Comments on: Ask Jervis: the answers

By: tuco

tuco — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 16:51:53 +0000

As far as GW taking a No Pre-painted stance, how much of their revenue comes fron their paint line? If gamers didn’t need to buy their paint, I’m guessing they’d take a pretty substantial fiscal hit.

I’ve got seven WHFB and W40K armies. I don’t play any of them anymore, mostly for the reasons gavroche outlined. If GW were still actively supporting Necormunda or Mordheim, I probably wouldn’t have even started playing PP games. Small forces I can reasonably paint in the time I have and games that last 30 min - 90 min. I actually liked the rules, miniatures, and fluff in Necormunda and Mordheim as much as I do in PP games, so honestly PP wins out because the fit in my schedule more than anything else. A lot of the people I see playing PP games over GW are guys who have families and careers and I would have to guess that the time factor is a big thing for them as well. If I were thirteen again (not that I’d really want to be) I’d go for GW, seeing a fully painted WHFB army on the table and playing out 3k points for an afternoon is a beautiful thing.

By: tpatcher

tpatcher — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 02:27:00 +0000

Gw has tried with quick pace games, but kill teams a joke.
I think the lack of in store support kills specialist games. When we started playing blood bowl leagues awhile back, all the little runts ran and ordered a team.

By: gavroche

gavroche — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 09:46:56 +0000

One thing JJ shows in the interview is that he (and/or GW, never sure who’s really talking…) don’t understand what older gamers want or why they leave. They’re not really looking for depth in the sense of more or more complex games & backgrounds, they’re looking for games they can fit in their busy lives. Often this means less: compact & elegant rules that allow for a challenging game rather than the multi-volume rulesencyclopedias you need for the Warhammers, smaller armies they can actually get painted, that sort of thing. On the plus side for GW, older gamers can spend more money if they really like something, and while GW has realised this & created Forgeworld to meet the interest in high quality expensive stuff, that alone isn’t enough to keep many older gamers interested. Too bad they failed to make the Specialist range work :-(

By: tpatcher

tpatcher — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 08:48:54 +0000

To me prepainted is a joke really, I’m glad gw staying far away. It takes the hobby aspect out, instead of having mini your really just getting toys.

I think jj is doing a great job with gw, its diffrent, and hell vet or newb, I’d take streamed lined rules any day. I get so sick of hearing the same complaints. “Hey I’ve been playing for 10+ years where my bloody 300 pg rule book, with realistic rules. And while there at that bring back 1st ed dnd” I mean come on they have to look at the bigger picture, who makes a profit, a bunch of mad house children who will buy 5 diffrent armys a month. Or a bunch of cranky old farts who only shell out to ebay.
Cheers

By: bigbossogryn

bigbossogryn — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 08:01:20 +0000

Great, interesting and all the rest of it.

All I heard was: kids make us money, you older gamers don’t, you want advanced rules? Go elsewhere. Sad really. Thank god for Forgeworld’s Imperial Armour Series and WM for getting as close to 2nd Edition 40k as we’re going to get, don’t know about fantasy any more. As for that spill about Specialist games? Don’t make me laugh! Refer to the first line for why they failed. Apocalypse sounds intriguing though.

By: Veritas

Veritas — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 07:56:06 +0000

Honestly, I think the reason GW won’t consider going to prepainted isn’t at all for the reasons Jervis listed. It’s for the simple reason that they’ve invested a crap load in building a facility to make their own plastics and to now have to completely revamp that site to produce prepainted plastics ain’t gonna happen. At least not while their stock is in the toilet.

By: evernevermore

evernevermore — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 03:46:19 +0000

nice interview - very interesting, its always cool to see a guy like Jervis take time to talk to the average gamer

By: Stu

Stu — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 03:11:31 +0000

It was an interesting interview, but I’m unsurprised GW are ignoring the pre-painted market. Considering their core product is unassembled boxes of sprues, selling pre-paints would be like cutting their own throats.

By: Psychotic Storm

Psychotic Storm — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 22:54:34 +0000

its an interesting interview.

By: Probert

Probert — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 19:05:50 +0000

I appreciate Jervis taking his time to answer the questions. I still have no interest in the current GW stuff. Twenty years ago, I got way into every GW game, and that interest has petered out long ago. I still paint some of my horded Blood Bowl and warmaster stuff, but those are the only GW games I find interesting.

I certainly would not mind Citadel producing new Blood Bowl, Warmaster and some historical figs, but until then I shall not be purchasing any GW stuff. (Which is a lie. I still use their bases and Chaos Black paint).

By: briguy

briguy — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 18:26:39 +0000

That was a neat interview, thanks for posting that Zac!

It was interesting to me that he says GW isn’t at all eyeing prepainted miniatures. Or that they might consider more board games in the future. Both answers I didn’t really expect, to be honest.

Thanks again to Jervis for taking the time too.

By: shakespear

shakespear — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 17:43:32 +0000

Wow, way to tow the party line…

By: steeldragon

steeldragon — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 16:56:58 +0000

What about someone related to Asmodee and Helldorado?

It could be interesting for us non-french speakers to know what they plan, how they developed the product and so on… what’s their inspiration and who they are…

Andres

By: gavroche

gavroche — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 16:36:59 +0000

How about a sculptor like Werner Klocke? Or an independant gamedesigner from a while back? I’d love to hear about what Arty Conliffe is doing & thinking nowadays, or Phil Barker, or the guy(s) who designed Piquet. Or perhaps the people behind North Star or The Armchair General or another small creative company in the field?

I’d rather not have someone from a major like Rackham, Privateer or GW as they’re unlikely to come up with something we haven’t read a zillion times before or give a straigth-forward opinion of the type that will make marketing people cringe but that stays with readers afterwards. Which is what I personally always hope for in an interview but rarely get ;-)

By: redstripe

redstripe — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 16:15:00 +0000

Consider me an old bitter Games Workshop hobby expatriate. Cities of Death was one of the first GW products I had purchased in a long time. Apocalypse is one the first GW products I have been anticipating in a long time.

Perhaps that is evidence that Jervis is doing something good for us old salts.

Good luck Mr. Johnson.