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 streetsamurai wrote:

 insaniak wrote:

 Commissar Benny wrote:
Its has no visibility, which is why most of its community is older. A comic book isn't going to resolve that.

The glory days of retail stores are gone. Trying to stuff the online retail genie back in the bottle is an excercise in futility, and it's good that GW seem to be finally realising that and looking for other ways to expand their brand.

I couldn't disagree more. GW games needs a thriving local community in order to attract and retain new customer. This is not a t-shirt company where you can simply order one online and don't care about the physical store.

As much as Kirby was an incompetent, and how frustrating it was for most of us, curtailling the online store was a great move. Sure it was profitable in the short term, but it was killing the company slowly

Gaming in the US is very different. The retail stores had very little to do with spreading WH here. However, Dawn of War, an expansion of the brand, brought plenty of new players to the game.

 streetsamurai wrote:

I couldn't disagree more. GW games needs a thriving local community in order to attract and retain new customer. This is not a t-shirt company where you can simply order one online and don't care about the physical store.

As much as Kirby was an incompetent, and how frustrating it was for most of us, curtailling the online store was a great move. Sure the online store were profitable for GW in the short term, but it was killing the company slowly

Yes, the game works better with a thriving community. No disagreement there. But that community well increasingly have to rely on something other than local stores. The brick and mortar retail industry is dying, and it's not coming back.

If they're smart, GW will start to expand their support of gaming clubs and tournaments again. That's where the future community will be found, not in your local games store.

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:

 streetsamurai wrote:

 insaniak wrote:

 Commissar Benny wrote:
Its has no visibility, which is why most of its community is older. A comic book isn't going to resolve that.

The glory days of retail stores are gone. Trying to stuff the online retail genie back in the bottle is an excercise in futility, and it's good that GW seem to be finally realising that and looking for other ways to expand their brand.

I couldn't disagree more. GW games needs a thriving local community in order to attract and retain new customer. This is not a t-shirt company where you can simply order one online and don't care about the physical store.

As much as Kirby was an incompetent, and how frustrating it was for most of us, curtailling the online store was a great move. Sure it was profitable in the short term, but it was killing the company slowly

Gaming in the US is very different. The retail stores had very little to do with spreading WH here. However, Dawn of War, an expansion of the brand, brought plenty of new players to the game.

Really?

I always heard that it was the stores that were essential in making the game thrives in the US , but that in Europe, it was gaming clubs.

At least, this is the case in Montreal, and I would assume that it is the same in most big NA cities.

But I agree that video games are the way to go if they want to expand the brand (and by that, I mean AAA production, not sling the snotling games). Always thought it was mindboggling that they scrapped WHFB pretty much at the same time as they released the TW:W game. Such a missed opportunity imo

Looks awful and is the kind of thing that would have turned me away as an 8-10 year old. That might just be me though.

 streetsamurai wrote:

Really?

I always heard that it was the stores that were essential in making the game thrives in the US , but that in Europe, it was gaming clubs.

Eh, most people never heard of Warhammer 40k until Dawn of War came out. But oddly enough a lot of people had Hero Quest. The video games really boosted an interest in it, and still many of the fans out there in the US have never played a single game on tabletop.

For perspective, I know 'geeks' that gamed throughout the 90's that knew 'of it' but didn't start playing until 2007.

A small hero quest like game would work for something like this./ 20.00 sets with a few kid mini's and some basic enemy models, like a squad of orks or a 'nid, or something....

 Grot 6 wrote:
A small hero quest like game would work for something like this./ 20.00 sets with a few kid mini's and some basic enemy models, like a squad of orks or a 'nid, or something....

Could make it really simple, with cards for the 'monsters' and 'heroes' that tell you what dice to roll. Make the mechanics simple, have it be a co-op game...

Actually I'm gonna be kinda pissed off if we get a Co-Op 'Silver Tower' type game set in the 40k Universe for this kid thing before we get one for the actual game setting...

 streetsamurai wrote:

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:

 streetsamurai wrote:

 insaniak wrote:

 Commissar Benny wrote:
Its has no visibility, which is why most of its community is older. A comic book isn't going to resolve that.

The glory days of retail stores are gone. Trying to stuff the online retail genie back in the bottle is an excercise in futility, and it's good that GW seem to be finally realising that and looking for other ways to expand their brand.

I couldn't disagree more. GW games needs a thriving local community in order to attract and retain new customer. This is not a t-shirt company where you can simply order one online and don't care about the physical store.

As much as Kirby was an incompetent, and how frustrating it was for most of us, curtailling the online store was a great move. Sure it was profitable in the short term, but it was killing the company slowly

Gaming in the US is very different. The retail stores had very little to do with spreading WH here. However, Dawn of War, an expansion of the brand, brought plenty of new players to the game.

Really?

I always heard that it was the stores that were essential in making the game thrives in the US , but that in Europe, it was gaming clubs.

At least, this is the case in Montreal, and I would assume that it is the same in most big NA cities.

But I agree that video games are the way to go if they want to expand the brand (and by that, I mean AAA production, not sling the snotling games). Always thought it was mindboggling that they scrapped WHFB pretty much at the same time as they released the TW:W game. Such a missed opportunity imo

Independent stores are more important than GW stores for supporting gaming communities in the US. That may be what you have heard. However, gaming at home is far more prevalent.

And don't forget the power of online communities. I remember when 40k fandom started out on boards like Stardestroyer.net and Space Battles. There were some fans talking about 40k, which lead to curiosity, which lead to new fans talking about 40k. The Black Library books were the crucial to spreading WH40k, because that's where people with whetted appetites went to learn more. By the time the Horus Heresy dropped, most of the board members were familiar with the setting and there were huge threads dedicated to analyzing the texts and speculation on all the unknowns in the background. And, eventually, there were people who never would have stepped into a game store posting pictures of their first space marines.


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 highlord tamburlaine wrote:
I love me some CYOA type books. Especially those with fighting and dice rolling involved.

I need more info on these GW styled Fighting Fantasy books.

I picked up one of the Destiny Quest books which feels like a Diablo/ MMORPG take on the genre. I'll have to pawn it off on BobtheInquisitor one of these days (who's Dungeon Saga book I've still got).

I've had a lot of success with Choose Your Own Adventure books getting reluctant readers to get more involved in the process. Anything that gives kids more agency in their education and personal improvement is a thumbs up in my classroom.

I'll bring Hive of the Dead next time we game. The names of the other two escape me for the moment, but one was 40k and the other WHF.

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:

Independent stores are more important than GW stores for supporting gaming communities in the US. That may be what you have heard. However, gaming at home is far more prevalent.

This is pretty much accurate. Most GW's are uncomfortably small. I've also been told that GW doesn't want you to buy stuff and play at the GW. They want you to buy stuff and go to your FLGS where people playing other games will see it and want to get in on it.

Also most GW stores in the US have customer service tactics somewhere along the lines of "Whatever he's doing or looking at, just shove everything you can at the customer, pile stuff on him, and put a few paint pots in his ass-pipe, and don't stop until he runs out the store or maxes out his credit card."

Found it. There were four of them.

 streetsamurai wrote:

But I agree that video games are the way to go if they want to expand the brand (and by that, I mean AAA production, not sling the snotling games). Always thought it was mindboggling that they scrapped WHFB pretty much at the same time as they released the TW:W game. Such a missed opportunity imo

I would say the only reason we got TW:W was because WHFB was being scrapped. Personally the dream for it was always there since the first time I launched Shogun 1 far too many years ago now (!) but I could see that the corporate fear was (is?) that a very comprehensive version of any of their games could lead to a lot of players going for infinite online multiplayer for their gaming fix, rather than actually buying the models. Hence why most of the video games have been rather cut down at the very least in terms of unit roster, if nothing else.

found this and wanted opinions

Opinions on what?

Didn't we already cover the fact that they're likely to skip over the less family friendly parts of the setting?

 aracersss wrote:
found this and wanted opinions

Spoiler:

Obnoxious and trite at this point.

 Adeptus Doritos wrote:

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:

Independent stores are more important than GW stores for supporting gaming communities in the US. That may be what you have heard. However, gaming at home is far more prevalent.

This is pretty much accurate. Most GW's are uncomfortably small. I've also been told that GW doesn't want you to buy stuff and play at the GW. They want you to buy stuff and go to your FLGS where people playing other games will see it and want to get in on it.

Also most GW stores in the US have customer service tactics somewhere along the lines of "Whatever he's doing or looking at, just shove everything you can at the customer, pile stuff on him, and put a few paint pots in his ass-pipe, and don't stop until he runs out the store or maxes out his credit card."

Pretty sure they just want you to buy it and play it wherever you Damned well please....

 Grot 6 wrote:
A small hero quest like game would work for something like this./ 20.00 sets with a few kid mini's and some basic enemy models, like a squad of orks or a 'nid, or something....

Pretty sure this is what "Space Marine Adventures: Labyrinth of the Necrons" is going to be.

I now suspect this game will be aimed at the Warhammer Adventures market - which is a new 8-12yo demographic.

StraightSilver wrote:

 Grot 6 wrote:
A small hero quest like game would work for something like this./ 20.00 sets with a few kid mini's and some basic enemy models, like a squad of orks or a 'nid, or something....

Pretty sure this is what "Space Marine Adventures: Labyrinth of the Necrons" is going to be.

I now suspect this game will be aimed at the Warhammer Adventures market - which is a new 8-12yo demographic.

Exactly. I pointed out when we first saw the box that it has a different age rating. GW stuff is usually rated 12+ but space marine adventures is 8+.
I doubt it is a coincidence that both products feature Necrons.

Necrons being the bad guys kind of make sense now that I think about it, if they make any Humans die in it it's just a green flash and they are gone, and nobody really cares about robots being broken.

Kind of like in Star Trek, where whenever someone is shot with a gun (and killed) they just get vaporized, no bodies. TOS/TNG, at least, I know DS9 and VOY went right off into darkness.

 Enigma of the Absolute wrote:
Looks awful and is the kind of thing that would have turned me away as an 8-10 year old. That might just be me though.

No, if all this had been around when I was that age I would have gone straight for the adult-oriented books. I hated the books I supposed to read at school when I was 8-9, they were so childish! I remember protesting this at school one day, and my teacher asked me what I was reading. I pulled out Asimov's Foundation Trilogy that I'd found at home; she saw my point.

 Knight wrote:
Out of curiosity what was the first Warhammer literature you've read and how old were you? What sort of an impact did it have on you?

Merely curious as I expect that these stories will have light hearth approach, sharing and flirting with only certain themes of the "adult" franchises. I do think it's possible to write a book in such setting but in our eyes this isn't going to be "our warhammer".

A bit late, sorry, but my first encounter with the Warhammer settings was in White Dwarf articles when I was 11 - first background articles and the like, and then Barrington J Bayley's The Magician's Son short story. A couple of years later I read Ian Watson's Inquisitor - pretty heavy going (but not as heavy as The Two Towers, which I bounced off in primary school) for a pre-teen, but it doesn't seem to have done me any harm.


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 CthuluIsSpy wrote:
It would be hilarious if this whole thing was a massive attempt at trolling by GW, and in the first volume some really screwed up stuff happens to the main characters.
Sort of like what Urobutcher did with Madoka Magika
"You thought it was going to be a cutesy magical girl anime, but it was actually nightmare fuel!"

I don't think they would have the nerve to try that though.

Does anyone else think it's funny to deliberately inflict (mental) harm on large numbers of children? Or is it just the one poster?


Automatically Appended Next Post:
On the subject of "how will they handle all the horrible things in a kid's book?", well, the real world is full of plenty of things we want to keep away from children, but there's never been any particular difficulty in writing children's literature.

Slaanesh? Well, this might be a way to get past the sad idea that "Slaanesh = sex god(dess)". there's plenty of other obsessive and selfish behaviours that can be addressed in children's fiction. Gluttony, an obsession with TV/video games/whatever, excessive self-centredness and bullying, I'm sure there's more.

 Knight wrote:
Out of curiosity what was the first Warhammer literature you've read and how old were you? What sort of an impact did it have on you?

Either Ian Watson's Space Marine or Inquisitor. I was... 10? 11? Can't remember.

I thought some of it was cool.

 aracersss wrote:
found this and wanted opinions

Spoiler:

Pathetic.

Also feel a little bit of sympathy for the person that made this, as they probably aren't well.

 farmersboy wrote:

 Enigma of the Absolute wrote:
Looks awful and is the kind of thing that would have turned me away as an 8-10 year old. That might just be me though.

No, if all this had been around when I was that age I would have gone straight for the adult-oriented books. I hated the books I supposed to read at school when I was 8-9, they were so childish! I remember protesting this at school one day, and my teacher asked me what I was reading. I pulled out Asimov's Foundation Trilogy that I'd found at home; she saw my point.

With 8 years I was playing with Playmobil and reading Mortadelo y Filemón comics... so yeah, people shouldn't generalise what kids like or don't like

 Galas wrote:

 farmersboy wrote:

 Enigma of the Absolute wrote:
Looks awful and is the kind of thing that would have turned me away as an 8-10 year old. That might just be me though.

No, if all this had been around when I was that age I would have gone straight for the adult-oriented books. I hated the books I supposed to read at school when I was 8-9, they were so childish! I remember protesting this at school one day, and my teacher asked me what I was reading. I pulled out Asimov's Foundation Trilogy that I'd found at home; she saw my point.

With 8 years I was playing with Playmobil and reading Mortadelo y Filemón comics... so yeah, people shouldn't generalise what kids like or don't like

Now I have the cartoon's song lodged inside my skull. Thankyouverymuch.

 H.B.M.C. wrote:

 Knight wrote:
Out of curiosity what was the first Warhammer literature you've read and how old were you? What sort of an impact did it have on you?

Either Ian Watson's Space Marine or Inquisitor. I was... 10? 11? Can't remember.

I thought some of it was cool.

Space Marine came later. It was mostly cool, although I missed most of the overtones. Ian Watson's 40k writing is all about the themes and imagery, and all I was really picking up on was the plot.

 AndrewGPaul wrote:


Space Marine came later. It was mostly cool, although I missed most of the overtones. Ian Watson's 40k writing is all about the themes and imagery, and all I was really picking up on was the plot.

I read Ian Watson's books for the first time when I was about 18, and I couldn't figure out what was going on for a large chunk of it.

Around 8-12, I was wearing out my copies of Star Wars and Empire Strike Back, and reading James Blish's Star Trek novelisations, the Target Doctor Who novelisations, Conan the Barbarian, Edgar Rice Burroughs, CYOA and Fighting Fantasy, and pretty much any other fantasy or scifi I could get my hands on. I would certainly have checked these out, had they been available.

When I was 8-12 i was playing the heck out of Star/warcraft, reading Lord of the Rings, just starting Diablo 2, and watching Phantom Menace, then promptly watching the original trilogy again to wash my young mind clean.

All pretty good except that last bit.

 aracersss wrote:
found this and wanted opinions

Spoiler:

I think this is my favorite pic of the Warhammer world

 AndrewGPaul wrote:



Automatically Appended Next Post:

 CthuluIsSpy wrote:
It would be hilarious if this whole thing was a massive attempt at trolling by GW, and in the first volume some really screwed up stuff happens to the main characters.
Sort of like what Urobutcher did with Madoka Magika
"You thought it was going to be a cutesy magical girl anime, but it was actually nightmare fuel!"

I don't think they would have the nerve to try that though.

Does anyone else think it's funny to deliberately inflict (mental) harm on large numbers of children? Or is it just the one poster?

Yes, its called dark humor

On a more serious note, however, I think we aren't giving children enough credit in handling dark subject or disturbing subject matter.
Did Courage the Cowardly dog inflict mental harm? Or did Bambi, the Lion King, and the Hunchback of Notre Dame, specifically the Hell Fire sequence? What about works by the Brother's Grimm or Hans Christian Anderson?
As I said before, what I'm worried about most is that GW will write these stories in a condescendingly sanitized fashion and strip most of the grit away from the settings, when they can probably get away with a lot of the more exciting parts of chaos mutation.