GW Web staff comments

[The Green Git]

And the share holders will only care/notice that customers are pissed off if it makes a dent in their dividend.

This. The people making the money decisions don't care about feelings, your loyalty or happiness or anything else except the bottom line. There is only one way to send the message: stop buying.

[Lancel]

That's not entirely the case either. Shareholders care about the customer because they know their feelings affect said bottom line. People get pissed, what happens? Sales drop, their next dividend shrinks, and generally they have twice as much work to do to fix that. A good businessman doesn't wait for sales to drop before acting, they act sooner because letting it fester means more work later and a smaller next paycheck. Why wait? The CEO certainly won't, because if the next dividend check is smaller because someone let sales drop, guess whose getting blamed? He'll try to stop it before it makes the next quarterly say "Sales took a nosedive."

This makes the assumption of competence mind, and that they follow the company more than just reading what their last dividend check was.

So what does that mean for us?

Uhh.

Actually it means all this complaining and threatening sales is exactly what we should be doing to make something happen. Carry on.

[Deadlift]

I for one wont stop buying, I may just have to buy a little less which I suppose maybe the point. Most of us have some kind of budget that we "try" to stick to and so instead of getting X amount of models for that budget I am now going to get less. However what I actually spend will be the same. Not so great for me but I suppose for GW getting the same "kerching" for less material output is a win.

I could try and convince the Mrs to lower her makeup / clothing budget so I can increase my hobby budget, no I cant se that happening either

[addamsfamily36]

I could try and convince the Mrs to lower her makeup / clothing budget so I can increase my hobby budget, no I cant se that happening either

HAHA this made my day

[wittdooley]

I could try and convince the Mrs to lower her makeup / clothing budget so I can increase my hobby budget, no I cant se that happening either

Dude, I know, right? My wife spends so much money on makeup it amazes me. But I'm right in line with this. I have a set $ amount to spend every month (I do occasionally go over) so I'll just be getting a marginally lower volume, it would appear. With that being said, I'm so entrenched in the hobby I'm rarely buying anything in a huge bulk anyway.

[Denzark]

Why do women wear makeup and perfume? Cos they're ugly and they smell.

Ha!

But OT...

There is a bit of damned if they do, damned if they don't.

Did they just ignore everyone? No.

Did they say they're deleting everything? No, they are keeping those threads with comments on open to ALLOW the discussion, and they will delete further off topic comments.

Is it reasonable to leave a place to comment but keep new topics OT and without swearing in front of 'lil Timmah!' ? Yes I would say so.

I think the comment on this being corporate level decisions affecting the harmless geeks is correct and the webdudes are hardly the people to get angsty at - don't shoot the messenger after all they are kindly passing the mesage on when they could have just deleted whilst telling Kirby et al that all is well in internet land.

[Wildeybeast]

That's not entirely the case either. Shareholders care about the customer because they know their feelings affect said bottom line. People get pissed, what happens? Sales drop, their next dividend shrinks, and generally they have twice as much work to do to fix that. A good businessman doesn't wait for sales to drop before acting, they act sooner because letting it fester means more work later and a smaller next paycheck. Why wait? The CEO certainly won't, because if the next dividend check is smaller because someone let sales drop, guess whose getting blamed? He'll try to stop it before it makes the next quarterly say "Sales took a nosedive."

This makes the assumption of competence mind, and that they follow the company more than just reading what their last dividend check was.

So what does that mean for us?

Uhh.

Actually it means all this complaining and threatening sales is exactly what we should be doing to make something happen. Carry on.

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.

[DarkLink]

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.

[DadExtraordinaire]

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.

IMHO I think so too. I think you got it spot on.

[DadExtraordinaire]

I really think that the only way that GW will listen is if somehow the customer discontent makes it way to the mainstream media (and then to its shareholders).

Remember the only constituency that Kirby answers to are the shareholders. When they start asking "why are customers so pissed off?" then perhaps you'll start seeing some action.

Spot on.