Games Workshop recently notified multiple online resellers of their product that they would no longer be able to sell online after the 15th of July. Once this information was released to the public there was uproar from the gaming community. Leadership10 did not make any comments on the topic, until now?

Many people have sent us emails about what we thought. We even got some comments that we were selling out and even one guy said that GW had paid us not to talk. As much as I would love for that to be true, it isn?t. The reason we have yet to comment on the topic is that there really is nothing to say.

We have yet to actually see any official press release from Games Workshop. Granted we have talked with both Bill from HobbyWorkshop and Neal at theWarstore and believe them, but until GW decides to actually put something official out no of us can really comment on it because we don't know what this is actually going to effect. Are they shutting down all Internet sites that use their IP? Are they only shutting down sites that have commercial interests? We really don't know yet.

Legally speaking we (along with every other GW fan site out there) might be gone come July. Games Workshop has the power to do it and as much as it is in our right to comment on them and their product (first amendment is great) - Leadership10 is in no way going to be able to pay the legal bills required to enforce that right.

As to "selling out" when we began Leadership10 one of our major desires was not to shed a negative light on Games Workshop. We all know the issue, we all have read the arguments, and we all know the gripes about prices already. So why should we enforce that negativity any more? Instead we choose to look past all that garbage and just support the hobby. We would rather publish an article that will help someone better their game or painting abilities than some rant about the evils of GW. Negativity won't help the hobby so we tend to avoid it if possible.

That is where Leadership10 officially stands.




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As an Executive Staff member of Leadership10 I thought I should give some more constructive thoughts on the issue, since everyone seems so negative:


Is it GW?s right to stop online use of their IP?
Most certainly and with their payrolled lawyers I'm sure they have legal grounds to further enforce it.

Is it in GW?s best interest?
I cannot speak for them but I am going to assume it is or they wouldn?t have done it. Granted they will be losing a chunk of change from the bulk online sales, but they should be able to make that back with better profit margins from their own online sales.

Is it in the hobby's best interest?
Probably not, but Games Workshop built a solid fan base and was a huge success before Internet sales were ever established. They will continue to grow because they make a great product, their support for their games is top notch, and the competition is very weak at best.

Is it in the player's best interest?
Most of you won't agree but I believe it is. With less online sales you will have to actually go to a real brick and mortar store. That store will generate money from your purchases and as a result they "should" support the hobby more. If a local shop is smart they will see the increase in sales and try to nurture them. Maybe by getting some more gaming tables, better terrain, running RTTs, and the list goes on.

Now granted less online discounters means that the cost of the miniatures just went up, but for goodness sake - who ever said this hobby was cheap. I'm sorry to those who think can't afford to play now, but really that is just an excuse. I was playing when I was in high school and I had to save my lawn-mowing money for a month in order to just buy the rulebook (back when they were hardback). It does mean you will have to limit your purchases, but a large majority of the players I know who are complaining already have two or three armies. Hopefully not being able to buy as much will encourage us to paint all the stuff we already have!

Now for the kicker, is it in the best interest of Leadership10?
That has yet to be seen. There are multiple issues that we are working with. The first is the possible loss of revenue from ad sales. Granted the site never earned much money, but it was enough to pay for our hosting and provide some freebies to the staff. If we lose that revenue we will have to try and make it up in some other way. Another issue is the possibility that we will not be able to continue publishing articles because of a conflict with GW's new IP policy. If that happens it will be sad to see it go, but Leadership10 will be closing shop. Like I said earlier, we do not have the means to enforce our first amendment rights and so will have little other choice.

Marc Robson and I will be sitting down together this weekend to review what is happening and where Leadership10 wants to go after all this. I can't really say at this point what I personally want from the site anymore. When we started this whole thing, almost four years ago, I had high hopes for the site. Almost every goal we set out for has been reached and many of them far surpassed. We have over 2000+ unique visitors every day , some of the best authors in the hobby writing for us, and some amazing artists on our staff. So where do we go from here and will Games Workshop work with us to get there? Only time will tell.

Ultimately, I think GW has gone about doing this incorrectly and with better tact I think less people would be up in arms over their decision. So in my mind it is a bad move on their part because it has really affected their fan-base, which resulted in losing a large amount of really good people in the hobby. However, Games Workshop will survive, the hobby will continue to grow, and life will go on.