Will customer action make GW lower prices?

[Denzark]

Hey chaps.

I am interested in the whole 'GW profit warning' issue. Whilst that is being discussed at length elsewhere, I thought I would like to poll the opinions of the masses - will customer action (ie buying less or even a total boycott) make GW lower prices?

Whilst we all grumble (quite rightly too) at every price rise, it has only been AFTER the profit warning that people are talking vociferously about boycott and about how GW have brought it on themselves.

Personally i think what was true today was also the same as yesterday - the profit warning isn't a vindication of peoples opinions, and I don't think this alone will change GW policy.

Indeed, if as we suspect they have official lurkers on the main 40K sites, they must know for years most veterans will buy from knock down internet companies or ebay - so I am not sure what a total boycott would achieve other than knock on to the internet companies or even crash the GW company, in which case no one wins.

Thoughts on whether not buying will lower prices, and I would appreciate any commentary from brainy types (a la Mme L'Eldargal) as to how long consumer action will take to result in price drops.

[HsojVvad]

You are missing something in your thinking. GW thinking is, they don't care for vetreans. Vetreans to GW is anthema to them. They will not admit it. All GW wants is "fresh blood". You come in, you spend your $200+ and come back a second time so once you spent $500 or so, they don't want to see you again, since you don't buy so much anymore.

So basically GW wants you and then shoosh you out. So for us people who know of GW we have bought enough that GW doesn't care for us, so if we boycotte they don't care because we are not their core audience no more. So the "newbies" or "fresh blood" will not know to boycotte because they just don't know about GW yet. For them GW is just standard and they don't know any better.

[lobster-overlord]

Those veterans you are quick to dismis mostly rotate armies and buy new stuff all the time....

YOU might not spend a lot of money, but hte average gamer I know drops several hundred on a new army every 4 to 6 months.

John M.

[rle68]

and is it any wonder that in any new codex the rules are shifted to make you buy new models and that game rules are tweaked to make you buy stuff less than useful

no they dont care about the everyday player and thats a fact they cancel gamesdays and the likes and just expect you to keep forking it out again and again

i buy new dex's as they are released but i use tourney wins to get new models i havent bought models in over 2 years with my own cash

[eldargal]

Funny thing is, when I speak to the staff of the three stores my brothers frequent they all say veteran sales are important, veteran sales are high and they have no idea why people get the impression they don't care about veterans.
I think people are taking their own local grievances, extrapolating it out to a GW wide thing and then linking up with people in the internet who feel the same way to create this idea that GW has some kind of disregard for veterans when in actual fact it is probably just poorly run stores.

[fuzzbuket]

people have been arguing for this for years and noythikngds happend. even if 50 people stop purchacing gw and switch to WM and hate mail GW every day its not going to do much!

also GW hikes there prices with VAT, GW's goals are to
a) make monies
b) sell stuff


i agree with eldargal, people just belive the internetz, if 200 people say there going to do it on the internet, 3 do it IRL :P

-fuzz

[Lane]

Funny thing is, when I speak to the staff of the three stores my brothers frequent they all say veteran sales are important,...

Ten years ago I did an inventory, approximately $5000 (actual purchase cost) in GW product over a span of 10 years. This year has been a bit slow but in the last two years I know of about $1500 spent. I know of several Veteran players at my local store who have started new armies in the last year and several more are expanding/ starting new armies.

With the shift to single employee stores in the US the vets at my store have been more active. Helping people with painting/ modeling questions, army list selection and occasional beginner battles.

I think people are taking their own local grievances, extrapolating it out to a GW wide thing and then linking up with people in the internet who feel the same way to create this idea that GW has some kind of disregard for veterans when in actual fact it is probably just poorly run stores.

This goes back many years. In the mid to late 90's there were frequent reports of GW stores being indifferent and occasionally hostile to veteran players. I think some people were actually told by store employees that new players were the focus (not sure, could just be old and senile).

[MarneusCalgar]

Voted for:

Don't be dense they know we're hooked on plastic crack.

Why??

Because there will always be fans and fanboys who will buy everything GW does, so...

[weeble1000]

Old_Paladin,

I appreciate your point in quoting me out of context, but rest assured that I am not opposed to Games-Workshop's actions and policies simply because it is a British company. The fact that I'm American and Games-Workshop is a British company only serves to make what Games-Workshop is doing that much more offensive to me personally.

You're correct that Games-Workshop's nationality is one of the things that I find offensive about the situation when taken as a whole. You have, however, boiled my argument down to its least significant point. It is an effective way to marginalize what I have said, since you've focused on a single issue that can be used to characterize my entire argument as some sort of nationalistic prejudice.

I will counter that my argument can be boiled down to this single sentence:

Games-Workshop's litigation strategy is to manipulate people into believing that the company owns more than it should by attacking those that cannot defend themselves.

That is what is wrong with what Games-Workshop is doing and it would be wrong regardless of the location of the Company's corporate headquarters or the nationality of its managers. This single issue is the core of everything else that I have argued. Games-Workshop is attempting to take control of as much of the wargaming hobby and industry as possible, regardless of whether it is fair for them to do so and regardless of who it has to hurt in order to make it happen.

This strategy is emblematic of the way that Games-Workshop treats its fans, customers, and competitors. It is emblematic of the poor business sense with which Games-Workshop has been managed. Finally, it is an example of the kind of injustice that can be perpetrated by a large corporation when no one is willing to take a stand against it.

We, as in those that love, enjoy, and participate in the wargaming hobby, have been blessed with an opportunity to take a stand against this type of behavior because Chapterhouse Studios might be willing to put everything on the line in order to stand up to Games-Workshop. Chapterhouse Studios is trying to protect itself, but it is fighting for rights that we should all be able to enjoy and which Games-Workshop has been trampling. I have nothing but respect for the courage that it takes to risk everything that you have built to stand up for something that you believe in.

I believe in it too, and I cannot sit back and let something like this fail because I didn't do anything to help. Games-Workshop is a major player in the wargaming industry and no one individual in this hobby is equipped to stand up to it alone. It is this fact which Games-Workshop has used to manipulate the industry and abuse the hobbyists that participate in it.

We need to work together and we can rally around Chaoterhouse Studios.

[Old_Paladin]

And my problem with your argument is that you turned a blind eye to all the times it actually mattered.

I didn't hear you say anything when GW sent C&D's to fantasy football groups, or when they went after Librarium or Lexicanum. Vassle chose to shut itself down when GW C&D said that the software could be used to play their game and many of the cartoonish images were based on GW models or ideas.


No, instead you've picked a company that directly tries to profit of of GW's ideas and is blantant about it (they've also stolen IP from H.R. Gieger and 20th Century Fox; just to show that that take ideas from more then one company/person).
Chapterhouse does create its own unique items (namely the bonesword and lashwip pieces); but then uses copyrighted or trademarked names and discriptions.

You seem to not have even listened to GW statements, claims or directions for the company.

You say that they are out to dominate the market and crush all compatition. That's wrong. The fact that there are groups like P.P., Wizards or the Coast, battle-tech, Mantic, Avatars of War, etc. proves to can go to many companies of tabletop and miniature gaming. In fact GW has said they are going to castle themselves up and stick to a very limited scope of gaming.

You've even said that GW should be happy that Chapterhouse makes bitz. This is both logically and legally flawd.
1) Chapterhouse loses GW money. It doesn't matter that you have to buy a SpaceMarine to use a chapterhouse shoulder pad; because GW still expects you to buy the 'special' shoulder pads/rhino door/extra armour kits from them or Forgeworld.
2) It's stuff that GW doesn't make. That doesn't matter, it's still their IP. It might be something they are planning to make later, to fill a low sales period. It could be something they want you to buy several kits to custom build. Furthermore; they don't allow people to mimic their IP because GW doesn't want to be sued. If chapterhouse wins on say just the sporepod, then GW releases a similar one later Chapterhouse might be able to go after GW for Artistic theft. (this is why most companies tell you to never send them ideas or that by sending them ideas they get 100% claim and you give up your artistic right).
To end that second part with an example: If you made Halo or Fallout minis for mass sale, Microsoft or Zenimax would sue to into the ground; and you don't get to claim that they never produced tabletop minis so it was fair game (IP doesn't work like that; it's not a 'first through the gate' law).