Strangely unlike most people I actually think the Lord of the Rings license was a great thing for Games Workshop to get involved with. I'm not going to go over all the rules and whether it was a good game or not, or even whether Games Workshop made the best use of the license. No for me it was a wise thing to get involved in purely because people loved the books and loved the films, and at the time it was a huge event, it was a merchandising beast. I think on the whole they did an ace job with the miniatures as well. I actually worked the launch weekend of Lord of the Rings and I think its fair to say it was insanely busy and popular and that from a strictly business point of view it seems to me, at the time, to have been a shrewd decision. Certainly initially we as a shop at least just couldn't keep up with demand for months and months on end, that level of interest in the product was never going to be sustainable, however whether or not they've been able to maintain those customers interests in their product is far more fuzzy I guess. I'm not privy to whether or not over the life time of the license it has proved to be a massive money spinner for them, but I think it must have been otherwise why go for the Hobbit license? I think its also fair to point out that I personally do not think the Hobbit will be anywhere near as big an event as the Lord of the Rings was.
So am I excited by the prospect of them doing Hobbit based games? Hell yeah if done right it could provide a good little diversion to my current gaming habits and a new entry level product for them as a company. I think 'The Mines of Moria' box set was a brilliant product and in essence was close to being a proper game in box. If you didn't want to buy anything else then you didn't need to, it stood alone as a great way of getting into the hobby. The Hobbit if used properly as a license could be even better at achieving that aim for Games Workshop and the wider hobby in terms of recruiting new comers. Games Workshops core product, is regardless of your opinion on its quality, an expensive hobby to get into for the first time. I don't want to turn this into a debate about Games Workshops product cost, that's not the point, all I'll say is that the cost of getting started in the hobby is expensive... it possibly always has been, but were I starting out today I'm not so sure I'd get into the hobby because of the cost required, as well as the time required before getting the full reward of the hobby (a fully painted army).
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So am I excited by the prospect of them doing Hobbit based games? Hell yeah if done right it could provide a good little diversion to my current gaming habits and a new entry level product for them as a company. I think 'The Mines of Moria' box set was a brilliant product and in essence was close to being a proper game in box. If you didn't want to buy anything else then you didn't need to, it stood alone as a great way of getting into the hobby. The Hobbit if used properly as a license could be even better at achieving that aim for Games Workshop and the wider hobby in terms of recruiting new comers. Games Workshops core product, is regardless of your opinion on its quality, an expensive hobby to get into for the first time. I don't want to turn this into a debate about Games Workshops product cost, that's not the point, all I'll say is that the cost of getting started in the hobby is expensive... it possibly always has been, but were I starting out today I'm not so sure I'd get into the hobby because of the cost required, as well as the time required before getting the full reward of the hobby (a fully painted army).
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