How Games Workshop Will Be Defeated
Love them or hate them, Games Workshop has a near-monopoly on the miniature wargame industry. But many fans are angry at the company for myriad reasons.
Games Workshop (GW), the company which owns, creates, and licenses the Warhammer Fantasy (WHF), Warhammer 40k (WH40k), and Age of Sigmar (AoS) IPs, has come under fire by their fans lately. A mix of rapid-fire cease-and-desist orders aimed at fan creators, constant retcons of well known canon within their universes (specifically WH40k), and a pay-to-play model pulled from the subscription video game industry have alienated fans which have been in the hobby for years, if not decades.
Fan creators who make content for free purely due to their love of the IPs and the games have been assailed by cease-and-desist orders which many cannot fight because they don’t have the money or lawyers GW does. In a video on why he’s leaving WH40k, YouTuber Janovich discusses that some fan creators were given the choice of signing contracts with GW if they wanted to continue to create WH40k content. Without a contract, fan creators face the threat of GW’s legal apparatus.
YouTubers and Canadian Friendly Local Game Store (FLGS) owners Lords of War Games and Hobbies described how GW has a near-monopoly in the wargame industry by constantly releasing more miniatures and books for their IPs, and hobby stores can either make room for them by removing other games, or not have product and drive customers away to other stores and/or online retail.
Many long time fans have complained for some time about how every three to five years their army books and miniatures are no longer useable in games as GW refreshes the rules and mini lines in an attempt to get players to purchase more product.
You might be asking yourself, “Is there a solution to this? Will someone finally take down GW?”
Don’t Give Money to People Who Hate You
Indie author Brian Niemeier on X has an excellent book called “Don’t Give Money To People Who Hate You”. I argue that, while GW may like your money, they generally hate you, the fan, especially if you’re an established fan from decades past. Their attack on fan creators, retcons of well established canon lore, and small pushes here and there to inject woke into the story (female Custodes, female Space Marines, etc.) shows they don’t care about the community, and ergo the customers, who are the reason GW is around in the first place.
So what can you do? Stop giving them money.
Like WHF and WH40k but not the direction GW is going? Go on eBay and purchase older editions of the rules and older miniatures.
Push your FLGS to carry less GW and more product of other properties such as Corvus Belli’s “Infinity” and “Warcrow”, Mantic Games’ “Kings of War”, “Firefight”, and “Deadzone”, or games from Osprey Publishing and Modiphius.
I’m partial to “Steel Rift”.
BLKOUT is a tactical wargame made by US Military veterans.
Support other games such as “One Page Rules” and “Zeo-Genesis”, and 3D Print miniatures.
There is a sea of great companies and games out there to choose from and spend your hard earned dollars with.
Which brings us to my next point.
Death By A Thousand Cuts
I don’t believe GW and its associated IPs will taken out in one big swoop by some other IP. I don’t believe it will be some clash of titans in the miniature wargame industry. There will be no final showdown between GW and some other company to see who comes out on top.
I believe it will be “death by a thousand cuts”.
With so many wargames and different STL files for 3D-printing miniatures gamers and hobbyists have numerous products to choose from. While the miniature wargame market has been very centralized for quite some time, control of the market is becoming more dispersed and decentralized. Some of this began with the introduction of Kickstarter and the success (and failure) of many indie games there. But as the chaos of those Kickstarter years are calming there are more established, long lasting games to choose from, a few of which are listed above.
Support these other creators and games by purchasing their games and creating fan made content for them. Where GW beats down its fan creators, many of these companies would be ecstatic to have fans cosplay as their characters or create short films for free and purely for the the enjoyment of their IP. Don’t expect cease-and-desist orders from these companies.
Share these games and your experiences online for more people to see. If you like a company and their game, be a voice on social media championing them.
Or, you could always. . .
Create Your Own Stuff
There is nothing stopping someone, or a group of people, from creating their own game(s). These games could be just for your group of friends, never to be seen beyond your group, or maybe a Discord channel or forum. Or they could be commercial endeavors where you and a partner or two develop something meant to be sold in stores and online.
The world is your oyster.
I’ve wondered how many people are there out there who have some really good ideas, but look at the likes of GW and think they couldn’t do something like that, or are deterred by the thought that whatever they create has to go through some business process. Perhaps they wonder how they’re going to make miniatures or print books, and the whole endeavor seems daunting.
If you’re creative, have some ideas, can doodle, and/or get some buddies with different skills together you can make something all your own to enjoy.
Make PDFs or print on simple printer paper.
Make little standees instead of plastic minis. If you or someone in your group does have a 3D printer and is good at 3D modeling, great, but it’s not required.
It doesn’t have to be elaborate.
It doesn’t have to be polished.
If you and your pals are having fun, why does it matter? And at most you spend money on some printer paper, maybe a few generic non-IP minis.
And GW, a company which has shown disdain for its established fans, doesn’t get your money. (Your spouse and/or family will probably thank you, too, as you’re not spending small fortunes on new GW books and minis every three to five years. . .)
What Can Be Learned From GW
As much as I’ve harped on GW, and others have as well, it’s not all bad. There are lessons to be learned from GW’s success which can be applied to established game companies, new games, or creations you make with friends.
GW is vertically integrated. They print, publish, and manufacture everything. They do not outsource it. Hence, they have full control of quality and aren’t affected as much by certain global economic events. While the current capitalist mentality is to outsource as much as possible, GW has shown that vertical integration is the way to go in a regularly uncertain world.
GW has also expanded into different avenues. Not only is WH40k a tabletop wargame of big armies, there’s Kill Team - a much smaller game, Adeptus Titanicus - a way to play with massive armies at a smaller scale, there’s boardgames, books, video games, and even shows. GW’s development of its IPs beyond the base game into other (generally) fun ways to enjoy it has been part of its past success. I’m not going to lie, playing Age of Sigmar: Spearhead in Tabletop Simulator on Steam is pretty fun. Think about how you can apply that to what you create.
In Conclusion
While there are many people angry at GW lately, there are ways to avoid them and take your hard earned dollars elsewhere. If you do want your FLGS to carry games other than GW and/or want more people to play those other games, make sure you are active in that space (preferably without being an idiot about it), championing those games so that stores in your area are encouraged and rewarded with carrying other games. Create that fan content for those other IPs, or maybe create games and stories of your own.
GW may not fold overnight, or at all, but they will definitely have less market share than before.
A STAR FOLK SAGA
I’ve taken my own advice and have created stories of my own.
PETR and RETRIBUTION are the first two books in A STAR FOLK SAGA, part of my Post-Earth Universe.
Petr and his motley crew fight to survive as they are dragged into international intrigue.
