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I would be the guy that edits white dwarf and force them to give us some good stuff for a change.

I'd try to sell everybody who came into a store the new army of the month.

I would want to be employed to actually listen to what customers have to say.

Even the crazy ones with no understanding of how anything actually works? Sorry I had to ask. Last week the staff in my favorite local store was subjected to people complaining that if the name of the store is "Games Workshop" then how come they don't sell the particular games those people were seeking? They also complained that they wouldn't open the store early just for them. If you work in a shop or in customer service you have to hear a lot of irrational garbage as well as legitimate concerns.

Here's an idea.

GW Stores are great places to have games, but they are SMALL, SMALL, SMALL. You really want to go nuts and get the word out? Schedule a few games in public places - maybe APOC. Where? You know, at the mall, in a hotel lobby, heck, even in the park under huge tents. Get games going where everyone can see. This promotes the hobby BIGTIME for newcomers (almost like a convention) and you can foot the bill by having players sign up (and pay) ahead of time to attend.

An event like this would be the highlight of any gamer's year.

BIG work to plan, but also big rewards.

It seems like working as a redshirt or in a retail setting for GW would be terrible, ditto being a sales rep. It seems like they have all kinds of awful scripted interactions all day long. I think the worst part would be trying to convince store owners to carry Lord of the Rings even when NOBODY PLAYS IT. My flgs store owner complains about his GW sales rep always talking up LOTR when all the merchandise just sits on the shelf. I can't imagine spending all day trying to hawk a range of products that nobody wants.

I imagine that being a minatures sculptor or being on the Eavy Metal team would be a very fun job and worth a relatively low amount of pay. But it does seem like GW draws most of its staff from devoted hobbyists who they obviously have no qualms about treating like crap.

My flgs store owner complains about his GW sales rep always talking up LOTR when all the merchandise just sits on the shelf.

That's likely his fault. In stores where the game, or any game, is regularly suggested and demonstrated to potential new customers, it sells. When shop owners think they can just buy product, stick it on a shelf, and never push it at all and have it sell, sales will be low. A friend of mine worked in a game store on Sundays and did demos for games all the time. Sundays he worked the store did about $600 for the day, when he didn't work the store only did about $200 because the other employees didn't bother to do demos or chat people up the same way. Shop owners often put out little or no effort to move and promote product, then complain about the product. In shops where LotR is given the attention it deserves, it sells.

BrassScorpion wrote:

My flgs store owner complains about his GW sales rep always talking up LOTR when all the merchandise just sits on the shelf.

That's likely his fault. In stores where the game, or any game, is regularly suggested and demonstrated to potential new customers, it sells. When shop owners think they can just buy product, stick it on a shelf, and never push it at all and have it sell, sales will be low. A friend of mine worked in a game store on Sundays and did demos for games all the time. Sundays he worked the store did about $600 for the day, when he didn't work the store only did about $200 because the other employees didn't bother to do demos or chat people up the same way. Shop owners often put out little or no effort to move and promote product, then complain about the product. In shops where LotR is given the attention it deserves, it sells.

What you are saying epitomizes the difference between a FLGS and a GW store. While some game stores have staff that just sit around playing WOW, most have very outgoing and friendly staff willing to demonstrate games or talk about them honestly with customers. If a game has issues or isn't very fun the FLGS staffer will tell you their actual thoughts about the game. I find this to be refreshing as opposed to listening to some guy give me a spiel about how awesome the new whatever is. Most games stores, I know have regular game nights, nights when they play board games, and big events like tournaments and mega-battles which can attract new players. Pushing LOTR harder would likely cause sales to go up, but FLGS owners might want to push games they think are better such as Flames of War, Warmachine, Magic or what have you. If the owner finds these games to be more profitable, enjoyable, and attract a larger player base, why push a dud like LOTR? It is their store, they carry what the customers demand.

At the heart of this difference is that most FLGS have significant input from the hobbyists who frequent the store. GW stores do not allow non-staff driven events or encourage players to proactively use the store as a gathering space. Having a dedicated community of hobbyists creates buzz around new products that people are excited about as opposed to trying to cram something down people's throats. LOTRs had its day, but it really hasn't done much since then. That is the part I would find hardest about working for GW, constantly trying to promote something that people didn't want.

There's a difference between "pushing a dud" and "not doing anything at all with what you perceive as a dud".

Albatross wrote:I'd bring back the Psychic Phase.

Eh, ducking doesn't seem like it's necessary. The concept of a dedicated phase to handle all the 'weird stuff' that is a big part of the 40k setting is a reasonable suggestion. I don't think the 2nd edition cards would go over well, but the dice pool mechanic used for magic in WHFB would be interesting if applied to 40k, as long as it's actual implementation is substantially different.

Maybe each psyker gets X amount of dice. These refresh on the beginning of your turn, and are tracked on a card or by putting them next to the model. psykers also have a range (probably 12"/24"36" etc. for simplicity) that they can be useful in. Unlike WHFB, no pooling of dice.

Abilities (most psykers would have 1-3) are marked as either 'player turn' (Only usable during your turn) or 'any turn" (Can be used in the opponent's phase) as well as possibly a 'reaction' tag. My Librarian uses Emperor's Smiting Hammer of Skulls, throws all three of his dice behind it, and that daemon 8 inches away choses to use 4 dice to defend because getting smited hurts. If the Librarian wins the total, they get the power off, otherwise nothing happens. next turn the Daemon might try to toss a warp-blast back, but the Librarian might have 'Firey retribution' as a reaction power. Sure, the Daemon gets it's power off, but the Librarian spends one die from his pool to get off an unblockable return, even if the librarian is killed in the attack.

Rolling doubles, triples, etc. on the roll to use a power would cause Perils of the Warp, psosibly escalating as we go from doubles to triples. Rolling a single die is thus safe ('Minor powers').

Grey Knights and Sisters might get dice only to block... Say 1 die for every SoB squad or character in 12" range, 2 dice for every GK. Psychic hoods might give out a bunch of dice, but with a short range.

Orks, Eldar, would use the system as written. Necrons might get some sort of funky system like they start with 20 points per squad and can spend points in 10 point increments isntead of rolling dice, and have no powers of their own. Tau, assuming they stay blanks, would probably be very vulnerable, but they could certain develop some sort of 'Warp Inhibitor' that is basically a less reliable psychic hood.

of course, such an idea would require obsoleting every Codex.

I`d take away WotR and add more on LotR. Also lower the prices

I would close all gw shops invest money in working closer with flgs.

I would bring back GW Forums so i could hear what the player base thinks.

I would redo the white dwarf so it becomes a magazine about our hobby. (Like adding a readers battle report)

Whenever the rules change to a new edition i would have a new codex for every race.

And with money saved from the closing of the GW shops i would lower the prices of my product and promote the hobby more

And oh so much more....

Vote L.D. for president

Lord Demon wrote:I would close all gw shops invest money in working closer with flgs.

So you would remove a big chunk of your own company's income to cut a few expenses? Not to mention annoy the players that may possibly lack an FLGS alternative? Closing a few shops in cities that have multiple locations would be smarter - leave a few open, but don't do a total shut down.

Other than that, good list. Might I add bring back old games (Go BFG!), and fire Jervis Johnson as well?

Thinking about this, scratch the QA/QC thought earlier:
- shut down all Tournament support
- elevate Jervis to high poombah of all things GW

And this is why we're glad John will never work for GW...

I'm glad to know most of the people here won't ever work for GW, beyond a registermonkey capacity.

I would use my inside knowledge of GW to make some handy stock pics. Insider trading-pah you got nuttin on me kappa!

I think the first thing I would do it find a company to partner with to outsource all rules developement. The contract would center around a steady release schedule and a tight relationship between rules creation and model creation, along the lines of "We want to make this kit. Write rules for it." and "We have this good idea for an army. Can we make new models for it, or modify existing kits?" In essence, GW does the parts it is good at doing (making models) and another company does what it is good at doing (creating and testing the bejesus out of rules).

I also would focus more on "bits" armies such as Lost and the Damned and anything else that can be made by selling existing kits for different uses, as well as making more generic kits and add on bits kits. For example, don't make a Landraider box and Chaos Landraider box, sell a Landraider and a "Chaos bits" kit, as well as a "4-5 Popular SM legion bling" kit. Don't sell SM Rhinos, CSM Rhinos and SoB Rhinos, but sell Rhinos and an upgrade kit for the specific armies.

Lastly, I would reshape how the product gets to market. I would look really hard at the GW retail outlets and decide if they are worth the time, or whether local game stores are a better investment overall. I would drop the silly restrictions on selling product online and focus more on getting paid to put models in the hands of gamers in as large a volume as possible. I would also look into more video gaming and movie opportunities to spread the Word of the Emperor to the benighted masses. I want people playing Dawn of War and then thinking "Sweet, there is a table top game for this? I should check that out" or seeing Sisters of Battle burning the flesh from blue furry nightelf cyboring bitches and thinking "This is a cool story" and picking up some models.

To make it better? I would offer myself as a playtester for new codexes, armies. Additionaly, I would spend time researching alternative materials to replace the all-metal models, making them cheaper. Like a better plastic or something.

Additionally, I would help them go mainstream, because in all honest, tabletop gaming has died down. Marketing with the videogames seems like a good idea, because people really like those, such as DoW II. For example, when the original came out, my friend showed it to me and I was like "Cool!". I never realized until a year ago that it was an actual tabletop game (yeah, I know, lame me).

Alex Kolodotschko wrote:According to the internet the average GW wage is $21,000 or £12,903 or 14,810euros. I'm sure that Jervis skews the average a bit though!

In the States that's average for the Hobby Specialist position. If your a Hobby Center Manager its more and if your in HQ its even more.

If I worked for GW I would:

- Reunify Chaos in both Fantasy and 40k. Probably keep separate books, but make the various flavours of Chaos compatible with each other again. I'd also reintroduce the rivalry between the Chaos Gods, deamon animosity returns and Mortal forces must be single-power or undivided (The General's Mark defines that)
- Hire all dakkites who I found posted very good idea's in this topic, seriously!

Rather than the very strange system that GW uses, I'd co-opt the tournies, bring them all under my control, release new plastic units (one for each faction) once quarterly, and use the tournies to manipulate people into buying them. Then rotate what units are currently 'in-print', thus manipulating the secondary market, and what armies we see on the tables.

I'd test the water for this with BFG though, re-releasing that game, at reduced cost.

I'd hire technical writers to write the rules sections of the rule books, and have the rules play tested extensively and decided on by a committee.

Each Army would have a boat load of options, like the new IG and nids.

Tournaments would be supported but run by Indy game groups who understand the local meta game and can put on a great show, ala SoCal Slaughter, Adepticon, etc.

A World Wide tournament ranking system to determine who the best players in the world were, and really great prize support for these events. Same goes for painting.

Actual content in White Dwarf as well as trial run rules where the gaming community is asked to give input before the rules go into print.

FAQ's promptly and that make sense.

Stop gaking on the gaming community that supports the company.

Make a Catoon series for cartoon network's adult swim (that way it can be properly grim and dark) to indoctrinate the young and bring in fresh new gamers!

A regular comic book series for both 40K and Fantasy with top talent.

A smoking hot pair of Swedish Twin secretaries for me.

I think that about covers it.

I'd be the specialist games support dude and bring back support for those games. Maybe even I don't know, sell the core of those games in the actual store and even bring out new mins for them every once in a while. What about an online mag for them or something.

Also I'd find a pricing scale that didn't mean a 25-50% jump in price every time they released a new model with less stuff in it. last but not least I'd match up the prices across the world, yes I realize that they can't be exactly the same but when I can get almost 50% off by buying from England there's something wrong with the system.

I'd happily handle FAQs, proof reading and organise playtesting. Given that in reality, they wouldn't want to fund any of that stuff, I think I could do okay as a games designer.

I would love to write codices/army books.

I would be in there marketing staff and show with models that they need to extend runs of certain miniatures because after market sellers are cleaning up on money they could be making using standard analysis tools.

Also. And this is a big one. I'd show them how to use spell check and proof read

metallifan wrote:

Lord Demon wrote:I would close all gw shops invest money in working closer with flgs.

So you would remove a big chunk of your own company's income to cut a few expenses? Not to mention annoy the players that may possibly lack an FLGS alternative? Closing a few shops in cities that have multiple locations would be smarter - leave a few open, but don't do a total shut down.

Other than that, good list. Might I add bring back old games (Go BFG!), and fire Jervis Johnson as well?

Well ok your right shutting down all shops is a bad idea. But in a city with multiple shops i might also consider turning the excess shops into flgs. Only they would be flgs owned by GW. Why not have the best of both worlds.

Bringing back old games could be good if people were willing to buy it. So maybe a small release. To take bfg for example release a new starter box. If it sells, slowy add to the range. Also i would mention it in the rule books with examples of campaigns to tie 40k and bfg together

Also i would let my IT guys work with my legal guys in making webkits for the ranges. So when people want to make a fansite they can use the kit and not be afraid of a C&D letter. If they do go to far i would try to work with them as not to anger my playerbase.

The website would get a mayor revamp.
I would try to get the bitz service up again. If it is to costly i would try to work something out with a 3rd party.
And as i said more promotion of the hobby. Like going for a new world record like largest game ever played. I would provide place and the board and the players bring their armies. Attending bags you a limited edition world record mini.

And most of all i would tease people with upcoming releases. Since the codexes could arrive with the new rules but no way all the miniatures could be there as well. So i would show greens of new units. And offcourse watch the feedback on the forums on the greens.

Grtz
L.D.

Eat a Klondike bar!
Wait...

I'd write long columns in WD about how much I hate people who play the games made by GW and how they constantly make immoral and impractical decisions.

You know, just to turn the tables.

Oh yeah and i would NOT fire Jervis. Throwing away his experience would be a bad idea. True he would no longer have a public job. But just dumping that all away. Besides i could always do the opposite of what he sugests.

And i would hire Gwar to check every rule. Or better yet make him supervisour and let his people check every rule

Grtz
L.D.