In the wake of the hype from Orktober and other outlandish rumors that raised people’s expectations, should GW manage hobby expectations better?
Games Workshop has been under fire from some of the community here lately from “overhyping and underdelivering” on releases. However is it all 100% their fault?
Should GW actively take part in either addressing covertly, or directly dismissing false and potentially damaging rumors to their brand?
What (if anything) can be done by GW to dismiss some rumors that they know not to be true in order to direct their fans towards the correct information and/or potentially protect their bottom line?
Let’s break down the latest from October to December:
Orktober Overhyped
With one of the most anticipated codexes of 8th edition, Ork players had to wait until the very end of October to get their hands on everything. Rumors were popping up months in advance saying that “October belonged to the Orks” and that the month would be full of crazy previews. However, all we got was a Speed Freeks box and a codex.
Of course, GW knew in advance what they were going to be releasing. So would it have been a better idea to shut down certain things and give people realistic expectations instead of rolling with what the community was saying?
It didn’t help that on August 14th they released a video touting Orktober at the end. Depending on who you ask on both the retail and consumer side, October fell flat sales wise and the salt levels were high.
Could or perhaps as most people seem to assume they already do, or at least did before Warhammer Community… Could GW have made anonymous accounts online and rumor threads to dispell certain rumors as well as give factual ones. This would’ve guided the fans in the right direction, and perhaps the end result would have been a realistic/more accurate expectation from the players.
They could have also nipped everything in the bud ahead of time by making an announcement officially from Warhammer Community. All they had to do was give a date on when we would start seeing actual Ork things drop. Not just “Orktober”.
Should They do This With the Boxing Day Mini?
We originally had our suspicions thinking that the Noise Marine would be the new Boxing Day mini that GW stores had as an exclusive (last years’ was a Sly Marbo). However, more previews dropped and the Noise Marine was announced to for December 22nd, 2018. In other words, well before Boxing Day.
The Noise Marine cat is out of the bag. So now, people are looking to the Sisters model for the boxing day mini. It was originally previewed months ago…
The latest rumor comes from Lord Perversor on Dakka:
Adding a little snippet of info my local Redshirt told me today there is at least 1 maybe 2 exclusive models that may show up before Xmas (he said prolly for the 26th since they have some kind of huge season event in store) but he’s still on the dark about the true nature of those.
His personal bet and hope it’s the already previewed Sister miniature.
Could we see a new Sisters model pop up then to help get the GW hype train started?
Would it make sense for this Sisters model to pop up… especially with the Sisters beta codex looming?
Now that the rumors are focusing in on the Sisters model for Boxing Day and if GW knows for a fact, it isn’t, should they make an announcement publicly on Warhammer Community or secretly through a random user on a rumor thread to give people a more accurate expectation?
Again depending on whom you ask, the salt is on the rise again with TWO rules supplements releasing on the same day in fact for Warhammer 40k.
Casual players may just about be tapped out at this point, and only be looking forward to releases that may or may not exist. When hopes get dashed hobbyists go away, and this is something that both the Warhammer and tabletop hobby doesn’t need right now.
Should the GW “leak department” keep giving the world a steady supply of grainy, out of focus pictures of unreleased models, and keep the feel-badsies at bay, or is it all “just as planned”?
Let us know what you think GW should do for bad-rumors and managing hobbyists expectations in the future on our Facebook Hobby Group.
About the Author: Rob Baer
Rob Baer
Job Title: Managing Editor
Founded Spikey Bits in 2009
Socials: Rob Baer on Facebook and @catdaddymbg on X
About Rob Baer: Founder, Publisher, & Managing Editor of Spikey Bits, the leading tabletop gaming news website focused on the hobby side of wargaming and miniatures. Rob has won many Warhammer 40k Tournaments over the years, including the Adepticon Team Tournament and American Team Tournaments, and is on a first-name basis with almost every major company in the space.
He’s all gaming all the time. With over 30 years of experience in retail and distribution, Rob knows all the products and exactly which ones are the best. He advocates for gaming stores and manufacturers in these difficult times, always looking for the next big thing to feature for the miniatures hobby, helping everyone to provide the value consumers want.
While he’s played every edition of Warhammer 40k and Warhammer Fantasy (since 5th Edition) and has been hobbying on miniatures since the 1908s, Titans of all sizes will always be his favorite! It’s even rumored that his hobby vault rivals the Solemnance Galleries, containing rulebooks filled with lore from editions long past, ancient packs of black-bordered Magic Cards, and models made of both pewter and resin.
