Their worst move ever

http://www.tabletopgamingnews.com/2009/11/17/31483

Unbelievable.

Ridiculous.

Sad.

I don't think it's their worst move ever. It's only the next very bad move

Picking out GW's WORST EVER @!!# MOVE would be like picking out the Reddest leaf on an Autumn tree...there are SO MANY to chose from. HOWEVER, when they screw the Guys involved in Specialist Games like Blood Bowl, they are making a MAJOR mistake. Players of the Specialist Games are LONG TIME hobbyists & GW supporters. When GW pitches their products to new young potential players/supporters who, if not the Veteran Players, are the parents of said young gamers? They aliienate the present generation of gamers AND they'll lose the next generation of gamers as well.

They don't care about the old players, Al. They care only about the young boys who will spend all the money they have on the most expensive GW minis and after 2 years they will be no more interested in this hobby... that's what they think... and that's why they lose.

I honestly prefer the Bloodbowl pc game, but if they release the new rules then the game will be out of date. thats quite bad in my eyes (Anyone else agree that bringing out a new rules system for your tabletop version so soon afte rmaking a pc versionis bad sales?)

My Buddy & patron, Monkey Head Mac, tells moi that THE BIG SELLER at our local gaming haven is a Tee Shirt emblazoned with the logo GW SUCKS...I CAN see where this would be a popular item.

Actually, if those other miniature companies stop saying "suitable for Bloodbowl" in their adverts there wouldn't be a problem. Bloodbowl isn't their game so they have no need to mention another company's product and threaten the IP. Just use a different description in the advertising.

GW have made it very clear over the years what they will allow others to do. If people insist on going against the clearly laid out rules then they should expect these cease and desist orders.

* GW throws 100 D6 *

ALL MISS !!!

* You Loose *

GW = GO

Game Over

Try again ?

catferret wrote:

Actually, if those other miniature companies stop saying "suitable for Bloodbowl" in their adverts there wouldn't be a problem. Bloodbowl isn't their game so they have no need to mention another company's product and threaten the IP. Just use a different description in the advertising.

GW have made it very clear over the years what they will allow others to do. If people insist on going against the clearly laid out rules then they should expect these cease and desist orders.

I gotta agree; considering GW's reputation for ferociously guarding their intellectual property, if a mini maker is foolish enough to blatantly state their product is meant for a named GW game, NOT ONLY should they expect GW's lawyers to swing into action, but they should be charged with Criminal Stupidity...the offending mini maker that is.

Well.... it's fully within their right to persecute those claiming to make models for a game by GW...
but to withold new rules for their own games is just a dumbass thing to do which will only drive away the potential fanbase....

But "stealing the I P" is against laws and copyrights... so I have no problems with the other companies taking a beating by the notorious GW Lawyers... but if they would just make some football models, without mentioning the game BB, then there wouldn't be any problems with copyright... so it's easily avoided.

Amen.

From what I can read....it will only concern starplayers, as they will be deleted.

Big deal.....pfffft...go ahead...I dare you!

This may be rooted in my hatred for special characters in BloodBowl, Fantasy and 40k.

I make my own legends of renown, I do not pretend to be someone else...

I will not say this is thier worst move, but potentialy a horrible one. Never been a big fan of BB, but I like the idea of the game. PC version rocks! One more reason I am slowly getting away from all GW Vices. Though I love my Dwarfs. Anyone wanna buy a 3k+ Dorf army

I'm on the fence. If other companies really are saying "hey look at this awesome model, he'd make a perfect [star player] for Blood Bowl!" then it is within reason for GW to go after that minis company. If they're just making figures that resemble unproduced Blood Bowl start players, without actually saying or insinuating that those models can/should be used in Blood Bowl, then the guys over at GW can quit acting like 5-year olds and grow a pair.

However, regardless of the real situation, threatening to not put the rules out is extremely childish. That's what makes me lean away from GW on this one - if they had any legitimate legal grounds for being upset then why not pursue those avenues? As it is, their reaction seems to be very immature. I mean, Blood Bowl (like all specialist games) isn't really supported by GW in any way other than the fact that they sell some of the models at exorbitant prices, and they host a few pdf's on their website. I don't get the impression that GW is a) making a lot of money off of specialist games, or b) has much to lose with other companies producing minis that GW themselves won't produce for specialist games.

Games Workshop isn't going out of their way to give the players these figures anytime soon, so why are they throwing a temper tantrum when someone else does? They aren't even charging us for the book that has that character's rules! Of course, an equally large issue is that people continue to play and buy GW games, despite their deplorable business practices. If people are really so sick of the way GW runs the show, then quit buying their stuff. Community outrage doesn't mean squat to them if they're still making profit, and they've been doing it this way for years.

Games Workshop isn't going out of their way to give the players these figures anytime soon, so why are they throwing a temper tantrum when someone else does? They aren't even charging us for the book that has that character's rules! Of course, an equally large issue is that people continue to play and buy GW games, despite their deplorable business practices. If people are really so sick of the way GW runs the show, then quit buying their stuff. Community outrage doesn't mean squat to them if they're still making profit, and they've been doing it this way for years.[/quote]

While I agree with you on this. I still say it is our right as consumers to be able express our distaste over certain practices. While some say just leave and dont buy, there are some of that the Evil Empire holds a special place in our hearts as it is what brought us into this wonderful hobby of ours. What I am trying to say, while we dont agree we still love what it used to be and still have a small flicker of hope that it can be that way again.

Is there any proof that GW has really done this? Don't get me wrong I think it's terrible, but lets not get too het up when all we know is what's written on a website...

This is truly truly sad. To me this helps their game as people are always looking for unique models.

I own pretty much 95% GW but I will buy models that look great for what I need.

This is very very childish as they can not due a cease and desist to these companies as they are not doing anything wrong.

I would really love to know what those guys at GW HQ are thinking.

Tom Anders is the official rules voice for Blood Bowl for many many years. Jervis is still involved but 90% of the rules have been handed over to Tom to do.

Talk Fantasy Football was Talk BB last week but GW made them change the name and gave Talk BB a C/D letter to stop or change the name. They were also told to start pulling off Bloodbowl GW material off their site.

I don't think Tom would do this on his own unless GW instructed him to do it.

On that note, I wish they paid half as much attention to Mordheim that they do with Bloodbowl.

There's been a lot of activity regarding cease and desists lately. A lot of it has been aimed at Blood Bowl, but I hear a few other sites have been sent some too. Librarium Online is one I think? They haven't threatened to shut any of the websites down, but have imposed some pretty stringent demands - change the name of your site, remove the donate button etc. To be fair a lot of it is outlined in the legal section of their website which some sites ignored.

Talkbloodbowl was sent a cease and desist telling them to change their nameand remove the donate tab. They are now called TalkFantasyFootball, but funnily still have the donate tab. Also FUMBBL has been sent one, and the demands are pretty steep. GW pretty much want the flesh and blood ripped out of the site and leave some very basic bones to stand on. It's not certain whether FUMBBL will survive.

A lot of this action though is due to the fact that the Blood Bowl trademark is up for renewal, and GW have to be seen to be defending their intellectual property in order to be able to keep the rights. Admittidly they're being very heavy-handed about it, and are late off the mark (TalkBloodBowl has been going since 2001), so a lot of this might just be coperate sabre-rattling.

With regards to other companies releasing BB minis, GW have left it for far too long to challenge them, and now there are so many that it'll be impossible for them to reign it all in. The rats are out of the cage and are scurrying about under the couch.

WarbossKurgan wrote:

Is there any proof that GW has really done this?
Don't get me wrong I think it's terrible, but lets not get too het up
when all we know is what's written on a website...

Tom Anders, a member of the BB Rules Commitee, posted this up, so I'm assuming it was sent to him. It really is quite childish.

Hehe! Nice one, Da Bank. Quicker off the mark.

Drugart wrote:

While I agree with you on this. I still say it is our right as consumers to be able express our distaste over certain practices. While some say just leave and dont buy, there are some of that the Evil Empire holds a special place in our hearts as it is what brought us into this wonderful hobby of ours. What I am trying to say, while we dont agree we still love what it used to be and still have a small flicker of hope that it can be that way again.

I absolutely share this sentiment. I think it's great to point out GW's shady practices, especially just for the sake of getting and keeping the info out there and bringing to light that they really are not a good company. But for those of us who have been in the hobby for a long time, and are at the same time disgusted with GW's tactics, we can easily give up new purchases. I know I have more than enough as it is to get by for the rest of my life playing all the GW games I want to play. I'd never have to buy another model or army book. In the last 5 years I've only made sparse and small purchases from GW, largely because of this fact. I don't want to support GW, so I'm only picking up models that I really want, and usually then on the secondary market rather than in a store or from GW directly.

I would love nothing more than for GW to revert to the "fun" of the old days, but to push them there I think they need a serious slap in the face and cutting into their profits is the best way to do this.

Da Bank wrote:

On that note, I wish they paid half as much attention to Mordheim that they do with Bloodbowl.

No! Then we'd have to change this forum's url, Tom's blog's url, take down all the material on Svenn's & Tewfik's blog, shut down the BTB project entirely and whatnot.. I don't want that!

From what I understand this is all because of the Blood Bowl game release and I don't see any of the actual SG games getting real attention. Maybe BB to go with the hype of the game...

@Cianty...well maybe your are right. Bloodbowl is on a video gaming platform and the actual bloodbowl game is still a good revenue stream for GW so that is why they are getting bent out of shape.

The funny thing is if you check out other games, like AT43 and Rezolution and etc they like fan based sites and their own forums encourage creativity.

I almost took up Rezolution to start writing scenarios again as Rezolution encourages people to submit scenarios, campaigns and etc. Since SG has slowed down on keeping up I stopped writing scenarios.

Well, Mordhiem files at BoardGameGeek have been affected now: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/48933/item/1113113#item1113113. It's true that Headless Hollow had created many, many files for many, many GW games, including Blood Bowl, and may have been given a general C&D letter, but we can now see that the C&D letters aren't limited to Blood Bowl material.