Thursday, November 12, 2009

Gamesday 2010 GW Annoucement Rant!


Ok ... this rumor has been bouncing around for some time and I think as long ago as June I'd heard people talking about this. Tonight I was surfing the GW site and happened upon this announcement. The decision to host only one Gamesday by Games Workshop. For those GW fans who live on the Eastern seaboard in the US ... no one would really care ... how does this impact you right? It doesn't really. But for everyone else in the US especially those of us on the West Coast .... all I have to say is what the hell? GW axed the 2009 Gamesday events for those of us out west ... but now they are doing it in 2010 too? This is utter and absolute BULLSHIT! As a hardcore GW fan I'm very unhappy about this. I attended every single LA Gamesday and GT that GW offered. I lived in Las Vegas during the Las Vegas GTs however I have to honestly say I didn't attend one ... it just didn't seem worth it to pay that much to pay ... and by then the nature of the GTs had changed dramatically since the early 2000s GTs. Too many Adepticon organizer types showing up en mass with Tour De France type tactics ... just too much hardcore competition from guys who don't even paint their own armies for my taste ... anyway I digress. I really am saddened by GWs continued pullback on their product support. White Dwarf thoroughly sucks these days ... no Gamesdays, no GW GTs only random "indie events" largely put on by greedy game clubs siphoning off the obscene amount of prize support GW is sending their way into their own private hobby collections. The old outrider, GW run GT and RTT systems were really much better for the hobby in my opinion. All this "do it yourself" GW support is rather lame. I only wish we had the UK level of support from GW here in the US.

4 comments:

Bodlar said...

Welcome to the bottom line show. Quality, fun, or interesting events are not a priority for GW. They've been infiltrated by the bean counters and if those events didn't make enough money they don't do em.

What the bean counters fail to realize in all their number crunching is the human element. This is one of the major reasons I gave up on 40k. Events like Games Day and the Grand Tournaments should not be viewed as a revenue source. They fall into the category of "supported events to drive interest in their products." I am sure with the turn out at games day that they had to at least break even. I am not as sure about the GTs. Regardless they should be throwing MOUNTAINS of product at people at their tournaments and they would see a lot greater turnout.

The Lord of Excess said...

Oh I know ... you've heard me lamenting the diminishing quality of GW's events since the old days when the GTs rocked and we would all caravan down and have a blast. Times have changed. I know for a fact that this isn't a matter of me being nostalgic for the old days, the events were better run then. The good will things that GW did like having bitz by the pound available at the GTs, etc. created a strong community at the high end of the game. What I see now are cliquish groups at the high end that are based on Math-Hammer and competition ... not so much about cool themes and appearance of armies. After all that is what Blue Table is for right? So as I watch the game I love have its overall appeal diminish in terms of larger community (here in the US. Again I wish I lived in the UK or Europe or New Zealand or Australia as it seems that the type of GW community that we used to have in the US is going strong in those places.

Will said...

100% agree with Bod- corperation= complete disconnect with what is good for the people buying their products. Concern over profits are what is ruining all these days.

Dave Garbe said...

I'd actually expand this a step further..

1 Games Day for all of North America.

While many European countries enjoy their own Games Day in such a small proximity, both Canada and the US has to share a single day, and that adds up to a TON of land to cover that means people won't make the trip.