8th Ed. Ongoing (and exploding) Petition for GW

I also posted this in Announcements but since I'm not sure what the right place is and I also want as many people as possible to see this, pls excuse the double post.


There is a petition running to make GW overthink their business modell and mindsetting towards their products and community. I think it has some great thoughts and wanted to share it with you.

https://www.change.org/p/games-work...the-pure-sale-of-collectible-miniatures#intro

If you want to support this pls read it first and make up your own mind, though I'm pretty sure most of the community agree with many things.

 

I saw this and signed it's going much better than expected. I hope it reaches it's goal.

 

The Petition only needs 300 more subscribers to reach 10k.

If you haven't yet, pls have a look at it and maybe share it with your friends.

 

Signed and spreading the news to my friends. Hopefully this comes true and causes some kind of respond from GWs part.

 

I disagree with the pricing aspect and will not sign till i feel comfortable with the whole message.


I feel like GW minis are priced according given the competitors. I look at war machine or malifaux and I see models priced similarly of worse quality.

The difference is amount of models which are required and I do not want that to change. I want a large scale game with premium quality models, I do not want an alternative. It's why I play this game and not a skirmished based or large scale game with a lower quality miniatures.

Also most retailers already sell the product at a 10-20% discount. The costs are more than resonable at that price point.

I'd rather spend 350 dollars on starting a warhammer army than buying a new console. I'd rather purchase 60 dollars of GW miniatures than the latest call of duty. When coffee is 3 dollars I don't feel bad paying 10 times that for a box of models. Maybe I'm alone in this opinion, but those prices seem reasonable to me, given the alternatives.

It's going to last forever and if you get tired of it you can resell it and recover a good chunk of the cost back. I've been playing warhammer and 40k for over a decade and in that time I've spent an average of 100 dollars a year on this hobby, including pants and supplies.

That is incredibly reasonable in my opinion.

 

I agree Putz, but we all know that their pricing scheme won't change!
I think it hits australia harder than any other country though, something to do with import taxes..

It's the consumer support and general bad attitude they have toward their customer base that needs to change, in my opinion. Which is covered in the petition - this is why i signed

 

I can agree with that, but like I said I refuse to sign anything when I can't agree with the whole message. Just a personal choice.

 

What I wish would be for the government to force then to change their policies. That would be cool.

 

No. No it wouldn't.

 

Why didn't anyone proofread it for typos?

Also, the comment near the beginning about falling profits...where did that info come from? Can anyone confirm this?

I'm torn on this. On the one had, I wholeheartedly agree with the basic message. On the other hand, there are some pieces - the pricing, for one, as Putzfrau mentioned - that I don't agree with, and have trouble signing my name to it. But the biggest thing is this: wouldn't GW already have done its market research and strategizing? Didn't they change their business approach, and we're all still buying their models and books? Why would they listen to these 10,000 signers of the petition, if we still buy their product?
That question about GW's falling revenue really counts for me, here, because it determines whether we really have anything helpful to say to them about their business.

 

It comes from their annual reports. They are on the stock market, and as such, they have to release an annual report describing how things are going - and they aren't going well.

As someone with a degree in economics, and whose daily work entails accounting work, I am baffled when I read their reports, and hold it up against their business practices. It doesn't make sense. It feels as if they either have no one in the entire company with any kind of experience or knowledge about economics. If they do, I can't imagine them listening to even a single word they tell them.

Increasing prices when their sales drop is the worst possible course of action a company can take. It has only ever worked for a handful of companies over the years, and that was technically a hoax, and not something GW can actually pull off. Decreasing the prices when the demand for your product drops is a more viable strategy. Increasing the prices is like peeing in your pants without wearing pants. It just doesn't work.

I like the petition for the overall idea of it. GW needs a wakeup call, or they wont survive in the long run. And considering the major toy makers in business these days, I'm somewhat scared of who might pick up after them. I do not want Lego or Disney to pick up GWs franchices. I'd actually go as far as to say I'd rather have the franchise die entirely, than watch Lego: Space Marine become a reality.

But I also have a somewhat irrational hatred of Lego and the joy they get from destroying franchises with their games.

 

Good answer, SilverFaith. That does make a difference.

 

While I agree with much of the petition, many parts seem to be not well thought out. Prime example for me is #4. Having been a long time player of both 40k and WFB, I remember when their early mags had how-to tutorials on making terrain and even some of their own tanks. Having their website being a all-in-one place would mean the hiring of additional staff to design and most importantly, moderate their forums. I can not see ideas like how to scratch build some of their biggest sellers being freely shared on their forums. There are some great communities already out here for the various armies. All of these that I visit (40k: tyranids, dark eldar, orcs; WFB: you fine lizards, OnG, Tomb Kings) moderate themselves quite well in keeping with creative aspects of the hobby and support of GW stuffs.

Other points the petition makes, like #5 are spot on. GW is really behind the curve in so many ways.

Overall, I support (and signed) the petition because it is a step in the right direction and GW needs to get the blinders that are it's "business model" off right quick.


Edit: also, I already have Lego platoons at my disposal. Who do you thing plays the "empire/space marines" when I practice.

 

Here I am a 5th edition player thinking of getting back into it. I went to a GW today to pick up a lizardman army book, I figure even if I never play it will be fun to read. $83. Oh my god. As if I'm picking that up.

 

Capitalism will be the best teacher here, their competition is supporting a community driven game and if they are more successful then GW will either adapt or fail. A letter will unfortunately accomplish nothing with a company who thinks they know what they are doing. If they listened to feedback this would be unnecessary and since they don't it will fall on deaf ears. On the off chance that some employee reads this I quite giving any money to GW when they ended their outrider program and only buy second hand. I am moving to games buy companies like PP that care about and listen to their customer instead of telling us what we want.

 

I signed although, like others, I don't agree with the pricing aspect. I feel that the models probably deserve their price and I'm quite happy with the level they're at.

What I really do wish GW would realise is how to act like any other company in the world. I'm into a lot of other hobbies including various sports and PC games. In every case, the best companies regularly communicate with their customers. I look at some of my favourites and they regularly post cool things interesting topics and when I've submitted feedback they act very modestly, being appreciative of me as a customer and thanking me for feedback. In the gaming world even some hated companies correspond with their player base a significant amount more than GW has recently.

It also annoys me how GW is going as a business. I remember when GW wasn't just a model selling company, they completely embraced the entire hobby. I loved reading all of the tutorials as a kid and that's what initially got me so enthusiastic about playing and building things. Now their focus is so obviously on just selling that I almost think it's off putting.

On other subjects I'm no economist so can't comment. But I do think that there is a lot GW could be doing to make a positive difference.

 

I cant remember if i signed it before, so i went and did signed it again. Hope it gets enough to get them to open up their eyes a little? Maybe we might even get a response out of GW?

 

Just signed, I also hope that GW will respond.

Hasael

 

This.