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I've been to two different GW stores in my citiy, and at both the staff very strongly HATE dakkadakka. They will tell people to only go to the GW facebook page or Warseer instead.

One redshirt referred to the dakkadakka community as "Uneducated goons".

It's crazy how much they hate dakkadakka more then any of the other Wargameing/Warhammer related forms. And like i said this was at two diffrent stores, with diffrent staff. It's like they are being trained to hate on Dakka. Has anyone eals noticed this if they every casually mentioned dakka in anyway?
O____o

But there isn't a GW facebook page anymore. They got rid of it after Spots the Space Marine blew up in their face.

Have you seen how robustly GW gets kicked on here in a daily basis?

Are you surprised that GW, the company of "everything is fine, please don't look out the window" would encourage their staff and customers to steer clear as much as they can?

A lot of people I play with think the same of dakka. I can see why. Im here because once you weed out the annoying ones its not too bad... and I got lots of spare time at work these days.

"The members of dakka are close minded simpletons" was one persons kind way of saying it haha.

Its just some of the more common posters are very negative and can be offensive (without breaking the rules offensive). I simply say its the internet, could be worse, go look at you tube.

But id like to hear what people have to say on GW employees thinking that way. If they do.

 Swastakowey wrote:
A lot of people I play with think the same of dakka. I can see why. Im here because once you weed out the annoying ones its not too bad... and I got lots of spare time at work these days.

"The members of dakka are close minded simpletons" was one persons kind way of saying it haha.

Its just some of the more common posters are very negative and can be offensive (without breaking the rules offensive). I simply say its the internet, could be worse, go look at you tube.

But id like to hear what people have to say on GW employees thinking that way. If they do.

I find it odd that people are comfortable making such sweeping generalisations about the largest online wargaming community in the planet.

But, meh.

 azreal13 wrote:

 Swastakowey wrote:
A lot of people I play with think the same of dakka. I can see why. Im here because once you weed out the annoying ones its not too bad... and I got lots of spare time at work these days.

"The members of dakka are close minded simpletons" was one persons kind way of saying it haha.

Its just some of the more common posters are very negative and can be offensive (without breaking the rules offensive). I simply say its the internet, could be worse, go look at you tube.

But id like to hear what people have to say on GW employees thinking that way. If they do.

I find it odd that people are comfortable making such sweeping generalisations about the largest online wargaming community in the planet.

But, meh.

The few ruin it for the many I think.

S'ok. I hate them too.

 azreal13 wrote:
I find it odd that people are comfortable making such sweeping generalisations about the largest online wargaming community in the planet.

Anything more would require critical thought and logical justification over Internet Hyperbole and statements of emotionally fuelled rhetoric.

 Swastakowey wrote:

 azreal13 wrote:

 Swastakowey wrote:
A lot of people I play with think the same of dakka. I can see why. Im here because once you weed out the annoying ones its not too bad... and I got lots of spare time at work these days.

"The members of dakka are close minded simpletons" was one persons kind way of saying it haha.

Its just some of the more common posters are very negative and can be offensive (without breaking the rules offensive). I simply say its the internet, could be worse, go look at you tube.

But id like to hear what people have to say on GW employees thinking that way. If they do.

I find it odd that people are comfortable making such sweeping generalisations about the largest online wargaming community in the planet.

But, meh.

The few ruin it for the many I think.

They really are a very few, to the non existent. Personalities will clash, and the Internet removes a large part of the need to grin and bear it when stuck in a room with someone you find obnoxious, but, even having been on the receiving end occasionally, the moderation is fair and fairly effective.

Like HBMC says, probably largely boils down to sweeping generalisations and ignorance on the part of the detractors rather than any sort of informed opinion. (Or people who got baned)

I doubt GW managers are trained to hate dakka but I'd put a not insignificant amount of money on them being trained to hate any environment that cannot be controlled and maintain the illusion of 'GW are the hobby'.

 jonolikespie wrote:
I doubt GW managers are trained to hate dakka but I'd put a not insignificant amount of money on them being trained to hate any environment that cannot be controlled and maintain the illusion of 'GW are the hobby'.

The thing is that they have nothing but nice things to say about warseer for the most part. It's dakka that get's their panties in knot.

Did Yakface piss in their coffee or something?

Bah, H.B.M.C. beat me to it.

More eloquently put too.

 Lockark wrote:

 jonolikespie wrote:
I doubt GW managers are trained to hate dakka but I'd put a not insignificant amount of money on them being trained to hate any environment that cannot be controlled and maintain the illusion of 'GW are the hobby'.

The thing is that they have nothing but nice things to say about warseer for the most part. It's dakka that get's their panties in knot.

Likely because Warseer very much dances to GW's tune, they are known to take down pics of new stuff if leaked too early, and generally foster a much more structured environment which doesn't really permit the same degree of expression as the way Dakka is moderated and constructed does.

At least, when I was looking for an online hobby home, that's what put me off.

No matter what you say or do haters are going to hate .As far as GW training their staff to hate dakka folks,its easy to train a whipped dog.

 Lockark wrote:

 jonolikespie wrote:
I doubt GW managers are trained to hate dakka but I'd put a not insignificant amount of money on them being trained to hate any environment that cannot be controlled and maintain the illusion of 'GW are the hobby'.

The thing is that they have nothing but nice things to say about warseer for the most part. It's dakka that get's their panties in knot.

Did Yakface piss in their coffee or something?

Shhhhh....
We aren't supposed to know that.

The Auld Grump

Dakka is the biggest wargaming site on the net, much like the New York Yankers, you either love Dakka or hate Dakka

 Lockark wrote:
I've been to two different GW stores in my citiy, and at both the staff very strongly HATE dakkadakka. They will tell people to only go to the GW facebook page or Warseer instead.

One redshirt referred to the dakkadakka community as "Uneducated goons".

It's crazy how much they hate dakkadakka more then any of the other Wargameing/Warhammer related forms. And like i said this was at two diffrent stores, with diffrent staff. It's like they are being trained to hate on Dakka. Has anyone eals noticed this if they every casually mentioned dakka in anyway?
O____o

They may hate us because we are "Educated goons"

And Veterans know too much! they must be silenced!

I think there are probably several reasons why GW employees don't care for our website. I think one of the reasons is because these employees never really heard of the website before they joined Gee Dubs and only got heresay from their peers afterwards.

However, I think the biggest reason is that Games Workshop hires mostly for attitude meaning they go for people who are supportive of their policies. Since DakkaDakka members are very critical of what Games Workshop does it's only natural that these people would write us off as "Uneducated goons". In other words, Games Workshop employees represent a demographic that drinks the Nottingham brand kool-aid rather than game store workers in general. So, take what they say with a pinch of salt.

I don't think GW employees are trained to hate dakka, but they have every reason not to steer their customers to it.

Store managers's salary/bonus largely depends on store sales, so much so they will sad face you when you told them they ordered from GW online and have it sent to their store for free pickup. So why would they steer their customers to a forum where
1. There is so much negativity about GW and its expensive products
2. Everyone here is posting where you can get CHEAPER GW models

wufai wrote:
I don't think GW employees are trained to hate dakka, but they have every reason not to steer their customers to it.

Store managers's salary/bonus largely depends on store sales, so much so they will sad face you when you told them they ordered from GW online and have it sent to their store for free pickup. So why would they steer their customers to a forum where
1. There is so much negativity about GW and its expensive products
2. Everyone here is posting where you can get CHEAPER GW models

Not to mention Trading and selling huge lots here for upwards of 50% of retail

Also Warseer does love banning folks who pay out on GW.

But lets be honest here, GW does cop a lot of crap whether they deserve it or not, and it must hurt the staff on the coal face, so they get justifiably tetchy.

 Achaylus72 wrote:
But lets be honest here, GW does cop a lot of crap whether they deserve it or not, and it must hurt the staff on the coal face, so they get justifiably tetchy.

When you're working in a customer service postion, 'tetchy' is never justifiable.

If the company you are working for is copping flak for something, and it's not something that you're responsible for, you have to learn to let it slide off. Insulting potential customers because they hold an opinion about your employer that is different to your own is most certainly not in the employer's best interests.

When I worked GW Retail, I was never told to steer people anywhere online, nor was I "trained" to hate Dakka.

I was asked not to post on Dakka anymore after I was outed as a GW employee by a kid I used to be friends with ( I made an opinion on a tournament ruling that upset the TOP so much he wrote Ernie Baker, then CEO...I was almost fired. I was also attacked on here because of my pre employment posts supporting GW pricing at that time, pre 2005). Just a note, I ceased being friends with the kid after he almost got me fired.

Later on when I moved up in the company I'd use Dakka all the time, whether answering someone's rules question or looking for hobby advice cause I could not find Dave Taylor....guy always disappeared and then showed up with a ginormous converted army darn it....never did find where he hid at GW HQ lol.

Geez, I even bid on Dakka when it was for sale.

I think the reason GWers hate Dakka is because it does "hurt" their sales, when people on Dakka universally tell people Army X doesn't win don't play it.

 Lockark wrote:
I've been to two different GW stores in my citiy, and at both the staff very strongly HATE dakkadakka. They will tell people to only go to the GW facebook page or Warseer instead.

One redshirt referred to the dakkadakka community as "Uneducated goons".

It's crazy how much they hate dakkadakka more then any of the other Wargameing/Warhammer related forms. And like i said this was at two diffrent stores, with diffrent staff. It's like they are being trained to hate on Dakka. Has anyone eals noticed this if they every casually mentioned dakka in anyway?
O____o

If you logged onto a forum to see the majority of the people on it ridicule you, the company you work for, your job, and seem to take an outright hateful stance to you at times, you'd probably get sick of wargaming forums too.

That, and I imagine that it gets really old hearing "Dakka told me this is terrible," or "Warseer says that I can get this model cheaper", ad infinitum.

Can't say I blame the guys, although if they're upset its probably because of a bad customer who came in, talked about online forums, and came to represent their communities in that employees mind.

Think about it, if you had never heard of Dakka before, and the first time you heard it mentioned was by some socially awkward neckbeard with poor social skills and a tendency to rant about things you don't care about, you'd probably hate Dakka by proxy because that's the kind of person you would associate with the site. It doesn't matter if it's accurate of the whole or not, because that first impression can leave a lasting mark on your opinion of the site until proven otherwise.

 azreal13 wrote:

 Swastakowey wrote:
A lot of people I play with think the same of dakka. I can see why. Im here because once you weed out the annoying ones its not too bad... and I got lots of spare time at work these days.

"The members of dakka are close minded simpletons" was one persons kind way of saying it haha.

Its just some of the more common posters are very negative and can be offensive (without breaking the rules offensive). I simply say its the internet, could be worse, go look at you tube.

But id like to hear what people have to say on GW employees thinking that way. If they do.

I find it odd that people are comfortable making such sweeping generalisations about the largest online wargaming community in the planet.

But, meh.

Are you suggesting that it's because they are close-minded and like to keep things simple?


I can't imagine how anyone could consider Dakka to be worse than Warseer. Dakka is pretty chill, even if some topics tend to work up a frothing rage sometimes. It still beats that feeling of tension and oppression I get on Warseer. Warseer is like all the parts of 1984 before the torture. Warseer is where minis discussion goes to die get moderated.

In my local GW one guy who I would talk to goes really funny when you mention any online material outside official sites. It's odd like he is scared of saying anything outside official cannon, he looks over at the store manager with what I can genuinely assume is real fear and loudly states he doesn't read 'those sort of things on the web'. The manager is, I reckon, a closet Stalin.

 Lockark wrote:

The thing is that they have nothing but nice things to say about warseer for the most part. It's dakka that get's their panties in knot.

I find this quite strange. I used to be a regular on Warseer (all the way back to when it was Portent) and its general atmosphere was basically identical to here, it had a strong reputation for 'GW hating'. After a while I found (most) of the mods to be objectionable however and moved here. Has warseer genuinely changed so much that GW actually likes it now? If so its even more understandable why Warseer is tanking.

 Swastakowey wrote:
A lot of people I play with think the same of dakka. I can see why. Im here because once you weed out the annoying ones its not too bad... and I got lots of spare time at work these days.
"The members of dakka are close minded simpletons" was one persons kind way of saying it haha.
Its just some of the more common posters are very negative and can be offensive (without breaking the rules offensive). I simply say its the internet, could be worse, go look at you tube.
But id like to hear what people have to say on GW employees thinking that way. If they do.

It's a bit of an "us and them" or "bunker" mentality from the staff, which is understandable to an extent - especially since many staff tend to be true Beleibers for GW. We have a few here as well. In practice, almost all GW employees I've met, known or interacted with have been really nice guys, with just a couple who have been dicks. Of course, it helps immeasurably if you're not a dick or arrogant to them and realise the guy in the local GW isn't your enemy, but a fellow hobbyist trying to earn a living while engaged in a retail job relating to a hobby he enjoys. I know a few who are by necessity all about the GW when at work, but also buy and play Infinity, FoW and others when not "on the job".

People slag off GW with great venom and passion (being the internet) but then again it's not really that much worse than at least one member of my old gaming group back in the 90's before the net was commonplace as it is today. It's just that you can read the anti-GW stuff he spews now regardless of where in the world you might be, rather than standing right in the same room as him in Melbourne, AU.

I'm sure there are more than a few redshirts who read, lurk and post here, but they'd be smart enough to not make themselves identifiable since they wouldn't want the backlash from work with regard to the official company policy. I'm also sure there are some who hate Dakka, and some who simply think "lolinternet" as they filter through the threads for the bits that interest them. It's not like Priestly, Calvatore, Chambers, Thornton et al exist in a vacuum, after all - and all are still writing good quality rules elsewhere.




Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Palindrome wrote:

 Lockark wrote:

The thing is that they have nothing but nice things to say about warseer for the most part. It's dakka that get's their panties in knot.

I find this quite strange. I used to be a regular on Warseer (all the way back to when it was Portent) and its general atmosphere was basically identical to here, it had a strong reputation for 'GW hating'. After a while I found (most) of the mods to be objectionable however and moved here. Has warseer genuinely changed so much that GW actually likes it now? If so its even more understandable why Warseer is tanking.

Well, Portent used to have a pretty decent relationship with the studio. Remember all the rules Q&As that used to be hosted there and answered by Jervis and Andy?

Isn't this anecdotal at best? Certainly I've never had that experience.

 Palindrome wrote:

 Lockark wrote:

The thing is that they have nothing but nice things to say about warseer for the most part. It's dakka that get's their panties in knot.

I find this quite strange. I used to be a regular on Warseer (all the way back to when it was Portent) and its general atmosphere was basically identical to here, it had a strong reputation for 'GW hating'. After a while I found (most) of the mods to be objectionable however and moved here. Has warseer genuinely changed so much that GW actually likes it now? If so its even more understandable why Warseer is tanking.

Yes I have to be honest, I don't think Warseer comes across any differently to Dakka in that regard. If there is a price rise or GW commit a faux pas, you get a 40-page thread on both sites of people complaining about it.

Them having a different policy when it comes to deleting leaked photos is a different thing entirely. Whoever runs the site must have thought the they will have less chance of attracting attention from GW's legal eagles, but I don't think you can insinuate anything more than that about it..

It's not suprising when Dakka offers more than a GW store.

Correct rules
Tactics
Cheap price links
Painting help
Model showcases
Modding showcases
Reviews
Leaks
Friends
Hookups

What does GW offer?
Yeah it varies. But Dakka offers more.

My GW local lost me as a customer because of what they didn't offer. Not because what Dakka offers.

The employees are under a lot of pressure so it's not suprising that they won't suggest anything online. But given the attitude tje OP recieved, the GW employee is just scared of loosing it's customer base.

I've always wondered what control the managers have with their stores. As the layout in the stores is always rubbish and similar to every other store.

meh, whatever. Dumb GW.

Good thread read though

I know gw workers have a script, where they guide you is their choise i guess...