Using non-GW models in a GW shop?

[alshrive]

Having worked for GW i can say that the Policy dictated by company is strictly GW models only, whether the manager strictly enforces this is another point entirely. However is would possibly result in disciplinary action if a member of senior management saw it happening and that the Manager hadn't stopped it.

[Wildeybeast]

If they are a couple of models in the middle of unit, chances are no one will even notice. You could put in an 'anonymous' phone call to the store to enquire about their policy. However, if they see them they will ask you to take them off the table. GW hobby centres are for the GW hobby, not the wargaming hobby in general, and using other people's models in their shop is bad form really. The fact you asking here means you know it's not really cool, so my advice is to save everyone the awkwardness of them asking you to get rid of them and just don't do it.

[altbob]

This is why I never play in a GW store and pretty much boycott GW. Some of you are too young to remember when there were independent game stores where people got together to share good times and painted together and played for fun, and when someone showed up with a new cool miniature that no one had seen before, we all "oohed" and "ahhed" and got the store owner to order that model for the rest of us and no one attacked it merely because it was produced by some company that they had a grudge against. The very idea of a miniatures company having monopoly power and holding the hobby hostage was unthinkable...

[ElectricPaladin]

This is why I never play in a GW store and pretty much boycott GW. Some of you are too young to remember when there were independent game stores...

Hey! I've lived a short drive/longish bike ride from one game store or another for the past six years! The game store community is alive and well, at least in some places.

This is why, although I agree with your sentiment, I don't share your rancor. It's GW's stores, let them run them how they like. There are other stores where I can play whatever I want. Given the way it seems to go out here, with GW closing stores left and right while independent game retailers thrive, I'm not concerned about a hostage situation.

[Wildeybeast]

Hey! I've lived a short drive/longish bike ride from one game store or another for the past six years! The game store community is alive and well, at least in some places.

This is why, although I agree with your sentiment, I don't share your rancor. It's GW's stores, let them run them how they like. There are other stores where I can play whatever I want. Given the way it seems to go out here, with GW closing stores left and right while independent game retailers thrive, I'm not concerned about a hostage situation.

+1 to this. GW has much more of a monopoly in the UK than the US, but there are plenty of gaming clubs where you can play what you like. I don't get why this is an issue - you wouldn't take a Burger King into KFC and sit there eating it. GW stores are shops which provide a hobby space for their products and their is no obligation on them to do anything more.

[altbob]

We're only slowly seeing Indy stores making a comeback where I live. For a while, any time an Indy store got itself established, GW would start to play with distribution and pricing and make it very hard for that store to sell WH at a profit, and then open an official store a few blocks away and try to put the Indy store out of business. I'm glad to hear that this strategy isn't working so well any more, thanks to alternative games and other revenue streams taking the slack perhaps (Warmachine, Hordes, Dust, Flames of War, CCG's, action figure sales and comic books picking up the slack).

[inquisitorsog]

Hey! I've lived a short drive/longish bike ride from one game store or another for the past six years! The game store community is alive and well, at least in some places.

This is why, although I agree with your sentiment, I don't share your rancor. It's GW's stores, let them run them how they like. There are other stores where I can play whatever I want. Given the way it seems to go out here, with GW closing stores left and right while independent game retailers thrive, I'm not concerned about a hostage situation.

Having lived in both upstate NY and the Bay Area, I can say, the Bay Area will spoil you. Meanwhile, the entire mid-Hudson of NY region is serviced by basically only two or three game stores (or at least was when I moved out).

It seems to me that game stores are largely a function of the number of good universities with good engineering/science departments in a given region. If you don't have good schools that will concentrate the geeks in a given area, it will become harder for a store to thrive.

[jgebi]

I just think it's their store theirs rules this being said, My money my rules to so if your paying to play a torm and the model fits then they can get ****ed

[Build]

It's the manager's choice more than anything, I've been in some stores where alternative models tend to be allowed so long as it's kept to a minimum.

I did get told by one very shirty manager that he would not allow me to use any models that were brought elsewhere, so I asked him if I could use scratch builds I had done. He said yes, so I did.

After that I got banned from ever sculpting in store again.


On the whole though it's probably a little dependant on you too, if you use a couple of pieces and don't brag about it or say how much better it is then you'll very likely get away with it.

[billytwix]

just do it. if you spend enough money there they won't hassle you. why would a store want to lose sales over something silly like that? now if you are a poor gamer who only has one army and doesn't spend a few hundred on the hobby a month then your odds may not fair so well. tournaments would probably need to be all GW mostly to cut down on the confusion of what is what on top of upsetting your opponent who spend so much more than you probably did for essentially the same toys. I think it comes down to, your involvement with the store/group, the nature of the manager, and your relationship (in $$$). good luck - I often play with stand in characters, and horde infantry, for some armies 100% are not GW. It just depends on where you are at...