The Beginning is literally the hardest part of anything you
will ever do.
In war games, the beginning starts with the decision to even
play the game. This alone is 90% of why
we do not even have an expanding pool of players as one would think you would,
for a game as fun as Warhammer 40,000, Flames of War, War Machine and the
like. That isn’t to say we’re not
picking up new players, but how many net new players? Far less than the hobby deserves. There are literally infinite ways to spend
ones leisure time, however and barring something pretty impressive, most people
will stay the course they are on with their entertainment dollars. And so the hobby suffers an extremely slow
growth rate now.
Once you make that decision, the next is what faction to
play. Here again, the paralysis that can
be caused by this choice does much to discourage the beginning of the journey.
Many times, the faction you love is the reason you’re even
going to try it so assuming you’re over that, the next beginning is the
realization that these things cost money.
Not just money, but in some cases, a ton of money. Now veterans of the process recognize that
this is mostly true at the front end and the hundreds and thousands of hours of
entertainment more than pay you back.
But it ins’t untrue that some games are expensive enough to make a
person buy their first HQ and two troops choices…and quit, filled with despair
over ever competing against the collections the likes of mine and others. It isn’t that they need to compete against
this pile of stuff we own.. it’s just
that they feel like they do and what
they feel overrides all logic in most
humans, most of the time.
Assuming you make it past this precipice, you are told that
the figures come unassembled. They come
unprimered and unpainted. They come
detached from the bases… which ideally
are primered and painted! Then they are
shown pictures of paint jobs they can never compete with and told that they
will be investing about $40 to $100 in order to paint what they have purchased. Assembling them is yet another question
altogether.
Surely anyone reading this would agree that just beginning a
hobby as engrossing as ours simply cannot happen for many people. For others it won’t happen. And for many it will start and abruptly end.
Understanding these obstacles, it is incumbent on the companies that
make these products to do their utmost to widen the audience they are seeking
to sell their plastic to. At one time,
Games Workshop understood that and did indeed write FAQ’s. They ran tournaments. As things progressed they added Grand
Tournaments, ‘Ard Boyz events and they were, in a word, involved in the growth
aspect of the hobby.
I think it is time for Games Workshop to find a board and a
president who will listen to sound advice:
a business model based on this kind of adversity is going to have to
take a breath from time to time and recognize that while the internet thing is
certainly making their products available to more people in more places than
ever, their growth curve is now a FRACTION of what it could be.
X-Wing eliminated an enormous amount of all this concern and
look at how it has taken off! Before someone
says “Well it says Star Wars on the package” realize that numerous products
with that name on the package have failed!
Card games? Failed. Cardboard ship game? Failed.
Star Wars isn’t an auto-win. But
when they introduced painted miniatures, with everything on the base that you
needed? Instant hit. They recognized what the roadblocks were and
acted. Same with Heroclix.
Similar things are seen in other games. War Machine models came more or less
assembled and were big hunks of metal.
Sure they could have been more artfully made, but they looked GREAT and
could be played very quickly. They were
played in small enough numbers that once you had the warcaster and a few guys
you could play a whole game. Games
Workshop used to invest some time into the smaller end of games to get more
widespread appeal, but they did it without utilizing larger distribution partners and with predictable results. They
could mass sell their product in the form of Blood Bowl at Target, Walmart and any
other major retail chain they wanted and probably would have enormous success
with it there, as a gateway to the other more boutique type things like
Warhammer 40,000.
Games-Workshop is also suffering under an impression that the
expanded demand they have seen is actually some kind of indicator that they are
right. That mostly comes from more
widespread availability through their website and the distribution channels
increasing after the 2008 debacle of the economy. The percentage of potential sales vs. the
actualized ones is pathetically small. When 50% of the population (roughly) is
children you ought to be enjoying a lot more penetration, not just increased
sales.
The really unfortunate truth is that other companies are
laying bare how much more it is to deal with Games Workshop products. I wanted to get a friend interested in Flames
of War and so we had a chat about what kind of forces he might enjoy. We narrowed it down and narrowed it down
until his preference was definite. Then we
built the list that way and the total cost of his army was $170 plus tax.
Let that sink in. His
entire army. An army large enough to
play at any tournament. $170. This wasn’t even an attempt to min/max that
number. This was a guy knowing nothing
about the game answering my questions until we found the perfect three choices
and then he picked one. All were around
$200 regardless of his choice.
I know a lot of dad’s who can afford that. A lot of single moms who can too, especially
when it can be purchased in chunks, painted and purchased again. Games-Workshop cannot possibly compete with
that cost point. They won’t try, and
frankly I want them to keep producing highest quality models so I do hope they
charge a little more to help pay artists well.
There is a line however. When an
army costs 10 times its competitor, it’s not that hard to imagine what
dad and mom will say.
I am a huge fan of Warhammer 40,000 and I do hope Games
Workshop will decide to return to their roots and yes, be less profitable for a
couple of years in order to strengthen their long term growth curve. At this stage the amount they can penetrate
markets is severely limited, yet they have a product that is highly desirable
and would sell if they did some of these other things.
Hating Games Workshop, who creates a ton of fun for all of
us isn’t the answer. Online the hate is
palpable from players. It’s amazing how
fantastic and far from the truth peoples statements will go on some
forums. I definitely am not in the camp
that hates Games Workshop. Everything I have
said is in the spirit of wanting Games Workshop to stop losing to these other
and frankly inferior games in many cases.
The fact that Wings of War has become a major thing just because they
slapped the words Star Wars on the box is amazing but it’s not as if the game
is superior, nor the models better than anything GW makes. Yet ask those Star Wars players if they are
planning to come back to the GW fold. I'm pretty sure I can guess.
That is a shame, one that I hope Games Workshop reverses. It is literally never too late to do the
smart thing. Pride has no place in
business. Reform and people will love
Games Workshop again, plus or minus the bitter curmudgeons who will never be satisfied.
