Ulthuan

Every once in a while I end up on the Games Workshop website and browse their models. Keeps you busy and all that. I just did so this morning as well and seeing some of the models just made me think "Seriously Games Workshop? What were you thinking"

The models I mean are




Really? A flying shark mounted with a machine gun? And a flying turtle??


I know a lot of people already think the Lion chariot is stretching it a bit (though I really like the model). But this? Seriously?

…

Anyway. Sorry for the rant. Just had to get that off my chest.

Rod

They've really jumped the shark.

I was briefly excited they were bringing back sea elves. Then I saw them.

They're showing off the technology and it is mighty impressive but the ideas are just wacky.

I picked up my Khalida today - at least with made to order they are allowing us to get elegant models from years past, so no hard feelings.

I often forget to check what they have available in the made to order. I honestly wish I could subscribe to an email that would show me just that.

Shannar, Sealord wrote:They've really jumped the shark.

I preferred Elfquest's dolphin riders.

RE.Lee wrote:the ideas are just wacky.

I did notice some vague similarities with the Aquaman trailer.

Prince of Spires wrote:And a flying turtle??

They forgot the elephants.

SpellArcher wrote:

Prince of Spires wrote:And a flying turtle??

They forgot the elephants.

Now that would be epic. Though the elves on top would be a bit different from the noble, elegant creatures currently inhabiting the Warhammer universe...

Their designers are just awful. 0 creative discipline or maturity, they're just throwing stuff at the wall and hoping for the best. Frankly you can tell the stuff is being designed by CAD monkeys and not trained sculptors. It reeks of 3rd rate video game design. Just terrible. Send these children to a half decent art school someone please. The only good stuff coming out now is the revamped old designs, where they're just updating existing designs. They're also now outsourcing a lot of the painting, which is carrying so many of these sculpts.

I'm not sure. I think they probably employ some of the best sculptors in the business. But I also think that they try too hard to be cool and to use all possible technological options available to them. And put that into a single model. I once read an article somewhere that stated that the best works of art come into existence when you have limits and boundaries you have to take into consideration. When you have to be creative with what you can do and come up with creative solutions to issues.

This is currently not the case for GW. I think they managed to push the technology to such a point where they can do pretty much whatever they want. So, that is what they do. They do not have to look for creative solutions. It's a bit similar to action movies that rely too much on graphical effects because they can and forget that for a great movie you need a great story as well. Or a computer game that is only about the cool graphics and having the highest framerate but forgets that great gameplay is what makes a game worth playing. So it is with GW.

As for the painting. Well, I'm often not a fan. They somehow manage to make the models look less appealing then they are. And the painting is well below what many of the accomplished hobbyists here and on other sites can do. It feels like they aim for a level of painting that a normal 15 year old can achieve without too much trouble. Which perhaps is honest. But it doesn't make the models look great when you're trying to sell them.

Rod

I'm not sure. I think they probably employ some of the best sculptors in the business.

There was a time when I thought this. But there are a lot of sculptors who started out at GW, and then choose to move on. And GW seems not to work with people who also do work for other companies. It's almost like they help develop the talent, and once it's really good they move on. They do still have an edge in technology though. As as you pointed out they suffer from that to some extent.

It's important to note that their stock has shot up like crazy in the last couple of years.

Selfishly I want to believe it's due to licensing and not due to the younger generation of games preferring age of sigmar.

There is a lot of licensing. They have brought back smaller games again. They did a new edition of 40k, that seems to have gone over fairly well. They have done a MUCH better job of engaging their fans- better than anytime since the early 00s. The drop of the pound (though it's now recovered much of that) helped them out for a bit as well. AoS might be doing better, it might be doing worse than WFB. I'd guess it's largely the same to somewhat better- because everything is new and pretty. But given all the positive things they are doing GW was bound to improve.

And then the mailorder scandal happened

It felt almost like they were accumulating a storage of good will for something like that.

what now? What did they do?

Shannar, Sealord wrote:what now? What did they do?

I too am interested to find out.

I'm probably the only one here, but I actually like some of the models (although they do not fit in my armies or way orf playing fantasy, which is more traditional). They went another way, they go all out in that, and although it is not for me, I am impressed.

I love the 40K dragsters, I like that they bring back some other games. So no complans from me - I can get my fix at all the many small companies prolonging the 'old' WH/9thAge/GenericFantasy stuff. I choose my rulesets, be it 9th Age, Dragon Rampant, ASOBH, SAGA or Frostgrave.

Let them do their thing, be creative.

SpellArcher wrote:

Shannar, Sealord wrote:what now? What did they do?

I too am interested to find out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVB7VAYAJFs

Giladis wrote:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVB7VAYAJFs

They don’t seem very happy.

GW do seem to use some sort of mysterious exchange rate known only to them.

Shannar, Sealord wrote:GW do seem to use some sort of mysterious exchange rate known only to them.

meh. It's pretty much the same for every other company dealing internationally out there. I had a colleague who calculated that when the iPhone X first came out it was actually cheaper to buy a plane ticket from Amsterdam to New York, book two night in some Airbnb place to sleep and buy the iPhone X there then to buy it directly in Amsterdam. And there are legions of other similar cases. Companies always use weird exchange rates. The reason probably is that you're not paying for what something costs but you're paying for what people think it's worth. Which are very different things.

Of course, still not fun to get a 20% price raise. Even more so when it's disguised as a benefit to the shopper.

Aerendar Valandil wrote:I'm probably the only one here, but I actually like some of the models (although they do not fit in my armies or way orf playing fantasy, which is more traditional).

They have made some nice models. I like some of the terrain pieces that have come out since AoS launched for instance. But people standing on flying sharks is just wrong in all possible ways.

Rod

Prince of Spires wrote:But people standing on flying sharks is just wrong in all possible ways.

Unless you’re The Fonz of course.

This is why they stopped Warhammer Fantasy. It's because there is too much fantasy going around. Or a grand lack thereof....

SpellArcher wrote:

Prince of Spires wrote:But people standing on flying sharks is just wrong in all possible ways.

Unless you’re The Fonz of course.

True. But then, anything The Fonz does is cool.

This is currently not the case for GW. I think they managed to push the technology to such a point where they can do pretty much whatever they want. So, that is what they do. They do not have to look for creative solutions. It's a bit similar to action movies that rely too much on graphical effects because they can and forget that for a great movie you need a great story as well. Or a computer game that is only about the cool graphics and having the highest framerate but forgets that great gameplay is what makes a game worth playing. So it is with GW.

Yes and no. Perhaps the capitalize too much on the effects side, but they know that a lot of players/buyers want that. I have a club here that has currently merged with a 40K/GW-club, and both the original members - slightly elder players who wargame broadly form heroic to GW - and the new 40K-jump mmedately on GW. Like they jump on action movies and Starwars. It works. And sometimes they are disappointed, but usually they accept the rules and play their games.

Obviously the game is worth playing and the models worth buying - like the arthouse films I like and literary novels hardly sell and the next Starwars flick or lame fantasy-zilloquidruplofantalagoy sells million.

It is not GW. It is the buyers buying it. (Including me, occasionally).

As for the painting. Well, I'm often not a fan. They somehow manage to make the models look less appealing then they are. And the painting is well below what many of the accomplished hobbyists here and on other sites can do. It feels like they aim for a level of painting that a normal 15 year old can achieve without too much trouble. Which perhaps is honest. But it doesn't make the models look great when you're trying to sell them.

I actually think this is better. I heve been intimidated by painting quality in the past, and I really loved that white dwarf when Nigel Stillman in 'a tale of four painters(?)' built his little force of not-so-well-painted Bretonnians. Which made it somehow acceptable to have an army that was not so perfectly painted.