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https://www.facebook.com/Warhammer-40000-1575682476085719

What if anything should we take away from this? Is GW attempting to improve its communication/relationship with its playerbase? Does this mean that we the players for the first time have an avenue where we can actually speak directly to GW & address our concerns? Is this the place we should be asking GW to hire an outside gaming company to come in & fix the plethora of issues 40k currently has since GW has made it clear they are a "modeling" company & no longer a "gaming company"?

The very first rule is Be Positive, so if you have any criticisms you will need to couch them in very careful language or GW will simply delete them.

For example:

6th edition 40K became a huge mess because of mixing all the optional rules like Apocalypse into the core game. Can't you split these out again?

Or

I really enjoyed 40K when there were lots of optional rules like Apocalypse, and the core game was simpler. It would be fantastic if you could make the core game as simple as 5th edition, and put the optional rules into expansion books.

It'll be closed once rules questions become the norm.

And when the wits ask when squats are coming back. Or drivel on about Ironwing or some such nonsense from back in the day (which is what I would post!)

That said, it's a positive move for them to come back, I dare say the admins wont be that GW savvy so cut them some slack.

nothing, it means nothing

This is not a bad move. They already had such a page in the grim darkness of the past.
For 40k it means that 40k is alive and kicking.

Why would it mean anything for 40k

This is how I see it.

- It is a public group and you have to use a (non anonymous) facebook account.
- It is spammed by GW;s advertising.
- It is heavily moderated to be all gw positive
- You can only talk to GW's social media team + the other users.

I would be interested in a platform for FAQ's and being able to talk to the designers / artists this is just a poorly functional forum with good marketing support behind it that offers nothing new except the loss of privacy and censorship. I'll pass.

Could this mean anything for the 40k community or the game? Well it actually could.

GW could just out compete all major rumour sites in an instant with it. Since most current rumours and "leaks" are just snippets of gw's white dwarf shown a (few) weaks early or other carefully planned bits of information. GW can always do better then that. I don't think that they would like to do it but if they liked to they could.

On top of that there is the whole publicity trick of seeing your friends having a blast / going crazy over the game at the GW site.

It's a positive move to try and engage with the customer base again. They clearly haven't done it to ask for us all to go on there and tell them what's wrong with the game. And frankly I don't see what would be achieved by anyone just spamming it with negative comments about why they hate the game, or why GW suck.

Commissar Benny wrote:
GW has made it clear they are a "modeling" company & no longer a "gaming company"?

This might just be one of the most misunderstood quotes of GW.
Their core business is selling models to us but they are clearly doing a lot more then that for as long as most of us can remember.

Just look at reaper and compare it with GW
https://www.reapermini.com/miniatures

 General Kroll wrote:
It's a positive move to try and engage with the customer base again. They clearly haven't done it to ask for us all to go on there and tell them what's wrong with the game. And frankly I don't see what would be achieved by anyone just spamming it with negative comments about why they hate the game, or why GW suck.

The issue I personally have with it is that, they don't seem to be truly engaging. If I go to the pathfinder forums I can post all sorts of questions about their products and the designers of those products will usually answer. I like this a lot. One of these designers even showed me the pages that where deleted in the process of editing the book. GW's facebook page is just a advertisement platform. Sure we could ask the guys who run it all sorts of questions but they are not the designers of the game. They are just a few kids of their socialmedia department and I am not that in their answers

There is noting wrong with GW finding new advertisement platforms it is just not what I am looking for at the moment.
I would rather have monthly FAQ's or even better warhammer TV clearing up some rule issues with a video.

Seriously warhammer TV is one of the best community support they launched in a long time.

I give it 2 weeks before the donkey-caves come on and ruin everyone else's fun. "oh my god, GW fething suck! go play X wargame that I like more"

 Brennonjw wrote:
I give it 2 weeks before the donkey-caves come on and ruin everyone else's fun. "oh my god, GW fething suck! go play X wargame that I like more"

The truth sometimes hurts

Funny how they don't want to answer rules question

 Chute82 wrote:

 Brennonjw wrote:
I give it 2 weeks before the donkey-caves come on and ruin everyone else's fun. "oh my god, GW fething suck! go play X wargame that I like more"

The truth sometimes hurts

Funny how they don't want to answer rules question

Truth is not the over-exaggerated whining of adults acting like children. "I don't like it so no one should!" from a rather loud minority is not an approach to find the truth.

Edit: I do think it's pretty funny that they don't want rules questions as well, but at least they gave a better excuse then " 'cause we don't wanna"

You sound bitter.

Does every opinion you don't like get classified so harshly?

 Blacksails wrote:
You sound bitter.

Does every opinion you don't like get classified so harshly?

nope, just ones that equate truth to opinions .

O wonder!
How many godly creatures are there here!
How beauteous mankind is! O brave new Hobby,
That has such people in't

It's a FB page so I'm sure that the anti GW crowd will be censored like North Korea tv.

It's pretty normal for companies to have FB pages these days as their customers spend plenty of time on FB. The stay positive and no rules explanations make sense in what they want to get out of it. It's a marketing channel for them. There are plenty of other forums for bashing GW and getting rules clarifications from other players.

Ksullivan wrote:
It's pretty normal for companies to have FB pages these days as their customers spend plenty of time on FB. The stay positive and no rules explanations make sense in what they want to get out of it. It's a marketing channel for them. There are plenty of other forums for bashing GW and getting rules clarifications from other players.

The problem is: players answering rules questions =/= the company answering rules questions. All you have to do is take a look at the YMDC threads to understand why we need someone from GW available to answer rules questions that are generated by their ambiguous and sometimes contradictory writing - especially since they've apparently completely given up on FAQs.

 Brennonjw wrote:

 Blacksails wrote:
You sound bitter.

Does every opinion you don't like get classified so harshly?

nope, just ones that equate truth to opinions .

I have noticed a ridiculous amount of GW hate though. It's like if you hate it so much then leave. Why are you even bothering them? If you still want them to improve deep down so you can get back into 40k then clearly you don't hate them but I would post constructive criticism. I'm not a GW lover by any means but I'm not one of those people parading around about how much GW sucks (most people know) on forums about 40k and sometimes not even in the relevant sub forums.

 Gamgee wrote:

 Brennonjw wrote:

 Blacksails wrote:
You sound bitter.

Does every opinion you don't like get classified so harshly?

nope, just ones that equate truth to opinions .

I have noticed a ridiculous amount of GW hate though. It's like if you hate it so much then leave. Why are you even bothering them? If you still want them to improve deep down so you can get back into 40k then clearly you don't hate them but I would post constructive criticism. I'm not a GW lover by any means but I'm not one of those people parading around about how much GW sucks (most people know) on forums about 40k and sometimes not even in the relevant sub forums.

This right here.

I'm permanently turned off to Warmachine/Hordes because the players around here appear more interested in bashing my 40k/Fantasy games than actually playing. I abhor the WM/H community.

 Battlesong wrote:

Ksullivan wrote:
It's pretty normal for companies to have FB pages these days as their customers spend plenty of time on FB. The stay positive and no rules explanations make sense in what they want to get out of it. It's a marketing channel for them. There are plenty of other forums for bashing GW and getting rules clarifications from other players.

The problem is: players answering rules questions =/= the company answering rules questions. All you have to do is take a look at the YMDC threads to understand why we need someone from GW available to answer rules questions that are generated by their ambiguous and sometimes contradictory writing - especially since they've apparently completely given up on FAQs.

I think the reason they don't have that is there are so many different possible permutations that it would be a endless nightmare of bickering and angst. I can see it now, "GW Facebook said XXXXXXX so now the $XXXX I spent of my army is worthless because I can't do YYYYYY". Plus how would you make sure everyone saw that rule or knew it was out there? Part of the appeal of GW games, and maybe this is just me, is that if there is a disagreement we can either talk it out or just roll off. If someone is being TFG then guess what, good luck finding a game with me again. Forums like YMDC are great ways to explore that further, but at the end of the day, just figure out what's fair to both parties and move on.

Edit: typo

 Battlesong wrote:

Ksullivan wrote:
It's pretty normal for companies to have FB pages these days as their customers spend plenty of time on FB. The stay positive and no rules explanations make sense in what they want to get out of it. It's a marketing channel for them. There are plenty of other forums for bashing GW and getting rules clarifications from other players.

The problem is: players answering rules questions =/= the company answering rules questions. All you have to do is take a look at the YMDC threads to understand why we need someone from GW available to answer rules questions that are generated by their ambiguous and sometimes contradictory writing - especially since they've apparently completely given up on FAQs.

Turning your public facbook account into a "you make da call" like place might be a bad marketing move.
I am sure players bickering over rules is what their public image needs

Only time will tell.

 curran12 wrote:

 Gamgee wrote:

 Brennonjw wrote:

 Blacksails wrote:
You sound bitter.

Does every opinion you don't like get classified so harshly?

nope, just ones that equate truth to opinions .

I have noticed a ridiculous amount of GW hate though. It's like if you hate it so much then leave. Why are you even bothering them? If you still want them to improve deep down so you can get back into 40k then clearly you don't hate them but I would post constructive criticism. I'm not a GW lover by any means but I'm not one of those people parading around about how much GW sucks (most people know) on forums about 40k and sometimes not even in the relevant sub forums.

This right here.

I'm permanently turned off to Warmachine/Hordes because the players around here appear more interested in bashing my 40k/Fantasy games than actually playing. I abhor the WM/H community.

In my experience as a part of the WM/H community, I've seen that many, if not most WM/H players are converts from 40k/fantasy and they absolutely loathe GW. Most of the time, it's a really great community. Of course, we have out fair share of douchebags like any other game, but most people are really nice. The one issue is that there's a special kind of satisfaction most WM/H players get from converting other 40k/fantasy players. One could argue that these players are trying to be vindictive by stealing players away from GW. But I think it's more that they're enthusiastic about their game and want others to join them. It just comes off rude and pushy a lot of the time.
Another interesting thing I've noticed is that it's mostly the new converts who are the loudest about getting other 40k/fantasy players into WM/H. I was guilty of all that when I first started. I probably pissed off a few friends and the LGS manager with how I used to go on and on about how bad 40k is and how people should just play WM/H instead. But, as someone who got into WM/H about 5 years ago, I don't really care anymore. So I apologize on behalf of the overzealous WM/H players. I think most of them mean well, but just have issues communicating their enthusiasm in a positive way.

 General Kroll wrote:
It's a positive move to try and engage with the customer base again. They clearly haven't done it to ask for us all to go on there and tell them what's wrong with the game. And frankly I don't see what would be achieved by anyone just spamming it with negative comments about why they hate the game, or why GW suck.

Engaging the customer base means listening to their requests and complains. If the first rule is "be positive", that means no criticism allowed of any kind. So in the end they're not engaging their customer base, only the "always positive" crowd among their customer base.

So in the end, all is fine and nothing is broken, and nothing changes.

 Korinov wrote:

 General Kroll wrote:
It's a positive move to try and engage with the customer base again. They clearly haven't done it to ask for us all to go on there and tell them what's wrong with the game. And frankly I don't see what would be achieved by anyone just spamming it with negative comments about why they hate the game, or why GW suck.

Engaging the customer base means listening to their requests and complains. If the first rule is "be positive", that means no criticism allowed of any kind. So in the end they're not engaging their customer base, only the "always positive" crowd among their customer base.

So in the end, all is fine and nothing is broken, and nothing changes.

You apparently need to look up the definition of "criticism" if you think you can't criticize and be positive.

This could be pretty good or blow up horribly. Also, any chance this is fake?

 Maloghurst wrote:


In my experience as a part of the WM/H community, I've seen that many, if not most WM/H players are converts from 40k/fantasy and they absolutely loathe GW. Most of the time, it's a really great community. Of course, we have out fair share of douchebags like any other game, but most people are really nice. The one issue is that there's a special kind of satisfaction most WM/H players get from converting other 40k/fantasy players. One could argue that these players are trying to be vindictive by stealing players away from GW. But I think it's more that they're enthusiastic about their game and want others to join them. It just comes off rude and pushy a lot of the time.
Another interesting thing I've noticed is that it's mostly the new converts who are the loudest about getting other 40k/fantasy players into WM/H. I was guilty of all that when I first started. I probably pissed off a few friends and the LGS manager with how I used to go on and on about how bad 40k is and how people should just play WM/H instead. But, as someone who got into WM/H about 5 years ago, I don't really care anymore. So I apologize on behalf of the overzealous WM/H players. I think most of them mean well, but just have issues communicating their enthusiasm in a positive way.

Things I've heard from WM/H players here while I was playing another game. People with whom I was having no conversation with, and this was their opening line.

"Why don't you play a real game?"

"Come talk to me when you're done with that crap."

"I wish we had more space for real games." (said when my 40k game had the only available table)

There's meaning well, and then there's this. I'm glad to hear that not all WM/H players are like that, but my experiences with them have been almost always negative.

 oldzoggy wrote:

 Battlesong wrote:

Ksullivan wrote:
It's pretty normal for companies to have FB pages these days as their customers spend plenty of time on FB. The stay positive and no rules explanations make sense in what they want to get out of it. It's a marketing channel for them. There are plenty of other forums for bashing GW and getting rules clarifications from other players.

The problem is: players answering rules questions =/= the company answering rules questions. All you have to do is take a look at the YMDC threads to understand why we need someone from GW available to answer rules questions that are generated by their ambiguous and sometimes contradictory writing - especially since they've apparently completely given up on FAQs.

Turning your public facbook account into a "you make da call" like place might be a bad marketing move.
I am sure players bickering over rules is what their public image needs

I actually agree. I wouldn't do this on the Facebook page, but they do need to have something for this. I'm sorry, but they write crappy and contradicting rules and then do absolutely nothing to help their playerbase with them. Somehow dicing off for a rule "forges a narrative" more than having the rule clarified and defined so you don't have to stop your game to even discuss them. The way to do this would be to have an online place to enter questions that come up and then release a regular FAQ for the questions that are asked *gasp* most frequently. I will say that the Facebook page is a small step in the right direction and I don't think this is something that would have even been considered 1 or 2 years ago.

 curran12 wrote:

 Maloghurst wrote:


In my experience as a part of the WM/H community, I've seen that many, if not most WM/H players are converts from 40k/fantasy and they absolutely loathe GW. Most of the time, it's a really great community. Of course, we have out fair share of douchebags like any other game, but most people are really nice. The one issue is that there's a special kind of satisfaction most WM/H players get from converting other 40k/fantasy players. One could argue that these players are trying to be vindictive by stealing players away from GW. But I think it's more that they're enthusiastic about their game and want others to join them. It just comes off rude and pushy a lot of the time.
Another interesting thing I've noticed is that it's mostly the new converts who are the loudest about getting other 40k/fantasy players into WM/H. I was guilty of all that when I first started. I probably pissed off a few friends and the LGS manager with how I used to go on and on about how bad 40k is and how people should just play WM/H instead. But, as someone who got into WM/H about 5 years ago, I don't really care anymore. So I apologize on behalf of the overzealous WM/H players. I think most of them mean well, but just have issues communicating their enthusiasm in a positive way.

Things I've heard from WM/H players here while I was playing another game. People with whom I was having no conversation with, and this was their opening line.

"Why don't you play a real game?"

"Come talk to me when you're done with that crap."

"I wish we had more space for real games." (said when my 40k game had the only available table)

There's meaning well, and then there's this. I'm glad to hear that not all WM/H players are like that, but my experiences with them have been almost always negative.

Yeah I find a lot of them are pretty obnoxious about it too.