As you may or may not have noticed I've been conspicuous by my absence of late. This is entirely through events outside my control (a rather nasty ongoing illness, now thankfully resolved and a soon-to-be-completed office move). So for those one or two people with nothing better to do with their time than read the blog, I sincerely apologise!
One thing I have been able to do in my relatively incapacitated state is read the odd blog post by my fellow gamers. With time to read and ponder I've become aware of a rather disappointing trend, especially amongst fans of a certain now defunct* fantasy universe.
There seems to be a rising tide of reacting to the discontinuation of a favourite game system by the throwing hands in the air, refusing to ever play it again and moving on elsewhere. Presumably this means armies people have lovingly lavished time and effort on painting and then enjoyed playing with for years will now sit unused and gathering dust or even be sold off.
WHY, for goodness sake?!?**
Are we so dependent on being spoon fed by games companies that we cannot continue to enjoy something just because they stop selling it? And why the bitterness if they do? I can understand a certain level of disappointment but some of the material I've read makes me wonder how some of us are so willing to put our enjoyment in our hobby*** seemingly entirely in the hands of others.
If [insert company name here] stops making your favourite game then screw 'em. If you enjoy a game system then keep playing it and the rest of the world can go jump. Become the owner of your own hobby and enjoy yourself. Don't let someone else tell you how, when or where to have fun. YOU decide.
There, I've said it. Rant over :-)
Cheers,
Millsy
* only if you allow it to be!
** clearly not what I was really thinking.
*** NO, they do NOT own the HOBBY, just some IP, despite what they might think or say.
Well said Sir! I agree, and am already building myself up for inevitable next game they axe, which has a certain Tolkien-esque feel... I'll continue to play it afterwards no matter what...
ReplyDeleteTo play devils advocate though, I can see how the angst would affect the tournament player game set... with officially sanctioned/supported events now none existent, perhaps they feel somewhat ostracised now...?
Great rant Millsy! With most speech in the allmighty interwebs being escalated to a random shouting matches you really do seem to get a lot of these posts about giving up the whole hobby after the official support has died. I suspect most will just continue business as usual anyway. Though a lack of rules and books really will start to cut into available gaming buddies at some point. But I'd figure you should be able to find a decent fantasy game even outside of the corporate world and the one and only The Hobby(tm).
ReplyDeleteI've been encouraging people not to sell of their armies. There's so many rulesets to use. Including their favorite 'retired' version of the rules. The oldhammer movement is based on this. If you need new and shiney things, dragon rampant and 2nd ed kings of war may have some great promise as well.
ReplyDeleteYep. I agree. If you buy a rule book then you own a copy of that game. Your Copy = it's now your game. Corporation X is watching you play that game. They just created and published the rules. You buy it..you own it.
ReplyDeleteIt seems to be some sort of Brand hysteria. Plenty of company's make miniatures so the only thing you may ever need that is branded by X company is the rule book....then you go and modify yourself.
Cheers
I mean Corporation X is NOT watching you play.
DeleteWell said Millsy! :)
ReplyDeleteSorry to hear you've been ill, but glad to hear you are over it now :)
Here, here, Sir and now you've got that off your chest and whatever nastiness that was ailing you, back to painting please!
ReplyDeleteWell Said. And sorry to hear you've been ill.
ReplyDeleteFirst off, I'm happy to hear your ongoing illness is taking a turn for the better, Michael. Secondly, I agree wholeheartedly with your gaming trend assessment. Although I only game infrequently, I first saw this trend when WAB went to the 2.0 version, and soon afterwards when it officially "went away." I couldn't understand why some of my fellow gamers seemed so stuck on both events. I for one didn't care if we played 2.0 or earlier versions, in fact, I was happy with the previous versions supplements. In retrospect it seems like the ones most affected were those who were "rules lawyers" and into tournament/competition. Just my opinion, of course. :)
ReplyDeleteThat's a relief, I thought I would actually have to post something!
ReplyDeleteAs to the rant, well, we know what that company is up to, but those of us with old armies can just shrug it off and keep playing the rules we enjoy playing.
We liked the rules and the armies when we bought them, and recent developments (TM) haven't suddenly made them awful. My army's certainly not going anywhere! (And as it's STILL not completed, that may be more of a truism than I'm prepared to openly admit...)
Good one! I can only weigh in as a historical gamer. It seems my friends who play fantasy gutted over this because it splinters their hobby. Some are staying with 8th, some are going forward to AoS, some KoW and others quitting altogether for something new. That's at least a 4 way split. Here in the US, tournament operators are facing the same decision of where to go.
ReplyDeleteAs a historical gamer, the whole thing is appalling. If I paint Romans in 28mm, I can use them today, tomorrow and 25 years from now I expect. Rules come and go but the army always has a value and use. Its a sad day when WH player s"feel" like their army is obsolete. Having said all that, we are getting some of the fantasy players coming to historical gaming. Is that a silver lining?
I 'suppose some people live for the interaction of being part of a supported system with frequent new goodies etc. Its quite a mind shift from that to what you describe, but I whole heartedly agree its worth the effort!
ReplyDeleteWell said, Millsy. I can't add anything, but I think Monty L in particular makes some wise points, and speaks from my POV as an historical gamer. I wish people had more courage to experiment with rules sets and even, gosh darn it, try writing their own if they can't find a better set.
ReplyDeleteI hope you feel better soon.
MP
Yep, good call.. Never a bad thing to be able to use the grey matter and actually do some stuff for yourselves!
ReplyDelete