Response to GW 6th edition teaser videos

[Fuzzymoldyork]

I haven't been really impressed with the marketing campaign. It is kinda like GW is showing us a "mystery box" and taunting the fact that we know what's in the box but not the details.

I think Faeslayer is right in that my hobbying has slowed down a significant amount. I'm finishing painting up some daemons right now but I have not drive to purchase anything new because I don't have a clear enough picture of what to expect.

If we were give this month's upcoming WD last month I think that would be a lot more interest because people would have a more general idea of what to expect and can start planning their army accordingly. The problem is new editions have always favored people with larger collections because they have a greater ability to adapt to change. If the player base was give a little heads up about what is coming out those players will smaller collections can guide their purchases more aptly and be excited about it for longer.

[Llew]

If we were give this month's upcoming WD last month I think that would be a lot more interest because people would have a more general idea of what to expect and can start planning their army accordingly. The problem is new editions have always favored people with larger collections because they have a greater ability to adapt to change. If the player base was give a little heads up about what is coming out those players will smaller collections can guide their purchases more aptly and be excited about it for longer.

To avoid this problem, you should just go ahead and buy a few of everything. That way you'll be one of those people with a larger army, and then it won't matter about any changes. Make sense?

Not to me either.

But it probably sounds like crystal clear reason to some of the folks in Nottingham.

[eldargal]

Not sure you're clear on the concept of a 'teaser'. We will start getting details after the 23rd when 6th is officially announced, 'til then we get teased.

I haven't been really impressed with the marketing campaign. It is kinda like GW is showing us a "mystery box" and taunting the fact that we know what's in the box but not the details.

[DarkLordBelial]

Seems Wayland have trumped GW and placed the 6th edition up for Pre-Order already:

http://www.waylandgames.co.uk/pre-or...ames%21content

[Commissar Merces]

According to Miniature Market's facebook page today you can pre-order with them now. So...the big surprise is I can preorder at the GW store at a horribly inconvenient time this weekend and pay full price OR I can order now for a discount. Hmm...

Online retailers across the globe posted statuses about pre-orders being available today. Took the wind right out of the GW sails. Already pre-ordered mine from MM at a huge discount compared to what GW will ask for.

[DarkLordBelial]

Considering things like lawsuits over coffee being hot...I think you might give them more credit than is do.

I know it is probably off topic but If you knew anything about the Liebeck vs. McDonalds case you would understand that it was a lot more serious than simply complaining about hot coffee. The poor woman suffered very serious burns - third-degree burns over 16 percent of her body. I won't link to the images (google images will offer them up) but if you see them you will understand why she had a very real case not a frivolous one. More info available here:

http://www.citizen.org/hot-coffee

Rant over

[Damien 1427]

I know it is probably off topic but If you knew anything about the Liebeck vs. McDonalds case you would understand that it was a lot more serious than simply complaining about hot coffee. The poor woman suffered very serious burns - third-degree burns over 16 percent of her body. I won't link to the images (google images will offer them up) but if you see them you will understand why she had a very real case not a frivolous one. More info available here:

http://www.citizen.org/hot-coffee

Rant over

Rational people who actually reads stuff on a subject before making snap judgements high-five.

[Grimtuff]

Not sure you're clear on the concept of a 'teaser'. We will start getting details after the 23rd when 6th is officially announced, 'til then we get teased.

Right now we're being "teased" with an implied release date. I predict GW facing a bit of a PR gakstorm for this.

[Inquisitor Engel]

They're attempted to play it like a video game or movie. Unfortunately without any actual imagery to get excited about, it doesn't work. We've all heard the schpiel about the dark millenium and in the grim darkness blah blah blah. We've all seen the aquila before. It's nothing new. If they showed flashes of new models? That might be something, or even if they had CG rendered short clips to add SOMETHING to it...

[Fuzzymoldyork]

Not sure you're clear on the concept of a 'teaser'. We will start getting details after the 23rd when 6th is officially announced, 'til then we get teased.

The "mystery box" is the teaser. The problem is that everyone knows what's in the box, we just can't open it and inspect it.

While I can understand your point in saying that the teaser is designed not to give much/any information, given the timeframe for the release of 6th it just doesn't make any sense to come out with a teaser now. Now, If we were given the teaser 2-3 months ago followed up by cleaver little sinpits in WD hinting at what's to come then I think the campaign would have been a huge success. It would have given players the time to build up their armies or start a new one while also guiding their purchases in a direction that would make sense for the upcoming edition.

A teasers purpose is to get people excited about something, the problem is that you can't really get excited about a ruleset when we haven't really been given to much information. It would kind be like a Wizards of the Coast coming out with a new edition of DnD without giving anyone a preview of the rules. Everyone is just kinda nervous that the game they have spent so much time an money on will just become unplayable to them.

[Jericho]

Privateer Press does a much better job "teasing" than GW does, IMO. And I don't even like PP's products (aside from the paint).

Releasing stat cards for some highly anticipated units before they come out in the new books, showing off models well in advance, etc. does seem to make the natives a bit less restless. Posting all these Youtube videos without revealing any information whatsoever is just pissing people off (as the poll is showing). Everybody knows they are going to have to buy that damn book. We just want some reassurance that we'll like what we see before pre-purchasing.

@FuzzyMoldyOrk, I don't think WOTC is the best example, as they sell way more books than anything. It's not like your old book expires when the edition switches over... I still know a lot of people who have all the 3rd edition and 3.5 books and still use them. And those old editions are rather complete, so if you have the old books/pdfs then you really don't have anything to worry about when an edition switches over.

[Iron Puritan]

Privateer Press does a much better job "teasing" than GW does, IMO. And I don't even like PP's products (aside from the paint).

Releasing stat cards for some highly anticipated units before they come out in the new books, showing off models well in advance, etc. does seem to make the natives a bit less restless. Posting all these Youtube videos without revealing any information whatsoever is just pissing people off (as the poll is showing). Everybody knows they are going to have to buy that damn book. We just want some reassurance that we'll like what we see before pre-purchasing.

@FuzzyMoldyOrk, I don't think WOTC is the best example, as they sell way more books than anything. It's not like your old book expires when the edition switches over... I still know a lot of people who have all the 3rd edition and 3.5 books and still use them. And those old editions are rather complete, so if you have the old books/pdfs then you really don't have anything to worry about when an edition switches over.

While I agree with what you said about there being people who opt to use older editions of D&D, I disagree with you about WotC and marketing. The fact that their fanbase has become fractured along edition lines poses a serious challenge to WotC as they prepare their next edition of D&D. Their marketing for 5th Edition(or D&D Next as it is currently being called) is undoubtedly going to be meticulously planned, with fanbase interaction and involvement at its core. They actually got an early start with the open play testing, which has been successful in getting people to tinker around with a basic version of the 5th edition and talking about it online.

[violenceha]

I would have preferred a still of $125 written in large font for a few minutes.

[tiger g]

Not a single ork in any of the four videos

[The bearded one]

Not a single ork in any of the four videos

I'm pretty sure there was at least 1.. and even if not, is it a genuine complaint they didn't show orks in a crappy teaser? I don't recall Tau either.


On a sidenote, I wanted to look on the GW site to preorder, and there suddenly (and quite oddly timed) was "maintenance". Is this coincidence, or actually some kind of attempt to drive people into stores?

[TheDungen]

I know they are not the ones you are talkign about but the what the developers like about 6th are so funny whats with the moving all the time when spekaing they do? Phil looks hilarious =P

[StormCrow]

A good teaser comes well in advance of what it is promoting, builds anticipation and speculation whilst revealing very little of its actual content.

A good example of this was the "Watch the world burn" Dark Knight teaser that was released months before even the trailers were.

A bad example is what GW has provided, with a micro budget teaser that comes two weeks before launch and tells a community (which in this case has access to BoLS, Warseer, et. al. by virtue of internet access) what they already know.

[paddyalexander]

My biggest issue was the date. I see a date in a teaser poster/ad/video for books, video games or movies and that date will be the release date. It will not be when I can pre-order the product from the manufacturer/producer. Look at how Privateer Press handled Battle Engines last year and how they are handling Colossals/Gargantuans this year.

The teaser went up in febuary and we were drip fed information about them until a full reveal of the rules a few weeks before the models started hitting the shelves. Every week we got some new info and then bam! here are the Stormwalls cards and in the next No Quarter here are the full rules for using Colossals and a battle report. Hell we have recieved teasers for next years Warmachine book already with the concept art for new calvary units after being unvailed.

[AGC]

A bad example is what GW has provided, with a micro budget teaser that comes two weeks before launch and tells a community (which in this case has access to BoLS, Warseer, et. al. by virtue of internet access) what they already know.

I'm actually still at a loss as to what the videos were trying to achieve, so much so I still haven't voted in the poll.

Let's think about this for a moment:-

A TV programme will be advertised extensively around the time slot it will be broadcast in for about two weeks in advance, the reason being of course it's a product that requires an audience at a specific time so you need to tell them in advance so they will be there.

6th edition of course will be available for purchase for the next 4+ years. Anyone who is already a GW customer will already know about the new edition and can be expected to buy the book sooner or later, so for them the videos aren't needed. The regular gamut of brand new customers that come through the stores won't be affected either as 5th edition would be just as new to them and also they're unlikely to come upon the videos on the web by chance. So that leaves people who already know about GW but aren't customers of them.

Why would those people be interested in a pre-order date?

After that of course we got other videos like the one where "Phil" talks about the warlord chart. Another very strange video whose purpose escapes me. If it's advertising aimed at getting customers completely new to wargaming why hone in on product features that will only mean something to people already familiar with the previous edition of the game? If it's aimed at existing customers then what additonal sales are they hoping to derive from it? If it's aimed at wargamers who don't play GW products then wouldn't it be a lot better to say what makes 40k special compared to other games as opposed to talking about specific rule changes?

In short, a week after the advertised date I'm still none the wiser as to what they were trying to sell to whom.

[Lord Inquisitor]

I did pre-order on that date. Not that the teaser video really made a lot of difference one way or another, but changing a habit of a lifetime, I actually pre-ordered something off GW's website on the glorious day the teasers had heralded.

Apparently I'll get it on the 6th.

So the teaser video gave a date that allowed you to order the product, and get it delivered a week after release?

As much as I've come to expect this sort of rubbish, this really took me by surprise. Wow I'm not preordering anything again.