The Rumour Thread

[Gitzdee]

I could understand that working at GW could not be for everyone. I dont read that much into news like this. I have had people leave my job to do something else or because they didnt like the managenent. I think the management at my job is really flexibel and we get nice extras all the time, sometimes people just have different views or things they want to get out of their jobs. But it seems like she is already better off at youtube. I dont like Warhammer+ but thats a whole different cookie.

Edited April 8, 2023 by Gitzdee

[Marcvs]

29 minutes ago, Gitzdee said:

I dont read that much into news like this.

In this specific case the chain of events is not exactly a mystery even just reading the stuff that is public and not rumours or background.

GW changed her working conditions (going "only hands"), she didn't like it, made it known (there's some fun Twitter replies if you follow her there), and then left.

[Gitzdee]

23 minutes ago, Marcvs said:

In this specific case the chain of events is not exactly a mystery even just reading the stuff that is public and not rumours or background.

GW changed her working conditions (going "only hands"), she didn't like it, made it known (there's some fun Twitter replies if you follow her there), and then left.

Yeah i wouldnt go public with something like that. Things like that happen at a workplace. Its her choice to leave. I would not do something like that, but thats just me.

Any idea what goes up for preorder this weekend?

Edited April 8, 2023 by Gitzdee

[Drizug]

We don't really know how she left the company (good or bad terms). Probably not great..

Surely I'm looking forward to seeing more from her. But I also understand why GW can't really compete with this. I mean, successful YouTubers can make quite a bit of money (including patreons etc) not a salary GW can pay to everyone in its creative team, million dollar company or not

 

Unfortunately for us this also means less and less incentive for GW to create community facing staff as the trend is quite clear. Simply they leave once popular enough (and can't blame them)

 

anyway. I'll surely support Louise 

 

[JerekKruger]

20 minutes ago, Drizug said:

Surely I'm looking forward to seeing more from her. But I also understand why GW can't really compete with this. I mean, successful YouTubers can make quite a bit of money (including patreons etc) not a salary GW can pay to everyone in its creative team, million dollar company or not

They can't compete with the money directly, but they can offer stability (your salary isn't going to go up and down month by month depending on sub and viewer numbers) and simplicity (you don't have to do taxes or any other self-employed stuff). For some people, if the salary is decent, that's more appealing than the extra money of going solo. My guess is GW could have offered her, Duncan Rhodes, Peachy etc. a salary that would have kept them there, but wasn't willing to.

That said, working conditions are important too: summer if the story Peachy tells makes working at GW sound less than enjoyable. It doesn't sound like what a company if it's size should be: it sounds decidedly unprofessional (which is, to an extent, fine for smaller companies, but a bad idea when you get big).

[Grungnisson]

1 hour ago, Drizug said:

not a salary GW can pay to everyone in its creative team, million dollar company or not

(...)

 

GW is curretly worth more than Marks & Spencer, just for the record.

Still, as with many other people who left before her (Peachy, Duncan, Rob, Hattie) it's never about the money, it's about the treatment of the employees and working conditions. Some people think that's important. Others just mock it as 'woke'.

[Gitzdee]

I also think those people have outgrown GW to be more creative and create their own content. Imho i think GW should stick to making great models and lore for content creators to play around with and not try to invent the social media wheel themselves. Both can live in harmony and support each other.

Edited April 8, 2023 by Gitzdee

[Drizug]

15 minutes ago, Grungnisson said:

GW is curretly worth more than Marks & Spencer, just for the record.

Still, as with many other people who left before her (Peachy, Duncan, Rob, Hattie) it's never about the money, it's about the treatment of the employees and working conditions. Some people think that's important. Others just mock it as 'woke'.

I'm with you. It's not just money but will be a factor and who you work with is always super important. But then the key point really is: where should GW specialise and focus resources? I think Gitzdee has it right:

 

12 minutes ago, Gitzdee said:

I also think those people have outgrown GW to be more creative and create their own content. Imho i think GW should stick to making great models and lore for content creators to play around with and not try to invent the social media wheel themselves. Both can live in harmony and support each other.

I think this is very correct. These creators are better off on their own. And GW should just focus on the core business.

 

[sandlemad]

19 minutes ago, Grungnisson said:

GW is curretly worth more than Marks & Spencer, just for the record.

Still, as with many other people who left before her (Peachy, Duncan, Rob, Hattie) it's never about the money, it's about the treatment of the employees and working conditions. Some people think that's important. Others just mock it as 'woke'.

 I think it’s both. James Hewitt, one of the designers behind the newer Necromunda, Blood Bowl and Adeptus Titanicus, was open about GW both underpaying (while playing the whole “you have to be soooo passionate to work here” card) and being haphazard and clumsy at best, actively pretty bad at worst in how it treats its staff.

[Chikout]

There's definitely some pretty serious mismanagement going on at GW and maybe more serious problems. You don't lose your 3 most talented presenters in a fairly short space of time if your workplace is a good place to work in and it's clear the offered salaries aren't enough to balance this. I used to watch their painting videos and listen to the podcasts but their move away from engagement with the community is something that's going to hurt them in the long run. The "only hands" and the first name only policy are two misguided policies that are examples of this. 

While Peachy, Louise and Duncan are 'only' painters, this is a problem that the rules team and the Black Library team share. It's why Josh Reynolds left. It's why James Hewitt left.   So just saying gw should focus on its core business doesn't solve the problem. 

It's seems that Matt Rose has had a pretty positive effect on AoS since he joined but there's every chance that GW's management problems could see him leaving sooner rather than later. 

 

Edited April 8, 2023 by Chikout

[JerekKruger]

37 minutes ago, Gitzdee said:

I also think those people have outgrown GW to be more creative and create their own content. Imho i think GW should stick to making great models and lore for content creators to play around with and not try to invent the social media wheel themselves. Both can live in harmony and support each other.

From a purely business perspective this is definitely true. Duncan, Louise, Peachy, Hattie and Rob all make a lot of content related to GW. People watching that content will (probably) buy GW products. All that at very little cost to GW (yeah, people buying Duncan's paints might not but as many GW paints, but I doubt it's a huge).

But it's not easy to measure how much of a benefit these third party creators being GW, which means it's not easy for managers to justify bonuses as a result (plus of course no manager is directly responsible for this content, or in control of it), so managers trying to get bonuses/pay rises probably want in house stuff they can claim responsibility for.

[Gareth 🍄]

Hope they're paying their Lead Miniatures Designer well.

 

[Chikout]

Yet more evidence of GW's ridiculous new policies. 

 

Judges are not allowed to give feedback anymore.  What an awful policy. I remember going to games day in the 90s. Two members of the judging team took the time to spend several minutes looking at my terribly painted mini and give me feedback. It made the whole experience a positive one for  me despite not making the first cut. It's kind of insane that they're stopping this. 

Edited April 8, 2023 by Chikout

[Black_Templar_Lad]

It's a damn shame what poor management can do to its workers. 

Was listening to Peachy on The Painting Phase and discussing how an amazing job can become quite tiresome and frustrating, and it was so refreshing to hear as I've felt pretty much the same in my job in that I started to feel guilty because from what I came from, I started to think surely I'm just being entitled, my job is actually fun and chill and a complete contrast to my first job, so how can I be annoyed, others have it way worse.

But when they were discussing how management can make or break a job it really hit home. A job can be well paid (for what you do), your colleagues can be amazing, you can be doing your dream job, what you've trained for all these years, but if top management has problems, it absolutely can affect your outlook on the job, all those tiny tiny frustrations, day by day, policy by policy, month by month, eventually build up, and becomes something you resent, no matter how good the actual job is, and you shouldn't be ashamed to feel that way.

It is really such a shame that some of these amazing individuals are having to do this, but you know what, if that's best for them, then that's perfect. Warhammer isn't going anywhere, we have so much to thank to the current and past GW employees who make this hobby what it is, but whatever is best for them is the best outcome.

 

[MitGas]

9 hours ago, madmac said:

All I'll say on the matter is that there was a time I actually paid close attention to GW's painting tutorials, they used to be excellent and easy to follow for good results, but the quality and consistency of their videos has just keep plunging further and further over the years, to the point that they really might as well not exist at all.

Yeah, I‘ve stopped watching GW tutorials more or less too - I‘m not a new /inexperienced painter so basic tutorials like the free YT ones by GW can‘t teach me anything (sorry for sounding so cocky) but find the offerings of non-GW painters more interesting and helpful too and love watching a couple of them (Vince, Ninjon, Trovarion, Squidmar, Duncan, Scott, etc.), mostly to relax and get cool inspirations. The WH+ ones aren‘t bad either but usually quite specific. Which can be awesome or it can be about painting Blood Angel armor 😂
 

Darren‘s masterclass was awesome though. What‘s also awesome is https://eavy-archive.com/ - to me that completely takes away the need for basic GW tutorials as you learn the true Eavy Metal recipes they‘ve used there. 

[The Lost Sigmarite]

20 hours ago, Gitzdee said:

Edit: I do think Gitmob could be a potential 2nd wave for Destruction.

There's definitelly a creative niche for wolf riding gobbos with crazy ramshackle contraptions in AoS.

 

18 hours ago, Captaniser said:

 

It would seem that she did not leave on good terms with GW, like at all

This is plain sad. ****** managers strike again... coupled with low wages and GW's deceptive politics of "bonuses", no wonder people leave. (For those who don't know, GW can give big bonuses to employees. It's just that those drop at random (when they drop), so employees can't plan in advance their finances. It would be better to simply raise wages instead of dropping random bonuses at random times. But I digress.). The ambiance seems toxic as ******. I hope the algorithm is gonna censor the bad words, sorry about that.
GW should definitely start taking the brain drain of popular, talented employees seriously. Because it's always the big beloved names that leave : Duncan, Peachy, Louise, Josh Reynolds, etc. I know that nowadays people bounce from firm to firm more often, but this is weird.

And btw, about that Andy Smilie allegation, this is serious. He could (and should) been the subject of a filed complaint, yet he gets away with just a demotion. These kind of bad people are actually hurting the Warhammer hobby as a whole, and more importantly, actual human beings with jobs and families to feed. There should be a petition to have him kicked out of GW for what he did. ****** Andy Smilie.

Edited April 8, 2023 by The Lost Sigmarite

[Tonhel]

49 minutes ago, The Lost Sigmarite said:

There's definitelly a creative niche for wolf riding gobbos with crazy ramshackle contraptions in AoS.

 

This is plain sad. ****** managers strike again... coupled with low wages and GW's deceptive politics of "bonuses", no wonder people leave. (For those who don't know, GW can give big bonuses to employees. It's just that those drop at random (when they drop), so employees can't plan in advance their finances. It would be better to simply raise wages instead of dropping random bonuses at random times. But I digress.). The ambiance seems toxic as ******. I hope the algorithm is gonna censor the bad words, sorry about that.
GW should definitely start taking the brain drain of popular, talented employees seriously. Because it's always the big beloved names that leave : Duncan, Peachy, Louise, Josh Reynolds, etc. I know that nowadays people bounce from firm to firm more often, but this is weird.

And btw, about that Andy Smilie allegation, this is serious. He could (and should) been the subject of a filed complaint, yet he gets away with just a demotion. These kind of bad people are actually hurting the Warhammer hobby as a whole, and more importantly, actual human beings with jobs and families to feed. There should be a petition to have him kicked out of GW for what he did. ****** Andy Smilie.

Lol, bring out the torches. As always on the internet.. first assumptions followed by accusations. You seem to forget that Andy Smilie (I have no idea who he is) also has family, friends and etc... . There is also difference how people behave on camera (youtube / influencers etc...) and how they are as a friend / collegues and etc..). I am not talking about louise. Just pointing out that liking someone on youtube or instagram is mostly liking a fantasy.

Edited April 8, 2023 by Tonhel

[zilberfrid]

On 4/6/2023 at 11:36 PM, Kitsumy said:

well like i said. krule are only a faction of a whole book. i know some guys hate soups, but... the tome is called bug wagh and it is above average..... if someone wanna play only a fraction of a book with only 1 specific pasive and hope to be as good as others book using his best build.. keep dreaming.

idoneth book IS the worst one by far, droping them from above average with his 1.0 book to worst 3.0 book in every datashet, maybe among top 3 worst( like i said i dont count every orc faction like differents books). 

and still waitting the answer to the reason slaves got buffed despite having higher winrate, playrate,numbers of 5/0s, number on ket, number of tomes heck being better in everything haha but idoneth got forgotten like always

This is why I hate souping.

Swamp orc models are useless in other factions. Why should their players care that a chapter they can hardly use in a book is competetive?

If a skyport in Kharadron sucks, you use the same models in another one. If your Ironjaws/Boneslitters/swamp orc chapter sucks, your models cannot be used in another chapter (except big waagh, and I don't think that works for swamp orcs).

[pnkdth]

21 hours ago, Captaniser said:

Louise Sugden, Warhammer+ presenter and masterclass painter, has left GW and started her own youtube channel

 

 

It would seem that she did not leave on good terms with GW, like at all

More Lousie, more often. ™

So glad for her and looking forward to see more of her work while never ever supporting WH+. The funniest part here is GW had a golden ticket to an in-house influencer but through sheer incompetence and ignorance of anything digital they let it slip through their fingers.

As far as I am concerned this is a net gain for the hobby. I am sure GW will catch on in about 5-10 years and try to rebrand influencers as a completely unique idea found nowhere else.

Edit: they're up to 13k subscribers and haven't even started yet.

Edited April 8, 2023 by pnkdth

[Wrathful]

Well.. apparently GW can’t learn from past mistakes and keep their chatismatic employees. On the other hand, they probably left on good terms to pursue a new professional challenge. I still think they lost a lot of awesome painters and influencers that could bring even more people to the hobby.. for exemple: locking Louise behind a pay-wall with warhammer +…

Anyway, I’m happy we will get to see her more often!! Can’t wait!!

I have a question that is not related to this topic: when something is no longer avaliable online what does that mean? I eanted to buy some wrathmongers but they are no longer avaliable online.

[pnkdth]

24 minutes ago, Wrathful said:

I have a question that is not related to this topic: when something is no longer avaliable online what does that mean? I eanted to buy some wrathmongers but they are no longer avaliable online.

3rd party suppliers are your best bet. My philosophy is support local first then national suppliers. I've never had to go global. Sometimes it takes a bit longer but it is a good way to ensure your local source/ties stay healthy.

Edited April 8, 2023 by pnkdth

[EntMan]

2 hours ago, pnkdth said:

I am sure GW will catch on in about 5-10 years and try to rebrand influencers as a completely unique idea found nowhere else.

Eynfluenciums? 

[Wrathful]

1 hour ago, pnkdth said:

3rd party suppliers are your best bet. My philosophy is support local first then national suppliers. I've never had to go global. Sometimes it takes a bit longer but it is a good way to ensure your local source/ties stay healthy.

Thanks for the reply. Yes that’s what I’m going to do.

But the what does it mean when it is no longer available online? Are they being reboxed for 3rd edition, or does it mean something else?

[EntMan]

4 minutes ago, Wrathful said:

But the what does it mean when it is no longer available online? Are they being reboxed for 3rd edition, or does it mean something else?

I believe it either means it's being reboxed, or it's being discontinued. It's been used for both.

[JerekKruger]

30 minutes ago, EntMan said:

I believe it either means it's being reboxed, or it's being discontinued. It's been used for both.

Yeah, it means the product code is no longer available online. When things are reboxed they get a new product code so it's often the case they temporarily get listed as no longer available online (my guess is, behind the scenes, an entirely new entry is added for the new code, the old entry is entirely removed and the new entry activated at the same time). Obviously if something is completely discontinued it'll be the same, but without coming back.