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It's been a while since I've started a "GW whine!" thread, but the latest What's New Today just hit the right spot to set off my cynicism mode. I refer specifically to the first two sentences of the latest issue:

I was in the Warhammer World store the other day picking up a couple of mail orders (new Orcs & Goblins - I caught the green bug) when I noticed a Goblin Warboss on Gigantic Spider and the Animosity Orcs in their cabinet. On closer inspection I realised that all of the models in the cabinet were Available to Order miniatures - ones that you can only get through the webstore or our terminals in store.

I mean… come on… really? He didn’t know they were for sale? Really??? And an employee of the company who works in the webstore/warehouse would admit that on the official website?

Now, before you jump at me, I have no problem with GW advertising their products; if anything, GW needs to advertise more – banner ads on other websites, sponsorship and participation in local events outside of the ones they run themselves (ie. stop pretending they are the hobby and finally admit that they are part of a hobby), but these What’s New Today articles have just gone beyond the joke.

Deconstruct those opening two sentences. Firstly, you’ve got a mention of the new Orcs & Gobbos releases in the first sentence. We don’t know if this guy was really picking up some mail orders, but we do know that he’s being paid to mention the new releases as early (and as frequently) as possible. Then he talks about other Direct Only products that he somehow didn’t know were for sale? And we’re expected to believe all this and not see it for the blatantly transparent advertising garbage that it is?

Games Workshop – If you want to advertise your new products, and products linked to new releases then advertise your products. Do it to our faces. We really don’t mind. In fact, I reckon people would respect you more if you were just up front about wanting to sell us the new things you've just released. Don’t insult our fething collective intelligence by (poorly) attempting to hide advertising in articles that you think are ‘hobby’ articles.

Oh, and by the by, hanging a lantern on it:

So this week is our opportunity to do a little bit of shameless plugging of these models,

… doesn’t make it any better.



Ok kids – have at it. How do you feel about What’s New Today aka. What We Want To Sell To You Today But Are Afraid to Just Come Out And Fething Say It.

GW are the ultimate closet cases.

Yes, we have known or some time that you sell wargames and stuff, deal with it.

I stopped bothering with What's New Today a while ago, only checking in once in a while to see if there are any community pics sent in. That and keeping an eye on their Twitter feed is helpful, the subject usually tells me whether or not to bother.

I only ever look at it when someone links to a contest or community pictures on there.

isnt the term supposed to be "hanging a lampshade"?

I remember when the GW website was a wonderful place to browse, with interesting fluff, modelling articles and wasn't just a shop covered in barely-hidden ads. I remember when WD contained more words than advertisments, and there were columns detailing the staffs progression through the hobby that made you feel part of the hobby.

The decline, last stand, ultimate defeat and dark rule of the 'new & improved' GW is the main reason I joined Dakka.

CadianXV wrote:I remember when the GW website was a wonderful place to browse, with interesting fluff, modelling articles and wasn't just a shop covered in barely-hidden ads. I remember when WD contained more words than advertisments, and there were columns detailing the staffs progression through the hobby that made you feel part of the hobby.

The decline, last stand, ultimate defeat and dark rule of the 'new & improved' GW is the main reason I joined Dakka.

I can sympathise entirely...

Hey, remember when they would print guides on how to convert (including GS sculpting) your own models in WD? and then in the back would have a discount if you bought all the parts for the conversion from mail order? I remember when they showed you how to create adrian wood's deffdreads, and then in the back if you bought an ork army, they gave you the parts for two of them for free!

Many moons ago my brother and I used to buy and read White Dwarf and look at all the scratch built terrain and scenery, all the GW staff armies as well as various "showcase" armies from the general public.

I think the reason it is called "White Dwarf" now is because they have squeezed all the content out, leaving a bloodless, bearded corpse. One that someone has then come along, hollowed out and propped up in the corner stuffed with adverts, like some kind of evil advertising taxidermist.

Bakerofish wrote:isnt the term supposed to be "hanging a lampshade"?

You are correct. My mistake.

My meaning remains though.

I really find the manner in which they present themselves annoying.
As you say, there is nothing wrong with talking up their wares. But they need to distinguish between different forms of communication and realise not everyone is a niave 10 year old kid.

Chibi Bodge-Battle wrote:...and realise not everyone is a niave 10 year old kid.

Lies! Heresy!

GW does not accept that anyone else plays the game and they will purge you for suggesting such blatent untruth!

Hi all.
I totaly agree with H.M.B.C.

Compared to Mantic -BoW vids of Ronnie , Alessio and Jake talking about thier new stuff without a script , just ACTUAL enthusiasm and obvious passion for what they do!

GW 'advetising' is just so souless bland and ill concidered.

TTFN?

I'd rather have something scripted because uhm, we ah, uhm.. Huh, uhm, oh dear.

Hi Brook M
Yes I am sure polished performances and high qualty presentations are better to look at.
But they cost lots of money, which the customer ends up paying for.(B&M stores are hideously expencive too!)

I prefer good quality minatures at reasonable prices, so Mantics focus on 'substance of thier products' over the 'style of presentation' is far more attractive to me!

A few 'ums' and 'ers' at Mantic = RESIN cavalry at £2.50 each.(Probably the best undead cavalry ever.IMO.)

OR
GW plc profesional presentation = white metal+plastic' cavalry at £7,70/£8.70 each.
And all white metal cavalry at £12.30 each!!!


TTFN

Not what I'm getting at, rather I'm getting at BoW's presentation of things. They should be scripting their stuff, not Mantic, they can handle their selves pretty well.

Also, it's BrookM, not Brook M..

H.B.M.C. all these years I have not seen one competent advertising campaign outside GW... Either its salesman instore yaddayadda or insite verborreia its all contained within their little bubble that will miss 99% of people that dont know off GW.
With this said I see GW sales pitch like a monologue, I mean they are talking to themselves and have been doing that for a couple decades
The only times the GW IP is more advertised is when they develop something lateral to the core product they sell, and third party companies explore that IP... and as such have a crack at actually making publicity.

Another example of the oposite ( a alien IP to GW is well advertised and explored and lend to GW ride the wave) was also sucessfull... Lotr.

But if you look inside GW and their attempts to spread the word about their main core products its a joke.

When you say monologue, is it of an old man boring his kids or the super villain with us strapped to the table with a DOOM laser aimed at our junk?

BrookM wrote:When you say monologue, is it of an old man boring his kids or the super villain with us strapped to the table with a DOOM laser aimed at our junk?

More like Old supervillain talking to its Doom laser about how she's so better than its own Junk

NAVARRO wrote:

BrookM wrote:When you say monologue, is it of an old man boring his kids or the super villain with us strapped to the table with a DOOM laser aimed at our junk?

More like Old supervillain talking to its Doom laser about how she's so better than its own Junk

Makes a lot of sense. In a scary way. Maybe a bit Norman Bates scary even.

/agrees with H.B.M.C.

I wouldn't mind the advertising were it not amateurishly disguised in what should be a community article (I think). Sadly, GW are either too tight or too incompetent to market their products effectively, and so have to resort to underhanded advertisements like this.

L. Wrex

I don't know if I'd call it 'underhanded'. Underhanded implies a level of forethought and even a level of malice (ie. they're intentionally trying to 'trick' us). One should never attribute to malice what can be attributed to stupidity or incompetence.

I think they do what they do because honestly don't know any better, or, because they see themselves as the 'GW Hobby' and not part of the miniature wargaming hobby, they truly believe that they can stand apart from every other form of (effective) advertising. Hell, maybe they even think that they're being clever? Who knows.

Whatever it is, as I said, it insults one's intelligence.

H.B.M.C. wrote:I don't know if I'd call it 'underhanded'. Underhanded implies a level of forethought and even a level of malice (ie. they're intentionally trying to 'trick' us). One should never attribute to malice what can be attributed to stupidity or incompetence.

I think they do what they do because honestly don't know any better, or, because they see themselves as the 'GW Hobby' and not part of the miniature wargaming hobby, they truly believe that they can stand apart from every other form of (effective) advertising. Hell, maybe they even think that they're being clever? Who knows.

Whatever it is, as I said, it insults one's intelligence.

I think they are intentionally trying to trick people into using their Available to Order service. The language used, sentence structure, adjectives describing the models; everything is formulated in such a way as to *appear* naive and conversational when in reality its a marketing stunt. The very fact that there is an (admittedly poor) form of advertising hidden under colloquial conversation is underhanded. You could strip the entire first, and longest, paragraph out of that post and it would not detract whatsoever from the overall topic (the classic miniature line).

I think calling it incompetent and stupid is missing the point. Yes, we can read through the lines because we've been in the hobby longer than the target market. To a 10-14 yr old who browses GW's site regularly, this is exactly the kind of snag-advertising that lures them in, they *can't* read through the lines and go away thinking how awesome all those old models are because 'Dan' on the internet told them so.

L. Wrex

Argument well made.

Point conceded.

The only thing I find suprising about all of this is that HBMC still visits the GW site.

notprop wrote:The only thing I find suprising about all of this is that HBMC still visits the GW site.

He might find it kind of like a train wreck - he just can't stop looking at it

Worse than that I suspect he gets a perverse pleasure from GW teasing and whipping him in his Slaanesh themed wargames room.

It is really quite sad. GW has dropped the ball on their website. Content like this What's New Today really detracts from the site. I suspect that people who visit are interested in purchasing advice based on army tactica, or items that have some synergy with what they are viewing. For example, they could recommend the Goblin Warboss on Giant Spider if someone was viewing the Aracnarok. The one positive thing that I can say is that the site is somewhat functional, a state that it was not in about a year ago.

They really need to invest in advertising. The cheapest way to do this would be to let other companies use their IP free of charge and write it off as a form of advertising. I suspect that they would have quite a few takers. I think that they would find that advertising is worth every penny that you invest in it. Breaking into new markets can be very difficult without advertising.

Hell, a few targeted adverts on facebook aimed at people playing certain of the flash games would probably net a few more players.

Lycaeus Wrex wrote:To a 10-14 yr old who browses GW's site regularly, this is exactly the kind of snag-advertising that lures them in, they *can't* read through the lines and go away thinking how awesome all those old models are because 'Dan' on the internet told them so.

L. Wrex

I think that today's 10.14yr are more like

- "Dan" who? Minis what? Plug the ps3 already.

SilverMK2 wrote:
I think the reason it is called "White Dwarf" now is because they have squeezed all the content out, leaving a bloodless, bearded corpse. One that someone has then come along, hollowed out and propped up in the corner stuffed with adverts, like some kind of evil advertising taxidermist.

May I sig that SilverMK2? Really made me laugh