Tuesday, June 11, 2013
Eldar Review: Part 1, The Eldar Warhost
This should be short and sweet. There aren't a ton of rules that the Eldar have for army-wide and the rules aren't that complicated. Which I wish I could say about Daemons but nonetheless here we are. Let's get started:
Monday, June 10, 2013
Been disappointed lately
Been spending a lot of time on modelling and trying to learn how to sculpt green stuff. I've been putting off reading the Eldar codex because of one thing and one thing only:
$115
That's the price in USD for the Eldar Wraithknight. The advertising campaign for it had the line, "And you thought the Riptide was big". For some reason reading that just shocked my system. It made my shake my head in...disgust. Really. I've spent a lot of money on this hobby. As a lot of the readers and other members of the hobby have. This number though bothers me. It made me realize that first and foremost GW is a company but more than that it's a company that actively ignores and dislikes its fans. I stress that last part: GW actively dislikes fans. Why? Well a few reason, fans like the books and like the fluff but they don't like blowing tons of money on new minis. So instead of making cheaper minis (as if their shit-tier quality is something that we should pay for) they've instead decided to make utterly OP models and charge you a ransom for them. Want to win tourneys? $115. Want to play the best unit? $115. Want to play 3? $345.
What I'm getting at is that GW has completely lost touch with new and old players alike. We like new things. We like new toys and we can all figure out how much they actually cost to make and how much you're marking things up. So, in essence, the fans know how much they are being robbed. In turn, GW has decided to see how much they can rob us and how quickly they can do it before we realize. Well, $115 made me realize. I feel like an idiot but that's what did it. I understand this hobby can be expensive. I understand that paints, bases, extra bits, dozens of models etc. can be expensive. But when I can look at a competitor like Flames of War or even after-market specialists like Scribor and see them making better products for less. You can get a whole army for less than $500. Name a GW army you can do that with without getting used. That kind of entry price is deterring new users and old users from starting into the hobby.
I think what I really want my readers to take away from this rant is this: GW is doing something wrong to it's fans. I understand it costs money to run a business, I'm no idiot, but markups at this level with a quality this low and growth and change in the game almost non-existent (other than to make new books automatically better) does not a hobby make. I'm done buying GW for a long time. I will only buy used from Ebay if that. I haven't bought a single new model or bit in over a year and I don't plan on changing that until GW changes it's absolutely stupendous price-gouging. We can wait GW out. GW can't wait out its fans.
And with that...I'll review the Eldar codex.
$115
That's the price in USD for the Eldar Wraithknight. The advertising campaign for it had the line, "And you thought the Riptide was big". For some reason reading that just shocked my system. It made my shake my head in...disgust. Really. I've spent a lot of money on this hobby. As a lot of the readers and other members of the hobby have. This number though bothers me. It made me realize that first and foremost GW is a company but more than that it's a company that actively ignores and dislikes its fans. I stress that last part: GW actively dislikes fans. Why? Well a few reason, fans like the books and like the fluff but they don't like blowing tons of money on new minis. So instead of making cheaper minis (as if their shit-tier quality is something that we should pay for) they've instead decided to make utterly OP models and charge you a ransom for them. Want to win tourneys? $115. Want to play the best unit? $115. Want to play 3? $345.
What I'm getting at is that GW has completely lost touch with new and old players alike. We like new things. We like new toys and we can all figure out how much they actually cost to make and how much you're marking things up. So, in essence, the fans know how much they are being robbed. In turn, GW has decided to see how much they can rob us and how quickly they can do it before we realize. Well, $115 made me realize. I feel like an idiot but that's what did it. I understand this hobby can be expensive. I understand that paints, bases, extra bits, dozens of models etc. can be expensive. But when I can look at a competitor like Flames of War or even after-market specialists like Scribor and see them making better products for less. You can get a whole army for less than $500. Name a GW army you can do that with without getting used. That kind of entry price is deterring new users and old users from starting into the hobby.
I think what I really want my readers to take away from this rant is this: GW is doing something wrong to it's fans. I understand it costs money to run a business, I'm no idiot, but markups at this level with a quality this low and growth and change in the game almost non-existent (other than to make new books automatically better) does not a hobby make. I'm done buying GW for a long time. I will only buy used from Ebay if that. I haven't bought a single new model or bit in over a year and I don't plan on changing that until GW changes it's absolutely stupendous price-gouging. We can wait GW out. GW can't wait out its fans.
And with that...I'll review the Eldar codex.
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