Let's talk a little bit about Golden Demon competitions this year.
As you know, last year's Golden Demons were quite disappointing. About half of them were cancelled, and the ones which were celebrated didn't live up to everyone's expectations. Especially flagrant was the quality of GD UK 2013, the flagship event for GW, most important traditionally and the one held at home (Games Workshop's home I mean). Some months have passed and attention has been drawn to other fronts of course, but let me gather up a few links that I compiled at the time which show the general feeling of what Games Days/Golden Demons were last year:
- http://matthewsylvester.com/2013/10/03/gamesday-2013-why/
- http://blog.spikeybits.com/2013/10/games-day-past-present-future.html
- http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/0/555176.page
- http://pinsofwar.com/sales-day-2013-the-games-day-without-games/
- http://masterminis.blogspot.com.es/2013/10/future-of-games-days-7.html
- http://www.karaikalstudio.com/2013/10/games-day-and-golden-demon-uk-2013.html
- http://www.corehammer.com/there-is-no-reality-me-games-day-2013/
Even so, people like me still want Golden Demons. People like me want them back, and want them back for good. The problem is that the information around their future is very dark. There are rumours of every colour and taste, but the main trend seems to defend that there will only be one, in UK, and that the rest will be cancelled. Others, also very strong, seem to suggest that there will be no GDs this year, not even UK. From what I have been hearing here and there, and using my own intuition and prediction, my guess is leaning more towards this last one, that there will not be any GDs this year.
Sad as these news may be, I have been lingering on to them for quite a while now, and I am at peace with this notion. There are many other contests and events, so even it being a huge loss for the community, we can always defer to the many other initiatives, less commercial, open out there for us. GW and their event will always be in our nerdy hearts, a good memory of a very dear past.
But then again, we are just speculating here. There are no official news or confirmations whatsoever, so maybe there is still room for optimism. Like the one that arose last week when Hugo Matte, winner of 2013's Japan Slayersword, posted this picture on his Facebook page:
Hugo just posted it to show pride for having his name on the famous plaques at the Warhammer World in the Games Workshop HQ. But as you can see, they had to put a new plaque to accommodate these new names, leaving a full plaque empty, waiting to be filled. Could this be a sign that GW is not planning on killing the most famous miniature painting contest in the world? Could it be just an anecdote? Have at it guys! Let me know what you think!
8 comments:
I don't think the new nameboard is an indication there will be more GD's.
I think it's an indication that GW just DON'T UNDERSTAND HOW BADLY GD(UK) in particular went. They actually believe their own hype and think the events are superb and should turn a huge profit. When they don't, the obvious reason (to GW) is that the market / community is not there to support it, not that the event is not good enough for the community to bother going.
For the last week or two I came up with an idea which seems to be from an alternate Universe...
WHAT IF GW actually read our blogs and saw the error of their ways? HOW could they address this and even turn this into a surprise stroke of genius?
Simple: Run GDs and Army on Parade events in all countries they operate in! But in a really condensed format: No shopping, just a Golden Demon exhibition, Armies on Parade exhibition and gaming tables. No overhead.
These could be run at a fraction of the cost AND GW would have enough picture material to fill their 'Vision' magazines... :D
Well, at least I can dream.
Yes, we can dream Zaph
mhhhm
i just wonder because offcially there have been 4 GDs last Year: UK, Germany, US and Italy....so why on the board is Japan ?
I wonder if this is a Kind of fake ?
Hi I took this picture and sent it to Hugo after a trip to Warhammer World its not a fake,these boards are located in the stair well area on the way to the gaming and miniature halls.
We can but hope there will be a GD as I have my stock sitting ready to paint up for Diorama, Vehicle and 40K miniature. However if they are not running it again, or maybe just this year, there is Salute and Euro-Militaire which I have never been too but hear good things.
Japan's Golden Daemon 2013 event was a bit of a poor showing really. They charged each entrant 1300 yen (per offering which is about 13 dollars or £9) to be a part of the experience. Unlike the year before, entry didn't come with any extras or momentos of the experience unless you were lucky enough to grab a trophy. Entrants minis were dropped off in a tiny room in what could be described as a storage area at the top of their flagship store. These were placed in 3 display cabinets and entrants had a little while to look at what had been entered. This part of the experience was as exciting as it could be bearing in mind how few minis were entered. My son was eagerly looking to see if he would have any competition in the Youngbloods category. It turned out that he was the only GW young blood in a country of 125000000 people. Once the viewing period was over, no games or activities were offered to the entrants in that store. Instead, the participants were asked if they would like to travel, at their own cost, to another store to check out the armies on parade entries. A kind member of staff helped us all on our journey as he said that store could be difficult to find.
The twelve or so entrants who bothered to make the trip, including my son and I, were disappointed to find no games on offer at the next store and five armies on parade that mostly left a lot to be desired. However, wanting to support the event, we stuck around to find out who had won. This was a genuinely nice experience as the Japanese guy who took the trophy had clearly put a huge amount of time and effort into his display and deserved the award. Had we 12 or so not bothered to go along he would have been picking this prestigious trophy up in front of nobody but the GW staff members, which would have been a shame, so I was glad we had gone for his sake.
With the Armies on parade done and dusted for another year, we travelled back to the first store to find out the results of the painting competition. About twenty of us crowded into the second floor store room and awaited the results. Disappointingly, a some of the entrants started saying they knew who had won this that and the other because the winning minis were laid out on a table to our left as we went in. At the time, I thought that this must just be guess work, but sadly they turned out to be correct.
With most of the winners already knowing who they were, the day felt like an anticlimax sadly. All that was left to be decided was for the slayer sword winner to be chosen and well done to Hugo Matte for winning that with his top notch ork Warboss. Sadly for Hugo, he couldn't lift a real sword as Japanese law forbids the import of weapons, but he did get to lift a replica of Excalibur or something like that, which belonged to the store owner. The event ended with an excellent dual language speech from the store leader who finished by lamenting that he wished more Japanese people would enter next year.
I couldn't help but feel that the competition was only going ahead because of the dedication of the staff in that store. Their expectations were very high and they wouldn't give away the prizes. The LOTR category didn't have a gold award because the quality wasn't there in the entries to warrant it and my son, managed a silver in the Young Bloods as his work was good but not quite up to gold standard.
I would like to think that he could have another go this year but it doesn't look likely.
Wow, that was an extensive report on GD Japan! Thanks for that. Do you know if there is any GD Japan this year?
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