Rick Priestley left GW

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**agnosto**

After reading Kroothawk's post, I thought he left to join a boy band "Rick and the Bean Counters"...

**Chibi Bodge-Battle**

Grimdark- The Musical

**Devilsquid**

Well hell. Best of luck to you Rick!

**Samus_aran115**

Chibi Bodge-Battle wrote:Grimdark- The Musical

+1

An tank enters stage left and mows down everything in sight. The spotlight goes to a dead corpse....He's alive! He's so happy to be alive! Yay!*a musical number is sung*....And then, all of the sudden, bombs drop from the sky. The survivor dies. MOAR GRIMDARK!

**drgabe**

filbert wrote:
drgabe wrote:What?!? Who is going to write "The Standard Bearer" now in WD?

That's Jervis not Rick Priestley

Doh!

Early morning snarky attempted failed.

**Kroothawk**

Pilau Rice wrote:
Kroothawk wrote:Rick and the bean counters

I misread this and thought it said that Mr Priestley had had a fight with a certain Black Library novelist

You mean the one impersonated by Rowan Atkinson?

**Raptorkid**

kenshin620 wrote:
Raptorkid wrote:
Kanluwen wrote:I'd still exercise caution in believing this, considering the source.

You know, the one who claimed last year that C.S. Goto still worked at Black Library because they published one of his short stories that he'd turned in years before.

Sorry to go off topic for a bit, but who on earth is C.S. Goto? I've seen the name (nickname?) mentioned a couple of times now, but everyone else already seems to know all about it.

Hes a Black Library author. wrote some fluff breaking stuff. More-so than usual by BL standards

Ah, ok. Ta.

**skrulnik**

Sad to see him leave. Though he could wander back.

I am betting on him popping up qutie a bit with Warlord Games, and contributing to Mantic's Kings of War as it develops.
So many former GW-ers in both.

IIRC, he was developing Ancients rules for Warlord.
He and Jervis, as well as the Perrys, have always indulged in the historical wargaming world as well as GW's.
They were the writers of Warhammer Ancients, were they not?

**Platuan4th**

agnosto wrote:
I really wish people would quit talking about this; every time someone mentions it, I have to take my big box of big-hats out of the closet and sigh wistfully, thinking about how nice it would be if GW hadn't have dumped them (army book-wise).

*sigh*

I think to be dumped "army book-wise", you'd first require an Army Book and not just an assortment of White Dwarf articles assembled into a book.

**Kroothawk**

Two more quotes from Miniatures Page Forum:

Rick no longer works for Games Workshop. I spoke to him last Friday and can confirm that he's absolutely fine and, like many people in his situation, actually sounded relieved that he could now talk about it.

He now has the opportunity to pursue all those other projects he's had on the back burner, and I wish him well for the future. A nicer guy it would be hard to meet, and in my opinion, GW will be the poorer for letting him go.

Henry
Battlegames
battlegames.co.uk

Vanth SpiritWalker wrote:Well, the founders (Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone) have left GW ages ago already. As for Rick, I seem to recall he was the actual owner of the Warhammer franchise so either he has sold it for a really good compensation, or he might still have a foot in, albeit only financially.
I remember on a Studio tour being told specifically by one of their lead designers "If Rick goes, Warhammer goes", so I guess that this issue has been addressed somehow

**DarknessEternal**

Can't a man his age retire in peace?

**Kurgash**

well crap, another creative mind gone from GW.

**Kanluwen**

How much has Rick Priestly done in recent years though? I'd love to see a list, if anyone has one.

**Holycrusader27**

If it is true good time to start exploring new game systems out....

**Kanluwen**

If it's true, it doesn't really matter if all he's been doing in recent years is an advisory role now does it?

**Nurglitch**

Yeah, like Warmaster...

**skrulnik**

Kanluwen wrote:If it's true, it doesn't really matter if all he's been doing in recent years is an advisory role now does it?

It matters if he was the guy who shot down BA on giant bats.

**Mr Mystery**

Duncan_Idaho wrote:
And it seems to be working out pretty well so far.

For the management: Yes. For the sales: Not so well.

Sales are still good, but far from what could have been achieved if done properly. TT is still in a niche, a niche the as well freaky computer games industry has been able to leave. GW should have gone for more and the studio was ready to go beyond, sadly the management not.

Alessio I believe went to work for a seperate company (and my word Fantasy is way better for his passing)

Alessio has his own company Riverhorse Games, he is also working freelance for other companies, too. At the time being he has released his own game Shuuro and created the rules for Kings of War (Mantic (a company made up of mostly former GW staff). And I have to disagree, besides from the Rat Codex (which in the end was not solely his fault, since he was lacking information when writing it and the guys in the upper level not giving it to him and changing it after he delivered it) he was the one that changed WHFB for the better. If not for him WHFB would be a much worse game. Don`t forget though he was writing quite alot of it, he always had to bow to the management and they have a huge influence when it comes to how the book will look in the end. Proof? Check Kings of War and LotR, with both games he was able to do as he wanted and though he still had to bow somewhat to the management with LotR, it turned ou far better than WHFB where he was hamstrung by a huge catalogue of demands from the managment. BTW, huge bist of 8th edition were written by him and you can tell which, if you compare WHFB with LotR and KoW.

Gav left to concetrate full time on his Novels

True, but he also left because he wanted to change things that would have made the game better and was not allowed to (In some ways the same story why Andy Chambers left and created Starship Troopers (40K the way he envisioned it to turn out with the new edition, back then).

Space Hulk was a massive success (despite multibuying knobends on the make)

If you check the numbers they could have sold much more. Why is it that similar games from other companies still sell way more boxes than SH? There seems to be a demand that GW tends to ignore.

the company is going forward, enlarging it's size steadily, and cutting the chaff.

It is going forward when it comes to designing miniatures, they are really good at CAD-minis and they have been restructuring production and logistics. But sales have not been as good as expected. And sizewise they have not increased much over the last few years, they are still a very small company compared with Hasbro and Mattel. Quite some shops have closed, relocated and been turned in 1-man-shows. Sales in continental europe are still stagnating after declining for at least two years in a row. And other companies like Mantic are starting to chew a bit from their cake. Sure, they still have to go some way to truely compete with GW, but their sales already have caused raised eyebrows at GW. Heck, if late Rackham would have refrained from doing suicidal business decissions GW already would be sweating. Their product was superb and only hamstrung by inept management.

GW is not cutting chaff, at the moment they are cutting creative staff. Like with so many technology companies where the management believed that R&D can be replaced by a PR and crippled the former and increased the size of the latter. And it will hurt them badly in the future. Ask yourself why someone like Jervis Johnson is writing a book for Warlord Games (Black Powder) if he is absolutely happy with how GW is run.

Advertising produces an immediate boost, which you need to maintain to keep the banks/share holders happy. Which means more advertising. Ever thought for a second that advertising might not be that effective for such a niche hobby?

Word of mouth ist advertising, too. And you use it if you are intelligent since very often it costs you only some blisters of boxes to get the word out. Also advertising a niche still pays of when don rightly. TV ads definitely is not the way, but advertising in the right magazines, local newspapers, supporting clubs etc. is not that expensive and it pays off.

Wow. That's a lot of opinion. Got any decent references? Or could you admit that most of what you posted is pretty much unsubstantiated? If not, I await substantiation.....

BTW, you're already wrong on one count...Andy C didn't plan for 40k to be SST. Indeed, he was sacked for being really rather rude...

**Kanluwen**

skrulnik wrote:
Kanluwen wrote:If it's true, it doesn't really matter if all he's been doing in recent years is an advisory role now does it?

It matters if he was the guy who shot down BA on giant bats.

Oh please. That wouldn't have happened anyways.

**MajorTom11**

Kanluwen wrote:
skrulnik wrote:
Kanluwen wrote:If it's true, it doesn't really matter if all he's been doing in recent years is an advisory role now does it?

It matters if he was the guy who shot down BA on giant bats.

Oh please. That wouldn't have happened anyways.

Lol I would tend to agree, but never say never, who knows how close we came to the abyss lol

**Kanluwen**

I'd say not very close, at all, considering we didn't get Guardsmen riding Ogryn or Ultramarines riding Julius Caesars.

The Thunderwolf complaints are idiotic. They fit, reasonably well at least, with the Space Wolf mythos(more barbaric, yet honorable to a fault), not to mention the giant wolves of Fenris have long been a staple of the planet.

Blood Angels on giant bats don't make sense, and not once has Baal ever been said to be host to any gigantic creatures.

**Mr Mystery**

Now now Kan...don't forget, this are intarwebtubes....if one doesn't like, NONE MAY LIKE!

**Samus_aran115**

Kanluwen wrote:I'd say not very close, at all, considering we didn't get Guardsmen riding Ogryn or Ultramarines riding Julius Caesars.

The Thunderwolf complaints are idiotic. They fit, reasonably well at least, with the Space Wolf mythos(more barbaric, yet honorable to a fault), not to mention the giant wolves of Fenris have long been a staple of the planet.

Blood Angels on giant bats don't make sense, and not once has Baal ever been said to be host to any gigantic creatures.

I agree. I see no particular reason to complain about it. Fenrisian Wolves have been part of SW fluff since they were created. It's no different than daemonic cavalry, really.

**H.B.M.C.**

Go away Kan. This thread isn't about you defending some facet of GW, it's about Rick leaving GW.

**Thunderjaw**

Cough. There are no wolves on Fenris.

**Mr Mystery**

H.B.M.C. wrote:Go away Kan. This thread isn't about you defending some facet of GW, it's about Rick leaving GW.

And nor is it about your ongoing spat with Kan. But of course, it's not Trolling if you claim someone else to be a Troll.

So, what do we actually know? Rick Priestly has left GW, and nobody is privy as to how, why or exactly when.

End of thread I'd imagine?

**Kanluwen**

Not a single person here can say why he left(or even if it wasn't a case of just him moving to head Warhammer Forge and leaving the GW Studios proper with the whole situation being blown out of proportion by an internet rumormonger. My money's on that scenario, simply because he was so excited about the plans for WF in years to come). It's all conjecture, and some of it led to the standard crap of "X MEMBER OF GW HAS LEFT, NO MORE CREATIVITY WILL COME FROM THEM!".

Oh, and in answer to my earlier question...it looks like the last thing he did in a rules development role was "The Lord of the Rings" games.

So it's been awhile that he actually got down in the trenches and was in a role where he was supervising background, etc.

**Polonius**

Do you work up a sweat punching the strawmen like that? I'm trying to do more cardio, and that might help jazz up my routine.

**Mr Mystery**

Huh? Polonius, what are you on about?

**Kanluwen**

What strawman?

I'm simply saying that even if he did entirely leave the company(rather than just taking over Warhammer Forge, which is supposedly going to be its own design studio separate from Forge World proper) or was fired...

He really hasn't done much in terms of actual rule/game development at Games Workshop proper in recent years.

Is that taking away from the fact that he's a founding member? No.
Is that saying "Oh, obviously GW had a perfect reason for letting him go!"? No, it's not.

It's a statement of fact, in that he hasn't done anything rules/game development(or at least been credited for it) in recent years.

And even more, I sincerely doubt we'll ever get the actual story behind it much like even to this day we have like six different stories about why Andy Chambers left/was fired/abducted by podpeople and planted as a mole in opposing companies.