Speaking as someone with 5 half painted/assembled armies sitting in his baseme… er… Studio, I can say with confidence that it’s widely understood and accepted that this addiction we share costs a lot of money. In terms of time out of your life it lands somewhere between porn addiction and being a professional blogger. In terms of money out of your pocket it lands somewhere between mild drug addiction and alcoholism. So as a porn addicted alcoholic who plays miniature games I am constantly struggling on where to spend my time and money, always wishing for someone to create a business model that makes my life just a little bit easier….
- Some day…
What I’m trying to say is that this shit is already expensive and time-consuming enough that I need to budget for it. I already spend far too much time thinking about it, studying it, and talking about it. I already spend far too much money on it. So when a company like Games Workshop released their plans for abandoning pewter and moving toward casting all their models in either plastic or resin, I was both happy and optimistic for future releases. Why? I’ll tell you why… The first reason is that resin can hold much sharper details and allows for sculptors to really begin letting their abilities shine. The second thing is that resin is cheaper. That’s right! Less money that I will need to dump into a purely frivolous hobby!
But no… I know better because I worked for Games Workshop and I know that prices will never really go down. The world could be coming to an end and your local GW Salesman will still take the time to explain to you why a 10-man box of Greatswords is totally still worth $50.00 and how you could trade all the extra bitz for food or gasoline in todays desolate apocalyptic landscape. It’s not his fault though because he doesn’t understand your plight! He’s the dealer and you’re the junkie. That shit is just lying around his place ALL THE TIME!!
- Modelling Snow… How could ANYONE resist?
Now as I said before, I was not expecting the prices to go down at all. However when the prices were actually increased… I was rightfully annoyed and unhappy. I was not surprised at all, not even a little bit, that GW had chosen this event to tac on a price increase much in the way that a corrupt senator might tac a rider bill on to a crucial piece of legislation because he knows that people are literally forced to still vote for it. How could they not?! It’s just good business… <EGO> Except for the fact that we are the only real business that they have now.</EGO> We are their advertisers and as Kyle said on the Jaded Gamercast Facebook page: “GW has painted themselves into that corner all on their own; the spot they’re in, they have no other real option that will lead the company towards monetary growth (seeing as how they opted out of growing their fan base years ago).”
I happen to agree with this statement. More actually since it’s worse for me… I mean, I used to be that guy pictured above! I used to watch people drop $750 on a new army as I laughed in the back room knowing that I could Bitz Order that exact same army at 7 cents an ounce and pay a quarter of what he did. (NOTE: For those who were not around back in the good-ole days, Bitz Orders were a service that GW used to offer where you could order any specific part from any kit in their current range for a slightly higher cost than what it was actually worth. They even offered most parts from the old ranges as well! This was back before GW decided that conversions weren’t something they wanted to support unless you purchased an entire box set in order to get that bit…)
But anyways, I still remember the days when I didn’t feel so much shame in the company that sold me my fix. Now they are more like a cocaine dealer who is assuring me that this stuff is better than the last weeks stuff, which is why it now costs $5 more. What happened to the old stuff? I mean, these models look the same, but are cast in cheaper materials… are the fucking boxes also made of resin now too? Is that why? Are the models being re-scultped? Do they come with paints? Primer? Love?
NOPE!
It’s because the company saw the opportunity and took it while saying “Fuck the hobbists!” Let just continue to gouge the addicts until they have to sell their car for that new box of Blood Knights. This cycle will never end until GW goes under and we are left to begin making our own casts and rules for playing the game. I mean… it’s not like I can just quit. I’m an addict and as much as I bitch and complain I will literally NEVER leave the hobby because the cost of a box set goes up $5.00.
SIGH!!
Anyways… it’s not like they can make money any other way…
OR….
CAN….
THEY!!!
NOW they can lower prices for sure!!
</RANT>
Jaded Gamercast 
So in light of this, are you ready yet to revise your opinion on using non-GW miniatures? (appropriate miniatures, obviously. Say like using Mantic undead instead of the ludicrously overpriced tomb guard)
-und_ed
Honestly… it really depends on the models and the player. I am not a fan of filler models in units either, but I have seen it done well and done with restraint. I don’t mind the non-GW minis all that much these days, however it’s such a thin line to walk with some people that until it is almost literally half the cost of a normal GW box… I would still buy GW. Problem is that we aren’t that far off from that mark in some cases.
For me it also comes down to aesthetics. I have never purchased anything from Mantic games so I will not speak to the quality of the models themselves. I have however looked at them and felt completely underwhelmed. I simply don’t like the looks of anything Mantic makes.
Avatars of War on the other hand…
I’ve been a huge fan of the Avatars of War models. And now that they are putting out boxed sets of units who knows what they’ll come out with in the future. Their characters are very detailed and fit well with WFB armies. I haven’t bought anything from Mantic or Heresy etc. myself yet but there are a few models that could work well, it does just seem to come down to aesthetics.
I couldnt agree more with what you say. Thankfully I bailed out of GW 40K & WFB years ago… Sadly I am stuck with their LOTR as they have the Licence and play the game. (But I’ve bought most of the range from cheaper independant online retailers and ebay/trademe before this price hike hits anyway…)
Otherwise I simply switched to playing other games – Where a ruleset is not a rip off in price and doesnt get updated every other year, and quality figures are available cheaply from many alternative REALISTIC companies.
At the present I am indulging in Black Powder and Hail Caesar and have many cheaply availble plastic figures to choose from, from companies like Perry, Warlord Games etc etc…
Simple answer is stop fighting the fight against the GW machine and play something else, you’ll be glad you did!
Perhaps the online blogging gaming world should simply organise a veto of GW – for at least one month for example, they get zero sales world wide. That might wake them up. And if it can be organised once it can be repeated. Perhaps then we can show them the customer is in charge!