GW to pull Indie Prize support

[T-ORK-amada]

I have a friend who runs two large indie events. He recently received a letter informing him that after May, GW will be pulling his prize support for his events to focus on smaller, in-store events. I believe that this was brought on by a series of factors. As a side note, I heard rumors that GW will be INCREASING the local in-store prize support by $75 a month. Could this herald the return of the old RTTs? First, the demise of Ard Boyz (which I am OK with) and now pulling Indie support, will Games Workshop return to their old ways? Also, what effect will this have on Indie turnouts? And in game Meta? Your thoughts? Reactions?

[DarkLink]

More likely they're washing their hands of the tournament scene. In recent years their handling of the few events they continued to run became more and more shoddy.

[T-ORK-amada]

I agree about the shoddy run GW tournies. They also have lost some people that were running them. But why pull support from people who are doing them right?

[Chuck777]

GW is probably gearing up to create their own series of tournaments again. Pull the support from under the competition and ensure they are harmed financially.

Supporting locals is always a good idea but I'll believe it when I see it.

[T-ORK-amada]

From what I understand, most tournaments aren't meant to make money. Most are run by gamers for gamers. Its about playing the game and making new friends. Why would GW try to alienate the masses. Now, I'm not saying all players play the Indie scene. Most Indies are played by people who are established in the hobby. I will not deny that GW worries about the bottom line and wants to make new customers, however I do see it pointless to shrug off the "die hards" for the "noobies". And how many actual Indies are out there? 100 maybe 200? If GW spent $500 a piece on these tournies for Prize support, it comes out to $100,000. A drop in the bucket. Also think of the free advertisement that these tournies generate. That has to be worth something.

[the jeske]

Why would GW try to alienate the masses.
because they are not paying them ?
tournaments where you get not prizes but discounts from GW shops [online or not] or bons which you can trade for stuff [again best to make it so that nothing good could be bought with them so people would be forced to use real money too] are better for them . + no large tournaments means in a year or two no one can say "look there were X large tournaments and army/build/codex Y seems not to be played , while still fresh" , they dont want noobs to go on to the net read stuff about an army not working and buying something else . they want them to buy 500-600pts of something find out that their friends meq army works 10x better and switch to a meq army too . Rises sells.
also fewer large tournaments means fewer people points out bad rules they make and removes the need for FAQ or errate to some point . It is a win win situation for them .



Also think of the free advertisement that these tournies generate. That has to be worth something.
They know that tournaments and vets do most of the promo work for them , specialy if there are no GW shops near[which is true for most of the world] . But they just dont care . In their minds it is something vets owe them for making the best table top game in the world and the best models . And if someone things it is not totaly true , then it is his problem , not GWs.

[pathwinder14]

As a T.O. for the Gateway Grand Trounament held at Diecon every year this will impact us somewhat, but not greatly. Right now the problem is that anyone wanting to run a GT has to wait for GW to approve it. Ed Spettigue (the guy who ran the GT Dept.) left GW US and they are busy picking up the peices. It looks as though GW is no longer going to be giving T.O.'s the customary $500 worth of scenery for their GT's either. Right now it's a real mess.

[LordGrise]

The more and more I read about GW and their customer relations (as opposed to customer support) the more I wonder what brand of glue the guys at the top are sniffing. I would really like to know, so I can stay tyhe hell away from it. I mean, I read a couple years ago that the top executives not only did not play, but that they were actively contemptuous of the fan base. I didn't believe it at the time. But since then...

This is just dumb. Even if they are looking at tourneys as a potential sales market, and are therefore maneuvering to take a run on it, not supporting your fanbase at the independent level is counterproductive.

Of course, opening your own retail stores and putting yourself in direct competition with the people who are selling your product isn't exactly a good way to make friends anyway...

[DarkLink]

GW is probably gearing up to create their own series of tournaments again.


Not very likely. They've already geared up and tried out their own big tournament, and it failed horribly. I seriously doubt they'd be able to even justify another event even if they wanted to do one.

[Drunkencorgimaster]

however I do see it pointless to shrug off the "die hards" for the "noobies"

And yet paradoxically their pricing seems driven towards making more money from their older, financially-more-secure players than by recruiting new, younger players (who increasingly cannot afford the start-up costs).

I am mystified by this. But I guess that is why I left the corporate world.

[herigonz]

Does this mean that I'd need to go to an official GW store to play in tournaments for any hope of prizes?

I don't normally go participate in tournaments for the prize support either but it does suck since there isn't a particularly close GW store near me and all I have are the hobby stores.

[T-ORK-amada]

No, you do not have to go to their stores. They are not cutting Prize support from LGS, just larger Indie tournies. Well, at least for now.

[inquisitorsog]

And yet paradoxically their pricing seems driven towards making more money from their older, financially-more-secure players than by recruiting new, younger players (who increasingly cannot afford the start-up costs).

I'm going out on a limb on this:
Perhaps, just perhaps, the older more-financially-secure demographic AND the younger and/or newer player demographic are best served by supporting smaller, local tournaments?

Further, the financially secure demographic is likely to not be heavily influenced to buy more GW by the prize at a tourney. A new player, however, is. Further, encouraging people to play tourneys in stores is probably more of a hook to pull in new customers than big tournaments in conference halls. Remember, with the Hobbit coming out, there's more opportunity this year to hook new customers in theory.

If is just that they're just reallocating basically the same money in different ways, I really can't complain. It's a prioritization choice. I fully expect to be one of those things that swings from one side to the other every couple of years.

[Moonley]

This looks a lot like the new tournament format for magic the gathering tcg. I have to say, it was not received very well, magic players are notoriously bad at reacting, but the changes to focus on the local was actually awesome. and the T.Os that everyone wanted to stay, stayed. and certain indie organizers are even competing to the scale of wizards events. I bet the same will happen here.

[fuzzyguy]

As a T.O. for the Gateway Grand Trounament held at Diecon every year this will impact us somewhat, but not greatly. Right now the problem is that anyone wanting to run a GT has to wait for GW to approve it. Ed Spettigue (the guy who ran the GT Dept.) left GW US and they are busy picking up the peices. It looks as though GW is no longer going to be giving T.O.'s the customary $500 worth of scenery for their GT's either. Right now it's a real mess.

Snap, Ed is gone? That is a shame.

[pathwinder14]

Snap, Ed is gone? That is a shame.
Yeah, he was a really cool guy. The hobby will miss his kind of support.