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ADVERTISING! Customers should never walk into a store with no idea what they sell. They should say, "Oh there's a shop that sells those sweet miniatures I saw on Facebook", not wander in with a blank look on their face, requiring a staff member to explain everything from scratch.

Roll LOTR into the specialist group and revamp the lot. Having a rolling release of say a necro gang one month or over two then a bfg fleet and so on. Change inquisitor to 28/32mm scale so its actually worth starting. The games are superb but lack support and models are getting so old. Plus more support for this may ease the reliance on 40k and warhammer and the constant rehash of rules and models as players diversify and play more games. Also may mean WD can lose those silly eavy metal sections which don't tell you how the model was painted and have something useful or interesting like small fluff pieces, proper painting guides etc for the new specialist stuff.

Design their moulds smarter so you can bring back the bitz service you don't want to cast 12 whole abbadons just to get his sword as one store manger told me. Or bite the bullet and go all plastic which may help make complete model lines for each race as you can cram plenty of options onto each sprue.

Stop making special characters the only way to play certain armies especially in 40k I don't necassarily want to take shrike to play raven guard. A few pages in each codex could easily cover various chapters, chaos legions or craftyworlds etc, they don't need to be huge changes to the main list but enough to make it fun and worthwhile and make play testing easier.

Take a tip from the supermarkets and do a proper loyalty system (online and in store) this could help people stay in the hobby and make it easier to start. Something more involved the the old skullz approach, 1% cash back rewards you could build up. Maelstrom games have something similar. Or for older players introduce nectar points or get on credit card cash back lists that sort of thing. Times are tough reward people for staying it doesn't need to be much just enough for people to appreciate. The odd sale wouldn't go amiss 5-10% on new releases or to coincide with 2nd phase releases for the older models in the range.

htj wrote:Maybe this is crazy but...

Open Game Licence.
I know that the OGL for D&D 3.5 caused a lot of really ridiculous, broken stuff to be produced. Furthermore, I admit that it may have resulted in the financial ruin of the company. But hear me out.
GW's main revenue comes from miniature sales, not rule book sales. I'm stating that as fact, but I'm willing to concede I may be wrong on it. If supplements were being released by third-parties, if will lead to increased purchasing of GW miniatures to build new, third-party armies. Also, rehashed versions of the core game system could be released, appeasing those who might rage-quit based on rules they dislike.
Sure, there'll be broken as heck armies. Sure, there'll be a lot of mud in the water. But it would be simple enough to choose which books were used in your local gaming club of FLGS, especially for tournament play.
I don't know, maybe it's a terrible idea. I do, however, think that it would be a positive move on GW's part. I can't say as I'm too in favour of the way they treat other companies right now.

It would be a disaster.
I can't even imagine the crap rules that would be produced by everyone and their kid brother. TO's would be wading through all sorts of stuff trying to come up with what's allowed and what's not.
You wouldn't see that much good stuff, you'd see an amazing amount of garbage. Every mini company would be putting out "How to use Battletech/Infinity/Warmahordes miniatures in 40k" style rules sets. Every game club would have it's own codex they were pushing. We'd have thousands of homebrewed codices.
Endless arguements over what was legal and not legal.

The main difference is DnD is not Warhammer. An RPG has a referee that's not only in charge, but has already made decisions as to what is allowable or not, and can add/subtract material on the fly. The player just has to sit down and roll dice.

@mikhaila

Yeah, you're probably right. The lack of a GM is the main thing. Funny thing, the role of the GM derived originally from 'judges' or 'arbiters' that would be involved in a wargame. They would be non-participants in the battle, but would be a neutral rules adjudicator. Something that seems to have disappeared from the hobby in the main.

Still, a man can dream...

I don't know how true that is but I haven't played any RPGs for years.

I get the feeling that a lot of RPGs nowadays are played as a competitive game between the players and the GM.

In the old days that would have made as much sense as a competition between you and God.

Its a shame everything seems to be about competition these days!

what happened to the good old days of co-operation and teaming up and fellowish yadda yadda!

Sell Forgeworld models in stores?
I live in New Zealand, so if I don't spend vast amounts of money, I have to pay postage which is nearly as much as the models themselves.

Well, like another poster said, I'd have to spend a good amount of time digesting data once taking over the company. Running on some assumptions though....

1) If WD isn't pulling a profit on it's own, kill it. If it is managing to pay for itself or make money, leave it in the hands of whoever cares about it. Magazines are on their way to a dead medium, no sense prolonging it on the company's dime.

2) Release periodic updates/supplements for each army in between codex/edition revamps. This would keep the metagame constantly changing and give incentive for folks to keep tinkering with "finished" armies. I don't know if it would be better to release bundles of several armies in one book, or release something like Codex 2.0.

3) Do something to try and reign in pricing. Maybe they known something I don't, but I can't help but think that $20 is the tipping point for "Impulse" purchase. Not too much of their product falls into that category nowadays. I would try very hard to bring a basic infantry squad box down to the $20 range.

MeanGreenStompa wrote:

AvatarForm wrote:Liquidate and re-purpose the business into a strip club franchise

That's ridiculous.

No one is going to pay to see redshirts nakkid...

Read what I said... LIQUIDATE... we would be selling the Red-Shirts for fire wood... afterall, one if the fine print clauses when signing into the Staff is that GW owns you.

fattyhasarrived wrote:Sell Forgeworld models in stores?
I live in New Zealand, so if I don't spend vast amounts of money, I have to pay postage which is nearly as much as the models themselves

Forge World has 15% postage worldwide, for Germany as well as New Zealand: http://www.forgeworld.co.uk/Home/Shipping-Charges.html
Pay in pounds and those models are probably cheaper than GW equivalents in a NZ store

Kroothawk wrote:

fattyhasarrived wrote:Sell Forgeworld models in stores?
I live in New Zealand, so if I don't spend vast amounts of money, I have to pay postage which is nearly as much as the models themselves

Forge World has 15% postage worldwide, for Germany as well as New Zealand: http://www.forgeworld.co.uk/Home/Shipping-Charges.html
Pay in pounds and those models are probably cheaper than GW equivalents in a NZ store

You are forgetting Maelstrom and Wayland are still cheaper than FW GW sales, especially since Maelstrom includes postage.

Kilkrazy wrote:I don't know how true that is but I haven't played any RPGs for years.

I get the feeling that a lot of RPGs nowadays are played as a competitive game between the players and the GM.

In the old days that would have made as much sense as a competition between you and God.

I wouldn't say that's true. I GM a lot of RPG systems, and none of them advocate direct competition with the players, or vice versa. That'd be more of a personal thing, I think. Not to mention strictly against my code of honour as a GM.

Hi all.
If I had a conroling share in GW plc ..
I would decide if GW is a minatures company ,that spends too much on supporting the 'indirect aspects' ,unecissarily inflating the price.
Or a gaming company that has lost its focus on its core buisness and is hemoraging customers.

GW plc can sell plastic minatures at much higher volumes and reap the benifits of the economies of scale.(If they loose the expencive insular marketing mindset.)

GW plc could drive minature sales and grow its customer base by delivering better VFM by focusing on game play issues.

B&M stores are inefficient retail outlets.
They can be seen as promotional marketing centres for high population areas..
Internet sales allow greater efficiency.

Far better promotion would be 'demonstration teams ' canvasing the institutions where GW s prime demoghraphic are...
Schools -colledges-universities etc.

Continuing raising prices indefinatley to compensate for falling sales volumes is not a long term solution.

GW plc has to adress its core problems , of a lack of coherant direction in its whole buisness structure.

It core products are most apropriate for the demoghraphic GW plc choose to ignore.(Gamers.)

And are most inaproproate for the demoghraphic GW plc have chosen to focus on. (Kiddies.)

TTFN

Actually, you know what I'd do? Start selling other companies stuff. There's a lot of roleplaying and wargaming stuff that is plagued by supply issues in the UK (I'm looking at you, Privateer Press) and a big company like GW could afford to maintain large stocks for more reliable distribution. It's also an increase in profits for very little in original outlay.

I like a bunch of the thoughts so far. Some of the biggest things I would change are:

- Open White Dwarf to outside companies that were not direct competitors.

- Lower the price of White Dwarf.

- Look very hard into lowering the price of product to levels that can sustain the company, allow for growth, as well as make us some money.

- Re-establish a presence in the gaming convention community. Gen-Con, Origins, etc.

- Support other games like Blood Bowl and Necromunda.

- Involve the player base in White Dwarf in various ways. Articles, painting, and fan-invite Battle Reports.

- Look in to bringing back Summer Battle Tours.

- World-wide campaigns like Armageddon.

- World-wide 'Superbowl' style GTs. Current GTs would be 'playoffs' (like the NFL) for #1 player in region > #1 country > #1 continent > final two play @ GW hq in England for the 'Superbowl' becoming the #1 player in the world.



King Ghidorah

1st. Instate the first ever recall for GW products... All codexes less Space Marines (face it haters, it's the only balanced codex)

2nd. gak-can everything and start from scratch. Get back to the roots of what is grim & dark.

oni wrote:it's the only balanced codex

Is that some kind of Zen Koan? I mean, what's it balanced with?

What are the rules of one balanced Codex?

If a Space Marine kills a Space Marine in the grim darkness, does it make a thread on the internet?

1. Move the factories to China, India or Taiwan which everyone is cheapest so I can lower prices but still make a bigger profit.
2. Advertise to get fresh blood in the hobby.
3. Encourage stores to hold more competitions.
4. Make the specialist games bigger.
5. Stop with all the space marine focus in 40k, the xenos is getting jealous
6. Start doing psychological pricing.
7. Do a club card type thing.
8. Hung, drawn and quarter the person who decided to have 10 orcs for the same price as what 19 was.

First thing: LOTS OF MARKET RESEARCH. I would find out who is buying what, when, why, and where. Who is playing what, why, when, where and with whom. What armies are popular, are winning, and why.

If the research supported it (which I'm sure it would) I would close down the majority of stores in the US, and direct part of that money to supporting the indie scene (and keep the rest for fun and profit).

If the research supported it, I would attempt to slash prices to draw in more customers. I'm a firm believer that more customers = more advertising = more customers in a social game such as this.

The major thing I would do is to at least double the number of staff in the design studio. I would employ a dedicated rules team, and a dedicated fluff team. There would be at least 3 authors on every book - possibly the same 2 authors on every book to avoid them one-upping themselves, plus one person for whom it was their favourite race to keep it from being bland.

I would embrace computers and smartphones/tablets - codexes would be available in ebook format, army builders, and whatever else was good.

I would change the codex release style into 4 different aspects: 1) Hard-cover, full colour printed rules (aka new O+G book) 2) Ring-bound, B+W printet rules. 3) Ebook rules section. 4) Ebook Fluff section. That way EVERYONE gets exactly the rulebook they want, and some people get all four!

I would make all employees play at least one game per week of at least one game system, in office hours. This would simply be research and development but hopefully a lot of games would add up to a lot of better ideas for the company.

I would put Space Hulk, and other new skirmish-level games, in toy stores and department stores.

1. Continue along the like of the GK boxes, and cut the price by $5-10 USD. Minimum squad size for the boxes and a reasonable number of bitz on the sprue. Meltaguns should not be being sold individually for 25% of the box price.

2. Migrate to plastics for anything not FW. This includes main characters and single models. Sell individual character packs as separate kits with the potential for multiple poses. Setup FW to migrate to plastic kits and integrate the FW team into the base design team for both model and codex input.

3. Sell SM boxes in multiple styles, and make ALL SM/CSM kits (including GKs) cross-compatible. Extend this cross-compatibility to the entire range, within reason, allowing for conversions from cross-system kitbashes with minimal effort. Include all base types in all boxes.

4. In running with cross-compatability - include upgrade kits with nothing but heads, arms, weapons and other extraneous bits and bobs for easy crossover kitbashes.

5. Codexes become team efforts, involving 3 or more bodies on each book, easing the load on a single individual and making it easier to balance the book with playtesting. This also allows for better wording, and, in theory, allows for more clear wording of rules and interactions thereof.

6. Restructure support and relax requirements for indy retailers, and shift the focus of store locations to battle bunker-esque setups.

7. Bring back company-run/sanctioned tournies and establish a world-wide ranking system, a la DCI. Use the battle bunkers, now located in or near major metro areas, for qualifiers for GTs, as well as other major tourney venues.

8. Games Day tours it's markets, running in at least 5 locations stateside, with european, asian, and aussie/nz markets following suit.

9. Reestablish support for Necromunda/Mordheim, Epic/Warmaster and BFG/whatever the WFB naval game is, as there is still a market for skirmish scale, theatre scale, and naval games.

10. Digital 'dexes, in their own special e-reader with a proprietary format, with the ability to purchase 'dexes at a discount. Paper 'dexes in both softcover bound and binder-friendly formats.

Although that's just a top 10...

The original poster would drive the company into the ground faster than an Airbus 330 in '09. Thanks for ruining everything, mate.

Ok, for a serious answer.

I'd bring competitor merchandise in to the stores on a rotating basis, (50% of the store would still be devoted to Games Workshop products) and push whatever merchandise comes in in each months White Dwarf. Anything that sells well stays in the stores. Other experiments might be worth considering as well (IE, rental terrain for people using the tables).
After 3 years any store that still can't pull a profit goes.

On the plastic crack side of things, feel out for more franchises games can be built around, and develop skirmish scale games for the existing model lines. These would be built as ways to grab new people without the massive sticker shock of existing model lines. Ideally, they'll even use the same codices going forward, so that skirmish players always have a taste of the full scale game on their bookshelf.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Oh, while I wouldn't drop the price on models (sticker shock reduction is what the skirmish thing is for), I *would* drop the price on paints, brushes etc. Anything that isn't unique to GW shouldn't rely on the GW brand to sell more. Some quality improvements (like moving to dropper bottles) are also called for.

Laughing Man wrote:Liquidate it, pocket the money, and watch as the fanboys weep tears of blood.

Hmmmm... well
- I'd get their marketing department either entirely fired or readjusted so it includes advertising to the real world and actualyl keeps the customers at heart. THis would mean a general stabilisation of prices and encouragement of new customers.
- Hire more codex writers and redo the system of which a codex/rulebook is produced. I know quite a few people would prefer a different author for the fluff and I would at least testrun this. That and for every codex, there will be severe testrunning for no overpowering.
- More opinions from the public. A group of people from the public brought in ot have a read of the drafts and test the armies in question. There'd be an enforcement of secrecy but otherwise we'd get a better opinion of what the people want.

That's a sort of general idea. Not really something I'd think of - the idea that I may control GW

Hi all.
For those advocating selling other companies stuff in GW stores.
There is a slight problem , what other stuff do you sell?
As most other companies products are more competativley priced than GWs products.
(Thats why my LFGS stopped stocking anything but GW minis.Everything else could be replaced with other companies products that were priced competativley.)

So comics sweets and drinks anyone?

TTFN

aerethan wrote:Establish a referral reward system. Bring a new player to the game, get a free battalion or something along those lines.

if this were true i'd have a few hundred thousand point army by now.

Lanrak wrote:Hi all.
For those advocating selling other companies stuff in GW stores.
There is a slight problem , what other stuff do you sell?
As most other companies products are more competativley priced than GWs products.
(Thats why my LFGS stopped stocking anything but GW minis.Everything else could be replaced with other companies products that were priced competativley.)

So comics sweets and drinks anyone?

TTFN

Comics, videogames, rpg, boardagames, Infinity, WarmaHordes, Ron and bones, just to name a few... GW doesnt do skirmish so its rather a complement rather than a competing product... this could be a turning point in making stores actual GAMES WORKSHOPs...
Another thing I would do was firing most ceo's, shrink company and rehire Ian livingstone and Steve Jackson... GW needs to get intouch with its roots and reinvent themselves.

1. Extensively playtest, math hammer and "beta" the entire edition, and it's codices, and then release them simultaneously. 6th Edition + Every armies updated codex for the new edition, released together.

2. Release new models, new fluff and new "expansion pack" soft cover books to keep the "flavor of the month" going. I.E. the old Black Templar and Blood Angels codices, which required codex space marine in order to play. IE: "The Farsight Enclave" or "Death Korps of Krieg"

These two simple rules would result in a balanced, fair, and competetive game, in which no army should ever have to be "shelved". The little supplementary books would (should?) be enough to make all the little codex hoppers continue to codex hop. Toss in a new model or two with each of the supplementary books, and you've got a phenomenon.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Oh, and there is absolutely no reason that there is not one of those retail fridges full of sodas and energy drinks and water and juice in every store.

I don't know about your FLGS, but all we do is eat and drink and hang out in the place, so you may as well sell the drinks. It's easy enough.

I can't imagine how terrible it must be to game at Games Workshop stores. My FLGS has fridges full of sodas and other drinks, racks of junk food, board games, more miniature games varieties than you can shake a stick at, and carries and provides tables (and dice!) for PnPRPGs as well. There aren't any silly rules about 'required' painting or basing (though the other players do encourage it, through positive reinforcement instead of negative punishment [psychology terms]) and scratchbuilding stuff just makes others wonder instead of refuse to play you. Tourneys every weekend, for a different system each week of the month.

Yeah, it's a pretty great store.

My FLGS is a GW store and doesn't require painted or based models. I'm one of the only fully painted armies there >.<

But with the advent of Grey Knight fotm, I get to say:

"Well at least these space marines are the right color."