# Was anyone else disappointed with Gamesday?



## falcoso (Apr 7, 2012)

So this year Gamesday was held at the NIA so was naturally going to be a lot smaller, but being called Gamesday you would expect there to games to play wouldn't you? I for one was extremely disappointed with it this year, there was so little to do that I had done everything by 12:00 so spent the rest of the time wandering. 

The Gamesday model has also doubled in price since last year to £18 and I ended up waiting in a queue to pay for that single miniature for an hour, and there was no scrap deamon, scenery workshops or art competition.

I understand that Gamesday was losing money at the NEC but if it stays like this then I expect a lot of people won't be going anymore, in fact I heard several people say so. I personally wouldn't mind paying more for my ticket to go to the NEC and you would have thought that whoever checked how much gamesday would cost would say, 'ok its going to cost us X amount to hire the hall and pay for everything so lets make sure that if we sell all our tickets we will break even and then make a profit on all the retail sales' - as after all the tickets do always sell out.

I'm sorry for the rant but I am interested in knowing what other people thought?


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## Serpion5 (Mar 19, 2010)

In Sydney Australia, GW rented their venue for five years. The first Games Day was average, but considering we'd not had one in so long complaints were not so bad. But then the Venue demanded more money since they were increasing their prices (after the deal had been made mind you, a dog move on their part) and GW simply decided they could not then afford to run a Games Day the next year despite having already paid for the location. 

So I imagine the next one wasn't so great either. I wouldn't know, I was out of the hobby and didn't even hear anything about it. 

So Games Day itself might be approaching its ass end unless something changes.


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## Stella Cadente (Dec 25, 2006)

I say it every year to somebody somewhere, I told you so.


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## khrone forever (Dec 13, 2010)

Ignoring stella....

One of the reasons that GW couldnt use the NEC was that Sainsburys used it for their annual connference on saterday, which might have had something to do with the change of venue.

and yes i do agree that it was disapointing, me and my friends sat playing magic for 2 hours


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## bitsandkits (Mar 18, 2008)

Stella Cadente said:


> I say it every year to somebody somewhere, I told you so.


And every year thousands ignore your warnings and go on to enjoy themselves.


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## Barnster (Feb 11, 2010)

I've never been to games day. But if I did I think I would only be interested in the FW stand. This year there's a tonne of new FW bits I really want to pick up

I would go to games day if it was based in the south


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## Stella Cadente (Dec 25, 2006)

bitsandkits said:


> And every year thousands ignore your warnings and go on to enjoy themselves.


And twice the amount complain it was shit, you cannot deny that more people post their disappointment at GD than enjoyment of GD...well you can, and you especially probably will, but you'll do so knowing your wrong, and get agreement from others on here who also know they are wrong, but don't want to feel left out.


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## slaaneshy (Feb 20, 2008)

The lack of games to play is because GW have always relied on/expect gaming clubs to lay it on for them. My club regularly did a table at Games Day, but the increasing demands and restrictions on what you could do took all the fun out of it...hence not many bother anymore. Also you get no help from GW...not even a pot of paint - all at your own expense.


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## Achaylus72 (Apr 30, 2011)

When Sydney holds the next gamesday i'll go just for the novelty value, and to be overwhelmed with all that plastic crack.

Oh the joy.


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## bitsandkits (Mar 18, 2008)

Stella Cadente said:


> And twice the amount complain it was shit, you cannot deny that more people post their disappointment at GD than enjoyment of GD...well you can, and you especially probably will, but you'll do so knowing your wrong, and get agreement from others on here who also know they are wrong, but don't want to feel left out.



just as you cannot deny that you camped out at the NIA all last week just so you could be first in line at GD so you could run into the main hall screaming "sell meee your speez marines so i can suckle at the GW teat as i am your biggest fan boy"dressed as a cos play Ultramarine:wink:, besides studies have shown time and time again that those who have an axe to grind will post much more readily than those who have a pleasant experience.


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## Farseer Darvaleth (Nov 15, 2009)

Stella Cadente said:


> And twice the amount complain it was shit, you cannot deny that more people post their disappointment at GD than enjoyment of GD...well you can, and you especially probably will, but you'll do so knowing your wrong, and get agreement from others on here who also know they are wrong, but don't want to feel left out.


You think that the internet accurately represents the sheer number of people who go to Games Day every year and come away satisfied? Heck, that the internet can *ever* accurately represent the population for *anything*?

Why do warhammer-people come on to the internet? Usually because they want to help others with advice (tutorials or tacticas etc.) or have a strong opinion they want to express. For you neither is the case, you're just a pathetic troll. But apart from you, we have those broad categories.

What's the strongest opinion you can find? A negative one. Nobody would come out of Games Day feeling orgasmic, because that would be weird. They enjoyed it but it wouldn't give them such a strong feeling as, say, if they really disliked it. So the negative feeling is stronger, and more likely to compel them onto the internet.

Then there's the fact that the internet is anonymous, and that it's free attention-seeking. You especially take advantage of these two, so you'll see where I'm coming from. People come onto the internet to whine and naysay and troll, because it's easy and there's no backlash. People jump onto bandwagons because, from their perspective, that's what "everyone" thinks. But, as we've seen, it's *not* everyone. It's just the sad trolls and whiners, with the few voices of reason (such as bitsandkits in this situation) trying to bring people to their senses.


But of course, you're right. I mean, GW doesn't exactly hold a international near-monoply of the wargaming industry or anything. And it's not as though the Games Day tickets sell out every year!


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## falcoso (Apr 7, 2012)

Stella Cadente said:


> And twice the amount complain it was shit, you cannot deny that more people post their disappointment at GD than enjoyment of GD...well you can, and you especially probably will, but you'll do so knowing your wrong, and get agreement from others on here who also know they are wrong, but don't want to feel left out.


Well normally I find it really good and the only people I ever see complaina bout it are those that don't agree with the price.



khrone forever said:


> Ignoring stella....
> and yes i do agree that it was disapointing, me and my friends sat playing magic for 2 hours


Some fo my friends did that too, I was too busy stalking the 'Eavy metal team because there literally nothing else to do



slaaneshy said:


> The lack of games to play is because GW have always relied on/expect gaming clubs to lay it on for them. My club regularly did a table at Games Day, but the increasing demands and restrictions on what you could do took all the fun out of it...hence not many bother anymore. Also you get no help from GW...not even a pot of paint - all at your own expense.


I thought it was normally GW stores that each do a table and run it? That's what I have seen in the past, it didn't help that the NIA only had the one central arena, half of which was for sales.

One of the things I did find interesting was that when someone asked the FW guys how they did the blue steel on some of their heresy models they actual used tamiya stuff and were openly telling people about it.


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## MidnightSun (Feb 10, 2009)

Farseer Darvaleth said:


> Why do warhammer-people come on to the internet? Usually because they want to help others with advice (tutorials or tacticas etc.) or have a strong opinion they want to express. For you neither is the case, you're just a pathetic troll. But apart from you, we have those broad categories.


But nor is Stella a warhammer-person, so it's hardly fair to put him into your categories 

I've never been to a Games Day, purely because I don't see the appeal of looking at all the stuff I can see and playing all the stuff I can play for free in the comfort of my own home or even the exuberance of Warhammer World, which is much better equipped than any hall in Birmingham. As shown all over the internet, all the Forge World stuff has been photographed and released on the web, so why pay an extra £50 or whatever and queue to see it 24 hours before anyone else?

Midnight


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## humakt (Jan 2, 2008)

Games day can be enjoyable, but the NIA is a small area compared to the NEC. But the NEC is a big venue to fill, and the last GD there was very empty participation wise. I can see GD fizziling out if there is not enough things for people to do, but not for a year or 5.

How was the quality of the GD's this year?


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## Achaylus72 (Apr 30, 2011)

Stella Cadente said:


> And twice the amount complain it was shit, you cannot deny that more people post their disappointment at GD than enjoyment of GD...well you can, and you especially probably will, but you'll do so knowing your wrong, and get agreement from others on here who also know they are wrong, but don't want to feel left out.


I thought you hated Warhammer/40K?


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## Stella Cadente (Dec 25, 2006)

Achaylus72 said:


> I thought you hated Warhammer/40K?


And that is what everyone thinks, yet I've said thousands of times I hate what GW has done to 40k and fantasy.
Not that it has to do with anything, as far as I am aware this is not a 40k and fantasy only board.


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## falcoso (Apr 7, 2012)

humakt said:


> Games day can be enjoyable, but the NIA is a small area compared to the NEC. But the NEC is a big venue to fill, and the last GD there was very empty participation wise. I can see GD fizziling out if there is not enough things for people to do, but not for a year or 5.
> 
> How was the quality of the GD's this year?


2012 was a lot emptier than 2011 but then also 2012 used an extra hall for the retail area which gave people a lot more space as there wasn't any queing through the gaming hall, and as far as I am aware GD sold out both years.

The quality of the day was very poor, the NIA was about the same size as just the Arena area of the NEC, except half of the space was taken up by retail which took half an hour to queue to get into and then too an hour to queue to get served and then get out. A quarter of the arena was FW, and the other quarter was just Design team stuff. On the up side I did get to talk to the 'Eavy metal team A LOT as well as the army painters.


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## Moonschwine (Jun 13, 2011)

Overall I gave this years Gamesday a 5/10. Last year I say was an 8/10.

Pros: 

This years miniatures were quite interesting, if a bit niche.
The horus heresy battle-board stuff looked fantastic
The history of Citadel invoked alot of Nostalgia
A decent GW employee was handing out free bottles of water in the shopping que

Cons: 

Price hike on GD miniature Marco Colombo
Felt like a giant shop.
GD and AOP were relegated to a basement sports-hall.
Lack of Interactive things, or convoluted routes between related sections. 
GW desperately needs to get some kind of quality control on its Video Game IP's. Some of the games look bloody awful!

My gripes are on the following:

1. The first big problem was that, this year, GW decided to make it more like an "Expo" than a gaming event. This really showed because I felt alot less interactivity was available. With no bits contest or terrain building, or even a few gaming tables I couldn't help felt feel I'd payed £30+ to basically come to a massive GW Shop. Even the "On display" scenes were lack luster; of the ones I saw: The Emperors Children vs. Iron hands was pretty neat and the Dark Elves vs. Lizardmen was glorious. For some reason an entire table of Ultramarines was laid out, I guessed it was another showcase of last years "Full chapter" in Battle with the Tyranids, however it came across more as "The Ultramarines take a walk". 

2. The layout of the stands and stalls was tragically bad. 2 Years ago the ques were obscene. Last year they had long ques and to some extent had made progress on the previous year to address them. This year, they kept closing the shopping lines forcing people to Que to Que up - When I finally got in my friends and I split up so that some went and got the forgeworld stuff whilst others grabbed Citadel. I was lucky enough to grab a copy of Imperial Truth for a friend - one of 3 copies remaining; which was the main reason he came. The frustration that being constantly told "We'll open the lines again in half an hour" and then being shut out twice was down right infuriating. At one point there was consensus among our group that "If we don't get in this time we'll just live without the event-day models." I think GW still haven't learnt the necessary lessons of line flow management critical to these things; especially considering the Food Village solved alot of those problems. 

3. Far far too much space was given to the shopping area and the overall layout was poorly constructed. What really annoyed me was that Fantasy Flight got prime real-estate for a couple of tables for it's games and then the two actual interactive things of the day were separated by a rather convoluted route. GW's Ipad and Android stand was tucked away, whilst the video gaming section of the IP's were upstairs on a balcony which had an annoying route to get to. The "learn to paint" section was separated away from the 'eavy metal areas and each "Big name" of each department felt separated from the rest. This meant you had loads of bored looking designers and artists sitting around staring off in the distance, which was hardly welcoming. I did get to manage to chat with Phil Kelly and Cruddace (who were sat next to one another), but again they were stuck in an odd place, at a junction corner meaning yet another awkward flow to the whole thing as people negotiated past the que. I felt they could have put all the interactive stuff in a single area....Like downstairs in the sports hall that Golden Daemon and AOP got stuck with. 

4. Some bright spark decided the entry to the shop area would be by a fire-escape route. Which meant that those waiting to que to que were hanging around the barriers and obstructing flow even more. A friend of mine pointed out that GW shot themselves in the foot this year because by cutting the number of tickets, only those really interested in heavy shopping came and they should have prepared for that. 

5. AOP and GD were relegated to a sports hall? I mean, honestly this is the biggest and most prestigious part of the hobby, during it's biggest event in the UK: and it was held in a sports hall? I felt like I was at a school fair day and I half-expected a bake-sale somewhere. It all felt poorly thought out and planned, like this wasn't a glorious celebration of the hobby, but instead a "Yeah we'll throw a venue together and whatever." And oh god...the staircase down was like walking through a used gym bag. I felt so sorry for the people forced to stand there for hours.

All in all the day was completed in maybe 2 hours or so with 1.5 hours of queing. Sadly it was a friends first games day and I feel the whole thing was soured for him because of the "This is just a shop" feel we all came away with. My one saving grace was that I found a Kaptain Badrukk in finecast and a friend picked up some Goffs. Also landing a copy of The Imperial Truth for my friend was nice. How people say GW don't make money from GD is beyond me. Between my party of four, with tickets, forgeworld sales and bric-a-brac GW pocketed £700+ easy. And thats from 4 guys. Say GW sold around 2000 tickets at what - £34? - Thats 68k in the bag already. Now lets say the average person spends about £50 on product there: that's another £100k. I'm just ball-parking figures here since I saw people buying single paint pots to throwing £1000+ on things like Mantas, Titans and just general Impulse sprees. The fact that GW Direct stuff was there saw alot of people picking up the remaining Metal stock of models and I can't even begin to fathom the reservations section.


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## rayrod64 (Apr 19, 2011)

The last one here in the US was in Chicago, I went on a 18 hour ride with a friend to get there. We just spent time walking around and leaving after just four hours, mostly we purchased some fW. I didnt get a sense of excitment or anticipation that I did with gamesday in years past. and thats as a spectator, player and former staff member running events.


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## falcoso (Apr 7, 2012)

Got this reply from GW after I sent them a complaint e-mail:

"Many thanks for your email regarding this years Games Day event, we appreciate all feedback that our customers give us on any and all of our events and products.

First of all we would like to offer our sincerest apologies that the day did not live up to your expectations. All of your comments will be passed along to the project managers for consideration during the planning of next years event.
We can very much appreciate that many people felt that the event was not as advertised, and we will endeavour to improve on this going forwards.

Once again thank you for your comments, and many apologies."


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## falcoso (Apr 7, 2012)

Got this reply from GW after I sent them a complaint e-mail:

"Many thanks for your email regarding this years Games Day event, we appreciate all feedback that our customers give us on any and all of our events and products.

First of all we would like to offer our sincerest apologies that the day did not live up to your expectations. All of your comments will be passed along to the project managers for consideration during the planning of next years event.
We can very much appreciate that many people felt that the event was not as advertised, and we will endeavour to improve on this going forwards.

Once again thank you for your comments, and many apologies."


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## Stella Cadente (Dec 25, 2006)

So in other words
"blahblahblah blahblah, blah blahblahblah, blahblah blah blah
Fuck you
Blah"


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## Magpie_Oz (Jan 16, 2012)

Stella Cadente said:


> So in other words
> "blahblahblah blahblah, blah blahblahblah, blahblah blah blah
> Fuck you
> Blah"


Or when you actually read it "thanks for your feedback, sorry you didn't like it and we'll take it on board and try to do it better next time"


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## Stella Cadente (Dec 25, 2006)

Wow...you really are desperately clinging on to the belief they care aren't you.


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## Magpie_Oz (Jan 16, 2012)

Stella Cadente said:


> Wow...you really are desperately clinging on to the belief they care aren't you.


In my experience GW care for their direct customer enquiries the same as, if not slightly better than, any other comparable corporate body.

But do go ahead and tell me that my personal experience is invalid because you say so.


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## Ravner298 (Jun 3, 2011)

Protip: putting Stella on ignore greatly enhances your forum experience. It's not like you'll get anything from his posts but mindless hate dribble anyway.


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## Stella Cadente (Dec 25, 2006)

Magpie_Oz said:


> In my experience GW care for their direct customer enquiries the same as, if not slightly better than, any other comparable corporate body.
> 
> But do go ahead and tell me that my personal experience is invalid because you say so.


Well why not?, everytime Stella mentions his personal experiences people ignore it, or pass it off as rubbish, everytime I've mentioned my hassle with both GW and FW service people sweep it away as trolling, why is YOUR personal experience any more relevant?....oh wait, I forget, positive experience is expected, negatives are just lies.

Fuck your "personal experience"


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## Tawa (Jan 10, 2010)

:headbutt:


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## Silens (Dec 26, 2010)

Stella Cadente said:


> Well why not?, everytime Stella mentions his personal experiences people ignore it, or pass it off as rubbish, everytime I've mentioned my hassle with both GW and FW service people sweep it away as trolling, why is YOUR personal experience any more relevant?....oh wait, I forget, positive experience is expected, negatives are just lies.
> 
> Fuck your "personal experience"


It's not your experience so much as the way you tell people about it. You come across as a well-rounded twat most of the time as you seem to have only ever had negative experience which you make-out as being as bad as GW taking you out back and violating you in ways that Slaanesh would cry away from. People would be far more receptive to you just telling us the facts. 

For someone who seems to so openly dislike 40k and GW in general, you seem to spend a hell of a lot of time in the 40K General section of the forum just to remind us of how shit they are for providing as a product that we choose to buy and use.


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## MidnightSun (Feb 10, 2009)

Silens said:


> It's not your experience so much as the way you tell people about it. You come across as a well-rounded twat most of the time as you seem to have only ever had negative experience which you make-out as being as bad as GW taking you out back and violating you in ways that Slaanesh would cry away from. People would be far more receptive to you just telling us the facts.
> 
> For someone who seems to so openly dislike 40k and GW in general, you seem to spend a hell of a lot of time in the 40K General section of the forum just to remind us of how shit they are for providing as a product that we choose to buy and use.


However, he is paying to be here.

Midnight


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## DeathJester921 (Feb 15, 2009)

Stella Cadente said:


> Well why not?, everytime Stella mentions his personal experiences people ignore it, or pass it off as rubbish, everytime I've mentioned my hassle with both GW and FW service people sweep it away as trolling, why is YOUR personal experience any more relevant?....oh wait, I forget, positive experience is expected, negatives are just lies.
> 
> Fuck your "personal experience"


Have you tried not coming across as an asshole when giving voice to your personal experiences? If not, then that may just be your problem.


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## Farseer Darvaleth (Nov 15, 2009)

MidnightSun said:


> However, he is paying to be here.
> 
> Midnight


He's paying to come onto a board focused towards something he hates, to discuss changes and events which he hates, in order to further spread his own negative opinion through hating?

He's _paying_ to do that? Supporting the forum is honourable and all as a rule, but that is messed up.


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## Silens (Dec 26, 2010)

Farseer Darvaleth said:


> He's paying to come onto a board focused towards something he hates, to discuss changes and events which he hates, in order to further spread his own negative opinion through hating?
> 
> He's _paying_ to do that? Supporting the forum is honourable and all as a rule, but that is messed up.


He's not paying to be here, really. He's here for free but chose to _donate_ money. Y'know, he willingly gave money to a forum focused towards something he hates, to discuss changes and events which he hates, in order to further spread his own negative opinion through hating,


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## Stella Cadente (Dec 25, 2006)

DeathJester921 said:


> Have you tried not coming across as an asshole when giving voice to your personal experiences? If not, then that may just be your problem.


Believe it or not I used to, long ago, but you get accused of lying, of being a troll, being an idiot, so now I may as well be an asshole hadn't I?, afterall if your opinion doesn't count for shit when your nice and still doesn't count when your an ass, may as well be an asshole right?


MidnightSun said:


> However, he is paying to be here.
> 
> Midnight


Pardon?, no I'm not.....


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## MidnightSun (Feb 10, 2009)

Stella Cadente said:


> Pardon?, no I'm not.....


How did you get your supporter tag? :dunno: Perhaps using the past tense would have been more appropriate.

Midnight


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## scscofield (May 23, 2011)

Stop. Just stop. All of you. What the fuck.


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## Chaplain-Grimaldus (Aug 4, 2013)

scscofield said:


> Stop. Just stop. All of you. What the fuck.


^^^ this.

I came to this thread to get some review of Games day before I book the day off or next year not to see people attacking Stella.


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## Magpie_Oz (Jan 16, 2012)

Stella Cadente said:


> Well why not?, everytime Stella mentions his personal experiences people ignore it, or pass it off as rubbish, everytime I've mentioned my hassle with both GW and FW service people sweep it away as trolling, why is YOUR personal experience any more relevant?....oh wait, I forget, positive experience is expected, negatives are just lies.
> 
> Fuck your "personal experience"


Really? To date I haven't seen you venture a personal experience. 

Fuck you doesn't give me much of a framework to understand your point of view and believe me when I say that I welcome the opportunity to do so.


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## Magpie_Oz (Jan 16, 2012)

Chaplain-Grimaldus said:


> ^^^ this.
> 
> I came to this thread to get some review of Games day before I book the day off or next year not to see people attacking Stella.


Well if you look back before the first "fuck you" that was posted you'll see some good feedback falcoso's experience


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## Serpion5 (Mar 19, 2010)

We're done here.


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