The job to rewrite the rulebook has been posted

[Darkson]

IF they re-release Blood Bowl and IF they change the rules and IF they are crap then I'll ignore them, and IF the NAF decides to follow the official GW rules then no biggie, I just stop going to tournaments that use them. I'll just continue to play BB with my mates.

But that's a lot of IFs, so nothing to worry about for the time being.

[Hegel]

IF they re-release Blood Bowl and IF they change the rules and IF they are crap then I'll ignore them, and IF the NAF decides to follow the official GW rules then no biggie, I just stop going to tournaments that use them. I'll just continue to play BB with my mates.

But that's a lot of IFs, so nothing to worry about for the time being.

+1 except I don´t go to tournaments anyway, I favour league play.

I only hope they won´t change field / base sizes to make existing stuff obsolete... but then I´ll continue playing the old stuff anyway, and so will probably most if not all of my league mates.

[Shteve0]

The NAF are not some tribe of evil lizard people hell bent on disrupting our membership's enjoyment of the game. In the event of a massive departure from the existing ruleset I suspect there'd be a lot of internal debate and probably a full blown member referendum before any long term decisions were cast.

Exactly as you say - that's a hell of a lot of ifs. At this point it's as likely any potential box set contains a checkers board, a half pound of cheese and a screwdriver with a handle sculpted in the image of Angela Lansbury as half of what's been speculated over the last few days. And we'd be no more likely to sign that off for tournament play against the will of the community either

[Darkson]

At this point it's as likely any potential box set contains a checkers board, a half pound of cheese and a screwdriver with a handle sculpted in the image of Angela Lansbury

Should we be concerned at the way your mind thinks?

[babass]

There's only one way to secure the future of the game. Apply! <-linky

I intend to.

[rolo]

The NAF are not some tribe of evil lizard people hell bent on disrupting our membership's enjoyment of the game.

GW IS an evil tribe of lizard people. Or might as well be. And it's not that they are hell-bent on disrupting their customer's enjoyment, it's just that their customer's enjoyment doesn't figure into their calculations. All they care about is the money in our wallets. Which is fine, they are a business, they literally exist to make money. But they're a business with a long history of questionable decision-making, and have repeatedly over the past decade and a half chosen short-term profit (crippling independent retailers to drive customers to their online store, disregarding game balance to drive sales of the newest and latest codexes and models) over long-term investments (such as keeping loyal customers happy, or encouraging a gaming community, or making GW stores a pleasant place to play games).

So if they thought that a box of cheese and a screwdriver would help meet their next quarter's sales targets, they'll slap a Blood Bowl logo on that and sell it as a boxed set for $179.99 (£169.99 in the UK, €179.99 in the EU, individual parts selling for $150 or so). And they're as likely to think this as anything else, because they proudly never do any market research, and actively shut down any channels by which their customers could give them feedback.


Then again, I am cautiously optimistic. The very fact that they're talking about Blood Bowl, Epic, and Gothic, instead of pretending that those games never existed and that we have always been at war with Eastasia, is a sign that they might be changing how they make decisions. My guess is that several years in a row of cratering sales have finally caught somebody's attention - even if GW's management lives in a rose-colored bubble, their shareholders presumably do not. So it's just possible that for the first time in a long time, someone at GW is asking themselves, "what can we do better". And hopefully not coming up with their usual answer ("New ruleset, with new, more powerful models! Raise Prices and offer fewer models per box! Also, more Space Marines!!!!!").

Then again, I've been burned by GW before. So I'll wait and see what's in the box, before either panicking or rushing out to preorder

[Milo]

In any case, whomever gets the job, I doubt the dimensions of the board will have any major changes. The approximate size of the field has been static since the 80s, and any major variations to that would cause problems for the videogame adaptation of Blood Bowl. If there are changes, I would expect them to be more minor. And if I was put in charge, I would focus more on delivering a quality board, figures and accessories that would be worth buying in their own right, rather than trying to change the game enough to make third party products worthless.

[babass]

rather than trying to change the game enough to make third party products worthless.

It will be worthless, whatever the change.
There is already many scales of FF figs/pitchs on the market.
Many "one man" companies managed to produce/design several complete teams per year (and per company).
There is enough such companies to covert quite all potential rosters to be included in this new "bloodbowl".

The only way for GW to win back this market, is to propose better figurines/box/kit/etc.
We still see so many coachs using the battles-kits to play. and those team are nice looking (the plastic GW-marauders are very nice looking for blood bowl)

[Darkson]

And if I was put in charge, I would focus more on delivering a quality board, figures and accessories that would be worth buying in their own right, rather than trying to change the game enough to make third party products worthless.

And with that statement, Milo rules himself out of the job.

[babass]

And if I was put in charge, I would focus more on delivering a quality board, figures and accessories that would be worth buying in their own right, rather than trying to change the game enough to make third party products worthless.

And with that statement, Milo rules himself out of the job.

he could reformulate this statement more or less like this:

And if I was put in charge, I would focus more on delivering a quality board, figures and accessories that would be worth buying in their own right, in order to increase the profit of GW. Keep focusing on quality figures, boxes, and kits is the only way for GW to make third party products worthless.

(with a better english as mine)

[Milo]

And if I was put in charge, I would focus more on delivering a quality board, figures and accessories that would be worth buying in their own right, rather than trying to change the game enough to make third party products worthless.

And with that statement, Milo rules himself out of the job.

he could reformulate this statement more or less like this:

And if I was put in charge, I would focus more on delivering a quality board, figures and accessories that would be worth buying in their own right, in order to increase the profit of GW. Keep focusing on quality figures, boxes, and kits is the only way for GW to make third party products worthless.

(with a better english as mine)

Hah. Good points! I'll have to keep those in mind when I write my letter of application.

Seriously, though, I don't think the two are incompatible. GW, especially nowadays, is producing some spectacular plastic models. While I think the minis being made by other companies are stellar, too, I think GW has a place where they can fit with a better value for the money than other companies are capable of producing. Economies of scale, you know.

Of course, the job is only partially about Blood Bowl. Other Specialist Games need attention too, probably more than Blood Bowl.

[rolo]

Milo's plan is consistent with GW's mission statement, which we keep hearing about over and over:

We make the best fantasy miniatures in the world and sell them globally at a profit and we intend to do this forever.

Right now, GW does not offer the best "Fantasy Football" miniatures.

Whoever gets this job will be responsible for creating and selling models. (Model football players, maybe model spaceships, model titans, and so on ... perhaps even model gangsters and model ships, who knows). They'll be evaluated based on how well the models sell.

We as customers will be doing a similar calculation when (if) the new games go to release. If I like what's in the box, I'll buy the box. In general, if a lot of us like what GW is selling, they'll sell a lot of teams, the new specialist games director keeps his job, and GW is happy.

So like with most companies in most fields, it's an easy formula: Happy customers = more sales = everybody wins.

If my existing Blood Bowl teams (and fields!) are suddenly obsolete, I will not be a happy customer. I suspect I'm not the only one here with that attitude. Only time will tell if GW can figure that out or has to learn the hard way.

[Jural]

At this point it's as likely any potential box set contains a checkers board, a half pound of cheese and a screwdriver with a handle sculpted in the image of Angela Lansbury

Should we be concerned at the way your mind thinks?

Yes, yes we should

[gregory_n_white]

Let me play devils advocate for a second and remind everyone that there was once a BB 1st ed, which was extremely different to BB 2nd edition, which was extremely different to BB 3rd edition and so on.

I like the current version/rules and agree that the evolution has been a huge success as 1 and 2 ed were not suitable for tourneys or league play.

So maybe, just maybe, whatever comes next will be even better again......

[Jural]

A version of Blood Bowl which was closer to 1st or 2nd Edition; or a completely new take on it altogether would to me be a much better idea than if they decided to keep the current basic rules format and just muddle around with it to make a "new" game which is basically the old game.

For example, if you told me Blood Bowl was going away from turnovers and longterm team management and moving towards exciting iconic matches between powerful teams like the Gouged Eye and Darkside Cowboys, or the Champions of Death and Chaos All-Stars, I could see that being fun. Sure, they could mess it up, but it has potential.

If they, on the other hand, say that the game is staying the same, cut half the skills, re-write half of the remainder, and make new teams from scratch... the product will probably end up piss poor.

If the new version is different enough, both games can survive- especially if it has a new name (Blood Bowl: Legends of the Gridiron; as an example). But a poor version of the existing game could kill off both.