This is a very interesting article. Go and read it now.
Top element of this was the fact that the first mention of an individual actually related to GW in any way is Gary Chalk and a reference to the 80's and Orc's Drift. That's not a problem, Gary's great and represents a wonderful era of the company. This is what was said about him:
Gary Chalk, a 59-year-old fantasy game creator and illustrator, knows all about its Britishness. He used to design Warhammer and Warhammer 40K games in the 1980s and 90s. His trademark wit is evident in Bloodbath at Orc's Drift (an elvish version of the Michael Caine film Zulu) and a naval ship battle he called "All the Dwarves Love a Sailor". Still an enthusiastic table-top gamer, he does, however, believe Games Workshop uses its monopoly on the products to target and exploit increasingly younger fans.
The prices for essential models, paints and books are "eyewatering", he says.
Cheers to you, Mr Chalk! And thanks for Orc's Drift. And all the other stuff you've done. Even if that didn't really have anything to do with 40k.
The article continues:
And Chalk claims the game is now less interesting. "The original rules were about fantasy combat and creating character. Now the rules only work within their imaginary world, with their figures and it cuts out all the other influences."
GW did offer some sort of defence:
Games Workshop's executives say they don't do media interviews, preferring to focus on their hobbyists. But chief executive officer Mark Wells emails me about the claim of price exploitation. "That would go against everything we stand for. It's just not in our nature," he writes.
The sentence that I'm really interested in is this one '...preferring to focus on their hobbyists' - I can't imagine they focus so thoroughly that they can't do a media interview? Don't they have a PR department?
Anyway, credit where credit is due, well done to GW: it is still better that you don't go out of business, actually. I just wish you were nicer to us, is all.
And listen to Gary - make your games more interesting.
Hi
ReplyDeleteJust found your blog and wanted to say Hi. Warhammer 3rd edition was my first introduction to wargaming and I've never really enjoyed any of the later incarnations, I gave up playing around 5th/6th edition and thought that was it for Warhammer FB.
However, when I moved house last year, three of the boxes I found in my attic contained all my old books, White Dwarf magazine, figures, paints, etc. from 1st, 2nd and 3rd edition and I was thinking about getting back into it again.
This blog and a couple of the ones you link to have given me the inspiration to dust off all the old stuff and go back to just enjoying painting without the pressure to deliver golden demon results and gaming just for the fun.
Thanks for rekindling a forgotten passion.
I'll start getting it all out and sorting through it over the next few weeks. Once sorted I'll start up a new blog just for this project.
Looking forward to sharing the journey with you an everyone else.
Cheers,
Peter.
Hi Peter
ReplyDeleteSorry for the incredibly late reply to you! As you may have seen, there is a lot of stuff happening in my household at the moment that is interfering with my otherwise good manners!
Anyway, I'm thrilled that you've written - thanks got getting in touch. I love seeing others being put in touch with their oldhammer tendencies and the fact that you've got a box full of old lead and blog on which to show those things is brilliant. I look forwards to the results!
Regards
Gaj