another example. A good choice with good solid rules, and no model. I used to play 'Nids, and I'm STILL waiting to see them release a Tervigon/Tyrannofex/Doom of Malan'tai/Harpy/Swarmlord model. What gives? They'd sell more if they made everything a solid choice (so there was nothing "useless" in any army books/codexes) and then made a model for each! #7.) Those poor, poor Wood Elves. Those poor Brettonians. Please, give love to the races that need it most, not just the most popular ones. That's my two cents. |
| Yes-yes, o most clever of generals. | |
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| Borgomos | 12th February 2012 - 09:45 PM Post #25 |
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Warlord
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Before the thread turns about corporate elements and the implications of this in GW's part, I'd like to add my 2 cents. 1) Vampire Counts Skeletons. The guys are cheap as clanrats, they come 10 out of a single box, while TK enjoy 20 in a box. This should have been dealed with at the VC release. 2) Put terrain back in Starter Boxes again. 3) Mathu's monster+price hike troubles me as well. 4) Chaos Dwarves should be a legal armybook. The possibilities of this range is insane. 5) There are no models for certain units, which is just plain stupid. When i'm explaining the hobby to newcomers, it sounds really stupid when i say "Ah and Chaos can take Warshrines but no model for that, gotta make your own" 6) Continue the power level trend of the 8th Edition Rulebooks (Aside TK perhaps). 7) Update stuff more properly, once again stated before. |
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| Deleted User | 12th February 2012 - 10:37 PM Post #26 |
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Deleted User
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I have to say that I think gw is doing a much much better job with books, rules, models, and just about ever other product in the last few years. Really top notch stuff right now. The product and rules during 6th edition was just not my cup of tea. My only issues with the gw are the prices and finecast. I don't reall know the details on their profit numbers but the prices suk if you have a normal income. Go ahead and make money but take care of customers who have been loyal for years. Don't keep taking paint out of pots or make kits like great swords. I suppose fc is just an extension of the pricing argument. |
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| WarlordofRictus | 12th February 2012 - 10:57 PM Post #27 |
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Manipulative Grey Seer
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I love the Dawi Zharr. Apart from Tamurkhan (which I do not consider to be the equivalent of a full fledged army book) I would LOVE to see the Chaos Dwarfs go mainstream GW again. The fan base for these guys are incredible, and they're unique. |
| Yes-yes, o most clever of generals. | |
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| Deleted User | 12th February 2012 - 11:34 PM Post #28 |
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Deleted User
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It would strange to see that happen after the awesome fw models. Gw really missed out. How did the not jump at the chance to make all those giant war machines and charge an arm and a leg. |
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| Boone | 13th February 2012 - 03:03 AM Post #29 |
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Chieftain
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I would like to see a third of every white not be dedicated to LOTR or eliminate LoTR... again finecast completely agree... I do like the terrain, but would like to see some smaller stuff come out mork and gork idols, new fences/ actual blazing bulwarks etc. maybe allow an actual GW forum again where we would know our comments are taken seriously and not just (its our business mind your own) price drops... hella, 10 percent price drop would make a huge difference I dont think a box of core ie clan rats, men at arms, marauders should be over 40$ CDN. Dice that dont have bubbles in them... I would like to see a GW version of army builder too. New Realm of battles tables... EFF those hills.... GW brand Magnetic bases and magnet sets Weapons teams and IoB ratogres in individual packages. |
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| Deleted User | 13th February 2012 - 03:15 AM Post #30 |
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Deleted User
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It is odd that gw has not started with the magnets yet. |
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