Getting back into the Games Workshop

UK Games Expo is looming on the horizon, and one of the exhibitors there is Games Workshop.

Yes you read that right. They won't just be there with a sales stand but actually interacting with the gaming community again.

This change in attitude to the gaming community has been a long time coming. For the last few years GW had shut down any interaction with their fans via social media, and were a company that was apparently (if you ask the CEO, Kirby, back then) focused on making miniatures, and that was because that is what their customers wanted first. Not games. Miniatures.

Let that sink in for a bit.

Then we had the change over, as if a different roll of film was put on the projector, and things seemed fresh and new. The new CEO, Rountree, has caused a change in direction of GW. No longer do we expect less miniatures for more money, and a diminishing quality in the games. Now we are getting back towards some of the good old days. White Dwarf magazine has proper gaming content within it, and is thick again and filled with hobby articles. Games like Gangs of Commorragh, Shadow War Armageddon, Shadespire, and Age of Sigmar skirmish, are pouring out of the GW studio. It's as if they want you to play as many games as possible with their miniatures. Shadow War even uses a system that is essentially Necromunda/Warhammer 40k 2nd ed. We have rules for Eldar and Tau using that system! It's as if GW is having their cake and getting to eat it.

For old grogs like me, these smaller games are great. I can paint small numbers of models for all these games, and I get to enjoy the variety without having to make larger armies of models just to be able to get a pick up game. For GW of course that means lots of smaller sales as players pick and mix their collection. And of course all the old fans are coming out of the woodwork.

At UKGE myself and James will be probing the guys from GW about the new skirmish expansion for Age of Sigmar, looking at Shadespire, and of course asking questions about Epic. Oh and those gigantic new Space Marines.