Bell of Lost Souls - Latest Comments in Games Workshop NEWS: Gamesday US 2010

Re: Games Workshop NEWS: Gamesday US 2010

NecronLord3 — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 15:39:04 -0000

Most of us attending Gencon Indy don't fly. I live 1 hour outside Chicago and attended Wizard World Philly and never flew. Put games day in the Midwest and 90% of America can attend without driving longer than 1 day(Most, in much less time). But regardless the solution is to hold multiple Gamesdays across the US. What GW screwed up was turing the events into little more than you can achieve by visiting your local GW store or Bunker. Wohoo... that is why attendance DROPPED. The last time I attended Gamesday Chicago 2 or 3 years ago, it was PACKED. They offered a ton of Product, Forge World, huge events and it was a Grand Tournament. The Grand Tournament entry fee was well over $100 and the 40k side of the tournament was full(fantasy side not so much but Fantasy just isn't very popular here.) GW took the GT away, the Bitz services away, little to no special guests, no pre-releases, etc... Many stopped attending, including myself. Put the 'Special' back into Gamesday and it will be a Special event worth attending and paying the price of admission.

Re: Games Workshop NEWS: Gamesday US 2010

theHman — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 10:58:46 -0000

Actually, yes I have heard of Physics. And they have nothing to do with putting on an event in a centralized location.

And getting a "centralized" location in North America that is "convenient" for many is just about impossible given the size of the continent.

So ... no matter where they put it, odds are high you'll have to fly.

Re: Games Workshop NEWS: Gamesday US 2010

NecronLord3 — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 03:43:45 -0000

GW has put 60-80 percent less effort into their events. Hence the drop in attendance.
Make a good business decision and put on a good event worth paying the price for attendance and people will actually show up.

Re: Games Workshop NEWS: Gamesday US 2010

NecronLord3 — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 03:38:56 -0000

Wow! Perhaps you've heard of Physics, as they are the rules that bind our world together? If you put an event in a more centralized location then less people will have the need to use the airthingamajigs you speak of.

Re: Games Workshop NEWS: Gamesday US 2010

sacredband — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 23:49:50 -0000

That's cool. Can u point to the info?

Just thought that it made sense since they were essentially cutting out all except one show for fiscal reasons. Piggy-backing onto the other convention would save even more money for them... Thanks for the info!

Re: Games Workshop NEWS: Gamesday US 2010

Shavnir — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 21:35:17 -0000

While the comparison between Metallica and GW is tempting to poke into a bit I'm just not sure the trivial amount of effort it would take for them to just run a tournament or two at GenCon would outweigh the potential of their presence there.

Anyways if you went by the bits booth or the warstore's booth the last couple of years I think it'd be pretty obviously foolhardy to claim there was no interest in GW games at GenCon.

Re: Games Workshop NEWS: Gamesday US 2010

heretic_scribe — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 20:21:49 -0000

GenCon USED to be much better than it is. It used to be more focused on gaming and gamers, and lately, it's more of a seller's showcase kinda thing. Over the years, the space for gaming has gone down, and the sellers area has grown tremendously - and for that it stopped being as fun to go to, both for running games, and participating in them.

GW focus on GenCon? That's like saying Metallica should stop doing their own tours, and climb back on a "monsters of rock" venue where they share the stage with a bunch of other bands.

Sure, a lot of other gamers go to GenCon - but a lot of those gamers have no interest in GW - they know it, and GW knows it. So why join a convention and let your (GW) target market sample other stuff as well? Much better to focus on events, that focus on your product. It's just that simple.

Re: Games Workshop NEWS: Gamesday US 2010

BrassScorpion — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 16:34:39 -0000

1) Tournaments are no longer necessarily held at Games Day events
2) My post was not a guess ;)

Re: Games Workshop NEWS: Gamesday US 2010

sacredband — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 00:38:02 -0000

I'll still stand by my prediction. :)

Why would they run a 100 table tournament in July and then do the same thing again in August? The 100 table tournament in July is a fact.

Re: Games Workshop NEWS: Gamesday US 2010

VonKoeder — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 23:39:35 -0000

I have lots of good memories that have come about from playing GW games. So much so I don't wish to let them go and would like to share them with others. It saddens me that one by one members of my gaming group have left and now a mass exodus threatens those that remain.

It isn't due to resources, with the exception of maybe patience.

It has to do with another company giving a skavens @$$ about there base.

I understand the companies direction and there push for a quick buck - apoc., larger armies, horde armies, ect. Those are not incompatible with service and support. The complete lack of effort to support the simplest issues befuddles even me, the die hard half a chapter owning and two matching alien races of nearly equal size fan boy.

I am not the smartest guy in the land but even I can come up with good balanced fixes and a simple cheep way to implement them so that the surge in customer base has more staying power and draw more people into the hobby.

Re: Games Workshop NEWS: Gamesday US 2010

BrassScorpion — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 23:12:50 -0000

It will be in Baltimore, but the date will likely be in August.

Re: Games Workshop NEWS: Gamesday US 2010

eldargal — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 22:57:46 -0000

GW has terrible customer service and have made many mistakes. I for one have stopped playing WFB because it is just awful now. I really hate how neglected certain armies have been. I don't like parts of GWs pricing policies. Etcetera.
But the fact remains that GW is a corporation that has to meet global demand for its products. It is easy for us players to sit back and make nasty remarks, but they have genuine difficulties to deal with. They need to be profitable to SURVIVE, not just to please stockholders. It is no good GW doing everything it can to please its hobbyists (which will never happen) if the company goes bankrupt.
I don't have any major differences with you, you express yourself politely and rationally. I don't disagree that GW has poor customer service, to an an almost inexcusable extent. I'm just sick of certain people who criticise everything little thing GW does and assume that because they feel that way, the entire consumer base does. Hell on another forum you had people predicting GW making a loss in 2009 because of the 'blastscape and empire greatsword pricing fiasco'. Instead they have their third or fourth most profitable year on record,and 90% debt reduction.

I'm not a GW employee, and I only had the odd skin blemish in my teenage years. I don't like a lot of GW policies, but I understand why they feel they need to do them. And given how they have turned the company around in the past few years, it is working.

Re: Games Workshop NEWS: Gamesday US 2010

Syderwarp — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 19:00:10 -0000

U should have save yourself the money went to Adepticon instead. I had a laidard, zombie sprue, 2 free Black Library books, and some mores stuff. TON of kool venders, tables to game on a BAR . Adeptcon is like WIN=WIN. GD=FAIL

Re: Games Workshop NEWS: Gamesday US 2010

Syderwarp — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 18:49:13 -0000

I said this on 40k radio 1 sentence can sum it up. ADEPTICON is what GDay wishes it was!! The Orky Krooza is by private people better than the crap that was GD!!

Re: Games Workshop NEWS: Gamesday US 2010

No_Gaming_In_Mississippi — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 17:19:02 -0000

Right now, I would say the only thing that GW is good at is running off some of their veteran players. GW is notorious for terrible customer service, and this is yet another example of that. VonKoeder posted about a week ago that he thinks that Bell of Lost Souls should have a discussion about GW's customer service. I fully support this idea.

On a side note, from reading your posts, I've come to the conclusion that you're either a GW employee or a zit-faced fanboy. Either way, it's considered a lack of tact to call names on forums. If you ever find yourself in Mississippi, look me up and we can settle any differences that we have on the tabletop.
Disclaimer: VonKoeder is my brother, and we have talked at great length about GW's lack of customer service.

Re: Games Workshop NEWS: Gamesday US 2010

ImaginaryWars — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 17:13:13 -0000

Regarding multiple Games Days in (North) America: they're not going to happen because of the issue of the COST of transporting all the materiel from one GD location to another. I, too, used to work for GW (Canada) and I was able to hear a few conversations about 2 Toronto Games Days as well as two Grand Tournaments that some of the execs were having.
Games Days are held in the same place as that country's HQ because of the aforementioned reasons listed above (extra support staff), and are better off staying at that one spot because the alternative requires them to transport all the tables and product and Forge World and FLY all the needed HQ staff and guests to each Games Day in North America; the bottom-line cost of have multiple Games Days in one country puts a HUGE strain on the event's ability to break even (never mind profit).
Sure, I suspect that the numbers being thrown around while I sat mute listening to the whole thing might have had a little bit of padding. But I heard the numbers of what break even was, and I saw what the day's total sales were. I'm not at all surprised by this move on GW's part.
Here's hoping that with only ONE set of expenses, they'll be able to make future Games Days as fantastic as the old ones are told of being.
(I suspect that there's also an element of diminishing returns at work as well; I DO know that every year's Toronto Games Day had lower attendence than the year before...no matter what they did to gussy up the event....though I'm totally unaware of the numbers of the last two Games Days, the ones that were held at a smaller venue. )

Re: Games Workshop NEWS: Gamesday US 2010

sacredband — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 13:37:57 -0000

Casey take a look at my prediction from last night. :)

Re: Games Workshop NEWS: Gamesday US 2010

CaseyVa — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 12:51:41 -0000

Another interesting development is that GW will be running a large GT sized 40k, Fantasy, and Lord of the Rings tournaments at Historicon in 2010. Historicon will also be at Baltimore this year.

Re: Games Workshop NEWS: Gamesday US 2010

Ben — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 09:57:15 -0000

Yes, clearly the largest gaming convention in the states is "not their cup either". Its kinda mind boggling that they look at such a huge number of gamers and basically say "eh, why bother".

Re: Games Workshop NEWS: Gamesday US 2010

Lyinar — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 09:56:57 -0000

I really miss Games Day Altanta... And Games Workshop actually showing up at stuff like DragonCon. Hell, if they had implemented their withdrawal from the gaming community a few years earlier, they'd be out about $10,000 just from my best friend and I, because I would never have gotten into the hobby, and consequently, would not have dragged him into it.

But, if that's what it takes for them to stay afloat and keep making awesome stuff, I don't have as much of a problem with it. Just wish they'd start drumming up interest in stuff earlier than a month out from release...

Re: Games Workshop NEWS: Gamesday US 2010

jwolf_bols — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 09:56:10 -0000

Quite the opposite. Instead of saying "come to one of our half-dozen events" they're saying "we support dozens of events, so that people have more chances to play games."

Re: Games Workshop NEWS: Gamesday US 2010

jwolf_bols — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 09:49:39 -0000

This is so incredibly wrong that I have to wonder if you can do math at all.
A publically traded company operates with a vastly different set of rules than a gaming club, especially when we get down to the expenses of running an event. It makes far better financial sense for GW to support dozens of events run by gaming clubs than to soend the same money on a single event run by GW. I applaud GW for dropping an expensive limited circuit in favor of promoting and assisting independent events. This path provides more opportunity for competitive players to participate in events that qualify for the circuit championships, which only helps to develop a more competitive scene.
Now I just need to find tournaments besides BoLSCon that judge almost completely on battle, and I'm good to go.

Re: Games Workshop NEWS: Gamesday US 2010

Dirk Diggler — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 09:26:06 -0000

Yes, but the US has a culture of anti-intellectualism and a "fast food" (aka card games and prepaints) mentality which makes it more difficult to convert young players or maintain them over long periods of time.

Re: Games Workshop NEWS: Gamesday US 2010

GuyLeD0uche — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 09:25:12 -0000

So we buy their stuff to attend 1/2-assed Gamesdays across the US?

Re: Games Workshop NEWS: Gamesday US 2010

40kgamer — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 09:24:14 -0000

All too true. GW runs as a proper business rather than a hobby business. I wish they could do the other but it doesn't appear to be financially viable. Such is life!