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Author Topic: Is AoS meeting it's objectives  (Read 4062 times)

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Offline Gal'rgae Neverborne

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Is AoS meeting it's objectives
« on: September 13, 2015, 03:54:33 PM »
Hello,

I wanted to share with you my observations on AoS from a purely financial point of perspective, please leave your comments. Maybe your observations will match my own maybe you have some new information i'd like to hear from you.

If anyone hasn't i'd recommend you'd check out the investors reports available here.

Investor Relations | Games Workshop

Having read some of this content along with information which if picked up along the way from non-GW statements. About 2.5 years ago GW noticed that the Sales of Warhammer fantasy had been dropping, an aging demographic of gamers and a general frailer to bring new players into the hobby (please see the investor report for the last point as that's confirmed by the CFO of GW as a key problem)

I going to read between the lines of what I've read from the GW sources and take into account I've noticed locally about the hobby and to make a fairly safe conclusion that AoS is an attempt to bring the younger market into the GW hobby or atleast to get new customers into a or another GW Hobby. Buy models and make money - logical.

From what I've been able to see on Facebook groups, forums, youtube and in stores it's release was relativity by-the-book. There's an initial backlash by very vocal customers, more accepting customers have accepted it and most inevitably of all there's an initial sales boost of the current starter set.

Now i'm not really interested on if the game is any good or not, after all Games Workshop is a model company not a games company - yes we're all aware of the irony in the name but that's from the horse's mouth.

What i'm interested in is in quantity of new or existing customers that have been motivated to spend cash on AoS instore (or online) - although in-store sales  have been gradually declining and managers of poorly preforming stores are moved on. - Again see investor reports. But that's a different but very relevant discussion.

So are you, or are you seeing wargamers quitting 40k Bolt Action, X-Wing etc for AoS. Is you're son, daughter, younger brother bugging you/their parents for more AoS models after they got the starter set. Are they interested in it at all. - Maybe Gamesworkshop 40k/Fantasy is (mostly) Generational. Subbuteo Anyone?

From what I've seen when i'm in a GW store or gamer club admittingly this is just two regular sites with connections to two more. I'm not seeing either new players picking up AoS and i'm seeing exponentially less under 13 and under in the store than there was when I was 13 nearly 20 years ago.

So i'd have to say so far i'm not seeing AoS as a success so far. I'm excluding the starter set as that's a one-shot short term success - customers are unlikely to buy more than one? 

If that last paragraph and a half has you trace routing my IP address and running for a noose please bare with me. I'm not commenting on the quality of the game but and really keen on if Fantasy-fan-boys/girls - that's not a slur or an insult; are rushing to your local store to buy a new army or that unit of knights that you now really have to have?

I'd like to go onto where i think the major problems are but i might save that for a latter time.

Please comment what are you seeing/doing with AoS.   
« Last Edit: October 4, 2015, 11:44:52 AM by Kah'reil Icedancer »

Offline Dangerousdave0042

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Re: Is AoS meeting it's objectives
« Reply #1 on: September 30, 2015, 09:48:37 PM »
I think the models are great. Have I bought any? No. I've got three 40k armies one being ba. If I didn't already have sanguinary guard and enough assault squads I probably would but I do so I won't. I'd buy a great looking model for conversion or to count as if it looks great - I've got a sicarian whirlwind from fw I use as a standard whirlwind cos I like the model.
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Offline Sir_Godspeed

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Re: Is AoS meeting it's objectives
« Reply #2 on: October 1, 2015, 10:21:51 AM »
One thing I think is interesting is that they scrapped the old fluff, yet there's recently been several large game releases based on the old fluff IP, perhaps most notably Warhammer Total War.

I guess what I'm saying is that if there were obstacles to people becoming invested in the game, it probably was on the rules-front (a prohibitive cost, perhaps) and not the fluff front, though I could be wrong.

Offline Wyddr

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Re: Is AoS meeting it's objectives
« Reply #3 on: October 1, 2015, 04:28:31 PM »
I really have wondered why they felt the need to blow up the Old World. Honestly, the thing that *primarily* keeps me away from the game is the fact that I'm not really into the new fluff. I could put up with lousy rules if I liked the setting and the models were cool. Hell, I played 2nd Edition 40k, didn't I?

Offline Grizzlykin

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Re: Is AoS meeting it's objectives
« Reply #4 on: October 1, 2015, 05:41:34 PM »
Well from my point of view it's just as you said, games workshop is a model company and this release goes this way. One additional things might be that from the perspective of a non player, i'm 40k only so far, AoS is oriented towards fun rather than competitiveness wich was what they were doing. If i were to start a fantasy battle i think this kind of gameplay would be much more attractive. And i would like to engulf in competitive play once i got my fun, precisely what i'm doing with 40k, playing for fun and hardening the gameplay and list the more me and my friend progress towards competitivity.
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Offline Ebon Star

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Re: Is AoS meeting it's objectives
« Reply #5 on: October 17, 2015, 02:01:35 PM »
As heretical as it sounds, Age of Sigmar last time I checked at my FLGS was still selling, though I wouldn't be too surprised if some of those sales figures trailed off a bit with the unending repacks/releases of Khorne and Stormcasts. However, the game still gets positive opinions from people I've spoken to about it. The problem is due to the backlash, everyone's hiding their Age of Sigmar stuff and nobody wants to openly confess to liking it or purchasing anything from it.

I myself have a sizable Stormcast force, but I do share a lot of grievances with everyone else - namely, the price structuring and bizarre decisions. Like the release of an Army Book when the rules were "all online for free". They're still up there for free at time of writing, but considering neither the Stormcast nor Khorne books expand the story in any way like Quest for Ghal Maraz or it's predecessor do, their release seems pointless save to shove out a few formations. The pricing too in some cases is all over the place (Khorne Blood Warriors anyone?). Actually on that note, the names. Good god the names.

On that note, the new fluff is...back and forth. Some of it is pretty good (if very heavily influenced by Norse Mythology), but there are other bits where...*sigh*

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Offline Wyddr

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Re: Is AoS meeting it's objectives
« Reply #6 on: October 17, 2015, 02:08:43 PM »
Yeah, the fluff is spotty and ham-handed.

Which is not to say WHFB was precisely a grand bastion of consistent storytelling, but at least it had a certain Tolkienesque charm going for it and you could easily ignore said fluff and tell your own stories. That seems more problematic with this game.

I haven't played (hard enough to dig up 40K fans around here), so I can't comment on the game itself. I will say that the Khorne models look cool. If I ever build a Khorne Daemonkin army, I will definitely loot their range.

Offline Ebon Star

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Re: Is AoS meeting it's objectives
« Reply #7 on: October 17, 2015, 04:24:40 PM »
Yeah, the fluff is spotty and ham-handed.

Well it's not quite that just...the seeds of good material are buried in here somewhere, even if a lot of it is "spot the Norse Mythology reference" (although admittedly, at least one or two obscure references made it in). I like the setting a lot more than WHFB admittedly. The problem is it's in GW's hands and while I'm sure I'm gonna get shouted down from this - they never truly did recover from having the double whammy that was Matt Ward and Robin Cruddace on the writing staff.

Also, dem names. Some stuff like "Sepharon" are fine. However, half of the names in the Bloodtide? I think the Blood and Storm Machine at GW finally broke.

Which is not to say WHFB was precisely a grand bastion of consistent storytelling, but at least it had a certain Tolkienesque charm going for it and you could easily ignore said fluff and tell your own stories. That seems more problematic with this game.

Yes and no. I've been kicking around an idea or two for a force, and my Stormhost isn't any of the ones from the books. While there is an overall narrative and such, GW push the Stormcasts so hard (itself a good and bad thing) that other areas of Fluff are mentioned in passing that one could make an army around.

I haven't played (hard enough to dig up 40K fans around here), so I can't comment on the game itself. I will say that the Khorne models look cool. If I ever build a Khorne Daemonkin army, I will definitely loot their range.

I've only got a demo game under my belt and I would like to get a few more games in, but generally speaking the game itself has a much faster pacing thanks to the changes of the hitting and wounding system. Also, turn 1 or 2 combat is possible.

The balance and force structure is largely geared towards scenario play however (via the Battleplans from the books), which is where the balancing everyone frets about comes in (and not "Let's pick X wounds!"). In other words, this is not a game designed to work with Pitched Battle.

Offline Lorizael

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Re: Is AoS meeting it's objectives
« Reply #8 on: December 19, 2015, 09:51:36 PM »
One thing I think is interesting is that they scrapped the old fluff, yet there's recently been several large game releases based on the old fluff IP, perhaps most notably Warhammer Total War.

It's not been scrapped. It still exists, it's just the time line has moved on (a lot). There are still references to the World That Was, along with plenty of characters (and more to come...).
The Warhammer novels still exist and aren't being scrapped, the IP is being used in video games (and maybe more in the new Specialist Games Studio), so there's still life there.


I really have wondered why they felt the need to blow up the Old World.

Scope for expansion.
The designers felt that the Warhammer World had been explored- they were limited by a single world and it's geography- having 8 realms that can't be mapped allows them much more freedom and room to expand in the future.


Offline Sir_Godspeed

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Re: Is AoS meeting it's objectives
« Reply #9 on: December 20, 2015, 11:05:07 PM »
Scope for expansion.
The designers felt that the Warhammer World had been explored- they were limited by a single world and it's geography- having 8 realms that can't be mapped allows them much more freedom and room to expand in the future.

Well, sadly, with them seems any sense of risk to have gone, too. Though I suppose time will tell.

 


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