Dreadfleet: I'm trying to be balanced here but...

...Its really, really difficult. So they've announced a one off game in a box. Nothing wrong with that board games companies have been doing that for years now and to be brutally honest I expected nothing less really considering the Games Workshops business plan. They have an overly bloated retail chain that quite frankly skews their entire busuiness model because the retail chain struggles to support itself and the company with just the 3 core games they have now. There's much more that I could go into about how in effect the games development wing and the commercial wings of the company are effectively hampering each others performance, but I'll leave that for now and return to it in a later blog. For now however lets just say I do have a problem with it because I can't help but feel its a very, very cynical marketing move on behalf of Games Workshop. I still want to be positive about them I honestly do but here, with Dreadfleet I think I have a product that just sums up everything that's wrong with the Games Workshop right now in a nutshell.

First off I think most of us who follow the hobby as intently as the like of me will have heard rumblings months before Storm of Magic was released that there was going to be a one off game like Space Hulk this year, which made sense to me. Because in the previous year the sales bump was provided by the new Warhammer Fanatasy Battle rulebook and 6th edition 40k just feels like it's still a little way off for now. I hoped and prayed they'd do something sensible like bring back Warhammer Quest, something that might actually help them sell a few Warhammer monster miniatures and stuff as well, but they haven't. I still think Blood Bowl is 2 years away because we'll have 40k in 2012 and then in 2013 we'll get the Blood Bowl 25th aniversary edition. You see I started hearing about 2 to 3 months ago now that it was going to be a Warhammer Naval game, not a Man-o-War remake but some sort of spiritual successor. We then started getting the recent drip feed of John Blanche artwork, which all but confirmed for me it was a naval game probably based around pirates. Now regardless of whether you like John's artwork you can't say it doesn't have a distinctive character now can you? Plus it got the interweb a flutter, sadly many felt it might be the return of Man-o-War and even better a return to supporting specialist games properly because you can't have a naval battle game with just two fleets can you? I love optimists I really do, but how misguided...



So after seeing the information, or lack thereof on Dreadfleet on Games Workshops website I decided to pop into town with a mate genuinely interested to see if we could get some more information on the game from the staff at the Birmingham store and maybe see if they had been sent any early preview stuff so we could get a grasp on the quality of the product. Boy were we wrong, we knew more about it than the staff and had to point them towards the information on the website, and I felt really sorry for the staff, standing there trying to be enthusiastic about the game when they knew sod all about it, and I got the sense that this launch might be a lot different from the Space Hulk one.  With space Hulk customers already had an idea of what to expect from that release, with Dreadfleet its a total unknown and customers sounded way more negative and unimpressed. I had a staff member claim the ships were all as big as chariots if not bigger, the manager quickly dispelled that notion especially as I pointed out if you compared the dice to the ships in the pictures you can get a good estimation of their relative size and that in length alone the 'chariot size' claim was probably a little bit off, and if you wanted to be nit picky then such claims could constitute false advertising... and the Birmingham store manager is far to professional to let his staff get away with silly over exhuberant claims like that... but I feel sorry for them because they've been told nothing. Head Office has once again hung their staff at the coalface out to dry on a release.

Well it looks like it has a fair bit in the box doesn't it?

Now I've heard people in the blogging sphere claim its all because people like me will criticise the game before it has even released, and hell maybe there is a grain of truth to that. However with the lack of information it does annoy people like me and has certainly made me far more inclined to be negative towards the product than if I'd been given more details and been able to see the game in action, or even just the ship spru's in the flesh. However we've had nothing really and its out soon so I have to ask the question what's with the total blackout on info? Maybe they don't want us to know how bad it truly is, or maybe its because they didn't want their staff having to deal with built up expectations in the shops and wanted them concentrating on the day to day business of selling their 3 core games. Whatever the reason this information blackout is in stark contrast I feel to some of the other companies out there who are involving the community in their product development, and keep us all informed and engaged. Its like Games Workshop view us as consumers as a necessary evil, we're the conduit through which their profits flow and they don't like that we get in the way of them grabbing their money and that's the impression all of this gives me.

Buy it now... but we're not going to tell you anything concrete about it. Here read the Dreadfleet press release and see if you can glean any really useful information about the game and whether or not its for you. I sat watching this video from Phil Kelly trying to do the same:

and I thought, gosh that's an awful lot of bluster and not a lot of fact. You see I'm a psychologist and I was trained to pick up on things like non-declarative statements, sentences that sound like they say a lot but when broken down actually say very little, or nothing at all. Politicians, Marketing professionals and Lawyers are masters of this art form, Games Workshop sadly for them are not. Now compare this video to any of the exceptional videos done by Fantasy Flight Games explaining their games and products and also the tutorial videos from Corvus Belli for Infinity and many others I'm sure within the industry. It just shows how totally out of touch they truly are, they've seen other companies doing these video's and that we gamers quite like them, so they've done a video too... but totally missed the point and its not the first time they've done it either! I sat there thinking, how many more times can he say 'cadavour' or fecking 'broadside' and just how the hell can a ghost ship be cadaverous? I found it cringe worthy. Now I'm sure Phil is a top guy and an all round lovely chap, but it really didn't work. He's clearly not a presenter and looked uncomfortable and what was with the bad voice changer on the pirate voice over, dear God guys stop it already... and I won't even mention the 'flying piranha' bit, oh snap I just did, lame! In many respects it was worse than the efforts by Ronnie Renton at Mantic, because there at least Ronnie knows his video's are amateurish and embraces that fact and plays up to it. However here this video is trying to be professional and just feels... well cheap.

This should excite me... but it doesn't

Now if you've seen my blog over the last few months you'll have noticed I've kinda been buying an awful lot of board games recently, you know 'games in a box'. I like them. So I have to be honest with you and say that in many respects the idea of Dreadfleet giving me everything I need in a box is an appealing one, but here's the thing it looks like a wargame, not a board game. Is there a difference I hear you ask? Well yes you see board games give you everything you need to play the full game in a box, we're used to it with things like Monopoly, Cluedo and Risk. Now maybe its years of conditioning, but I've been taught by Games Workshop, amongst others, that the great thing about wargames is that you choose your faction (normally from more than two) and then choose the composition of your force based on the options available to your faction. With a wargame you're buying into a living and breathing system that will grow with you as a hobbyist. Here's where Dreadfleets first really major failure as a product is for me, the factions and the forces are chosen for you. That sits awkwardly with me. What if, and I think it could be a distinct possibility, Phil Kelly has written an awesome set of rules that are really fun to play? What if he's actually created the best set of naval fleet rules the world has ever seen... OK so that might be stretching it, but what if? Well its a game in a box with set fleets and in many respects those rules will be wasted. That will lead to a certain amount of frustration amongst those who buy the game because its potential hasn't been fulfilled.

Because lets look at the facts shall we. We know its a limited release, now this means that the game isn't going to be supported beyond the initial run... even if they manage to magically 'find' some more copies in a warehouse like they did with Space Hulk. Actually lets look at that shall we for a second. The last limited release Games Workshop did, Space Hulk, proved really popular, probably because of the huge nostalgia factor. They sold out of the limited run pretty quickly, but then miraculously they 'found' a warehouse full of them that they'd 'forgotten' about. Now let that roll around in your head for a second or two will you... a bit longer... and I think we're done. You see the idea that a company could just forget it had stock somewhere in a warehouse seems incredulous to me. Now if it did happen then clearly it tells you an awful lot as a consumer about how utterly rubbish and incompetent the management of Games Workshop truly is. On the other hand if we take the other possibility that they sold out and realised they could sell a shed load more and then did another print run... well that shows not only a lack of forethought and business planning but also a scant disregard for their consumers who'd purchased the 'strictly limited' copies of Space Hulk in the first place. You see the whole value of buying something that is 'strictly limited', is just that, its limited you know you have a product only a few select others also own. But back to Dreadfleets limited run...

I'm sure some people will find it fun, but so far I'm not sold

By limiting the run the Games Workshop are sending out a clear message to us consumers and its in two parts; 1) Buy the game now or else miss out forever and 2) that it's already a dead game guys because there isn't a cat in hells chance we're supporting it. Again absolutely nothing wrong with this at all per se, I'd just prefer my wargames to be supported, but if others don't then more power to them. No its the complete dearth of information on the actual material content of the box and indeed the paucity (read nothing at all) of information on the rules. They're in effect asking me to buy a product pretty much blind. Lets be honest here the only companies that do that are those that are normally not convinced what they're selling is any good, and don't want it subjected to closer scrutiny. So its a cash cow, simple as that, their staff don't need to know about the product because it'll sell out. They don't care if they're shoveling a pile of shit onto their customers. I've been told its a run of 7500 for the UK market and I think they'll shift that no problem and from there you can do the maths really to see why its quite a nice little cash injection; £70 per boxed set, times the 7500 copies at a 70% mark up (this is a conservative estimate based on similar mark ups for entertainment products) means a not inconsiderable cash injection of £367500. Now remember that's possibly for the UK market only, so you'll see a similar, if not larger run shipped to the USA and Canada as well as some to mainland Europe and they might even sell a copy in Australia if they're lucky. Its not inconceivable that it could net them £1m as a product, which for a company the size of the Games Workshop isn't too bad at all. It'll all be Just in time to help massage those half yearly figures AND far too early to impact on the normal holiday period sales that the Games Workshop, like many other retailers, enjoy every year.

Dreadfleet Island scenery or is it Castle Grey Skull?

So am I impressed with what I have seen then? That would be the photographs of the miniatures and stuff. I'm going to come clean, I like the look of the blue fabric mat, I think it looks pretty cool, unfortunately I've just started construction on a Sea board at home for Uncharted Seas and Dystopian Wars so its not really a selling point for me. But if it is good quality then it should be a selling point of sorts for many. As for the miniatures, well... no I'm not impressed. They look like kiddies toys and the sort of things a 5 year old might pick up from their local toy shop or poundland. The aesthetics of the miniatures don't 'do it' for me and its the continuation of a visual trend for garish colours a childish stylings started by Storm of Magic that I just don't like. Visually the ships for both 'factions' are an absolutely horrid hodge podge of ideas all executed in my opinion badly. The islands all look a little bit like castle Grey Skull from He-Man, and its not really the first time recently that the Games Workshop has borrowed quite heavily Mattel's masterpiece and I'm not the first person to point this out:

White Dwarf Storm of Magic double page spread

He-Man and the Masters of the Universe

Somebody at the Games Workshop, it seems used to have a crush on Prince Adam when they were a kid... and scarily possibly still do. Now don't get me wrong we'd all like our own Battlecat but I think these sorts of images and art direction show that Games Workshop are driving their product at an ever younger audience, soon they will be selling 6th Edition 40k to unborn foetuses!!! They're aiming at a totally different audience now to the one they used to aim their products at and its clear to me they're not really arsed whether the likes of me continue to play their games. That too is fine if they think they can keep pushing young kids through the sausage factory so to speak, but kids nowadays are savvier consumers than they once were, they're unimpressed by Nintendo's 3DS and want iPhones, iPads and their like, how the hell are the Games Workshop going to sell to those kids? Its not even a cheap alternative for parents anymore.

 This is the flagship... it looks like a kids toy

So there we have it for me, the Games Workshops direction in a nut shell. They're aiming product at a much younger audience than they ever were before, to be blunt it looks childish, in a bad way.  They're also not really concerned about whether they give their consumers the required information, or indeed engage with us. The attitude seems to be they just want to shovel product our way without any real care and just want us to put up and shut up, almost like they think they're still the only show in town. They haven't even given their fans a chance to save for this 'one off' product really, so those loyal Games Workshop fans who are finding times a little tight right now might not get a chance to buy this, as finding £70 is a big ask for some people in these hard times. Then there is the fact its limited, its not a game in a box, its a short term fiscal solution to a cash generation problem the accountants are having with the mid year report to shareholders... yeah I'm being that cynical as it might just be enough to 'bump' the share value enough to stave off any predatory companies out there who might be eying the Games Workshop and their IP right now. Yes they're a business but previously they used to be one with a heart and soul, now I don't even think it'd know what either of those things were. So I think its another first for me with the Games Workshop, it's the first Games Workshop game I won't actually be going out to buy, and I don't feel sad about it, I feel like I'm making the right choice. Peace out!