@GP - you and I are in agreement about this staying a Warhammer (Fantasy Battle) and Empire forum. I have been making this argument since before the game came out. I would not be overly upset if the mod team said "No AoS conversations on the forum outside one very specific sub-forum" or even (although this would be far from a perfect solution) "No AoS conversations
at all."
This approach also assumes that people drifted away from WFB for reasons which I think are largely bunk.
I agree - but 1) what
are the real reasons and 2) did GW know them?
People just weren't playing the game - it is very hard to find out why people DON'T do something. When I was a redshirt, if you asked people why they didn't play in the WFB games, they often said things like they just didn't like fantasy, they didn't like Elves and Goblins, they liked sci-fi more. They often said they didn't like the larger unit sizes etc.
Of the people who do play, complaints about ranking models might be what GW hears (certainly, we all hear it - but I don't think to the degree their piece suggests). Complaints about a lack of balance etc. might be another.
And, as well, I think there is a case to be made that GW ditched the points etc. because they just don't WANT tournament players. I am not sure why, exactly - but I have heard that view expressed from a lot of different sources.
Ultimately, this GW "what's new" post does seem ill-considered and perhaps deliberately cruel. It is not something I think was a good idea. I can understand the motivation behind it, but I think it falls flat.
What GW need to do - more than anything else right now - is come up with some additional variant rules which allow for ranked units (giving them bonuses and minuses) so 8th ed armies can function effectively in this game. I don't think it would be too hard from a rules standpoint.
They are not going to do this. Instead, they are going to do what they just did. That was a mistake.