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 Peregrine wrote:
a game that almost matches GW's entire annual revenue in 48 hours (4 million copies at $30+ each)?

Are you really expecting a pokemon main series title [2 actually] to not make WAY much more money then the leading company of a niche market? [Because I'm not]

 sing your life wrote:
Are you really expecting a pokemon main series title [2 actually] to not make WAY much more money then the leading company of a niche market? [Because I'm not]

No, and that's exactly the point. Did you see the quoted statement from the CEO of GW that dismisses pokemon as some long-forgotten fad? There are two explanations, neither of them good: either GW is making up stupid stuff to comfort their investors and divert attention from their problems, or GW's management are so utterly delusional that they actually believe what they said.

 Peregrine wrote:

 sing your life wrote:
Are you really expecting a pokemon main series title [2 actually] to not make WAY much more money then the leading company of a niche market? [Because I'm not]

No, and that's exactly the point. Did you see the quoted statement from the CEO of GW that dismisses pokemon as some long-forgotten fad? There are two explanations, neither of them good: either GW is making up stupid stuff to comfort their investors and divert attention from their problems, or GW's management are so utterly delusional that they actually believe what they said.

Couldn't it just as easily be both? With some members of the higher chain of management completely oblivious and others covering it up to keep their income levels proper and not rock the boat to fit into Kirby's "Non-GW thinking" breed of employee? That's my guess.

 wowsmash wrote:
GW wrought the book on petty behavior. .its just and its digital download only.

you forgot the abridged audio version, then the unabridged released a few weeks later for a few dollars more. Then there's the limited edition hardcover version priced at a 5000% markup. And the digital download is now the same price as the paperback version, which you can no longer get until 2 years after the book is out of print and a new version is released. Also there's the slightly larger paper back size at an additional 75% markup.

And then they will release the ultimate limited run compendium compilation edition for 10,000% markup (make sure that's on your kid's Christmas list)

Yes but to be fair that ultimate limited compendium will be limited to 300 worldwide and they will still be trying to sell the last of them a month later so I doubt anyone really cares about them.

Generally that should come across as some sort of warning flag though. I mean generally if you run a limited edition run and restrict it to what should be such a small number there shouldn't be much issue getting them all gone, the problem then is caused by making a limited run of virtually everything and expecting people to still see it as special.

I've got to give GW full credit on this one. What they are saying is pretty standard for corporate retail positions. But other corporations won't tell you these things up front.

They'll let you find out the hard way what their corporate culture is - suck up to your boss, and suck up to the customers. Everything else is negligible, including actually doing the work so long as you're good a sucking up.

 Kilkrazy wrote:
I don’t think Kirby’s idea is ridiculous.

The “attitude is more important than skills” mantra probably doesn’t apply to project managers, lawyers, accountants, or any relatively senior staff in any area.

Most of the staff that GW hire are customer facing retail people. They need to be true believers or they could not sell the stuff with a straight face. It doesn't take a lot to train up such people. I worked at Selfridges once, and got the training in a week. It was more complicated in those days (30 years ago) because nothing was automatic.

Nah I'm pretty sure the mantra applies all the way to the top; it's the only reason I can see for most of the talent leaving and for the constant bad decisions being made. I'm also fairly sure that there are very few actual gamers in the HQ now.

Also it's worth noting that the ratio of front-line staff to admin has changed to become heavily admin-heavy in the last few years (huge reductions in customer facing staff, large increases in HQ staff).

 CthuluIsSpy wrote:


"Sales," Mr Kirby explains, "is all the money we take in and we quantify by counting it."

Investors: "Holy , is that what sales are?"

-.-

 TheEyeOfNight wrote:

 CthuluIsSpy wrote:


"Sales," Mr Kirby explains, "is all the money we take in and we quantify by counting it."

Investors: "Holy , is that what sales are?"

-.-

I like how he explains how they quantify it.

I mean, you can find out how many or how much of something is there by counting it?! I always thought you had to just fling whatever it is against a wall. The bigger the pile of debris the more you have.

I wish they had covered it in my business degree course.

 Sidstyler wrote:

Games Workshop’s business ethic is modelled on inventor Thomas Edison’s methodology.

Well that's no surprise. They must be doing a good job because both Edison and GW will go down in history as being colossal fething dicks whose best ideas were stolen from other people.

Have an exalt, on me friend.

Anyone that realizes what a colossal douchebag Edison was is right by me.

 Haight wrote:

 Sidstyler wrote:

Games Workshop’s business ethic is modeled on inventor Thomas Edison’s methodology.

Well that's no surprise. They must be doing a good job because both Edison and GW will go down in history as being colossal fething dicks whose best ideas were stolen from other people.

Have an exalt, on me friend.

Anyone that realizes what a colossal douchebag Edison was is right by me.

Speaking as a fan of Mr. Tesla... I very much agree.

But Henry Ford made Edison look like a prince among men.

(For the record, Edison didn't invent the light bulb... he bought the patent. You know... that does fit GW, let other people invent things and claim them as your own....)

The Auld Grump

 TheAuldGrump wrote:

 Haight wrote:

 Sidstyler wrote:

Games Workshop’s business ethic is modeled on inventor Thomas Edison’s methodology.

Well that's no surprise. They must be doing a good job because both Edison and GW will go down in history as being colossal fething dicks whose best ideas were stolen from other people.

Have an exalt, on me friend.

Anyone that realizes what a colossal douchebag Edison was is right by me.

Speaking as a fan of Mr. Tesla... I very much agree.

But Henry Ford made Edison look like a prince among men.

(For the record, Edison didn't invent the light bulb... he bought the patent. You know... that does fit GW, let other people invent things and claim them as your own....)

The Auld Grump

At the risk of veering even further off topic.... agreed. Ford did a lot of horrible things that had the unfortunate consequence of having some effective and productive side effects.

Also, ya know, anti-semitic, hitler supporting jerk.

Ford's partly known for, even to the unknowledgeable (like me) for being a jerk though. - The whole, "you can have any colour you want, as long as its black" line etc.

 Compel wrote:
Ford's partly known for, even to the unknowledgeable (like me) for being a jerk though. - The whole, "you can have any colour you want, as long as its black" line etc.

True ! Ford's universally known for being a cynical innovative pithy jerk.

The same isn't true for Edison though - even though the fact that he was a brow-beating, extorting, intimidation tactic using donkey-cave is literally a few pages of reading away. People always seem genuinely surprised to find out that Edison was a giant prick.

There is nothing more appropriate than a GW job description ending with the words "you will still be unhappy"

Edit. And +1 to the Edison analogy

These are paper tiger
dangers. The real danger is us.

Oh wow Kirby, you never cease to amaze me with your trench vision. Actually no, its more like tunnel vision now, because saying its trench vision implies you can actually see out of the top if you so wish.
I believe that whilst GW are big many games outsell them, or at least match them. And that's just TT games. If you factor in CCG, then GW is completely out stripped.

@ Grot 6 - you have pretty much hit the nail on the head there.