GW Web staff comments

[DadExtraordinaire]

You are mixing up the role of the shareholders and the management of the company. Shareholders only interaction with the company is when they get their money or the periodical reports/profit forecasts that GW send to the FTSE. The CEO will, as you say try to anticipate falls in sales (or at least his underlings will), but I'm guessing GW has already factored this into their pricing model and they aren't going to change it. They are gambling that people may complain but ultimately most of them will swallow the price rise because they still want the models. Only a mass boycott will have any affect.

Incorrect on the shareholders. If there are executive shareholders on the board then they DO have a say and a powerful one at that too!

[DadExtraordinaire]

What's with all this "businesses and capitalism are evil" bull? You are choosing, of your own free will, to spend money on GW's product. GW has created a game that you can go have fun playing. Had they not done so, then no one could have fun playing 40k at all, expensive or not. And if it becomes to expensive, then go find something else to have fun doing. GW is not stealing your money. The shareholders are not stealing your money. You, and you alone, have the ability to either continue to spend your money, or to just walk away.

Not to say that the implications of denying online sales probably makes it a poor business decision, but whatever. As far as hobbies go, 40k really isn't all that expensive.

So you telling me that you would be happy if the price of gas went up by 25%? If your place of work was an hour and half drive away with no public transportation to speak of, your telling me you would lump it and like it without expressing unhappiness?

I think you would.

However, I hear what you are saying DL with the hobby point, but people are allowed to be unhappy, it's not nerd rage it's people expressing their unhappiness, and sharing it with us all.

I can empathise with the Aus, NZ and so forth as for some people it could be their only joy and that is being hit massively in their eyes, through no fault of their own.......let them have a blast, no harm in not letting them...is there?

[wittdooley]

So you telling me that you would be happy if the price of gas went up by 25%? If your place of work was an hour and half drive away with no public transportation to speak of, your telling me you would lump it and like it without expressing unhappiness?

Haha, Hasn't it though in the US? At this time last year, the average cost of a gallon in the states was $2.80; today it's at $4.00. That's a 43% increase.

[Psychosplodge]

Polite nothing reply.

not much more to say really...

[Drew da Destroya]

So you telling me that you would be happy if the price of gas went up by 25%? If your place of work was an hour and half drive away with no public transportation to speak of, your telling me you would lump it and like it without expressing unhappiness?

I think you would.

However, I hear what you are saying DL with the hobby point, but people are allowed to be unhappy, it's not nerd rage it's people expressing their unhappiness, and sharing it with us all.

I can empathise with the Aus, NZ and so forth as for some people it could be their only joy and that is being hit massively in their eyes, through no fault of their own.......let them have a blast, no harm in not letting them...is there?

Gas isn't a luxury item, so that argument is void.

That isn't to say that people can't complain about the prices, but at the end of the day, it's a hobby. You can choose to buy models from GW or not. If enough people choose not to buy models, then it may make an impact, but that's unlikely to happen. A large percentage of players probably aren't even aware of the price increase, and may not even notice once it goes live. Granted, I don't have numbers on that, so this is probably a strawman argument, but the "dedicated" followers of the forums and blogs likely don't make up the majority of GW's playerbase.

I mean, somebody has to be buying those LOTR minis!

[Farseer Uthiliesh]

I wonder if the disconnect isn't between GW and the fanbase, but rather between the Creative entities at GW (the ones responsible for actually making and designing the products) and the Corporate entities at GW (the ones in charge of the money and, therefore, the business decisions.)

I think this acknowledgement supports that, but that's just me.

I have to agree; thought that the divide has been around for a while.

[Mobynick]

For what it is worth I think we as a gaming community actually stung GW when we hit their FB page. Lets face it their FB page is a marketing tool and we used it (very effectivly by the looks) to send a clear message. I'm of two minds as to how to deal with them now. Do we continue hitting the FB page until managementresponds or do we wait and see. If we do the first, posts will get deleted and start to slow which may be seen as acceptance....and the 2nd option may be seen as acceptance too. What we as a community need to do is decied on a course of action, agree to it, and apply some pressure.

Why, because if we don't next year there will be more price hikes and sooner or later even the truely stupid will have to agree the the hobby has become over priced.

So generals of the WWW what is our next move?

[BrokenWing]

I look at GW prices kind of like this:

1. I don't have to buy it if I don't want to. This is really important, because I *hate* gas price increases, but not GW price increases. Why? Because GW is trying to make more money and adjust for inflation (raising prices 2-3% a year =adjusting for inflation). Oil companies are trying to make more money and typically price gouge in times of heightened need. They are also clearly all in it together, because their prices all increase by exactly the same amount at the same time. When wargaming companies increase their prices they do so at different times and different rates. Also, I can say "You know, I like my army as is for now, maybe later when I have more money I'll buy more models" but if gas goes up, I just have to suck it up and take it, because I don't have a viable alternative.


2. 40k/Fantasy and other wargames are expensive hobbies, but they are far from the most expensive. To play 40k you can spend about $200-300, give or take. To play say..>Golf...you're looking at $200...per club, for a good one. Not to mention buying balls when you eventually run out (and you will) plus the shoes, the gloves, the golf bag, course expenses, fuel to drive to the course, etc. If you want to water ski, all you need to do is buy yourself a boat. If you buy a crappy boat, that's still going to cost a bare minimum of $1,000 and if you buy a new one you're looking at upwards of 65,000. Then you need the skiis (averaging between 90-200 a pair), rope ($60), fuel costs (about as much as filling up a truck's gas tank), food (because you're usually out around one or both meal times). If you want to really get into the hobby, there's a ton more equipment to buy and I haven't even brought up a life vest ($60 for a bad one) or a wetsuit ($100+).

If you want to play Magic, you're looking at $4 per pack, several dollars or more per individual card, $35 for a fat pack, $10-15 for a play mat, $8 or so for card sleeves. Oh and then a new edition or new set will come out and you have to spend that money all over again...and again...and again.

I doubt I need to go into how much it costs to buy and fix up old cars as a hobby. Stamp collecting is cheap, I'll give you that. Mountain climbing requires alot of equipment costs and licensing.

Now back to 40k. Lets say you want to play Space Marines in 2,000 point games. That's $35 for the codex, about $200 for the army, $10 for dice, a crappy tape measure you probably already have in a drawer some where and if you don't know anyone with the rulebook, $57 for the rulebook.

After that? If you're really into the hobby, it will become fairly expensive over time. Though it won't even come close to some of the other hobbies I mentioned. If you just enjoy the games and are set with 1 army at 2,000 points (those people do exist) then what? Well, every 5-6 years you need a new codex and new rulebook. Unless you break all your dice or have a dice fetish (like me) you never need to buy dice again. You'll probably have to replace your crappy tape measure with another crappy one.

3. One of the big complaints is "other companies don't charge as much." Well...they do. On average, game companies with high quality models charge as much as Games Workshop, close to as much or actually *more.* Other companies, like Reaper, don't. But Reaper has crappy games and only about %50 of their miniature range approaches anything close to GW quality. This complaint stems from alot of people who play the game, but for some reason hate the company.

4. GW models increase in quality almost every year now. The Dark Eldar models may be the single greatest non-Forge World models ever produced anywhere. I'm willing to pay for that.


Ultimately, if you don't like the prices, stop buying. Most of the people who rage about the prices talk a big game, but keep right on buying.

[xxvaderxx]

Actually, I took that to be the most friendly form of "go screw yourselves" I've heard in a long time.

Translation:
"We're going to move all your complaint comments into their own specially little place where you can all scream and vomit bile to your hearts content. Meanwhile, if you bother to post any complaints anywhere where they can actually be seen, we're going to smack them down like a redheaded step child. Have a nice day."

Actually i thought the same.

[Deadlift]

Just been reading the FB thread, not sure how accurate one comment is but the general thrust of his post was to say buying some Forgeworld equivalent models is actually cheaper than buying the GW model in Australia, LR and Dreads were mentioned. If this is the case I am sure it wont be for long.