GW? You just gotta love them. (Long since hijacked!)

[finn17]

Okay, Up front...I (now) dislike Games Workshop intensely:flame:

I never used to. I used to love them, and I still do love their earlier work. I fell out of love when the \'suits\' took over and long time supporters etc. took a kick in the teeth.

Since then, there have been numerous articles, discussions, rumours etc. about how unreasonable they have become. Some of these were true, some partially true, and others malicious.

I have just visited one of my favourite websites - Armorcast - to look at their GW archive page. Which they have maintained as a service to their customers who once bought GW models from them, most famously, their enormous Titans to be met with the message:

Temporarily Unavailable due to Game Workshop IP Concerns

http://www.armorcast.com/

WTF!!!

Armorcast stopped producing these models over a decade and a half ago, and although they often sell for good money on eBay, Armorcast don\'t see a cent. They have selflessly maintained a page on their site for fans to refer to, that GW now, apparently claim, infringes their IP.

Well, guess who has been taken off my Christmas card list???

I now long to see them go down in flames. They wont be getting another cent from me

 

[frenchkid]

Well looks like the GW IP boys are a bit over protective of GW IP. But I don\'t think you can really blame all of GW for that. I mean their must be a great deal of people who work at GW because they love the hobby.

 

[t_haye2]

well, frankly, i can totally understand them wanting to put a stop to these images. I mean, the fact is that Armorcast gethits on thier website due to images they no longer own the rights to. This is a very clear cut case what that\'s concerned, something that armorcast is bound to lose.

GW protect their imagery, and they\'re fully in their right to do so. they\'re not really caring if one or two fanatic punters will stop buying their stuff. GW is aiming to become the new airifx, and had already left the ballpark of the toy soldier industry, they\'re a toy company now.

 

[Sturmhalo]

Originally posted by finn17

I now long to see them go down in flames. They wont be getting another cent from me

Does that include Forge World?

 

[Sturmhalo]

Originally posted by t_haye2

they\'re a toy company now.

They\'re no longer models or figurines, they\'re toys. It\'s not art, it\'s paint by numbers. Oh dear... what a sorry state to be in. Maybe we should grow up and stop playing with our toys? (it\'d save us money and help hurt the EE).

 

[freakinacage]

Originally posted by finn17
They wont be getting another cent from me

they never did get a cent from you. this is england don\'t forget old chap! we have pounds and pennies over here! until the bloody euro takes over

 

[t_haye2]

hell, if they ever switch to euros this country is so screwed.....

@Sturm: i\'m just saying what GW is imprinting in al their employees, they make toys, for the toy market, and in 5 years, they want to have their product in toy stores across the country, and the wrld. They aim to be the next airfix/tamia, being a toy soldier company is too small an ambition, no money in it.

 

[Trevor]

@ Tammy

Thats interesting, because the imagery has become more mature recently (or at least gone back to the realms of chaos style). I don\'t see how that fits in with being a toy company.

I see nothing wrong with them protecting their IP.

 

[Aragorns_mate]

tony blair has rewined our country, and if hes in another term, we may aswell emegrate! hes a fukin wanker! and hes soooooo gona drag thin county kicking and screeming into the euro wether we want to or not!

with my tony blair rant over.....

GW is a very up and down company, as the old models 1985 casts were fantastic sculpts, then the old space marines and like in the origional boxed set, with the gretchins etc! were faking awfull! they were the worst models iv ever seen
and they still sell them in those painting boxes

but i am impressed with there new range of minis, especially the new marines!! there awsome sculpts, but as iv always sed, there a rip off!!!!!!!!

for a bit of shaped plastic 15 quid!! its just profit making to the extreme!

theyd make more money if they lowered the prices as more ppl would get into the hobby, as more ppl could affrod to play it!

 

[Brother Tom]

GW have seemed to corner the market, my local hobby shop try to sell different minatures like rackham etc but alot of people only seem to be interested in GW even though there are other great minatures available. I must admit until about a year ago I was the same ( what a fool). Anyway GW do great minatures so i\'ll keep spending.

 

[thevoices]

Rewound the country from what? Major? THATCHER?! Oh yes the glory days those were...

Anyway GW, far too expensive but I do like the models and the artwork is great.

I think they should have a sprue/bitz recycling policy i.e so many returned sprues and you get a boxed set or blister. It\'s never going to happen but i always liked the idea!

 

[Wren]

Originally posted by Brother Tom
GW have seemed to corner the market, my local hobby shop try to sell different minatures like rackham etc but alot of people only seem to be interested in GW even though there are other great minatures available. I must admit until about a year ago I was the same ( what a fool). Anyway GW do great minatures so i\'ll keep spending.

There\'s certainly some truth to this. I recently started working in one of my local game stores. It\'s always had a huge selection of Reaper, Ral Partha/IWM and Battletech minis, and in recent years added Privateer Press and Rackham. The Reapers are huge with the RPG crowd, and IWM to a lesser extent. There are small but dedicated followers of Battletech and Warmachine. There seems to be very little interest in Confrontation. Most of the other mini lines we carry (Babylon5, Werewolf, Kenzer&Co, a few others) are on the sale rack, and even there don\'t fly off the shelves.

At least once a week a customer comes in during my shifts (which are only part time hours) and asks whether we carry Warhammer. My understanding is we did several years back, but the choice was made to discontinue it after the GW rep tried to push additional items onto an order. The store had determined that those items did not sell well, and didn\'t want any more of them. To add insult to injury in the higherups minds, the GW rep offered to send someone down to show us how to sell that product.

 

[Legacy Account]

A serious bunch of tossers. The problem is with the people who run the company and the share holders. The fact that they want to be a toy company is blatantly evident by the dumbing down of their rules and paintjobs - see the new 40k vehicle rules...... These pics are not hurting GW ONE JOT! So what if Armourcast get one or two hits a month, they\'re not selling the things FFS! They are treating their customers as disposable - A new set of 12 year olds every year. Fine, but I for one stopped playing with Lego many years ago - if this is the sort of shite they want to start knocking out, let them. I\'ll buy \'proper\' miniatures ta very much!:flame:

 

[Legacy Account]

Originally posted by t_haye2
This is a very clear cut case what that\'s concerned, something that armorcast is bound to lose.

How would you know? Do you have a copy of the (ancient) contract between Armourcast and GW in front of you? I would say that the waters are pretty murky here, and that the fine print would need to be read very carefully - GW won\'t bother of course. They\'ll just bully their way through....lol

 

[finn17]

GW should have paid Armorcast...

For maintaining a resource that promoted GW imagery and didn\'t charge then a penny.

At some point Armorcast must have had GW\'s blessing to produce their models and maintaining their archive was a service to their own and GW\'s customers. In fact, as these models are no longer available, their archive could only have served as an advert for the current Forge World versions.

I can understand any company wanting to protect their IP, but why the sudden interest some 20 years after Armorcast stopped production? They haven\'t had a problem with this archive before...

You summed it up Tammy. GW are the new Airfix. I hope they are really happy with that label.:flip:

 

[WarHAMMER]

define IP

The term IP, is just a cash cow for 21st
century lawyers. The fact is \'IP\' is used
for the purpose of fear and intimidation
and has nothing to do with remunerating
the creator or author of a creative works.

In fact it has little do to with promoting
creativity, because most creativity derives
from copying previous works.

For example in music 70s works were recreations of
50s and 60s music. The Rolling Stones
classic Exile On Main Street draws heavily from artists
such as James \'Slim Harpo\' Moore, the fact is you have
to copy and emulate to create.
Another analogy is Linux vs. SCO.
Because they feel they are rights owners
SCO is seeking to cripple public development of
Linux, by lawsuit (that could be very beneficial to
inexpensive computer accessibility for underdeveloped nations).
Keep in mind (and no offense to Tammy Haye) that in the US,
\'IP\' and various copyright extensions were enacted because
the Senate Judicary committee was paid off
in huge sums of cash to extend copyright by upwards of 50 years
(well beyond the lifetime of the creator so as to benefit
huge corporations such as Disney).
I\'m happy to live in a country like Canada
where GW\'s sickening threat campaign
is ILLEGAL (yay Great Canadian Miniatures discount house! )
and where the same bloodsucking IP cretins have LOST in court
trying to sue music downloaders out of spite because they
have not changed their model of distribution to suit consumer needs.
The fact is GW besides selling miniatures, ALSO has an agenda to
threaten, punish, and intimidate artists who do not conform to their \'business\' model.

 

[finn17]

Yeah!

What he said...:flip:

 

[Aragorns_mate]

i agree

i agree! :bouncy:

 

[t_haye2]

@ Munkie: doesn\'t matter if GW is in the right or not, the fact they have more capital to extend a courtcase, if it ever should come to that, than armorcast will prove them inb the right,. That, and due to the \'rules\' of using GW imagery and IP on profit websites is prohibited. they want to sever any link with armorcast, it\'s very clear.

@ Warhammer: why would I be offended by your little legal lesson? all i\'m saying is what the GW indoctrination machine teaches you, I\'m glad I\'m not part of that anymore, it is extremely liberating to be able to talk about this stuff publicly without being threatened by your manager that they\'ll sack you. GW employees are not allowed to openly speak on the net, or to potential customers about their business plan, or badmouth the company in any way. It\'s actually so bad that in the Studio, you\'re not even allowed to paint toy soldiers from another company in your lunch hour, or have them on your desk, or talk about them. I got told off onvce for looking at the rackham website during lunch...... I have no loyalty to GW, and although i like some of their product, i\'m very happy without them thank you very much. so continiue bashing, I don\'t mind one bit.

 

[AlexDaKid]

Good god people, GW is a business and not a friend who has stabbed you in the back!

I\'m fed up with people bad mouthing it because of the way it goes about its business. If you were the head of a company and you saw some competition or something you percieved to be a threat would you get rid of it or do something about it? Of course you would. And if you saw a chance to raise the price of your products would you take it? Of course you would. You wouldn\'t sit back and go \"hmmm, I know what I\'ll let the little guy have a chance, I\'ll be nice to the consumer out of my own pocket, of course I don\'t mind if someones infringing on my copyrights or whatever\", thats not the real world, its business and GW is a business and however vicious and nasty people perceive them to be many if not everybody here on CMON owes them something because without them you would NEVER have the astounding range and depth of a hobby without them. This is true whether you do Reaper, Rackham, DarkAge or whatever. This hobby would not be what it is without GW.


Rant over.