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Nerdarchy > Blast from the Past  > Working at Games Workshop US

Working at Games Workshop US

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I’m back! The semester is over and I’m free for the summer! Two years of PhD studies down and three more to go! As I’ve written before, in addition to TSR and Chessex I worked for Games Workshop US (GWUS) from 1994 to 2003. During those years GW changed significantly. When I started, GW used the three-tier distribution system like every other manufacturer. In 1995 that changed as GW started selling direct to retailers and also started an aggressive store opening program in areas where there wasn’t any retailers carrying GW merchandise. By the time GW and I parted ways it had become a behemoth, having multiple warehouses across the country as well as multiple sales offices, and a retail chain of over two dozen stores in the US alone.

For the Emperor!

Games Workshop was and is a miniatures company specializing in premium “toy soldiers” as well as games with which to use them. The two main games were Warhammer (fantasy) and Warhammer 40,000 (science fiction.) Both had well developed universes and were very popular. Warhammer was more popular with the rest of the world, while 40K was more popular in the US. (Perhaps because we love guns?) In any case, the games sold the miniatures, as each player built an army of the models, and sometimes multiple armies. The idea was to collect your army, paint it (using GW paints), put your models on the table (using GW scenery) according to the rules, throw some dice and enjoy!

On my last day at Chessex (I took a half day), I had no idea of what I’d do next, as I didn’t have another job lined up. I’d interviewed at GW the prior spring, but never heard back from them. I figured I’d go back to bartending until another opportunity opened. An hour before I was to leave I received a call from Mr. Hall, who was the sales manager of GWUS at the time. He said he’d heard I was leaving Chessex and asked me if I wanted a job. After consulting with my spouse (as this would require us moving from suburban Philadelphia to Baltimore), I accepted the position. Accepting the position also meant leaving my editing position with TSR.

Hobby gaming was experiencing a renaissance at that time. Magic: The Gathering was a huge hit and Wizards of the Coast was about to release the expansion Fallen Empires. Vampire: The Masquerade changed RPGs by expanding the audience with a game that appealed to different segments of the population, especially women. TSR was in the middle of second edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons with major releases. GW was about re-tooling Warhammer 40K to a third edition, but in the meantime released Necromunda. The economy emerged from the early 90s recession so people had money in their pockets and a lot of gaming products from which to choose.

A quick but important aside: this account is how I experienced the Games Workshop of the time, now 20 years ago. The company is far different now than then, according to the very few people I know who still work there.

I started at GW on the phones, first as a retail liaison then as a trade salesman. In either case, I was contacting a large group of retailers regularly. When I started I was the third salesperson working with retailers, in addition to one guy who worked with distributors. I won’t name names from here on in, as I know at least one of my former co-workers is very paranoid about how the antics we did at GW might jeopardize current or future employment, even after 20 years. Ummm, okay…

When I first started there was a mandatory Wednesday sales meeting, usually at TGI Fridays in Towson, Maryland. Yes, we would talk business a little, but it was more just a group drinking session. A month after I started a fourth person joined us, then another, and another. By the time we started selling directly to retailers there were fifteen of us arraigned in three teams. GW overall was a young company, meaning I was considered old at 28. It was also a hard working and hard playing place, and drinking was a huge part of the after-hours culture. I could tell so many stories of what transpired in these drinking bouts (in fact, I wrote about a couple in my blog, here and here), but I’ll concentrate on the job here.

When we started selling directly to retailers, the distributors (and a good number of retailers) were extremely angry with us. Very few of my former distributor co-workers would even speak to me (as if the whole plan were my fault!). In any case on a given Monday I’d call my retailers (or they’d call or fax me) and take their orders for the new releases and restocks. Getting through my territory usually took three days. I’d input these into the computer as I took the order and wrote the total on a notepad. The warehouse would then pick the order, pack it and ship it.

Out of stocks were low, as we manufactured the metal minis on site. One thing retailers didn’t like, but which made sense, was we sold the blisters in quantities of two for most models, or six for some of the most popular pieces. You see, the idea was the end customer was building an army and therefore needed to build units. Having only one blister pack of a given model isn’t enough to build a unit, and special order usually meant the retailer lost the sale. Miniatures, after all, are an impulse buy.

If a mini was sold by six this usually meant the blister contained a single bigger model, and five were needed to build a unit. With me so far?  In any case each salesperson and team had targets they were expected to hit — daily, weekly, and monthly. It was high pressure for the salespeople, who were trying to sell the correct amounts to the stores. Not too little but not too much — but hit your targets!

The sales managers would walk around on Mondays and tap your notepad if you weren’t making your numbers as a way to point out they’d noticed your inadequacy. We also were strongly recommended to participate in staff games and tournaments, as well as “volunteering” on our off time to help paint minis for Games Day, the annual convention the company held.

One nice thing was we had an extremely generous company discount. We bought our metal by weight so a mini would cost less than a dollar usually. We were expected to have armies (plural) ready to play so I spent many nights painting mine. As I was surrounded by some of the best miniature painters in the world I learned a lot and became quite a good painter myself.

For the first several years I was there we travelled to the UK for an international GW Sales Conference. Each of us was expected to bring a painted army of the selected game for that year. At night during these conferences we’d have huge tournaments where people from all the different GW divisions around the world would play against each other. I usually ended up playing against Australians for some reason, but in any case, it was a lot of fun!

During the day we’d learn sales tips, upcoming new releases and generally have a great time bonding with the salesmen from around the world. And yes, they were all men. This was before I transitioned. GW was, at the time, quite misogynistic. Some of their practices would’ve gotten them sued today. I’m told this is no longer the case and GW is much more diverse. Again, I have so many stories from these conferences…most of which would get people in trouble.

After several years in trade sales I was promoted to mail order supervisor. I was a Sergeant Troll. MO was a completely different animal from trade. The Trollz had to know the games extremely well, as they also answered rules questions as well as recommending models for a customer’s army. They also sold bitz — parts of models. In addition we did a lot of customer service like replacing defective pieces and so forth. I loved working with the Trollz but it was very hard work. I averaged 60 hour weeks and often didn’t have a day off for several weeks. I wrote training manuals and developed training techniques for them that were very effective. (My degree was in education after all!)

At work with West Coast sales team. She was responsible for updating the whiteboard in real time. “God help me if I leaned back and accidentally erased something.”

After a few years with the Trollz I was promoted again, this time to trade sales manager. I ran the west coast sales team, which meant my hours were skewed to pacific time. My job was to train and motivate my salespeople to hit their targets so the team would hit its target, which was my responsibility. Did I mention high pressure? I also wrote training for trade sales as well as revising some of the training practices that were in place. I’m proud to say some of my methods were adopted by the company overall.

After a couple of years of that I made a lateral move to administration manager, then to retail administration where I was responsible for the day to day operations of the retail chain; inputting orders and such. I was then offered a job as second in command of the upcoming Chicago sales office, but declined as my spouse didn’t want to move. Not long after this my job was made redundant and I decided that instead of finding another position in the company (that would’ve been a demotion), I would leave when the position ended.

The major factor of employment at GWUS then was loyalty to the company — the Emperor.  It was almost paramilitary. One had to respect the chain of command and obey orders without question. I bought into this hook, line and sinker. I loved feeling like I was part of something. The GW methods seemed to work, as the company was making a ton of money as were the retailers who sold the way we recommended.

It was only after I was relieved of duty as a trade sales manager (too many missed targets) that I began to feel, well, betrayed  I’d put heart and soul into the job, just to be shoved aside. This was after the housing bubble burst during W’s reign and the country fell into depression. People didn’t have money for games and therefore weren’t buying like they used to, which meant retailers weren’t ordering as much, which meant we missed very aggressive targets (usually set at double digit growth from the previous year).

Another major factor was the staff at GWUS came from all over the country. For most of us the only people we knew in Maryland were our co-workers. We played games together (I had a long running D&D campaign I ran), we drank together and we celebrated life events. As the staff aged they would marry and have kids. The whole feel of the company was changing.

When I left GW it really felt like a divorce. I knew as I was moving back to Pennsylvania I’d never see most of these people again. I was right. People who I considered family disappeared overnight. I was no longer part of the company, some would say cult, of GW. I fell into a deep depression as I was unemployed and had few friends remaining. Eventually I found work as well as returned to school for my master’s degree. It was 13 years before I painted a miniature again, and that was as a gift for someone else. Like so many others I was burned out from the hobby.

Right before I left, a new CEO arrived for GWUS. He used to work for a major toy company and wasn’t very popular. I heard from the few I still spoke with that he started purging the company of anyone who’d been there for X amount of time. Within a few years almost everyone I knew at GW were let go. Many of them found work for other game companies and a few even started their own companies. Some left the business and never looked back. Eventually I reconnected with many of my former co-workers on Facebook. Some of them disappeared after I transitioned, but not many.

I worked in the hobby game industry for 13 years, nine of which were for GW. In so many ways that job was an amazing time. I met wonderful people and did things many gamers envied. (Have you shot bow and arrows in Sherwood Forest? I did!). I played a lot of games.

However, the high pressure took its toll. In many ways it, combined with my latent dysphoria, made my life miserable. I would come home shaking in rage and looking for alcohol to calm me down. Then the sudden… stop. I’d made the company my life, then it was gone.

Five years after leaving GW my gender dysphoria resurfaced and I eventually transitioned. Swallowing those feelings led to the rage, which added to the pressure of the job. I remember asking some of my former co-workers if they thought I’d have been kept on at GW if I’d transitioned there. Most said yes but I have my doubts. GWUS was a boy’s club back then and my transition would’ve violated that. Again, I’m told the company is far different now.

Do I regret working for GW? Heck no! Do I wish I’d have done things differently? Absolutely. In the intervening years, time gave me insights to how many ways GWUS was run, well, like a cult. It scares me how quickly I fell in line. I’ve never been that loyal to a job since. In fact, I’m afraid to do that. I work for and with co-workers, trying to get by day to day. I never want to work sales again. That’s one of the reasons I’m getting my PhD. Maybe someday I’ll write down some of the stories of GW. Or not. It was one hell of a ride.

“The Emperor will not judge you by your medals, but by your scars” –from the Warhammer 40K rulebook 3rd edition

A White Dwarf article Sophie wrote about a piece she made.

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Sophie Lynne

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