Wednesday, August 16, 2006

Improvements (just to get it off my chest)

If a codex is written, it takes long.
No problem. We can wait a bit. But make it decent!

So here's a set of things GW should abide by/should and COULD improve.

1: If you make a codex, do it right.
---1a Make sure there are no sloppy type-o's.
---1b Make sure the wording is chrystal clear. It sounds quite easy, but somehow GW is a star in fucking this up.
---1c Watch out for major contradictions: make sure you've taken other armies rules and those of the big rules book into account. Contradictions are only good for senseless hot debates and maybe even arguments during games.

Conclusion about 1: If 1a-c is followed, people won't have stupid arguments during games. These arguments slow the game down and fun get's set aside for argument.
There'll be less to post about on fora, but there's plenty of other far more interesting stuff to write about.

2: If after this clarification is needed in the form of a FAQ?
Do it fast! By fast I mean maybe 2 months. The major fora like B&C, Warpshadow, Warseer do most of their work for them by discussing loopholes till everything is said about it. They just have to scoop up the important questions and even answers.
2b: They should make sure they answer EVERY important question and don't suffice with half a pdf full off 90% irrelevant questions.

3 The White Dwarf (their magazine).
They've been trying to sell their Lord of the Rings game far too hard. After the hype about the movies died down they could've know things would go downhill. They probably had/have a contract which obliged them to squeeze it to the last penny. But they should have seen it coming that after a hype dies, things won't sell as much. In the case of the LotR movies, the game would (I don't know how big the market is atm) shrink to just a core group of people who stick around. People won't be attracted to the game as fast as during the movies hype.

To the point: they litteraly flooded their magazine with LotR stuff and allmost ignored warhammer fantasy and 40K got pushed in a very dark corner of the magazine. It should be one of 2 major game systems of GW, but LotR was used as the attention whore. I for one stopped buying/reading WD. I only buy it if there is plenty of 40K to pay the 6-7 euro's (if not more) for it.
What they should do (if they can): equel stuff.
Be realistic. Listen to the gamers!

3b: the content has diminished in quality too. Battlereports have been only half as fun to read. And the lists that are used aren't good lists, most of the time things are way off. Stupid mistakes are made. Decisions aren't explained etc.

4: Communication
This SHOULD be key in all GW handling. It sounds corny, but listening to the consumer should count. And with listening I don't mean obey slavishly.
Customer support just plain sucks.
Ordering stuff from the online store sometimes looks like a lottery in case of the delivery time. And the deliveries aren't all that too (missing parts etc etc).

4b---FAQ: see pt 2 (maybe even point 1). They should keep an eye on what goes on in the community and act towards that.

4c---Prices: it's a cursed subject. THe market isn't going too well, prices go up and up and up. Some feel you shouldn't complain about it because you will buy anyway.
True. But normally you expect to get your money's worth.

4d---Plastic vs Pewter
Ok so pewter (metal) gives some stature and sometimes does look and feel cool. But there are plenty of models which should be just plastic. They will be sold far better *gargoyles anyone?* because they can be sold in greater packs and are easier to model.
People have been begging for some stuff for years. And the only thing you get back are snide (sp) remarks or even worse: sarcasm (like one of the Nid developers in the WD: plastic gargoyles? hmmm maybe in the next edition).

Overall: Communication between the different departments of GW and between GW and their customers.

Clear rules + Fast faq-ing (sounds ikky) + Good customer support = HAPPY GAMERS!
Ot would at least show that they TRIED!
Making things clear should be easy, but apparently it's hard.

------------
I don't care if anyone can follow what I've written..just getting it off my chest.
I would like to join a board meeting of GW where I could point out these things, after which they would actually DO something with it because of course I'm not a lonely gamer with these frustrations, there are thousands (per country!).

9 Comments:

Blogger High Power Rocketry said...

Almost too simple, but so hard in practice for many: take pride in your work. Any work, for profit, hobby, or just fun. Do a good job, for the sake of doing a good job.

16 August 2006 at 02:31  
Blogger Erwin said...

all i can say is:
MAYBE we should actually "send" all those Q's we have to GW.uk ON THE PROPER BOARDS!

I mean, it's not like thy have a team of guys sitting around all day to check every possible forum for FAQ problems. It's just not feasable. I mean, at the best they can put in 5 guys. But the B&C alone carries 20K players, than there's Dakkadakka which carries more than that, and warseer, warpshadow, elda online, tau online, commoragh. that's like 200K+ gamers online who are capable of generating a list of Q's that should be FAQ'ed. Now MAYEB these forums should gather those Q's and put them on the development board of gw.uk.
I sure know B&C didn't do it and the other forums probably didn't do it either.

nuff said ya spoiled brats!

16 August 2006 at 11:16  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

well Warpshadow for one put up a fairly decent own FAQ.

And maybe there are 200K gamers. But if those boards would just sticky (or make a separate page like warpshadow did) those Faq's.

Gw would only need to scoop up things from maybe in total 20 large fora (and they don't even have to look very hard). And atm they take a damn while coming up with crap!
Posting it on the normal boards? GW uk/us/de ...which one or all?
Uk should be the best I guess..
But those posts would probably be better off..send to GW in a letter together with somekind of digital autograph of a lot of board members. *gonna suggest it on warpshadow..*

16 August 2006 at 12:14  
Blogger The Angelus Sanctus said...

Man, talk about rant...


Ehhh, it WOULD be nice for GW to do all those things, but we all know they wont and they will have no intention on doing so...

So yeah... We are all stuck with a game system that is slowly but surely on the decline.


-TAS

16 August 2006 at 16:34  
Blogger Erwin said...

update thou sleazeballeth

25 August 2006 at 11:55  
Blogger Maarten said...

Yeah! I really want some YouTube content of you shooting pidgeons with your wicked-ass ninja gadget!

25 August 2006 at 23:31  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

lol. I'll update..but I'm not sure if I'll be allowed to stay in my ninjitsu academy if I put video's online of me shooting pidgeons with the blowgun ;)

*doesn't mean I won't shoot pidgeons someday...otherwise they'll be gassed, what's better: being gassed, or being arrowed to death :D

26 August 2006 at 10:20  
Blogger lastlifeinmyuniverse said...

nerds have BIG HARD drives.

dont that apply to gamers as well ? (if your a pc/mac gamer)

26 August 2006 at 13:48  
Blogger Arjan said...

yes and men with long fingers and large feet so quite save haha.

I'll update I'll update.

28 August 2006 at 11:43  

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