Article on Fanboys, Exclusivity, and Sonic the Hedgehog

[wittdooley]

New Friday Freewrite article up from me. Standard caveat applies: all the Friday Freewrites are editorials (read: Opinion pieces). I make my best efforts to be fair and tempered in them:

[URL="http://queencityguard.com/index.php/2011/07/15/dr-fanboy-how-i-learned-to-stop-hating-love-more-than-one-game/"]QCG -- Dr. Fanboy: How I learned to stop the hate & love more than one system[/URL]

As always, C&C welcome and appreciated.

Please enjoy!

[Toxik]

A very nice read this one. The comparison of Nintendo vs Sega = GW vs PP is, I think, right on the money.

Also, congratulations. You just made me spit coffee all over my screen because of "They’re the hipsters of wargaming". The Pressganger from my local shop in socal was in fact, a hipster. So I couldn't help but have a good laugh at this.

[Denzark]

Witt

A nice article and I like how you handled the first comment. My tuppence:

I got into this hobby at the age of 10. Luckily, my old man has been building models all his life and taught me many things - nowhere did I go for the 18 shades of brown blobbed on my space crusade minatures. I never felt obliged to use GW paint or glue as revell or humbrol did just as well for cheaper (even then in 1990). The circle of knowledge was not one way - he tried acrylics after seeing them in White Dwarf and decided that water based was easier than enamels and white spirit.

Another thing I learnt was that you could just as easily use other company's kits and convert them - many of my favourite miniatures are simple hand swaps with a 'Free Company Crusader' now carrying a bolt gun etc.

I did this then and still do now- although take care that anything that may go tournament wise has 50%+ GW components.

I have tried and got some enjoyment out of Mechwarrior (pre-painted stuff), MTG, and Warmachine. I should be ripe for opening up to other companies. I should find GW reprehensible and yet I don't. But hang on denzark, I hear you asking - on this forum you quite happily jump down people's throat on stuff like CHS and Warmachine.

So why is this?

Firstly, economics. On a scale of economy I have sufficient unpainted GW stuff to last me an age, and i very rarely buy new anymore. Ebay and Maelstrom Games get my custom. I took a conscious decision not to branch out whilst I had this quantity of miniatures, and also the majority of gamers about were GW.

Secondly, rules. I had made the change from RT through to 5th ed. The change to 3rd was the hardest for me - although no matter what i state about dumbing down of rules, i like getting through a game in 2-3 hours rather than 2-3 days. But simply, the random nature of how you got your mechs in MW took a lot of fun away for me. The funny little damage disc thing, and the manga-esque crappy plastic to go with. Ugh. As to Warmachine, as I often state, it became obvious that the best chance of winning came with killing the warcaster. End of. Just like being stuck for ideas in 40K, go for killing their troops. Rules combined with economics is pretty much a nail in the coffin.

So where am I now? Well GW is a luxury item for me, just like beer and eating out. I get pleasure from it, and I am quite ambivalent to the company - a private company's aim, and actually if I understand right, its duty under UK law, is to make money for its shareholders. I can either vote with my feet or, accepting it is a pure luxury, can play along. I don't take offence with them as a whole because it is business not pleasure for them. Its a shame, the old D10 x D10 Madboyz table was what got me in in the first place, but the slicker smoother approach is what happens when the corporates kick out the geeks from management. Overall 40K is in a better place.

So what makes me quite so vitriolic? I could be live and let live. But, quite simply, it is the sheer amount of PP players who hold it up as some sort of redemption of the soul. Worse is the 'I left GW, the grass is greener' types. I HATE LOATHE and EXECRATE being preached to. It is like a recovered alcoholic telling me how much better it is to be dry. Well thats great, thank you, but (with a few notable exceptions) I drink responsibly and you can keep your damn poxy opinions to yourself.

Or the TV evangelist or street Hari Krishna. Bog Off! Don't preach to me. Why come on a 40K blog on a 40K thread and start trying your utmost to convert us? It is just crap.

So, the answer is, whilst I am quite mild, and think actually people should get out and try other systems, and other model manufacturers, it is the constant interference with people taking a diametrically opposed position to anyone still getting buckets of enjoyment out of 40K that has turned me into a rabid zealot.

This has not been helped by the worst if the worst - during the news about GW having a profit warning, people encouraging others to deliberately try to go elsewhere to try and hurt GW. Not becuase the minis are better or the prices are lower, but because like a slinking jackal or other carrion eater, they thought the time to influence GW was while they were weak. Kick a man while he's down.

All this makes me rant. I am probably just hoping the whiners get in their waahmbulances and go back to the nearest warmachine forums.

On top of that, there is 2 more facts. Firstly, the price for a 2 horse drawn Khador mobile toilet block is telling me GW isn't all that expensive comparitively. Second, people talk about various of the companies who are smaller than GW, including PP, having from time to time supply problems. When they resolve this by growth, as soon as the money gets to GW scales, the smaller now larger companies will float, and then get in the corporate suits as the geeks can't be trusted with sums like that. Life - its business not pleasure so don't take it personally.

So, if I am a monster, it ain't GW has done that - it is an adverse reaction of anphylactic shock scales to being preached at by people who just clart on about stuff without thinking it through.

Rant over.

[wittdooley]

Witt

A nice article and I like how you handled the first comment. My tuppence:

I got into this hobby at the age of 10. Luckily, my old man has been building models all his life and taught me many things - nowhere did I go for the 18 shades of brown blobbed on my space crusade minatures. I never felt obliged to use GW paint or glue as revell or humbrol did just as well for cheaper (even then in 1990). The circle of knowledge was not one way - he tried acrylics after seeing them in White Dwarf and decided that water based was easier than enamels and white spirit.

Another thing I learnt was that you could just as easily use other company's kits and convert them - many of my favourite miniatures are simple hand swaps with a 'Free Company Crusader' now carrying a bolt gun etc.

I did this then and still do now- although take care that anything that may go tournament wise has 50%+ GW components.

I have tried and got some enjoyment out of Mechwarrior (pre-painted stuff), MTG, and Warmachine. I should be ripe for opening up to other companies. I should find GW reprehensible and yet I don't. But hang on denzark, I hear you asking - on this forum you quite happily jump down people's throat on stuff like CHS and Warmachine.

So why is this?

Firstly, economics. On a scale of economy I have sufficient unpainted GW stuff to last me an age, and i very rarely buy new anymore. Ebay and Maelstrom Games get my custom. I took a conscious decision not to branch out whilst I had this quantity of miniatures, and also the majority of gamers about were GW.

Secondly, rules. I had made the change from RT through to 5th ed. The change to 3rd was the hardest for me - although no matter what i state about dumbing down of rules, i like getting through a game in 2-3 hours rather than 2-3 days. But simply, the random nature of how you got your mechs in MW took a lot of fun away for me. The funny little damage disc thing, and the manga-esque crappy plastic to go with. Ugh. As to Warmachine, as I often state, it became obvious that the best chance of winning came with killing the warcaster. End of. Just like being stuck for ideas in 40K, go for killing their troops. Rules combined with economics is pretty much a nail in the coffin.

So where am I now? Well GW is a luxury item for me, just like beer and eating out. I get pleasure from it, and I am quite ambivalent to the company - a private company's aim, and actually if I understand right, its duty under UK law, is to make money for its shareholders. I can either vote with my feet or, accepting it is a pure luxury, can play along. I don't take offence with them as a whole because it is business not pleasure for them. Its a shame, the old D10 x D10 Madboyz table was what got me in in the first place, but the slicker smoother approach is what happens when the corporates kick out the geeks from management. Overall 40K is in a better place.

So what makes me quite so vitriolic? I could be live and let live. But, quite simply, it is the sheer amount of PP players who hold it up as some sort of redemption of the soul. Worse is the 'I left GW, the grass is greener' types. I HATE LOATHE and EXECRATE being preached to. It is like a recovered alcoholic telling me how much better it is to be dry. Well thats great, thank you, but (with a few notable exceptions) I drink responsibly and you can keep your damn poxy opinions to yourself.

Or the TV evangelist or street Hari Krishna. Bog Off! Don't preach to me. Why come on a 40K blog on a 40K thread and start trying your utmost to convert us? It is just crap.

So, the answer is, whilst I am quite mild, and think actually people should get out and try other systems, and other model manufacturers, it is the constant interference with people taking a diametrically opposed position to anyone still getting buckets of enjoyment out of 40K that has turned me into a rabid zealot.

This has not been helped by the worst if the worst - during the news about GW having a profit warning, people encouraging others to deliberately try to go elsewhere to try and hurt GW. Not becuase the minis are better or the prices are lower, but because like a slinking jackal or other carrion eater, they thought the time to influence GW was while they were weak. Kick a man while he's down.

All this makes me rant. I am probably just hoping the whiners get in their waahmbulances and go back to the nearest warmachine forums.

On top of that, there is 2 more facts. Firstly, the price for a 2 horse drawn Khador mobile toilet block is telling me GW isn't all that expensive comparitively. Second, people talk about various of the companies who are smaller than GW, including PP, having from time to time supply problems. When they resolve this by growth, as soon as the money gets to GW scales, the smaller now larger companies will float, and then get in the corporate suits as the geeks can't be trusted with sums like that. Life - its business not pleasure so don't take it personally.

So, if I am a monster, it ain't GW has done that - it is an adverse reaction of anphylactic shock scales to being preached at by people who just clart on about stuff without thinking it through.

Rant over.

Great Comment!

See, you're not the GW fan I'm directing that post at, either. I think there is a huge difference between fan and "fanboy." All of the rationality in your argument makes you precicely not a "fanboy."

I'm much like you. I buy the models I want to build and paint. I don't have a Space Wolves Razorback Spam list because I've no interest in painting that many razorbacks. I support GW when I like their products and defend them when I think they're being unjustly criticized. I've learned this often earns me the moniker "apologist." I think it's silly because any time I'm called an apologist it's usually in reference to defending a corporate policy that helps GW further their bottom line. As you said, my plastic army men are a luxury hobby item. I buy only as much as I can afford; sometimes it's GW, sometimes it's PP, sometimes it's Spartan Games.

I agree with you on the Privateer Idealogue, and I mentioned it in my article. I don't get it. I'm all about making moral and ideological stands (I will never buy a Chrysler automobile due to their bailout), but GW is hardly representative of "the man," and to me toy soldiers are hardly worthy of taking up the aforementioned soap box. Do I think GW makes mistakes. Absolutely. I think the dispairity between Australian pricing compared to the strength of their dollar is criminal. I do, however, think the "embargo," as it were, is understandable. The unfortunate result there was that the correct fix (the embargo to, effectively, protect the Australian GW market-- I mean the LGS here) was coupled with the unforseen AUD strength, screwing the Australian consumer. The pricing needs to be fixed, not the "embargo." If AUD prices were in line with the rest of the world, the embargo would have been small potatoes because Aussies wouldn't have had to order from overseas to get their product affordably.

Anyways, I do appreciate the reads and any real comments and criticism. Cheers!

[fuzzbuket]

your question was why:

why ? because im scotish angry and on the internet :P seriously that was a very good artical!

-fuzz
p.s. you have no idea how vicious ps3 VS xbox arguments get :P

[scadugenga]

Denzark: I was with you completely until you got to the GW-kicking a man while he's down comparison.

It's not a real comparison.

GW is a corporation. When things are going well, (IE, they're flush and raking in the dough) they are not going to be open to any kind of radical change. If it works, don't fix it.

The only time you can make a large corporation rethink it's operating model is when things are going poorly. *cough*americanautomakers*cough*.

So, but for that bit, I"m 100% with you on the rest.

Witt: Good attempt at an article, but you really do kind of try to turn the gaming world into a us/them (GW/PP) equation, and it's really not that simple.

I think the gaming community as a whole is largely a "let's just enjoy playing a game/hanging out" society. It's the online venue where you get the real extreme lefties/righties going on.

And, like Denz mentioned--there's nothing worse than a born-again* recovering alcoholic (or in gaming terms a disenchanted mono-gamer.) They villify their former obsession and tend to refocus their obsessive behavior on something new. (To the alchoholic, they tend to obsess about being sober; and the mono-gamer tends to focus on whatever new game catches their fancy.)


*I use the "born again" tag to differentiate the preachy, get-in-your-face recovering alcoholics as opposed to the average everyday recovering alcoholic who's just happy to experience life outside the bottle, so to speak.

[DarkLink]

As to Warmachine, as I often state, it became obvious that the best chance of winning came with killing the warcaster. End of.

So... exactly like Chess?

[Denzark]

@ Scadu - OK, maybe the comparison is not as straight as all that - maybe because one is dealing with a company, from one's point of view it is also business not pleasure - so acting when they are low is 'amorral' not immoral'. But the taste is still bad as the if a company needs change it needs it all the time not just when at a profit loss time.

@ Darklink: no, not quite. 2 reasons - there are no dice in chess, and each piece does 1 thing (all melee) not shooting or spells. Also, as befits a thousand year old game, chess players are more dignified than to try to convince me that it is the saviour of my soul from the evil that is 40K.

[warpcrafter]

There have been a lot of other tabletop wargames that I have found to be acceptable alternatives to GW games, but I couldn't get other people interested in playing them. The best of these games that deserved more success than it got was Celtos. I still have the rules but traded the few miniatures I bought for it many years ago after it became clear that the GW zombies at my FLGS wouldn't even consider another game. I bought into Warmachine when second edition came out, but now the people who were all Warmachine just a couple of months ago have moved on to Malifaux and Dystopian Wars. I don't have the money or short attention span to keep up. It's infuriating.

[Asymmetrical Xeno]

@Denzark,

I agree! I dislike those types too - well, I've pretty much left GW and indeed the grass IS greener for me, but that's exactly it : for me. Many of those people seem to forget people like things simply because it's their taste. It's a very odd attitude - I don't see why people can't just let others enjoy what they enjoy.