Chrysler's still making cars, along with their subsidiaries Dodge & Jeep, etc.
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Ryan Dancey - D&D in a Death Spiral
- Thread starter mhensley
- Start date
HRSegovia
Explorer
How odd. I was under the impression they shut their doors a year-and-a-half ago.
Technically, they did - the current company making Chrysler cars is a new company created in mid-2009. "Old" Chrysler sold all their assets to the new company, leaving the old company to rot in bankruptcy with all the debts and contracts they wanted to get rid of.
Hussar
Legend
My question is why? If the DDI is offsetting book sales, then why does that mean that people playing D&D is plummeting?
I mean, if they were selling 50k books a month pre-DDI, and you have 50k subscribers post-DDI, doesn't that mean you have about the same number of players? At least purchasing players anyway. After all, not every group will have every member with a DDI sub, not every group will have a sub at all, just like not every group bought new books and not every group bought a copy of a book for each player.
Why does the number of DDI subscribers equal a drop in the number of players?
Or, to put it another way, if the number of subs can't be used to determine if 4e D&D is economically healthy, why can it be used to determine the popularity of the game?
RyanD
Adventurer
That's not what GW means when they talk about the "Warhammer Hobby". What they mean is that they believe that other than on a macroeconomic basis they aren't competing with other hobby gaming products. In other words they think the competition for your dollars between Warhammer and D&D is the same as the competition between Warhammer and movie tickets.
GW thinks of itself as a vertically integrated company that has a sideline business using a network of independent retailers to help acquire new business. The fact that those retailers also sell other products is of no concern to GW. GW believes that you get hooked on the GW hobby, and once hooked, you direct your spends towards that hobby to the degree that you are able. Eventually you'll find your way to a GW store (if there's one available).
They see their product ecosystem as being the deep and broad line of miniatures, White Dwarf, the GW Game Days, and the GW stores. I'm sure the GW website fits in there somewhere now as well.
When Luke Peterschmidt was running Sabertooth for example they wouldn't put the Warhammer CCGs Sabertooth was making into the GW stores or let them advertise in White Dwarf. I don't know but wouldn't be surprised to learn that the Fantasy Flight RPGs aren't allowed in those stores either. On some basic DNA level, GW thinks of the Warhammer hobby as "miniatures, accessories for miniatures, and just enough rules to justify buying the miniatures". Everything else is in some sense a distraction. (I just took a quick peek at their website and couldn't find any RPG content, nor anything about the 2 MMOs...)
For the hobby GW has established you can only be cool if you use exclusively GW material. They have a championship, namely the golden demon award, regarding the best painting and conversions of their miniatures. Regarding the conversions part, you can not use distinct bits of any other products you can buy that are not made by GW.
They do have this brand or IP value applied to their business prospects and they manage to apply it on a totally material perspective of selling their miniatures. This is so important to them, that any other distraction is considered a strategically conflicting enterprise.
For example, in their stores, they do not sell Warhammer novels -or at least so it was last time I checked and that was admittedly some years ago- they only sell miniatures and rules for playing with them.
They do have this brand or IP value applied to their business prospects and they manage to apply it on a totally material perspective of selling their miniatures. This is so important to them, that any other distraction is considered a strategically conflicting enterprise.
For example, in their stores, they do not sell Warhammer novels -or at least so it was last time I checked and that was admittedly some years ago- they only sell miniatures and rules for playing with them.
Maggan
Writer for CY_BORG, Forbidden Lands and Dragonbane
I seem to remember that WFRP wasn't even available in the GW stores when GW was producing it themselves. At least after Flame Publications was formed, no WFRP were allowed in GW shops.
To the frustration of the fan base but hey, it's GW!
/M
GW has never ceased to mystify me.
When they opened a store near me, they immediately started undercutting the prices of all the local game stores selling their stuff. Result: massive clearance sales on GW merch and few re-orders. If they wanted a local monopoly on their own stuff, they've almost achieved it. Good for them, but for gamers in the D/FW Metroplex, that could mean some looooong drives.
And to my recollection, those GW stores I've been in are 95% minis, 4% RPG, 1% everything else. If you're running a store to sell your merch, sell ALL your merch in the store!!!
*facepalm*
When they opened a store near me, they immediately started undercutting the prices of all the local game stores selling their stuff. Result: massive clearance sales on GW merch and few re-orders. If they wanted a local monopoly on their own stuff, they've almost achieved it. Good for them, but for gamers in the D/FW Metroplex, that could mean some looooong drives.
And to my recollection, those GW stores I've been in are 95% minis, 4% RPG, 1% everything else. If you're running a store to sell your merch, sell ALL your merch in the store!!!
*facepalm*
You wont find them on the GW website, because they are not a GW product, but a licensed product unrelated to GW games, and as you say, not part of the GW hobby.
GW makes miniature wargames. Now thinking they are the only one might be flawed, but getting close to true as other companies dwindle, but HeroClick existed and GW should realize theya re in the Miniature Gaming Hobby.
I agree competing with D&D is like buying movie tickets as both are concerned with dollars spent on entertainment, and that all comes from the same pool. But they are not trying to game every dollar from entertainment industry, just trying to compete in their entertainment field which is: tabletop gaming/miniatures/wargames/some assembly required.
For those specific category allotments, they are really competing with themselves. The licensed products are just extra revenue and brand visibility. But they should realize that the finite category they are looking at could be the reason for recent loss of sales and they should back out to stop at "miniatures" and just dip into "wargames" as there are competitors there with Clix games and other CMGs as warhammer games ARE CMGs, but without the randomization factor.
Likewise I doubt that Warhammer games or D&D is really on the radar of major motion pictures as a competitor for your entertainment dollars.
Chainsaw Mage
First Post
Ah, capitalism, ain't it great? (puffs happily on cigar)
