Unless you been living under a rock for the last week you may have noticed Games Workshop corporate spinning on powdered doughnuts. You may also have noticed that the blogosphere has jumped on the bandwagon for easy page views and traffic generation with titles like…
“GW Just raped all of Brazil with the last of it’s Pyrovore metal models”
“GW is forcing customers to leave their basements and travel to real store fronts to buy models”
“Why did GW have to destroy my Wayland ad revenue”
“GW dares to charge more for better resin cast models!”
“This is the final straw on to Warmachine because their quality is half that of GW and weights 10 pounds more.”
“This time I am going to quit GW for three months (instead of two) after this price hike”
“Sign my petition to get GW to change from a for-profit business to a non-profit so I can models instead of food stamps”
I got a few emails about these various subjects and at first I was mad like the rest of Internet– after about an hour I was over it. I really didn’t care all that much, just have to be more selective and I want to wait and see exactly what the Finecast crap will look like. My heart does go out to the many parts of the world now forced to pay higher prices within their prospective countries. I have don’t have a business degree, but I have worked for retailers and distributors and this just reeks of GW giving into pressure from the home country retailers and distributors; I could be totally wrong, but that is just my feeling on the matter.
What I do find amusing it the Internet attempts to effect change. We will see how this all pans out, but my guess is (like every time before) the Internet will be ignored because while our river of tears can fill oceans it really doesn’t mean anything to GW’s bottom line.
So with those two cents, I want to focus on what I think has been the best comments across the net about GW’s recent behavior. Please let me know what comments tickled or moved your funny bone these last few days.
Now on Advanced Order: Rape. Can I say that?
I especially like the bit about how the CEO announced an increase of dividends from £0.20 to £0.30 which means he personally got a payout of £570,000.
That strikes me as completely reasonable and a good reason to justify price increases across the board.
Oh, and let’s stop making metal models because metal prices have gone up so much – that sounds reasonable right? We’ll then remake them using cheaper materials, and increase the price by up to 25% while we’re at it!
GW’s business plan:
1.
2.
3.
4. Profit!When in doubt, skip steps 1 through 3.
I know it’s futile but with my inbox blowing up and buddies foaming at the mouth over these things I’m trying to get people to think first instead is instictually gnashing of all the of teeth and ranting. Instinct is for life and death not toy soldiers! There is a difference between being passionate about something and turning into a nut job.
Funny thing about capitalism: its not fair.
GW protecting their brick and mortar retailers is a smart business decision. It protects the long term growth of their industry and promotes confidence in their brand.
You may not like both the price increase and the online retailer restrictions but if you have a FLGS I’d wager that you probably do like to play there. Think about it.
Money talks; whining fanboys whine then crawl back to GW like a battered housewife to her drunken husband.
Nothing will help except *actually* leaving. And the thing about fanboys is they very rarely leave – if they did, they wouldn’t be fanboys. They’ll moan (loudly), but for all their noise, they always go back to him and his heavy, drunken hands.
If you guys have all quit buying GW products why keep posting here? Because what you’re saying is nice and all, but…its naive. Their sales HAVE gone down steadily over the last few years. They HAVE still raised their prices. Boycotts don’t work on Global corporations.
You guys might all be here on BOLS putting bandanas on your arms and joining the revolution together, but the rest of the planet and player base are playing their game and occasionally picking up new stuff. Just like they always have.
1. Products made of a cheaper product sold for more.
2. No online sales outside of specific regions leaving areas of the world with vastly different pricing schemes.
3. Heavily enhanced and increased secrecy over upcoming products.
4. Large price increase of over 170 product lines, with increasing ranging from 1% to 25%.It’s been a busy day for GW. I almost want to call it diabolical genius, but I can’t because of how soul-crushingly stupid it is.
VAMPIRE COUNTS GRAVE GUARD $33.00 $41.25
25% …on something that was seriously overpriced to begin with
…man i need to go back to sniffing unicorn embryos for a hobby, it was a lot cheaper
Most of the boycott GW comments are like this:
“Starting today I am quitting drugs and alcohol… well not beer, beer is ok, but all drugs and liquor. Smoking a joint is ok, that is not a real drug… starting today I am quitting hard drugs and liquor… and I am going to make a difference in the war on drugs and fix my health! Yeah! rationalization!”
I always enjoy how people are going to harm GW financially but the people will still buy GW models and play GW games.
put on your black hoodies, wrap your faces up with something and all head down to your local gw store, smash them open, loot the store and then burn it to the ground…gw doesnt listen to us, they dont care, they only listen to costs…if there costs go up cause they have to replace all their stores cause angry gamers trashed them, then and only then will they listen!!!! Viva la revolucion
If anyone thinks the policy of reaming us for all they can will change because of a few hundred angry facebook replies you are wrong. We are going to get some canned response or an article on why GW mini’s are so fantastic that we are getting a fair deal… oh and don’t forget the obligatory “Waaagh!” to put the sheep at ease :/
Going to hold a Warhammer tourney on my new yacht and all guests will be served Beluga Caviar & Dom Pérignon Champagne. You’re all welcome to come along folks and watch us set sail from the harbor.
Thank you for all of your comments. Your concerns will be forwarded directly to Recycle Bin until we can figure out how to put an embargo on Facebook commenting. Ridiculous. Keep tightening your grip, GW and more and more gamers will be slipping through your fingers. Hm, reminds me of a line from Star Wars.
And finally I want to leave you guys with this often used piece of film whenever nerds rage…