Games Workshop changes Corporate rules of engagement
Apart from the merchandise, Games Workshop marketing strategy is to develop a gaming community. They host events at their stores, offering painting lessons and terrain building which encourages new players, new customers and gaming profs to take part.
Why has Games Workshop become so popular?
Whilst some may consider playing board games a pass-time for children, there are many among us who spend plenty of time playing board games in our grown-up life. Perhaps the interest did start from playing board games as a youngster. But then it becomes a hobby when taken through to adult-hood. And perhaps a career if you become really good at a particular game.
Games Workshop appear to have the right messaging in their global store: Get involved. Play games they sell [namely Warhammer, Warhammer 40,000 and Lord of the Rings] and have fun. Of course, all this leads to the sale of more products for the store.
Shop as a community centre?
Perhaps the stores will simply become a place to meet up and play the games, with any purchasing taking place in a virtual shop online. Maybe they’ll become a sort of show room and community centre all rolled into one.
Founded in 1975 in the UK – Games Workshop was hugely successful in the UK and in the US and was floated on the stock exchange in 1994. However, recently in May 2011 they announced they had revised the terms and conditions of their trade agreement with independent stockists in the restricting the sale of all Games Workshop products to within the European Union, Norway and Switzerland.
Increased prices for miniatures in resin?
They also said that they are going to produce the miniatures using a resin and will phase out the metal miniatures. Many loyal fans and customers are outraged because Games Workshop has not passed on the savings to the them. [Using resin is a much more cost effective material for casting.]
So, will the loyal community of fans and players put up with the corporate bludgeoning they’re getting or will they opt out of being part of one of the most successful and largest gaming communities in the world?
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Tictactactic – An Interview with the inventor Andi Francis
Your first invention was to do with inflatable buildings and shapes… tell us a bit more about that.
I’ve always been a kid and I love to design for other children. In the 70/80/90′s I developed inflatable structures for play and commerce, starting out with floating obstacle courses for swimming pools! This lead on to huge inflatable obstacle courses for events and TV and eventually a complete football training system for Coca Cola. By the mid 90′s Boing Creative Solutions was the #1 inflatable designer manufacturer in the world with 120 staff and producing £100,000 inflatables and softplay a week.
In 2004 you designed a mock-Tudor, inflatable pub! How did that come about?
In the latter 90′s and early 2000′s my interest in inflatables shifted to buildings having realised the huge potential of this industry. In 1996, the last project before selling Boing to the staff, I developed a working Church complete with pews, pulpit and lectern!!! This showed me the possibilities and got into National Geographic. Later it became obvious that if people won’t go to the pub then the pub has to come to the people! So The Inflatable Pub was developed in my new venture called Airquee which made international interest culminating in being included in Ripleys!
And more recently, working with a local youth group in South Wales, I heard about an entire hall being used to house an inflatable armchair and giant slide! Was this something to do with you?
Youth……….free play…..a time when children/young adults need their space in which to play and interact. It doesn’t happen often, more to the pity, so what did we come up with????? Well they ( the wonderful kids in Llanishen, Chepstow at “The Hall”) wanted a space where they could chill and thrill. Being a village hall whatever we did it would have to be able to be put up and down quick. So we designed and had made the inflatable “WHATEVER”. It fills the badminton court size hall. One half is a huge pink double sided rocking sofa where the kids chill and rabbit whilst they gather their energy for the drop slide in the other half which is a challenge to get up to and then a drop n slide! It’s brilliant, the best play inflatable yet!!!!!!
Tell me about your latest invention, this game Tictactactic? How did you come up with the idea?
So whilst all this was going on about 25 years ago a friend had developed a board game that didn’t really work but looked like it should!! I asked if I could take it on and make it work. It took me several years of five minutes here and hour there to get the board and the balls right and a few years ago with some critical feedback from a brilliant designer tictactactic was fully formed with all the essential ingredients for a successful game.
How important is it to get your inventions protected – I mean, are there people out there who would blatantly steal an idea?
Protecting your invention is essential and the patent office in Newport is brilliantly helpful. Copyright, trade marks, design registration and patent filing help protect and also show you if you do have a unique idea. There ways and means to uphold your protection but more about that down the line!
What makes Tictactactic unique and different from other table-top board games?
Tictactactic is unique, there is no other game like it in the world and it has captured much of other games!!!! It offers a fast interactive game for two players and is great fun to watch. It is simple and develops tactics as players develop skills. Several levels of skill lead players to be able to direct the balls to wherever they like and to unseat their opponents balls to win and double win. It goes equally well with fine wines or great ales! A truly all the family and friends game that is fast and of the time.
People spend a lot of time on their computers playing games. Why do you think it’s so important for people to play games face-to-face?
OK, yes there are brilliant computer games for all to play sat there on their own and we must not forget how to communicate face to face, interact and learn from others and form friendship and family relationships together. Tictactactic gives a fair chance to all ages to play and have fun together on a level that is really difficult to find elsewhere.
Do you think Tictactactic could be used as part of an educational process to help people re-establish face-to-face communication?
Here in the most beautiful country in the world we have been contacted by those clever Americans who want to use the game in therapy sessions for challenged marriages! There is no doubt that tictactactic is magic and whatever it takes to bring people together, why not???
Something, in theory so simple, provides developing skills and communication without those monopolistic blues!!!! Dextrose and tactile with a lovely clink this game can bring people together to have fun or compete whilst learning skills and tactics. Much like life its self!!!!!!!!
When Tictactactic takes off, what will you do then?
As soon as tictactactic takes off and apart from developing all the other ball games to play on this board my attention will be going on to how we can engage young people in creative learning which I believe is essential and in fact the foundation of our society!
The End
Read MoreThe Walking Dead – comic, TV series – now board game!
If you find fighting for your life against rampaging hordes of the un-dead exciting then look out for the new board game based on the TV series from the comic book by Robert Kirkman.
The Walking Dead board game puts you in character of one of the six travellers who have to find three safe zones from the walking dead.
A popular comic and a popular TV series too. How will the board game fair?
Game designer Keith Tralins said “I’ve always loved board games, but never knew they could be this cool! We’ve done test plays of The board game at the office, and the game play scenarios ring true to what Rick and the other survivors face in the comic book. I couldn’t be more impressed with Z-Man Games.”
We’ll get back to you with reviews after the launch in October this year.
Read MoreWilly Wonka Board Game DVD Combo – Special Edition
It’s true. It’s a board game with extraordinary extras including a golden ticket. Priced at $64.99 it’s not for the faint hearted or light of purse, but does promise a lot of fun.
Warner Home video’s 40th Anniversary Edition of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory looks like a board game but it’s really a Blue-Ray/DVD combo set with an awful lot of gimmicks to make sure it outreaches to every possible consumer.
This game isn’t on the market yet but will reach the shops in time for Christmas.
Watch this space. I think it’s out on 4 October but will confirm nearer the time.
Read MoreMack takes Word to another level!
Did you play Scrabble as a child? Last week, the youngest ever player to win an official Scrabble tournament was Mack Meller from New York, aged only 11.
Mack started playing when he was 4 but has over the last 7 months, taken part in the official Scrabble games run by the North American Scrabble Players Association.
When asked what his favourite words are, he said “That’s a tough one to decide ……. Some top ones are: teocalli, which is an Aztec temple, conferva, an algae, babassu, which is a palm tree, and bombyx, a silkworm.”
These are words I’ve never heard of and neither has my Word spell check! You know, when I was 11 I asked for a Roget’s Thesaurus for my birthday present and I would read pages and pages over time! Of course now, Thesaurus is on most computers.
Perhaps there’ll be a game designed around Thesaurus but for now, Mack’s future is to reach a 1,700 top Scrabble Rating!
Read MoreGames: an advertising spend to be reckoned with…..
Do you remember your favourite games that you played while growing up?
This year, University Games and Mattel are re-inventing some old games invented in the 1960’s and 1970’s. They’ll be spending millions on advertising and using social media to integrate the online/offline campaigns.
It’s no surprise that inventors with new games often don’t get a look-in, when the competition has that sort of financial weight behind them.
An American website called Kickstarter, enables creative business projects such as game inventors to show-case their new game and Americans can make a pledge to invest in the business start-up in exchange for a variety of gifts. Unfortunately, they haven’t expanded into the UK as yet, but I’ll keep you posted.
If you want to find out about becoming an Ambassador for our new table-top ball game Tictactactic, send us an email katie@tictactactic.com.
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