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.

 Zweischneid wrote:
I'd rather GW stick to their side of the hobby and leave the competitive to those companies that wanna do competitive.

Why not do both? Again, just look at MTG: the game is well balanced and very competitive (top tournament prizes of thousands of dollars in cash), but it is also very appealing to a "casual" audience. Good game designers consider ALL markets, instead of just writing off entire player groups because they're too lazy to do their job right.

I'm not an expert in business, but the reason why my friend left 40k for Warmahordes wasn't because he thought it a better game, it was because he thought that the way Privateer Press handled their game was better.

He liked that there was progression to the story and that characters actually evolved into models the player loved more because they had faithfully seen them grow over the course of Privateer Press's updates.

I think that GW would do well to:

1. Keep their rulesets and continue to evolve it the way they see fit. (If I wanted to play Warmahordes, I'd go buy Warmahordes.)

2. Become more active in their fluff they've crafted for almost three decades now. I personally don't need the resolution of conflict, but complete and utter stagnation of a plot makes it boring.

Take Commissar Yarrick for example - He's been through three bloody wars and stands exactly as he has since the end of his 2nd war. He's hunting the biggest, baddest Ork that ever lived and has been doing so since at least 3rd edition. I'm expected to believe that he hasn't gotten any more tricks up of his sleeve other than being an inspirational hero? The same could be said about Abbaddon, Magnus Calgar, High Marshal Helbrecht, Lucius the Eternal, Typhus, Vulkan He'stan,- the list goes on.

The universe doesn't need progression beyond its current borders, but to keep people interested in those well established characters that are hallmarks of the IP, they cannot remain as statues on a wall who's greatest deeds have already passed for us to remember and reenact. Write more fluff, remind us to imagine that these characters can become greater under our command.

3. Standardization:

I find it incredible that GW's lore of the Imperium has more rigidity of standardization than it has over its own rules and codices. I'm not going to champion a reform in the rules (I generally like 6th ed.), but GW needs to reform its policy on releasing new editions and codices. This is the biggest point my friend made in his case when he left 40k. When Warmahordes has an edition update, every army gets it simultaneously. This at least needs to happen to keep GW's fans happy in the future - leaving an army to play in editions passed is the best way to alienate a player base. The SoB are the best example of this - and the DE before them) who seem to be, in most cases, sidelined even in the lore because they do not sell well because nobody is interested in playing a massively outdated army.

This leads me to my last point:

4. Accessibility & Pricing

I believe that GW knows what its doing when they set the price on their models. They know we as consumers must pay just about any price they wish because we're fans and there's a pretty good monopoly on their product line.

That said, one of the biggest things holding people from buying more, or taking up the hobby is their price. In addition to this, updates in the models are about as infrequent as the updates in their corresponding codices. I offer to any GW rep and say that to keep GW going on into the distant future (I would love to see the company far surpass the centurion mark) that they must adopt a system to standardize their product line so that every army can be updated at once, keep us interested in the fluff years down the road especially by continuing the current narrative, and in doing so, prepare themselves for the coming revolution in technology where every hobbyist will be able to afford their own plastic printing machine and GW will instead sell us the Standard Template Constructs (blueprints you noob) to print our own armies.

This is simple:

1. Promote the game by sponsoring local and national tournaments.

2. Encourage community participation in the direction of the game by establishing a uservoice.com account and letting us poor customers post on and vote for changes we'd like to see in the rules. Implement said changes quickly when possible, or mark them for the next edition when not immediately attainable.

3. Communicate the release schedule. We understand that scheduling changes may happen; but knowing approximately when certain armies will be updated makes budgeting go so much easier. Given the cost (which I won't comment on beyond this), it has long ceased to be a last moment type of purchase and more along the lines of one that requires a bit of thought. In this situation Silence is most definitely NOT Golden; it's rather a tarnished sort of crap brown. More communication is better.

4. Establish a release schedule for FAQ updates for once a month... every.single.month. Listen to the top issues and actively respond. I bet this would take less than 6 months to resolve nearly every problem if #2 and #4 were combined.

5. Perform Quality Control checks on your books and FAQs. Everything from simple grammar and consistent terms to making sure the rules read like you expect them to. I, for one, did not find it even remotely amusing that the Death from the Skies book had an Errata out before the book even got into peoples hands. +1 for actually publishing the errata; however, -10 for bolluxed QC checks; oh, and -50 for charging for what could have been handled through your existing errata and FAQ system. It certainly made me decide not to bother buying the book at all. At least eBooks can be fixed shortly after release.

6. Slap Forgeworld across the face for the poor follow up with the Heresy models. FW gets +5 for starting HH and releasing Betrayal; however, -50 because it's been 6 months since release and only 1 Primarch model is available. That means 9 years to finish the line..which is a bit OTT. Do they only have 1 model designer?

7. Fix the layout of the digital codexes. There is no reason to have to swap between 3 or 4 different pages just to see what a particular unit costs, can take as wargear or it's history. Having to try and remember what "A", "S", and whatever the hell the other little icons means while swapping back and forth is plain stupid. It's further troublesome because half the time I accidentally hit the wrong icon. I can scroll pretty well thank you very much. Each unit should have 1 page. On that page put a popup for detailed unit information and pictures. In short, the eBook codex does NOT have to follow the layout of the physical codex. Take advantage that the medium offers. With the pictures state what paints were used. The page itself should have all of the unit information, including points costs and popups for each of the relevant rules. The latest books feel like they were put together by a programmer trying to categorize information in different ways, and not someone versed in information presentation. If that's true, hire someone that knows how to build an ebook reference manual.

8. Advance the 40k narrative. It's time. Rehashing and constantly changing the nature of the past is tiresome. Open up M42 and do something fun, exciting and completely driven by the players. Given how the universe works, the next 1000 years could be very interesting while still retaining the grim dark future. Lines could be redrawn without breaking everything apart. Heck, have the tyranid hive fleets slow their advance by turning on each other. There is no reason NOT to go further.

9. Actively support or simply acquire existing list building programs. There are some pretty good ones out there. Buying the rights and putting GWs name on it (while actively developing the thing of course) would be a huge boon.

Overall I have the feeling of a company that makes half assed attempts at everything. You build the product, but don't QC it. You start a new thing (HH), but don't put effort into completing it. You have a rich universe, but no desire to move it forward. You claim to have stellar customer service, but you don't have a real way to gauge what customers want.

I wouldnt let GW operate on anyone. Surgical procedures already have enough complications without them further mucking things up.


Kidding aside...

I wish GW does business like Wizards for Mtg. When problems start showing up, wizards won't hesitate to (try) fix it.

A) When certain cards become too much of a problem, and all you hear are players complaining again and again, they ban those cards.
B) they regularly errata the rules on cards especially when new abilities and expansions come out so theres less confusion about card interactions
C) admittedly this one is a very interesting decision they made imho, theres this casual format for mtg which was written up by fans interested in casual gaming called EDH. Wizards cashed in on this format and appealed to this casual fanbase by continuing to release cards that have NO value in competitive games, but are very funto use in this format. They have even reprinting older popular cards in limited sets. Very good business strategy, a one of these cost 40$ msrp, but shops sell them for much more than that (200$ at some point).

I know GW has to make money by making sales, and they could definitely help keep costumers by just fixing their rules in the first place. We are starting to spend good $ buying hardbound books, ipad exclusive pdfs, that you would at least expect someone to proofread these things.

Well, personally, I'd rather they operate in any other way than they are currently; A mammoth of a company that has a hint of its own demise, and is currently trying to squeeze every last penny out of their customers while trying to convince them that everything is fine.

(quick edit) No, this isn't a 'doom and gloom GW is dying' post, but just going through some of the latest snafus of these past years (Mainly, late releases on models, yearly price increases, lack of a price decrease after finecast, the poor quality of the DA codex, ect.) might make someone on the outside looking in wonder why we put up with this hobby that we undoubtedly love.

clively wrote:
6. Slap Forgeworld across the face for the poor follow up with the Heresy models. FW gets +5 for starting HH and releasing Betrayal; however, -50 because it's been 6 months since release and only 1 Primarch model is available. That means 9 years to finish the line..which is a bit OTT. Do they only have 1 model designer?

Is that really what you want? Let's assume that FW can put them out at a faster pace without giving up on other things (hiring more sculptors if necessary), and they choose to do it. Now you either have nothing to look forward to for the rest of the Heresy (and remember, the Heresy project is a long-term one), or FW have to keep putting out alternate primarch model after alternate primarch model and everyone gets bored (oh look, yet another model of the emperor). The only way to make the primarchs last for the entire Heresy project while still keeping them exciting is to spread them out, and 1-2 a year is a pretty reasonable schedule for that.

Hmm how about actually thinking more of the customers and listen to them?, like stop charging 100 dollars for oh i don't know 5 figures!.

that and there is no need to spam new editions like crazy every year so that none really has a chance to build a big army that;s up to par whit that current edition, it's better if they would take the time they needed to make each new edition darn good instead of mass producing new ones where mabey like 5 rules from the previous edition was changed.

Also make White dwarf the way it was before, a magazine for the players and painters and not a magazine filled whit commercials and such things at the cost of barley any good hobby articles and for what 10 dollars a magazine?.