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Imagine you're not into anything geeky. You're a normal dude who went to business school and nothing about you is outside of the mainstream. You end up working at a company that happens to make little plastic soldiers that are meant to be sold to 12 year olds. It's got a yes-men corporate culture and that's okay by you because you know how to get along. And then you keep encountering people in their 20s, 30s, 40s and beyond who also buy your product. You'd probably have little or no sympathy or understanding for them. At best you'd probably consider them sad and at worst you'd consider them rubes that the company you work for gets to fleece.

I think GW has a lot of contempt for it's customers that are not part of the target demographic.

Peregrine wrote:And I'd also consider the hypothetical "you" an idiot who didn't bother to learn about the company you're working for or the products they produce, and therefore "you" should be fired and replaced with someone who isn't an idiot. And you'd really deserve it because, in a world where video games are big business, even "mainstream" people have at least heard about D&D, etc, you have to be deliberately ignorant to miss the fact that older people buy and play wargames.

Absolutely. It's obvious to me and it's obvious to you, but not to GW. To GW, we're contemptible.

Pacific wrote:Some years ago the collective pejorative I heard was 'sheep', although there have been other, less kind expressions thrown around. But yes, you're absolutely right.

It's shocking to hear about the sheer contempt GW has for its customers. Well, it was shocking. Now it's sort of not really surprising at all.

AduroT wrote:
I dunno. Hasbro found itself in a situation similar to that and they responded by engaging and making things intended for that unexpected demographic.

I think it's a massive difference in corporate culture. One the one hand you have Hasbro, a company that is interested in any and all customers and any and all sources of revenue. They embrace adult collectors of Star Wars and GI Joe, and they embraced the adult following of MLP as best they could, though not perfectly. They even saw the value of Magic:The Gathering and bought WotC years ago. GW on the other hand... Well, let's just say just because something is smart, doesn't mean GW will do it.

 filbert wrote:

They certainly have. It has cropped up a number of times. To quote myself:

GW call their customers things like "Geek, Gomer, Sheep, and Pleb"....

The rapist who made the first facebook post may not be a current GW employee, but he did demonstrate a level of contempt that is pretty indicative of GW's culture.

A smart company wants their customers choosing them to be the smart and correct choice and doesn't see them as sheet to be fleeced or plebs to be ruled.

.

Anyone else notice this post from the 80s Chaos interview thread?

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/499039.page#5179181

'Also,' David Pringle recalls, 'I think there was some pulling two ways between Bryan Ansell (who was all for the books) and Tom Kirby (who tended to be against them — I remember him telling me that he hated fantasy and that his favourite writer was Jane Austen).'

GW is run by someone who hated fantasy as a genre (and possibly still does). Just think about that for a second.

He was definitely talking about literary genres. But one of the things you'll here again and again is about the rich fiction and backgrounds developed for 40k and WFB. The genre matters and the fact that Kirby hated it means his interest in it is entirely in terms of how much money he can suck out of it. It's more contempt from a company that calls its customers derogatory things like sheep and pleb.

 Micky wrote:
Agustin, what article did the Priestly quote in your sig come from?

It's from an interview with the Realm of Chaos blog:

http://realmofchaos80s.blogspot.nl/2013/01/rick-priestley-interview-from-realms-of.html

I'm not familiar with that one.

Ah right. That quote.

Lately I've been revisiting my RT and 2nd edition 40k stuff and my 3rd, 4th and 5th edition WFB books and they just ooze genuine love for the hobby (though by late 5th, the books get more sterile). It's sort of sad that it's gone now and instead we have people who hold the hobbyist in contempt profiting off of all those creative people's hard work put in over decades.