Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="MongooseMatt" data-source="post: 5871021" data-attributes="member: 16996">I am curious with this - what have they actually _done_ to you?But have you not been brain-washed too, in the other direction, to dislike GW?Not really.  Leaving arguments about Finecast aside for the moment, and looking at the breadth of ranges rather than individual models, GW is pretty much cutting edge. With the technology they are currently using to create most of their ranges, it would be disappointed if that were not the case.No one else can come close to competing on their quantity or fine quality when it comes to plastics, which now form the bulk of their ranges. I speak as someone who has tried.No. Leaving aside that, with even high royalty rates, the revenue from that would be relatively small, it is simply not a market GW wants to be involved with - that is _why_ they licence it out.Unless something has changed in the past couple of years, GW would describe themselves as a miniatures company (it is a subtle distinction, but an important one for GW).You also mention computer games and the like - all of this gets licensed out and is absolutely not part of GW's core business.It is, for two reasons (leaving aside profitability and the fact they have survived this long, which you should not take lightly for any company in this day and age, particularly one that sells toy soldiers).First up, you seem to be suggesting that GW owe something to the wider hobby, or community if you will. This is fundamentally misunderstanding GW's approach to the market - or, I should say, _their_ market.They identified, created and widened their own niche within the gaming hobby (and, specifically, the miniatures/wargaming hobby), and did so well at it, they managed to seperate it from every other company to create their own vertical structure that is extremely resiliant to competition from within the hobby games industry (they are more prone to worry about things like the next gaming console).Now, if you enjoy playing GW miniatures games, you will find they support the hell out of them - they have shops round the world (and you really are spolit if you are in the UK) where you can drop in to play (or just _chat_ about) their games at any time. Or be shown how to paint. There are competitions and 'hobby' days galore to take part in, they have regular new material posted on their web site, and if you can think of an auxiliary accessory that might enhance your gaming or painting just a tad, you can be pretty sure GW have it available.Take a look at what they have done with tables and terrain over the past few years. You can now have a table that looks as detailed and varied as anything that appears on the pages of White Dwarf, all built from their plastic kits. No other miniatures company even comes close to doing something like that.Now, you do, of course, have to pay for access to all of this, and some may say you pay a great deal.  But that is a seperate argument.  GW's support of their hobby is rock solid.You mention them not supporting the FFG RPGs and boardgames.  That flat ain't their job.  FFG have a licence to produce and market those items themselves, and will either do it well, and keep the licence, or not, and lose it (they _are_ doing well, especially in the UK <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />).  But it is absolutely not something GW needs to get involved in and doing so (where they only get a minority percentage of revenue through royalties) makes no decent business sense whatsoever. Shelf space is all important to GW, so what are they going to put on a shelf - a book where they get all the revenue or a book where they get 10-15%?Reason the Second. And somewhat contra to my first point (which was from GW's point of view).GW are _fantastic_ for the miniatures hobby.  As a miniatures manufacturer myself, I love 'em.  Want them to expand and conquer the world. They are brilliant.GW is very, _very_ good at getting the 12-16 year old boy into their store and on the track (treadmill?) for miniatures.  No one on the planet can beat them at that. They take that boy, grab his friends, and train them all up to paint and play miniatures games.At some point, maybe around 16, maybe around university age, maybe in the late twenties, that boy (young man) starts to wonder 'what else is out there? What other miniatures games are there?'That is _exactly_ where we, and many other miniatures companies, lurk.  There is a constant flow of customers from the GW segment that, in all likliehood, would probably spell the end of many companies if they stopped.So, all that diversity you see in other miniatures companies? You might well have GW to thank for it. May they never fail, touch wood.For whatever reason, GW seem to have decided the older age brackets are less attractive.  Small companies exist because larger companies concentrate on their strengths and avoid their weak areas. The smaller companies thrive in tjhose niches.As for what GW should be doing for RPGs... Absolutely nothing at all. Not even on their radar. And no reason why it should be.</blockquote>

Verification