Some Thoughts on Compendium Warsrcolls and Whether or Not Removal is "Fair"

[Criti]

There has been a lot of talk lately about the “validity” of Compendium Warscrolls, whether or not they should be allowed in tournaments, and whether or not including them or disallowing them is friendly or unfriendly to the player base.

I specifically hone in on the “player base” aspect of the conversation, because I often see people getting riled up over GW’s perceived policies toward the player base.  So I just wanted to share a few thoughts on the topic.  Be warned, this will be wordy – and I have a feeling many people will be rubbed the wrong way by my thoughts. 

So why bother writing them down?

Because I don’t think this aspect of the discussion has been adequately raised yet.

And please note, that I make these comments as someone who owns a Tomb Kings army, and is thus directly affected by the looming removal of these models from the game.  Also note that I don’t have all the answers.  A lot of what I will write here is just me asking questions that maybe none of us know the answer to.

Let me start off bluntly.

GW owes you nothing.

Nor does it owe me or anyone else but the stockholders.  My relationship with GW is actually a series of independent relationships with GW.  As soon as I purchase their models or books or board games, that relationship is complete.  I don’t owe them any more money, and they don’t owe me any additional product.

If they want to change the game, that’s their business.  If I don’t want to play it, that’s my business.

Some people may view GW seemingly making “player unfriendly” decisions as bad business, but it’s awfully easy for us to Monday Morning Quarterback and fail to take the big picture into account.  GW is a multi-million dollar company.  Companies don’t get to be multi-million dollar companies without some insight into what will sell and what won’t.  And every major company will pick up and lose customers depending on their decisions.  The difference between GW and, say, the Kleenex facial tissue brand is that Kleenex’s customers don’t tend to congregate together on Internet forums for the sole purpose of discussing Kleenex. 

We also shouldn’t forget that the Internet will ALWAYS be filled with more negative voices than positive ones.  There is a trend in customer satisfaction that states “if you create a happy customer, that customer will tell 3 people.  If you create an unhappy customer, that customer will tell 11.”  I’d imagine with the advent of Facebook and the like, that 11 gets much bigger.  As an example, I am sitting in my kitchen right now writing this.  I have a microwave in that kitchen that I am personally very happy with.  It does what I expect it to do.  It’s easy to clean.  It’s visually appealing.  But I never tell anyone that.  But if my microwave constantly cooked foods unevenly and a friend mentioned he or she was looking for a new microwave, I’d very quickly say “don’t buy model X.  It’s terrible.”  So I always take anything negative I see on the Internet with a grain of salt.

Typically, at this point I would expect someone to say, “but this is a niche market.  GW does owe something to their player base.”  And to that, I would say… no.  They don’t.  They owe something to their CUSTOMER BASE.

So now I have to ask…

Are You a Player… or a Customer?

I’m currently a player, and I acknowledge that.  I have enough models that I could probably play Age of Sigmar for the rest of its run without ever purchasing another miniature.  And when I do buy miniatures, I do it sparingly… because I don’t need huge purchases to play the game.  I don’t drop enough for GW to be concerned about losing my business… ESPECIALLY if the new business they’re picking up beats me.

So what does it take to be a customer over a player?  I honestly don’t know.

I probably drop $1500-2000 a year on GW products.  A lot of that tends to be paint – or purchased from a third party.  I don’t know the current markups – but about a decade ago, while I worked in a game store, the GW markup had the wholesale price of almost all of their products at 65% the retail cost.

Using those numbers, my $2000 a year is only actually $1300 to GW’s pockets.  Making me an even smaller fish.  And yes, I know GW sells to Indy shops because Indy shops promote the game and create more customers.  I’m not arguing against that.  Neither is GW.  They know that creates customers.  Otherwise, they would only sell direct.  It doesn’t change the fact that they get less money out of each purchase.

And how much of that $1300 they will get from me will be made up off models they’re giving the axe to?  $100?  $200?  So why is the TK or Bret range worth keeping around?

Ultimately, GW knows that losing five 10-year veterans will hurt their bottom line less than scaring away 5 new players.  The new player is the customer.  They have to buy all the paints, all the models, all the glue,  all the terrain, etc…

“But Chris,” you might be thinking, “Veteran players help the hobby.”

And I might say…

Do Veteran Players really help the hobby?  Do they help the company?

How many veteran players out there help the hobby?  A fair few, I’d wager… but not all of them.  For every veteran guy (or girl!) who introduces new players and build communities, how many do nothing for the betterment of the hobby?

Of those who help the hobby, how many help GW?

What’s the difference here?  The difference is that a veteran who helps the hobby gets people excited about playing the game and building a community in their shop.  The veteran who helps GW does the same… but also specifically promotes buying GW product.

Did your local veteran suggest you buy Gorilla Glue over Citadel?  Did he recommend P3 paints over Citadel?  Did he point out how easily you could find second hand models on ebay or another website? For the record, I do all of those things with new players.

How many veterans do you know that ONLY acquire models secondhand?  I’ve venture a guess that there are quite a few.

And I know the counter arguments.  But frankly… to GW, they are all irrelevant.  It doesn’t matter that you could afford more off ebay… because they never see a dime of it.  You never became their customer AT ALL.  And GW doesn’t have any reason to answer to your opinion unless they believe they will gain financially from it.  Neither does any company on the planet.  Companies are not our friends.  Companies are companies.

Even Veterans who do nothing but play help GW!

Do they?  Another note about veterans… a lot of us have a lot of cool, out of print miniatures.  We use those in our games regularly.  They’re awesome and we should be allowed to use them.  But an out of print miniature is not the free advertising billboard we think it is.  It’s hard to convince someone to buy a model from GW that they can no longer buy from GW – isn’t it?

A Quick Wrap Up

I think I’ve ranted long enough for the moment.

I understand why people are upset with the direction of the Compendium Warscrolls.  I wish my TK would last forever, too.  But I also understand GW’s point of view and I prefer to play the long game.

If the overhead required to keep that army in play justify themselves less than the overhead required to bring out a new set of models, then I guess I can live with it.

It’s not like I can’t use those models as similar warscrolls anyway.

Regards.

 - Chris