This is the first time I have posted on the website (as I said in my original post). You make a number of points that are unclear or that are unfair to say without something a little more substantial than the experiences of a single person.

Maybe my tone was overly confrontational and hence you classified me ‘troll’ – but I think a number of GW employees might feel the same about your comments regarding them, so I don’t feel too apologetic for it.

If you are going to found something like GMS and go on record stating things like this, the least you can do is back up what you say with figures. Otherwise, I have to ask who the real troll is.

This time I will not engage with you. Your comment is trollish and I have spent more than enough time dealing with the likes of you in the past. I think also *with* you in the past. And I am bored with you.

I will leave the “comment” on the site because, unlike other websites whose owners get offended at the slightest sign of opposition, I believe in freedom of speech, but I will not reply.

How can I qualify ‘very badly researched’? Easy. Take a look at GW’s last financial report (2011-2012), which is freely available on the web, and two numbers stand out. Their revenue for that period was £131M, yet pre-tax profits (thats PRE-tax, folks) was only £19.5M. That tiny, two minute piece of research would have slammed the ‘Oh my god, GW sell everything at 2000% profit’ assumption – even if you did only use it as a guideline. You and I both know you were setting the tone against their company just by mentioning it.

I don’t fully know what training GW staff get. I do, however, know that one of their ten commandments is ‘advise the customer what they need but sell them what they want’. That’s the whole commandment. No financial caveat. So if a customer needs a rulebook, but wants a pot of paint, that’s what the company is telling them to buy. Hardly sounds like your assertion that they are all ‘selling drones’. More like you had a conversation with a disgruntled ex-employee (for the record, I have never been to a friendly Game store; actually to the point where I just don’t bother with them any more).

Your comments about Games Workshop not talking about other games are just absurd. I don’t walk into an Audi garage and talk about BMW’s because that’s… well… stupid. Yes, the staff are there to stoke your enthusiasm. Yes, they are there to listen to you bang on and give a turn-by-turn, phase-by-phase account of the last three games you played. But they still have a purpose, and that purpose isn’t to talk about games they don’t sell. Because, frankly, the store isn’t the place for it, unless you are a hobbyist who actually doesn’t bother to get off their arse and find a local Games Club. They’ll let you talk about whatever the hell you want. And you can probably drink beer whilst you do so.

I’m interested to see that you think they don’t sell anything other than LOTR, 40K and WFB. Last I checked, everything they still made was available on the GW website. And no, when they don’t even have space for all their blister pack models for their most popular ranges, I would be very surprised to see other games sat on their shelves. If you’re wanting new releases and expansions all the time, then frankly you’re being a little shortsighted again. Even with Every month sporting a 40K or Fantasy release (and then take one month for the new Hobbit films), that means 5 releases for one system and six for the other. There are 15 WFB armies and 15 40K armies just listed on their site, meaning it would take almost 3 years of near constant releases just to bring them up to date for whichever edition each is in now. And you want them to release other stuff too? You claim that there are drones who unquestioningly follow GW; I would state you are one. Why aren’t youy finding new stuff to do with each of these games. Its not like you’re lacking for resource material – unless there is an underlying phobia of research, and not just for this article. The ‘may I interest you in this’ principle IS being used, just the other way around (I’ve had a fair few conversations about specialist games on recent visits to various GWs). It’s a shame if that’s not happening exactly in the order you like, but it is still happening.

The spotty kids thing is a lovely diatribe that goes nowhere; again, you seem to be basing this on a bad experience in your local area and nothing concrete. And no, my friend, I guess they won’t sympathise with you if you’re taking even a tenth of the negativity present in this post into the store with you. I’m just a hobbyist too, and it wound me up to the point I penned this response.

It’s telling, however, that you talk about going online. GW stuff online, even from other websites, still is made by, and proceeds go to GW. So what are you trying to prove, other than still buying their stuff?

How do you know producing plastic miniatures is getting cheaper. There is zero evidence to back it up (other than ‘you heard from someone’). I had a long chat with someone who is involved in quality controlling the metal parts cast by BAE systems (that’s right, the Defence Contractor) who had stated that the ‘state of the art’ casting principles they had just last year adopted, had be being used by GW for a good few years prior in their plastic range. Doesn’t sound cheap, does it. Back it up with hard evidence, or leave it out.

After this, you climb so high up on your soap box, it’s hard to figure out what point you’re making. What ‘formula’ are GW peddling? What PROOF do you have that they don’t care about games and gamers (their games are, as far as I can tell, hands down the best out there) and a lot of gamers I know are so short sighted in a business sense, I for one am GLAD GW take complaints and suggestions with a large pinch of salt.

Apologies for the delay in posting, I have only just found this post over the weekend when doing my own research into the company (on a whim, I might add, not to bash for fun). It just appears that you are one of the 5000 gamers or so that populate various forums and somehow think we are the core of the hobby – the truth, my friend, couldn’t be more different.