Alright, engage rant.
I am so f***ing sick of hearing people trot out the same c**p. You can't go a day without someone b****ing about how X army is broken or Y army hasn't been updated in years or the whole game is completely useless and not playable (though the fact that the vast majority of gamers play this game would suggest it is). It's not balanced, it doesn't match the fluff, it's not designed for tournaments, there aren't enough FAQs, it's not playtested or it's not realistic.
Shut up! Enough already. We live in the age of the internet. You can open your computer, tap a keyboard, leave a semi-coherent thought on a forum and engage with someone all the way on the other side of the world. The beauty of this is that we are able to engage with people who share our passions and interests that we may never have known even existed otherwise.
What's my point? Am I just going to b***h about b****ing? No. What I am going to do is offer a solution. The other day on Faeit212, there was a response from GW about round bases in WHFB. The gist of the response was "we have your money, do whatever you want with the models". Now, obviously they mean in the sense of basing them however we want. BUT, the next day, Mantic came out and said "hey, you've got a sweet Fantasy army, why not play it using our rules?"
This begs the question: why don't we just come up with our own rules? I'll admit guilt here. I, like most of you, am too busy and too lazy to write my own rules system. But I'm also big enough to admit that I'm in no way qualified or gifted enough to write an all encompassing and coherent rule set for a game. But I remember before Forgeworld released Legion rules and the Horus Heresy supplement, BoLS did it first. Sadly, I never got the chance to play it, but by all accounts it was a heap of fun. Surely one of us, or a select group of us are interested and skilled enough to do this. Call it Fight-Weapon 40million and put it out there. Make a dedicated forum and when people pi$$ and moan on it, ask them why they don't like it and try to find a way to fix it.
At the end of the day, GW want to be just a model company, they're not interested in creating a rule set that accurately reflects the game while also being a truly balanced and competition ready game. That's fine. Let's take that in our stride and get cracking on a sweet new game that lets us use some of the best miniatures available in a game that satisfies our urge to beat face.
Fluff bunnies can stick to 40k official, and even the hardcores will still play it for funsies from time to time.
It's just a thought. Any ideas?
End rant.