Originally Posted by
Denzark
Witt
A nice article and I like how you handled the first comment. My tuppence:
I got into this hobby at the age of 10. Luckily, my old man has been building models all his life and taught me many things - nowhere did I go for the 18 shades of brown blobbed on my space crusade minatures. I never felt obliged to use GW paint or glue as revell or humbrol did just as well for cheaper (even then in 1990). The circle of knowledge was not one way - he tried acrylics after seeing them in White Dwarf and decided that water based was easier than enamels and white spirit.
Another thing I learnt was that you could just as easily use other company's kits and convert them - many of my favourite miniatures are simple hand swaps with a 'Free Company Crusader' now carrying a bolt gun etc.
I did this then and still do now- although take care that anything that may go tournament wise has 50%+ GW components.
I have tried and got some enjoyment out of Mechwarrior (pre-painted stuff), MTG, and Warmachine. I should be ripe for opening up to other companies. I should find GW reprehensible and yet I don't. But hang on denzark, I hear you asking - on this forum you quite happily jump down people's throat on stuff like CHS and Warmachine.
So why is this?
Firstly, economics. On a scale of economy I have sufficient unpainted GW stuff to last me an age, and i very rarely buy new anymore. Ebay and Maelstrom Games get my custom. I took a conscious decision not to branch out whilst I had this quantity of miniatures, and also the majority of gamers about were GW.
Secondly, rules. I had made the change from RT through to 5th ed. The change to 3rd was the hardest for me - although no matter what i state about dumbing down of rules, i like getting through a game in 2-3 hours rather than 2-3 days. But simply, the random nature of how you got your mechs in MW took a lot of fun away for me. The funny little damage disc thing, and the manga-esque crappy plastic to go with. Ugh. As to Warmachine, as I often state, it became obvious that the best chance of winning came with killing the warcaster. End of. Just like being stuck for ideas in 40K, go for killing their troops. Rules combined with economics is pretty much a nail in the coffin.
So where am I now? Well GW is a luxury item for me, just like beer and eating out. I get pleasure from it, and I am quite ambivalent to the company - a private company's aim, and actually if I understand right, its duty under UK law, is to make money for its shareholders. I can either vote with my feet or, accepting it is a pure luxury, can play along. I don't take offence with them as a whole because it is business not pleasure for them. Its a shame, the old D10 x D10 Madboyz table was what got me in in the first place, but the slicker smoother approach is what happens when the corporates kick out the geeks from management. Overall 40K is in a better place.
So what makes me quite so vitriolic? I could be live and let live. But, quite simply, it is the sheer amount of PP players who hold it up as some sort of redemption of the soul. Worse is the 'I left GW, the grass is greener' types. I HATE LOATHE and EXECRATE being preached to. It is like a recovered alcoholic telling me how much better it is to be dry. Well thats great, thank you, but (with a few notable exceptions) I drink responsibly and you can keep your damn poxy opinions to yourself.
Or the TV evangelist or street Hari Krishna. Bog Off! Don't preach to me. Why come on a 40K blog on a 40K thread and start trying your utmost to convert us? It is just crap.
So, the answer is, whilst I am quite mild, and think actually people should get out and try other systems, and other model manufacturers, it is the constant interference with people taking a diametrically opposed position to anyone still getting buckets of enjoyment out of 40K that has turned me into a rabid zealot.
This has not been helped by the worst if the worst - during the news about GW having a profit warning, people encouraging others to deliberately try to go elsewhere to try and hurt GW. Not becuase the minis are better or the prices are lower, but because like a slinking jackal or other carrion eater, they thought the time to influence GW was while they were weak. Kick a man while he's down.
All this makes me rant. I am probably just hoping the whiners get in their waahmbulances and go back to the nearest warmachine forums.
On top of that, there is 2 more facts. Firstly, the price for a 2 horse drawn Khador mobile toilet block is telling me GW isn't all that expensive comparitively. Second, people talk about various of the companies who are smaller than GW, including PP, having from time to time supply problems. When they resolve this by growth, as soon as the money gets to GW scales, the smaller now larger companies will float, and then get in the corporate suits as the geeks can't be trusted with sums like that. Life - its business not pleasure so don't take it personally.
So, if I am a monster, it ain't GW has done that - it is an adverse reaction of anphylactic shock scales to being preached at by people who just clart on about stuff without thinking it through.
Rant over.