You may have noticed a bitter tone with the last GW post I did and yes, there is bitterness there. The thing is, I still have not forgiven GW for nearly destroying the hobby for me. However, I feel I haven't given proper justification to explain this, to give my point of view. I am aware that the leadership of GW has changed and they are slowly beginning to make changes to improve, but they still have a lot to do. So here are a few negatives and positives (cause I'm trying not to be too negative) to better explain my feelings:
Note: I will avoid the usual rants on costs and business decisions as they are the common complaints. While these do make up a good portion of my distrust and disdain for the company, I've already gone on several rants about it already.
Negatives:
Let's start with the End Times and the decision to destroy the world. Yes, it pissed me off, but more so was that we didn't have a choice. I mean, why not bring out these books and let the players battle it out, with the outcome determined by their actions. At worse, the world ends and at best, the world is shattered by the cataclysm and the old world is torn apart and redesigned to still be a world where the Age of Sigmar rules can be used. Sure fans won't be happy, but at least all those characters and stories could continue without killing everyone off. Point is, this was the ultimate event in Warhammers history and we never got to take part in it. In the words of the Orcs, "Wez waz robbed".
So that briefly covers both the game issues and the Lore issues I had with the End Times, so now on to the next problem, the free rules. The so-called 'free rules' was a bit misleading. Yes, the standard rules were free, but problems start to arise when you want more. There is only so much you can do with those rules and GW did bring out expansion rules, at a cost. I don't get why. I mean, why do this? You want rules to help theme a force, buy the book. Want rules to make your games more fun or competitive, buy the books. I feel that this was some underhanded tactic, a twisted means to convince players they don't need to buy an armybook, yet making you feel like you need to buy the equivilant of several armybooks to complete the game. That and given that there is little Lore out there, it really doesn't help to convince me to return to it.
And so we get to the final and probably a rather big problem that hinders my enthusiasm to return to Warhammer: The Fanboys. To think in my younger years I was one of these moronic cretins. Now being a Warhammer fan is not a problem or even a bad thing and I'm sure a number of these people are great people, but as with all fandom's there is a toxic environment in each and the GW one is probably the worst one I've ever experienced. You so much as point out a problem or a flaw and you will be jumped upon like a pack of rabid wolves on a wounded hare. Facts are irrelevant and a civilized debate simply does not compute in their simplistic minds. Worse is that they refuse to accept that their world could be altered like others had been done in the past. Some of the worst come from the 40K sector. I recall a few individuals who savagely attacked the Fantasy players for morning the loss of the Old World and the changes to Age of Sigmar, many telling them to get over it (well, that wasn't their words, but I won't dignify them by repeating what they actually said) and they should love Age of Sigmar for saving Fantasy. Soon after when the Lore of 40K indicated that they were heading for what appeared to be their own End Times, these same people shouted how GW would never do this to their game and when people commented about the success of AoS and it was the way of the 40K future, those fanboys went off on defensive rants and attacked those commenters. I mean hell, just look at the comments on the website Bell of Lost Souls, that place is a toxic nest of the worst.
Some can say just don't let them get to you, but it's a little difficult when they are not only on the Internet, but in the stores themselves. I'm talking about some of the players and not the store staff, my main staff member in Brisbane is a great guy, though the store guy on the Gold Coast was a total dick to me and I've never gone back since. I no longer feel comfortable in playing anyone else any more given a number of incidents that I've had. To simply put, GW needs to help quell this poison or it will stop new players (or even old players) from being a part of Warhammer.
Positives:
So....positives. What can I say?
Well, their books do still support a number of per-existing models (including the Empire) and that is always a positive. Renaming and giving some Lore to explain their existence in Age of Sigmar is a great thing and adding rules (even though they are in paid for books) to keep themed armies going is what they should be doing to keep face.
I have nothing against Age of Sigmar as far as rules go. After all, a large part of my time was spent constantly going back to check each turn on how to use my cannon and I can assure you my opponents would find that annoying (I don't have the best memory when it comes to complex rules). The rules presented in AoS are easy for me to learn and we can spend more time moving units and rolling dice, it is less rule intrusive. Were I to go back, I'd have to set any new units to round bases to reflect the change, but only new miniatures (would probably need to get a few round/oval bases as I do have a few unfinished models I could still use). My only complaint is the lack of backfire events for my Skaven. Now I'll never get to experience the joy of watching my Warp Lightning Cannon blow itself up on turn one, followed by my Poisoned Wind Mortar going boom on turn two and ending it off with my Slaves breaking in turn three, killing my Rat Swarms that were next to them.
Ah, those were good times.
~Grey Seer Skratchnsniff
If they can bring out more themed books (Seriously, Pestilens got it's own book, but not Skryre or Moulder, are you kidding me!) and keep the digital versions available then I can see it getting more attention. Given I've heard people talking about what the Clans Skryre (Yes Clans apparently, which suits me just fine) themed rules have, you really can have a nicely themed army with all the Skryre-ness a techno-sorcerer could desire without the need for a huge amount of troops. The fact you can still make a useful army without the need for large blocks of troops is great in that I don't need to buy lots of clanrat boxes (that and I can still use my old troops) which would also make the time needed spent into painting more manageable. That said, they need to bring the Grand Alliance books into ebook format as it would make it cheaper to buy and I might actually consider getting it (Given I don't see Skryre getting one on the horizon), plus there is a possibility that future games or events may not let me used my current square/rectangle based models which would be a big problem for me.
Conclusion:
So, would I ever consider ever playing Age of Sigmar? Of course I would. Would I ever consider permanently returning to Fantasy? I don't know. Like I said, when the Old World ended, it ment the end of my Skaven. It ended those characters, the stories and all my future plans for them. While I could write up a story that could explain them now existing in that time period (it isn't that hard, they are Techno-Sorcerers after all), I would have to be committed and at this point the pain is still raw. To me, creating characters, stories and all that goes with them is very important to me and to have it ripped from me without even getting the chance to fight for it was a real kick in the guts. I would love to return and I could still do it along with Malifaux, but for the time being I'm going to do what any smart Skaven would do, by sitting in the shadows and wait for my moment to come. That or I'm just going to squirt the musk of fear and run away screaming, which ever comes first I guess.
No comments:
Post a Comment