Un-Welcome to the Age of Sigmar

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Re: Un-Welcome to the Age of Sigmar

Post by Jvh792 »

Free rules! But here's a $70 rule book? thanks gw. So thoughtful.
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Re: Un-Welcome to the Age of Sigmar

Post by hellbane »

Great to know i'm not alone. Reading this topic i'm having a lot of 'yes! *that*' moments, recognizing exactly the frustration and astonishment regarding the whole AoS thing. So i'll not be bringing a lot of new insights to the table, but i'd like to vent my 'anger' anyway. So here's some of the AoS related things on my mind these days, which are not meant to be constructive in any way = p

1) I'm a very irregular and casual WFB gamer, i'm more of a painter and enjoy the backstories. On this forum and many others, I lurk around loving the atmosphere and great discussions. I'm collecting for around 17 years now, with large pauses and a very slow pace in general. WFB is my escape from everyday life, where I can read about another universe, model and paint the heroes from that universe and play battles with them which really pleases my inner-gamer and strategist. It also reconnects me with good times during my youth. AoS to me has destroyed those 17 years, all meaning to it has been lost in a classic 'Rocks fall down they all died'. The lore and fluff was a big thing to me, it gave me a background for collecting certain armies or models. I collect Dark Elves cause they are awesome, their stories are awesome. The strategic scalpel thing appeals to me as well, but that's a bonus. I really really hate GW for burning it all down.

2) AoS for me follows in the tradition of a long line of GW dissapointments and not giving a crap. GW as a company has been ruffling my feathers for many years for many reasons. Big one: my favourite Dutch warhammer forum needed to close down around 2003/2004 due to their IP legal BS. There were around 300 very engaged Warhammer players on that forum, buying GW products, being what you nowadays would call 'brand evangelists'. Instead of seeing the upside to all this, GW brought down the legal axe and killed it. As i'm typing this i'm realising that this was the point my interest in Warhammer diminished, and the starting point of going from very engaged to more of a lurker / occasional casual gamer. Beside that there's the obvious things as pricing, being outright uncaring towards their customers / community, shops being terrible, killing the 'specialist' games, failcast models, et cetera. AoS is the latest one, but definitely the biggest in a long time.
I don't understand how such a nice, cool product, that people dedicate most of their spare time in, sets a universe that people become invested in, has so many awesome gamer communities around the world... (and i can go one for hours about the cool things in game and community) ... is produced by an uncaring company that treats all this with so much disrespect. So many people have been playing their games for years now *despite* the company. I can only imagine what it would be like if they were awesome instead. They'd be unstoppable!
Other companies would kill for the GW community and scene. I'm a firm believer in 'have a heart' companies, and that 'giving' will bring you more in the long run.

3) Why did Fantasy have to be literally killed off? Old Yeller got a better goodbye than WFB. Why couldn't they just call AoS a new format, all the while keeping (legacy) support on WFB. Everything's already there, just keep producing the same stuff you already have. Spend time on AoS, then when the time is right and it feels right, release a fully revamped 9th! Or place WFB in the public domain and see what happens. Just don't instakill the game that built your company.

4) I don't care about the new game. Yes, it's ridiculous. I don't care if they create 500 stupid games, as long as they don't nuke the few good ones.

4) The past year I've started collecting some 40k CSM stuff. I don't think they'l do the same thing to 40k, but I wouldn't be suprised. There's a lot of 'building up to something big' regarding the coming Black Crusade / Abbadon trying to get shiz done for the millionth time, so I'm already bracing for impact. AoS came out of nothing, the game is pretty much batpoop crazy, so who knows what's next.

5) I'm currently hoping for a new coke / classic coke scenario, in which they bring back WFB. Most gamers I know have been scared away from GW many years ago. I can't really get a reading of the global community feeling towards AoS. I'd love to see some reliable figures on that. But with earlier comments already stating that GW don't do demographics or community outreach, global disgruntlement wouldn't do much anyway.

6) I'm looking into Kings of War. I think it would be great if GW get's shown that they made a dumb move by people massively switching. I know, it's not very realistic, but it would be great. "We're mad as hell and we're not gonna take it anymore", or something along those lines.

7) I think they're partly using AoS to tap into the pool of MOBA youngsters. Computergames like League of Legens, DotA and many others have a very similar look and feel. They battle in arena's with shiny heroes and whatnot. Games Workshop is bringing it to the tabletop. Or better said, using their money, network, stores and outreach to get to them, before they discover Warmachine.

8 ) GW once was a leader, they've now become followers. They should hire the old staff, get the company in private hands again, and start caring and giving. So by the time pigs fly, everything will be fine and dandy.

Aaah... great to get that off my chest, i'm feeling better already ;)
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Re: Un-Welcome to the Age of Sigmar

Post by Red... »

3) Why did Fantasy have to be literally killed off? Old Yeller got a better goodbye than WFB. Why couldn't they just call AoS a new format, all the while keeping (legacy) support on WFB. Everything's already there, just keep producing the same stuff you already have. Spend time on AoS, then when the time is right and it feels right, release a fully revamped 9th! Or place WFB in the public domain and see what happens. Just don't instakill the game that built your company.

That's the biggy for me. Funny thing is, had that they released AoS as a side game to WFB (with fluff that continued as a tangent rather than destruction of the existing world - maybe even something as simple as "When Sigmar died, he did not perish, but instead was whisked away to an alternative dimension, one that was even more rent by Chaos than the old world. Wakening to his new existence, Sigmar realized that he had been selected for a special purpose: to clear away the Chaos scourge from this new realm so that, maybe someday, he could return home and live once more within the old world"), I think old players would have flocked to it in droves: the chance to play out an entirely different feeling game, yet maintaining roots in the same game fluff and dynamics. They could also have used it to bring in younger players - who then could either have stayed with AoS or graduated to more complex WFB in time.

So many people have been playing their games for years now *despite* the company. I can only imagine what it would be like if they were awesome instead. They'd be unstoppable!

+1 to this too. It's really sad that GW views its community as the enemy so much of the time. So much of the company is obsessed with working out how to prevent freeloaders and freebooters from running rampant, yet they don't realize that this represents a small proportion of their potential community and that this kind of behaviour is best dealt with using a scalpel, rather than a hammer. What little love they do provide tends to be patronizing. It's such a shame, because so many of us began our wargaming lives with Warhammer and retain a special place for it in our heart. I remember reading the original High Elves army book - the first to articulate the world's lore in any depth - from cover to cover, innumerable times. The story of Aenarion will always hold a place in my heart, along with the story of Eltharion and the battle between the (then contemporary) dark elves and high elves described in the book too. Now all gone, and what's left? Uggh. How did they turn the love of a 9 year old kid into weary revulsion as a 33 year old adult? What a shame. What a shame.
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Re: Un-Welcome to the Age of Sigmar

Post by Rork »

And yet GW are ramping up the number of computer games set in a now-dead world. We've got Mordheim, Man o' War (Wait, what?), Blood Bowl and obviously WH Total War coming. All of them could recruit players into the WH world...and yet that's gone.

I could almost understand if they'd gone for some big ol' AoS video game to capture the masses out there...but they're now just picking the corpse of WH for the good bits of treasure.
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Un-un-Welcome to the Age of Sigmar

Post by Phox532 »

Daeron wrote:If Warhammer Fantasy Battles is Hamlet, then this is the Age of Sigmar version.

And I would watch the hell out of that movie. :lol:

Moderator's edit:
Red... wrote:Nope, sorry, but we've been down this - positive stuff about AoS should go into the "Welcome to Age of Sigmar" thread. Let us grumps grump in a grumpy way in our own grumpy thread. Perhaps a mod can move your post to the correct place in due course, so that we don't respark an unnecessary argument about the merits of the game, which is not what this thread is for.
Done for the rest of the post.
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Re: Un-Welcome to the Age of Sigmar

Post by Red... »

Nope, sorry, but we've been down this - positive stuff about AoS should go into the "Welcome to Age of Sigmar" thread. Let us grumps grump in a grumpy way in our own grumpy thread. Perhaps a mod can move your post to the correct place in due course, so that we don't respark an unnecessary argument about the merits of the game, which is not what this thread is for.
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Re: Un-Welcome to the Age of Sigmar

Post by Gnosis »

Red... wrote:Perhaps a mod can move your post to the correct place in due course, so that we don't respark an unnecessary argument about the merits of the game, of which the game has none.


Fixed that for you.
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Re: Un-Welcome to the Age of Sigmar

Post by Amboadine »

@Phox532

There are some positive threads regarding AoS and I absolutely encourage you to participate in them or even start your own. The more traffic we have here the better currently.
You will however have a hard time convincing many vets that AoS is a good thing. If the game had been released alongside WFB it may have been better recieved by the community. But the death of 8th is still a sore point and I imagine will be for awhile yet.
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Re: Un-Welcome to the Age of Sigmar

Post by Lord Drakon »

I started with hope and optimism, but I now also absoluty un-welcome Age of Sigmar. I also have the bad luck most players in my community prefer Age of Sigmar now so I'm f#####d :(

Mod edit. Let's keep the language civil please.
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Re: Un-Welcome to the Age of Sigmar

Post by Vietnow »

Latest Khorne bundle, is going for $1,245 USD.

I didn't bother checking, but likely that would be the same price as buying all the kits individually.

WTF.

The best way I can describe GW's relationship to its player base (CUSTOMER base) would be similar to a person with a severe substance abuse problem.

At first you deal with it, as they act slightly out of sorts. While you're upset, you still love them, and hope it passes.

As it worsens....... ya know what. I can't even put out the effort for a cute metaphorical story.

WTF happened? All of this combined makes me not want to play this game and ebay my stuff. I don't even feel like modeling my "lil guys." I honestly thought everyone was overreacting. I've played the game several times, it seems ok at best, dreadful at worst.

I feel a sense of betrayal, yet I realize GW owese me nothing. This odd mixture of emotions leaves me numb to the hobby. I honestly though this was something I would do for the rest of my life. My hobby shouldn't be a source for these types of feelings, yet here I am. Whether it's justified, or not, this is how I feel. This is supposed to be fun for me, and it's just not. Sucks.
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Re: Un-Welcome to the Age of Sigmar

Post by Amboadine »

Plenty of other great games out there to play Vietnow.
Many of us have had that feeling of betrayal from GW. The community is still fractured but I still believe that there will be a direction forward within the coming months.
I am just using the downtime to refresh my interest in the hobby, catch up on some reading and enjoy a few video games.
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Re: Un-Welcome to the Age of Sigmar

Post by Gnosis »

It's going to turn into a price rant again with people arguing how affordability of the hobby has remained fairly stable for the last decade or so, but I'm having an easy time choosing between a GW army for 500€ or a Mantic army for 200€.

Also, KoW 2.0 rulebooks sold out this week while the limited edition AoS books aren't selling out too fast. Good to see players voting with their wallet.
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Re: Un-Welcome to the Age of Sigmar

Post by hellbane »

Red... wrote: I remember reading the original High Elves army book - the first to articulate the world's lore in any depth - from cover to cover, innumerable times. The story of Aenarion will always hold a place in my heart, along with the story of Eltharion and the battle between the (then contemporary) dark elves and high elves described in the book too. Now all gone, and what's left? Uggh. How did they turn the love of a 9 year old kid into weary revulsion as a 33 year old adult? What a shame. What a shame.


Very, very recognizable for me. I'm 30 years old now and remember saving up for the 5th edition Wood Elves book when I was 12. I've probably read it over a 1000 times. There was an AoS thread over on the Kings of War forum, with a number of people essentially stating that they've grown tired of GW's attitude years ago, but kept lingering around for the nostalgia. Guess it's the same for me. We're apparently all very welcome to join the KoW crowd, which was nice to read. Good to see their community has a warm feel to it. In the mean time BoLS reports tournaments shifting to KoW in favor of WFB8 and AoS. Personally i'm still rooting for a WFB comeback, I want my complexity.

In other news, BoLS had a nice post on GW's annual meeting and how the GW board views the recent developments. Apparently gamers are only 20% of their market and collectors are the other 80, so it's not important what the gamers think. This immediately brings up the questions why you would change the game if it's not the selling point in the first place... :roll: The original article has all the juicy details, dubbing GW as 'a relentless profit machine'. Nice.

I've also stumbled across a petition being run to change GW's mind about the current course. Guessing it won't do much good, but at least it's a signal to investors. +16.000 people willing to sign a petition is after all not a bad score.

Say what you want about AoS, it's really kicked a lot of stuff in motion and is making for some exciting times !lol!
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Re: Un-Welcome to the Age of Sigmar

Post by Calisson »

For all who mourn the death of WH8th, please have a look at it's revival:
there is a new 9th Age forum to help this happen - and hopefully make GW regret their abandon.
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Re: Un-Welcome to the Age of Sigmar

Post by Rork »

hellbane wrote:Apparently gamers are only 20% of their market and collectors are the other 80, so it's not important what the gamers think. This immediately brings up the questions why you would change the game if it's not the selling point in the first place... :roll: The original article has all the juicy details, dubbing GW as 'a relentless profit machine'. Nice.


Of course, what's really intriguing, as a few comments point out, is how does GW that games only make up 20% of their customers? They don't do market research of any form, so it's not like they really have a data set to work with in this regard.

Silly GW. They're going to run out of avenues to cut costs at this rate. All the while the newer companies with an outlook firmly embedded in the internet era keep on picking up customers.
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Re: Un-Welcome to the Age of Sigmar

Post by Red... »

GW's sales model has always baffled. For example, it's a well known understanding that shoppers will purchase in bulk if they believe that they will gain a saving that way. It's the basic principle of how numerous grocery stores, retail stores, general stores, and even "mom and pop" stores seem to know. "Buy two and get one free", "Buy four and get the cheapest three", "Buy two for $3 when the cost for one is $2" and so on. Yet, GW persists in selling its bulk offers at the IDENTICAL price to if you brought the components of the offer individually. Why? It's utter effing nonsense.

Of course, every now and then they blunder onto an actually half-clever selling strategy, such as generating artificial demand by doing limited releases of certain products (particularly books). It works, but only if you do it occasionally, so that buyers genuinely believe that the "limited edition" is valuable. But after it worked once for GW (the actually pretty crap "Death from the Skies" book that they released a few years ago as a half-arsed supplement for 40k 6th edition seemed to be the first notable instance of this being done by the company, and it was done pretty much by accident - it seems more likely that they knew that the book was utter shiz and so decided to try to cover that by making it a limited release, and were then stunned when it turned out to be a pretty successful demand generating exercise) they did it again, and again, and again - milking it for all it was worth. By the time they finished with The End Times orgasm of absurdly high priced limited edition book after absurdly high priced limited edition book, the customer base seems to have gotten weary of it. They took a pretty good idea and ruined it through sheer bone headedness.

GW's sales over the past decade seem increasingly to have occurred despite their sales approach rather than because of it. As others have said - imagine how well they could have done had they done things right: embraced their customer base, become fully internet saavy, provided deals and offers that made customers feel valued and special, done surveys and focus groups that led users feel a part of the company, done semi-public beta testing that again engaged their player base and ensured that ridiculous cock ups were identified by their own customer base BEFORE full product release, and so on. It could have been incredible. But instead it's back to yet more sales of ridiculously skull covered plastic action men that cost half a kidney to purchase each and no longer even have a game worth playing with them attached to the deal. Meh.
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Re: Un-Welcome to the Age of Sigmar

Post by Kurze »

I really love reading your posts Red :)
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Re: Un-Welcome to the Age of Sigmar

Post by Daeron »

Vietnow wrote:Latest Khorne bundle, is going for $1,245 USD.
I didn't bother checking, but likely that would be the same price as buying all the kits individually.
WTF.


I checked it in Euros and there's a discount. A very amusing one. I giggled when I calculated it. But how much of a discount it is... well... Why should I spoiler that one? :P

The part I don't get in your post is the "WTF" part. The expression where you act like the pricing is an insult. How is that possible? How can one be insulted by a price tag?
A buddy of mine once told he'd never let himself be prostituted unless it was for a million euros. I didn't think he was worth that much, but that's no reason for me to feel insulted by that, right? Instead I asked him how much I could get for just 5 euros.

I have seen such outrage over prices only in online communities for wargaming and online MMO's. I've seen it once in business where a support program was doubled in price.
It's a reaction I associate with people "hooked" to something. They can't refuse their dependency somehow (or even when they do it is with reluctance and hatred) and then react to whatever makes that product less accessible. Like students causing an outrage over an increase in beer prices.

I mean, let's be honest here. Would you buy the package if it were $1000 USD? That would be an interesting discount. I could be wrong, but my guess is that you'd feel the same way about a $1000 USD price tag.
I'm guessing the same rant would come with this remark added to it "Now they expect us to pay 1000$ before giving a discount!!". It would be like getting a discount on a yacht.

I'm not justifying their price tag. Clearly, when a bundle doesn't come at a discount, then there's no price strategy behind it. At all. Fair observation there. But your reaction is more worrying to me than their lack of a pricing strategy.

Even though it lacks a pricing strategy, it doesn't mean it lacks a commercial strategy. The way I see these over the top bundles is like my local car shop's luxury race car. You know, that one shiny model that every customer drools at but nobody has the money for. Well except maybe a few people that make you wonder where they got the money from. The salesperson certainly doesn't sell enough of those to make a living out of it. I doubt GW can live on those bundles either. But it gets people talking, and maybe some even go "whoa" or simply imprint the image of what a big army would look like.
I'd already consider it a luxury if I could have a car at half that price. Likewise, I'd consider it a miracle if I could have half that army.

I know I won't get that bundle. I have a budget set aside on what "hobby" is worth to me and then see what I can get for it. Keeps me sane in any hobby and even more so in this one.
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Re: Un-Welcome to the Age of Sigmar

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Red... wrote:GW's sales model has always baffled. For example, it's a well known understanding that shoppers will purchase in bulk if they believe that they will gain a saving that way. It's the basic principle of how numerous grocery stores, retail stores, general stores, and even "mom and pop" stores seem to know. "Buy two and get one free", "Buy four and get the cheapest three", "Buy two for $3 when the cost for one is $2" and so on. Yet, GW persists in selling its bulk offers at the IDENTICAL price to if you brought the components of the offer individually. Why? It's utter effing nonsense.


To save the poor retailer. Retail business is facing a hard enough time as it is. If the manufacturer started competing with them, they would have no chance. You can't offer better prices than the company that sells the product to you. GW believes that actual physical stores are crucial to recruitment in the long run, otherwise we would all just buy our product online and the hobby would die out in 10 years.
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Re: Un-Welcome to the Age of Sigmar

Post by Gnosis »

Daeron wrote:Even though it lacks a pricing strategy, it doesn't mean it lacks a commercial strategy. The way I see these over the top bundles is like my local car shop's luxury race car. You know, that one shiny model that every customer drools at but nobody has the money for. Well except maybe a few people that make you wonder where they got the money from. The salesperson certainly doesn't sell enough of those to make a living out of it. I doubt GW can live on those bundles either. But it gets people talking, and maybe some even go "whoa" or simply imprint the image of what a big army would look like.
I'd already consider it a luxury if I could have a car at half that price. Likewise, I'd consider it a miracle if I could have half that army.

Not a completely justified comparison, as cars are much less of a luxury product than wargaming is. You live in Brussels so maybe it is in your case ;) , but out here in the banlieus a car is much more of a necessity to life than wargaming.

Here's a thought I had: if GW's prices are turning people off to wargaming in general, then could the rest of wargaming be suffering as a result? GW's high street presence might make the completely uninitiated think that miniature wargaming in general comes at insane prices when compared to roughly similar hobbies such as boardgaming, videogames, D&D etc. We all laud GW for being a gateway company to the wider spectrum of miniature wargaming, and in my case that took more than a decade, but over that last decade GW has been doing its best to stop just that from happening, through their hardselling lingo ("THE Games Workshop Hobby" et al.), their refusal to acknowledge competitors, their excessive price-gauging and so on.

Little Timmy sees wicked cool blue space muhrines in a store window, walks into the store, gets the laydown by the store clerk, decides he can buy a couple of skateboards for the price of a small army and walks out, forgetting about his initial interest. A couple of miles outside of town he passes by another store where they sell that kind of stuff, he sees some other models but decides it's a waste of time to go in - he already knows it's outside of his budget. Little did he know, there were a couple of smaller game systems requiring about fifty bucks worth of models to play with and have a good time, but too bad!

On a similar note, GW paid dividends AND froze salaries to its store managers last fiscal year. Disgusting is one word I'd use to describe that. Desperate is another.

To save the poor retailer. Retail business is facing a hard enough time as it is. If the manufacturer started competing with them, they would have no chance. You can't offer better prices than the company that sells the product to you. GW believes that actual physical stores are crucial to recruitment in the long run, otherwise we would all just buy our product online and the hobby would die out in 10 years.

Are you talking about GW stores or independent retailers? Because GW has been hard at work alienating the latter for some time now. Are these just GW's views or yours as well? Regardless, it's folly to believe the hobby (the GW hobby, or tabletop wargaming?) would die out without retail stores. Everyone but GW has embraced social media, historical wargaming is stronger than ever, and there are plenty of competitors who have taken up the demand for GW's defunct specialist games (Mordheim - Frostgrave, Necromunda - Infinity, Bloodbowl - Dreadball, Epic - Dropzone Commander, the list goes on and on).

To GW's credit they started the party, but everyone started talking with eachother and having a good time, and now the host is trying to make new friends by shoving everyone out.
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Re: Un-Welcome to the Age of Sigmar

Post by Daeron »

Gnosis wrote:Not a completely justified comparison, as cars are much less of a luxury product than wargaming is.


There are luxury cars, and that is certainly true for that one fancy racecar being on that high, rotating display. From what I've seen, prices in luxury products tend to vary even more and reach crazy levels. Maybe Timmy considers how many skateboards he could have for the price of one army. My guess is that most skateboarders aren't out there playing mini's, so it's probably a choice between getting that army or getting the new luxury blue-ray box of Harry Potter with free interviews of the cast.

I don't think it's GW's responsibility and duty to make sure you are aware of other products in their own stores. That logic is... totally.. alien to me.

And sure, other companies "embraced" the social media and are doing such an -amazing- job. No offense, but that's the most ridiculous thing I have read in this argument yet. I hadn't heard of Kings of War until AoS was announced. In fact, when one of our tournament players asked in the Belgian Warhammer facebook page to try KoW he got no response. Because nobody knows it. I tried to google stores that have KoW and found none. I googled events and found a Warhammer tournament where a demo was available. I went to Mantic's website it claims to have 3 sellers in Belgium. The first link I checked was a dead link. Yeah. They embraced it alright.
The Mantic Facebook page just manages to keep up with 1 Facebook page of a GW store.

Thanks to the Dice Bag Lady, I actually know what "Frostgrave" is and it looks interesting. I'd like to give it a shot even. But from my experience on social media, all competitors are like black holes in space. You only notice them when something else you're observing/following is drawn to it.
That's how much of an amazing job they are doing.

Of course, it's a subjective observation. On social media you only tend to see the things your buddies start to link or share. That is in itself also very telling for the situation of Mantic IMO. There was ... 0 ... absolutely nothing about them until I learned about it on this forum and I took the initiative to google them.

So no. No prizes to be handed out there.
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Daeron
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Re: Un-Welcome to the Age of Sigmar

Post by Daeron »

I should add, in spite of my sarcastic tone, that I don't bear ill will to Mantic at all. In fact.. I would like to try KoW :D
But I have yet to see a single miniature or game from them IRL.
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Re: Un-Welcome to the Age of Sigmar

Post by Barking Agatha »

Daeron wrote:So no. No prizes to be handed out there.


That's not really a fair comparison. Mantic is a small business working out of a house. Games Workshop is a big, publicly-traded company with a massive fortress-like headquarters and their own factory, counting profits in millions of pounds. Mantic does the best they can with only a handful of people. Games Workshop could hire a whole department just to do that job right now, if they wanted to, but they just don't want to.
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Daeron
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Re: Un-Welcome to the Age of Sigmar

Post by Daeron »

They don't have the same resources, true. But they don't exactly "beat" GW at the social media game IMO. My point is that I see no company do a good job at it. GW included.
I love me a bowl of numbers to crunch for breakfast. If you need anything theoryhammered, I gladly take requests.

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"I move unseen. I hide in light and shadow. I move faster than a bird. No plate of armour ever stopped me. I strike recruits and veterans with equal ease. And all shiver at my coldest of whispers."
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Re: Un-Welcome to the Age of Sigmar

Post by Red... »

Thanks Kurze :) I'm glad I don't just come off as though I'm trolling!

@Daeron, I think the issue with social marketing is less about advertising reach and more about retention and engagement. No, companies such as Privateer Press, Wyrd Miniatures, and Mantic do not have great advertising reach. But they do have a very strong engagement with their player base. Wyrd even went so far as to publicly pilot its beta version of Malifaux 2.0, and then collected and incorporated the changes requested by the community. The feel good factor of that kind of exercise does not draw new customers in, true, (I mean, how could it?) but it creates better engagement, which translates into players wanting to purchase more (both for the new models and to support the company) and to want to keep on playing.

GW, in fact, is pretty good at advertising. Bricks and mortar shops is possibly one of the most effective ways of drawing in new customers for a game that requires physical playing. it allows potential customers to encounter the game in their regular daily life (rather than amidst the wash of MMOs and other games being advertised on facebook etc), while also enabling them to meet the other players that they can play with firsthand (challenging to play a new miniature game when you don;t know anyone else who plays it, which is a huge problem for miniature game companies that do not have bricks and mortar stores) and to purchase their models on the spot and thus become immediately part of the gaming system (rather than waiting the X weeks it takes for Wayland Games or equivalent to send you the models). Magazines such as White Dwarf (or its now subsidiary parts) get stocked in normal news agents too, enabling them to reach the wider public as well, and even their models can be found in some model and hobby stores.

My issue with GW is not with their reach in terms of advertising their games, they actually do that pretty well. It's the fact that they could use social media to retain and support their existing customer base much, much better. Their model is much more focused on getting people into the game, selling them a bunch of models, and then accepting that they become disenchanted and move on, driving them to need to pull in new customers. It's stupid because they could do both: pull in new customers through their existing marketing outreach AND embrace the existing community by social media engagement, multi-purchase offers on their websites, treating independent games stores more as friends rather than invidious rivals, not seeking to crush and shut down any and all obscure and distant threats to their IP, etc (I mean, was renaming "Imperial Guard" to "Astra Militarum" really that necessary???). Their approach on that front is short sighted and limited, and explains why people who talk about miniature game companies such as Privateer Press, Wyrd, and Mantic tend to do so in ebullient terms, while people tend to refer to GW in a negative tone, even if they play their games regularly.
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