Wayland Games: Official Response to Games Workshop's Newest Trade Terms

[BobbieTheDamned]

Just going to leave this here without comment:

Hi, everyone!

Before we start, if you'd allow me to present a little background about Wayland Games before we get into the meat of the issue, I'd be grateful.

We laid out our little webstore back in August 2008. Our beginnings were humble, with my brother and I packing orders in a spare room. It wasn't ideal, but it was what we had to start with, and we grew and grew through the continued business of our loyal customers through four warehouses to our current location. In 33 months, we have gone from a spare room in Essex, U.K., with my brother and I packing boxes, to a global operation with 14 full-time staff which is now positioned as one of the largest (if not the largest) independent hobby retailer in the world. We run our business today as we always have done, in a professional and ethical manner, both within the letter and the spirit of the law. Almost all suppliers like us, customers enjoy our openness and service-oriented outlook, and whilst we're realistic enough to know we're not by any means perfect, we will always strive to improve to ensure our central tenet of great prices and better service.

Managing such growth has been far from simple; we have experienced growing pains like any business in any sector that has exploded in market share terms. Our growing pains have also been more painful as we continually seek to adjust to a shifting commercial landscape from our dominant supplier, Games Workshop. Like many of you, I believe that Games Workshop produce a fantastic product which gives endless joy to countless people. I am proud to be associated with them. Unsurprisingly, therefore, I read with real concern the statement by the CEO Mark Wells over the new trade terms, which effectively prevents us selling Games Workshop-supplied products outside Europe. Mark's statement can be found here.

Mark seems to be clearly of the view that online retailers (and we are not purely that, of course, given our bricks-and-mortar presence) "free ride" on the back of Games Workshop's bricks-and-mortar outlets. We have sought over the years, and I thought with some success and recognition, to demonstrate to Games Workshop the value that we provide not just in terms of sales, but also in terms of pre- and after-sales service (not to mention our activities at trade fairs), which is clearly equivalent to the service that is provided on the "ground" by bricks-and-mortar outlets. Quite aside from the legality of Games Workshop's actions, we are confused by the commercial attitude of Games Workshop, which hampers our ability to sell to hobbyists, to the clear disadvantage of both Games Workshop (albeit maybe not their retail arm) and the hobbyists themselves.

I will not air anyone's dirty laundry in public. Therefore, I am writing to Games Workshop separately (its board, lawyers and their principal shareholders) to share my concerns in greater depth. I hope that commercial common sense will prevail, and that we can continue to work with Games Workshop to expand their market and bring a great product to as many people as possible at the best price possible. After all, Games Workshop not only has a clear responsibility to the market, but also a clear responsibility to its shareholders (which, after all, could be you and me!).

In the meantime, we believe after the announced terms are implemented, we shall be able to continue to offer all of our loyal customers the same product range that we offer today. There may be a small lead time to implement, but we've been given a rather short period to react. We will comply fully and completely with the new terms and conditions of sale imposed upon us, and will not contravene them in any capacity whatsoever (albeit we would not wish that to be seen as acceptance of their legality), all we seek to achieve is that customers both old and new are able to benefit from our view of the market wherever they are located. We all love our hobby.

Over the next few weeks, we'll be providing updates as to how the process of implementing these changes is coming along. Chances are we'll use Facebook to disseminate this information, as it is a great platform for customers to interact with us and each other.

We look forward to continue to serve you, and we always will.

Keep on Wargaming!

[MarkRG]

Look guys with Tripple Helex running so well, how about we start making our own rulebooks. We have a place to start from outside GW. We all have the brains.
We need to make up a commity and to find the right conections. No negative thinkers.
I don't have a clue how to start this but I feel we can make do it as A team.
Mark

[MortiS-the-Lost]

MarkRG wrote

Look guys with Tripple Helex running so well, how about we start making our own rulebooks. We have a place to start from outside GW. We all have the brains.
We need to make up a commity and to find the right conections. No negative thinkers.
I don't have a clue how to start this but I feel we can make do it as A team.
Mark

We've got the community right here and you can start by making a post suggesting what kind of game you'd like to write

[BobbieTheDamned]

I've written a few rule sets in my time, some of them even got finished.

Publishing them is a very difficult thing to do, online selling as a PDF is actually a lot easier and develops more income for the writer despite being cheaper for the player (win/win in my opinion). I've bought at least 3 or 4 rules sets this way and Actually getting printed rules made up and stocked in a store is very expensive and isn't always the best way to get the most people playing that rules set.

[Billiam Babble]

If you're looking to PDF publish...
I'm finding Onebookshelf sites (RPGnow, DriveThruRPG, Wargamers Vault) very easy to use and publish through (I'm trying to sell through a few other sites but it's more difficult to manage).  They now run a print-on-demand service (via Lightning Source).  They take 40%, but the exposure is massive.  What's interesting is that the small publishers are right up there next to the big publishers and the reprints of old rules.  They also have a Top 100 Small Press list, so the little guys get exposure.  After all of my floorplan stuff has stabilised, and I've put some stock art up,  I'm thinking about publishing solo gamebooks (written by others with purchased stock art... I'll explain in detail another time), partly because I want to be connected to printed (bound) copy.  My stuff is currently not appropriate for POD - since you download it to print repeatedly in colour or black and white - and they're not "books".  
Some of these online shops (Onebookshelf, GamesForYou, Paizo) like to have a contract signed - that's the only fiddly bit (scan, post or fax).  I don't pay anything to Onebookshelf, they just take a big percentage when anything sells.  Royalties are easy to set up, so if members here got together to create their own systems that they wanted to charge for the income can be split immediate on purchase (which is how I get money from Vexing Sands, published by EVG)
I don't think anyone gets particularly rich with a few products but you at least get the kudos of being paid publishers/designers/writers, and your work becomes an archive of protest against GW. ;)

http://onebookshelf.com/

 

[Billiam Babble]

Now I've read the original quote properly, it should be interesting to see if GW are actually shooting themselves in the foot.  The implication is that they want to sell directly to international customers, whilst they clearly rely on having a corner in non-GW hobby shops, the same should be true for webstores.  I think a few months back I noticed that some organisations were not even allowed to show pictures of the products (the image holder would have text stating  "image withdrawn at request of Games Workshop")  However they've survived several times before whilst alienating store owners and customers alike.  It sounds like one half of the company is not talking to the other.  It's certainly a worthwhile challenge for importers and webstores to speak up because they nurture the hobby - a hobby which relies on communities and to some extent PR.

Hmm.  Silly old GW.   Never a pound made from an original idea.  A McDonalds style franchise - one in every town in every country.  (sigh)  They don't pay the staff much either, apparently. :D

[Quicky]

Wargames store, post some videos on Fb about GW as well. Seems like they were contacted and asked to 'rephrase' one of the complaining vids. Seems like there are a lot of not happy people.