GW, play testing, and cticism

From: <deaconblue3_at_...>
Date: Mon, 4 Feb 2002 19:43:49 -0500

Well, I've seen the reactions of GW staffers when they come over to the
States for tourneys or Games days. I actually heard one staffer say that
"You Yanks play the games all wrong." They always seem amazed at the way
that non-UK players put together armies and their styles of play. At one
time I asked about play testing. At that time I was told it was all
handled in house, and that they didn't farm out their play testing. As
Peter pointed out, this is bad game design. Case in point: WH40K 2nd,
and the Wolf Guard Terminator with Assault cannon and thunder hammer.
This error should have been caught in play testing, but the play testing
was done entirely by the designers, so they failed to see the issue, as
they already knew it wasn't possible. Based on experience, GW never
truly accepts outside criticism, from anyone. The general attitude is
"we're the professionals, and we know best." And if you do make a good
suggestion, they often cop it for themselves, giving little, if any
credit, making it entirely "their own idea and innovation." It's
happened before. A few years ago there was a half baked idea to get the
Epic community to get together and buy as many shares of GW as possible,
to force them to bend to our will. Unfortunatley, we spent all our $$ on
minis, and had nothing left to spend on stocks. GW is slowly pricing
themselves out of the market. As companies like I-Kore and others get
more widely distributed, GW sales will fall off, especially here in the
States. Plus, the move by mainly historical companies into the fantasy
realm, such as Old Glory and West Wind, and severely under cut GW prices
(Old Glory 25mm Historicals generally run _at_$28 for a bag of 30 minis),
their market share will decrease even more. GW's saving point at this
time is their "super store" agreement with WOTC/Hasbro. They still hold
a big edge in terms of marketing and distribution, as well as
availability. GW-US has slowly been forcing out the independent
retailer, in favor of centralized super stores, as evidenced by changes
to the ordering procedures and order minimums. Now, who here remembers
when GW was just TSR's UK distributor?

Josh R

"No matter where you go, there you are." B.Bonzai
Received on Tue Feb 05 2002 - 00:43:49 UTC