lol at GW shameless 'gift buying'

Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you:

No adverts like this in the forums anymore.
Times and dates in your local timezone.
Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance.
Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely.
Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net.

If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

**winnertakesall**

Reading thir giftbuying page (I have nothing else to do) some of the things they say for 40k are simply hilarious, such as the £30 leman russ:

The Demolisher can be build in three different ways, so buy three and see how happy it makes the hobbyist in your life!

And also for the crisis suits:

add to cartTau XV8 Crisis Battlesuit Crisis Battlesuits are the elite of the Tau army. Sold in singles, Crisis Battlesuits work best in teams: be sure to add two or more to your cart.

Dark Eldar Warriors:

Warriors make up the bulk of all Dark Eldar armies and a Dark Eldar collector can never have too many - making a box, or even three, an ideal gift

Am I the only one who thinks this is funny? Sort of a 'sure, this gift is great, but unless you buy 3 the person you are buying them for will hate you!'

EDIT: Fixing grammar mistakes.

**Lycaeus Wrex**

Yeah, it does come across rather poorly. If they'd have said something like 'A box or two gives the hobbyist plenty of opportunity to form a destructive, potent spearhead in any [insert specific race here] army.' It could be forgiven. The fact that they say 'These are great. Buy three', is just a bit...weird.

I also love the fact that they say Crisis teams are sold individually but work best in teams (which is true). Why then, do they not just release a duo/tri-Crisis box in the first place?

L. Wrex

**whill4**

There is nothing shameless about this type of advertising/marketing. It is common. Take a look around.

**ph34r**

That's pretty blatant.

**Cannibal**

whill4 wrote:There is nothing shameless about this type of advertising/marketing. It is common. Take a look around.

I have to agree with this. While the adds are funny (ok hilarious) it's hard to fault a business for marketing it's product. GW is a business first and they get so much of our money because they make stuff we want. Many people criticise their business model, saying they're shooting themselves in the foot over this, or losing sales over that. I have to admit I don't see the validity in some of the recent price hikes when so many other minis producers stay affordable. But, the reality is Warhammer is pretty much the biggest minis game ever and GW has been around a long time. By all indications they'll be around a long time still. Their undeniable success is proof they know what they're doing.

P.S. I'm not knocking on you winnertakesall , the language used to upsell everything in threes is pretty funny.

**Lord_Osma**

I feel like they try and sell you like this in store as well.
It's a tactic, nothing more.
Not thrilled with it though. Could be worse.

**asimo77**

Hmm, vendors trying to sell things?

Outrageous!

**winnertakesall**

asimo77 wrote:Hmm, vendors trying to sell things?

Outrageous!

It's not that they are trying to sell things, it's how rediculous the quotes are.

**snake**

I lol'd at this when I first saw it as well. It really is quite over the top ridiculous.

**cyrax777**

My favorite is the bane blade under army essentials. Yes i understand it it is the embodiment of the Imperial Guard having massive tanks blowing the crap out of everyone but its not when i think essentials I think of things I should get to start building my army.

**MechaEmperor7000**

I love the Pariah one. It even says you need at least 4 of them to make a legal unit.

**Gorgarak**

Being a business owner, the only comment I have on this is good marketing. There's a reason why companies that are sucessful make lots and lots of money, and having a good product or service is only half of it. Although the above punch lines may be cheese to some of us, to people who are eager to get into the hobby, it can be a tempting buy. Not to mention someone who is just surfing the website and doesn't know anything bout GW, and there, it's a perfect note for them to follow on how they're 12 year old who collects that certain army will most certainly need lots of this one type of unit.

That being said, if everything says "hey, buy 3 of everything, only then will you be happy playing warhammer" is a bit far. Like already stated, you need to give a customer a good guideline to your product, but let them feel like the choice is still theirs. When you start limiting choice or setting boundries, people tend to get turned off.

**Samus_aran115**

I think it's funny too

They try to sell baneblades. That's the funniest part "Go buy this baneblade, because your kid will love it, despite having no way to use without buying thousands of dollars worth of our other products!"

Space Marine Scouts- "Go buy your budding space marine player a bunch of these. They're great for young kids because they look weak, which they can relate too! But be careful with them! Those combat knives are pretty sharp!"

**Kanluwen**

MechaEmperor7000 wrote:I love the Pariah one. It even says you need at least 4 of them to make a legal unit.

Probably because if you read the description, the Pariah comes one to a blister.

Minimum unit size for Pariahs is 4.

**PraetorDave**

Love the drop pod one:
"You need one Drop Pod for every squad of Space Marines you have, so dont worry about buying two or three of these for a Space Marine player."

My favorite is that for every army, there is an HQ unit with almost exactly the same description:
"Great stocking filler: this is a classic/characterful miniature that any [insert army name here] player would love in their collection" One of them is an ethereal lol

The army figure case says: "any hobbyist with a REAL sized army will want one of these" (capitalization added for emphasis). Its almost challenging you to buy it.

**Daedricbob**

The Demolisher can be build in three different ways, so buy three and see how happy it makes the hobbyist in your life! <-That made me chuckle

Now you have your figures, are you sure you're OK for your knives and snips and paints and glues and brushes and basing sand and static grass and knives and.. oh, did I already say that one?
Are you SURE?

**winnertakesall**

What I hate is when I go into games workshop, this ir roughly how it plays out:

Oh, hey, would I be able to get some tallarn flesh please?
Oh yeah, of course, would you be wanting skull white to highlight that?
No thanks.
Well, if you bought the mega-paint set then you won't ever need to come in for paints again!
No thanks, I don't usually carry round about £150 when going to my local GW for a paint.
What about this rulebook?
Are you serious? I come in here all the time, you know full well I have a rulebook.
Well, f you want a competitve army, you will need this
I don't want it thanks

And so on!

One thing also at my local a guy came in saying he wanted to start orks, would did he reccomend, I stood by bemused as he 'reccomended' over £350 worth of stuff for a new army, not including paints and brushes, the poor man looked horrified.

**MechaEmperor7000**

Kanluwen wrote:
MechaEmperor7000 wrote:I love the Pariah one. It even says you need at least 4 of them to make a legal unit.

Probably because if you read the description, the Pariah comes one to a blister.

Minimum unit size for Pariahs is 4.

Thanks for being double the captain obvious =P

**Kanluwen**

MechaEmperor7000 wrote:
Kanluwen wrote:
MechaEmperor7000 wrote:I love the Pariah one. It even says you need at least 4 of them to make a legal unit.

Probably because if you read the description, the Pariah comes one to a blister.

Minimum unit size for Pariahs is 4.

Thanks for being double the captain obvious =P

Tallyho sah!

**MechaEmperor7000**

Kanluwen wrote:Tallyho sah!

Lol a bit OT, but I got the image of Teddy Roosevelt riding on a bear saying that.

**Kanluwen**

Excellent.

I looked through the gift guide now and I really don't see anything "lol" worthy.

It seems more aimed towards friends/family buying for someone who they know that plays 40k, they might know their army--but not really exactly what all they have.

The Drop Pods was the closest, but if I remember right they put it up when lots of people were running pod heavy armies, so it's excusable.