Hatin on the GW

or, hating GW is the new grey knights!

  Wow, the release of Death from Above has certainly stirred up a hate-storm.  It makes me think back to everything GW releases and every time they raise their prices.  The general torrent of hate that flies around the interwebz is amazing.  You would think, that with everyone hating GW so much, how are they still in business?

  Well, I’m going to put my fanboi hat on and defend the Gee-Dubya folks.  Mostly because I like GW and have no real problems with them, except for some recent asshat FAQs, but hey, mistakes gonna happen, haters gonna hate.  So, let me address some issues that I like, in no particular order;

$33 for a damn flier book that has nothing in it but old stuff and FAQs that I can get for free?   

  Yes, it’s $33.  Shut up and pay, or don’t.  Here is a novel thought for you to cogitate on.  YOU ARE NOT FORCED TO BUY IT!  It is a compendium… compendium means

compendium |kəmˈpendēəm| noun
a collection of concise but detailed information about a particular subject, esp. in a book or other publication.

  See? it’s a collection of other stuff.  They did not say it’s all new stuff.  So get over your  self and buy it for what it is.  Or don't buy it.  Really, it's not something to get so worked up about!

Direct sales for a book/model/codex/etc is a way of killing the local game stores.  That’s a dick-head move.!!





  Ummm, pardon me.  When did GW say they were in business to make other stores, who directly compete with them, money?  How is it they are obliged to support stores that ruin their profit margin?  Do you have any idea how much money they would save if they sold only direct and through their branded stores?  Why they are not doing this already boggles my mind.  THEY ARE IN BUSINESS TO MAKE MONEY!!!!!  HELLO!!!!  They are NOT in business to make other businesses money.  What business model are you looking at anyhow?

Not supporting the local store is killing the game.  In my area nobody plays anymore.

  When I hear/see this, there is usually more at work than high prices.  Normally there is something more like an ass-hat or group of ass-hat gamers that drove the local community down.  I hate to say it, but there it is.  The ugly truth.  When a community, of any kind, dies off, economics is rarely to blame.  More often than not you find there is a group dynamic issue that caused a certain clique to fade in an area. 

These price increases are bullshit.  They hate gamers.  Their business model is stupid.  They’re dumbheads.

  Too many of the arguments I hear about GW is how they have started to love the profit and hate the gamer.  I don't buy that, at all.  They are in business to make a profit so they can make new stuff and make more profit.  They do care about gamers, we are paying the bills for them.  They do try hard to put out a good product at a price that does not drive the consumer away (I did not say good price).  There are FAQ issues sometimes… (Jackoff Helldrakes) but they generally try to do well.

  Yes, they raise prices yearly, who doesn’t?  Are you paying the same for gas you did a year or two ago?  Is your electric bill or tax bill the same?  I doubt it.  40k is not a hobby for the frugal.  You have to have some dedication or disposable income to be serious about this game.  If you can’t afford it, get out.  Go play a skirmish game.  Go play checkers.

  My favorite argument on the interwebz for this one is the “Marketing Expert” who can explain exactly why their business model sucks (as they cash his check for his latest purchase) or the guy who “has been in the hobby retail world a long time” who has “real experience” with this.  You know what an expert is… it’s a guy from out of town.  It’s NOT the guy on the Internet.  But, trolls gonna troll, and the Internet experts gonna post (look, I’m doing it now!!!)  ROFL

GW has a responsibility to the gamers to make it (better/more fun/easier/harder/whatever)

  Really?  They have a responsibility.  Where is that law?  The only responsibility they have is to turn a profit.  To do that, they have to put out a game and models and support products that people will buy, repeatedly.  They are doing this.  Big win for GW.  If companies have responsibilities to make certain types of products, we would have cars that get 150 miles per gallon and new drugs would have no side effects.  Wake up, people.  The real world wants to smack you again!

They just put out codices to sell products and they don’t care if it breaks my <xxxx> army codex.

  Oh my god.  You mean to tell me that my plastic army men are now better than your plastic army men?  Holy crap.  Call the President, call the Prime Minister.  This has to be fixed.
  People, stop!  It is a game.  Played by people who, hopefully, want to have fun.  With a game that is this old, gone through this many editions, you really think there is a shred of balance left?  Come on.
  Lets also be realistic.  Half the fun of this game is figuring out what works, even if only for today, and finding ways to fight that thing.  How many people out there are making an old codex work?  Good gamers make the game fun for themselves, hopefully their opponents and learn to play under all circumstances.  Mediocre gamers tell everyone how good they are and bitch about how unfair the new <xxx> rule is (unless rule <xxx> is helldrakes, then they are experts... like me...) 

White Dwarf is just a catalog, nothing in it worth a shit.

  Ok, you got me.  You’re right.  It’s getting a little better lately, but it really needs to go back to where it was 200 issues ago.  Great pictures though.

This digital publishing is bullshit, prices are too high and I don’t have an iPad.

  Ok, welcome to the 21st century.  The whole world is going digital and your whining because they are doing it 5 years AFTER everyone else?  The price is too high??  PUH-LEASE!  Of course they are going to charge the same price for the print and digital editions.  They would like nothing more than to stop printing anything and go all digital.  Printing means errata, edition changes, shipping costs etc.  All that crap eats bottom line.  Digital versions can be fixed on the fly.  There is no shipping, no warehousing costs, NIRVANA!  Mark my words, there will be a time soon when print is no longer an option, and the prices are set with that day in mind.  Again, if you can’t afford the hobby, well…  ummm…  Checkers is kinda fun.

SCREW GW,  I’m not gonna buy nothing from them never again!

  Ok, First off, that's a double negative, use better grammar!!!  Second, why are you posting then?  Why do you hang out on 40k boards all the time if you aren’t going to play.  Stop lying and admit that you just love to hate GW :)  It’s a hobby in and of itself.  I bet if you asked around Adepticon, 35% of the players would say they were GW haters.  It’s the in thing.  Hating GW is the new Helldrake!!!

  Seriously folks.  It’s easy to see GW as the bad guys, corporate shills who just want to screw you and take your money.  But you know what, when it comes down to it.  They’re just people.  Can you really hate Rick, or Jervis or Adam Troke, or The Kelly?  The corporate ass-hats are also people with kids and a job to do.  Their job is to separate you from as much of your cash as they possibly can so they can send paychecks to Rick and Jervis and Adam and The Kelly.  Are they really all that bad?