Oh how GW has failed me.....Let me count the ways (7 of them in honor of 7th ed)

[Mr Mystery]

Fair enough.

Surely you've got a local club, being a University town?

[Harley]

Similarly to climate change you can't just claim that a escalating trend of rising temperatures in one region is an isolated event. We live in a global community. Having been a member of BoLS, Heresy and Warseer, they all had the same general shift.

You're right that such alienation is going to be less common the closer to England you are, and the EU. These places are where GW is strongest.

The only real statistical data we have to go off of are stock prices. Look at their stock history. It correlates to their release of editions. Every 4-5 years they release a new edition. Stocks soar then peter off about 2 years later, and their prices slump. Right now their stock should be on a strong decline, bottoming out around 2018. However, releasing 7th edition after only 2 years will have a strange effect. My guess is stocks will skyrocket again but not as much as in 96, 2003 and 2012, leading to a decline and eventually bottoming out in 2020.

[spaceman91]

We do but its having some trouble at the mo. The place it has been in for ages has let them go so they are trying to find somewhere new. I still game with my friends so I'm not lost to GW. I chosse to shop elsewhere because of the unfriendliness.

[Psychosplodge]

The only way you can compare climate change and GW share prices is its all guesswork with people throwing numbers about and drawing prettymuch whatever conclusion they want.

[Alex Knight]

Couple of sentiments on my own front:
1.) Regarding Tournaments (pt. I)/ "Game-Balance" - How hard is it for a tournament organizer to say, "Armies may only consist of up to two detatchments. One must be the Combined Arms detatchment, the optional detatchment may only be the Allied detatchment." "Only Eternal War missions will be used." "Daemonology powers may not be selected."

2.) Regarding cheesemonkey, WAAC gamers and lists. Yes, I understand some people have limited areas to play in, and thus are stuck with players like that, but there is a rule on page 116 that so many people seemed to have overlooked - despite being written in bold letters - "players must agree how they are going to select their armies, and if any restrictions apply to the number and type of models they can use." That was in bold, freaking letters. GW put in the rules, "Don't be a dick."

3.) Regarding Tournaments (pt. II) When did tournaments for 40K start becoming a thing? Rogue Trader? 2nd Edition? 3rd? My experience seems to tell me that it was 3rd edition. So why does wargaming now have to be all about the "Tournament?" Why can't it go back to the ideals of having a gorram fun time with little toy soldiers and not who the frack is the better player?

[King Chud]

I was a strong competitive player in their 40K third edition and fifth edition. I play Warhammer Fantasy now, and I feel that is more balanced version of their gaming system. 40K has a history of arms races. It used to be Kult of Speed, Tyranids, and Chaos Space Marines regularly beat the Imperial forces in the third edition. Fifth edition had their escalation of armies with power weapons and vehicle squadrons. Every codex got to be the hot gaming item at the moment. I got out of it. 5th Edition became a pricey version of paper, scissor, rocks. The ork mobs could run anybody down with kustom forcefields and killer kans, while Imperial Guard had their leafblower tactics of bombarding the hell out of everyone with 5" templates with tank squadrons. I thought the introduction of fliers was a good idea in 40K, but I liked being able to pay points for my psychic powers for thousand sons. Can't do that in 7th and 6th edition. I think tournament judges would be better off not allowing allies and fortifications into the game. The army should come just from the codex, like in Warhammer Fantasy. I like my armies to be competitive. I sold off my tyranids and orks once they got shafted in later editions. I still have my thousand sons, and I can play about 9000 points in apocalypse. I always thought the chaos space marines should have a codex for pure Khorne, Nurgle, Tzzentch, and Slaanesh armies. I am sick of the plethora of space **** codexes for the Emperor.

[DarkLink]

Don't be pedantic, Mr Mystery. Just because there are people who play the game differently than you doesn't mean that they're an irrelevant minority. You want data, look at the explosion of the tournament scene in America. I don't you're probably just going to roll your eyes and ignore anything related to that, but there are thousands of players who pay extra money and take vacation time off work and travel to attend tournaments. The LVO drew over five hundred people from all over the world, and it's in its first year. Adepticon has several thousand attendees annually. There are a dozen other major tournaments that draw large crowds, and those are just the big events. And that's only a small portion of the number of people who play regularly, since only a relatively small percentage of players will travel to attend tournaments. Is it 50% of GW's customer base? Is it 10%? I don't know. Don't take that as evidence that it isn't a fairly large group, though, which is exactly what you're doing. GW does not have the profit margins to lose even 10% of its customer base and walk away unscathed.

[Psychosplodge]

But DL we stopped caring what the Colonies thought in the late 1700s or we'd have made more of an effort to keep you

[Alex Knight]

Psychosplodge, I wish I could like posts, because you have won the Internet for the day. As someone on the colonies side of the pond, I rather thought that was high-larious.

[Psychosplodge]