So what's a fan to do? It's been over a month since I aired some of my grievances in this post. A month and a half of staring at cabinets full of 40K miniatures. Each shelf reminding me of a particular project unfinished. They're always unfinished. Grand thoughts of collecting 2,000 pt. armies turned into buying sprees, then assembled models, then partially painted armies. Even the models weren't the full 2,000 points most of the time, due mostly to the changing editions and codices. Changes of those magnitudes meant portions of my already assembled/painted armies were less viable, and sudden additions to codices meant new models, keeping me in a constant state of consumption just to keep up. Like a Warhammer 40K version of the Red Queen Hypothesis, haha.
I had mentioned before a thought that had occurred to me as a possible solution to this. I was going to watch and see how GW handles this rules edition. Will they update all the codices before shifting editions? If so, I could snatch up the various 6th ed codices and just play 6th ed, regardless of future updates. Remove the constantly changing environment, as it were, so that progress made in various armies actually felt like progress. It would be foolish of me to put all my eggs in that basket, though, so let's look at an alternative...
The M42 Project
SandWyrm of The Back 40K started this project a while ago, out of a desire to not sit idly by while GW runs Warhammer 40K into the ground. The idea is open-source, in a way, and so far freely available. He's working on developing a full alternative rule-set to this type of platoon-level war gaming, drawing inspiration from several different systems in order to make one cohesive and competitive set. There's a sizable collection of pdf's detailing the available rules as they currently stand. Click here for a synopsis on what M42 is all about.
This is definitely something I'm keeping an eye on, as it would arrive at a similar solution to my above GW-reliant scenario, but with the added benefit of not relying on GW. ;) Bonus that the rules here seem much more well thought-out.
Man, your post (and the one prior) are very true to my own thoughts. Years ago I was a huge GW fanboy, bought everything I could, collected up things, etc...I even went to work for them for a few years until the upper management screwed the store over due to poor sales (which was not our fault it was due to bad store placement in the mall, you put a gaming store near a movieplex, food court, toy store and book store...not by Old Navy, Bells and JCPenny!)
ReplyDeleteStill, as a company they have continued to disappoint me. Dropping the Historical line, dropping the Fanatic line, hiking up prices at insane rates, throwing out 3rd party lawsuits on a whim to strong arm a market, stopping bitz sales in company, shutting down internet sales, bumping up the Codex creep and power base to insane stupidity....there is no balance in a once good game of 40k. Fantasy has lost me since 6th, it appears 6th for 40k is the same theme for me.
I have sold off my SOB, excess Fantasy, Tomb Kings, Ogres, Dogs of War....I only have a Vampire Counts army for Fantasy, 40k still has Chaos, Space Wolves, Dark Angels, Orks, IG and Tau....Tau may be next to be sold off. My Necrons already sold a few months back. I love the novels, the fluff and the theme....but I just keep finding it hard to get behind a company of so many wrongs....
My friends and I have branched off to: Bolt Action mostly and Judge Dredd is also slipping into the picture. I have also been dabbling with various old west and post apoc gaming as well as supersystem3....slowly I am learning there are other good sytems out there...there are other good model companies out there....embrace them!
I am holding my breath hoping this rumored Inquisitor skirmish 40k game in October turns out to be true and worth a flip, it may redeem GW slightly. I just find it a disappointment that they have tossed their employee bible (that I own a copy) out the window for the sake of profit margins, which if they just did things right the margins would come on their own....
Funny you should mention the mall closing. My local GW store was in a mall right in between a JC Penny's and a Sears, at the end of the fashion/clothes wing of the mall. Bookstore, Gamestop and foodcourt were down the other wing. I think you're right; they might still be open if they were down there.
ReplyDeleteI haven't gotten to selling the models yet, but it's been on my mind. It's hard to keep looking at them, years worth of labor-of-love, and ignore the disappointment.
Thanks for the encouragement, I'll have to give Judge Dredd and Bolt Action a look. I'm currently latched onto MERCS as a low-investment skirmish game that I hope can fill part of this void... but secretly I also am eyeing the rumors around the Inquisitor skirmish game.
The other GW store I worked at in Atlanta before Douglasville was Discover Mills (before they moved to the Mall of GA and then closed it), rumor has it they are doing the lone man store there (or may already be open). At Discover Mills we was NEXT to the movie theatre they built and opened adding on to the mall there...wow, we sold the hell out of Lord of the Rings stuff, people see the movie walk in, play the game and haul the stuff out the door. We would sit for hours on the other side of the mall with nobody stepping into the store, we got tons of stuff painted for the case and for Games Days, had a well stocked store and clean....
ReplyDeleteWhat tipped the scale for me to sell some stuff was me asking....when I last worked on X army or last played Y army....when I paused and found it to be a great deal of time and not on my radar, I deemed it time to sell....frees up cash for something else...I won't give up 40k totally but I am cutting down.
I heard some good stuff about MERCS. Judge Dredd is simple and a low model count game, very Necromundish with some better tweaks IMO...as for Bolt Action the draw was it was historical without the complex rules of one, you get the flavor and game playability in one package...plus Calvatore and Priestly worked on the game and rules. One or both are working on the Warlord Sci-Fi game Gates of Andredies or something like that...could be interesting....Warlord has a ton of former GW employees, the ones I met and really liked that had a good hobby attitude and company driven goals for that means....I respect that.