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Hey Dakka!

I was running this through my head, and I thought I'd pitch it to you lot:

What would you do if you could become Head of GW?

By this, I don't just mean swim in pools of little plastic men, but more what would you change, i.e. Annual Price increases etc.

I would probably milk it as much as I can and then escape in a golden parachute.

Sounds like a plan to me

orkybenji wrote:
I would probably milk it as much as I can and then escape in a golden parachute.

Just about sums it up.

Marketing, I'd have some
Not only traditional ads, but big tables at conventions to promote the product, hand out fliers and leaflets (a 5-10 page white dwarf thing, a proper catalog)
games day's would be 2 or 3 days, like a normal con, and the stores would have special bonus' and savings and other deals (buy this much and get this free)
obvious price cuts, resurrecting specialist games, actual stores, an internet presence
customer Q&A, that sort of stuff
e-books would be more expensive but would be a guaranteed update for the next version/replaced when errata'd (obviously would be for more then an ipad)
fire matt ward, sweeping changes, how the product is sold and marketed
just some things that come to mind

 Rainbow Dash wrote:
Marketing, I'd have some
Not only traditional ads, but big tables at conventions to promote the product, hand out fliers and leaflets (a 5-10 page white dwarf thing, a proper catalog)
games day's would be 2 or 3 days, like a normal con, and the stores would have special bonus' and savings and other deals (buy this much and get this free)
obvious price cuts, resurrecting specialist games, actual stores, an internet presence
customer Q&A, that sort of stuff
e-books would be more expensive but would be a guaranteed update for the next version/replaced when errata'd (obviously would be for more then an ipad)
fire matt ward, sweeping changes, how the product is sold and marketed
just some things that come to mind

QFT. Couldn't agree more.

I would look into the research that they used to determine if new gamers are actually more profitable than long standing gamers.

I would also try to market a professional circut, like M:TG. It would be difficult with the current rules, but I would make the turn in that direction, and it wouldn't have that large of an impact on the "recruit and sell" mind set anyways. New players in the GW stores don't really have a grasp of what is what anyways, so tuning the rules to be balanced for competitive play and rules updates to bring the codex's in line are pretty irrelevant to new gamers. They will still see dudesmarines and tanks in awesome looking boxes.

 Rainbow Dash wrote:
Marketing, I'd have some
Not only traditional ads, but big tables at conventions to promote the product, hand out fliers and leaflets (a 5-10 page white dwarf thing, a proper catalog)
games day's would be 2 or 3 days, like a normal con, and the stores would have special bonus' and savings and other deals (buy this much and get this free)
obvious price cuts, resurrecting specialist games, actual stores, an internet presence
customer Q&A, that sort of stuff
e-books would be more expensive but would be a guaranteed update for the next version/replaced when errata'd (obviously would be for more then an ipad)
fire matt ward, sweeping changes, how the product is sold and marketed
just some things that come to mind

Bankrupt in 1 month, good job.

I'd do the very same thing they do now, just a few price adjustments and lowering the yearly price increase to ~25-30%. Most people seem to be ok with the high prices, so I'd be pretty slowed to lower them.

 Sigvatr wrote:

 Rainbow Dash wrote:
Marketing, I'd have some
Not only traditional ads, but big tables at conventions to promote the product, hand out fliers and leaflets (a 5-10 page white dwarf thing, a proper catalog)
games day's would be 2 or 3 days, like a normal con, and the stores would have special bonus' and savings and other deals (buy this much and get this free)
obvious price cuts, resurrecting specialist games, actual stores, an internet presence
customer Q&A, that sort of stuff
e-books would be more expensive but would be a guaranteed update for the next version/replaced when errata'd (obviously would be for more then an ipad)
fire matt ward, sweeping changes, how the product is sold and marketed
just some things that come to mind

Bankrupt in 1 month, good job.

I'd do the very same thing they do now, just a few price adjustments and lowering the yearly price increase to ~25-30%. Most people seem to be ok with the high prices, so I'd be pretty slowed to lower them.

its a slow process, you don't just drop it all down like that
that and I do believe the thread asked what I would do, eg in my own fantasy world, not what you think of my ideas

if I were in charge of GW I'd start advertising in Children's TV. target group getting younger and that. Also, having access to little girls as a target group with that ad campaign, I'd recognice that there is quite an intersection to beardneck MLP fans. Thus I would make the Pretty Marines official SM chapter, instead of Bikers I would introduce Marines riding My Little Pony figurines. Then I would charge HASBRO for copyright infringement.

I'd find a way to get rid of the current directors and anyone in a senior management position.
I would turn WD back into a viable HOBBY product, as opposed to what it is now, you remember when you could LEARN something from a WD, instead of just what miniatures you are going to find on the shelf when you next go to the store..
I would rekindle lost game systems.
I would invest in things like space hulk back onto the mass market so it is available in every kind of store, to get people attracted to the "more advanced" version again.. The greater hobby.
I would re-do the paint pots for the paint range
I would make the prices of products with competition more price competitive
I would do away with the stores that have one man in the middle of nowhere and no hobby area, IE - I would focus back on the hobby as a whole, not just newbies with no clue, and if that meant fewer stores, but bigger key stores, fine with me, even if it meant only one store in each capital city like a warhammer world, so be it, make going to a GW store an experience again, no a chore..
I would ensure that each army was brought updated lines and supplements in a TIMELY fashion PER EDITION, none of this crap with armies that have a codex from an edition or two ago..
I'd ensure hobby related articles and PDF's where available, and I would go back to the idea of enhancing the HOBBY and the EXPERIENCE of my customers, as opposed to charging money for every single piece of idea, IP or hobby related matter..
I'd invest in The Lord inquisitor to make it a decent movie that supports and buffs the hobby..
I would give myself a pay rise

Many things! Hobby related? Release a dedicated crimson fist codex and some sort if proper anti air or sky fire ground tank, like the hydra flak but for marines.

I'd request more cowbell.

Chop up White Dwarf into 4 separate magazines each with a different focus... one for 40k, one for WHFB, one for Specialist games, and one for hobby and studio work. They'd each be the quarter size of the usual White Dwarf but cost half as much as one...and the pages should be plasticard.

Open up GW events to be a little more lenient about allowing non-GW models into official tournaments but put some kind of surcharge on the percentage of non-GW models/materials used ("What's that you say? You say you used Galeforce 9 glue to put your models together? Sorry but there's a charge for that.")

Give everything power armor.... EVERYTHING (ex: Matt Ward in power armor, Phil Kelly in power armor, power armor in power armor while power armoring your power armor)

I'd sit in the design studio with all the writers and sculptors and make an Ork codex that had pages of wargear just for the warboss and included rules for making all the main clans - like mini marine spin off codices.

Then I'd make a Space Marine codex that invalidated all the spin off armies and centralised them. Best selling book evar.

I'd bring back a bits service, even if it meant really expensive bits, just so long as it's there.

I'd publish guidelines on writing homebrew codices and army books. They must have points vs. ability formulas or whatever, no reason for them to be a secret

A lot of things that Rick Priestley is said to have wanted to introduce but was denied in response to "raise prices."

Introduce an 'army collectors' card like what they did when I started back in 97.

If I remember right, for Brettonians, this was.

Commanders: General, Wizard, Special Character, Hero.
- Once you buy all 4 of them, you get a free metal Knight Champion on Horseback.

Troops: 20 Archers, 16 Knights. Archer Command Group.
- Once you get all of them, you get a free metal Knight Standard Bearer.

Others: 12 assorted Knights Errant/Grail
- Once you get all of them, you get a free metal Knight Musician

Then, once you get all 3, you got a ribbon and an exclusive badge.

It appealed to the 12 year old me at least. Plus, the models from the starter set counted.


Another thing would be buying a loyalty card for £5, that gave you points on it for money off.

Of course, stopping price rises unless ultra necessary would be obvious. Explain away some of the more recent crazy examples as "internet monkey screwed up."

I do actually agree that sales would hurt them more than help them. However, having the Web Exclusive Launch Bundles actually having people SAVE money would be a good idea. Anything to help the 'new shiny' impulse buy. Perhaps allow store managers to run their own rotating bundle deals with some oversight.

Encourage a balanced ruleset. It is possible for every army to be flavourful and still have balanced rules. Also get rid of this whole Rock Paper Scissors Thing. Dark Angels beat Chaos beat normal Marines.

Find competent lawyers who know what the concept of 'proportionate response' is.

Bring back the old "Welcome to GW" booklet that got me started. Basically it was an introduction to the game, including a 1v1 model example and was chock filled with pretty pictures. I first went into GW, thinking it was a computer game shop, they sent me away with this booklet. I delved into this thing for 6 months until I came across another GW. An intro game later, I was walking out with Warhammer Fantasy 5th edition.

I'd probably keep the 1 man stores, to be honest. I can imagine they do their job, however resurrecting the 'Battle Bunker' idea in the UK may be an idea. Perhaps open up micro 'warhammer worlds' in Bristol, Birmingham and somewhere oop north.

Return them to operating as they were when they were most profitable - the late 1990s.

Same practices - just scale as needed.

Long list of stuff I would do, but here are some of the starting points:
Immediate 10% price cut across the board.
Embrace Android as a platform, instead of just humping Apple's leg, and cut the prices on the e-products.
Resurrect Specialist Games.
Expand stores to carry the Specialist Games range and products from Fantasy Flight Games as well as other companies that aren't direct competition.
Updates, Updates, Updates. Suck it up and don't release any new army books/codices for a year (but continue to release cool models). Use that time to rework, rebalance, and rewrite every single army and release all their new books in one big wave. Have the community help playtest this.

My ideal self: Rectify all the terrible shti they do. Its all been said a million times before, is seen by everyone but diehard whte knighters, and there's not much point listing it now.

My actual self: milk and golden parachute.

orkybenji wrote:
I would probably milk it as much as I can and then escape in a golden parachute.

Mr Kirby, at long last, welcome to Dakka Dakka and the internet!

Sell it to Hasbro. PROFIT!!! Y'all!!!!

Seriously though, fix what is broken about the company.

Naaahhh, sell it to Hasbro, let them deal with it.

Invite the guys from Privateer Press, Whoever makes infinity, Whoever makes Dust Tactics, and reaper over for a lunch.
Poison all their food, and in the insuing chaos buy all their companies.

1. Axe White Dwarf. I don't think anybody plays that.

2. Axe every specialist game that isn't selling along with all associated minis.

3. Stop gambling on gak like Dreadfleet. Let me get this straight: you're going to roll the dice on a game that nobody played the first time around (i.e., Man O War), yet you make Space Hulk a limited edition and now people are selling their first born to buy sets on FeeBay!? How does that make any sense?

4. Produce ONLY specialist games that include minis usable in 40k and Fantasy. This way, even if people don't have a real reason to want the game, they may want the minis (e.g.,Space Hulk).

5. Plastic sprues. GW is a miniatures company first, and a game company second. Nevertheless, people want to play the game and the rules are WYSIWYG. That's why GW will now produce a "special weapons pack" containing a ton of flamers, meltaguns, etc. and a "heavy weapons pack" containing the common heavy weapons. We'll charge an arm and a leg for it and it'll still be cheaper than using bitz sites. But hey: at least now you don't have to meet a 40 year old fat man in a dark alley to pay for your Failcast resin weapons.

6. Expand E-books to include Android. Can't believe they haven't done this yet.

7. Stop giving people a hard time about using the IP. If some little geek wants to make a 40k movie then more power to him, AND TO GW. You can't pay for that kind of free advertising, so stop making it so damn hard to produce a warhammer movie / game / etc.

Everyone seems to be interested in relatively small changes, rather than structural/vision adjustments.

I would:
Create a firewall between creative & marketing;
Loss leaders for major game systems;
Expand GW retail;
Continue to license IP to third parties and begin selling third party products using GW IP at GW stores;
Push GW product into big box retailers.

It would probably fail completely.

As long as we are wishlisting...

- Move the 40k and WHFB core rule-sets to a more balanced play-style, suitable for competitive play - probably in a 3rd edition style "all at once" reboot. Compress the codexes/army books into 2-3 large books for each system containing many armies each (similar to bestiaries for pen and paper rpgs). Future expansions would be done as a campaign books ala FW's IA series (although not as big and encompassing, so they would be at a lower price and would allow for more releases per year). These would introduce rules and scenarios for more "cinematic" game play, as well as introduce the latest models - all themed to the campaign depicted in the book.

- Drop the one man strip mall stores and move to a strong FLGS/con support model with a multitude of planned events with prize support (some competitive-minded, some cinematic-minded). Produce clear and strict rules and s&p for these events.

- Drop the Chinese government style lock-down of upcoming release info. Use previews months ahead of time to build excitement and gauge reaction to new releases, giving time to make changes if needed.

- Drop White Dwarf altogether and use those resources to publish quality online content, rather than trying to get players to pay money to read the company's advertisements.

- Add Android support to the current ebook system.

- Expand current methods of using other media to promote the IP.
- With THQ in the tank, make the push required get the Dawn of War series up and running again. Keep the GW ip cycling through various game systems as much as reasonably possible.
- Push more on the board games through FFG. Get games like Space Hulk, HeroQuest, Blood Bowl, etc out as continuous releases with expansion support.
- Independents have done some impressive things utilizing GW ip in animated film. Push to get a major picture release done.

I would work out a system to sell off all the stores to the store managers or other interested parties, with a deal to facilitate that certain levels of stock are still GW's own product but obviously once they become private stores, they can carry what they like. So you put back FLGSs into every town, these stores will invest in and promote clubs and the games will be boosted by them in a way that humble employees earning minimum wage would not.

Get into advertising the product. Online, magazines, in IP related products, at conventions.

Get into the tournaments in a big way. Funding, podcasts of the tournaments, give it prestige and encourage the young players to look to these tournaments as something to want to work towards being in instead of playing for a few months then giving up a box of badly painted minis to ebay and buying an Xbox. Put cash prizes up, create solid and balanced Tourney rulesets (oh look, another book you can sell!) so that you can keep on making the full and narrative ruleset, but that there exists a more rapid play rules for pick up players to agree to play by as well as tourneys to use.

Go on a major PR offensive, get the design team to do Q&A sessions with the forums or on podcasts, oh and get some of the amazing talent they've kicked to the curb back inhouse before they actually get their gak together and create the Warhammer/40k-Killer, because it's likely only a matter of time before the perfect combination is created and GW finds it's self in the gak.

Price aggressively, price competitively. I strongly believe the numbers returning to the games, the numbers picking up the more reasonable price buy in and the huge numbers of current hobbyists who'll start 'that second/third/fifth army they otherwise wouldn't, will offset any drop in profit from being priced higher than platinum.

Preview greens and minis, open the company to feedback, avoid any more lame duck minis by creating what people want.

Bring back specialist games in a big way, keep them cycling in and out, major focusing on one each year and keeping the others ticking over with lesser mini releases, perhaps turn the rules over to ruling councils of disclaimer signed volunteers.


Stop acting like the product exists in a vacuum, listen to feedback within reason, be as open and honest as possible and try, after years and years of the opposite, to embrace the fanbase, the player base, the customers back again. It's time to come back in from the cold.

Oh and roll White Dwarf back to around the early 90s, late 80s, with book reviews, film reviews, other system reviews. Give pride of place to our own range but make the magazine about wargaming and make it the best magazine there is for what it does.

Squat SoB and swim in the tears?

Other than that, lots of hookers and blow.

Although Milk It + Golden Parachute is good too.

Make starter kits for all armies with snap on minis, mini codex/army book, mini rule book, and sell them for 50 bucks.

Cut price of all rule books in half.

Make more video games.

Make all board games (blood bowl, space hulk etc) continuously forever in perpetuity. None of this limited time BS.

Have a standing rule for a new codex/army book for all armies within 18 mos. of release of latest edition rules.

Be a real Games Workshop.

I would do nothing that anonymous people on the Internet suggest, unless I actually have empirical evidence to support their suggestions.

I would keep up with the current pricing plans, as people are obviously buying products, however I would have sales and discounts every once in a while. For example, have certain stock that isn't moving so well be 10% off for a month.

Only other thing I can think of ATM is revamping White Dwarf to be more creative and hobby focused again, and see about distributing it to major sellers like Barnes and Noble as a way to get more people interested.

Make 3rd parties my friends instead of sueing them.

Bring back bitz services.

Bring back the little troll magazines.

Make White Dwarf cover the whole table top hobby.

Have HBO make a graphic cartoon series.

Internal expansion of merchandise. Not just books, but FULL clothing lines, lunchboxes, Space Marine and Sister of Battle halloween outfits, etc. If it exists, slap a 40k label on it.

Allow kitbashing from other sources, and let those models be used in GW stores.

Let people use LOTR bitz and models for 40K and Warhammer conversions, as currently GW does not let you use LOTR bitz on your models in thier stores.

And yeah price drop, but that's a shock tactic, and also try and be nice to the fanbase again. You know by bringing back a forums and suggestion boards and the like.