Anyone ready to change their anti-GW stance yet?

[jdmofo]

I've been out of playing the game regularly for a couple of years now, but nonetheless I'm a big fan of BB so have been following the little bits of news of the new release with interest.

Having hung out on these boards many a time, I know that a lot of people here (perhaps a majority?) are extremely anti-GW (and yes, some of that is justified).

Having read over the years all the horror stories, worst-case-scenarios and worries of what GW might do with our beloved game should they ever return to it (the concensus seeming to be that we hope they stay well away), I was wondering how easy it will be for the diehard anti-GW crowd to admit to themselves that this is all looking pretty good and maybe GW are not the enemy anymore.

Possible slight change of scale aside (no biggie to me), GW seems like they're releasing the shiny new edition that many of us have wished for.

I had always figured that sooner or later GW would push out a limited number of human vs orc base sets ala Space Hulk as a cash grab, but new minis for several other teams? Support following the release? Dreamland!

I for one was never anti-GW anyway, the only problem I have now is how I will resist splurging on everything GW offers us in the coming months and years as so far it really looks like it will all be awesome (dem dwarves!)

I'm hoping the new stuff sells really well, we get new minis for all the teams and stars and then maybe even some new teams. Maybe release new teams for casual friendly situations first and only add them into official league rules once they've been tested by the masses and tweaked/nerfed accordingly. Come on, give me a Sigmarine team already!

So, to sum up: Anyone who was a full-on GW hater ready to let go of the hate yet?

[Darkson]

So, to sum up: Anyone who was a full-on GW hater ready to let go of the hate yet?

Not yet, but they are making the right noises (and moves) to make it more likely.
I'll just wait to see what the rules for the Space Marine team are.

[lunchmoney]

I never developed a hatred for GW, just stopped buying their stuff when they stopped selling what I wanted.
If BB goes well, then so will Epic, and I'm sure I'll be buying their stuff again.

[howlinggriffon]

I've been anti-GW for years - but what's happening with the new Blood Bowl stuff is very encouraging. Still don't think I'll be buying the new set as the minis are fugly but I'll see how it goes. This is from someone who doesn't even buy paint from them. I have all the teams at least once so no real need for me to buy theirs.

I'll see how well I go when they rerelease Mordheim and Necromunda.

[Tablet]

Whilst there is hatred from some quarters (and lets not forget that there are regular posters here that would be justified in feeling that way), for me the vast majority of feelings being expressed appear to be apathy tinged with annoyance.

We all love this game and that creates passion in the tone of what people post here.

At the end of the day though, haters be hating....... did I use that correctly

[jdmofo]

the minis are fugly

I'm liking them quite a bit personally.

The only criticism I'd make is maybe they have too many blades. Spikes are cool, but these guys look like they all have Stab. I guess it'd be easy to tone those down though.

Then again, maybe the daggers carried by assassins will be huge to compensate

What I really like is that the minis we've seen so far actually look like players of a bizarre brutal sport, as opposed to WFB units that have mistakenly wandered into a stadium.

I have a beloved team of the 3rd ed Skaven (beloved due to the time put into painting them and playing them) who as you all know suffer pretty badly from WFB-clone-syndrome. Looking at the concept art for GW's new Skaven, mine should be worried about whether they will keep their prized place on my shelf much longer...

[rolo]

I never developed a hatred for GW, just stopped buying their stuff when they stopped selling what I wanted.

Exactly this. I've been disappointed or angry with them when they cancel games that I like (Blood Bowl, also Man o War, Gothic, Warmaster (although they cancelled that so fast I barely managed to buy any models), Talisman) and sometimes just change the rules too much and raise prices to where I wasn't willing to keep paying (Fantasy, 40k). But I wouldn't call it hate.

In a different thread I compared GW to a crazy ex girlfriend. Every once in a while we get together again for a few months, until we start arguing (rules changes) or she cheats on me (cancelled game) and we break up.
Right now we're in the getting-back-together phase. She lost weight, got that "infection" taken care of, and seems to have mellowed out. Maybe this time it'll work. If the new models are at least close to the original 28mm scale, I'll almost certainly buy the box and put them on 25mm bases. Will this lead to heartbreak, screaming, and an obscene word keyed into my car hood in two years? Maybe. Or maybe we'll still be together and happy. People do change sometimes, and companies as well. And the reason certain couples keep getting back together is that deep down, they do like each other.

And worst comes to worst, her cousin Elfball is younger and hotter than she is

(Apologies to the ladies reading this for the blatant stereotyping and sexism in this post ... but this metaphor really does work to describe how I feel about Games Workshop).

[Darkson]

[Dons hardhat in advance of Digger's response.]

[Milo]

I wouldn't say I was ever "anti-GW". They've changed as a company since the days when I had any involvement with them, I think to the negative, but if they were still selling Blood Bowl, I would probably still be buying it.

The new set and promised support sounds good. I'm still a little gunshy, but will probably buy one set on the day of release and then potentially four more if I'm happy with it. (I have three sons, 22, 16 and 16, and I want to gift them all a set while it's still being sold. And I may want a fifth BB board for myself -- some of my others are getting long in the tooth.)

[Babs]

Let's face it, if anyone has reason to dislike GW, it's the BBRC on how they treated Tom Anders (Galak) in particular, and all of us.

However, none of us BBRC members really swayed at that point. At least they did make the CRP publically available (with all the images ripped off), as though they fought an internal battle to release it, and won...just.

However, the legal action, against passionate fans, with threat letters. At that point, I stopped purchasing GW products to make a point.

Since then, two things have transpired.

1. I live in the Wollongong area, and the only place that seems to stock what I'm after is the official GW store (Good Games down here don't sell paint, nor brushes, nor miniatures. Odd, but true.)

2. I've come to the realisation that Games Workshop is not an animal, it's a company. And most of the people who I was disappointed at (to put it mildly) no longer work there. In fact, the entire culture of the company has changed. Astoundingly, I'm told.

So, with that in mind, I want to encourage GW with their positive direction. Warily. To extend the metaphor, I'm trying to reward the positive behaviour like one trains an aggressive dog that bites. Except instead of food treats, it's money.

Good GW. Good boy. Now, produce Blood Bowl miniatures. Support the board game. Sit.

[Wifflebat]

I'm in the USA, and I don't play Warhammer--never been a part of the scene at all (definitely a "there but for the grace of god" thing for me--if I'd had an interested opponent, I'm quite sure I'd have gotten into the WH40K thing when I was younger), so maybe things are different for me. I just can't feel like GW has ever done anything to me.

I acknowledge that they treated Tom and the BBRC rules committee poorly, and they came down unnecessarily on people for using the 'Blood Bowl' name. But I can't blame them for letting the game go out of print. They didn't think it was worth printing, so they stopped. There are a lot of people who'd like copies of TSR's Boot Hill, but they stopped making it. Nobody claims injury. Over the past couple years, I've bought too many Blood Bowl teams; never once did I stop to wish I could have gotten GW versions instead. I've been playing the game for almost thirty years now, off and on, and GW has never done anything to effectively stop me (well, Second Edition, but I mostly ignored that, and I'll bet I'd like it better now if I went back in time to play it).

I feel like I'm lucky. I think they got the rules as right as they've ever been (thanks, I know, largely to the fans), and that happened to be the time they walked away from them. We've reaped the benefits of that for quite some time, and now they're taking steps to start up the game again and it looks like they're doing it right. They could have done it soooo wrong--they could have said "okay, Blood Bowl fans! You get your wish," and then given us exactly what they're doing now--only made slight changes to each team. Now you have to buy a whole new team because you don't have the Skaven Plegmspitter, and none of the third parties make one yet! Oh, and the Orcs now have two Black orcs and two Orc Breakdancers, and GW can sell you the minis! Honestly, that was my greatest fear--not that they would gut the game, just that they would do things that would infuriatingly invalidate everything the players, sculptors, and manufacturers have all been doing for the last several years.

Again, lots of people have legitimate gripes against GW, and I'd never call them invalid. I'll never excuse anything they do on the grounds that they're a for-profit corporation--despite what you'll hear on the Internet, plenty of companies exist to provide quality products and services and don't make excuses for failing to do that in the name of shareholder profit. But all they've really ever done to me was make a game I really love, and then stop making it. So, yeah, I'd say there's a good chance all will be forgiven come Q1 of 2017.

I do think those range rulers are gonna be a pain in the ass, though...

[bound for glory]

As I don't play any GW games besides Blood Bowl, I have no bad thoughts about the company.
And as our club plays a very modified version of BB 3rd ed, anything GW does to the game won't bother me, either.

[CyberedElf]

No hate, but still lean anti-GW. I'm a cheap bastard. All the GW models I own, I bought at a discount. I don't blame them for setting price points higher than I want, I'll just take most of my business elsewhere.
That said, I like where they are going now. While I might not buy much (already have almost all teams), I think what they are doing bodes well for the community.
Not only am I cheap, I'm also self-centered. They dropped support of the game for a while, but left it in a good state of rules. Other than that they haven't really hurt me in any way. If things continue like the new info suggests, they won't get much of my money, but I might encourage others to support them.

[spubbbba]

2. I've come to the realisation that Games Workshop is not an animal, it's a company. And most of the people who I was disappointed at (to put it mildly) no longer work there. In fact, the entire culture of the company has changed. Astoundingly, I'm told.

This is an important thing to bear in mind. GW is a decent sized company with many independent parts, often these parts don't always speak to each other. Or things can change drastically when staff come and go.

They look to be moving in a better direction for us, not messing with the core rules and bringing out loads of new models is good news. There are 21 teams they acknowledged in the last book that they can bring out and over 50 stars, plus the potential for staff and refs. That should be plenty to keep things ticking along without having to invent new players or boost teams to get you to buy the latest toy every couple of years.

I'm excited about the new miniatures, not that fussed by the boxed set figures but the dwarfs look promising as do the concepts of the nurgle, goblins and skaven. I've always liked GW's style and have pretty much exclusively bought their stuff over the last 1/4 century. A lot of the independent stuff I see here is pretty poor and gets an easy ride despite them often costing as much as GW models.

[Tablet]

Goblin concepts?! Ive not seen them do you have a link.