Nice to see that Games Workshop have posted to their website today the Golden Demon winners.
No idea which one won the Slayer Sword though…
So there ends my reportage coverage of this year’s GamesDay 2011. As you might have guessed I didn’t actually get to the show this year and as a result like most people I was dependent on others for finding out what was new and what wasn’t shown.
Despite what many of us on the internet tubes think, I am sure most people go to GamesDay because it is GamesDay. They want to play games, spend some money, make some scenery, see some great painted models and have fun.
In the past it was the place to see and buy pre-release models months before they went on sale, it was the place to find out what was planned and see pre-production models. It was something to and tell your friends about.
However that kind of specialness has disappeared, partly I am sure because there were people like me who could very easily take photographs and have them on the internet before lunchtime on GamesDay.
I doubt that my coverage ever stopped someone from going to GamesDay, but I can see from Games Workshop’s perspective that as what they were doing was no longer special, why should they even bother doing it. They started to focus on the here and now, on playing games, the hobby. There was no need to take that extra step and be special, because it didn’t actually add anything to the show or to the attendance. People still went despite the fact that there were no new models on display, the majority of people who attended weren’t worried about that.
I am sure at the show today there were hundreds of people sitting down, getting out the new plastic they had bought and started to stick it together. They have been doing that for the past few years, why would this year be any different? There were thousands of people playing games, having fun, why wouldn’t they? Virtually all the attendees probably admired the wonderful painted models in the Golden Demon cabinets thinking why can’t I paint like that.
Apart from Warhammer Forge last year, it was a similar story in 2010, it was very much the same in 2009. Even 2008 disappointed many people. GamesDay has changed and has been like it for quite a few years now and will probably continue in the same way for the foreseeable future.
At the end of the day, no one is forced to go to GamesDay, you can make that choice. If it doesn’t have what you want, then don’t go. Games Workshop will continue to do GamesDay how they want to and probably they do it the way they do, because they make the most money that way and it’s what the majority of their customers want. We may not like it, but we don’t matter, we’re regardless of what we actually think, are not important. We like to think we’re important, we like to think that we have an impact, the reality is we don’t, never have and never will. The majority of Games Workshop’s customers are young, probably have relatively quite a lot of money to spend and certainly won’t be planning their purchases; they will buy what is shiny and new. Most will not care about GW’s business practices, like most consumers they will buy what they think they need, and will listen to the marketing by GW that tells them what they need. GW is not perfect and makes mistakes, but it also makes a lot of good business decisions and GamesDay when you think about it, the current format and stuff within it is probably a good business choice.
So I didn’t go this year to GamesDay, I had a prior commitment and to be honest wasn’t that bothered. Will I bother next year, who knows? Are you going to go? Did you go this year?
I wonder a couple of things. I have been following ifelix for, well, forever.
1. GD sold out – is this because they had a smaller venue or genuinely sold out?
2. Why is GW dropping the ball on this – resources? Spending? No actual return?
I agree by the way, GD seems to be … thin. Like butter spread over too much toast.
in 2010 they previewed more than half of the dark eldar range!