Games Workshop appoints first digital agency

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**Kroothawk**

yakface wrote:If GW ends up leaking any Hobbit stuff then they would have to pay New Line some huge fee.

So GW went about tightening its ability to control information in every manner, and that has unfortunately meant an almost draconian lockdown on information about everything they release.

So GW basically feels legally obliged to publicly deny its existence. Costs them a lot of sales and money, too. But seems they are fine with selling 10% less each year, as long as Tim Kirby can milk GW's finances dry for a few more years.

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

d-usa wrote:So the story is that in order for GW to get the rights to the Hobbit they had ro prove that they can keep a lid on leaks.

Which I can understand from the studio's perspective. They're giving GW access to their designs far in advance of the movie coming out, and they want that to remain confidential. What doesn't make sense is why such an agreement would prevent GW from promoting their own IP. That's pants-on-head stupid.

yakface wrote:GW have signed a reportedly incredibly punitive NDA with New Line Cinema based on what happened with a leak during the LOTR films.

Remind me: What leaked?

yakface wrote:...and that has unfortunately meant an almost draconian lockdown on information about everything they release.

Which doesn't make sense. It'd be like telling someone they're not allowed to drink beer, so they swear off all forms of liquid.

**yakface**

Kroothawk wrote:
yakface wrote:If GW ends up leaking any Hobbit stuff then they would have to pay New Line some huge fee.

So GW went about tightening its ability to control information in every manner, and that has unfortunately meant an almost draconian lockdown on information about everything they release.

So GW basically feels legally obliged to publicly deny its existence. Costs them a lot of sales and money, too. But seems they are fine with selling 10% less each year, as long as Tim Kirby can milk GW's finances dry for a few more years.

Well based on the huge sales bubble they got from the LOTR movies I guess they clearly decided it was worth it. And let's not forget that GW was already moving towards the practice of continually limiting their information before then anyway. Perhaps it was more of something they happily committed to despite the ramifications.

Of course, whether or not the practice of keeping your products a complete secret until they are ready to be released actually hampers sales or not is kind of questionable. I mean, I know WE all hate it, but Apple for example has made a killing doing precisely that brand of marketing. Sure their sales continue to drop, but we all know that there are many potential reasons for that, how much, if any is related to their complete lockdown on upcoming release information can only be guestimated.

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

But Yak, Apple customers are border-line cultists. Everyone knows that.

**yakface**

H.B.M.C. wrote:

yakface wrote:GW have signed a reportedly incredibly punitive NDA with New Line Cinema based on what happened with a leak during the LOTR films.

Remind me: What leaked?

I have on fairly good authority that the incident did actually occur and the deal with New Line for the Hobbit is at least partially responsible for the extreme lack of pre-release info. However, I myself don't actually know what leaked during the LOTR times to cause this supposed hubbaloo, so I can't give you anymore info on that, sadly.

H.B.M.C. wrote:
yakface wrote:...and that has unfortunately meant an almost draconian lockdown on information about everything they release.

Which doesn't make sense. It'd be like telling someone they're not allowed to drink beer, so they swear off all forms of liquid.

As I mentioned in my reply to Kroot, we all know that GW was constantly moving towards a state of utter secrecy before this anyway, so yeah you're right that there's no reason they shouldn't be able to release 'official' info at earlier intervals while still keeping the lid on sensitive material.

However, it does make sense for a company who already prizes itself on secrecy of its new releases to use the situation as an opportunity to tighten control all around in order to prevent any accidental leaks.

Automatically Appended Next Post:

H.B.M.C. wrote:But Yak, Apple customers are border-line cultists. Everyone knows that.

True, and I'm sure you're also inferring the same can be said of many GW customers...which I also agree with being a regular customer of both.

**d-usa**

Bits and pieces I have heard made it sound like it was pictures of the Balrog and/or Gollum model leaked, which were two characters that were kept under tight wraps by the Studio.

Again, just speculation though.

**Alpharius**

yakface wrote:
H.B.M.C. wrote:

yakface wrote:GW have signed a reportedly incredibly punitive NDA with New Line Cinema based on what happened with a leak during the LOTR films.

Remind me: What leaked?

I have on fairly good authority that the incident did actually occur and the deal with New Line for the Hobbit is at least partially responsible for the extreme lack of pre-release info. However, I myself don't actually know what leaked during the LOTR times to cause this supposed hubbaloo, so I can't give you anymore info on that, sadly.

H.B.M.C. wrote:
yakface wrote:...and that has unfortunately meant an almost draconian lockdown on information about everything they release.

Which doesn't make sense. It'd be like telling someone they're not allowed to drink beer, so they swear off all forms of liquid.

As I mentioned in my reply to Kroot, we all know that GW was constantly moving towards a state of utter secrecy before this anyway, so yeah you're right that there's no reason they shouldn't be able to release 'official' info at earlier intervals while still keeping the lid on sensitive material.

However, it does make sense for a company who already prizes itself on secrecy of its new releases to use the situation as an opportunity to tighten control all around in order to prevent any accidental leaks.

Automatically Appended Next Post:

H.B.M.C. wrote:But Yak, Apple customers are border-line cultists. Everyone knows that.

True, and I'm sure you're also inferring the same can be said of many GW customers...which I also agree with being a regular customer of both.

I think it was a picture of the berserker Orcs and possibly a picture showing Elves at Helm's Deep - which may have been something that wasn't in the actual books?

Anyway... yes, the deal with NewLine makes GW lots of money, and yes, it is 'pant on head stupid' (Thanks H.B.M.C.!) that GW can't figure out how to preview there own stuff without leaking something from an entirely different game system so instead on the eve of the release of their biggest seller we officially get... nothing!

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

Alpharius wrote:I think it was a picture of the berserker Orcs and possibly a picture showing Elves at Helm's Deep - which may have been something that wasn't in the actual books?

Come to think of it, I do kinda remember something about that. The give-away of the berzerkers and the bombs that take out the wall, and the Elves.

**notprop**

Yeah I seem to remember it was he Urak hai bomber.

**spaceelf**

I am still wondering just what a digital agency does. Is it simply an online advertising/SEO firm?

I kind of figure that GW will be surprised when they figure it out. They probably think it has something to do with fingers.

**ProtoClone**

This news is intriguing...but I will wait and see how long they keep this up. I hope they do, because it is a smart move.

**Kurce**

H.B.M.C. wrote:How's that saying go? The road to good intentions is paved with fists of ham? Something along those lines...

Though I would have liked to have seen that board meeting:

Kirby: So... digital media. I'd prefer it if we didn't even have electricity, but we can't ignore the Internet forever... Harry... what are you doing?
Exec #1: *concentrating very hard* I'm trying to will the Internet out of existance.
Exec #2: You've been doing that for 3 days straight. Trust me, it doesn't work. I tried.
Kirby: We all tried.

You forgot to add the tear Kirby shed after his last statement. And then the solemn silence and sniffling in the office.

**Kanluwen**

yakface wrote:
H.B.M.C. wrote:

yakface wrote:GW have signed a reportedly incredibly punitive NDA with New Line Cinema based on what happened with a leak during the LOTR films.

Remind me: What leaked?

I have on fairly good authority that the incident did actually occur and the deal with New Line for the Hobbit is at least partially responsible for the extreme lack of pre-release info. However, I myself don't actually know what leaked during the LOTR times to cause this supposed hubbaloo, so I can't give you anymore info on that, sadly.

I can make a few really, really good guesses.

1) Some of "The Two Towers" boxed sets came too early for preorder customers, and that rulebook had a bunch of spoilers. Most notably: the production photos of the Uruk-Hai Berserkers (which in essence were created for the movie) and the Elves at Helm's Deep. Remember in the novel, the Elves were not present.
2) For "The Return of the King", something similar again happened with the rulebooks/starter sets coming too early and including spoilers. Notably: The Army of the Dead.

**Alpharius**

Kanluwen wrote:
I can make a few really, really good guesses.

1) Some of "The Two Towers" boxed sets came too early for preorder customers, and that rulebook had a bunch of spoilers. Most notably: the production photos of the Uruk-Hai Berserkers (which in essence were created for the movie) and the Elves at Helm's Deep. Remember in the novel, the Elves were not present.

That's a pretty good guess... of something that was already posted in this thread!

None of this should prevent GW from figuring out a way to talk about 40K 6th though...

**Kanluwen**

Alpharius wrote:
Kanluwen wrote:
I can make a few really, really good guesses.

1) Some of "The Two Towers" boxed sets came too early for preorder customers, and that rulebook had a bunch of spoilers. Most notably: the production photos of the Uruk-Hai Berserkers (which in essence were created for the movie) and the Elves at Helm's Deep. Remember in the novel, the Elves were not present.

That's a pretty good guess... of something that was already posted in this thread!

None of this should prevent GW from figuring out a way to talk about 40K 6th though...

Yeah, it was only after I posted that I saw you already posted my common spiel.

**Altruizine**

yakface wrote:
So if you stop making physical books and just put the rules online, you compromise your ability to sell your games to those types of people. I know to those of us who regularly go online it seems nutty in this day and age that so many people still exist like this, but it is absolutely the truth.

Based on what?

I haven't the slightest problem believing that a large segment of various national populations does not go online.

What I do have a problem believing is that a large segment of the wargaming population does not go online. Wargaming is necessarily a pursuit of the middle class and above, a group in which the overwhelmingly majority would seem to be online.

**solkan**

Altruizine wrote:
yakface wrote:
So if you stop making physical books and just put the rules online, you compromise your ability to sell your games to those types of people. I know to those of us who regularly go online it seems nutty in this day and age that so many people still exist like this, but it is absolutely the truth.

Based on what?

I haven't the slightest problem believing that a large segment of various national populations does not go online.

What I do have a problem believing is that a large segment of the wargaming population does not go online. Wargaming is necessarily a pursuit of the middle class and above, a group in which the overwhelmingly majority would seem to be online.

You deserve a "Based on what?" of your own. How much of GW's market is children spending their parents' money, again?

**yakface**

Altruizine wrote:
yakface wrote:
So if you stop making physical books and just put the rules online, you compromise your ability to sell your games to those types of people. I know to those of us who regularly go online it seems nutty in this day and age that so many people still exist like this, but it is absolutely the truth.

Based on what?

I haven't the slightest problem believing that a large segment of various national populations does not go online.

What I do have a problem believing is that a large segment of the wargaming population does not go online. Wargaming is necessarily a pursuit of the middle class and above, a group in which the overwhelmingly majority would seem to be online.

Being someone who has a vested interest in gamers that enjoy online content, whenever I go to tournaments and conventions I ask people about their online habits...like do you visit Dakka and if not do you use other sites instead, etc.

I am always shocked by how many people tell me they 'never' go online or barely ever do (in regards to gaming).

And my gut feeling tells me that event attendees like this are, if anything, MORE likely to be Internet-savy than those who don't attend events, so my guess is that the percentage of non-online gamers is even higher among non-attendees.

**d-usa**

People here hate PDFs because "people are going to cheat and edit them". Good luck keeping the paranoia crowd happy with printouts that change every couple of months.

**th3eviltwin**

so they have hired some to troll forums to tell everyone how wonderful GW is and how your wrong to think or say anything bad about them?

**Gorlack**

spaceelf wrote:I am still wondering just what a digital agency does. Is it simply an online advertising/SEO firm?

I would like to second this question. Is it just adds, or is something more involved

**d-usa**

th3eviltwin wrote:so they have hired some to troll forums to tell everyone how wonderful GW is and how your wrong to think or say anything bad about them?

Yes they did, thank you for clearing up any confusion we might have had about this.

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

Besides, there are enough people here who do that for free. GW didn't need to hire anyone...

**yakface**

Uh guys, what the digital agency will do for GW it is right in their press release (from the first page of this thread):

It will handle the global digital strategy for Games Workshop, which is seeking to grow its e-commerce business.

So this company will be handling and driving GW's e-commerce business. This could just be limited to producing and distributing digital media, such as digital rulebooks and codexes (which the press release kind of hints at) but it also could theoretically apply to how GW does business online. For example, perhaps this company could finally convince GW to stop their crazy approach to not allowing online retailers to use their IP for web-carts (but probably not).

I think the safe bet is that they're just going to be developing the strategy for creating purely digital products (i.e. ebooks).

But no, this isn't a PR firm, so nobody from that company is going to come onto forums to try to convince us how great GW is.

**spaceelf**

yakface wrote:
Uh guys, what the digital agency will do for GW it is right in their press release (from the first page of this thread):

It will handle the global digital strategy for Games Workshop, which is seeking to grow its e-commerce business.

So this company will be handling and driving GW's e-commerce business. This could just be limited to producing and distributing digital media, such as digital rulebooks and codexes (which the press release kind of hints at) but it also could theoretically apply to how GW does business online. For example, perhaps this company could finally convince GW to stop their crazy approach to not allowing online retailers to use their IP for web-carts (but probably not).

I think the safe bet is that they're just going to be developing the strategy for creating purely digital products (i.e. ebooks).

But no, this isn't a PR firm, so nobody from that company is going to come onto forums to try to convince us how great GW is.

Unfortunately, that press release is not particularly informative. I do not know what global digital strategy entails. I hope that this is not indicative of their capacity in general, as they did a very poor job of communicating. Is GW looking to increase their online sales of its physical products? Are they planning on producing more electronic documents and game aids? How will they increase sales? Through advertising/search engine optimization, lowering prices, letting other companies have online shopping carts, etc.

I think that it is a big leap to assume that the company will be producing GW's e-books. Although they may distribute them, they will not be the final distributor which will probably be Apple or some such company.

I never thought that online strategy was particularly complicated. Sell your stuff online. Advertise it, including search engine optimization, product placement, etc.

**Marrak**

First off, who is this Kirby I keep hearing about?

Secondly, it would have been very very easy for an open ended contract from New Line basically get interpreted/forced legally to first block any release of LotR but then form an umbrella that includes all GW products. It would just take missing a single line or two on the form, and now GW is screwed by a policy that they cannot publicly decry without getting in endless gak with New Line, costing them far more money then a lack of rumors or early announcements would. Remember, as many problems as the game may have, LotR was a huge boon in sales initially for GW.

Next, it seems the artists themselves want nothing revealed until they're ready. While I can understand this... somewhat... it speaks to me less about a surprise and more of a kind control and/or arrogance. The leak of the DE pics and the sculptors anger at the revelation come to mind.

As for digital agency, I imagine they will be in charge of the maintenance and distribution of any/all e-commerce, which would include ibooks, downloads, pdfs... etc. What ended up possibly happening is someone pointed out that GW can make more profit with less cost by utilizing a media that doesn't require printing and is now readily welcomed and utilized by a good portion of their market. The paranoia people show with editing PDFs and that manner of thinking is probably precisely the reason GW has been so slow to enter this line of product, but in doing so focus on the negative rather than potential positives. I've said it earlier and I'll say it again, I'd gladly pay for an electronic BRB with even half the functionality shown in the SM codex, simply for ease of use and transport, along with not having to worry about getting my book torn or ripped or chewed on by little Timmy the game store kid, or even some random jerk who either doesn't pay attention or doesn't care how other peoples things are treated. It's one thing to try to manage 2-3 books and keep them in order without someone deciding your stuff is a library/free sample. It's another thing if I'm holding my very portable and easily held ipad or other such device.

The CV looks impressive and frankly, I'm glad GW is taking the steps in this direction. Here's hoping in the future we can get a package deal like we can with bluray movies, where you get the physical disk and the digital download at the same time.

**reds8n**

*blows dust off thread*

almost/kinda/not worth it's own thread for...

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/games-workshop-selects-paragon-alignment-tool-to-maximize-server-and-workstation-performance-and-extend-the-life-of-hard-disks-2012-07-18

IRVINE, CA, Jul 18, 2012 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) -- Disaster recovery and data protection software developer Paragon Software Group (PSG), today announced that Games Workshop, the leading designer and manufacturer of fantasy miniatures, selected Paragon Software Group's Paragon Alignment Tool (PAT) to boost server and workstation performance due to misaligned partitions.

Games Workshop employs both a modern VMware virtual server environment running Windows 2008 Datacenter and a legacy physical server environment running older Windows 2000 and Windows 2003 operating systems. "We had a number of older servers that we migrated into our virtual environment and noticed that we did not get the performance that we expected," said Jon Howell, North America IT Director for Games Workshop. "A little research revealed that since they were older OS versions, the partitions were not aligned correctly. The Paragon alignment tool cleaned things up nicely and increased the performance."

In the recently issued IHS iSuppli report "Hard Disk Drive Pricing: Will it Reach Pre-Flood Level in the Near Future?", prices for hard disk drives are expected to remain above pre-flood levels through 2014. Paragon Software's partition alignment tool is perfect for extending the life of hardware still utilizing older operating systems; it also boosts server performance for little investment in time or dollars.

Partition Alignment Tool ESX Benefits

-- Measurably increase I/O performance of virtual machines by a factor of
2X to 3X
-- Control, manage, and align centrally and remotely dozens of virtual
drives belonging to different virtual machines (no need to manually
install software on every virtual machine)
-- Reduces complexity and hardware requirements of alignment projects (no
need for extra storage, because PAT performs in-place alignment -- no
migration required)

"As the use of virtual machines continues to expand, partition alignment is becoming more and more relevant to the IT departments that manage servers and workstations utilizing older versions of Microsoft operating systems," said Tom Fedro, president of Paragon Software Group. "Paragon's line of partition alignment software is specifically designed with a powerful feature set and easy-to-use interface to ensure maximum performance from older operating systems running on new, advanced format drives (AFDs)."

About Games Workshop

Games Workshop is a publicly quoted company with direct sales operations in the UK, the United States, Canada, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Japan and Australia. With over 70% of sales coming from outside of the UK the Group is now truly international. GW remains a vertically integrated company, retaining control over every aspect of design, manufacture, distribution and retail of our models and rulebooks. Products are sold through our own chain of 340+ Hobby centers and by more than 3,700 independent toy and hobby shops around the world. These outlets are complemented by our growing mail order and online sales businesses.

**notprop**

Wow! that's amazing stuff.... What on earth does it mean?

**evilsponge**

notprop wrote:Wow! that's amazing stuff.... What on earth does it mean?

"We're running our business on older IT infrastructure (no surprise there) so we hired this outside IT firm to come in and make it more efficient"

**catharsix**

Warily optimistic on this one. But will it even have the chance to change those issues related to the Internet/etc. that most people on forums like Dakka hate the most? I'm not sure it will. It likely is of a piece of strategy with the release of the iPad codices, which ruffled some feathers recently (something about the Ork Flyer rules).

Still, at least GW has finally caved and realized the digital world/marketplace isn't going away. Hopefully they'll listen/heed the advice of this agency, and that we'll see some change for the better.