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I think GW models have demonstrated low price elasticity for a long time, and that has allowed GW to get away with frequent price rises. However everything except insulin has a point where the price elasticity breaks down.

The question is whether GW have reached that point yet.

The second question is how much influence people leaving the HHHobby have on others who may or may not have joined it.

I believe GW receives a lot of word of mouth support from vets. The presence of lots of vets helps ensure a wide userbase and support for newbies. How often have you seen people say they can go nearly anywhere and get a game of 40K? I've said it myself.

This is called the network effect. The more people playing the game, the more reason for people to join the game.

If this effect was ever important, and it started to break down, GW would find themselves in trouble.

Wolfstan wrote:Just curious and wondered if the people who are defending GW's stance on protecting the hobby also buy from Amazon? I work in Bournemouth and we used to have a great big Borders, but no longer. It closed due competition from places like Amazon and the supermarkets.

That was the publicly stated reason for Borders' poor performance. Although I rather suspect that their bad PR over the last 10 years or so had something to do with it as well. And while I can't speak for the US, the fact that here in Oz they were more expensive than every other bookstore, and tended to go for massive stores in very expensive locations certainly would have contributed to the problem.

Come to think of it, there's probably a few things in that list that GW should pay attention to.



The most ridiculous thing about all of this is GW's continued habit of shutting their eyes really tight in the belief that if they try hard enough, the internet will go away. To be fair, they're not the only company struggling with this (see exhibit B just above)... but sooner or later, they're going to have to realise that the internet is here to stay, and it is changing the way the retail industry works.

The companies that survive the change will be those who learn to adapt to that changing industry. Trying to stick your fingers in the holes and continue doing business the way you were 10 years ago is monumentally stupid.

I think that a lot of the younger posters here have no idea of the history of GW and how it became such a big beast. It got there because of us gamers... in fact it was use vets that enabled GW to become what they are today. I'm 42 years old, I got into gaming when I was around 13 playing D&D. At that time there was a company called Citidel and company called Games Design Workshop. Citidel made the models I used in my D&D games, GDW produced some of the othe RPG's I played, Paranoia, Judge Dredd, Call of Cthulhu, Travller, Stormbringer, etc. White Dwarf was born around this time, if not a bit earlier. Citidel & GDW merged and the White Dwarfs that a lot of us hark back to came about. It was the era of the gamer. RPG was King.

Games Workshop was born out of the merging of Citidel & GDW. It was still a golden age, WD was amazing. Modelling tips, scenarios, reviews, and all the other that has been talked about. GW took a fantasy RPG and started to develop what became Warhammer, Rogue Trader was born, it developed in to 40k. Space Marine, Gorkamorka, Man O War, Necromunda, Bloodbowl were spawned. We loved it. We invested our time and money into this. Money on their products and time painting the models, time organisng clubs, time spent getting our younger siblings interested... time and money that allowed GW to expand and then become a public company.

We now come to modern times. Now don't get me wrong, GW is allowed to make money and it shouldn't jump to the tune of every whine, moan or suggestion from the internet. What it should do is remember is where it came from and how it got there. It should treat us gamers with a bit more respect. We should feel that all they are trying to do is get our money off us. They should be making us want to spend out money with them, not making money from turning the screws on a financial level. They should sort their rules out, so it's back to being about gaming and the fluff, not ramming the latest release down our throats.

To those GW fanboys under the age of 40 I say this, GW didn't come about out of thin air, it succeeded because my generation invested their time, money and energy into them, so we have every right to feel a little bit abused by them at the moment.

Kilkrazy wrote:I think GW models have demonstrated low price elasticity for a long time, and that has allowed GW to get away with frequent price rises.

5 years with about 10% price increases, about constant total revenue and therefore 10% less sold goods don't sound like low price elasticy, but like a major problem that can't be solved with another 10-25% price increase..

Wolfstan wrote:I think that a lot of the younger posters here have no idea of the history of GW and how it became such a big beast. It got there because of us gamers... in fact it was use vets that enabled GW to become what they are today. I'm 42 years old, I got into gaming when I was around 13 playing D&D. At that time there was a company called Citidel and company called Games Design Workshop. Citidel made the models I used in my D&D games, GDW produced some of the othe RPG's I played, Paranoia, Judge Dredd, Call of Cthulhu, Travller, Stormbringer, etc. White Dwarf was born around this time, if not a bit earlier. Citidel & GDW merged and the White Dwarfs that a lot of us hark back to came about. It was the era of the gamer. RPG was King.

Games Workshop was born out of the merging of Citidel & GDW. It was still a golden age, WD was amazing. Modelling tips, scenarios, reviews, and all the other that has been talked about. GW took a fantasy RPG and started to develop what became Warhammer, Rogue Trader was born, it developed in to 40k. Space Marine, Gorkamorka, Man O War, Necromunda, Bloodbowl were spawned. We loved it. We invested our time and money into this. Money on their products and time painting the models, time organisng clubs, time spent getting our younger siblings interested... time and money that allowed GW to expand and then become a public company.

We now come to modern times. Now don't get me wrong, GW is allowed to make money and it shouldn't jump to the tune of every whine, moan or suggestion from the internet. What it should do is remember is where it came from and how it got there. It should treat us gamers with a bit more respect. We should feel that all they are trying to do is get our money off us. They should be making us want to spend out money with them, not making money from turning the screws on a financial level. They should sort their rules out, so it's back to being about gaming and the fluff, not ramming the latest release down our throats.

To those GW fanboys under the age of 40 I say this, GW didn't come about out of thin air, it succeeded because my generation invested their time, money and energy into them, so we have every right to feel a little bit abused by them at the moment.

GW did not from from GDW and Citadel.

GW was formed to sell the new wave of RPGs from the US and eventually became the distributor of nearly all of them, but primarily DnD.

They eventually got together with Citadel and took Citadel to the US. Eventually GW baught Citadel but kept the separate identities.

GDW were a completely separate company with (as far as I know) no relationship to GW other than being in WD when it was a proper industry wide mag.

Other than that Wolfstan is spot on.

Game Designers' Workshop was a US company responsible for games are varied as Fire In The East, Traveller (first ever SF role-playing game), Space 1889 (first ever Steampunk game) and Blue Max. You can look them up on boardgamegeek.com.

However, the basics of what Wolfstan said are true. GW and Citadel were a general hobby games company and fantasy/SF figures company. Gradually the focus changed away from selling a variety of games to selling their own games. Then that changed until now they only sell Warhammer, 40K and LoTR.

notprop wrote:

Wolfstan wrote:I think that a lot of the younger posters here have no idea of the history of GW and how it became such a big beast. It got there because of us gamers... in fact it was use vets that enabled GW to become what they are today. I'm 42 years old, I got into gaming when I was around 13 playing D&D. At that time there was a company called Citidel and company called Games Design Workshop. Citidel made the models I used in my D&D games, GDW produced some of the othe RPG's I played, Paranoia, Judge Dredd, Call of Cthulhu, Travller, Stormbringer, etc. White Dwarf was born around this time, if not a bit earlier. Citidel & GDW merged and the White Dwarfs that a lot of us hark back to came about. It was the era of the gamer. RPG was King.

Games Workshop was born out of the merging of Citidel & GDW. It was still a golden age, WD was amazing. Modelling tips, scenarios, reviews, and all the other that has been talked about. GW took a fantasy RPG and started to develop what became Warhammer, Rogue Trader was born, it developed in to 40k. Space Marine, Gorkamorka, Man O War, Necromunda, Bloodbowl were spawned. We loved it. We invested our time and money into this. Money on their products and time painting the models, time organisng clubs, time spent getting our younger siblings interested... time and money that allowed GW to expand and then become a public company.

We now come to modern times. Now don't get me wrong, GW is allowed to make money and it shouldn't jump to the tune of every whine, moan or suggestion from the internet. What it should do is remember is where it came from and how it got there. It should treat us gamers with a bit more respect. We should feel that all they are trying to do is get our money off us. They should be making us want to spend out money with them, not making money from turning the screws on a financial level. They should sort their rules out, so it's back to being about gaming and the fluff, not ramming the latest release down our throats.

To those GW fanboys under the age of 40 I say this, GW didn't come about out of thin air, it succeeded because my generation invested their time, money and energy into them, so we have every right to feel a little bit abused by them at the moment.

GW did not from from GDW and Citadel.

GW was formed to sell the new wave of RPGs from the US and eventually became the distributor of nearly all of them, but primarily DnD.

They eventually got together with Citadel and took Citadel to the US. Eventually GW baught Citadel but kept the separate identities.

GDW were a completely separate company with (as far as I know) no relationship to GW other than being in WD when it was a proper industry wide mag.

Other than that Wolfstan is spot on.

Sorry... but I'm 42 you know!

Blimey its the Queen Mum!

I'm not as old as Wolfstan but I do remember the time when citadel miniatures was a separate entity and White Dwarf was really cool, I too played Judge Dread and Dark Future and D&D and recall GW stores selling TSR products etc as well as their own. I remember being sad when they went to doing just their own stuff. I certainly feel a lot of nostalgia for those early days when I was first getting into the hobby and all it entailed but it is still cool and the models have got so much better over all, I have a fair amount of RT stuff still and you can see that the production has come on leaps and bounds since then.

It always amazes me how few forum users know how to use the Internet for anything else. There are lots of good, detailed histories of Games Workshop on the Internet that anyone who knows how to use a search engine can find in seconds. I've been doing this hobby since GW was selling TSR products in their stores as well, but there's nothing like good written documentation for detailed information everyone can share.

Here's one good history of GW:
http://pc.ign.com/articles/911/911959p1.html

And another:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Games_Workshop

And another:
http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/content/article.jsp?aId=3500005

And another:
http://web.mac.com/melfstrom/Warhammer/Early_GW_History.html

And GDW never had anything to do with GW, but they did create one of the first popular RPGs after D&D. It's called "Traveller" and I got a first edition in 1977. I'm sure a few of you have heard of that game.

Confusion probably stems from the Traveller comic strip that ran in WD for several moons.

Damnit, now I want to go and dig them all out and read them again. DAMN YOOOOO!

Thrax wrote:...People need to stop acting like they're helpless and use their money to move the hobby in a positive direction...

At one point I owned more than 5000 Citadel/GW miniatures. Not points, actual figures. GW finally lost me as a customer when they started invalidating rules/codexs before I'd learned the old ones - does anyone remember the vehicle targeting system with the acetate template?

I'll stop with the 'get off my lawn' rant.

I still play minis, but they tend to have cogs and gears on them...

J--

insaniak wrote:

Wolfstan wrote:Just curious and wondered if the people who are defending GW's stance on protecting the hobby also buy from Amazon? I work in Bournemouth and we used to have a great big Borders, but no longer. It closed due competition from places like Amazon and the supermarkets.

That was the publicly stated reason for Borders' poor performance. Although I rather suspect that their bad PR over the last 10 years or so had something to do with it as well. And while I can't speak for the US, the fact that here in Oz they were more expensive than every other bookstore, and tended to go for massive stores in very expensive locations certainly would have contributed to the problem.

Come to think of it, there's probably a few things in that list that GW should pay attention to.

That is essentially what I've seen here in the US as well, and where I imagine other sellers like Barnes and Noble are headed. I stopped in a B&N a few months ago to pick up a new book release after checking their website for the price. The store would not honor their own online price for an item when I want to buy in store.

I love how on GW battleforces are around $90.00 whereas on Darksphere, battleforces are around $60-$65.

mattyrm wrote: You dont think the wow comparisson is an apt one though?

Ive had my wow account for five years, granted I didnt play when I was away on ops, but ive always kept the account. They have took me for about what.. £450 in subs over the years?

If they added £2 a month, I would pay it. So would 99.99% of my guild. The point im simply making is that we LOVE wow, so we will carry on paying regardless of a price increase.

GW are the same, this website amuses me because of how irate people get about GW, but we fething LOVE IT. We are on dakka because we love it, we love the fluff, we love the books and the stories, we love the models and we love the whole universe they have created. Now, im not a rich GW board member, I can just deal with the cold hard facts of life. I would like it if GW charged less, but they dont, so I shrug it off, spend a bit less on booze and clothes, and crack on buying their stuff.

90% of people will do the same, if you want to stop buying, then do so, but seriously, the nerd rage people display is laughable. Its their company, they make these decisions rightly or wrongly, but really, whats the point in the impotent rage?

Thats all im saying. Im not saying Im happy about the price increase, im jus saying.. you know.. gak happens. No sense to cry about it. If I owned GW, id want to do my best to make a gakload of cash as well!

Why does this meme keep getting repeated? GW has had declining sales for nearly a decade, but people seem to imagine that they have the retention of a roach motel. Since Cataclysm came out, WoW has lost 600,000 subscribers.

Mind you, I'm not trying to say that these two entities are on a similar path: Blizzard clearly has the edge on GW*, as they possess one thing that GW seems to absolutely lack, a concern for their customers. WoW numbers are cyclical, with people leaving and then being lured back as the developers evaluate and adjust. GW's sales figures, on the other hand, show a consistent trend down, while their prices trend up.

*FYI, for those with an interest in irrelevant numbers, realize that those 600k (5%) subscribers lost by Blizzard represents (presuming, arguendo, $15 per month subscription fee) that's over 100 million dollars in lost revenue for Blizzard. Or, put another way, about half of GW's total revenue in 2010. Food for thought.

notprop wrote:Blimey its the Queen Mum!

MY GOD REALLY! Ask her.... "Can she expell matt ward from Great Britian into Perth Australia?

I think Blizzard could raise their prices on WoW and still make more money in the short term. However, as a Massively Multiplayer game, Blizzard has an interest in maintaining high customer numbers. I've had to transfer characters off 'dead' servers when the major guilds disbanded or left. Eventually I quit when cataclysm came out, because I really don't need two full-time jobs .

Again, GW is doing what many other companies do. They're just doing it later, more publicly, and more arrogantly. Most companies that find a way to cut costs don't pass the savings onto their consumers (definitely not the entire thing anyway). If consumers were happy with the product at the current price, why bother? Its the price *increase* that people are hating on. Many companies don't change the RRP of products when exchange rates change. Again, there is no point, unless the customer can somehow find a way to get stuff significantly cheaper with minimal hassle. Many companies, especially those with outlets or resellers in other countries, have some kind of trade embargo (albiet more subtly worded).


Borders is a very good example, much better than WoW. A UK based business, which set the prices on their products years ago, set up a retail chain in other countries. Now the internet age has come along, and currencies have shifted. Borders sell for full RRP. Independent sellers (or department stores) sell the same books for far less. Books overseas are far cheaper with the new exchange rate, and a few companies offer free shipping. They have competition from ebook sales. In fact, its almost exactly the same as Games Workshop. And they are dying (dead?).

Now, GW won't go down as quickly - they are correct that being a luxury niche business, they're not as effected by world economics as others. But it is clear that sales are trending downwards.

And finally... warhammer in Aus is only 'marked up' compared to current exchange rates. Aus RRP is approximately the same % of your wage, as warhammer in the UK is as a % of their wage. Its only the fact that we can order discounted Warhammer from the UK with free shipping that makes it seem 'marked up'.

ArbeitsSchu wrote:Confusion probably stems from the Traveller comic strip that ran in WD for several moons.

Damnit, now I want to go and dig them all out and read them again. DAMN YOOOOO!

GW published the Traveller books in the UK (which I still have) and Citadel published several (5?) box sets of official Traveller figures (which I still have). They were 15mm.

Wolfstan wrote:I think that a lot of the younger posters here have no idea of the history of GW and how it became such a big beast. It got there because of us gamers... in fact it was use vets that enabled GW to become what they are today. I'm 42 years old, I got into gaming when I was around 13 playing D&D. At that time there was a company called Citidel and company called Games Design Workshop. Citidel made the models I used in my D&D games, GDW produced some of the othe RPG's I played, Paranoia, Judge Dredd, Call of Cthulhu, Travller, Stormbringer, etc. White Dwarf was born around this time, if not a bit earlier. Citidel & GDW merged and the White Dwarfs that a lot of us hark back to came about. It was the era of the gamer. RPG was King.

Games Workshop was born out of the merging of Citidel & GDW. It was still a golden age, WD was amazing. Modelling tips, scenarios, reviews, and all the other that has been talked about. GW took a fantasy RPG and started to develop what became Warhammer, Rogue Trader was born, it developed in to 40k. Space Marine, Gorkamorka, Man O War, Necromunda, Bloodbowl were spawned. We loved it. We invested our time and money into this. Money on their products and time painting the models, time organisng clubs, time spent getting our younger siblings interested... time and money that allowed GW to expand and then become a public company.

We now come to modern times. Now don't get me wrong, GW is allowed to make money and it shouldn't jump to the tune of every whine, moan or suggestion from the internet. What it should do is remember is where it came from and how it got there. It should treat us gamers with a bit more respect. We should feel that all they are trying to do is get our money off us. They should be making us want to spend out money with them, not making money from turning the screws on a financial level. They should sort their rules out, so it's back to being about gaming and the fluff, not ramming the latest release down our throats.

To those GW fanboys under the age of 40 I say this, GW didn't come about out of thin air, it succeeded because my generation invested their time, money and energy into them, so we have every right to feel a little bit abused by them at the moment.

All the rage is starting to make more sense to me now.

I didn't really get into the game of WH40k until I was 13, in late 2001. I didn't get my first White Dwarf magazine until 2004. My life before about 2005-2006 is a little hazy due to some medical issues, and, being the kid I was, and how sick I was, I didn't really get the whole investment that a lot of the veteran gamers had put into the game. I still don't really get it, because I've not yet spent even one decade in the hobby and game. To spend thirty years supporting a company, and to see it fall from grace like this (to put it delicately) . . . I can't even imagine what that would feel like.

But what do I know... I guess I'm just a plain old newbie, instead of the veteran I like to think of myself as after a decade.

Kroothawk wrote:

Kilkrazy wrote:I think GW models have demonstrated low price elasticity for a long time, and that has allowed GW to get away with frequent price rises.

5 years with about 10% price increases, about constant total revenue and therefore 10% less sold goods don't sound like low price elasticy, but like a major problem that can't be solved with another 10-25% price increase..

What I cannot understand is how this isn't being understood better. Price elasticity does not exist. There is price elasticity of demand and price elasticity of supply.

What we as customers are discussing/griping/whining about is the price elasticity of demand, which - as Kroothawk points out - is certainly elastic.

Demand elasticity is the change in quantity demanded divided by the change in the price of the good.

Nowhere is revenue/profit by the company even considered. Volume, not revenue/profit, is used to measure the elasticity of demand (and supply too).

So while we do not have GW's sales volume figures in front of us, I've shown elsewhere that it is certainly decreasing.

Moreover, it is decreasing beyond the % increases in price. If the % decrease in quantity demanded (as shown by the overall downward trend in revenue over the last 5 years despite numerous price increases) is GREATER than the % increase in price, then the elasticity must be less than -1, meaning that - in fact - it IS elastic.

I guess GW just really needs to learn division.

Kilkrazy wrote:I think GW models have demonstrated low price elasticity for a long time, and that has allowed GW to get away with frequent price rises. However everything except insulin has a point where the price elasticity breaks down.

The question is whether GW have reached that point yet.

The second question is how much influence people leaving the HHHobby have on others who may or may not have joined it.

I believe GW receives a lot of word of mouth support from vets. The presence of lots of vets helps ensure a wide userbase and support for newbies. How often have you seen people say they can go nearly anywhere and get a game of 40K? I've said it myself.

This is called the network effect. The more people playing the game, the more reason for people to join the game.

If this effect was ever important, and it started to break down, GW would find themselves in trouble.

To be honest, they have lost about 20%+ of their sales since 2005, i would consider they are well past that point.

Asherian Command wrote:

notprop wrote:Blimey its the Queen Mum!

MY GOD REALLY! Ask her.... "Can she expell matt ward from Great Britian into Perth Australia?

Diffcult, her being dead and all...

Scottywan82 wrote:

Kroothawk wrote:

Kilkrazy wrote:I think GW models have demonstrated low price elasticity for a long time, and that has allowed GW to get away with frequent price rises.

5 years with about 10% price increases, about constant total revenue and therefore 10% less sold goods don't sound like low price elasticy, but like a major problem that can't be solved with another 10-25% price increase..

What I cannot understand is how this isn't being understood better. Price elasticity does not exist. There is price elasticity of demand and price elasticity of supply.

What we as customers are discussing/griping/whining about is the price elasticity of demand, which - as Kroothawk points out - is certainly elastic.

Demand elasticity is the change in quantity demanded divided by the change in the price of the good.

Nowhere is revenue/profit by the company even considered. Volume, not revenue/profit, is used to measure the elasticity of demand (and supply too).

So while we do not have GW's sales volume figures in front of us, I've shown elsewhere that it is certainly decreasing.

Moreover, it is decreasing beyond the % increases in price. If the % decrease in quantity demanded (as shown by the overall downward trend in revenue over the last 5 years despite numerous price increases) is GREATER than the % increase in price, then the elasticity must be less than -1, meaning that - in fact - it IS elastic.

I guess GW just really needs to learn division.

What is even more significant is that the slope becomes increasingly steep as price increases. This means that GW will have further diminishing returns in incremental revenue as they raise price because volume will fall off at an even greater rate.

GW has not only moved past their point of revenue maximization (price x volume) on their curve, but is probably approaching the point at which further increasing prices will result in revenue loss (beyond what they can gain back in efficiency and cost cutting).

Great post Scottywan.

I'll say it again though---I don't understand how it can be that simple. Micro 101 teaches you that basic concept----so there must be more their departments are looking at. I would hope!

AgeOfEgos wrote:I'll say it again though---I don't understand how it can be that simple. Micro 101 teaches you that basic concept----so there must be more their departments are looking at. I would hope!

The principle is simple, the means of execution or the alignment between their core strategy and their go-to-market approach and the balance between short term profit and long term sustainability is always much more complex.

There could be any number of assumptions that their analyst team is making that are either perfectly valid or completely erroneous, and could be totally irrelevant depending on whether or not their senior leadership chooses to heed or ignore the recommendations of their house economist (if they even have an economist on the payroll).

Wolfstan wrote:I think that a lot of the younger posters here have no idea of the history of GW and how it became such a big beast. It got there because of us gamers... in fact it was use vets that enabled GW to become what they are today. I'm 42 years old, I got into gaming when I was around 13 playing D&D. At that time there was a company called Citidel and company called Games Design Workshop. Citidel made the models I used in my D&D games, GDW produced some of the othe RPG's I played, Paranoia, Judge Dredd, Call of Cthulhu, Travller, Stormbringer, etc. White Dwarf was born around this time, if not a bit earlier. Citidel & GDW merged and the White Dwarfs that a lot of us hark back to came about. It was the era of the gamer. RPG was King.

Games Workshop was born out of the merging of Citidel & GDW. It was still a golden age, WD was amazing. Modelling tips, scenarios, reviews, and all the other that has been talked about. GW took a fantasy RPG and started to develop what became Warhammer, Rogue Trader was born, it developed in to 40k. Space Marine, Gorkamorka, Man O War, Necromunda, Bloodbowl were spawned. We loved it. We invested our time and money into this. Money on their products and time painting the models, time organisng clubs, time spent getting our younger siblings interested... time and money that allowed GW to expand and then become a public company.

We now come to modern times. Now don't get me wrong, GW is allowed to make money and it shouldn't jump to the tune of every whine, moan or suggestion from the internet. What it should do is remember is where it came from and how it got there. It should treat us gamers with a bit more respect. We should feel that all they are trying to do is get our money off us. They should be making us want to spend out money with them, not making money from turning the screws on a financial level. They should sort their rules out, so it's back to being about gaming and the fluff, not ramming the latest release down our throats.

To those GW fanboys under the age of 40 I say this, GW didn't come about out of thin air, it succeeded because my generation invested their time, money and energy into them, so we have every right to feel a little bit abused by them at the moment.

This is a wonderfully written post, and explains why a lot of us veteran gamers are being upset by this. It's not just the price increases, it's the perception that something that was built with the assistance of all of us is being knocked to the ground by appalling planning and decision making, and by a core of management who care nothing for the game beyond short-term dividend payments to the shareholders, at the expense of the long term future of the hobby.

Thanks for that

sourclams wrote:

AgeOfEgos wrote:I'll say it again though---I don't understand how it can be that simple. Micro 101 teaches you that basic concept----so there must be more their departments are looking at. I would hope!

The principle is simple, the means of execution or the alignment between their core strategy and their go-to-market approach and the balance between short term profit and long term sustainability is always much more complex.

There could be any number of assumptions that their analyst team is making that are either perfectly valid or completely erroneous, and could be totally irrelevant depending on whether or not their senior leadership chooses to heed or ignore the recommendations of their house economist (if they even have an economist on the payroll).

Thanks for the post/explanation. Do you mind going further....and specify a long term strategy that would drive this? I ask---as I know you have more education than most when it comes to financials/economics on the board...and my economic courses were driven out of graduate necessity---not interest

I look at this in the following light;

They have an elastic product
We (The consumers) are going to be more sensitive to price changes now than at any time in GW's history (3rd party alternatives)
Their demand clearly indicates they've passed the line


The only thing I can think of is that they are pricing to drive quality thoughts on consumers (The Porsche of miniatures---it must be because look at that price!)

Or maybe they are just price skimming not thinking that consumers---will actually buy other products?

Swordwind wrote:Like how he doesn't mention the price disparities.

Oh he does, that little....

"Over recent years, a number of currencies have moved a long way from their historical relative values, and this has opened the door for some traders to try to take advantage of these currency movements and offer deep discounts to overseas hobbyists."

Followed by "our response is not to adjust prices to match the currency movements, but to take steps so that you cannot take advantage of those currency movements"

Pacific wrote:This is a wonderfully written post, and explains why a lot of us veteran gamers are being upset by this. It's not just the price increases, it's the perception that something that was built with the assistance of all of us is being knocked to the ground by appalling planning and decision making, and by a core of management who care nothing for the game beyond short-term dividend payments to the shareholders, at the expense of the long term future of the hobby.

If only it wasn't fundamentally flawed that GDW was an unrelated American company GW may have had some business dealings with, but only as a reseller or licensee.

Balance wrote:

Pacific wrote:This is a wonderfully written post, and explains why a lot of us veteran gamers are being upset by this. It's not just the price increases, it's the perception that something that was built with the assistance of all of us is being knocked to the ground by appalling planning and decision making, and by a core of management who care nothing for the game beyond short-term dividend payments to the shareholders, at the expense of the long term future of the hobby.

If only it wasn't fundamentally flawed that GDW was an unrelated American company GW may have had some business dealings with, but only as a reseller or licensee.

Not really a fundamental flaw. He could have believed that GW was a shoe-shop which branched into wargaming by accident, the rest of it would still be true. Back when GW was little more than a chain of independent stores linked by a name, a lot of vets poured a lot of time, effort, money and attention into the hobby, helping to build something they cared about. Its still the case that Wells and Kirby are playing Monopoly with our baby, whether GDW are relevant or not.