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According to OzPainters, Games Day has some issues...

France and Spain are supposedly cancelled, and Games Day Australia (after being back for 2? years) is 'on hold' for this year (due to 'issues with the venue') but supposedly returning next year.

More Facebook pages have just disappeared, rather than making formal announcements... so all of this is just coming through people who know people. Salt may be required...


However, it wouldn't be at all surprising for GD Oz to be disappearing again for good, particularly with all of the cost-saving restructuring going on at GW.

French one was always my favorite, really bad news if they turn out to be accurate.

A solution would be GW making a official presence on the major hobby expos, cons, events.

Meh, GD's in France where a waste of time and money anyway.

Since 5th ed, there is no incirive to go to a GD if you don't care that much for the painting...

Speed conversion contest?, please those where a joke...

Gaming events, where GW staff where happy with "Big HUge" Apoc games with...3000pts on the table...3 Stompas +3x 15 boyz Vs 3 baneblades and 60 IG's..., and yes they where happy...

Specialist games event?, none of those specialist games interest me.

Big Ass diorama?, been years that there was no new and original giant Diorama, they always brings back some of the Olds ones, and not the best ones at that...

But if you like endless waves of 14yro screaming Waagh every 25 secs for a full 6 hours, damn then GD's is the place to be...

The last time i saw something interessting at the GD was when they Pre-selled the Codex Chaos Deamons and models and we had sneak peeks of the 5th Ed rules, now they don't do that anymore.

Oh wait, one (if not the only good thing) thing was the FW stand, even if they din't had all their range availble, you could still buy some stuffs on the spot, saving on the delivery fees.

GW anti-marketing will only stop, when all traces of GW's existence are deleted from public memory. Don't ask why, must make sense to their higher management.

Well the quality of the Golden Demons just took several steps down. France always had the best artists for the GD competition. Their honorable mentions would get Slayer Swords at some of the other shows.

 Kroothawk wrote:
GW anti-marketing will only stop, when all traces of GW's existence are deleted from public memory. Don't ask why, must make sense to their higher management.

Maybe that's why they got rid of their Facebook presence and forum... To help erase themselves.

Never been to games day. Heard they used to be fun, just never got around to it.

 NAVARRO wrote:


A solution would be GW making a official presence on the major hobby expos, cons, events.

Because of the way GW carry on, and in light of the bad blood they seem to be trying to create between themselves and their customer base.... would anyone really want an "official" prescence?

I wouldn't necessarily count on there being a Games Day US either...

As Warboss Gubbinz stated a couple of weeks ago in the discussion forum, the people responsible for organizing at least the last three US Games Days have all left the company. In each of the past three years there were already GD tickets available by now (usually on sale in December). This year there is only silence. If you look at the GD 2012 page you will see that they haven't even updated that with coverage of last year's event.

As a side note, someone mentioned in one of these threads a few days ago about GW US having a Community Outreach Manager. They don't anymore, she left around October.

silent25 wrote:
Well the quality of the Golden Demons just took several steps down. France always had the best artists for the GD competition. Their honorable mentions would get Slayer Swords at some of the other shows.

That's actually a damn good point and a tremendous loss.
All the best Golden Demon paintjobs really have been from the French. I guess some painters could compete in the UK or US or Germany Gamesdays, but a lot of talent is not being showcased by those that don't want to make the trip.

silent25 wrote:
Well the quality of the Golden Demons just took several steps down. France always had the best artists for the GD competition. Their honorable mentions would get Slayer Swords at some of the other shows.

Exactly what I thought---even though I rarely, if ever play Games Workshop games anymore---nothing made me feel the pull of their universe more than when I saw French Golden Demon winners.

French GD entries put everyone else to shame.

Agreed about the french GD entries- guess those same painters will now end up dominating Crystal Brush or similar, as I can't imagine a replacement competition won't pop up over there.

 RiTides wrote:
Agreed about the french GD entries- guess those same painters will now end up dominating Crystal Brush or similar, as I can't imagine a replacement competition won't pop up over there.

The biggest painting comps in the world are in europe and they are some of the most prestigious. Euromilitaire the world expo also a lot of them in recent years have been traveling around. Fontaine who wins there a lot is from Canada just to name one of many.

I loved going to Games Day Baltimore in the 90's. My favorite events were the Titan Bring n Battles for Epic Space Marine. Every kill you got, you got a free random blister pack. Man, I think I got like 10 free blister packs in one session.

 Kroothawk wrote:
GW anti-marketing will only stop, when all traces of GW's existence are deleted from public memory. Don't ask why, must make sense to their higher management.

I wonder if GW is transitioning from a public company to a secret society

GW top brass: Soon only those in the know will play our games. Patience my minions!

M.

Funny you'd think a one-company trade show aimed at die hard favs would, y'know MAKE money.

Not at GW apparently.

In Oz at least, the main problem has been that people wind up having to travel an awful long way in order to line up to ogle some Golden Demon entries and then line up again to buy stuff at regular retail prices.


For a lot of people, there's just no value there.

I was going to try to make it to GD last year to grab the GD miniature. Then I realised I didn't even want it, 2nd ed nostalgia trip though it was, and that it was the only reason I wanted to go.

I have no desire to spend 2 hours getting into Sydney and finding parking, spending an hour in line to get in, buying a pie and drink for $60 for lunch and spending an hour or two looking at some miniatures before going home.

And pay for the honour of doing that.

 Empchild wrote:

 RiTides wrote:
Agreed about the french GD entries- guess those same painters will now end up dominating Crystal Brush or similar, as I can't imagine a replacement competition won't pop up over there.

The biggest painting comps in the world are in europe and they are some of the most prestigious. Euromilitaire the world expo also a lot of them in recent years have been traveling around. Fontaine who wins there a lot is from Canada just to name one of many.

Crystal Brush is going to be pretty huge this year. They're flying in the winners from multiple events around the world for this one. Fontaine, however, will not be there, as he's still have issues with his US visa...which drives me crazy, because he lives in Canada. Really, US? Really?


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 -Loki- wrote:
I was going to try to make it to GD last year to grab the GD miniature. Then I realised I didn't even want it, 2nd ed nostalgia trip though it was, and that it was the only reason I wanted to go.

I have no desire to spend 2 hours getting into Sydney and finding parking, spending an hour in line to get in, buying a pie and drink for $60 for lunch and spending an hour or two looking at some miniatures before going home.

And pay for the honour of doing that.

This is almost the exact reason I didn't go this year, either. It'll be cheaper for me to find that GD mini on eBay than my total cost would have been going.

 insaniak wrote:
In Oz at least, the main problem has been that people wind up having to travel an awful long way in order to line up to ogle some Golden Demon entries and then line up again to buy stuff at regular retail prices.


For a lot of people, there's just no value there.

About how they are everywhere else now too...though in Europe at least, they don't have to travel quite as far.

Maybe if they decide to continue doing Games Day in Australia, they will select a nice central location...you know, like Woomera or maybe Alice Springs. That will make it more convenient for everyone.

Putting it in Sydney isn't really the problem... They just need to give people a reason to want to go.

I used to go to GD oz before it was cancelled the last time.

I don't know why I did it. Probably for the free minis/ t shirts.

There was nothing there. fight neckbeards to speak to andy chambers. Have your miniatures lost/stolen/broken in the crunch. Pay full price for lines FW was decommissioning. Pay 10 dollars for a hot dog. Paint a free 15 year old grot miniature.

It was the biggest, crummiest GW store in the world, just for 1 weekend.

Be happy to see the back of it, they should follow up by removing their stores too.

What is the point of the Games Day anyway? Looking at pretty miniatures? => internet.

Talking to other gamers? => FLGS / friends / internet

Playing the game => FLGS / home

All of those are free.

The point should be that it is a celebration of wargaming with like minded people and maybe pick up the odd bargin somewhere along the line.

GW seems to have lost this important point somewhere along the line?

Fortunately shows like Salute will still be going strong. Roll on April 20th in London!

Where you can buy stuff with a show discount from a lot of traders... Yeah, think salute is a port of call for me next year...

 notprop wrote:
The point should be that it is a celebration of wargaming with like minded people and maybe pick up the odd bargin somewhere along the line.

GW seems to have lost this important point somewhere along the line?

Fortunately shows like Salute will still be going strong. Roll on April 20th in London!

Amen brother

If this is true it's a shame but not unexpected. If true it is also not a good sign for GW. I've never been to a Gamesday here in the UK and now I wouldn't really want to go, so me'h. For me the worst thing would be to loose all those lovely competition entries from Spain and France - again, if it's true.

To encourage Aus gamers to GD they could just sell everything for UK price

I can only hope that this will be the impetuous for some enterprising individual to create a European convention circuit similar to the US one bringing lots of different companies, tournaments, competitions etc under one roof for a multi-day event.

This, if true is surely just a result of GW's drive to recruit little Timmies, and to hell with everyone else.

With a 'churn & burn Policy', there really is no reason to have an event like this, and surely the quality of GD entries would gradually decline as less & less people stay in the GW hobby long enough to develop painting skills, or the same people will just keep winning year on year.

I doubt they will cancel the UK one, as it's probably their strongest market, but if they did, I wouldn't shed any tears.

Fans do it better anyway:

http://www.adepticon.org/
http://www.novaopen.com/
http://www.feastofblades.com/

Just off the top of my head.

It is too bad, but I have to agree with Valhallan42nd. GW should can the GDs and just start creating an active presence at all the independent events.

Too bad that won't happen. :(