Is Games Workshop at the TIPPING POINT?

0:00 Games Workshop makes the best models in the world but who cares if the prices are too high and they're sold out all the time in this video I'll talk about diminishing returns in wargaming and how you can solve the problem this is a bit of a rant uh I've been thinking about for some time now and I have to get on a plane tomorrow morning for the Las Vegas open uh today's Tuesday you know so I figured that this would be a good time to film this one shorter week and all that kind of stuff after I get back I have a bunch of painting and terrain project tutorials that I want to work on but they take a lot more time during the week also if you're going to be at lvo come by and say hi recently I made a video here on the channel about the great line of Miniatures from Northstar military figures for frost grave and for Star grave and why I like it you can check it out here pcha in that video I mentioned about Games Workshop and the diminishing return returns of their models versus how much they charge for them the Northstar figures are considerably better value in simple comparison and I I kind of mentioned that I could do a video about that idea that diminishing returns thing if people were interested and if they were interested they could comment down below a lot of folks did so here we are Games Workshop has obviously been making models for a long time now even before Warhammer they were making models for tabletop Gamers to use you could use them in role playing games or you know

1:30 whatever rule set you wanted most hobbyists people who paint to game primarily will say that GW models are the best in the tabletop wargaming space these days if you're a display painter right well then there's a lot of like fancy busts and large scale scale you know like 75mm like resin pieces out there and that kind of stuff and those are generally seen as better for those types of folks but for gaming most people seem to prefer the quality of Games Workshop models when you're first getting into the wargaming Hobby Games Workshop models are probably the main models that you'll see out there gdb's marketing game is pretty strong these days I hear the same thing from new players and Painters all the time when I talk about any models that aren't from Games Workshop here on the channel it's always like wow I've never seen those before I had no idea that makes Games Workshop pretty well entrenched in the wargaming market and it's a position they'll probably keep for the foreseeable future maybe there are a few other companies out there that might be giving GW a run for its money at least in the like quality Department right weird games with their line of malao plastic Miniatures for example especially the newer stuff they're very dynamic in detailed plastic Miniatures that uh that match or even rival a lot of Warhammer sculpts that said their game isn't as popular as Warhammer games are so they obviously sell fewer units like I said before Games Workshop seems entrenched but

3:03 there's certainly something that might change that now don't get me wrong I still love a lot of games workshops models not every model they make is aesthetically for every person of course there are models that they make that I just don't enjoy the look of but I still know that they're very well done technologically or whatever you know they're very well sculpted it's just not for me I don't want this to be seen as a video hating on GW it's not if anything I want this to be seen by Folks at GW specifically the suits at the company if you know what I mean and I want them to see this maybe as a warning and the warning is about price and tipping points everything is more expensive these days and that's not just me being an old man you know back in my day it's it's it's just straight up Global inflation that we've seen kind of rear its ugly head over the last three years or so and I have no idea when or if it can actually be fixed or not that's that's above my pay grade as they say right but as most of you know Wild Games Workshop might make some of the best wargaming Miniatures in the world they're also making some of the most expensive Miniatures in the world as well and this has been going on for far longer than the last 3 years but is the ever increasing price the GW keeps charging for these Miniatures actually worth it and does it even make sense half the time like should a single model uh like Ursula Creed here from the Imperial Guard should she cost as much

4:34 as a single arer right big two-legged chicken Walker monster thing right like that you know robot uh should she cost only five bucks less than an entire unit of 10 KD and shock troops and like all their options and guns and gear and all that other stuff if I were an actual Economist I could spout a bunch of stuff about what the market will bear and all that kind of jazz and and whatnot but but that's not what I went to school for but but as a long-term War gamer and a YouTube Nerd I can see problems in essence whether something is worth a certain amount of money is completely dependent upon whether a person is willing to pay that amount for example in another kind of genre in the tabletop gaming World collectible trading card games there are magic the Gathering cards out there have you heard about this uh that are worth a lot of money like a lot of money famous musician post Malone spent $2 million for a single Lord of the Ring themed Magic card last year I would have maybe given you two bucks for it maybe so price is subjective which shouldn't be surprising to anyone I suppose as long as people continue to buy products especially luxury products like wargaming Miniatures then the prices will continue to at least stay the same and potentially rise that said there is something known as a Tipping Point and I wonder how soon before we see it really start to take effect here the idea of The Tipping Point is found in all kinds of things large scale social interactions meteorology physics and

6:07 also economics the thing about tipping points is that once that tip is started there's generally no way to stop it the amount of time it takes to build up to that Tipping Point can be very very long it can go on for years and years but when the tip happens it very quickly builds momentum and changes will happen fast correction can try to be made you know price Corrections production Corrections things like that but they probably won't have much effect so what does all this mean what it means is that Games Workshop is putting their entire product line into a position of diminishing returns for their customers they're charging more and more for fancier models and also charging more you know for not so fancy models honestly and also more for fancier books which quickly kind of go out of use due to a three-year game addition cycle and they're doing all of this while also not even making enough product for the people who are still interested in paying so much for these products all while the choices in other Miniatures grows with 3D printing I recently bought a Warhammer 40,000 combat Patrol box from my local independent shop previous to that it had been easily 6 months or more since i' bought anything from Games Workshop and it's mainly do to diminishing returns the price they want for the products no matter how fancy they may be is just not worth it to me

7:38 so so you're you're getting out of wargaming there Uncle Adam is that is that what I hear you say you've stopped buying wargaming Miniatures and products oh gosh no no uh I've I've mostly stopped buying Warhammer products but not wargaming products in the last 6 months I've bought all kinds of wargaming products the awesome Mech game steel Rift and two complete forces for that game I bought Judge Dread from warlord games I bought star grave and frost grave figures you know from Northstar minis which I mentioned previously War Games Atlantic figures uh several M4 Sherman tanks for our game tanks for the apocalypse that Vince and I made uh some very cool 3D printed uh terrain some MDF terrain and plastic kit terrain that I can use in tons of different games that I like to play and also I picked up a whole bunch of stls from knuckle bones Miniatures and a bunch of other sculptur that can be used for all kinds of different cool rule sets that I picked up online from places like War Game Vault I'm not sure when games workshops Tipping Point will actually come as I said I'm not an economist but I've also been in this hobby for a pretty long time and I can see the writing on the wall is different than it's ever been before with the additions to the equation of global inflation stagnant wages under production and now the newer issues of more and more competition and the entire 3D printing thing right the world seems

9:09 to be pressing against games workshops Tipping Point more than ever before in their history but you don't have to worry there are a lot of other companies and games and just plain options available to you in the wargaming space I see people making like videos and tweets and posts and whatnot about how like GW has to fix this but the truth is they don't have to if the suits don't want them to right they don't have to fix nothing the fact is you can fix this easily and cheaply look at other games and models and paint companies and whatever and purchase from them instead that's one of the coolest things about tabletop gaming you as the player/ buyer have all the agency you want to play one company's game with another company's models you totally can no one can stop you right but GW won't allow non GW models in their events I hear you say well then don't go to those events only play in events that allow you to proxy and use the models that you prefer you're in control here you're the one with the wallet the one with the debit card there are lots of other companies out there in the wargaming space and you don't owe GW anything you can play and collect and hobby and buy however you want we'll see how and when this GW Tipping Point will occur when it comes you'll definitely see a bunch of changes and attempts at changes but will it really help if you've put all of your wargaming eggs in games workshops basket then you'll probably be pretty concerned

10:40 but if you've decided to diversify you won't have to worry about it what do you think do you think it'll actually ever happen or do you think that maybe the tip has already started and we're already you know amongst it let me know down in the comments uh below uh you know like the the video if you if you liked it and uh helps to spread the word helps me helps the channel uh subscribe if you want to see more videos every single Friday and thanks for watching