The LAF Games Workshop Discussion Thread

[syrinx0]

It takes all sorts 

Alien 3 was better than most of what followed. 

[Mammoth miniatures]

It’s now … sometime later.

I’ve decided to return ALL  my GW purchases this year.

Not a dog at you at all, but I'm reminded of a customer I used to serve regularly at dark sphere. Every week he and his son (both adults) would buy every new games workshop release and tell me about how they were going to do a huge mega apocalypse battle with it all. Then the next week they'd turn in all the half built unpainted figures/bits for store credit and use that to buy the next week's worth of new releases, tell me about the NEXT big mega apocalypse battle they were going to do.

Their whole hobby seemed to be buying Warhammer, building a few figures from each box, then selling it back to us at a huge loss to repeat the process.

I imagine they are the Ideal games workshop customer - just a perpetual font of money with no demands or fluctuations in buying habits.

[Ragsta]

If they took joy from the process I suppose that’s something, particularly as father and son experience. I don’t buy from GW anymore because I personally don’t like their business practices.

Herbert, why are you returning your stuff out of interest?

[beefcake]

I do like that new zombie dragon. Not enough to fork out for it but it is a nice model. (I'll stick to my 90's version and Tom Meier version)

[Elbows]

Not a dog at you at all, but I'm reminded of a customer I used to serve regularly at dark sphere. Every week he and his son (both adults) would buy every new games workshop release and tell me about how they were going to do a huge mega apocalypse battle with it all. Then the next week they'd turn in all the half built unpainted figures/bits for store credit and use that to buy the next week's worth of new releases, tell me about the NEXT big mega apocalypse battle they were going to do.

Their whole hobby seemed to be buying Warhammer, building a few figures from each box, then selling it back to us at a huge loss to repeat the process.

I imagine they are the Ideal games workshop customer - just a perpetual font of money with no demands or fluctuations in buying habits.

Similarly, not a dig at anyone in this thread, but the local "GW Hobby" is essentially:

1.  Buy $350-500 worth of every single "big launch" GW does.
2.  Complain about having bought said minis.
3.  Assemble 5% of said minis, paint none of them. (oh, and make sure to open all of them...just because)
4.  Argue about rules for said minis. (despite not having played the game)
5.  Watch YouTube painters paint up said minis which you won't paint.
6.  Plan your 10,000 point (totally painted) Armageddon game you and your friends will totally do next month.
7.  Argue over eight new Errata/FAQ pdfs.
8.  Assemble another 5% of the minis, prime four of them and post "progress pics".
9.  Buy into the next GW "big launch", repeat this process.
10.  eBay or sell off your GW kits for the last "big launch", and ask MSRP for them.

Painting an actual army and playing the actual game are literally a tertiary consideration.  The GW hobby (particulary in the 40K realm as that's kind of the lowest common denominator, biggest portion of new players, etc.) is everything "about" the game, and nothing involving it.  It's all podcasts, forums, facebook groups, discords, group chats, "about"...the game.  Which is obviously perfectly fine for GW as it makes them heaps of money, and keeps people invested, even if it's just arguing about prices, rules, etc.

I wish I was exaggerating, but this is...100% how most of the people in the local groups in my area function.  Some younger guys have thousands and thousands of dollars of GW kits, boxes, starter sets, models, etc...with not one painted, and they're never playing the actual games.  It's like watching an illness which is crazy.

[Storm Wolf]

Similarly, not a dig at anyone in this thread, but the local "GW Hobby" is essentially:

1.  Buy $350-500 worth of every single "big launch" GW does.
2.  Complain about having bought said minis.
3.  Assemble 5% of said minis, paint none of them. (oh, and make sure to open all of them...just because)
4.  Argue about rules for said minis. (despite not having played the game)
5.  Watch YouTube painters paint up said minis which you won't paint.
6.  Plan your 10,000 point (totally painted) Armageddon game you and your friends will totally do next month.
7.  Argue over eight new Errata/FAQ pdfs.
8.  Assemble another 5% of the minis, prime four of them and post "progress pics".
9.  Buy into the next GW "big launch", repeat this process.
10.  eBay or sell off your GW kits for the last "big launch", and ask MSRP for them.

Painting an actual army and playing the actual game are literally a tertiary consideration.  The GW hobby (particulary in the 40K realm as that's kind of the lowest common denominator, biggest portion of new players, etc.) is everything "about" the game, and nothing involving it.  It's all podcasts, forums, facebook groups, discords, group chats, "about"...the game.  Which is obviously perfectly fine for GW as it makes them heaps of money, and keeps people invested, even if it's just arguing about prices, rules, etc.

I wish I was exaggerating, but this is...100% how most of the people in the local groups in my area function.  Some younger guys have thousands and thousands of dollars of GW kits, boxes, starter sets, models, etc...with not one painted, and they're never playing the actual games.  It's like watching an illness which is crazy.

And that's the reason it's half jokingly called "plastic-crack!" unfortunately 

[Elbows]

Oh, absolutely.  I have a buddy of mine who will bitch about GW and its prices...while assembling five new boxes (each at least $60 USD) of random HH/40K minis...it's a sickness, .

[Lost Egg]

This sort of engagement with the hobby makes me wonder if it's a bubble that will burst at some point...

[Elbows]

I'm not sure.  GW knows its audience well, and while they lose a lot of gamers every month...they gain more than they lose, so I think that's what keeps the ship afloat. 

[HerbertTarkel]

Not a dog at you at all, but I'm reminded of a customer I used to serve regularly at dark sphere. Every week he and his son (both adults) would buy every new games workshop release and tell me about how they were going to do a huge mega apocalypse battle with it all. Then the next week they'd turn in all the half built unpainted figures/bits for store credit and use that to buy the next week's worth of new releases, tell me about the NEXT big mega apocalypse battle they were going to do.

Their whole hobby seemed to be buying Warhammer, building a few figures from each box, then selling it back to us at a huge loss to repeat the process.

I imagine they are the Ideal games workshop customer - just a perpetual font of money with no demands or fluctuations in buying habits.

Meh.

I managed to keep my stuff. My anger … dissipated.

[HerbertTarkel]

I’m STILL waiting for Howling Banshees to restock. 


But … locally, somehow people got hold of a commission I did, and I’m making really good money to paint GW for others. So I keep building my stacks.

Like $50/£25 an hour to paint. I don’t mind …

[Byrthnoth]

Meh.

I managed to keep my stuff. My anger … dissipated.

Did GW do something that I missed?

[HerbertTarkel]

Did GW do something that I missed?

No  I just accepted GWs way for the way.

[TWD]

Similarly, not a dig at anyone in this thread, but the local "GW Hobby" is essentially:

1.  Buy $350-500 worth of every single "big launch" GW does.
2.  Complain about having bought said minis.
3.  Assemble 5% of said minis, paint none of them. (oh, and make sure to open all of them...just because)
4.  Argue about rules for said minis. (despite not having played the game)
5.  Watch YouTube painters paint up said minis which you won't paint.
6.  Plan your 10,000 point (totally painted) Armageddon game you and your friends will totally do next month.
7.  Argue over eight new Errata/FAQ pdfs.
8.  Assemble another 5% of the minis, prime four of them and post "progress pics".
9.  Buy into the next GW "big launch", repeat this process.
10.  eBay or sell off your GW kits for the last "big launch", and ask MSRP for them.

Painting an actual army and playing the actual game are literally a tertiary consideration.  The GW hobby (particulary in the 40K realm as that's kind of the lowest common denominator, biggest portion of new players, etc.) is everything "about" the game, and nothing involving it.  It's all podcasts, forums, facebook groups, discords, group chats, "about"...the game.  Which is obviously perfectly fine for GW as it makes them heaps of money, and keeps people invested, even if it's just arguing about prices, rules, etc.

I wish I was exaggerating, but this is...100% how most of the people in the local groups in my area function.  Some younger guys have thousands and thousands of dollars of GW kits, boxes, starter sets, models, etc...with not one painted, and they're never playing the actual games.  It's like watching an illness which is crazy.

That's not exactly unique to GW players though.
Almost every other thread on here has reference to their "lead mountain" or wargames butterfly or mention of models they "don't remember buying" or people "geting back to a project I started X years ago", blaming the "shiny thing syndrome" etc. etc.
Likewise Facebook pages about new games (looking at you Baron's War) are filed with people who've "just pulled the trigger" on large orders, the majority of whom will then post enthusiastically for a couple of weeks before later reappearing offering a "98% untouched just one or two models started" deal.

None of this is criticism by the way. I am as guilty of most of these behaviours as the next person.
A small number of my hobby circle are the disciplined types (completer finishers in terrible corporate speak) who single mindeldly work through a project to completion - usually at speed and to a very high standard. The rest of us drift about from thing to thing sometimes coming back, sometimes moving on.

I see variations of this in friends with other interests and pursuits - "all the gear, no idea" cyclists and golfers for instance - anglers with multiple rods who only ever actually use the one they've had since they were fifteen, football fans with multiple replica shirts many worn only once if at all.

And it's all fine - buying, looking at, imagining the finished results are all facets of "the wargames hobby" (and many other hobbies too). It may not be "your" version of the hobby, but then it'd be dull if we were all the same. Why does it matter if someone buys some stuff doesn't paint it and then sells it later? They've had some pleasure going through that process - good luck to 'em I say.

[TWD]

This sort of engagement with the hobby makes me wonder if it's a bubble that will burst at some point...

Wargaming as a hobby in the form in which we enjoy it today really began in the late 50's/early 60s. (We can quibble about exact dates but Featherstone and Bath met and began playing in '55 and the first UK wargames convention was held in 1961, Scruby set up his magazine in America somewhere between those two dates).
Games Workshop released Warhammer in 1983.
The hobby is roughly 70 years old and GW's version is over 40 years old.
So if it's a "bubble" it's one that has existed for more than half the lifetime of the original hobby from which it sprang.