Age of Sigmar could be a good thing for the community
Our community has been galvanised.
For weeks I’ve been absorbed by the debate over Age of Sigmar. Most arguments have stemmed from the changes to the rules, but that’s not my main point of contention. The gameplay, while important, has always been secondary for me. What comes first is narrative – the old world has, and will always be, my favourite fantasy world.
Games Workshop were the custodians of three decades of creativity; an unparalleled shared fantasy world that has been given applied with layer upon layer of rich texture, painted by some of the finest fantasy writers, artists and sculptors. It was a testament to collective creativity, to the power of the shared imagination.
The mistake was ours. We entrusted something we cared so deeply and passionately about to market forces. We allowed something that isn’t quantifiable to be quantifiable, with sales number dictating the future of our fictional world and our game system. We expected a capitalist machine to feel reverence, duty, loyalty, and respect because we believed that behind it all were members of our own community, rather than individuals who just may have grown rich off of our passion and lost their own along the way. And they decided to burn down the old world, and in doing so attract a number of spectators keen to see what rises from the ashes.
But the old world is not there’s.
It’s ours.
With every game of Warhammer Fantasy we played – with every session of Warhammer Roleplay we indulged in, with every hour spent on Warhammer Online, with every piece of fanfiction we wrote and with every novel we read – we staked our claim to the old world. People complained that the setting didn't move on, didn’t advance, that nothing really changed; they say that like it’s a bad thing, and maybe for some people it is. All I know is that for as long as the overall timeline never made any major steps forward, never expanded in length, we were adding to its depth.
And much like the old world is ours, now the game system is too. The warscrolls provided for Age of Sigmar seem pretty solid, with some of the most fluffy rules we’ve seen, and we can use those rules to create narratives in the old world. They provide a framework, and we can build on it. Since its release, the community has created a range of balancing systems, FAQs and house rules. It’s one of the most exciting developments I've seen, and on a creative level is incredibly stimulating.
I refuse to believe this was intended. Games Workshop never meant to galvanise the community, never meant to put power into our hands. Much like it does with 40k, it would have made – and still may attempt to make further down the line – more money by dictating the system of balance, the flavour of the month. A truly balanced system, community-made, peer reviewed, doesn’t have to factor in sales to its points algorithm. Newly released models don’t have to be made imbalanced to sell more units. Tournament organisers may have been doing it for years, but now everyone, down to the smallest gaming group, has the impetus to find an actual competitive and balanced system.
If we can take the ball and run with it, find some kind of consensus, we may end up with something far greater than Games Workshop could ever have achieved.
