Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

 Overread wrote:
I think DnD is just as complicated; its just easier on some fronts because its so heavily marketed by themselves and 3rd parties.

Warhammer in the UK is pretty strongly marketed to the point most people know what it is if you mention Warhammer or Space Marines (a little less so Games Workshop); but its nothing like as well understood (generally) as DnD.

And I'd wager DnD is stronger abroad as well.

GW are getting there year by year, their video game licences have paid off really well in that respect and if they can nail the TV series with Amazon that's another big boon. Lord of the Rings also did them a huge boost

I'd also point out the other D&D players are on your team, and can kibitz more easily.

I don't think there is a good way for someone totaly new, and without a group to enter any GW games right now. Unless they want to play against themselfs.
It is not even about what ever someone is focused to be the best gamer. Maybe for painters it is easier, but how many people with no painting expiriance pick up GW kits to paint from zero, with no expiriance? Without being comissioned to do it too. Not many. The old stuff is often out of scale, against the new stuff and even models from the same model range. So esthethic wise people may not like it. The monopose new stuff is the proper size, but what mad man wants to paint 10 identical flamer dudes. In the past there were different poses, extra stuff weapons/gear/etc for the different models in the unit. And while it may not always been good for efficiency, a new player or painter could make one unit, just the way they wanted.

And then there is the army cost. Not everyone can be like my GK, which can be build out of models bought in 7th ed to make an almost identical army as back then. In w40k especialy someone can fall for the space marine trap. Army resets multiple times an edition, gets invalidated. Playing marines start to feel like playing some mobile game with sesons and this time I need 9 tanks, in 6-12 months I will need 120 infantry etc.

AoS is a bit better, but it is starting to do the same stuff w40k does. Phasing out models/factions. Starter stuff is crap. New edition? We made super powerful spell practicaly obligatory, same with faction terrain. Play faction X (FEC) we made it bad, and obligatory to buy expensive special character monster kits.
Now it isn't as bad , although 3ed imo was, as w40k is right now, but anyone who got to expiriance Nighthaunt for the last 6 weeks, and played 10th w40k , is getting a strange eldar de javu.

I think that as far as getting in to, playing/painting etc the best stuff GW does is often the stuff they don't do much for . Stuff like Bloodbowl or Warmaster. If someone can it is probably best to get in to those games first. They are cheaper, more fun, the communities keep the games alive and write better rule sets for the games then GW proper. Same with models. GW is not making the models you like? No problem here are your 3d eastern europe copies, or German/Spanish original if you don't want 1 to 1 GW stuff.

Karol wrote:
I don't think there is a good way for someone totaly new, and without a group to enter any GW games right now.

I'd argue that there's never been a better time except perhaps in the VAST history of Rogue Trader era. For all the arguments of price and stuff, right now GW have a LOT of options on the market; an insane amount of resources of their own and 3rd party online and more. There's a LOT of very easily accessed information today.

You don't have to go far into the net either - reddit and FB both have very active communities.

GW themselves out put marketing every day of the week through their own website; have stores on the highstreet; etc...


If you are interested then right now there's very few barriers to entry. Price is certainly one, but honestly that's always a barrier to any new hobby and each hobby has its gateway price to get in normally; its 2ndhand/3rd party option that's cheaper and its high grade option that's more expensive. Plus with Warcry, Combat Patrol, Killteam and Underworlds there are a good number of cheaper options to get into Warhammer games right now.

 Overread wrote:

Karol wrote:
I don't think there is a good way for someone totaly new, and without a group to enter any GW games right now.

I'd argue that there's never been a better time except perhaps in the VAST history of Rogue Trader era. For all the arguments of price and stuff, right now GW have a LOT of options on the market; an insane amount of resources of their own and 3rd party online and more. There's a LOT of very easily accessed information today.

You don't have to go far into the net either - reddit and FB both have very active communities.

GW themselves out put marketing every day of the week through their own website; have stores on the highstreet; etc...


If you are interested then right now there's very few barriers to entry. Price is certainly one, but honestly that's always a barrier to any new hobby and each hobby has its gateway price to get in normally; its 2ndhand/3rd party option that's cheaper and its high grade option that's more expensive. Plus with Warcry, Combat Patrol, Killteam and Underworlds there are a good number of cheaper options to get into Warhammer games right now.

That's not going to get you games. One of the mistakes GW made was scaling back their in-store gaming facilities. As the poster you replied to said "without a group" - without store play its hard to get a game to meet the group. Some of the rest of their post was a little less than I'd agree with - The fluff is more accessible than ever with the fluff "wiki" style pages, but its still a tough nut to lay out for the starter set, and codex, and paint, and hobby tools, and and and. That's before you expand beyond the starter set models and assuming you get someone helpful and knowledgeable enough to steer you to a starter set and advise waiting until you've "worn it out" to expand.

Karol wrote:
I don't think there is a good way for someone totaly new, and without a group to enter any GW games right now. Unless they want to play against themselfs.

I disagree. GW have become much better at creating multiple gateways into the game, either through things like Combat Patrol or through gateway games like Warcry or Kill Team which provide easy one-box purchases as complete experiences.

There's still a problem with finding people to play with, but in my expereince the place you buy your models from will almost always either provide that gaming location themselves, or be able to point you to one. Social media is also pretty handy here in finding out about the local scene. The UK X-Wing and 40k FB groups, for example, frequently have people asking about local groups, and getting useful answers in response.

Karol wrote:

And then there is the army cost. Not everyone can be like my GK, which can be build out of models bought in 7th ed to make an almost identical army as back then. In w40k especialy someone can fall for the space marine trap. Army resets multiple times an edition, gets invalidated. Playing marines start to feel like playing some mobile game with sesons and this time I need 9 tanks, in 6-12 months I will need 120 infantry etc.

It can be difficult as established players to understand that new players don't really have a problem playing small games. They definitely don't need to get a 2k army built and painted before they start playing. Costs can be spread out over time to make things more manageable. My club runs the full spectrum from 500 point start games to 2k+. Personally, I don't think the game is very fun or balanced below about 1000 points but I'll still play a new player at 500/1000 points in order to help grow the player base.

Only a small handful of our 25+ players care enough about the meta to go and grab the new hotness as soon as it's released. I suspect the majority of players wouldn't even know what the current meta actually is, never mind care enough to chase it. GW could definitely do better in terms of balance, so there aren't armies that are just plain terrible. Even that's been improving lately.

Breton wrote:

 Overread wrote:

Karol wrote:
I don't think there is a good way for someone totaly new, and without a group to enter any GW games right now.

I'd argue that there's never been a better time except perhaps in the VAST history of Rogue Trader era. For all the arguments of price and stuff, right now GW have a LOT of options on the market; an insane amount of resources of their own and 3rd party online and more. There's a LOT of very easily accessed information today.

You don't have to go far into the net either - reddit and FB both have very active communities.

GW themselves out put marketing every day of the week through their own website; have stores on the highstreet; etc...


If you are interested then right now there's very few barriers to entry. Price is certainly one, but honestly that's always a barrier to any new hobby and each hobby has its gateway price to get in normally; its 2ndhand/3rd party option that's cheaper and its high grade option that's more expensive. Plus with Warcry, Combat Patrol, Killteam and Underworlds there are a good number of cheaper options to get into Warhammer games right now.

That's not going to get you games. One of the mistakes GW made was scaling back their in-store gaming facilities. As the poster you replied to said "without a group" - without store play its hard to get a game to meet the group. Some of the rest of their post was a little less than I'd agree with - The fluff is more accessible than ever with the fluff "wiki" style pages, but its still a tough nut to lay out for the starter set, and codex, and paint, and hobby tools, and and and. That's before you expand beyond the starter set models and assuming you get someone helpful and knowledgeable enough to steer you to a starter set and advise waiting until you've "worn it out" to expand.

In the UK at least the GW stores still have gaming tables; though many of them are much smaller than they were in the 90s. A symptom of GW wanting to stay in the highstreet region (though no longer prime locations) for exposure and walk-in custom and such; but with the costs going up and up and up. So they've scaled back on as much as they can. I agree, more tables, more gaming space is ideal; but I just don't think the highstreet is as accommodating to actual shops these days; which is why we see so many stores open and close/change hands and charity shops; not to mention loads that are just outright empty now. Even big brands and top selling products are not healthy right now and GW are a niche hobby. It's honestly impressive they can keep the stores profitable and in the locations they currently do.


I do agree that most people will engage with the hobby as part of a group; be it a club; friends; school groups or the like. However I'd say the same is true of a lot of hobbies; even things like Fishing you often find new people want mentors/guides and a welcome/introduction into the hobby and so forth. Still I'd say GW is in a strong position on those fronts - most game clubs will have warhammer players or former warhammer players. The internet is awash with "getting started" guides and intros. It's not like getting started with smaller games where you might have to actually become the local "rep" in all but title and pay to promote the game and push people to join in locally to get it going.

 Overread wrote:

I do agree that most people will engage with the hobby as part of a group; be it a club; friends; school groups or the like. However I'd say the same is true of a lot of hobbies; even things like Fishing you often find new people want mentors/guides and a welcome/introduction into the hobby and so forth. Still I'd say GW is in a strong position on those fronts - most game clubs will have warhammer players or former warhammer players. The internet is awash with "getting started" guides and intros. It's not like getting started with smaller games where you might have to actually become the local "rep" in all but title and pay to promote the game and push people to join in locally to get it going.

Over here its not that they don't have the tables, its that they don't have the hours. Ironically the one next to the college doesn't really have tables, but its the outlier. I have two shops relatively nearby, and its hard enough to buy something there, let alone get a game in with how often they're closed. Most stores over here are a one-person shop. Closed two days to give them a weekend (and with my bad luck and non-standard schedule those days overlap a lot), closed for lunch, closed for training, closed for meetings, and so on. I probably should have said staffing rather than facilities.

I think the UK has better coverage of spare staff that float between the 1-man-stores so that at least training and meetings can let them cover when the main staffer is away (same for holidays).

Might be the USA is harder to handled that with with how spread out it is or in different states.

But yeah one staffer has its limits when they have to close for lunch and so forth. There's also the issue that one staffer can only do one thing at a time; so they can't be doing tillwork and doing demo games and the paint-desk all at once.

I think if GW could find a way they would go back to having more staff, but I think the highstreet has to become a LOT cheaper to operate on to make that practical.

No one answered his question and, as you noted, the hobby probably lost a few new recruits. I have seen this on this forum and so many other table-top game forums. Many responders reply with some lame attempt at humor. I often spend time having to wade thru endless attempts at humor to find the few posts that are helpful and provide insight. I think the internet aspect of this hobby would be enriched if questions were answered with thoughtful and appropriate responses. Let's put the humor in its own forum. Of course, freedom of speech and all that, so it will not be happening.

silgalis1 wrote:
No one answered his question and, as you noted, the hobby probably lost a few new recruits. I have seen this on this forum and so many other table-top game forums. Many responders reply with some lame attempt at humor. I often spend time having to wade thru endless attempts at humor to find the few posts that are helpful and provide insight. I think the internet aspect of this hobby would be enriched if questions were answered with thoughtful and appropriate responses. Let's put the humor in its own forum. Of course, freedom of speech and all that, so it will not be happening.

Or people "should" do both if they want to do humor. Do the humor, explain it is humor (and maybe why if that's relevant) then give the "good" answer.

silgalis1 wrote:
No one answered his question and, as you noted, the hobby probably lost a few new recruits. I have seen this on this forum and so many other table-top game forums. Many responders reply with some lame attempt at humor. I often spend time having to wade thru endless attempts at humor to find the few posts that are helpful and provide insight. I think the internet aspect of this hobby would be enriched if questions were answered with thoughtful and appropriate responses. Let's put the humor in its own forum. Of course, freedom of speech and all that, so it will not be happening.

Litterally the first reply answered the question.... and the following few ones too

nvm, i thought you meant the question in this very thread, not the question the person OP is talking about asked on discord

 Overread wrote:
I think the UK has better coverage of spare staff that float between the 1-man-stores so that at least training and meetings can let them cover when the main staffer is away (same for holidays).

Might be the USA is harder to handled that with with how spread out it is or in different states.

But yeah one staffer has its limits when they have to close for lunch and so forth. There's also the issue that one staffer can only do one thing at a time; so they can't be doing tillwork and doing demo games and the paint-desk all at once.

I think if GW could find a way they would go back to having more staff, but I think the highstreet has to become a LOT cheaper to operate on to make that practical.

yes to all this and being stretched thin allows local FLGS's to really grab those customers, but they have to make an effort in the aisles and monitoring their social media.
They, too, are stretched thin quite often of course.

I hope a take-away from this post is that others jump in and assist the next generation of players. I'm sure many of you do, as does my group.

Ive found that my club has a major problem not only with getting newer players into the hobby, but also retaining them.

As in, our numbers have barely increased since the late 90's. And that's even taking into account deaths, and overseas deployments, and the like. Yes, i'm fully aware that some of the old-hands are no longer with us in anywhere near as much frequency as they used to. And yes, i'm aware that word-of-mouth does wonders, which is where we get a lot of replacements and greenhorns. But that's not the main problem, those ones stay.

We set up outreach programmes in local universities, miniature shops, but for some reason, people from these outside groups just don't want to stay with our pre-established group.

We've even made a effort to tone down our language, refrained from inside jokes, hell, we've even taken down most of the flags, plaques, photographs, we've gone off-base, we've shown up in civvies, but nope. young people just aren't interested.

the-gentleman-ranker wrote:
Ive found that my club has a major problem not only with getting newer players into the hobby, but also retaining them.

As in, our numbers have barely increased since the late 90's. And that's even taking into account deaths, and overseas deployments, and the like. Yes, i'm fully aware that some of the old-hands are no longer with us in anywhere near as much frequency as they used to. And yes, i'm aware that word-of-mouth does wonders, which is where we get a lot of replacements and greenhorns. But that's not the main problem, those ones stay.

We set up outreach programmes in local universities, miniature shops, but for some reason, people from these outside groups just don't want to stay with our pre-established group.

We've even made a effort to tone down our language, refrained from inside jokes, hell, we've even taken down most of the flags, plaques, photographs, we've gone off-base, we've shown up in civvies, but nope. young people just aren't interested.

Well, hopefully those who don't return to you are playing somewhere.

Even if you're a really great really friendly bunch of people doing everything right, sometimes there's a bias based on similarities within the group.

eg a large group of over 50s will often have trouble getting teenagers and younger generations to join; esp if they are coming in ones and twos and are minority.

Social class can be an aspect, a group of very "rough" talkers might find that the "posh kids" don't want to join in so readily.

Colour, race, religion (if evident), age, gender . They can all rear their heads as a subtle barrier even if there are no overt moves to make them barriers.

It's a really hard thing to tackle because often as not there is no big barrier to take down. No one is being rude, unfriendly, unkind, pushing their own agenda etc...
Layer on top that the fact that a lot of people into our kind of hobby are often the less socially experienced so nerves, anxiety and a bunch of other things form people looking to join can also be their own personal barriers to them retaining the ability/desire to remain and you've got yourself a big challenge.



Sometimes you can overcome it with a big push so that you get a large group of the same kind of person to join all at once. The hope being that if you can get 10 people of a similar background to join at once they kind of form their own clique/niche within the group that helps support themselves and keep coming around.

Another is to indeed see if the group ends up forming their own and provide support for that; which might be so simple as helping make sure they've got a place to play or organising inter-group events and such



Hard thing is maintaining exposure, advertising and recruitment. Often it comes in fits and waves and then splutters out. Sometimes the only way is just to have a sustained approach over a very long period of time - adding in diversity and changes of course, but basically to keep going even when it doesn't seem to do much

 Overread wrote:
Even if you're a really great really friendly bunch of people doing everything right, sometimes there's a bias based on similarities within the group.

eg a large group of over 50s will often have trouble getting teenagers and younger generations to join; esp if they are coming in ones and twos and are minority.

Social class can be an aspect, a group of very "rough" talkers might find that the "posh kids" don't want to join in so readily.

Colour, race, religion (if evident), age, gender . They can all rear their heads as a subtle barrier even if there are no overt moves to make them barriers.

It's a really hard thing to tackle because often as not there is no big barrier to take down. No one is being rude, unfriendly, unkind, pushing their own agenda etc...
Layer on top that the fact that a lot of people into our kind of hobby are often the less socially experienced so nerves, anxiety and a bunch of other things form people looking to join can also be their own personal barriers to them retaining the ability/desire to remain and you've got yourself a big challenge.



Sometimes you can overcome it with a big push so that you get a large group of the same kind of person to join all at once. The hope being that if you can get 10 people of a similar background to join at once they kind of form their own clique/niche within the group that helps support themselves and keep coming around.

Another is to indeed see if the group ends up forming their own and provide support for that; which might be so simple as helping make sure they've got a place to play or organising inter-group events and such



Hard thing is maintaining exposure, advertising and recruitment. Often it comes in fits and waves and then splutters out. Sometimes the only way is just to have a sustained approach over a very long period of time - adding in diversity and changes of course, but basically to keep going even when it doesn't seem to do much

Only pattern i could find is that almost all of us are in the services. I think we've only got two from civilian backgrounds. Though we do have a very healthy mix. Ages range from 13-60, mix of ethnicities, lads from airforce and navy as well as MP and army. Its just that for some reason, civilians don't fit in.

the-gentleman-ranker wrote:

Only pattern i could find is that almost all of us are in the services. I think we've only got two from civilian backgrounds. Though we do have a very healthy mix. Ages range from 13-60, mix of ethnicities, lads from airforce and navy as well as MP and army. Its just that for some reason, civilians don't fit in.

Yeah and that could well be the factor. How its a factor is much harder to pin down. It could be like you've tried to identify something with your use of language, or display or flags. However it could also be something like the way you play the games* or even the time of day/location you meet in that works for all of you but doesn't fit regular people. That's a bit of "grasping at straws for ideas" but its more to think that it might not be something really obvious and overt but something more subtle.

The hard part is that when people leave they often don't say why and sometimes there isn't really a reason but a "feeling" they have. Or its one of those cases where "its not you its me" even though it is a you think etc...

It could even just be that you are all kind of cliquey and people "feel" that when they come alone in 1s and 2s and such. You might not be intending to be such at all; but sometimes it can happen or come across as happening without any intention (and even with you taking measures to try and reduce it being a possible factor).


*eg you could be all super casual and those who try to join want more "serious" attitudes. Or it could be the total opposite

 Overread wrote:

the-gentleman-ranker wrote:

Only pattern i could find is that almost all of us are in the services. I think we've only got two from civilian backgrounds. Though we do have a very healthy mix. Ages range from 13-60, mix of ethnicities, lads from airforce and navy as well as MP and army. Its just that for some reason, civilians don't fit in.

Yeah and that could well be the factor. How its a factor is much harder to pin down. It could be like you've tried to identify something with your use of language, or display or flags. However it could also be something like the way you play the games* or even the time of day/location you meet in that works for all of you but doesn't fit regular people. That's a bit of "grasping at straws for ideas" but its more to think that it might not be something really obvious and overt but something more subtle.

The hard part is that when people leave they often don't say why and sometimes there isn't really a reason but a "feeling" they have. Or its one of those cases where "its not you its me" even though it is a you think etc...

It could even just be that you are all kind of cliquey and people "feel" that when they come alone in 1s and 2s and such. You might not be intending to be such at all; but sometimes it can happen or come across as happening without any intention (and even with you taking measures to try and reduce it being a possible factor).


*eg you could be all super casual and those who try to join want more "serious" attitudes. Or it could be the total opposite

all good points. I was an army brat / military family, but opted to not go into the service myself as an adult. So I definitely know how those worlds ebb, and flow, and sometimes do not mix.

the-gentleman-ranker wrote:
Ive found that my club has a major problem not only with getting newer players into the hobby, but also retaining them.

As in, our numbers have barely increased since the late 90's. And that's even taking into account deaths, and overseas deployments, and the like. Yes, i'm fully aware that some of the old-hands are no longer with us in anywhere near as much frequency as they used to. And yes, i'm aware that word-of-mouth does wonders, which is where we get a lot of replacements and greenhorns. But that's not the main problem, those ones stay.

We set up outreach programmes in local universities, miniature shops, but for some reason, people from these outside groups just don't want to stay with our pre-established group.

We've even made a effort to tone down our language, refrained from inside jokes, hell, we've even taken down most of the flags, plaques, photographs, we've gone off-base, we've shown up in civvies, but nope. young people just aren't interested.

Yeah, it can be really tough getting into a group as an outsider, even if that group is very welcoming. Back when I got into MTG, I remember going to my FLGS. Everyone there were already friends and while they were very welcoming, it took months before I stopped feeling like an outsider and started feeling like part of the group. It's a rough transition for some people, especially younger people that can be intimidated by older and more experienced players weather they mean to or not.

40k went a lot smoother for me though, as I just signed up for a beginners league at my FLGS and played one person at a time. I made a few friends and then was brought into a gaming club already knowing a couple of people from the into league. Since there were already people in the group that I'd hung out with and played with a few times, I never felt like an outsider there. (I was also about 10 years older and thus more mature than I was with MTG as well.)

So, take that as you will, hopefully it helps a little.

There's also the fact that those who leave or don't stick around often don't say anything about why they aren't there.

This might be because there is a problem and they don't want the potential conflict or to cause trouble and such so they drift away; leaving your group unable to tackle the issue(s).
And this could be really minor things rather than anyone being unfriendly.


Or it might be that its a them problem not a club problem - eg they enjoy it but they've other stuff going on in life; the club meeting day is on a bad time for them; they can't afford to stick around (esp a problem for newbies who have to build armies ot feel part of the system - esp if the group plays lots of high point games).



Many times there isn't even one big problem or issue to fix - its lots of little things that add up and each on on its own isn't really something the group can tackle or change etc...

Then you've got the issue where anything new requires a period of adjustment to fitting the new thing into a persons life. Where any small interruption - weather being bad and not wanting to drive to the club; club closed for one week; another commitment one time etc... can all result in someone not adapting to the change and falling back into whatever they normally did before club-night.

It's worth noting that Warhammer 40k is super-boring and slow as modern games go. Chances are most people trying it beyond painting a few models aren't going to last long.

Nomeny wrote:
It's worth noting that Warhammer 40k is super-boring and slow as modern games go. Chances are most people trying it beyond painting a few models aren't going to last long.

Thats the issue, a lot of the classic games of yore (BattleTech, WH40k) are "super-boring," When compared to modern adrenaline-fueled gaming experiences.

But some people prefer those gaming experiences. There is no one size fits all gaming experience.

I am reminded of a heart warming story from a few years ago. I know it was posted on Dakka, possibly by myself.

Short version is the mother of an autistic kid was looking for opponents for her son. And she was offering to pay people.

The request did the rounds, and I’m happy to say there were a bunch of volunteers, none of whom collected the offered pay.

If memory serves, they were in the Stockport area, as I’m sure he was invited down to Element Games? But whilst the story is 100% genuine, I may be misremembering the finer details.

I know it doesn’t help OP like, but it’s nice to be reminded how wholesome our community can be.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
I am reminded of a heart warming story from a few years ago. I know it was posted on Dakka, possibly by myself.

Short version is the mother of an autistic kid was looking for opponents for her son. And she was offering to pay people.

The request did the rounds, and I’m happy to say there were a bunch of volunteers, none of whom collected the offered pay.

If memory serves, they were in the Stockport area, as I’m sure he was invited down to Element Games? But whilst the story is 100% genuine, I may be misremembering the finer details.

I know it doesn’t help OP like, but it’s nice to be reminded how wholesome our community can be.

I'm happy to say supportive experiences happen here as well. The fact that it did not for the dad in question is why I why I was disappointed. The timing for the right people was off. Thanks for telling us your experience, it's good to read.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
That is, of course, half of the discussion. The other is how hard it is to help someone who has zero knowledge and experience in gaming start playing nearly anything GW.

I've recently had issues as a newly relocated player.

A FLGS that I visited for open 40k game weekends. It was filled with Tournament only gamers who talked down to me, and said no one wants to play against "C-Tier" armies. Another player suggested I buy a new army if I wanted to play there.


I will never be returning. Edit: to play there, but I will still visit on non 40k days.

It's not always the store (that's why I'm not going to mention their name, it's no fault if their own) sometimes it's the "community."

The local Warhammer shop actually had decent people at it. I think I'll spend my time/money there.

Very relevant news article just hit my timeline...

https://www.miltonkeynes.co.uk/news/people/poignant-post-thanking-patient-warhammer-shop-assistant-in-milton-keynes-goes-viral-on-social-media-5010830

Crispy78 wrote:
Very relevant news article just hit my timeline...

https://www.miltonkeynes.co.uk/news/people/poignant-post-thanking-patient-warhammer-shop-assistant-in-milton-keynes-goes-viral-on-social-media-5010830

Always nice to read something nice.

Although, at the end of the day, I suppose it more or less sounds like "guy went to shop, assistant helped him spend his money"...

I've started a few warhammer communities myself and I've been in competitive clubs.

I think I am coming down on the side of the competitive stuff being a detriment to new players, unless they're of a particular mindset.

These days I don't try to join communities (language barrier is an issue, though my German is alright, I just feel embarrassed that it's not better) and I'm just getting people I already know and like interested.

But every time a new person expresses interest imo you should jump on it and try to help them out. That's how we keep the wargaming hobby alive, by helping people get into it. It can be a tricky thing to get into, and the standards shown online to new entrants can make it seem really intimidating (huge armies of extremely nicely painted minis on expensive tables). Showing people you can have lots of fun from humble beginnings is important.

Crispy78 wrote:
Very relevant news article just hit my timeline...

https://www.miltonkeynes.co.uk/news/people/poignant-post-thanking-patient-warhammer-shop-assistant-in-milton-keynes-goes-viral-on-social-media-5010830

It isn't good that a 'thank you' hit the news. It can't be all that uncommon to get a good review. It's nice to see though, when it does.

But, if the other reason GW pays to keep these stores open and in so many places, is for this kind of thing. GW's bosses really aren't such bad people after all, and this is what they wanted all along.

I haven't met a Redshirt in a GW store who I wouldn't think would go out of their way to help someone who comes in.