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.

Does it really matter? I mean even if he dosnt it still just about roughly sums up how the up top at GW feel about the average gamer nerd......

Somebody COULD call GW and verify...if they care enough. I don't buy from GW anymore-I couldn't care less. But somebody who is hurt/upset/angry should call and get an answer. Otherwise we are all just whining about GW without doing anything. Once somebody gets an answer though, if he is working there still, we can grab the torches, pitchforks, tar, feathers and rubber chickens! We can erect a gibbet!!

Hehe, I said 'erect' on a nerd site.

Palindrome wrote:
You've not spent much time on the internet have you? The Wargaming community is positively tame compared to the average MMO playerbase.

"We are not the absolute worst people on the internet." isn't really a very good boast, if you .stop and think about it.

 Elemental wrote:

Palindrome wrote:
You've not spent much time on the internet have you? The Wargaming community is positively tame compared to the average MMO playerbase.

"We are not the absolute worst people on the internet." isn't really a very good boast, if you .stop and think about it.

I disagree. I think it's a pretty damn good boast when I stop and think about it.

I don't think the general dakka community really wants to find out if he's still employed by GW. It''s far more fun for them to assume and gossip. Like seriously, I pointed out pages ago how to confirm this and no one has done so and reported back.

 Elemental wrote:

"We are not the absolute worst people on the internet." isn't really a very good boast, if you .stop and think about it.

As forums go wargaming ones tend to be relatively friendly places. Given that this is the internet that doesn't really mean all that much but there are far, far (far) worse communities out there.

All forums are full of whiners but that is down purely to the anonimity that the internet offers as well as its very broad potential audience coupled with the ease of expressing opinons. Saying that wargamers are excessively whiney is unfair when looked at in perspective.

 timetowaste85 wrote:
Somebody COULD call GW and verify...if they care enough. I don't buy from GW anymore-I couldn't care less. But somebody who is hurt/upset/angry should call and get an answer. Otherwise we are all just whining about GW without doing anything. Once somebody gets an answer though, if he is working there still, we can grab the torches, pitchforks, tar, feathers and rubber chickens! We can erect a gibbet!!

Hehe, I said 'erect' on a nerd site.

I have a feeling they're not going to say whether someone is employed with them or not to some person calling in.

Someone should ask on that same facebook page, if he still is GW manager.

We're just fleshy cheeto dusted money sacks to them. Learn your place!

Palindrome wrote:

 Elemental wrote:

"We are not the absolute worst people on the internet." isn't really a very good boast, if you .stop and think about it.

As forums go wargaming ones tend to be relatively friendly places. Given that this is the internet that doesn't really mean all that much but there are far, far (far) worse communities out there.

All forums are full of whiners but that is down purely to the anonimity that the internet offers as well as its very broad potential audience coupled with the ease of expressing opinons. Saying that wargamers are excessively whiney is unfair when looked at in perspective.

I have to be honest, I think the general atmosphere these days isn't as congenial as it once was, at least as far as the 'big two' (Dakka and Warseer) are concerned.

Why is that? Well, I have to be honest and say that pretty much most of the negative feeling comes from comments surrounding a single manufacturer, who just happens to be the biggest player in the market. You get the odd comment in the sections of other gaming systems, but by and large these are isolated, and I would even go as far as to say they are a 'spill over', if you like, from the 'GW has done x' threads that seem constantly to be in the top 10 Dakka discussion threads.

Thinking back over the years, of time spent on the old Relic forums, Warseer and others I think the atmosphere has dipped as the number of 'red marks' against GW have increased. Of course there have always been complaints against price rises, the odd upset customer who was treated badly, but absolutely nothing on the scale of the negative reaction that Finecast and the RoW embargo generated (to give two examples). These customer relation 'faus pas' necessarily drive a wedge into the community and set people against each other, depending on whether you agreed with them or not, but I think more generally it seems to have steam-rolled into a kind of general feeling of ill-will, so even when GW does something positive (the move towards digital codecies recently, for instance) it is often derided or criticised.

Go and take a look at the Infinity and Mantic forums. Practically zero ill will and arguments between the members there, and instead the community is focused almost entirely towards enjoyment of the game - of course you still get the occasional head-case or troll, but absolutely nothing like on the same scale.

So I don't think that the 'well you will just whine about everything' statement is valid - evidence from other (non-GW) forums proves to the contrary.

nkelsch wrote:

 Howard A Treesong wrote:

 azazel the cat wrote:
Wait.... so does this guy currently work for GW, or not?

It would appear not, but it's not too far a leap to conclude that the attitude he expressed is one he held while in the job, and that others at the top of GW still think. Not that it should be a huge surprise really.

So Dakka pulled out the old 'jump to conclusions' mat and made a hypothetical thing to be mad about, acts as if it is true then devolves into a 'Why I hate GW talking points' thread with a side of Internet Lynch mob. We have no idea what he thought while on the job, if anyone at GW agreed with him or maybe he was let go for spouting his anti-fandom speech? No one knows but who cares about what actually happens when you can forge a narrative and discuss how smart we all are without facts.

A productive thread to say the least.

Hear, Hear!

 Pacific wrote:
Thinking back over the years, of time spent on the old Relic forums, Warseer and others I think the atmosphere has dipped as the number of 'red marks' against GW have increased. Of course there have always been complaints against price rises, the odd upset customer who was treated badly, but absolutely nothing on the scale of the negative reaction that Finecast and the RoW embargo generated (to give two examples).

In times, when GW advertised in other Wargames magazines, there was less bitching about GW not advertising. (BTW that's how I learned about GW).

In times, when WD was a magazine covering all tabletop and RPG games, there was less bitching about GW ignoring everyone else in the business.

In times, when GW and MB worked together to make TV-ads for an introductory game (Space Crusade/Heroquest) in standard toy stores just to double the number of customers the classic way, there was no bitching about GW not caring about a diminishing customer base.

In times when GW and De Agostini worked together to get the LOTR tabletop going with TV-ads and standard newspaper stores distribution of magazine-plus-sprue bundles, there was no bitching about high hurdles entering the HHHHobby.

In times, when GW supported the bloodbowl scene and their websites instead of sueing the hell out of them, there was no bitching about lack of fan support.

In times of full support for Specialist Games, there was no bitching about lack of support for them.

In times of rich bits service, there was no bitching about lack of support for converters.

In times of a Codex costing 12€ (3rd edition 40k, 15 years ago) instead of 39€ (+225%, 6th edition 40k), there was no bitching about Codices costing too much.

In times, GW had a forum, ...
I could go on and on like that, but you get the picture.

You are right, much more bitching today
Maybe because GW is not run by hobbyists like us anymore, but by managers and lawyers only interested in dividends.

Hate is the wrong word. Disdain might be a better one.

Contempt fits too...

Not to mention Disappointment.

I agree more with disappointment, the things we loved about GW are gone - shoved out by the bean counters, money men, and sycophants.

Opening day sales - GONE

Anniversary sales - GONE

Bundles and special promos - GONE

Official tournament and outreach programs - GONE

I could go on and on like this.

t's not contempt or hate. Its frustration and disappointment that comes out as rage on forums like this one.

GW drove me away with pricing and IMHO bad rules.

Does that mean I hate GW? Nope I am frustrated that the game that got me into the hobby has gone to crap, I am more angry that with the advent of even more sloppy loose rules the cost went up dramatically.

I hope that someday GW returns to its former glory, decides to embrace its customer base and puts out a good tight rules set. Maybe then I'll come back to the game. Until then I will take some small delight in watching them burn.

 darefsky wrote:

I hope that someday GW returns to its former glory, decides to embrace its customer base and puts out a good tight rules set. Maybe then I'll come back to the game. Until then I will take some small delight in watching them burn.

There's always the Gates of Antares kickstarter... It's an attempt to find the glory of GW again from Rick Priestley, as opposed to the current corporate rubbish.

 Compel wrote:

 darefsky wrote:

I hope that someday GW returns to its former glory, decides to embrace its customer base and puts out a good tight rules set. Maybe then I'll come back to the game. Until then I will take some small delight in watching them burn.

There's always the Gates of Antares kickstarter... It's an attempt to find the glory of GW again from Rick Priestley, as opposed to the current corporate rubbish.

I had seen that, Its a bit steep in the pledge department, but definitely keeping an eye on it.

 Compel wrote:

 darefsky wrote:

I hope that someday GW returns to its former glory, decides to embrace its customer base and puts out a good tight rules set. Maybe then I'll come back to the game. Until then I will take some small delight in watching them burn.

There's always the Gates of Antares kickstarter... It's an attempt to find the glory of GW again from Rick Priestley, as opposed to the current corporate rubbish.

This is a joke, right?

Rick Priestley was with the company until relatively recently. He was part of "the current corporate rubbish".

 Compel wrote:

 darefsky wrote:

I hope that someday GW returns to its former glory, decides to embrace its customer base and puts out a good tight rules set. Maybe then I'll come back to the game. Until then I will take some small delight in watching them burn.

There's always the Gates of Antares kickstarter... It's an attempt to find the glory of GW again from Rick Priestley, as opposed to the current corporate rubbish.

Can ya provide a link?

So that I can at least judge it for myself.

Sure thing. Beyond The Gates of Antares

And that's the thing, he *was* part of it. There's an interview here that's good.

Dunno, the only thing that interests me there is the reverse-joint walker...

In the Tasche we Trust.

 Kanluwen wrote:

 Compel wrote:

 darefsky wrote:

I hope that someday GW returns to its former glory, decides to embrace its customer base and puts out a good tight rules set. Maybe then I'll come back to the game. Until then I will take some small delight in watching them burn.

There's always the Gates of Antares kickstarter... It's an attempt to find the glory of GW again from Rick Priestley, as opposed to the current corporate rubbish.

This is a joke, right?

Rick Priestley was with the company until relatively recently. He was part of "the current corporate rubbish".

He was one of the vets who helped make the hobby what it was and would have tried to stick with it because that's what you do when you've invested so much time and effort into something like this, the problem is that most of the vets who actually care about the hobby have been driven out by the corporate guys.

 d-usa wrote:
An ex-employee trolls people on his ex-employers Facebook page and people are treating it like gospel.

Keep classy Dakka.

Exalted!

Now I am off to change my Facebook page and linked in profile....because the internet never lies.

Not to stick the knife in whilst the wound is still fresh, but I have to say (now that I'm out) when I worked for GW there was a great, yawning divide between the guys on the ground (like me!) and those in corporate.

Whenever the regional manager came through, or we got an email from higher up, there seemed to be a complete disconnect between what we were trying to do (create a wargaming community in which customers felt comfortable hanging out, playing games, painting, modelling, etc) and what corporate wanted us to do (sell people plastic crack at as a prodigious a rate as humanly possible)

As such, just before I left, we were receiving instructions along the lines of asking people to leave if they weren't planning on buying anything, never working on anything in store (that is, no personal or store painting); either you were standing up selling something to someone, or quietly waiting for a customer to walk by so you could start selling them something.

As such, I have no trouble believing that a corporate individual is entirely dismissive of us as group, simply because in his mind we don't make him money, we stand around in stores, wasting his employee's time with questions about things like "tactics" and "cool army ideas", instead of doing the courteous thing and just dropping $400 and leaving immediately.

Its also because GWs image is so tarnished and the opinion on thier practices so low that any number of people hanging around in a store will eventually start talking to each other and realize how badly they are being treated by the company.

A vast majority of 40k players have no idea what goes on, they just come in buy stuff and leave completely ignorant to GW polices and underhandedness. The second people have access to that information they start thinking about what they are buying and make informed purchases, and GW HATES that with a burning fury. Why do you think they are getting rid of gaming spaces? Or asking "loiters" to leave? Why do you think they hit the sue button so often? I've said it once and I'll say again, GW is at war with its customers, and the fact they cant see that just proves how disconnected they are.

Its all about keeping people quiet and stupid, either that or GW is so ashamed of its customers they dont want people scared off by the neck beards in thier stores. Either way we'll see what the next generation of GW store looks like.

Just to sum up the original point of this thread, so people ironically whining about people whining dont ned to read all 7 pages;

1) This guy is an ass hat

2) If he is an employee or not the fact that this post was left up for so long on the official games workshop page was ridiculous and unprofessional.

3) It showed a complete underestimation of its player bases reaction too the comment. Yes some people over react... but in fairness I played in the Guildwars 2 Beta test and people were flaming about it being buggy... This is a genuine insult from a man who states himself that he works for games workshop. This being the case or not games workshop only had to post a comment saying "we apologies ect... we would like to clarify that "Ass hat" doesn't work here and has not for x time" instead they deleted it not realizing that in the last ten years people actually use the internet to discuss hobbies... shocking...

 Ravenous D wrote:

GW is at war with its customers, and the fact they cant see that just proves how disconnected they are.

Its all about keeping people quiet and stupid, either that or GW is so ashamed of its customers they dont want people scared off by the neck beards in thier stores. Either way we'll see what the next generation of GW store looks like.

GW's relationship with it's customers is no more adversarial than any other company. They are a big company, so they can get away with more than the competition. Nonetheless, no company is at war with it's customers, especially not in a market where just ceasing to buy is an option. In any such conflict, the customers win. They walk away. Every company knows that, and every company finds exactly how predatory they can be before they lose too many people, and hovers around that line.

-D