My Hobby Holiday list, part one

Hello on a surprisingly warm December morning. Seeing as the holidays are nearly upon us and for some reason it has become customary to celebrate them by giving gifts, I'd like some gifts myself. But mine are not material. I don't like to receive major stuff I haven't worked for and furthermore, the ones on my list would make me much, much more happy than another worthless trinket.

My list comes in two parts, one aimed specifically at Games Workshop (and generally the producers of our hobby materials) and the other, well, you will see.

So here it is, Drazhar's Hobby Holiday Wish List.

I would like:

• Games Workshop to start a sensible, honest marketing schemes. We don't want to wait gods know how long for miniatures that have rules published in your army books and codices. I understand the in and out of marketing, raising the demand and whatnot, but what you are doing now is just wrong. I like the 'wave' system you employ in releasing your products, just make these waves come sooner. About every two months seem fine to me - in half a year, we would have the entire army published in miniatures. And by "entire" I mean just that - every single unit in the army list having its miniature available over the course of six months at the very most. What you folks did with the Jabberslythe recently is just rude to your clients.

• John Blanche to stop being called an artist. Seriously. And for the love of all that is decent, comparing him to Hieronymus Bosch is... ugh, I can't even find a word for such travesty.

• The Company to make more conversion parts. You did great job with, for instance, the Knights of the Blazing Sun packs. You can do it again. Personalizing an army is a great thing ans as the producer I think you should pay more attention to such things. It also has great marketing potential.

• GW writers to stop using the phrase "Games Workshop hobby". It's not your property. You have not invented it. You are the potentate of it, that's undeniable, but did you ever hear Bill Gates calling computing "the Microsoft hobby"? Unless, to keep to the digital world, you want to follow the footsteps of Apple and Steve Jobs... please don't.

• GW designers to stop with the nonsense in their projects - is the Old World really made of skulls and skulls alone? Does every terrain bit have a winged skull or a hammer chiseled into it? The architecture you come up with is already wacky, over-the-top and the unrealism should stop at that. Going further is just making your buildings look silly. Just look at the Skullvane Manse.

• Games Workshop - start talking to your fanbase! And start listening to it! They are the money in your pockets, it's not just nice to talk to them, it's your damn obligation. Don't take any leaves out of the Vatican's book, being closed to 'the people' and doing only what you think is right gets you only mistrust and eventually you will suffer, in one way or another. If your fans agree that, for example, your paints are worse than XYZ, maybe you should look into it. Benchmark, take every opinion into view, be open, attentive and respond to what we, your customers, actually want from you. Stop trying to make us want what you put on sale, start making us a vital part in your decision-making process.

There we go. Part two is upcoming!