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Wow... (Game Store Problems)

Started by Waaaghpower, November 14, 2013, 07:28:56 PM

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Waaaghpower

I've reached the point of mainly stepping back to watch my LGS in amusement, but this is a story I had to share: At my local Games Workshop, they are running an escalation league which literally gives you more soldiers if you buy things. No, seriously. If you spend forty dollars or more in store purchases, then for two weeks you get an extra fifty points in your army. Plus, if you fill out a 'Gift list', you get a re-roll at any point during one of your games. On anything.
I'm also fairly sure that this particular Games Workshop is close to going under, judging by the fact that they recently cut the hours they are open. (They actually dropped an entire day from their schedule.)
Super Mario 3D World is The. Best. Thing.

Narric

So they're encouraging Pay-to-win mentallity :P

Hope you have a half decent gaming group to fall back on, or maybe its time to find one?

Waaaghpower

I've got a couple friends, and a prayer that they will bring back the previous manager... I don't think the current manager realizes that he is driving away business with a pointed stick. (Me and a couple friends who would otherwise spend thirty to fifty bucks a week there hhave all but stopped going.
Super Mario 3D World is The. Best. Thing.

Arguleon-veq

From what ive seen almost every GW does this, every time I go in to one they are planning some kind of league/event and if you buy things you get more points or get whatever you have just got to use for free in your game.

To be honest, I think GW could cut the vast majority of its stores and be more effective [make more money] by doing it. I dont actually know a single person who goes and buys their stuff from a GW store or who plays there and that is counting the hundreds of people I see at tournaments. So all those rent and staff costs are for what? to try and attract new players.

I think you could spend a fraction of what they do on those costs, on TV and internet advertising instead and it would generate just as many new players.

I dont think ive played in a shop seen i was <15, it does provide young kids without the space or money, somewhere to play. The thing is though, if they actually got back in touch with the community and started supporting gaming clubs again, they could simply have a 'Gaming Club Finder' on their site which would then do everything their shops are doing but its free for them!
X-Wing Tournaments;
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11th - 33

Mabbz

I'm going to defend GW by saying that I go to mine weekly, and they have never tried to make me buy anything through aggressive selling or pay-to-win campaigns. They do occasionally reccommend stuff, but that only happens when I'm discussing tactics. They've never given me problems with converted or scratch built models or house rules. In fact, they only store rule they have is that any models that weren't bought that day must be at least undercoated if you want to use them in store.

Do I have the one good GW in the world? Of course, Nottingham is the home of GW so that might have something to do with it.

Deraj

Game stores are stores. When players go there every week, play a few games, are there for hours using terrain and tables that they paid for, then don't buy anything, yeah, that sucks. Of course they'd incentivize buying things at their store. Besides; if you're worried about a single reroll or 50 points worth of models then you're doing it wrong.

Also; the LGSs around me are the only place I can get any real gaming in. Who is going to fit 1 6'x4' table in an apartment or such, let alone multiple tables? That takes up a lot of room, so yeah, while it would be cheaper to buy models from spikeybits or easier to buy direct from gw, I'd rather pay the extra 20% or wait the extra week than not have a place to play, or at least not have a place to meet new players and be able to have multiple games going at once.

Charistoph

My LGS did something like this once, but it was intended for charity.  You could pay money or canned food for rerolls, even rerolls of rerolls.  Did rather well, if I remember correctly.

But that's not quite what the OP experienced.
Are you a Wolf, a Sheep, or a Hound?

Quote from: Megavolt-They called me crazy.  They called me insane!  THEY CALLED ME LOONEY!! and boy, were they right."

Waaaghpower

Mabbz, I am sure not *every* GW is awful, but their store policies kind of push them in that direction.
The previous store manager was great... Until he up and vanished. Literally, he was totally cool one day, all business as usual... I happened to show up on the next working day. (It is closed Mon-Tue, so this was three days later.) He was gone, and the new guy was in place. After tracking down the old manager on Facebook, I found out that he had no idea that he was being fired until that Tuesday. Up until he was axed, it was a great store, really fun to hang around. (He had a bunch of hilarious stories from being in the army, and living in Germany for a while. I wish I could remember some of the better insults he told us...)

On the topic of advertisement, I realize that it's a somewhat niche market, and it's kind of difficult to advertise to a mass group, but they currently don't seem to be trying in the slightest...

Charistoph, that sounds like a really good way to manage things, and I would definitely want to participate! (Especially if they ran it alongside a tournament that had actual prizes.)
Super Mario 3D World is The. Best. Thing.

Narric

GW is like the rest of the gaming industry. IT focuses solely on its own advertising and sales, that it doesn't realize that if it was less aggressive and didn't try to swindle every penny out of our pockets it would be getting free advertising int he form of near every single player actively trying to get ther friends and family into it. As they are now, some/most of us actually tell people to not purchase GW products, with the few who have the good stores and experiences pretty much keeping the game to themselves.
Cutting stores wouldn't really work or be neccassry, as their costs would be covered by customers who actually want to buy stuff.

The Pay-to-win campaigns and aggressive selling of stores, and the replacement of "Human" Staff, just makes GW sound like thy only care how much you're buying.

Things is I had this years ago in the Plymouth (Devon, England) store. I was looking for a really cool model that I had seen online but didn't know the name of (as it was a french site I'd seen it on) and the staff there barely spoke to me nor tried to help me, because in my youth I had said I didn't have any money to buy anything.
Now compare that to the store in Exeter, which i regularly went to. They allowed me and most other regulars to just pick up any codex off the shelves and read through it. Sometimes we were reference how OP a GK character was or maybe an army someone collected but hadn't brought their own codex in to lend to a friend to read.
I bet if I tried that in my LGS in B'ham they ask me to leave as soon as I say I'm not interested in buying anything.

I like the sound of Charistophs' GW. Does it still do that, or is that an old example?

Ultimately though, if I went into a GW store now I'd probably not feel comfortable with the staff until I made a purchase, which is not how a company should run.

Charistoph

Quote from: Narric on November 15, 2013, 09:40:16 AM
I like the sound of Charistophs' GW. Does it still do that, or is that an old example?

Not a GW, Empire Games of Mesa, AZ.  It was a one off thing, but they do uncommon tournaments every month (ex: 1000 pts 3 Elites required, 3000 pt teams, 2 players per side with 1500 each) or a mercenary market (players can sell off old models through the store for store credit).
Are you a Wolf, a Sheep, or a Hound?

Quote from: Megavolt-They called me crazy.  They called me insane!  THEY CALLED ME LOONEY!! and boy, were they right."

Narric

Quote from: Charistoph on November 16, 2013, 07:25:12 AM
mercenary market (players can sell off old models through the store for store credit).
This would have been awesome for me, as I've been rid of a lot of miniatures in the past.

Waaaghpower

UPDATE: New idiocy! Every two weeks the point value for games goes up, and the reward for paying money changes. Now you get some kind of stat upgrade for one squad, which must be rolled for. He's being very vague on the details, but last I heard it was a D3 roll to improve either WS, BS, or T for the whole squad. You can upgrade two squads.
This is either hilariously overpowered or underpowered, depend on on your squad choice. Shoota Boyz in particular will be simply devastating no matter what you roll...
Unfortunately, you can only use on army for the entirety of the league. I am using Space Wolves, so if I want some cheesy goodness I'll have to ally in some Orkzez. Then again, adding 30 Shoota Boyz and a Warboss isn't unreasonable to lol...

Ironically, this has all made me specifically avoid buying things. I already won three games in a row for the league (Actually seven, but only the first three count,) giving myself such an advantage would just be painfully boring... Unless I'm going against a horde player who is embracing the cheese.
Super Mario 3D World is The. Best. Thing.