Games Workshop & Focus Change

Earlier in the week one of our local gamers, Rex Foote, posted on his blog concerning his decision to switch away from GW games. The decision was motivated by what Rex saw as a lack of customer commitment by Games Workshop, the company. Well, that's my take on it anyway.


I would say that for anyone who follows Rex's blog that such a decision would not have been a surprise and I believe has been coming all through 2014. There have been numerous posts detailing growing frustration with GW and its "practices".


The blog post elicited a lot of comment from local gamers. To say opinion was divided would be a true understatement.


Rex's main point appears to be that Games Workshop treats its customers very poorly and that that is no acceptable - especially in the hobby based game industry. The counter argument advanced is that Games Workshop is a business and is employing standard business practices to maximise their return to shareholders. And overall the customer service they provide is very good.


Well my point of view, not surprisingly, lies somewhere between the two views.


Overall I think Games Workshop produces fantastic models. Of course there are the odd "fails" but IMO overall the standard is so much higher than other miniature companies that there is no comparison. I'm sure some people will say "Wyrd"-this and "AoW"-that but I think they are kidding themselves (Aside: that's perfectly valid as aesthetics will influence your view). Overall GW are the industry leader in my mind.


Now that comes at a cost. It is far too simplistic to say "GW can't justify charging $100 for a plastic kit". Those arguments are generally based on the narrow view of raw material cost. Feeding into this are the costs of plant and machinery, development of IP (GW Design Studio plus supporting cast e.g. Heavy Metal, White Dwarf etc), distribution network and GW's own real network. I know that the cost of developing a plastic injection mould die was around GBP 300,000 in 2006....so not an inexpensive process. On top of this as a public company must provide a return to its shareholders through either a dividend stream or an accumulation of Retained Earnings.


So that means there is a significant "cost" to bringing a plastic model to market. I'm not sure everyone always appreciates that.


Against that GW does so many things that annoy the hell out of me. Again a lot of these may be because they are a corporation and require a level of controls that smaller producers can avoid. As an Antipodean, their tax policy gives me the shits. It also acts as the gateway drug to dissatisfaction with GW in this part of the world. As a result of this policy we had the "Rise and Fall of Maelstrom Games" as orders first flooded this purchase mechanism and then were choked off by a change in GW's distribution policy.


However I can live with that because as an internet savvy customer (don't laugh Jack), I can circumvent GW's blunt controls to cauterise the Ends of the Earth levy.


What does annoy me more is the flip/flop nature of some of the Company's decisions. White Dwarf has been an example of this over the last five years. Their web presence is another instance.


Where I do feel they have let me down - and yes I think I have reasonable expectation of entitlement - is ongoing rules support. I believe that  customer support does extend to rules support and that consumers should expect FAQs/Errata where problems are identified. Now the apologists will say that we are given mechanisms (It's a toolbox/Work it out with your opponent) but to me that's lazy. They have enough people within Corporate that have links to the wider community to know problems exist - and that they are a canker. The frustration is that they would take likely less than a day's work to fix. And yes I see it as a Customer Service issue.


All in all I love the GW hobby. I love the rules and the models. Although I have some hesitancies around End Times I'm happy enough to view it as a WIP system which we are part way through. As the other books arrive we'll see the entirety of the system.


What I would say to people like Rex who are shifting their focus. Keep your armies or models that you've piled hours of love into. You can then always come back as circumstances and your view changes - hopefully coupled with your issues being addressed by the company.


And the most important thing to remember is? This is your hobby/your leisure time. It's meant to be fun. When it stops being that, do as you are doing and change focus. This is likely something that will occur periodically over your wargaming life.