Greed Makes Me Sad...

[Baron.roboto]

Had a bit of a rant, read it against OP, thought it wasn't very constructive so removed it.


Nothing to see here!

[eldargal]

Another point to remember is that GW manufacture the models themselves in Britain and the US. Nearly all their competition manufacture them in China.

The Dire Avenger thing is hard to swallow though. I have enough that it won't affect me at all and hopefully there should be ten man boxes floating around on the internet for a while yet but it's still hard to take even if there are legitimate reasons for it (like low profitability on the old kit).

Greed is bad when it comes at the expense of people or the environment. GW don't employ slave labour, they don't poison the environment they don't engage in nasty financial tricks to avoid paying tax. As corporations go they are far, far from being bad. Charging as much as they can for a product is not immoral especially when it is a luxury product.

[Build]

Capitalism != Greed. You mistake greed for trying to turn a genuine profit on a luxury item.

I'm tired of people complaining about prices and inaccessibility of product. GO find a new hobby if it bothers you so much.

John M>

This, forever this!

I'm sorry, but I fit in the no sympathy for you camp as what you're saying is certainly nothing that hasn't been ranted and moaned about before. However the best part of the situation is this, you can either play a different game system (there's plenty out there that require far fewer models to have a good game and at cheaper prices), you can ebay older versions of the dire avengers and will easily find them for a decent price. You can make your own if you REALLY feel the inclination, or you can just pay the price for the current ones, it really doesn't make any difference.

It's because of moans like yours, that I'm glad I don't work with GW, regardless of whether it's a store or head office.

[Warptiger]

Model wargaming has always been an expensive niche hobby. It was never cheap. In many cases, the plastic kits are cheaper then the metal blister packs used to be. I've been playing since first edition, and I can still remember what a new all metal army used to cost. Make your hair stand on end. And it was always fun opening up boxes to find all the metal figures inside were made from worn out flexible molds, with flash, bubbles, pocks, and malformed parts. Yeah.

GW makes it's profits from selling the miniatures, not the rules. It's not in their interests to make them cheaper. And though you think plastic is cheap, having new molds made for plastic injection is not. It's hilariously expensive. It costs a ton of money to have them tooled.

And the pricing policies at least make some sense now. In the past, GW would sometimes set a price on a certain model 2 to 3 times higher then anything of even remotely the same utility or points value. Instead of a force organization chart, they simply wanted "rare" models to cost so much, you couldn't buy too many of them. It was kind of nutty.

[UrielVentris]

Telling people to find a new hobby because a 50% price increase in a unit is pretty dickish fellas.

That reads as 'you're poor and can't afford it? Leave my hobby'

[Build]

Telling people to find a new hobby because a 50% price increase in a unit is pretty dickish fellas.

That reads as 'you're poor and can't afford it? Leave my hobby'

No, it's called common sense.

I'd like a private jet so I can fly without having to wait in departures when I go on holiday, I can't afford one but I'm not going to moan about it.

[lobster-overlord]

Telling people to find a new hobby because a 50% price increase in a unit is pretty dickish fellas.

That reads as 'you're poor and can't afford it? Leave my hobby'

No, it means STFU, as I'm sick of hearing it. I'm poor (3 kids, and wife at home, I make less than the poverty level in the US for a family of 5 after 10 years of dot com bubble crash and not able to get a job making more than McDonald's mgmnt salary). I love my hobby, and when I scrimp and save and am able to buy a model I cherish it because I know it's an extravagance. Treat it for what it is...

[Wildeybeast]

I don't want to spend obscene amounts of money on vanity items.

So don't then. Do something else with your money. Problem solved.

[Chapter Master Jake]

I didn't read section 7 of the commenting rules

[url]http://www.lounge.belloflostsouls.net/faq.php?faq=termsmaster#faq_termsuse[/url]

[legalsmash]

You make an assumption here that GW wants the game to be "accessible" and not for "..rich..types". Here is a Hobby Center building requirement quote from the GW website:


Hobby Centers - Site Criteria
SITE CRITERIA


Demographic Criteria: At least 500,000 total population within 10 miles with 33,000+ 14- to 24-year-old males. Median household income is at least $50,000.

(link [url]http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/content/article.jsp?catId=&categoryId=§ion=&pIndex=7&aId=3 500005&start=8&multiPageMode=true[/url])

Not sure they really want moderate income players. Just my 2 cents.

This isn't meant to apply to our kind brothers on the isle of britain regarding income:

Really, this isnt all that high an income category in the States. The fact the US median income is in the low 40's doesnt mean that this is a high amount... it's pretty much low/middle class.
Consider this: 50K a year PRETAX - Fed. Income tax, - possible state/local taxes, any student debt/financial debt management - rent/mortgage '- car payment/insurance/gas, - food- incidentals, THEN you have disposable income.
Say you have 100-200 credibly that you can blow a month on "whatever" and you dont game, go out to eat in extraneous places, and ONLY wanted to play GW, you could buy a wraithknight a month... at MSRP technically.

Now, if you are not buying online for at least a 20% discount, you can't blame anyone but yourself. Be thrifty. No one requires you to pay the GW set MSRP prices and its ultimately your choice whether you support a FLGS with your purchasing. There's also Ebay, bartertown, craigslist, and forum trade shops where you can find things. There's a whole list of ways to get models/books, etc.

Lamborghini doesn't want their product to be available for "everyone", and their car is largely fiberglass and plastic... you know, that is available like "salt."

That income/area/population listing is just basically saying they don't want to put stores in a ghetto. Basically don't want it to be "gunshop, liquorshop, footlocker, games workshop".

Their business practices are boderline retarded, but they aren't joseph Kony because they charge more for mowaked guardians.

I don't support their pricing, I don't agree with their priorities with regard to development goals nor their desire to eat the LOTR pie, but I can't really be mad that they are trying to remain "exclusive and elusive" over say, heroclix, etc. Compared to magic, (20 a card for some of them anyone) vidya (59 per game), warmachine, dust, etc. while the prices are not exact, the comparability of pricing/activity/enjoyment is not vastly indifferent.

Want to cry about a price raise? See the cost of Cadian guardsmen20 man box in 2003 at inception 25-30 for 20. its now 29 for 10 and its likely to increase. Pretty much every fantasy release since 7th ed. came out. Go see how much a raider has gone up since the most recent kids came out. compare the ancient godhammer pattern with the current price. Check out the price changes on codex when I started they were 10-15 at most expensive 20, now they are 50 per.

No one is stopping you from buying mantic stuff and playing, or almost any other group's models if you didnt want to pay gw. KOW and warpath rules suck less as a matter of fact.

Pretty much, this is first world problems at its best. Its toy soldiers, not medical care bro. Think of the hungry people in Africa bro.

Fo' da love of monies!