Age of Smegma

Pictured:  Your financial investment in GW.

Last March, we enacted an Embargo on Games Workshop.  This was our Spring of Discontent.  The club has a strong Anti-GW bent, 16 months later.  Today's long-winded and pompous rant speaks (for the first time) about the Wargate's stance on GW, why we have decided on this course of action, and where it has taken us.

In the beginning (for me), GW games were the holy grail of sci-fi / fantasy miniature gaming.  It was a graduation to GW from non-miniature table games such as Dungeons & Dragons.  I made this transition together with many of you that are with us today as Gatekeepers, and I'll treasure the memories of our adventures through the Imperium and the Old World forever.

It was truly a golden age...but 21+ years later, GW has become a three-headed monster that believes it is king of all gamers.  Now, one of those games / settings has literally been destroyed by the company itself.  This is completely unforgivable.

GW Sales Rep / Game Designer

The beginning of the end came early for us, but now even the fanbois that hated on us two years ago are starting to get the idea that GW is taking a huge piss on you.

I am happy to say that our club was one of the first ones I know of to move AWAY from GW.  it was painful, expensive and it drove some people to quit gaming, period.  We caught a lot of flak, but eventually everyone saw the light.

Seemingly happy to vindicate all we've done, GW publishes Age of Sigmar.  This isn't our game and I'm so glad we have no part of this.  Yet we're not the only ones in the community.  GW should see where we are now.  You have seen the insanity and resentment toward GW on the internet.  It's not just a couple of guys now, but this doesn't matter to the manufacturer of "the worlds' greatest miniatures".  No - they still have a lot of folks over the barrel.

Pictured:  Top Hedge Fund Shareholder of GW

GW Apologists are out there.  Of course you're going to want to defend your investment - we all used to love hearing stories about Space Marines and Witch Hunters.  The apologists' think that GW has some sort of master plan, and that it will all turn around.  This is all claimed while they watch the communities deteriorate or simply switch to a new game based on the level of investiture they have with GW products and the IP association - and that's why GW knows that they have you.  The apologists will buy everything until they wisen up.

We hear that the game is "so cool" but how many of these are shills, I'm not sure.  The one demo we watched of the new game featured guys having to invent rules because the ones in the box were stupid and didn't make sense.  Thanks for the broken piece of manure, GW.  Glad you've not gotten any of my money in a long time.

GW got rid of all the guys we grew up with.  Andy Chambers, Alessio Cavatore, Fat Bloke.  None of those guys really want to comment on GW's practices these days, but read the subtext of Tuomas Pirinen's view on the subject.  Tuomas was with us for a long time in the '90's and '00's, and left GW many years ago along with all the other good developers.

The general vibe seems to be that the hedge funds that run GW are insistent upon strategies that other toy companies use instead of the traditional "game company" model that has to actually provide a good product.  GW worked hard and made something of themselves, then they sold out.  Plain and simple.  And now the faceless financial institutions that are the primary shareholders have turned it into a toy company.  There are no more games.

Instead, they've replaced it with watered down and "simplified" versions of the game to appeal to milennials...and to an extent I understand this.  For us loyalists, however...it was very obvious that we'd been put on a treadmill of buying re-written textbooks that are only useful for about 1 season.  The expense to an individual is incredible, nevermind a collective like ours - and the necessity of owning the material to playing the game showed us that GW considered us to be literal cash cattle.  We were in a pen of our own devising - infatuation with GW's IP, which they have latched onto as the only thing that binds their customers to them.  So began a campaign by GW to tighten that grip.

The last straw came last year, when we realized that there is no justice and that they only want our money.  I had a similar experience with the U.S. Justice system.  Call me Mr. Disillusionment, and mail me some hate mail.

So, our final stance on GW is this:

We had thousands of dollars of GW models, both painted and unpainted.  There WILL be GW models featured on the website here, but mostly these are models that have been painted already or were bought and thrown into the Hoard.  These will be models that we have deemed usable in other milieu, and since we already own them there was an easy leap to make.  This mostly applies to old fantasy models, since the 40k models are so heavily IP'd they are completely worthless as anything but what they are.

No matter what models our members choose to paint, we do not support GW.  Our chapters can decide to promote whatever they like, and will probably continue to support GW - at least in the form of playing games, because we are making it possible for them to get what they need from the Hoard without giving GW a nickel more.  We will support our clubs in whatever they wish.

As for GW...we will not be mentioning them or naming their products - whether or not we choose to feature the models on the site.  For us, Attack Wing, X-Wing, Warmachine and Flames of War has taken the hallowed place in our gamer hearts that was once exclusively occupied by GW - and we're very happy.

It's like talking about an ex-girlfriend.  It was good for a while...but we were unhappy.  We had to break up with GW.

Yet, like Pirinen says - we have never had more choice.  And that's the crux of the matter.  When GW was good, they were the only kid on the block.  It's been a long time, honey.  We are never, ever getting back together.