WFB 9E "explodes", goes Full Grimdark (tm)

[lobster-overlord]

And of course the Brets get crapped on once again...

Oh well, off to ebay with the lot. ;-)
John M>meant to be funny, not a hater...

[Mr Mystery]

If you're going to cry like a baby, how can you type at all?


Regardless, you're getting Squatted, like it or not. So best you eat a lot of fatty food, because GW doesn't use lube.

Unsubstantiated rumour - none of which makes any kind of sense. And flies in the face of stuff listed by a reliable source of rumours?

But by all means, you have your axe, so grind, grind away.

[Reldane]

I personally think that it is safe to say 9th ed will bring a lot of changes weather the rumors are true or not. I wouldn't imagine Games Workshop removing products that are already in plastic, although they might move more of them to direct only, I think the army books being rolled together is probably going to happen at this point to free up more time for other projects. being rolled into one book is going to hurt a lot of armies and people are going to feel hard done too, however I doubt any army will simply cease to be entirely but will be phased out slowly.

But I am not tempted to spend a penny on Warhammer until I know more of what is coming.

[Cap'nSmurfs]

Need more information. The rumours sound a bit more like a whole new game than "ninth edition" to me. But at the moment, they're just rumours. We'll see what things look like when we get credible information.

As for "GW getting its *** handed to it in the courtroom", that's a fun spin on what happened. GW weren't the ones who had their assets frozen by the courts. It does seem to have tightened up their operation, that's true, but let's not just start making stuff up, eh?

[Erik Setzer]

It kind of sounds like when they moved from Space Marine to Epic 40K, which was a whole new game rather than a new edition... and promptly sank that game system, which had been one of their "Big Three" systems. All it took was radically changing the rules, changing how armies were built, and even changing the bases that units were put on.

As for the court battle with Chapter House, I won't say they got their butts kicked so much, but yeah, it was basically a loss for them. CH and company can't produce models for any unit or anything that GW has a model for, but they can make add-ons or whatever to their heart's content, or even completely new stuff that uses a similar aesthetic. It's kind of funny that GW's trying to strip out rules for stuff that they don't make models for but that CH or someone else might have, because that shows that they know people buy the games and then get models to support playing the games, not the other way around.

[40kGamer]

It kind of sounds like when they moved from Space Marine to Epic 40K, which was a whole new game rather than a new edition... and promptly sank that game system, which had been one of their "Big Three" systems. All it took was radically changing the rules, changing how armies were built, and even changing the bases that units were put on.

But noone ever played Epic... Didn't you get the memo?

[Caitsidhe]

Unless someone at Games Workshop has woken up to smell the coffee, I expect a good deal of the rumors are true. If past performance is anything to judge by, the newest edition of Fantasy will redo the rules in a way which more or less requires you to buy all new stuff, have waves of books (most of which are empty calories) and be chock full of limited editions. The issue isn't really Games Workshop in the big picture scheme of things. The issue is a small cabal of people within that company that, unfortunately, hold all the power. Games Workshop isn't really a big deal. In context they are a tiny corporation. They are not in the big leagues. They are just the big league for a niche market.

In larger corporations, most of the crazy things they do would never have been tolerated, or an entire reshuffle would have happened with the first sign of falling sales. The bad news is Games Workshop can no longer afford to keep ignoring the obvious. Still, they are willfully ignorant. That cabal doesn't like to admit when they are wrong. So rather than address the root of the problem, they go for quick fixes, slap patches, and the blame game. Let's consider the rumors.

Let's say, they do strip down the initial release, cutting back the factions to a paltry half dozen. That fits the pattern. Why? Because it allows them to hurl countless more of these waste of space books at us like a monkey throwing poo at the zoo. It means they will get to, for minimal work, release an Arboria Elves book and then a Sea Elves Book or whatever name they can come up with that they can try to lock in as their own IP. I imagine on each race these garbage books which are mostly just pictures and regurgitated fluff could reach a dozen. Even if they do only five for each (not unreasonable) you are right back up to thirty or so factions (although the real difference between them is almost nothing). Minimal work to maximum profit. If you haven't noticed, it is BOOKS that Games Workshop is pumping out faster than anything else. That is because modern publishing on demand allows them to produce those books for pennies on the dollar and then sell them to the consumer for wicked ridiculous prices.

[GrauGeist]

As for "GW getting its *** handed to it in the courtroom", that's a fun spin on what happened. GW weren't the ones who had their assets frozen by the courts. It does seem to have tightened up their operation, that's true, but let's not just start making stuff up, eh?

Oh, I'm not making anything up. GW lost, and lost big.

GW's opening position was that everything that they had ever labeled, thought of, or otherwise used was completely protected as IP, with no room for alternate or related expression.

GW had a big wake up that the generic geometric shapes (e.g. chevrons), generic fantasy (e.g. Mantic), historical elements (e.g. Medieval heraldry), and common icons (e.g. skulls), nominative reference, etc. were all completely unprotected. GW lost on more counts than they won, and they lost where it mattered. By law, anyone could legally create unlicensed compatible and replacement parts as long as they were properly labeled. There is now legal precedent on the books that GW has to overcome if they are going to attempt another claim.

If GW hadn't lost, they wouldn't be making the whole slew of changes that we've seen since CHS. GW learned that the bulk of their Fantasy product was unprotected, and that's a problem for a company that only exists on the basis of its IP. That's why their Chief Counsel was fired.

Pretending that Chapterhouse was anything but a near-total loss for GW flies in the face of objective reality.

[Mr Mystery]

And in the real world, standard litigation practice. If you're gonna sue, sling as much mud as you can.

But don't let us keep you from your whine...sorry, grindstone.

Plus, CH stuff resolved a few weeks ago.....this Warhams stuff has been a long time in planning. But hey, what's reality go to do with anything?

[40kGamer]

That's why their Chief Counsel was fired.

Pretending that Chapterhouse was anything but a near-total loss for GW flies in the face of objective reality.

I missed that! Was there a press release or was it done quietly. Regardless, IMO they didn't remove enough of their 'problem'.