The death of Specialist Games

[Kaptain Badrukk]

https://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/games-workshop-ltd-find-a-way-of-keeping-the-specialist-games-and-collectors-ranges

I'm going to post this everywhere I can think of. I don't want this to happen, and I'll be damned if I will go quietly. Help me people, sign up, post on other forums, spread the word.

No I don't expect GW to listen, but if we do this and it garners little or no support then the community at large has no recourse for complaint and I'll shut up. If on the other hand 10s of thousands of gamers all sign up then maybe, just maybe, GW will listen.

[Mr Mystery]

Assuming of course they're not just running down stock for the Finecastofication of the ranges. Or them being licensed out. Or just an exercise in overall stock management.

But you're right. First port of call is the freak out.

[Kaptain Badrukk]

Assuming of course they're not just running down stock for the Finecastofication of the ranges. Or them being licensed out. Or just an exercise in overall stock management.

But you're right. First port of call is the freak out.

No, the first port of call was GW customer service. Who confirmed that they are discontinuing the entire range of specialist games miniatures. No finecast, no reboot, just gone.

Then it was some old contacts at head office, to see if they were just towing a party line or if that was confirmed from a bit higher up, which it was.

Then the next port of call was to buy up a few bits I hadn't gotten around to.

Then it was up to GW HQ, to play in their doubles WFB tourney (48/149 with non-tourney lists, hells-to-the-yeah :) ), and to grab a couple of the good old boys from back in the blueshirt days I know up there and propperly grill them on what was going on.

Then I took a couple of days to think about whether it mattered enough to me to do something about.

Then i cruised into the bay, and allowed the tugboat to dock me at Freakout pier 5, soapbox in hand.

But yes, prior to that explanation, your assumption about the rationality of my behavior is ostensibly correct. ;)

[ElectricPaladin]

I just don't get it. Sure, it's a bummer, but do we really need GW?

For one thing, the Specialist Games communities have completely taken off. There are numerous third party products and instructions for casting your own ships (I play BFG in particular, though I'm sure that similar things exist for the other games). So, GW wants to kill the lines... so what? If you love these games and have people to play with, you can continue to make it work.

Secondly, we don't need GW to make space games (or epic sci-fi games, or epic fantasy games, or weird fantasy/sci-fi sports games). There are a ton of companies stepping in to fill the niche.

So, GW kills Specialist Games. So what? Do we need a petition, or do we need to move on?

[Wildeybeast]

It's quite simple; no one buys the models any more. Everyone who plays them with any regularity already has all the models they want (and if they don't they'll buy them up now) and the rules are freely available to download. You can convert up Mordheim and Necromunda quite easily (or ebay them) and Bloodbowl is likely to see a boxed game this year. There is no real reason for GW to continue other than the goodwill of a small number of their customers, customers who aren't spending any significant amounts of money on the product they want to 'save'.

[Mr Mystery]

No, the first port of call was GW customer service. Who confirmed that they are discontinuing the entire range of specialist games miniatures. No finecast, no reboot, just gone.

Then it was some old contacts at head office, to see if they were just towing a party line or if that was confirmed from a bit higher up, which it was.

Then the next port of call was to buy up a few bits I hadn't gotten around to.

Then it was up to GW HQ, to play in their doubles WFB tourney (48/149 with non-tourney lists, hells-to-the-yeah :) ), and to grab a couple of the good old boys from back in the blueshirt days I know up there and propperly grill them on what was going on.

Then I took a couple of days to think about whether it mattered enough to me to do something about.

Then i cruised into the bay, and allowed the tugboat to dock me at Freakout pier 5, soapbox in hand.

But yes, prior to that explanation, your assumption about the rationality of my behavior is ostensibly correct. ;)

Ah fair enough! :)

Wildey does raise a fair point though. I dunno about anyone else, but although I greatly enjoy Specialist Games, I can't recall the last time I purchased something for them.

Besides, by many accounts there are better alternatives out there. Mordheim? Malifaux is, I understand, a suitable replacement. Only one that remained unique was Bloodbowl, and even that has now spawned contenders.

It's a shame, but its inevitable. Leave the small games to dedicated companies.

[ElectricPaladin]

Ah fair enough! :)

Wildey does raise a fair point though. I dunno about anyone else, but although I greatly enjoy Specialist Games, I can't recall the last time I purchased something for them.

Besides, by many accounts there are better alternatives out there. Mordheim? Malifaux is, I understand, a suitable replacement. Only one that remained unique was Bloodbowl, and even that has now spawned contenders.

It's a shame, but its inevitable. Leave the small games to dedicated companies.

Look, I don't want to knock GW, but there's a certain attitude that GW is the only game in town, and it just isn't. Do you want to play a skirmish level game? Confrontation, Malifaux, Infinity, and Warmachine (kind of). Epic-scale? Dropzone Commander, Armored Clash, and - soon - Firestorm Planetfall. Naval combat, in space or otherwise? Firestorm Armada, Dystopian Wars, and Uncharted Seas. And that's just the games I play. I hear there's a Star Trek themed space game out there.

In this era of Z-brush, cheap 3d printing as an alternative to old-school casting, and a wide variety of different resins, there are tons of alternatives.

[Kaptain Badrukk]

As I said in my original post;
"if we do this and it garners little or no support then the community at large has no recourse for complaint and I'll shut up."
I still regularly buy SG minis, and only found out they were discontinuing when I went to make a purchase. I get that GW aren't the only show,
I have infinity, Heldorado and even LO5R. The detriment will be to my model collection rather than play. Hence the wording of my petition blurb.
I'm a builder and a painter really.

[lobster-overlord]

THere's always ebay from which to get them specialist game models from. I think even for a good while they're going to be cheaper than people think. Also the rules have been free for several years now, so it's not hard to find a copy of the book in either print or digital form.

THese games arn't going away, jsut not going to have direct active support. Andy they havn't had new products in forever anyway, just the same stuff you can find for less online elsewhere currently.

edit: "arn't going away" in the sense that they'll still live on in gaming communities and at people's homes. You don't have to have a game in production to be playable

[napoleon]

It seems like ebay is getting more postings for specialists range from GW. I hope in a way it brings collections out of the closets and maybe help fill in some gaps in peoples armies.