@Parka
Pot, meet kettle!
Are you aware of the fact that what you do is simply a mirror of what you accuse Shadowlord of doing? And Shadowlord may be pretty serious, but at the same time, he is applying some humour to the debate. He enjoys his WD and his havanna. Good for him, he got a solid wage. But I doubt he is that loaded as some here seem to belive. It is also about priorities in life!
GW raises prices, yes, that hurts. Will it hurt them, time will tell. But one thing is for sure and that is that you can hate and spit gall as much as you like, they will not pay heed unless they see it as affecting their sales OR their brand. All this about GW getting away from the roots and such. Well, face it, they are on the stock exchange. They need to preform to keep their investors and owners happy and secure. They have to be efficient.
Is raising prices good? Maybe not, but what is this talk about 25-30%? If they do that, it will be pretty harsh, but at the same time, it seems as if this not an overall rise, but on some lines of product.
Also, I have no idea how this will affect Sweden, so I canīt really say for sure how it will hurt me. In the end, like I said, I might not buy as much, but I will not stop buying, just become more strategical. As for having to budget things weeks ahead, Dihennyd, well, I am not talking week, I might have to talk about
months! And since my income is rather uneven, due to the nature of writer work and not knowing how much I will get on that line, or if I will have to relly on the meager unemployment support (which honestly should not be demanded to cover such extravagant hobbies like warhammer just like that) I might simply have to bide my time, and act when I can.
Still, I must say I have never been as happy with the hobby as I am today. It came after droping all this scare about maybe ever draging my arse to a tournament and therefore having to worry about everything being correct, to adopt a basement gamer thinking. What do I have to play against? Well, I can count upon three players, my son, Tom and Shadowwolf. Would it be fun to meet other opponents, yes, and it will surely happen, but it is nothing that really bothers me today, having few regular opponents.
As long as I have fun while doing it, as fun as I have while modelling and painting, I will be happy.
If GW gets too expensive, well, they might loose me until they lower prices, but I am sure not going to hate them like I could do earlier. Well, get a bit pissed and annoyed, but that is just healthy and fun!
We can say what we like about GW:s buisness metods so far, but they are not illegal, and they work! And they sure give quality.
It is a shame I canīt afford it as much as I would like.
But I really, really want to buy a good blunted medieval sword, one or two helmets, hell, a nice rivetted chainmail haubergeon and so and so... But I just can afford it at the moment! I really would have to save and save money for that! Shall I go around hating all the blacksmiths and factories producing these for the stuff costing so much? Will it lower the prices? No!
The stuff costs that much! Heck, in most cases it is really worth that much so why should I go about complaining about rising prices when it is simply the case that it is too big for my wallet to handle at the moment? Where is the freaking logic in that?
It is assumed that GW only charges these high prices because they can, and that in reality it ainīt worth that much at all! I could be that this is the case, but it can also be that GW MUST raise the price for good reasons. But no, GW canīt have a good reason for raising prices, only evil megacrops raise prices hurting my hobby... So GW must be evil!
But it is about buisness. Buisness. GW is acting on the global stock market. They HAVE to show results! You canīt have both the down to the roots, buddy hobbyist give you a good price just for you thing AND expect the company to survive in a global market.
What they are doing lately is trying to give something to everyone. They give the veterans and big collectors Apocalypse and Legendary battles. They supply new scenarios (like the raiding ones) to hobbyists that mostly play with their mates but might not have the stuff for legendary battles. Awesome! Just my stuff, really! And did Gav write anywhere in those articles for example he would come and shoot you if you fielded anything but GW models? No he did not.
GW are aware of those smaller companies, and they know they will not be able to compete with them, pricewise when it comes to casual gamers who does not attend their controlled tournaments. GW makes stuff to a much higher standard than say Black tree. So that will of course cost. And just because a model happen to be of metal does not make it better. I think Blacktrees stuff and others, is ok and nice. Heck, they are really usable. But they donīt match GW:s standards.
Hey, donīt let them get at you, Shadowlord. And you too, Phil
And talking about syndromes. I got Asperger and ADHD. Just to remind you all.