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.

This is an automated message added by the articles system.

A new article titled Exactly How Out of Touch IS Game Workshop has been added to the dakka articles system.

This message thread is for the discussion of content in the article.

If you have anything to add to the article, then just jump in and edit it by going to the actual article page and clicking 'edit' (the link can be found just above the article). If there is no edit link then the article is locked for now, so just add your comments or content to this thread and if they are appropriate then they should eventually get merged in.

If there is something in the article that you wish to debate or comment on, then this is the place to do it. Just hit the reply button and get chatting! You need to be registered and logged in to post in the forums so if you are an anonymous article editor then now would be a great time to register and join in dakka's great forum discussion!

Hoping some folks will read what I wrote and comment. Support is welcome, though I'm sure I'll get flamed by a few. I'm just interested in the genuine thoughts of my fellow gamers out there.

Thanks in advance.

LOL, that Space Marines chapter is $20k NZ.

Thats the entire income of a minimum wage worker for a year. Thats pretty goddamn out of touch if you ask me. Its almost the down payment on a goddamn house

Down here in NZ, we already have pretty much 100% acceptance of 3rd party or proxy models at all tournaments, and other games (FoW, WMH and now Infinity) are eating up GW's market share. I feel for you gamers in America, that seems to be where most of the GW-centric, rules lawyering WYSIWYG players on here seem to hail from

LOL, that's one pricey set of units.

A. Lot .

On the bright side, you get free shipping...

 Dakkamite wrote:
LOL, that Space Marines chapter is $20k NZ.

Thats the entire income of a minimum wage worker for a year. Thats pretty goddamn out of touch if you ask me. Its almost the down payment on a goddamn house

Down here in NZ, we already have pretty much 100% acceptance of 3rd party or proxy models at all tournaments, and other games (FoW, WMH and now Infinity) are eating up GW's market share. I feel for you gamers in America, that seems to be where most of the GW-centric, rules lawyering WYSIWYG players on here seem to hail from

Wow, that's even worse by your currency! $11690 won't get you much in real estate (especially here in California), but it is most of the salary of a minimum wage employee here, or half the cost of a decent car. Regardless of currency, it's a LOT of goddamn money!

And thanks for the humor, erick99! I guess we can all stop complaining about GW now, since they are so magnanimous after all. HAHAHAHAHA!

Why is this an article and not a forum post?

Frankly, Redbeard, because I couldn't figure out how to start a new Forum discussion. I'll gladly transfer it over, if someone can clue me in on how to start a new forum post.

Go to the appropriate forum (in this case, probably Dakka Discussions). In the upper-left corner of the screen, below the header and drop-down menu bar, you'll see a button that says "New Topic". Click that.

only £7065 for that army, you could buy a new car for that, a crap one but still a brand new car.

the article forgot the change from lead to pewter/white metal.
the four man blister pack droped to a three man pack and cost £1 extra

soupfly wrote:
only £7065 for that army, you could buy a new car for that, a crap one but still a brand new car.

the article forgot the change from lead to pewter/white metal.
the four man blister pack droped to a three man pack and cost £1 extra

I bought my car for $11,000, used, 5 years ago. It was hardly crap at the time, but it's not a top of the line car.

And re: the article, I DO play in the dim cigar/pipe lit comfort of my own apartment, but I wouldn't go about buying this army. I think they realize it's gratuitous. They can't be THAT out of touch. SKUs on your own website are cheap though, and what do they have to lose by posting it? I mean, I've seen people here joke about wanting to buy an entire chapter, why can't they offer it too?

I was honestly just thinking about this the other day. It's the source of a lot of frustration to me, and I can see how it could be so much worse to someone who has been a loyal customer and fan for more than 20 years.

Personally speaking, I've been interested in 40k since I realized that it was a thing. The first time I saw their models, going into high school, I was dead set on getting some. Roughly 5 years later, I finally bought my first one: an Eldar Falcon - also the only set I've ever bought retail. For the longest time I was as into 40k as you can get without actually playing the damn game. And what frustrates me most is that if someone like me can't afford the hobby; someone who is always looking at the new sets, or seeing if I can get my friends to go in with me, then the player base they already have established is big enough that Games Workshop can afford to be out of touch. I thought I was the target demographic for this type of game, being a college age guy, going to school, working on the side, totally into gaming, etc. But if I have to decide between paying for a codex/enough models to field an army, or moving in with my girlfriend, clearly I am not the target demographic.

The entire Ultramarines chapter is insane. While I have to agree with what Daedalus said about there being no real reason NOT to offer it, what really bothers me is the fact that they seemingly continue to increase the scale on these battles with little thought to people who are starting from zero hour. At least while I've been following 40k, they've added more and more supplements, expensive models, and now even terrain that is vital if you want to be even remotely competitive. There are battle reports few and far between that don't feature an Aegis Defense Line, one of the new Wraithknights, or Riptides now. I'm not saying that it's not excellent that they keep releasing new models, but effectively requiring you to get one or two 80$ sets to not get curb stomped?

With all that being said - Games Workshop has, in my experience, always released high quality miniatures, and at a price that's fairly competitive, if you look at some of the other similar wargames. To me, I find the most out of touch thing they can do is alienate newcomers, especially those who really want to play the game. That's just my two cents.

Cheers,
Chris

Just in case anyone was wondering, the Astartes Ultra bundle saves you right under $2000 (unless my my is off). Actually that's not to shabby. but I agree that there is a very limited market for this price point. Although, I have heard of some people buying this set already.

The individual prices (as listed on the page) total £7,975 GBP.

But, then again, despite the "savings":

1) who the feth would buy that much blue crap

2) It contains a lot of repeat orders that you're never going to use or have the time to paint. (or the paint for that matter)
(or the glue...)

Also, the price seems to be £7,000 now.


Edit: My eyes started to get sweaty when I was adding the prices together :/

I'm confused why so many people seem so up in arms over a marketing stunt.

 shamikebab wrote:
I'm confused why so many people seem so up in arms over a marketing stunt.

It's not about the marketing stunt, it's about GW's ignorance of their customer base.

But the chapter deal has absolutely nothing to do with that. It's just a marketing stunt to get people talking about the new SM releases and it's clearly working.

Well, we reserve the right to continue complaining then

I honestly believe the target demographic for 40K is working age males primarily in the middle to upper middle class, but I don't know for sure. The hobby does seem to be on the "steep side" pricing wise especially if you only purchase GW from the stores which of course is their ideal customer. GW clearly markets with the notion that there are no other ways to purchase product vice through their stores and website even though we all know there are other ways to get merchandise for the game, but they must be doing so well financially that they don't even think to second guess their marketing strategy. I say good on them business wise but bad job fan base wise, they don't seem to have a happy medium.

 shamikebab wrote:
But the chapter deal has absolutely nothing to do with that. It's just a marketing stunt to get people talking about the new SM releases and it's clearly working.

Yep, I dont see them being out of touch, just a bit greedy.
The UM chapter thing was obviously a good call because since it came out I have seen and heard it being discussed a lot, even by people that dont do GW, I think that was the idea, just to create a "buzz" so to speak.

I worked out how much GW gaming cost years ago when I was a teenager and badly wanted £100 or so to get a small playable army but could not afford it.

Now my income has increased many times over but so has the cost of playing - gone is £15 for the rules, £10 for 5+ core army lists and £100 for 1500 points - in 20 years prices have doubled and then doubled again - in 5th ed I started pricing out a nid force and - despite already having almost a thousand point swarm with the battleforce box and a bunch of little guys the price of making a competitive swarm was brutal (Tervigons, FMC, 6+ Hive Guard etc.)

Fortunately, I found a solution. Any game not by GW - I started playing dystopian wars - a decent sized game, rules and a core naval task force, for less than the price of the 40k 6th ed rulebook. Instead of buying a winged hive tyrant I will by myself a whole second fleet and invite friends to play - they won't have to buy anything cause for the price of a book (that is not sufficient to play the game) and 1 large model I can have all the rules I'll ever need and 2 forces large enough for a moderate fleet engagement. and you know what, next year I can still use the same book and the same models - I don't need to buy a new edition each year and retire all the nerfed models and buy new models for this ruleset.

A well written article. Good job to the OP. Now the others. While GW may have the right to cater to the excessively rich, they are clearly NOT catering to anyone who works for an hourly wage. The models, while superb (the plastic ones) are overpriced. Especially considering how the company has come along to this point. I mean they used to encourage people to build models out of paper, and now heaven help you if you proxy one tiny bit. GW is out of touch with most of it's customer base and they don't seem to care, because we all keep buying Riptides and Helchickens...

The battleforces are what gets me. The only playable one right out of the box is the IG, and that one is lacking severely in value, IG and no tanks? Not even a Chimera? That's not how the IG rolls! The rest require you to buy an HQ or kitbash one out of what you get. Even then they are hardly viable lists. The CSM one especially, and I won't even go into how lopsided and broken the Dark Vengeance kit is. Maybe if they'd have added in a second HQ, to match the Dark Angels 2 HQ units, like say a Dark Apostle, then maybe you'd have a chance with the DV set, but as it stands? It's just a really crappy way to get into 40k.