I am not sure if vindication tastes like a blueberry pancake or a root beer float? Either way my tummy sure thinks its yummy.
I am just so giddy about the newsletter I got from Wayland Games announcing the “new” partnership (ownership) with the Beasts of War. So as the warmth of “I told you so” swept over my body I couldn’t help, but wonder what this little partnership was all about. To bring everyone up to speed a little over a month ago I wrote an article about the problems with GW’s retarded information black out policy.
In the article I made what I thought were obvious observations about Wayland Games and Beasts of War, which turned the conversation (for some) into just how crey crey I was for saying Wayland Games wore the pants at Beasts of War. Well as it turns out it looks like I was correct all along.
Here is the press release from Beasts of War err… Tabletop Nation
Beasts of War and Wayland Games, Join Forces to create a Tabletop Nation! … And you’re invited!
Beasts of War and Wayland Games are proud to announce an exciting new direction that will combine their resources for the benefit of the wargaming hobby.
Tabletop Nation will bring together gamers, local stores, manufacturers and developers to deliver the best products, the most exciting games, the most current news and reviews, and a multitude of events, all interacting both on-line and through local gaming stores.
Both Beasts of War and Wayland Games are grateful for the loyal support of gamers, stores, manufacturers and suppliers. We wouldn’t be where we are without you but we can’t get where we want to be on our own. With this in mind, Tabletop Nation is seeking out partners who share our vision of an inclusive network of wargamers and those who fuel their passion.
So what might Tabletop Nation mean to you? Well, looking forwards, both Beasts of War and Wayland Games will be making a significant investment to create the framework and infrastructure but it’s the other participants – our partners in this new world – who will help turn the vision into a substantive reality:
For gamers there’ll be more news and reviews, better product access both in-store and on-line, and more events and opportunities to enjoy your hobby, all captured within a global brand with local flavors.
For stores and gaming centers there’ll be better merchandising, faster access to more stock, support for EPOS and on-line merchanting systems to reduce overheads while widening the range of products that can be offered, and training opportunities and participation in industry-wide initiatives.
For manufacturers and developers there’ll be access to a bigger and faster growing market, that will be increasingly open to new ideas and genres, with more opportunities for unified and targeted promotional activities, and support for new products and ventures including market research, game development and marketing support.
While discussions are advanced for Beasts of War to become a wholly-owned but journalistically independent media subsidiary of Tabletop Nation, for other partners such as local stores it is important to understand that what is proposed is not a franchise-type arrangement: it is anticipated that for most commercial organizations, being “part of Tabletop Nation” will build on a common vision through some sharing of branding, purpose and delivery.
We can confirm that from March next year Tabletop Nation will have its home located just to the east of London, where it will be served by excellent rail, road and air links. Facilities will include a showpiece store, a modern gaming centre, and a media and production studio.
Something like this – the realizing of a new vision for wargaming – doesn’t happen overnight but we are determined to make it work. As the Tabletop Nation project develops and as we start to roll out initiatives we’ll be making more announcements. In the meantime, what does Tabletop Nation mean for the loyal fans, customers and supporters of Beasts of War and Wayland Games?
Beasts of War will retain its independence as a premier outlet for wargaming journalism: they’ll remove non-gaming advertising, and they’ll continue to bring you the best toys, the best games and the best events, whether through the internet or direct to your local gaming store. Backstage subscribers will be able to enjoy even more content and benefits. They will continue to work with their industry partners and explore even more opportunities for taking the hobby to mainstream channels and viewers.
Wayland Games will continue much as it does now, delivering “high service at a low price” with just the same access to Beasts of War as other ‘bricks and mortar’ and internet retailers.
Warren Johnston of Beasts of War says: “From its inception Beasts of War has worked to create a wider and more democratised gaming community, where diverse genres and games will flourish in a faster growing market that not only accepts innovative new ideas but craves them. Being part of Tabletop Nation will accelerate this inclusive vision, which at its heart will have shared interests, common goals, and mutual success, all founded on the desire to have fun and feel good about our hobby!”
Richard Lawford of Wayland Games says: “This is a very exciting opportunity. In the last three years the wargaming industry has seen tremendous changes and through Tabletop Nation we will be part of the continuing drive toward a new, 21st century future.”
Warren and Richard welcome your views and can be reached at LetsPlayTogether@TabletopNation.com
So I’m sure you guys will have comments and questions on this, and we’ll do our best to fill in detail where we can. However a big proportion of this will be based on the feedback and participation of the industry and community, to roll out what we hope will be a defining step in the evolution of our industry and our hobby!
Things are gonna get interesting…
BoW Warren
Now if you took the time to read the vague’o’land press release a few things become clear…
Beasts of War is now owned by Wayland games and by throwing up the Tabletop Nation moniker won’t obscure that fact. Beasts of War will still be independent in much the same way NBC news always kept their independence by reporting G.E.’s bad behavior (funding terrorist organizations though subsidiaries), oh wait they fucking didn’t.
The next thing you will notice is no more ads going up on Beasts of War unless they are “gaming related”. You can assume that anyone wanting to advertise has to go through Wayland to be deemed gaming related.
What is all the talk about no franchises?
If Wayland Games started game store franchises they would actually have to take on some risk, but why risk anything when you can accomplish the same goals using large equestrian woodcutting designs?
Let me tell you how this will work.
Wayland wants to land more stores (or put them out of business I am just not sure) for product distribution. By using Tabletop Nation Wayland will produce materials and content for stores (posters, kiosk, whatever). Stores will have to join Wayland distribution network to receive these “benefits”. If Wayland was a normal distributor then this sort of partnership is ideal for everyone, but Wayland is a not a normal distributor they are a discount distributor.
So instead I am a brick and mortar store and I accept this deal with Wayland Games I now basically provide free advertising and customers for Wayland Games without them hardly lifting a finger. What exactly stops my customer from joining Tabletop Nation go to the website and find out they can order whatever for cheaper through Wayland? What do partner stores get out of this exactly?
On the flip side maybe Wayland found some loop-hole to exploit GW’s fuck the southern hemisphere policy. If that is the true then bravo to Wayland for bringing cheaper products to stores and people in those countries. It also could turn out that Wayland has figured out some way to pass on their discount to stores that join the Tabletop Nation in which case expect GW to pull any licenses with stores affiliated. Maybe Wayland will use “insider” knowledge to give stores a heads up on product releases before anyone else knows. I have to say the Wayland gaming store near London does sounds really cool a bit like the Espn Zone stores when they first opened.
Beasts of War seems have taken all the risk: if Wayland thinks this venture amounts to nothing expect Beasts of War to die quickly. At the same time what did Beasts of War have to lose? It seems like Beasts of War had a broken business model anyway and Wayland swooped in for the save. What doesn’t make sense about the whole announcement are the many unanswered questions. The most basic question of all being what is Tabletop Nation exactly? Instead we got a whole lot of half answers designed to either cover ass or a feeble attempt to spin into the echelon of corporate jargon.
What are other people saying?
A poster from Beasts of War site put together a thoughtful perspective on the whole transaction that I think bares reading…
Well, welcome to the brave new world of BoW.
This is quite a staggering vision, with bold and enthusiastic claims for enhancing the enjoyment of the hobby for all participants – players, manufacturers / designers, and retailers (local brick and mortar and online.) I applaud BoW for this bold undertaking, and wish them the best of luck. That said, I wanted to voice some of my concerns and views regarding this new direction. I would also like to mention, in advance, that I am a big fan of BoW, and appreciate all they do. I express my concerns not in an attempt to be negative or judgmental, but in a spirit of best intention.
First, BoW has set for themselves a goal which will require considerable resources, talent, and to some extent luck, in order to accomplish. A more prudent approach might have been to go bit more slowly, with a less challenging overall vision, but Warren is an enthusiastic guy, so he has set the bar quite high. He and his team are the ones that are going to have to jump over it. Get in shape guys, it’s going to be a marathon, not a sprint…
At the outset, before considering the various claims and goals, the most important and overarching point to consider in this venture, which was not mentioned overtly is this: BoW wants to get paid. A “full time, this is my job, and I want to be able to pay my rent,” kind of paid.
And I don’t blame them. But what I wonder is, can the mini wargame market support the salaries and overhead of a studio staff that produces what is essentially marketing material for the industry? In the rest of the business world, most journals that support the consumption of a particular product / industry generally secure their revenue with advertising spots, and they supplement this with charging for content. Direct collaboration with any one distributor usually renders the objective view point of the information provided as possibly questionable, and certainly less than unbiased. But perhaps a more pertinent question, is the market, and particularly the consumer base, the kind that will financially support, in the long run, this kind of work?
The way I see it BoW had three options to attempt to make enough money off their work such that it paid the bills, and paid the staff:
1. More advertising from manufacturers and retailers.
2. Subscription drives similar to Wikipedia / NPR.
3. Direct collaboration with retailers, or manufacturers.
Each has its own drawbacks and advantages, but some more than others compromise the market neutrality that BoW previously enjoyed. Economics teaches that all companies must face trade offs when making resource management decisions. By opting to directly align themselves with Wayland, they effectively trade off a portion of their market neutrality. This will have consequences – both expected and unintended (another law of economics), which may, at the outset, compromise their ability to achieve their overall vision. (Sort of like shooting yourself in the foot at the start of the race, but you just don’t realize it yet..)
So, to get into it, lets start off with – The new Vision:
“Tabletop Nation will bring together gamers, local stores, manufacturers and developers to deliver the best products, the most exciting games, the most current news and reviews, and a multitude of events, all interacting both on-line and through local gaming stores.”
I wonder how many people feel that this is a reasonable possibility, or if it is to some extent a statement of naiveté about how competitive markets work? The dictates of market based consumerism that works directly against such models of interconnectivity and cooperation. Markets thrive to some extent on disinformation (or rather imperfect information), and barriers to perfect market consumption – things like taxes , shipping fees, and currency exchange rates. Retailers find ways to use the imperfect information and barriers to perfect market to increase sales. Why would they support BoW if BoW worked to reduce their traditional market advantages?
Business, for lack of a better (but not more accurate) metaphor, is war. The miniature / war game market is a cutthroat bare knuckles knock down drag out fight for consumers currency (be it Pound, Dollar, or Euro.) BoW has enjoyed the ability to remain neutral in that war, serving as a sort of Switzerland while the corporate entities duke it out amongst themselves. By direct partnership with on online retailer BoW has effectively chosen a side, and this will probably not sit well other retailers. Because BoW will now have a natural bias to support Wayland, it is only natural that competitive companies will see them as they now have become, competitors. They will not be able to spotlight sales or events from any other retailers, and I think it will be very hard for them to resist compulsion from Wayland into shifting their focus to marketing the products that Wayland will want them to sell.
How can BoW, as a partner with Wayland, contribute to the success of Brick and Mortar stores? In my area I can think of 3 brick and mortars that have closed up shop in the last 2 years, all claiming that they had to liquidate because they could not compete with online distributors who offer the product at 20 to 25% off. BoW, which owes its entire existence to the internet, will have to work very hard to prove that they are a benefit to the local mom and pop store. Their core audience is already internet savvy, and I would bet most of them buy their stuff at discount online. What benefit does BoW provide to the people who are being driven out of business by the likes of Wayland Games? Where is the incentive? BoW was not specific as to how they would support the efforts of the ‘local stores,’ but how they can achieve this without working against Wayland is a mystery. If you support the local store, you must support local sales, and why would Wayland want BoW to do that? This is an obvious conflict of interest, a razor edge that BoW will have to navigate very carefully if it is to fulfill its obligation to Wayland, and its commitment to provide value to the local games store. The success of this part of the venture will hing on the contractual agreements put forth by Wayland with local stores.
How will this work in the US? There are already several substantial online retailers that are highly competitive for the North American market. Does Wayland plan to open up a distribution hub in North America? And would that move win BoW more fans / supporters? This is a question that can’t really be answered given the limited information on the release, but it will be a huge challenge, and given their vision statement, it must be addressed in order for them to be as successful as they hope to be.
Then there are the Amazon sellers and E Bay sellers who are a notoriously independent lot. They often sell at prices even lower than the online discount stores. How will BoW bring these people into the fold, if they see that BoW is aligned with Wayland?
Other questions
1.At the end of every Unboxing will BoW tell you how much the model costs at Wayland, that there is such and such a sale, and ‘click on the link below’ that will take them to item at the Wayland store?
Will 3 colors up continue, or will Wayland pressure BoW to feature their How to Paint books? If I can learn how to paint from a BoW tutorial, why would I buy a book at Wayland?
Will Wayland impose greater restrictions on comments and criticisms aimed at manufacturers, out of concern that fostering a forum / web site whose members are highly critical of that manufacturer?
Will BoW be expected to expand their coverage of more traditional / non mini based games, such as card based games, or standard board games? What would this do to is current community?
Will Wayland take exception to some of the more mature content posted on BoW, especially if an upset parent contacts them after one of their kids reads something they don’t appreciate on a BoW discussion board?
Will BoW be able to post information about sales on EBay? Better yet, will people in the forums be able to post sales information for online stores that compete with Wayland?
I guess in the end we all will have to wait and see, but…
If I were to make one prediction though it would have to be this one: in less than 18 months expect Warren Johnston to no longer be part of Beasts of War/Tabletop Nation/Wayland Games.