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Because so far as GW is concerned, the GW Hobby is no longer about playing games... It's about 'buying Games Workshop miniatures'. And Games Day is not a cost-effective sales tool.

GW have been cutting costs left right and center for a while now to try and hide those falling sales in their financial reports. Games Day is just another victim of those cost cutting measures.

Also with one man stores there was no spare employees to make the cool tables and run the events at the last few anyway so interest dropped pretty badly.

 jonolikespie wrote:
Also with one man stores there was no spare employees to make the cool tables and run the events at the last few anyway so interest dropped pretty badly.

Which seems like a wonderfully short-sighted solution, frankly.

An alternative would have been to open it up to gaming clubs and independant stores. Offer them space to come and set up a table or two to run themed games, give people a chance to encounter new vendors and clubs while not needing as many GW staff to run everything (and those remaining staffing needs could be filled in a flash by volunteers) - everybody wins.

Instead... nuh, too hard. Just can it.

It's really regrettable. My first Games Days in Baltimore (back when it was TWO DAYS) are some of my fondest gaming memories. Some of that was a road trip with my Warhammer buddies, but those events were amazing. Tons of special games, prizes, awesome sales, seminars with previews of stuff that was months away, trivia contests, costume contests, megabattles, pick up gaming...and those amazing Golden Demon entries.

I'm sure GW has some rationales behind their choices on that, but it was a huge mistake from my perspective. I suppose with the 'one man' stores and shuttering of Battle Bunkers and the like there was no one to staff them, and no where to store the tables. I just don't understand how something so huge and special and successful could become something that needed to get eliminated. What changed in the market?

Now I am a sad ork.

Da Butcha wrote:
What changed in the market?

Other third-party events got bigger and better? But it's probably less about the market and more about GW's financial situation. All the benefits of having an event like Games Day are vague hypotheticals about future sales and customer happiness, while cutting spending on the event is a specific amount of money that GW can tell the shareholders about. Short-sighted? Yep, just like a lot of GW's decisions lately.

 insaniak wrote:

 jonolikespie wrote:
Also with one man stores there was no spare employees to make the cool tables and run the events at the last few anyway so interest dropped pretty badly.

Which seems like a wonderfully short-sighted solution, frankly.

An alternative would have been to open it up to gaming clubs and independant stores. Offer them space to come and set up a table or two to run themed games, give people a chance to encounter new vendors and clubs while not needing as many GW staff to run everything (and those remaining staffing needs could be filled in a flash by volunteers) - everybody wins.

Instead... nuh, too hard. Just can it.

That would have been an excellent idea. You could imagine it would be very cost effective actually as well, I'm sure they could even have made a little money by having those vendors pay for hall space, in the same way that other conventions operate.

Although, we won't know if the idea hadn't occurred to them, or it was one of the 'maintain control over everything' kind of situation, and that they wouldn't have made 100% profit from the goods sold.

Wondering how long the UK one will persist for now actually...

UK one as far as my spies tell me is dead too, for this year anyway.

Golden demon is to carry on but in a slightly different way (i.e. like it was ages ago with regional heats)

All will be held at Lenton after the refurb.

Games Day used to have input from clubs and certain select outside organizations.

I went to a few Games Days in the mid 90's. I found them to be overcrowded noisy affairs and it was difficult to get play in any of the games. I was usually bored within a couple of hours of arriving. There was nothing to buy there that I couldn't get from my local GW.

These days I much prefer general gaming shows. I spent the whole day at Salute this year, didn't stop and could easily have spent a 2nd day there.

Overcrowding can be addressed by limiting ticket sales, or hiring a larger venue, or running the show for more days.

The 2013 games day was not overcrowded in any sense of the word. There was extra space.

I used to go every year in Chicago but 2 years ago I went and all it was, was a huge sales event and golden demon. I spent most of the day at the fantasy flight booth playing their games. If fantasy flight wasn't there I would have been gone in 30 min. Games day was once fun when it was about GAMES but that ended. I just stuck to adepticon and gave up on games day even if they brought it back I wouldnt go.

 Kilkrazy wrote:
Overcrowding can be addressed by limiting ticket sales, or hiring a larger venue, or running the show for more days.

I expect somebody in GW proposed that once, and was promptly fired for not toeing the company line.

Random Dude wrote:
The 2013 games day was not overcrowded in any sense of the word. There was extra space.

Because who would go to Memphis after the craptastic 2012 games day?

2011 was the last Games Day we did displays for as a club. While we were invited to attend as a club, and I'm sure they would have be gleeful if I spent several thousand dollars on the tables like the years before, they weren't willing to help us out with costs at all. In the past they had given some clubs/outriders free hotel rooms, and helped out some of us with model kits to use to build the dioramas. But with Chris Wood and Ed Spettigue gone, it was up to non-gamer HR people making the decisions.

Thier offer?

Spend 3 months and 6000.00 building displays, travel 11 hours, and work at Games Day for a weekend: Get a T-shirt.

I respectfully said I'd keep the money and spend it on Beer and Forgeworld, and they could keep the T-shirt.

Very sad. I'd gone to a lot of Games Days, it's pitiful how they let their hobby and business shrivel up and die off.

I, for one, am saddened as I can no longer work towards my dream of a Golden Daemon, or even more so, the Slayer Sword. Seeing that in a White Dwarf when I first started was an ambitious goal that I still pine for this day.

The Crystal Brush is the new substitute,and while growing, doesn't hold that mystique. The problem for GW is that without the Golden Daemons being prominent at a huge public event is that their models will begin to be dumped by the bigger named painters. I know many that said they did GW minis just for the daemons and would rather paint others for everything else. Given the drop in quality in the painting guides and the photos from 'Eavy Metal, it seems GW wants to foster the beginner crowd versus the starry eyed, masters-to-be.

I, for one, am saddened. But I will win a Crystal Brush and I will travel that road to Adepticon well earned.

Edit: Exalt to mikhaila. I appreciate your openness as a purveyor of nerdy goods on this subject.

Games Day's only purpose in its final days was about standing in a line to get things you could get at any GW store. To GW, Games Day holds no purpose. It was spending money to allow people to "play" or "enjoy" a "game". That's not what "The Hobby" is to GW. "The Hobby" is simply collecting as much GW merchandise (not only boxes of models but also paints, tools, books, special edition books, BL books, limited edition items, etc) as you can. As Jervais once said, first and foremost, this hobby is about collecting things.

 TheKbob wrote:
The Crystal Brush is the new substitute,and while growing, doesn't hold that mystique. .

Part of that is that the Golden Demon was so firmly established, and partly just the scale of the thing. Crystal Brush has had some jaw-droppingly good entries, but it doesn't have the attendance pull that the Demons had. The 3 or 4 cabinets in the hall at Adepticon just don't have the same impact as the tables and tables of entries at Games Day used to have.

There was an attempt at creating a similar independant event here in Oz (named 'The Wizards of Oz), at the inaugral Auscon held in Brisbane a couple of years ago. Had a fantastic turnout, and some superb entries (amazingly so given the event's location in Brisbane instead of Sydney or Melbourne) but sadly it appears that the inaugral Auscon was also probably the last.

I wonder what sort of painting competition they have at Origins or GenCon?

I only went to one Games Day. It was about 1984, so Fantasy was pretty new and 40K had not been invented yet.

"The HHHobby" had not been invented either, so the show was a general tabletop games show at the Royal Horticultural Hall in London. There was all kinds of stuff going on, family type boardgames as well as wargames.

I think it'll all go Warhammer World events from now on, Games Day is probably done. No staff to run it and they did try and get the clubs to try and paint up stuff for them but that failed as no-one wanted to spare the time.

Although why they can't run it as a proper convention with a GW "floor" and then a "rest of the hobby floor" which would cover the costs - maybe they couldn't face the competition?????

Good bye to Games Day NA and all the others perhaps, but I don't think we've seen the end of Games Day entirely. It'll probably skip a few years before having a major relaunch as a UK only event at Warhammer World itself.

GW has plans to remodel Warhammer World and I have a strong feeling this remodeling is to allow for large(r) events at Warhammer World such as Games Day.

I will sorely miss Games Day NA. I've been to many ('96, '97, '09, '10, '11) and enjoyed each and every one.

Thinking like this probably comes from the accountants just see games day as an expense. If they don't sell as much as it costs to put on they think they are losing money.

What they don't realize is this is a form of advertising. It may not draw in new players but it keeps existing players excited about the hobby and keep spending money. Unfortunately, that is hard to quantify by accountants so things like this get dumped.

It sucks from a fan point of view but anyone who works in the corporate world probably understands this. Businesses used to have corporate get aways, events etc. but they have been cut out due to the economy. Frankly that GW had gamesday this long is a shocker.

I am reminded of an apocryphal story used in the teaching of Accounting. It involves an electrical supplies shop whose manager calls in an accountant to advise on making it more efficient.

After a lot of study, the accountant recommends dropping cable ties. They make zero profit and take up a lot of shelf space that could be used to stock something more profitable.

The owner takes this advice, but over the next few months his trade dwindles as he loses regular customers. Eventually he asks one of them why they don't come to his shop any more. They say that they used to be able to get everything they needed, and a bag of cable ties, and now they can't get the cable ties they go somewhere else to buy everything else and their cable ties.

The purpose of this story is to illustrate that good accountants realise that Accounts are not everything about business.

 Kilkrazy wrote:
I am reminded of an apocryphal story used in the teaching of Accounting. It involves an electrical supplies shop whose manager calls in an accountant to advise on making it more efficient.

After a lot of study, the accountant recommends dropping cable ties. They make zero profit and take up a lot of shelf space that could be used to stock something more profitable.

The owner takes this advice, but over the next few months his trade dwindles as he loses regular customers. Eventually he asks one of them why they don't come to his shop any more. They say that they used to be able to get everything they needed, and a bag of cable ties, and now they can't get the cable ties they go somewhere else to buy everything else and their cable ties.

The purpose of this story is to illustrate that good accountants realise that Accounts are not everything about business.

As an accountant this is something we have to guard against. It is also a variation of the penny wise pound foolish argument. A business needs to be viewed holistically before changes are manage and you have to understand your customers.

BL is a prime example of this. The raised the prices of all their paperbacks. I stopped buying them almost 2yrs ago and therefore stopped reading them - I think the first BA book in the HH series was the last book I read which I got 2nd hand. When I stopped reading about 40k and WFB I found my interest dropping. Now I own next to know GW product and over the last 2yrs I have bought less and less. My last purchase was December. That price rise has definitely cost GW a fortune in my case.

Independent conventions focused on miniature gaming, such as AdeptiCon, are wondeful and in many ways similar to a Games Day experience.

I too have fond memories of a Games Day in Baltimore, but I've had better ones at my two AdeptiCons since then!

Another example is doubling the price of the codexes from £15 to £30.

Due to price I haven't bought any 6th edition codexes (I am now doubly glad not to have done so as they are already obsolescent owing to 7th edition after less than two years).

As I don't have the codexes I haven't bought any of the new models for which they contain the rules.

As I don't have the new models, there isn't much incentive to buy the 7th edition rules.

As I don't have the 7th edition rules, there isn't any point buying any 7th edition codexes.

And so on...

This is the crux of the a-typical death spiral. Sorry folks, but this is one of the clear signs.

When cost-cutting starts digging into sales and marketing channels (and Games Day was a big marketing channel for GW), it is frequently a clear indicator the company is in the death spiral. It is a rush to stay one step ahead on cost cutting but effect the revenue the next period. And so on, and so on.

That is why it gained the phrase originally of the "death spiral". An illustration of the sequences down the spiral:



GW has reached the point where they are now cutting costs from their revenue channels. Once this happens, historically, things go down hill very fast from here. Thus why the funnel gets narrower and narrower as you reach the bottom.

Let's just watch and see. Three more weeks and we will know more when the financials are published.

How was Games Day ever a Marketing Channel?

I has been the very definition of preaching to the converted for 20 odd years.

Dropping a costly show with dwindling attendance seems like very sensible idea.

The focus on WHW and FW events as they have been doing would seem to be a re-focusing of this.