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Five things I would do if I owned Games Workshop. (in no particular order)

1. Incorporate warhammer historical into the main games workshop hobby. To do this, GW would cut a deal with the Perrys to distribute their figures, which would benefit them by increasing their distribution, and give GW an instant toehold into the historical market. The Perrys would be encouraged to create new lines, and new plastics would be created under the WH historical label. White dwarf would have a few pages of articles about WH historical battles using Perry miniatures, with scenarios, army lists etc. Each article would have a paragraph about other companies' miniatures. This would immediately diversify the GW brand, and would leverage the captive market of GW hobbyists. While immediate returns on this level of investment would be low, the long term benefits would be large, as the wider "GW hobby" would keep players in the GW net for longer. Would also attract new players to the GW fold, and would garner good will with Grognards.

2. Revamp white dwarf magazine. While complaints about white dwarf probably started with the first issue, this does not mean that the magazine is junk, and correspondingly does not mean that the magazine does not need change. One change needed in the magazine is more emphasis on the essential British nature of the magazine. There should be a single English language edition, with the "catalog" pages specific to each location. Anglophilia is part of the hobby too, and ought to be encouraged. Another would be to push ALL of GW properties at least a few times a year. The big three should always be included, but the specialist games, skirmish one off games, WFRP, black library fiction, and others should make a regular appearance as well. Writing 6-12 additional pages, with a special advertisement page should not be beyond the realm of possibility. While these extra pages may not drive sales of the magazine, they will drive sales of the items being featured, and are a nice bonus for people who also play the featured game. Another change is to archive articles online. In this day and age, having key articles available only by buying back issues is ridiculous.

3. Embrace long tail sale. With the advent of virtual storefronts the school. With the immense back catalog GW has, not taking advantage of it is a crime. Having a unified web interface that sells bitz and back catalog figures should be something that GW can do, and if the system is set up properly, would be profitable too. Figures and bitz would be priced according to demand/supply/costs. Cast on demand should be possible, and as long as everything is stored properly, selling a few figures a year would not be costly. White Dwarf can push this too, by featuring converted armies, units, figures from the back catalog etc. Speaking solely for myself, I like certain older figures, and converting units etc. Having access to bitz and other back catalog items is what really sustained my interest in the GW hobby, and what caused me to start armies, build specialist units etc. Surely I am not the only customer who spent immense amounts of money on figures not currently available? GW should profit from this.

4. Have a yearly "starter box". By this I mean a big boxed game with rules, miniatures, terrain etc. Obviously we already have this for LotR and the two warhammers, but there are also years when one of these is not released. Having a schedule of other games inserted into the mix would be great, and would also maintain interest from those who may become bored in the main three games. An easy place to start would be with current specialist games. Epic Armageddon, Necromunda, Mordheim, Space Hulk, Warmaster, etc. all deserve a modern boxed set brimming with miniatures. Even if priced at $80-$100 a box, I am sure that they would sell well, and would drive interest into the specialist games lines. With the CAD based miniatures sculpting technology, it should be possible to take 28mm figures and reduce them to 10mm or 6mm as needed, which would allow for easier creation of Epic and Warmaster plastics. Necromunda and the other 28mm games already have boxes which would just need to be recreated with new rules, plastic terrain etc. These current games are much beloved, and new versions of them would be decent sellers at best. New specialist games would be a way to expand what is meant by the GW hobby in to other areas, and could feature such things as: Warhammer historical boxed set, Warmaster Historical boxed set, Great Battles of Middle earth: Helms deep, Adeptus Titanicus etc.

5. This fifth idea is not an outright money maker, and would not even benefit me directly, but I think it is important for the company, the GW hobby, and for miniatures in general. That is that GW ought to participate in the convention circuit. Currently GW only attends its own Games Days, plus a few fan tournaments. If needed one or two North American Games Days could be pruned (really, why should we get four games days, and the UK only one?) Having GW go to GenCon, Historicon, Salute, and others would expose more people to the hobby, as well as support the general miniatures industry. Supporting the general industry is useful because it creates a pool of industry talent, as well as drive sales in ancillary products like bases, terrain etc.

Anyway, those are my five. What do you think? What would you do?

You've got some great ideas there.

WH Ancients is already surprisingly popular -- attracting players who cut their teeth on 40K and FB.

You have good idears there.

"Anglophilia is part of the hobby too, and ought to be encouraged"

?

I must confess that I don't see how playing/painting with toy soldier and speaking english are related.

Here are some more things I'll add to your 5

7 habits of a highly successful GW (maybe)

1. Have a two rulesets released for 40k and possibly for fantasy as well. 1 would be the Tournament Set, giving rock solid rules with little attention to fluff or background in the way that the ruleset gives at the moment. The other ruleset would be the "casual" ruleset, similar to what Apocalypse is now but scalable to all sizes. Maybe not as well balanced as tournament rules are but more fluff friendly.

2. Increase media presence. When was the last time you saw a GW ad in a major gaming magazine that didn't relate to Dawn of War or something along those lines. I see Dungeons and Dragons ads and MTG stuff in gaming magazines all the time, not to mention the various Decipher products, White Wolf across the board, and WizKids. Also advertise on the web, come on guys, this ain't the 1970s anymore.

3. Get a real release schedule. Wizards of the Coast has a list they put out around November or earlier of everything that is coming up in the next year. Magic releases run like clockwork and involve a tremendous amount of playtesting and work to finish just as GW's stuff does. All of Wizard's major competitors have similar schemes running though some are better than others...

4. Release new units not in the codex. I remember when the Falcon Grav Tank was first released. (Yes, kiddies there was a time whence Tri-Falcon was not even a concept, let alone a possibility. We didn't even have tanks as such in the 2e codex) It was not in the codex, the rules were in a White Dwarf. Didn't have that White Dwarf? No problem!, the rules were in the box, nicely formatted monochromatic datasheet. That would ease a lot of the moaning about slow rules release cycles.

5. Put logical stuff in plastic. I'd buy raptors if they were plastic, I love the rules, I hate paying 20 bucks over what the loyalists do for what is now basically the same unit. I have pretty good conversion skills but having to convert basic units just to afford them is irritating. Hell, I'd be fine with just the back packs in plastic, I could then put them on normal chaos marines and be done with it.

6. This relates directly to 1 and 3, get one person to coordinate the ruleset design so we don't have this all over the place, underbalancing, overbalancing mess that we do now.

7. For the love of the Warp, hire a real graphic designer for your layout. I've got friends who can do better jobs.

Seriously, I think the single best thing that could happen to GW would be for Wizards to roar into the hobby miniatures business with something as good. Forcing them to really really compete would cause a lot of pain, but it would be good for everyone involved in the long run. (And before all you PP and so on fans chime in, I picked Wizards because they have enough muscle to actually threaten GW's market share in a significant way.)

Those are my ideas, some half baked, some less so...

M_Stress wrote:You have good idears there.

"Anglophilia is part of the hobby too, and ought to be encouraged"

?

I must confess that I don't see how playing/painting with toy soldier and speaking english are related.

Not the language per se, but the culture is an attactive element of "the Hobby". Reading about bacon butties, proper ways to make tea etc. are fairly extranious to building, painting, and playing with little metal/plastic men, but it does present a nice image of "jolly old England" which I find attractive, and certainly helped to draw my interest to white dwarf as a youth.

I was prepared to demolish this thread due to the subject, but you came up some very good ideas. How dare you!

This would make a good handwritten letter to the company, since that's the bet bet for attention that I can think of without making it into a huge personal project.

I gotta agree, those are all good points (though I would recommend Cold Wars instead of Historicon. Crappier weather usually, but Historicon is a little more... well historical focused.)

One thing I would add is that GW really needs to adopt a "One Company" policy. All of this business about having a GW UK and GW US and GW BFE is silly and counter productive. While it makes sense to have different business divisions, such divisions should be transparent to the consumer.

That, and GW REALLY needs some decent inventory management practices. This relates to your idea about having the back catalogue etc. and I think is tied to the seemingly silo approach to their regional companies. They never seem to have good distributions of stock , such that you order something and it takes months to get to you because they sent it by homing pidgeon from the UK. I am not saying they don't do anything in that reguard, but they exhibit a lot of the symptoms of very poor supply chain management.

Wehrkind wrote:I gotta agree, those are all good points (though I would recommend Cold Wars instead of Historicon. Crappier weather usually, but Historicon is a little more... well historical focused.)

One thing I would add is that GW really needs to adopt a "One Company" policy. All of this business about having a GW UK and GW US and GW BFE is silly and counter productive. While it makes sense to have different business divisions, such divisions should be transparent to the consumer.

That, and GW REALLY needs some decent inventory management practices. This relates to your idea about having the back catalogue etc. and I think is tied to the seemingly silo approach to their regional companies. They never seem to have good distributions of stock , such that you order something and it takes months to get to you because they sent it by homing pidgeon from the UK. I am not saying they don't do anything in that reguard, but they exhibit a lot of the symptoms of very poor supply chain management.

Inventory management is being improved, according to the latest AGM presentation.

It is essential for efficient and effective sales both through retail, and mail order and would be particularly important for bitz and back catalogue orders.

In an ideal world, GW would do manufacture on demand of metal bits and classic figures.

Put the rules on the website. They don't do this because they make money off the books, but more people would get into it if they didn't have to buy incredibly expensive, not-especially well-printed books. I know people who don't wargame (no, seriously, there are lots of them out there) and they think of warhammer (if you don't wargame, 40k and FWH are the same thing) as something bordering on esoteric. The minis are expensive and you have to buy at least ten books just to start learning the rules. (That's a quote from a friend who considered 40k but decided against it)

If they had the rules on the web, people could just buy some minis, look 'em up and begin. I think most people would eventually get the rulebook anyway, as it's a lot nicer to read a book, but that they would attract a lot more people if buying it wasn't mandatory.

They would also sell at least 1 more copy if they didn't do their printing in China, because I buy the minis because I support stuff not being made in Asia, and that's why I downloaded all their books from The Pirate Bay.

Edit: Oops. Sorry mod people.

OK I'll play...

1 - Immediately launch skirmish versions of 40k and Fantasy. They would be updated versions of Necro and Mordheim supported by multipart plastic warband kits. The goal is to have an intro game that parents can walk in off the street and buy.

2 - Include the mini rule book in every army box.

3 - Launch a beta test army program. These would not be for tournaments but would be 'official' and 'legal' for fun games. This would include Lost and Damned, Arbites, Adeptus Mech, Kroot, Squats, divergent Marine Chapters etc. Make it clear these armies will not get models (barring major sales) but as Lasgun said this embraces the long tail and gives Vets something to aspire to.

4 - Online army building programs on the GW website. Accompany them with general tactical forums. People want social networking and a feeling of belonging and if they're not getting it on the GW site they're going to get it on places like Dakka where who knows what alien ideas they'll hear.

5 - Make sure each new itineration of codexes or army books has something new to offer. The Space Marine Codex (for example) should have has a strong focus on 2 or 3 chapters that haven't had the spotlight including at least one new one. Rehashing the Ultramarines for the thousandth time just makes vets eyes glaze over. The Fantasy and 40k worlds are large, don't get trapped in a niche.

captain.gordino wrote:Put the rules on the website. They don't do this because they make money off the books, but more people would get into it if they didn't have to buy incredibly expensive shittily printed books. I know people who don't wargame (no, seriously, there are lots of them out there) and they think of warhammer (if you don't wargame, 40k and FWH are the same thing) as something bordering on esoteric. The minis are expensive and you have to buy at least ten books just to start learning the rules. (That's a quote from a friend who considered 40k but decided against it)

If they had the rules on the web, people could just buy some minis, look 'em up and begin. I think most people would eventually get the rulebook anyway, as it's a lot nicer to read a book, but that they would attract a lot more people if buying it wasn't mandatory.

They would also sell at least 1 more copy if they didn't do their printing in China, because I buy the minis because I support stuff not being made in Asia, and that's why I downloaded all their books from The Pirate Bay.

Also if they had all of the books up online, you could easily know all the rules for your opponents, thus cutting down hugely on the ability to cheat.

Even just selling fully search-a-ble PDF's of their Codices would be a step in the right direction.

BYE

I like the way GW presents the rules... 1 big rulebook and a "sourcebook" for each army.

What I don't like is that the books are made to sell models and not have great armies. "Hey we wanna sell a ton of those brand new plastic carnifexes.. lets make them be elites too!" and them saying "troops are more important in in 5th edition" translates to "Lets get the kids to buy more army men".

That's the one thing, above all other things, that I would change. But I know that change will never come...

Eldramesha wrote:

captain.gordino wrote:Put the rules on the website. They don't do this because they make money off the books, but more people would get into it if they didn't have to buy incredibly expensive shittily printed books. I know people who don't wargame (no, seriously, there are lots of them out there) and they think of warhammer (if you don't wargame, 40k and FWH are the same thing) as something bordering on esoteric. The minis are expensive and you have to buy at least ten books just to start learning the rules. (That's a quote from a friend who considered 40k but decided against it)

If they had the rules on the web, people could just buy some minis, look 'em up and begin. I think most people would eventually get the rulebook anyway, as it's a lot nicer to read a book, but that they would attract a lot more people if buying it wasn't mandatory.

They would also sell at least 1 more copy if they didn't do their printing in China, because I buy the minis because I support stuff not being made in Asia, and that's why I downloaded all their books from The Pirate Bay.

Also if they had all of the books up online, you could easily know all the rules for your opponents, thus cutting down hugely on the ability to cheat.

Do you know that GW Japan does exactly that?. You need to know japanese but all the codex are on the website to download for free.

M.

lasgunpacker wrote:Five things I would do if I owned Games Workshop. (in no particular order)

1. Incorporate warhammer historical into the main games workshop hobby. To do this, GW would cut a deal with the Perrys to distribute their figures, which would benefit them by increasing their distribution, and give GW an instant toehold into the historical market. The Perrys would be encouraged to create new lines, and new plastics would be created under the WH historical label. White dwarf would have a few pages of articles about WH historical battles using Perry miniatures, with scenarios, army lists etc. Each article would have a paragraph about other companies' miniatures. This would immediately diversify the GW brand, and would leverage the captive market of GW hobbyists. While immediate returns on this level of investment would be low, the long term benefits would be large, as the wider "GW hobby" would keep players in the GW net for longer. Would also attract new players to the GW fold, and would garner good will with Grognards.

That would be over the Perrys`dead bodies. Aparently they are still burn out from GW mass sculpting ethos. I had it from a close source that at last years Salute they were proded to step their efforts to make more stuff that could be used for Ancients and the coming WWI game and they answered to my source that they did not want to grow and stop sculpting what they feel like doing to meet corporate deadlines due to bigger demand of a certain product/codex.

As always they might think different this season but I don´t think so.

M.

Kid_Kyoto wrote:

3 - Launch a beta test army program. These would not be for tournaments but would be 'official' and 'legal' for fun games. This would include Lost and Damned, Arbites, Adeptus Mech, Kroot, Squats, divergent Marine Chapters etc. Make it clear these armies will not get models (barring major sales) but as Lasgun said this embraces the long tail and gives Vets something to aspire to.

This I like, but I'd like to see a beta test stage for ALL codexes. GW puts the beta version on the website for free, and leaves a questionnaire up there and a feedback form. They instantly have access to thousands of playtesters who submit the rules to the harshest scrutiny. GW then takes the feedback and prints the revised rules as a book. They lose no money, no-one can use the beta rules anymore, and they gain game balance and enfranchised customers.

If only.

Greebynog wrote:

Kid_Kyoto wrote:

3 - Launch a beta test army program. These would not be for tournaments but would be 'official' and 'legal' for fun games. This would include Lost and Damned, Arbites, Adeptus Mech, Kroot, Squats, divergent Marine Chapters etc. Make it clear these armies will not get models (barring major sales) but as Lasgun said this embraces the long tail and gives Vets something to aspire to.

This I like, but I'd like to see a beta test stage for ALL codexes. GW puts the beta version on the website for free, and leaves a questionnaire up there and a feedback form. They instantly have access to thousands of playtesters who submit the rules to the harshest scrutiny. GW then takes the feedback and prints the revised rules as a book. They lose no money, no-one can use the beta rules anymore, and they gain game balance and enfranchised customers.

If only.

Not to mention rules whose clarity gets burned into the ground.

H.B.M.C. wrote:Even just selling fully search-a-ble PDF's of their Codices would be a step in the right direction.

BYE

Made of win.

On that note, it would probably be built into the handheld tablet-console-armybuilder-statsheet that I also think someone should develop. Just to make sure you need electricity somewhere. Grin.

they should care about the damn people playing the game! thas all, period.

I know one of the game testers who doe's the beta and this is what he said about gw

'not once have they asked what armys I play, how often, or if I where to tell them I played 8 armys they'd think I was a fanatic because everyone over there has 10,000 points of every army they have. Thats also oneo fhte big reasons apocolypse is so broken and takes so long.' to that effect.

honestly if gw crashed it would be a great day that another company picks up the peices of 40k.

its really sad that by looking at the stats you can tell whats getting new models. they put cheep termis in the black reach set but their stats and rules barely changed, they put these new vets in (sternguard) and bring back pedro and holy gak their ungodly.

Just waiting for Warhammer Historical to bring out rules for WWII, then perhaps GW may decide to make historical models. This is an area where they could clean up, all that experience and casting equipment, there could be an awesome amount of ranges made.

Trouble is with making Historical 'Mainstream' and producing their own models is Foundry time.

Sure, they have the machines, but in terms of time and storage, do they have the time to devote to it? They already run 3 main games plus the Specialist Range. They may not work to capacity as is, but you never know.

Stop the hating on competitive players. Really, from Jervis' attitude at adepticon you'd think those who enjoy playing 'ard games at tournaments were some sort of business hazard, instead of some of their best customers. Certainly there are jerks who drive folks away from the hobby, but there are just as many casual jerks as competitive ones, and conflating the two leads to alienating your tournament base.

'Ardboyz is a step in the right direction, but there's more to be done. Why is the only openly competitive tournament scaled to a size that warps the game balance that we experience at the rest of the tournaments all year? That's like having your Golden Daemon contest only involve wooden models.

40kenthusiast wrote:Stop the hating on competitive players.

That is the biggest thing...The holier than thou donkey-caves have pretty much driven me from the game...It's not fun if you're constantly worried about being seen as a bad person because of the list you play or because you perfer to actually follow the rules.

wash-away wrote:they should care about the damn people playing the game! thas all, period.

I know one of the game testers who doe's the beta and this is what he said about gw

'not once have they asked what armys I play, how often, or if I where to tell them I played 8 armys they'd think I was a fanatic because everyone over there has 10,000 points of every army they have. Thats also oneo fhte big reasons apocolypse is so broken and takes so long.' to that effect.

honestly if gw crashed it would be a great day that another company picks up the peices of 40k.

its really sad that by looking at the stats you can tell whats getting new models. they put cheep termis in the black reach set but their stats and rules barely changed, they put these new vets in (sternguard) and bring back pedro and holy gak their ungodly.

Well that was about the least intelligible thing I've read today.

captain.gordino wrote:

wash-away wrote:they should care about the damn people playing the game! thas all, period.

I know one of the game testers who doe's the beta and this is what he said about gw

'not once have they asked what armys I play, how often, or if I where to tell them I played 8 armys they'd think I was a fanatic because everyone over there has 10,000 points of every army they have. Thats also oneo fhte big reasons apocolypse is so broken and takes so long.' to that effect.

honestly if gw crashed it would be a great day that another company picks up the peices of 40k.

its really sad that by looking at the stats you can tell whats getting new models. they put cheep termis in the black reach set but their stats and rules barely changed, they put these new vets in (sternguard) and bring back pedro and holy gak their ungodly.

Well that was about the least intelligible thing I've read today.

yeah.. sorry I posted that way to late in the night.

Wolfstan wrote:Just waiting for Warhammer Historical to bring out rules for WWII, then perhaps GW may decide to make historical models. This is an area where they could clean up, all that experience and casting equipment, there could be an awesome amount of ranges made.

I think Flames of War has already cleaned up on WW2.

Hi all.
Well lots of good ideas so far.

I would like to get rid of all the 'disconnects' at GW towers and get some synergy back into the buisness.
In reguards to customers staff and corperate managment ALL understanding what GW PLC is all about .

GAMES WORKSHOP is all about selling CITADEL MINATURES nowadays.
Let the bean counters win, call the company 'Citadel Minatures ' and forget about the pretence of 'games development'.
WOOT!!!!10 page spread in WD with big pictures , NEW MODEL IS THE ROOXXXORS!!!!
(Ahem, I think even GW realised this dosent work that well....)

OR
Recognise great game play sells far more models than 'special rules for the new models this month syndrome .'

Seperate rules development from minature releases.
Have the RULES free to down load like the living rule books of the SGs.(Update them as required every few months.)
NO army becomes out of date,as all armies are developed at the same time .Game play takes priority over 'minature pimping!'

Have the 'new codexes' chock full of background and modeling and painting guides to show folk how to get the best from the new minatures.

So the asthetic development of the games is free to evolve at its own pace, and the functinal development of the games is free to be adjusted as and when required.(Do not have to wait 5+ years for a 'new' codex.)

ATM 40k is trying to be all things to all gamers , and as such fails to be great at any thing in particular.

Seperate rule sets for the different game play requirments perhaps ?

Trying to have ONE rule set cover skirmish detail at the grand battle level, suitable for co-operative narrative play, optimised for tournaments.
Is just a lot of comprimises wrapped up in a big 'sell the model of the moment' hype.

Left to thier own devices the GW staff are capable of MUCH beter games development.IMO.

5. This fifth idea is not an outright money maker, and would not even benefit me directly, but I think it is important for the company, the GW hobby, and for miniatures in general. That is that GW ought to participate in the convention circuit. Currently GW only attends its own Games Days, plus a few fan tournaments. If needed one or two North American Games Days could be pruned (really, why should we get four games days, and the UK only one?) Having GW go to GenCon, Historicon, Salute, and others would expose more people to the hobby, as well as support the general miniatures industry. Supporting the general industry is useful because it creates a pool of industry talent, as well as drive sales in ancillary products like bases, terrain etc.

I think this is ridiculously stupid idea. You need to recognize business is not community. If you are the biggest boy in the block, you want people focused on your brand, not everybody elses. Look what happened to D&D and Gen Con? They did a come one come all convention and frankly D&D is pretty dead.

By having games days they put together an event that's focused solely on their people. I think this is fantastic. Makes everybody feel, special.

I would in fact expand Games Days, specifically head to other liberal regions of america. There is a good reason why their games work well in certain locals, mainly east coast, west coast and Chicago.

I would focus on other liberal, intellectual centers of America, Dallas, Boulder, Atlanta. You need bright people to play this game, let's face it, some just don't get it, and they never will.

Frankly guys there is no 'destiny' for expanding the hobby. If the stores are not there you won't play it, you need to find people to play against, all the time.

Anhoo my two cents.

I think they need a core ruleset about the level of the current 5e rules but two editions, a "friendly" version which is all chatty and appealing to new players, and a "tournament" edition which is as precise as bullets.

Then a skirmish level game equivalent to Kill Team / 40K in 40, and a megagame like Apoc but done better.

Supplements for special scenarios like Cities of Death would also be nice.

And some campaign books that aren't all about Spase Marienz.

lasgunpacker wrote:

M_Stress wrote:You have good idears there.

"Anglophilia is part of the hobby too, and ought to be encouraged"

?

I must confess that I don't see how playing/painting with toy soldier and speaking english are related.

Not the language per se, but the culture is an attactive element of "the Hobby". Reading about bacon butties, proper ways to make tea etc. are fairly extranious to building, painting, and playing with little metal/plastic men, but it does present a nice image of "jolly old England" which I find attractive, and certainly helped to draw my interest to white dwarf as a youth.

As an Englishman, I'm shocked and appalled by your patronising and innaccurate perceptions of our proud and great nation, fortunately as an Englishman I'm also far too polite to say anything about it, so I'll just say nothing, stiffen my upper lip and read my copy of the Daily Telegraph that the butler just finished ironing.