Forge World Global Price Changes
Just shy of a week ago the world (well the gaming world outside of the UK) was knocked sideways as Forge World announced its price structure changes. Forge World has introduced local pricing structures and faster shipping and for these changes Australia has seen a 30-50% price increase, New Zealand was hit worse and countries that are classed as ‘rest of world’ were also slammed pretty hard.
Understandable the backlash has been pretty harsh! There has literally been international outcry. Gamers are closing their Forge World accounts, asking for their artwork to be removed from all Games Workshop and Forge World online social media and they are trying to get their voices heard.
I am going to be honest, I can not understand the changes that have been implemented. It is now literally cheaper for us to fly to the UK, purchase the Warlord Titan that M wants and fly home again than it is to purchase it from the Australian webstore. (Note, we will not be doing this, it is purely for illustrative purposes that I mention it!!! *editors note – or so she says!) While I understand that there is a risk that the British Pound may fall as Brexit actually and eventually unfolds, but surely this can be addressed by keeping the pricing structure as British Pounds and we deal with the exchange rates if and when they become an issue?
Comparisons
Western Australian 30k player Timo compiled a comparison of prices which highlights the difference in rates (based on today’s exchange rate).
When it was first announced I was trying to find a reason for the huge difference in price. Perhaps it was because the additional fees included Australia’s 10% Goods and Services Tax (GST) and the customs import fees. Forge World clarified this by announcing that customers would be responsible for paying any taxes and import fees on top of the check out price. Add to this the current VAT (Value Added Tax) in the UK is 20% and customers outside of the UK do not need to pay VAT it suggests that the world outside of the UK is being penalised for living outside of the UK. The rational is that we do not have to pay currency conversion and we have faster shipping. Currency conversion is 3% with Visa and Mastercard and 3.5% with Amex. Faster shipping does mean that they have had to increase staff and obviously with increased staff comes increased costs. There are two thoughts I had on this, if the store warrants additional staff to cope with shipping more often it lends me to believe that the demand for shipping has increased and therefore the % that has been built into the price of the item should cover the additional costs to the company and if not then increase the item prices to cover the cost, don’t just pass that fee onto certain parts of the world. I could ramble about this for a long time, however what it comes down to is that the price change does not make sense.
What to do?
Now here is the actual point for this post. I have received a number of messages asking me to encourage gamers to go into their local GW store and tell the store manages and staff how unhappy they are with the changes. I am all for transparency so I thought I would write this post to share why I am not going to do that. I believe that if something happens that we are not happy about the first step should be to tell the people who are responsible. (In the same vein, if something happens that I am happy with I will also tell the people who are responsible). The people who are responsible for the pricing structure changes are not the Games Workshop store staff. They have no control over it and no way to pass that information back to the decision makers. In my opinion, going in and talking to the staff members of your local store is equivalent to complaining to the check out staff at supermarkets because of the plastic bag ban or to the staff in Kmart because you don’t like the check outs being in the centre of the stores. The people who work on the shop floor are not the decision makers and the decision makers very rarely make it to the shop floor! Games Workshop Australia do not stock the Forge World products in store or carry it in their warehouses so the Games Workshop Australia team have absolutely no input on pricing. The staff at Games Workshop and Warhammer Stores are gamers who love and are passionate about the game systems and they don’t want to see changes that jeopardise the game in their communities, this is just as hard on them as it is on us! So while I am not encouraging you to talk to your GW staff members I am also not saying that you sit on your hands either.
Who do we contact?
We need to make sure that the decision makers are aware of the impact of these changes. The best avenue for that is to contact Forge World. The email address for customer service is forgeworld@gwplc.com Send an email. Clearly explain what you see to be the biggest issues with the change to the pricing structure. Outline how this will impact your ability to purchase from them. Share your story of items sat in your cart this time last week being $200 and now they are $300. If enough people contact and clearly articulate the impact these changes will make we are letting the decision makers know how their decisions impact people outside of the UK. Hopefully this will lead to positive change!
Positive thought to end.
This is a game system. It is a game that is fun and brings many people joy. How you play the game is up to you. Whether you choose to purchase any new models for the game is up to you. Another WA 30k gamer Troy wrote on a local Facebook group
Fellow gamer Jackie has been doing his best to keep this community going, and I stand behind that push. When I first lost my job I had to sell a lot of my Heresy stuff just to survive. But I made do with some conversions of models I had sitting around. Everyone accepted my scratch built jet bikes and converted javelins whole-heartedly. I still kept playing with the ruins of my force and nobody objected.
Point is – despite price hikes, we can still play 30k, and I will continue to do so until I’m incapable of rolling dice!
Long live the Warmaster!
The point I am trying to make is please don’t let the decisions of others impact your love for the game!
Happy Gaming
E