Ever layed awake at night pondering various philosophical issues or historical blunders, thinking about the best possible outcome to each conundrum or situation?
Recently I was just thinking of various things Games Workshop could easily and obviously do to increase their sales, show they care, and ultimately benefit the consumer. I thought I'd share them with you.
Sourcebooks. When you're interested in a new army, one of the most essential tools you'll need is a sourcebook. A sourcebook typically costs $20, with Army Books and Codices costing $29. Thats insanely high for a 40-100 page book, some of which have the majority of pages in black and white. In my personal opinion, a lot of the books have been weighed, measured, and found wanting based on what they should offer for what you pay. Firstly, I think Games Workshop should create a sub-standard version of each supplement. The sub-standard would be exactly like the original supplement in that it would include all of the rules, but it would feature no hobby material, background, or scenarios, it would just have the profiles and points values of all warriors and heroes of the region, so that one may field the army. The sub-standard supplement would be sold for anywhere from $3 to $10, reasonably. But then why would anyone purchase the regular sourcebook, army book, or codex? The regular suppplement would remain the same price, but would also include a whole host of extra hobby material, fluff, etc. I'm talking 50 or more pages of extras. My second idea is that Games Workshop should be smart enough to realize that when an army isn't doing well in sales, a free .pdf of the supplement that goes with it would do well to revive interest. The .pdfs GW released recently of the Witch Hunters and Demonhunters Codices was a very good idea but not advertised as heavily as they should have been. Free supplements, whether with White Dwarf or as downloads, are never a bad thing.
Marketing. When people find out about my hobby, that I paint ''miniatures'', which often ultimately get referred to haphazardly as figurines, dolls, or action figures, they are completely clueless as to what I'm talking about or what I do in my spare time. Games Workshop, and other miniatures companies, need to get out there! Maybe its just the US, but the ONLY Games Workshop advertisement I've ever seen outside of their own controlled environment was in the back of the Return of the King video game box. Other than that, it wouldn't hurt if Games Workshop didn't confine themselves to hobby stores, ecspecially with their Lord of the Rings range. I remember once seeing a boxed set for The Two Towers in a Barnes and Nobles, but never seeing any other paintable miniatures anywhere else but a hobby store. I would love to purchase paintable miniatures at a book store! I say paintable minitures due to the fact that collectable pre-painted miniatures such as D&D and Axis and Allies Miniatures are so readily availible that they can be found anywhere from Barnes and Nobles, to Target, to even WalMart. So, I suggest advertising more and selling from more locations. Heck, none of the Warcraft nerds at my school even knew that Warhammer was older than Warcraft, and when they found out, they argued that Warhammer Age of Reckoning came out way after the original Warcraft! They had no idea that the Warhammer franchise was that old, and didn't start with a video game.
Movement Trays. Games Workshop should start packaging Warhammer and War of the Ring movement trays in their boxed sets (leaving them seperate for blister packs still, obviously) for no additional charge. Cause lets face it, you're gonna need 'em. On that same note, its ridiculous when a boxed set or blister pack does not come with the minimum required to field a unit, or at least an appropriate number to where one could easily reach the required number with the minimum amount of purchases. For example, many of the old Warhammer Dogs of War boxed sets' minimum unit size did not match the corresponding boxed sets, usually by only one, meaning a player would have to purchase an individual blister in addition to the boxed set to field the regiment. For War of the Ring, one needs eight warriors to field a unit, but many of the blisters come with three warriors rather than a convienient four, in which case, one will have to purchase another blister of three and have one useless guy leftover.
Size Discrepencies. Nothing is in scale with each other. Besides the whole metal to plastic, old and new issue, there is the plain fact that a Space Marine miniature should be a whole lot bigger than it is. Dwarves shouldn't be the same size as hobbits, or rather, hobbits shouldn't be the same size as dwarves, etc. I won't spend long on this, as the secondary point within this is the price discrepency related to the size discrepency. A Blood Angels Death Company boxed set consists of a couple of sprues capable of creating five minitures for $33. Then theres the Goblin Wolf Riders boxed set, much larger miniatures, capable of creating 10 miniatures for $35. What the heck? The part that ticks me off the most, though, is that you can buy an individual hero, lets say Beregond, or a blister pack of warriors, lets say Citadel Guard, for basically the same price! Beregond and one citadel guard take the same amount of metal to make, yet I can get three citadel guard for approximately the same cost as one Beregond. Ridiculous!
LOWER THE PRICES. You knew this was coming. Hobby shop after hobby shop in my area has closed because of a lack of sales because of the high prices. The starter boxed sets, Mines of Moria, Assault on Black Reach, and soon, the Island of Blood, cost over $80. Who would want to pay $80 to try a new hobby to begin with? You have to pay $27 to $33 for a box containing a couple of sprues of plastic. Its gotten to the point that one metal miniature in Warhammer 40K can cost upwards of $20. C'mon Games Workshop. You know better. It shouldn't be long before everyone is playing Warhammer with Mantic Games' Kings of War range. There should either be drastic price drops, at least to the level of GW's major competitors, or tons of sales all the time.
I will commend Games Workshop, of course, for the excellent quality of their miniatures, as well as their great customer service, but most of the business practices of Games Workshop are just dumbfounding. Well, what do you guys think? Agree, disagree? Have any ideas yourself? Maybe Games Workshop employees will take a glance at this thread, you never know, so don't hold back!
Edit. I've scratched the sourcebook idea and the movement tray idea as they read above. Please see hithero's, ukfreddybear's, and my own posts below as to why they actually are not practical, beneficial or reasonable ideas in the end. I've left the original ideas in this post so that they may still be commented on should you so wish.
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