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H.B.M.C. wrote: Then there's the boxed games division, grabbing products from the pipeline to put things out to justify their existence (Shadow War: Armageddon is a good example of this).
Club loved that game, what was the story behind it?
Automatically Appended Next Post: I think this is an even worse change than the last one done by Kirby's wife that got rid of all the old content.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2023/11/02 16:05:08
H.B.M.C. wrote: Then there's the boxed games division, grabbing products from the pipeline to put things out to justify their existence (Shadow War: Armageddon is a good example of this).
Club loved that game, what was the story behind it?
IIRC, the publication/boxed games division or whatever they were called were pissed off that another team was tasked to do the Necromunda relaunch and felt they should have had the honor/responsibility, etc. So they designed Shadow War Armageddon as basically their version of a new Necromunda ruleset (as I understand it the rules for shadow war basically are the rules of the original necromunda with some minor changes) using 40k models (which was basically the limit of what they were actually able to do, they couldn't commission the production of new bespoke miniatures or whatever) and launched it a few months before Necromunda released as a bit of a quiet inter-departmental "feth you" to the Necromunda team, who were instead releasing a whole new ruleset designed from the ground up. Basically they used Shadow War to beat Necromunda to market and try to blow all the wind right out of its sails, but did so with the hope that the new Necromunda rules would not be well received by comparison to the Shadow War ruleset and as a result cause some drama/community backlash, presumably with the intent of humiliating the Necromunda team or proving themselves as serious game designers who could tackle more complex projects, etc.
Things didn't quite work out that way and Necromunda was generally received pretty warmly I think, so it ended up being a bit of a nothingburger in the end, but thats the story we were told by some GW insiders, including James M Hewitt (who actually designed Necromunda 2017). Apparently nobody in GW management realized what was going on because those at a level where they had knowledge of both projects were too far removed from the actual gameplay elements and mechanics, etc. and the history of the Necromunda brand to recognize that Shadow War was basically Necromunda by a different name, so there was no pushback or real oversight to prevent what was otherwise a waste of resources. Plus, it seems both games sold well enough (in fact Shadow War pretty much sold out on launch IIRC) that there was no real harm done and nothing to really punish anyone for.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2023/11/02 16:34:02
CoALabaer wrote: Wargamers hate two things: the state of the game and change.
I had planned on ordering the two Warhammer Day releases, the Votann and the book and I finally got around to it on Tuesday night. I used links from a GW email to get to the product pages. I could add the book no problem, well done GW, but I could not add the Votann figure to my cart. I noticed there was no price for it on the page. I tried copying the name of the miniature and plugging it into the GW site search engine and it came back no such thing! I sent customer service an email about that and they never responded. Next day I copied the miniature name and plugged it into an external search engine and it finally took me to a page with the price listed and let me add it to the cart. I placed the order successfully but who knows...
Didn't Shadow War debut the Sector Mechanicus terrain tho?
It was also so popular that GW scrambled and printed an entirely unplanned faction compendium in like a month, which must be record lead times for a physical GW book.
And it was probably a more polished product as far as the packaged game goes, I don't remember it having rules that straight up didn't function out of the box
This message was edited 3 times. Last update was at 2023/11/02 19:07:21
The old meta is dead and the new meta struggles to be born. Now is the time of munchkins.
This is probably the worst webstore I've ever seen.
Aesthetically bland, confusingly laid our, frustrating / time consuming to navigate, and just inefficiently designed.
As the literal first complaint that comes to mind, why would you divide the HH portion of the store into "Loyalist Astartes" & "Traitor Astartes" when almost all of the entries overlap? It's both time consuming AND frustrating to find things in the new store, and I say this as someone who knows where pretty much everything should be.
I can't imagine trying to actually use this site as someone new or curious about WH, I'd rather shop literally anywhere else.
It was also so popular that GW scrambled and printed an entirely unplanned faction compendium in like a month, which must be record lead times for a physical GW book.
And it was probably a more polished product as far as the packaged game goes, I don't remember it having rules that straight up didn't function out of the box
It didn't, but the terrain wasn't made for Shadow War, they just included it in the box as part of their one-upmanship, because the terrain in the original necromunda starter was gak.
CoALabaer wrote: Wargamers hate two things: the state of the game and change.
It was also so popular that GW scrambled and printed an entirely unplanned faction compendium in like a month, which must be record lead times for a physical GW book.
And it was probably a more polished product as far as the packaged game goes, I don't remember it having rules that straight up didn't function out of the box
Nah, they just scrambled to re-publish the book a little later with the rules for Sisters of Battle teams added in, retroactively making the original printing incomplete. Then GW released Kill Team a little after that, leaving Shadow War to wither and die.
As with most major companies, they probably hired a ton of consultants and an outside website designer to come up with the steaming pile, when instead they could have used
their internal group that knew what they truly needed. But big bosses will always make those choices until they are fired for those choices.
As with most major companies, they probably hired a ton of consultants and an outside website designer to come up with the steaming pile, when instead they could have used
their internal group that knew what they truly needed. But big bosses will always make those choices until they are fired for those choices.
They should have got the boss's wife to do it!
Remember, good website design is otiose in a niche!
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2023/11/02 22:42:58
That has to be one of the worst website re-designs I have ever seen. Absolutely appalling, I genuinely thought for a moment I'd entered the wrong URL and gone to someone's Wix GW blog page.
Zhrukal wrote: I had planned on ordering the two Warhammer Day releases, the Votann and the book and I finally got around to it on Tuesday night. I used links from a GW email to get to the product pages. I could add the book no problem, well done GW, but I could not add the Votann figure to my cart. I noticed there was no price for it on the page. I tried copying the name of the miniature and plugging it into the GW site search engine and it came back no such thing! I sent customer service an email about that and they never responded. Next day I copied the miniature name and plugged it into an external search engine and it finally took me to a page with the price listed and let me add it to the cart. I placed the order successfully but who knows...
Sounds terrible. Hope your orders go through. I got my Squat from an independent store, but the consideration had always been to maybe put in a last minute order at GW if that didn't work. What a disaster that might have been.
Nehekhara lives! Sort of!
Why is the rum always gone?
The French version of the new website adds a ton of untranslated text on top of the shall we say controversial ergonomy.
It seems they are also taking the opportunity to merge FW & GW release schedules, since the Traitor Champion was supposed to be on order this week, and is not yet available for preorder.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2023/11/03 11:06:31
CragHack wrote: Oh, man, that's a cool story with Shadow War. Man, that was probably the last game that used 40k miniatures I actually enjoyed.
Heh, ngl a couple weeks ago I found a new copy of the rulebook online for $2 (+$8 or so in shipping and handling fees lol). Picked it up. No regrets.
There's some issues, obviously, with straight up importing 40k level statlines into what is essentially 1995 Necromunda, like Eldar initiative makes pinning them pretty useless, and there's some iffy balance, like DE not having any shooting over 12" range IIRC. But it's a very fun system, flows smoothly, and has some of the same solutions to N95 rules issues that I came up with in my rewrite 10 years prior We had a mini campaign and got even a couple of players who hadn't played GW since 4th-5th edition 40k to show up.
The old meta is dead and the new meta struggles to be born. Now is the time of munchkins.
All orders placed before the 20th of October 2023 are already available in your order history.
Orders placed on Games-Workshop.com and ForgeWorld.co.uk after the 20th of October 2023 will be added to your Order History in the coming days
Not sure they even read my question...
I do feel bad for the customer service folks though, not their fault but they are the ones who have to deal with the fall out.
I got the same. I've called them up - apparently the orders still exist, they just won't show in your order history now until after they ship. So really more lost functionality with the 'upgrade'
All orders placed before the 20th of October 2023 are already available in your order history.
Orders placed on Games-Workshop.com and ForgeWorld.co.uk after the 20th of October 2023 will be added to your Order History in the coming days
Not sure they even read my question...
I do feel bad for the customer service folks though, not their fault but they are the ones who have to deal with the fall out.
I got the same. I've called them up - apparently the orders still exist, they just won't show in your order history now until after they ship. So really more lost functionality with the 'upgrade'
Lol, that's a first. Never encountered an online shop that does it like that. Ignoring that, the design is terribe. It actually discourages you from browsing their products.
AlphariusNoNotThatOne wrote: I got the same. I've called them up - apparently the orders still exist, they just won't show in your order history now until after they ship. So really more lost functionality with the 'upgrade'
Thanks for that!
So going forward we won't be able to see our placed but undispatched orders? A bit odd.
An annoying autoplay splash video to assault the viewers senses? Check!
Changing the side bar navigation to a terrible menu-within-menu-within-menu-within-menu system that you have to trawl through everytime you want to look at a different faction? Check!
Soulless minimalist design that's sanitized of any personality? Check!
Forcing users to scroll to the bottom of the page MULTIPLE TIMES in order to view every product in a given category? Check! (the paints category forces you to do this 25 times to view all the paints)
An obtrusive tracking button on the screen that shouts "GIVE US YOUR MONEY NOW" when viewing models so the users don't forget the reason they're visiting? Check! Check!! CHECK!!!
I didn't know there was an update and went on to look at some sprues, I legit thought I got redirected to some low-effort phishing site. Truly abysmal and shameful.
On a related note, here's an archived version of GW's site from 2008. Most of the pictures and Flash elements are broken, but it's wild to see the difference between the GW of that time and now. Wish all the tutorials still worked...
Thumpingbear wrote: An annoying autoplay splash video to assault the viewers senses? Check!
Changing the side bar navigation to a terrible menu-within-menu-within-menu-within-menu system that you have to trawl through everytime you want to look at a different faction? Check!
Soulless minimalist design that's sanitized of any personality? Check!
Forcing users to scroll to the bottom of the page MULTIPLE TIMES in order to view every product in a given category? Check! (the paints category forces you to do this 25 times to view all the paints)
An obtrusive tracking button on the screen that shouts "GIVE US YOUR MONEY NOW" when viewing models so the users don't forget the reason they're visiting? Check! Check!! CHECK!!!
I didn't know there was an update and went on to look at some sprues, I legit thought I got redirected to some low-effort phishing site. Truly abysmal and shameful.
On a related note, here's an archived version of GW's site from 2008. Most of the pictures and Flash elements are broken, but it's wild to see the difference between the GW of that time and now. Wish all the tutorials still worked...
Warhammer 40,000 4th Edition Rulebook (digest-sized)
Battle for Macragge Getting Started Book
10 Termagants miniatures
6 Genestealers miniatues
8 Spore Mines miniatures
10 Space Marines miniatures
1 Imperial Pilot miniature
a set of crashed Imperial Aquila Shuttle terrain pieces
5 shield terrain pieces
4 Tyranid terrain pieces
dice
templates
Bam, said the lady!
DR:70S+GM++B+I+Pw40k09/f++D++A(WTF)/hWD153R+++T(S)DM++++ Dakka, what is good in life?
To crush other websites,
See their user posts driven before you,
And hear the lamentation of the newbs.
-Frazzled-10/22/09
Did Warhammer Community close?
Since the website changed, my saved link takes me to the Warhammer front page with the fella in a grey jumper.
I click the 3 bars at the top, choose Warhammer Community and get a warhammer 404 page.
Is Warcom gone from the new site?
Currently most played: Silent Death, Mars Code Aurora, Battletech, Warcrow and Infinity.
edit. Click the article link only if you want the full spam-filled ad experience!
Less than one day old, the new Games Workshop webstore is already being derided by online commentators for prioritising style over substance. I would argue that the design differences between the new and old site aren’t failures, but the result of a strategy that doesn’t prioritise diehard Warhammer fans.
The reddit board r/warhammer, an online home to 320,000 Warhammer 40k and Age of Sigmar fans, is dominated by threads deriding the new website. Complaints focus on how ineffective the product filters are, or the way the site prioritises large images and white space without showing many items on screen at once, making it harder to browse models from a visitor’s favorite Warhammer 40k faction or Age of Sigmar army. Features like paint-scheme recommendations for each miniature are missing.
Warhammer YouTuber Kirioth uploaded a video, below, detailing his travails navigating through the site, reporting similar frustrations with the filtering system, and promotional links that didn’t lead to their expected destination. He attributes these issues at least in part to bedding-in problems that may be fixed with patches or data updates.
Prominent Warhammer tactics website Goonhammer posted a snarky tweet summing up sentiment on the website; “Look forwards to our new and revamped Goonhammer webpage, where we’ll be mashing our existing site together with a raging tire fire.”
Some comments highlight identifiable bugs, expected from a site launch but objectively problems that must be fixed. More comments are responding to how the site has been conceived of and designed; the look, feel, and features of the site. Even if that opinion is the consensus among the online Warhammer fandom, Games Workshop has good reasons not to care.
Speaking in an interview with The Painting Phase, former Senior Hobby Products Designer Tom Hibberd explains that: “Games Workshop’s core customer base is not what most people think it is… we went through as much financial customer data as we could to find out who was buying stuff and the single-biggest buyer of things was thirty to fifty year old women. The mums. And they’re buying it for their 12 to 20 year old child”.
Hibberd’s first-hand information is a little out of date: he acknowledges that the firm’s audience has expanded since he left in 2016. Games Workshop has been successful in reconnecting with lapsed hobbyists in the intervening years – but the mums haven’t gone anywhere.
Hibberd explains the idea of a customer “funnel” in the video. For a company as large as Games Workshop, the best opportunity to make money came from the huge number of potential customers, then the large number of lightly-invested customers. The tiny number of extremely invested fans who talk about it online represent the smallest proportion of revenue.
Considered in this light, the fact that the Warhammer commentariat doesn’t like the new website becomes less important when we judge its success or failure. Features that are unwelcome to the experienced hobbyist are benefits to newcomers, and conversely important features for the veteran hobbyist are less relevant to newcomers or gift-buyers.
A customer arriving at the new website is met with an animated banner introducing the hobby. For an existing hobbyist that is needless cruft; for a newcomer, that’s a welcome mat, orienting them before they delve into an intimidating product catalogue. Having fewer items on screen at once gives a clearer browsing experience for customers who aren’t likely to engage with the back catalogue anyway. Likewise, the depth and specificity of product filters is less useful for a customer who will mainly engage with starter products, new releases, and deals.
There may yet be bugs and launch problems lingering in the site – just before hitting publish, one of our contributors informed us that the site had lost all of his vouchers, an obvious and pretty severe problem. But this is separate from the intentional aspects of design which are disappointing hobbyists. The new Games Workshop webstore prioritises mums, gift-buyers, and newcomers to the hobby. Whether the site is well designed for that intended audience remains to be seen.
We wrote yesterday that the new Games Workshop webstore is a big deal, and that remains true. It’s one in a series of much-needed reforms to the company’s IT infrastructure, and whether or not it succeeds, it will have a big impact on the company’s fortunes. We’ll be watching closely.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2023/11/03 23:40:21
I'm not going to say that argument isn't sound but I think its overlooking two key facts
1) Regular warhammer fans might not use the store to buy; but they 100% clearly use it to browse and that means making purchases on other sites. Which means its still advertising to that market and still generating sales for that market. Just via the 3rdparty networks not via GW direct - so its 100% still money in GW's pocket.
2) The new site is by far not easier to use. You want to find specific models that "little timmy" told you about and any mother is going to find that a pain to navigate unless she's already well aware of the product ranges and where models might be hiding or released.
IF anything its a vast step backward in that regard.
So whilst I can totally understand that the actual "puts cash in the store" customers are not necessarily most of the online wargamers; it still doesn't explain anything about the new site.
We had a mini campaign and got even a couple of players who hadn't played 
