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.

It dawned on me a little over a year ago that GW has effectively embraced a direct sales model. Like those used by life insurance companies, car sales, and jewelry sales. Similarly their trade sales department are basically telemarketers with very short call lists (existing game, hobby and comic shops).

Their independent stockists are treated like their customers who should just shut up and buy rather than as partners. Their retail staff basically have their jobs on the line. Meet your quotas or we'll close your location and lay you off. On the other end, they're rewarded like life insurance salespeople with bonuses for high volume and doing well.

I believe this sales uber alles approach is driving game design. Now with unbound, the individual employee can literally sell each week's release to each player. It doesn't matter what army you play, you can use it! And you'll want the codex as well, for the rules. And what about some paints? Etc.,.

Their desire for larger margins has also caused them to emphasize their direct sales. They'd like nothing more than for a customer at an independent store to start using the GW online store. They've already started removing many products from what the independent stockists can get at their full trade discount. And now they're hiring a person to figure out what sales channels different products can be sold in. I think we'll see that mean a decrease in products available to independent stores.

The end results has been a slow slide into irrelevancy to the larger industry. Independent stores that used to rely on GW have either closed or learned to expand their offerings, many being kept in business by collectible card game sales and the explosion in board games, comics and collectibles.

However, I also think it's what's going to keep them in business over the next few years. They can open up single employee locations and people will see the big sign and wander in and the employee can give them the hard sell on a product they have no frame of reference for. If the right locations and sufficiently able sales people are found, they can develop a chain of single employee stores that are profitable solely by traditional direct sales techniques.

Identify prospect. Develop rapport. Qualify prospect. Reduce sales resistance. Increase sales acceptance. Place product in hand. Direct to cash register to close. Add on sales. Close.

Just like how you sell bad life insurance or overpriced jewelry. Time tested hard sales techniques.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

major_payne wrote:
then they'll have to start considering how to continue selling their product to annoyed and frustrated nerds... We have a large disposable income, they know this, have for years and years, they should not try to bite the hand that feeds them...

Young professionals with good incomes haven't been GW's target audience for over a decade. Their targe audience is 14-18 year olds who spend mommy's money (or maybe money from a part time job or babysitting). You are not GW's primary target demographic. Though they are willing to keep you if you want to stick around. They have Forge World to sell you. More direct sales with high margins and minimal customer contact.

If I was an independent seller, I'd be doing everything I could to promote other games like X-wing, Warmachine, Infinity, Dust, etc. More options, the more chances are someone will find something they like. I'd get tournaments going for each game and have my employees always ready with an army for a demo game.

True, I agree with that... In our state our primary access to any GW products has been to 1-2 specific retailers. Last year we had our first GW store ever open up the road from our usual and popular retailer... It has 1 staff member, who it seems worked at another store on the mainland and despite the hundreds of interested applicants took the helm in a store the size of a small cafe... This has caused alot of contraversy as the older experience gamers/customers found it hard to accept the new store, esp having spent the last 4 or so years wondering why GW was being so mean to our wallets whilst offering slowly degrading interest in the foundations of the game... Apparently the local retailers have had 'issues' with ordering GW products, they either 'disappear' or turn up 2 weeks later than expected, this leaving the retailers clutching at straws to maintain interest from the regulars who slowly dribbled to the GW store for the somewhat more organised stock pool... Thing is the retailer in question has been primarily responsible for the 2 statewide tournaments (biggest 40k, Hammer events of the year here!) so GW's lack of respect to the previous stockists is only making hatred bloom amoung the local hardcore gamers (esp the frustrated competitive players that make up the majority of big order buys pre event)... Another thing is that the GW guy (sole staff member) is hardly known outside of the store, unlike the retail staff who regularly get to know the frequent customers so as to constantly see to their interests and future needs...

dereksatkinson wrote:
Of course people will have disposable income during a recession. A recession isn't a complete collapse and neither is a depression. The difference is that people will have less disposable income and will be more selective about where they spend money. If your budget for wargaming drops by 50%, that doesn't mean you'll not buy models, it just means you'll buy less.

Assuming for a moment that all of GW's problems are simply because people have less spending money, can you answer a few points?

1. All the evidence points to huge growth in gaming, increased sales, hundreds of new companies appearing. How can that be if people don't have money to spend?
2. Almost none of the feedback on here is related to gamers not having the funds for gaming, but still want to buy GW.
3. Almost all of the feedback here is that the GW product is substandard compared to the competition.

Anecdote: My disposable income has gone up YoY a bit higher than inflation, and I have a reasonable hobby budget and could comfortably buy every plastic kit GW release on a monthly basis, yet I spend essentially nothing on GW (I now don't have the latest rules for either system or army books for either army, or any kits from either army (Guard and Dwarfs)). The reasons are many fold: The game is far more expensive and less enjoyable (it takes too long and there's minimal strategic involvement) than the competition, so I get better value elsewhere for my hobby fix. GW has also made some pretty shocking decisions that have put me off them as a company and I'd rather spend my money with companies that don't offend me.

So the reason I don't buy from GW now has nothing to do with the economy, and from what I can tell on here the same can be said for the vast majority of dakka members.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 frozenwastes wrote:
And now they're hiring a person to figure out what sales channels different products can be sold in. I think we'll see that mean a decrease in products available to independent stores.

Which is bizarre, because there are only 2 answers, neither needing a full time role to determine.

The logical answer you'd get from an independent party: Sell in as many channels as possible.

Or the yes-man answer: Sell direct only as much as possible.

I imagine they are looking for the latter to blame if it doesn't work.

Herzlos wrote:
So the reason I don't buy from GW now has nothing to do with the economy, and from what I can tell on here the same can be said for the vast majority of dakka members.

I'm in that exact same boat at the moment which makes those kind of arguments seem hilarious to me. I've not been working full time for a full year yet and I'm still getting used to having all this cash to throw at my hobby (really not all that much, but still soooooo much more than I've had in the past). I'm spending tons on the hobby, but barely anything on the HHHHHobby, not because I can't afford it but because I don't see any value in it.

Herzlos wrote:

dereksatkinson wrote:
Of course people will have disposable income during a recession. A recession isn't a complete collapse and neither is a depression. The difference is that people will have less disposable income and will be more selective about where they spend money. If your budget for wargaming drops by 50%, that doesn't mean you'll not buy models, it just means you'll buy less.

Assuming for a moment that all of GW's problems are simply because people have less spending money, can you answer a few points?

1. All the evidence points to huge growth in gaming, increased sales, hundreds of new companies appearing. How can that be if people don't have money to spend?
2. Almost none of the feedback on here is related to gamers not having the funds for gaming, but still want to buy GW.
3. Almost all of the feedback here is that the GW product is substandard compared to the competition.

Anecdote: My disposable income has gone up YoY a bit higher than inflation, and I have a reasonable hobby budget and could comfortably buy every plastic kit GW release on a monthly basis, yet I spend essentially nothing on GW (I now don't have the latest rules for either system or army books for either army, or any kits from either army (Guard and Dwarfs)). The reasons are many fold: The game is far more expensive and less enjoyable (it takes too long and there's minimal strategic involvement) than the competition, so I get better value elsewhere for my hobby fix. GW has also made some pretty shocking decisions that have put me off them as a company and I'd rather spend my money with companies that don't offend me.

So the reason I don't buy from GW now has nothing to do with the economy, and from what I can tell on here the same can be said for the vast majority of dakka members.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 frozenwastes wrote:
And now they're hiring a person to figure out what sales channels different products can be sold in. I think we'll see that mean a decrease in products available to independent stores.

Which is bizarre, because there are only 2 answers, neither needing a full time role to determine.

The logical answer you'd get from an independent party: Sell in as many channels as possible.

Or the yes-man answer: Sell direct only as much as possible.

I imagine they are looking for the latter to blame if it doesn't work.

Wow, you pretty much nailed it on the head. Especially the highlighted part.

Herzlos wrote:
So the reason I don't buy from GW now has nothing to do with the economy, and from what I can tell on here the same can be said for the vast majority of dakka members.

And given the explosion of board games, collectible card games and so many more options in the miniatures arena, more than just dakka members, but gamers in general.

Which is bizarre, because there are only 2 answers, neither needing a full time role to determine.

Technically you also have questions like "do we allocate store shelf space to this or just have it available to be brought in?" and "is this good as a printed book or would it be better as an electronic product?" and the like.

The logical answer you'd get from an independent party: Sell in as many channels as possible.

Yep. Let the market tell you which channels are good for which products and then do more of that.

Or the yes-man answer: Sell direct only as much as possible.

I imagine they are looking for the latter to blame if it doesn't work.

While this and the customer experience positions are prime candidates for scapegoating, I'd like to think they actually want these people to do something at GW rather than just do whatever for a year and then get the ax after being blamed for larger, systemic failures. I think they are hiring these people to implement their chosen plans. Given that they won't be hired for a pre-existing skill set, but for attitude, they'll be told exactly what to do and will do it. The customer experience guy will travel around and make a report of what the top sellers are doing at their single employee locations. The product channel guy will help figure which products should be shifted to direct only in order to steal as many customers from independents as possible.

GW do hire for expertise sometimes.

 frozenwastes wrote:

Herzlos wrote:
So the reason I don't buy from GW now has nothing to do with the economy, and from what I can tell on here the same can be said for the vast majority of dakka members.

And given the explosion of board games, collectible card games and so many more options in the miniatures arena, more than just dakka members, but gamers in general.

Which is bizarre, because there are only 2 answers, neither needing a full time role to determine.

Technically you also have questions like "do we allocate store shelf space to this or just have it available to be brought in?" and "is this good as a printed book or would it be better as an electronic product?" and the like.

The logical answer you'd get from an independent party: Sell in as many channels as possible.

Yep. Let the market tell you which channels are good for which products and then do more of that.

Or the yes-man answer: Sell direct only as much as possible.

I imagine they are looking for the latter to blame if it doesn't work.

While this and the customer experience positions are prime candidates for scapegoating, I'd like to think they actually want these people to do something at GW rather than just do whatever for a year and then get the ax after being blamed for larger, systemic failures. I think they are hiring these people to implement their chosen plans. Given that they won't be hired for a pre-existing skill set, but for attitude, they'll be told exactly what to do and will do it. The customer experience guy will travel around and make a report of what the top sellers are doing at their single employee locations. The product channel guy will help figure which products should be shifted to direct only in order to steal as many customers from independents as possible.

Not going to touch on GW's Direct only practices and attitude to competition. But in an organisation that in many ways is cult like in its internal identity and indoctrination of staff into doing things their way only, and hiring almost only for attitude/fit rather than skill. Any external party brought in to critically examine their workings is going to fail. If the appetite for change and acceptance of critical thinking is not present then nothing will happen. As the company could be considered to be built to resist all change.

 Kilkrazy wrote:
GW do hire for expertise sometimes.

Which, while no doubt accurate, is a bit like saying "sometimes I eat food that isn't spoiled and doesn't give me stomach cramps and make me sick." In that it really should be something so automatic, it doesn't need to be said.

Like I have said before, next period financials are going to be the telling point of where this is heading. The signs over the last six months are all "spaghetti on the wall" techniques (let's keep doing random things and hope something sticks) which generally come from companies either in dire straights or that have lost competence in their talent base. Right now, GW is hoping things are going to turn around. As they say in business - Hope is not a strategy. The window is closing on GW and all the next period financials are going to do is simply indicate just how fast that window is closing.

GW's biggest problem is they don't have the "talent" at the moment to turn this around. They are so insular and polarized by "group-think", they really do not have the necessary people to fix this. It is already obvious at this point that without some new OUTSIDE management coming in, cleaning house on management, and building a new, customer pro-active culture quickly, GW is not going to survive. They truly believe what they are doing is the right course of action (as evidenced by recent positions they are recruiting for) and they are not going to change it. They also believe they have much more time to fix it than they really do. As I have indicated before, business history is littered with text book cases that when companies cross a certain threshold with their customer base it is very rarely a slow decline, but it becomes an outright collapse (see TSR, Wang Computer, Lehman Brothers, Digital Equipment Corporation, et al).

No matter what they do with their channels, the internet, their web store, or how many prayers they say, they are not going to turn this around. They do not have the base product assortment to do it anymore. They are taxing the limits of their current products beyond reality and they have a serious amount of competition now. They do not know their customers, their market, and even what their own products are anymore. Yes, they say who they want to sell to, but the reality is they do not know HOW to sell to them. If the rumors we are catching wind of that 40k 7th is not selling all that well, then GW has even lost their staple product to boost earnings when needed - which is all the 7th edition was released for.

If revenues next period are down 10% or more, than it will be there in black and white that the threshold has been crossed. If over 20%, then we are looking a company on the very edge of collapse.

I thought it was funny that they had Jervis Johnson doing the promo vids for the new edition, its like he was the brave face putting it to the masses... I never realised how much he reminds me of Mr Bean...

 Wayshuba wrote:
The signs over the last six months are all "spaghetti on the wall" techniques (let's keep doing random things and hope something sticks) which generally come from companies either in dire straights or that have lost competence in their talent base. Right now, GW is hoping things are going to turn around. As they say in business - Hope is not a strategy. The window is closing on GW and all the next period financials are going to do is simply indicate just how fast that window is closing.

While I want GW to continuing to slowly bleed away it's market share in order to allow competition in and customers to transition and shift in an organized fashion that will result in the maximum number of GW customers continuing in the hobby after GW is gone (or irrelevant), I think we've had enough of that over the last ten years and we've hit a point where everything would be more than okay if GW's ended up disappearing as quickly as you say might happen.

They truly believe what they are doing is the right course of action (as evidenced by recent positions they are recruiting for) and they are not going to change it. They also believe they have much more time to fix it than they really do.

I've maintained earlier in the thread that before the end, we'd see GW's single employee store plan fail first. That before the point of collapse, we'd first see a failure of their retail plan and then a resulting scramble before the end. I've been poking a bit more in their financial reports and now see that they are entirely dependent on their plan working and working quickly. They emptied their cash reserves.

They paid out their substantial cash reserves as dividends last year. They knew sales volume was dropping, that Warhammer Fantasy was fading and that a contraction was starting and they had all this money to reinvest in turning the company around. Or if they didn't want to reinvest it in advance to return to growth, money they might need if their current plan fails. And they paid it out as a dividend even after they entered into a period of business that they knew would not be able to sustain the dividend.

If they end up negotiating a loan to cover losses and keep operating while they ostensibly turn things around, I hope their corporate loan officer asks them why they emptied their cash reserves into declining revenue. It'd be funny.

If revenues next period are down 10% or more, than it will be there in black and white that the threshold has been crossed. If over 20%, then we are looking a company on the very edge of collapse.

The funniest thing ever would be if the have revenue fall by 10% or more, profit barely hold and then borrow money to pay a dividend. They've done it before.

When they started squeezing the nerds, the nerds struck back, using their superior intellect, attacking everything GW had set to win from (I mean nerds basically invented and fed the game)...

Overpriced codices and awkward Digital editions became itorrentz on ipads.

Overpriced models quickly became cheap and nasty ebay bulk sales (hehe, oh no, not allowed to sell internationally in GW labelled box? = NIB + bubble wrap) or PINKY (cause what TO is really gunna go scratching every pro painted model to check its authenticity, and besides most stores now sell casting blocks) or even second hand Dettol/Simple green soaks...

Its revolution baby... And as the disgruntled players mingle with the younglings, then this information and means to deny mumma of such a large financial burden to make the hobby acceptable will become the norm...

And who you really denying support to then, The GW fat cats who obviously don't even play the games anymore cause they are busy counting the millions,
or 1 under payed, overworked staff member in your local store that does the same job as your home computer but without the sales pitches or sleazy overbearing overpowering 'I'm so cool cause I get to play with models at work' attitude?.

GW is really ruling over the text now, and as far as I felt this newest edition it was like, 'Meh, we can't be bothered anymore, here's our rulebook, FAQ'd by Black Library, middle finger to the TO's, and everyone else, sort it out among yourselves or what the hell, just take whatever you have lying around and put it on the table'.

GW is in trouble...

major_payne wrote:


GW is really ruling over the text now, and as far as I felt this newest edition it was like, 'Meh, we can't be bothered anymore, here's our rulebook, FAQ'd by Black Library, middle finger to the TO's, and everyone else, sort it out among yourselves or what the hell, just take whatever you have lying around and put it on the table'.

GW is in trouble...

I have to agree with your outlook on the latest edition. This 'unbound' idea is a crap pot waiting to happen and it does just seem like a desperate effort to sell more big kits.
That said and done, GW may be suffering but there is still a long way to fall before they really are in trouble.

I just got a piece of information forwarded to me that's drastically changed my reading of the preambles and notes of the last few financial statements.

I will no longer be championing the potential of the single employee store to actually work in turning things around. They will be, at best, a means to enter into a controlled decline and the most important factor in whether or not they end up becoming a millstone around the company's neck is the cost of closing a loss-making one and opening a new one elsewhere.

Furthermore, unless GW can open them far more rapidly than they are closed and have a solid majority of the new ones never be loss making, then things are not looking good for the plan. And even if they do succeed in doing that, they'll still not be making any headway in terms of actually returning to growth, just continuing in a controlled decline.

 frozenwastes wrote:
I just got a piece of information forwarded to me that's drastically changed my reading of the preambles and notes of the last few financial statements. It has to do with sales volume by channel and makes complete sense given the position they've been advertising. I now think that GW is beginning to see independent traders as cannibalizing their direct sales. This totally fits with their regional embargoes and their ever more draconian trade terms that they release each year. As well as the reduction in what products are not available to independent stockists at their normal discount levels (or at all).

Didn't they at some point (maybe like 5+ years ago now) call all their trade partners freeloaders? Anyone selling their product without having a physical storefront was just mooching off of the GW stores who bring in new customers and create the community, the online stores just steal sales. I believe that was the beginning of the decline that led to people in Oz and Canada no longer being able to just buy the stuff from the US and get it mailed for a significant discount.

At my Games Club there are about 20 regular players. When 5th Ed was released, all of us bought a rule book. 6th Ed, this dropped to about ¾. This time round, no one so far has ordered the new edition, nor has anyone any plans to. Make of this what you will. This is 1 Games club.

For me, it’s not the £££, my disposable income has increased over that same period. It’s the perceived value attached to that £££ and I just don’t feel GW products bring me value for money anymore. Then there is the overly complex rules and codex, constantly flicking between the two books. The last edition of Orks was my final big army purchase from GW. I doubt I’ll spend anything with them again except on their paints (which I quite like).

The club I’m in has steadily moved away from GW games, there is so much good stuff out there now, GW has far more competition now than it ever had, and it’s current strategy of Price Gouging, general Anti-Everything that’s not bought directly with GW, is pushing more and more people to their competition. Where are the articles of old from GW, “Here’s a Tin can, here’s how you can make it into a watch tower”. Now it’s, “stuff the hobby, buy our overpriced plastic watch tower kit because it’s the only way to have a watchtower”. You get my point.

We now play Warmachine, DUST Tactics, Super Dungeon Explore, Firestorm Armada, Infinity, Drop Zone, Flames of War, Mercs. Board games have been popular recently. We’ve jumped on KS and are waiting for Kingdom Death, Relic Knights, DUST, Aliens Vs Predator. Bottom line, GW has much more competition than it used to, and it’s current strategies are continually pushing previous loyal fans to them more and more.

The hellish global economy is to blame for the more than doubling in my income since 5th edition was released. Fart farmers in Botswana be damned! The price of oranges in Nicaragua has really pushed me away from GW and forced me into spending several thousand dollars on other games.

Went to the local club last night and my friend and I were the only two playing 40k. Super Dungeon Explore and several smaller games were occupying everyone else's attention. There was some talk from people that amounted to them being done with GW for good and one TO saying that maybe at some point he'd need to call a meeting to discuss the need/desire for future 40k events. Complete apathy all around from a group that played loads of 40k less than a year ago.

I can't imagine a justification for a company wide pull back from social media. I mean, I get half my PP info from Facebook and Twitter. I've purchased new factions/models/etc just based on those posts alone (mostly because I can't be bothered to track release dates).

I mean, PP has a PINTEREST page! I don't even really know what Pinterest is (the Mrs. loves it), but they deemed having another social media outlet beneficial.

The mind boggles.

 frozenwastes wrote:



Young professionals with good incomes haven't been GW's target audience for over a decade. Their targe audience is 14-18 year olds who spend mommy's money (or maybe money from a part time job or babysitting).

People keep saying that and I've never once believed that it's true. I think that's an excuse GW has made for extremely questionable business decisions in the past. But I think even they realize that teenagers don't have the disposable income required to play their games, and most parents are going to balk at the prices.

Hmm.... GW direct only? Will we see door-to-door GW salesmen soon? Like dudes selling knives and vacuum cleaners?

Brother Gyoken wrote:

 frozenwastes wrote:



Young professionals with good incomes haven't been GW's target audience for over a decade. Their targe audience is 14-18 year olds who spend mommy's money (or maybe money from a part time job or babysitting).

People keep saying that and I've never once believed that it's true. I think that's an excuse GW has made for extremely questionable business decisions in the past. But I think even they realize that teenagers don't have the disposable income required to play their games, and most parents are going to balk at the prices.

Tom Kirby himself has said in investors reports that GW are in the business of selling toys to children. I think they are just that disconnected from their customers that they really do believe that's their target audience.

I really want to reaffirm what a bunch of people are saying about the value not being there anymore.

Last year I spent about $450 on Dark Eldar, trying to build a new army. I still fell pretty short of 2000 points and every additional purchase just felt lousy. Spending another $35-$50 per unit or TRANSPORT just feels terrible. It got to the point where the thought of assembling and painting and SPENDING to play a game I didn't think was even fun to play or well designed was causing me anxiety and stress. I finally gave up and sold my Dark Eldar stuff and washed my hands of GW forever. When I heard 7th edition was coming out barely 2 years after 6th, I was just really happy to be out.

Apparently I was not the only one. Our local store has a ton of old GW diehards playing WarmaHordes now, when no one would even look at it before. The consensus I've heard is that it's a tremendously better value, and the rules make strategy matter a lot more. For my part, I've spent about $160 and I have a VERY solid force. And it's a game that I find enjoyable to play. The value is just a lot better. And I don't feel like I am in an adversarial relationship with PP.

 jonolikespie wrote:

Brother Gyoken wrote:

 frozenwastes wrote:



Young professionals with good incomes haven't been GW's target audience for over a decade. Their targe audience is 14-18 year olds who spend mommy's money (or maybe money from a part time job or babysitting).

People keep saying that and I've never once believed that it's true. I think that's an excuse GW has made for extremely questionable business decisions in the past. But I think even they realize that teenagers don't have the disposable income required to play their games, and most parents are going to balk at the prices.

Tom Kirby himself has said in investors reports that GW are in the business of selling toys to children. I think they are just that disconnected from their customers that they really do believe that's their target audience.

I honestly wonder what their goal is in that. I mean, a kid's not going to buy a 4k point army to play the huge games GW keeps encouraging. So what do they actually think they're going to end up with? It really does sound like a pump and dump scam - sell the boxed set to kids, sell a squad or three of Space Marines, and move on to the next sucker. Do they really see 14-18 year old kids turning up with a large army to play at the GW store (since they think the hobby revolves around the GW store)?

They seem to have a total disconnect or else are almost blatantly running a scam. They encourage large games, which a 14-18 year old if that's their supposed target market isn't going to be able to afford. They cut their stores down to the bone so that you can't even really play there, but think that the GW store is some community meeting place. It's completely backwards thinking and I really can't fathom what the actual goal is.

The idea behind Apocalypse was to sell larger armies and particularly larger models such as the Baneblade. There are plenty of people who would like to add a large model to their collection, the success of the Forge World kits showed this.

GW doesn't engage their customers because they view their customers to be at the same level of livestock, to be led to slaughter.

My gaming group of around a dozen GW refugees bought 2 copies of 6th Ed (one of them being me)... played about that many games, and zero copies of 7th. TBH, the fact that 6th didn't fix any of the flaws that bothered me about 5th really stuck in my craw and was the last straw for me... Reading the reviews of 7th doesn't really encourage me to change my decision.

 Kilkrazy wrote:
The idea behind Apocalypse was to sell larger armies and particularly larger models such as the Baneblade. There are plenty of people who would like to add a large model to their collection, the success of the Forge World kits showed this.

Silence! This doesn't fit the narrative being spun by the collective group think. GW is only one thing..

 frozenwastes wrote:
It dawned on me a little over a year ago that GW has effectively embraced a direct sales model. Like those used by life insurance companies, car sales, and jewelry sales. Similarly their trade sales department are basically telemarketers with very short call lists (existing game, hobby and comic shops).

Holy gak that blew my mind. BECAUSE YOU'RE CORRECT.

Next evolution: to be more profitable, GW will turn into a multi-level marketing scam.

dereksatkinson wrote:

 Kilkrazy wrote:
The idea behind Apocalypse was to sell larger armies and particularly larger models such as the Baneblade. There are plenty of people who would like to add a large model to their collection, the success of the Forge World kits showed this.

Silence! This doesn't fit the narrative being spun by the collective group think. GW is only one thing..

Spoiler:

Says the man who is on record dismissing arguments/evidence/information that contradicts his viewpoint "cos."

Glass houses, Derek, glass houses.