Games Workshop At 40: How They Brought D&D To Britain

An anonymous reader writes: Following on the fortieth anniversary of Dungeons & Dragons last year, another formative influence on modern gaming is celebrating its fortieth birthday: Games Workshop. Playing at the World covers the story of how the founders, Ian Livingstone and Steve Jackson (not the other Steve Jackson), started out as subscribers to the 1960s British gaming zine Albion playing Diplomacy by mail and (in Ian's case) publishing silly cartoons. When Albion folded at the beginning of 1975, Livingstone and Jackson formed Games Workshop with its own zine Owl & Weasel as a way to bring "progressive games" (as in "progressive rock") to the UK. Shortly thereafter, when they discovered Dungeons & Dragons, fantasy and role-playing games became their focus. After Owl & Weasel grew up into White Dwarf in 1977, its famous "Fiend Factory" column ended up populating the D&D Fiend Folio. And in the 1980s, of course, they brought us Warhammer and their retail stories brought stylish miniatures to many a needful gamer. Happy birthday to Games Workshop!

Comments

Won't make it to 50

[hedgemage]

Looking at GW's current business model and practices, it is clear that they are at the brink of collapse. Not because they aren't making money, but because their business model is, well, models. The ever increasing prices for their models and rulebooks is spiraling out of control, meaning that the barriers to attracting new players are increasingly steep. Add to this the rapid decrease in costs of 3D printing technology and soon people won't need to buy their products at all. They are slowly attempting to become an intellectual property-based company, and are using the same kind of ham-fisted, strongarm tactics that traditional media companies use that discourage fan collaboration and community. Right now, there is no one in their leadership with any clue or plan to adapt to the changing market and disruptive technologies. Their time is limited. People will still play their game, but their revenue streams will dry up.

Re:Won't make it to 50

[Shinobi]

Actually, you are about a year and a half to two out of date with some of your assertions:

The leadership HAS changed. For example, the CEO was ousted, and the senior legal counsel, responsible for the excessive, almost scientology-like IP protection, went out the hard way back in august 2013. Since then, the climate HAS changed: There have been more licenses for computer games based on their IP, mod makers no longer get instant threatening C&D letters. I've made some tilesets for 40k/Dark Heresy/Rogue Trader/Deathwatch use, and I actually got a very polite mail about 8 months ago, essentially saying they didn't mind, as long as I didn't try to make money from it. A WH fantasy mod for the Total War series has, to my knowledge, not been harassed after the senior legal counsel was fired, despite Creative Assembly having received a license for Warhammer Fantasy.

Right now, GW ARE changing: For example, the new Warhammer Fantasy that is in the works is apparently going back to older roots, with less hard restrictions on units, instead going back to the old percentage allocations(At least x% points on troops, at most y% points on characters, that kind of thing), as well as going towards more skirmish type(I wonder if they finally dumped Nigel fucking Stillmann, the chief asshole behind the move to put as many and as large units as possible on the table... A bit like how Gav Thorpe and Ian Pickstock helped fuck up WH40k 3rd ed and onwards...)

Also, in terms of models, what it looks like, according to some people who are in the pipeline, is that GW are changing focus towards Forge World, and possibly even customized miniatures, and possibly just selling cad files etc for basic troops.

Re:Way too expensive for my blood...

[Harlequin80]

I've never heard of it costing you a win. To compete in a tournament your miniatures must be painted with at least 3 colours each to qualify. At most tournaments though there is a prize given for painting but the tournament overall winner is usually a straight win / loss calculation.

Painting
All models must be painted to a 3 color minimum. We count primer as a color. If you have any models that are not painted to a 3 color minimum, you will be ineligible for prize support at the end of the event. We will use a Paint Rubric for judging paint. No basing requirement.

Thanks to them, we have today's mmos

[argStyopa]

I firmly attribute the success of world of warcraft also to games workshop.

Because they were too stupid and greedy.

Gw has always been rapacious in terms of pricing, but when they were presented with these developers who (really out of line for the ip) had created this "real time strategy" computer game using orcs (sorry, orks - for a company so tyrannical about their ip, they've been astonishingly casual about others'...) they reacted badly, insisting on a tyrannical level of creative control and ruinous charges for the ip. Their demands were so ridiculous, in fact, that these developers (who really already had the core of the game done) had to reluctantly walk away from the rapacious Brits and set out on their own...and thus was born warcraft.

In exactly the same sense that I think Lego controlling minecraft would have strangled that baby in its cradle, GW controlling warcraft would have certainly prevented warcraft (and ultimately wow - and the mmo renaissance it spurred).

Their greed compelled blizzard to strike out themselves.