| From: | Bull <chaos@*****.COM> |
|---|---|
| Subject: | Re: FASA Being Sold? Semi-OOC? |
| Date: | Fri, 18 Jul 1997 17:16:44 -0400 |
>In a message dated 97-07-18 04:03:51 EDT, you write:
>
>>At the moment, GW doesn't have any true problems... But they DO have a lot
>of >pissed off players who are desperately looking for Miniatures Elsewhere
>for the >games...
>
>But the players still buy the figures. I see it all the time in the store I
>used to run. "Bob" would come in and complain about the prices, but still
buy
>the figures.
>
Agreed... I still buy *some* figures, despite the attrocious cost.
However, I've passed on quite a few neat mini's that I would have otherwise
bought for various reasons. The Green Knight, for example. I could think
of a dozen fun conversions to do to the thing to make it a cool Empire
General or a great mutated Chaos Knight, or even a Champion (I play Empire,
Chaos, and Chaos Dwarves, so...;)). But at $20.00, it wasn't worth it...
>Though, I have noticed that some players are getting alternative figures for
>their armies, not as many in my area. (About 1 out of 25 players)
>
>The clone figures produced by several other companies could pose a problem
>for GWUS, so I do see your point.
>
The problem now is hat there aren't enough of the clone figures available
yet, and the ones that are out there are hard to find. And of course if
you want to play in any official GW tourney... YOu have to have official
GW mini's...
>>GW has been doing some really BAD things... Like raising the price of EVERY
>>blister pack of mini's 50 cents, and raising all their boxed sets 10% across
>the >board. plus some of their newer mini's have some rediculous prices,
>like the Green >Knight. It's a REALLY cool looking and nicely done, but at
>$20.00 for a single >mounted mini, it's hideously overpriced...:(
>
>The price increase doesn't really bother me that much, since their figures
>are always the best quality. Lead/pewter I do not mind paying for, but their
>plastics are really over priced.
>
I think they are ALL getting overpriced. it wasn't so bad a year ago, but
they've started making their boxed sets smaller and more expensive, and
raising the price on their new blisters. hell, the game shop near me, when
I started putting my Empire army together earlier this year, had a couple
of the old Emp Morters. They were 5 bucks. They just got in a bunch of
the new Morter that GW did. I don;t think it's any nicer than the old one,
but it still cost $9.50! That's almost double the price!!
But you're right, the plastics cost almost as much as the metal mini's
anymore, and that's just ridiculous...
>>They have also stopped making or supporting several of their "smaller"
>games, >such as their Warhammer Quest and Blood Bowl games....
>
>Blood bowl is coming back. I am not sure what's going on with Warhammer
>quest, but I have heard that they have some new stuff for it coming out at
>the begining of next year.
>
Yeah, But I think BB os ONLY making a come back because there are a LOT of
fans out there with net access, and they've been pestering Jervis Johnson
about it ever since it got discontinued. hell, the Blood Bowl mailing list
got almost as much traffic as this one while I was on it...
As for WHQ, there is some support for it, but it's minimal. And GW has
been promising more support for the game for a long time now, and all we've
seen in a year was the Brettonian Knight...
>>Plus, they went to direct distributorship, and then required a certain
>amount to be >ordered, thus makig it near impossible for smaller shops to
>afford the mini's, thus >they stopped carrying them.
>
>I will admit that the $500 minimum order can be a bit steep for some shops,
>but the average GWUS player will have to sppend $300+ to get their armies. If
>the shops can not meet the minimum once a month, then truthfully they will do
>better carring something else. My shop finally got to the point where most of
>our customers were dealing on the internet, buying at cost, so we droped the
>line.
>
I don;t agree here... Yeah, 300+ bucks for an army sounds right, but a lot
of people don't go out an blow taht much at one time. they can't afford
to. most people buy the boxed set, some support mini's for the army of
their choice, and use the basic figs from the boxed set as whatever is
needed until they can pick up more figs for their army. hell, I still use
a lot of Empire and Chaos knights from the old Battlemasters game.
Plus, most stores around here don;t carry WH mini's as major line, or
mini's in general. tehre's only one out of 4 that has enough of a customer
base to really stock the figures. But the other stores DID make some money
from selling the Mini's before, and since they were closer for me, it was
nice to be able to pick up a few new figs from the store around the corner.
By requiring a minimum purchase of mini's, a lot of the stores lost a small
corner of their market by not being able to stock the figs. EVen a couple
hundred bucks a month can make a big difference in a small game shop's
profits... And we really only have small game shops out here.
>>However, Warhamemr products have reached an all time high in popularity in
>the >US, which is part of the reason GW is getting greedy.
>
>Let's face it, they admit that they are in it to make money. I would be too.
>
Agreed... But when you start sacrificing your players in the name of
profit.., that's the road to destruction...:] TSR did the same thing.
Look at how many people here vehemently hate TSR and everything related to
them!
>>Hopefully, GW will learn from TSR's mistakes. Otherwise, the giant of the
>Mini >Industry could find itself needing rescued, in which case I can
>definately see WOTC >bailing them out.
>
>TSR made many other mistakes, like ticking off their distribtors at GenCon
>one year or how about hiring friends to sit and shuffle papers. My favorite
>was when TSR was building their new office, sold the old before the new one
>was completed, only to rent it back for 3 months from the new owners.
>
Agreed... But GW is quicklymaking similar mistakes, and it's costing them
some of their old player base. It's going to cost them, and cost them big,
soon...
>-Bandit
>
Bull
--
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