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.

Am I the only one who finds it odd and inconvenient that GW doesn't integrate all their websites offering stuff for sale?

As a consumer, I'd prefer it if I didn't need separate accounts for Games Workshop, Forge World, Warhammer Digital, and presumably soon Warhammer Merchandise. Some of these sites don't even have the same payment options (such as Warhammer Digital not having a PayPal option).

Similarly, if the sites all used the same account they could presumably sell just one type of virtual voucher/gift card usable for everything. It's annoying now that a GW virtual voucher is good towards a physical codex, but not a digital one; or for example a GW Inquisitor model but not a Forge World one.

Now would seem to be a good time to consolidate websites instead of opening a new one, I would think.

IIRC the current website is a victim of nepotism - the company that built it is owned by the wife of a GW Director. It was very, very expensive and doesn't work very well.

beast_gts wrote:
IIRC the current website is a victim of nepotism - the company that built it is owned by the wife of a GW Director.

Was.

It was under whatshisface, not Roundtree. I wouldn't be shocked if the reason they haven't moved on is because it's integrated into their inventory system, which would be a huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuge thing to change in all likelihood.

Based on a quick glance at the site and what is on offer I'd say the reason it is separate is it looks like it's piggybacking off of a Redbubble-esq site and things are printed to order and not held by GW at all.

Yep, thats my guess as well. Seems like the reason for the Black Library, Forgeworld, and main Games Workshop site being split is because the inventory for those things are likewise held in different warehouses and probably answerable to different inventory systems, etc. that aren't integrated together in any way shape or form. No idea why they can't just integrate warhammer digital into the black library site proper though. And then you have regimental standard which has no reason to exist as a separate website and should be reduced to a featured site on warhammer-community, which itself is a waste as everything posted their SHOULD be showing up on the main page or on the warhammer/ageofsigmar sites.

Logically speaking, someone new or interested in the IP and/or hobby is likely going to be landing on games-workshop.com, warhammer.com, or ageofsigmar.com first. The latter two are okay from an informational standpoint, but games-workshop.com is a sales wesbite with little in the way of informational content that can help a newcomer to the hobby and no obvious navigation to an information portal (warhammer-community fails in this respect, its a great resource for up-to-date news, but completely unhelpful in explaining or introducing the game, the factions, or the hobby as a whole).

At the very least, I feel like GW should be giving us some sort of a hub page as a main-landing which links to all the other sites in the network if they aren't going to integrate everything into single website like they should be doing. That way we can have an easy way to navirgate through the different parts of their official web presence.

I suppose its easy enough for a hobbyist to keep track of, once you learn about all the different sites. For those of us new(ish) to the hobby, its a little surprising is all.

I am still a little annoyed that I can use use virtual gift voucher on a physical copy of a book, but not the digital version. Thankfully that shouldn't be a problem with 9th edition from what they've said. I guess the best explanation is they're a bunch of legacy websites that made sense at the time. Thanks!

Part of it is probably that they have had several different vendors over the last few years producing merch like shirts, and it is far easier for the vendors to run their own websites and have GW direct you to them, and shut them down if they lose the license than it is to keep tinkering with the main website every time the vendor switches.

beast_gts wrote:
IIRC the current website is a victim of nepotism - the company that built it is owned by the wife of a GW Director. It was very, very expensive and doesn't work very well.

Nope, common misconception. They spent £4m on an ERP system, not the website. The problem is in the opposite direction - £4m for a functional ERP for a company their size was laughably cheap.