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So i have been looking around the web a bit and talking with some local guys, and many feel that GW is circling the drain. Some say its not that big a deal, that they will be happy to be able to buy and army, and play the game with one final set of rules forever. Others say they will sell off everything they have and move on to greener, and more importantly, still in production pastures. Myself having only been playing warhammer 40k for 5 years would have to say if the game ended in the next 5 years I'd be more than a little disappointed. I personally would most likely keep my models, and with the game no longer being in production, try to amass more armies and continue playing the game with whom ever i could find that was still playing.

Another side thought is what do you think would fill the gap if GW closed its doors for good. I know with PC and Console games there arent many of us out there who like to build, paint, and push little plastic men around tables, and the majority of those of us that do play 40k (at least in my local gaming area).

So just some food for thought, how would you feel about games workshop closing for good, what would you do with your mini's, and what would you start to play in its absence.

 Agent Venom wrote:
So i have been looking around the web a bit and talking with some local guys, and many feel that GW is circling the drain.

People have been saying this for years and for years they've been wrong.

MarsNZ wrote:

 Agent Venom wrote:
So i have been looking around the web a bit and talking with some local guys, and many feel that GW is circling the drain.

People have been saying this for years and for years they've been wrong.

Well whether they are right or wrong I was just wondering what would you IF it did happen.

I'd probably would still play with them. Just cause they tank dont mean game dies with them. Heck I still play dead games with friends like the Naruto ccg and dbz ccg, I got rules and cards for yuyu hakusho game, the dot hack game. Granted 40k would take a backseat since it would no longer be updated but I would still keep my stuff that I've paid for, assembled, painted, and put son of myself into.

If GW tanked, people would likely 3D print GW models and there would be fanmade edition updates and so on. The game and hobby would live on without them.

 j31c3n wrote:
If GW tanked, people would likely 3D print GW models and there would be fanmade edition updates and so on. The game and hobby would live on without them.

You really think so? Do you think that another company would purchase the rights to 40k and keep it rolling? That was my first thought when speaking with a buddy the other day. That someone else would buy it up and we'd continue to see 40k just from a different company.

Fix up a display with gaps for the bases then put them in a glass case. Too much work put into them really. Other wise maybe just use them for another game eventually.

40k is too big of an IP to just let go. If GW were to tank, someone would buy them out in an instant.

Agreed. The IP is too valuable to just give up.

D&D didnt just die when it switched owners from TSR to WotC.

 Agent Venom wrote:

 j31c3n wrote:
If GW tanked, people would likely 3D print GW models and there would be fanmade edition updates and so on. The game and hobby would live on without them.

You really think so? Do you think that another company would purchase the rights to 40k and keep it rolling? That was my first thought when speaking with a buddy the other day. That someone else would buy it up and we'd continue to see 40k just from a different company.

There are a lot of dead IPs that function in this way. Look at the former IPs of Parallax/Volition.

If GW closed I would imagine a lot of people panicking and looking to lay blame. Some would dump their models on ebay and others would buy up everything they could. After the initial panic, the gaming communities around the globe would start to migrate back to their favorite edition and play for a while. Over time the game groups would get smaller or leave for other games.

Whether another company would purchase the IP is unknown. We don't know if all of the rights could be transferred cleanly to a new buyer. GW can't even prove they own all the copyrights they claim. So 40k could languish in limbo long enough to lose its value. Miracleman/Marvelman is a great example of unclear rights. Took a messy lawsuit to figure that one out. DC Heroes Rpg is another no one knows you really owns the rights to it so it stays in limbo.

40k is already pretty dead to me, so it makes no difference. I still have them, I still paint GW models occasionally (from old stock I have around), and my friends get some use out of them in Only War/Dark Heresy. Now I play other games like X Wing and DzC, but mostly I play Epic: Armageddon.

The reason I bring this up is because E:A is a great template for what could happen when GW dies. They stopped supporting E:A game or selling models many years ago, and yet people still play it. The rules are maintained by the community, and other people and companies make models. Aside from the rarity (and therefore price) of second-hand models, Epic is honestly better off for GW having abandoned it when they did. The rules were still in good shape and there was an official community established to support it. GW's "churn" on 40k and Fantasy rules never actually improves anything, just makes the game different for the sake of selling new books and models, generally with the side effect of making things more bloated. It's better that the rules for Epic: Armageddon were more or less frozen when they were, allowing the community to tweak and streamline since then, and add fan-made army lists.

Back to the topic, 40k has a popular aesthetic and a robust second-hand market. Models will be available for a very long time, and at cheaper than GW prices if no one is protecting the IP. The main problem with 40k is that when it dies (not if, nothing is forever) the rules are in such an abysmal state that I don't think they will stay unified for long. Once they're "open source", so to speak, they'll be forked dozens of times by people trying to prune them and correct all the myriad issues with the game. What's left of the player base will probably be hopelessly fragmented. But, if all you want to do is get games in with your friends, you'll probably have lots of options to pick from in terms of "patched" versions of the game (fandexes and patched rulesets certainly exist now, but I predict they'll be much more prominent and popular once official support stops).

So I guess my answer is it doesn't matter if GW tanks or becomes wildly successful. My models mostly stay on the shelf because I like them and don't want to get rid of them. I'm open to third party skirmish games or fan-made rulesets that could make use of them, as I imagine most people would be if GW tanked - the game would likely live on in a diminished but improved form.

I'd still play. I enjoy playing 40k and have too much love invested in my armies to chuck them just because GW folds.
Would probably go back and play earlier editions like 2nd and 3rd and create some new home brew rules myself.

j31c3n wrote:If GW tanked, people would likely 3D print GW models and there would be fanmade edition updates and so on. The game and hobby would live on without them.

The hobby would of course live on. The game? I think it would survive in the same way a legless undead zombie corpse slowly dragging itself across the ground "lives on".

Robisagg wrote:40k is too big of an IP to just let go. If GW were to tank, someone would buy them out in an instant.

I wouldn't count on it. 40k is a fething mess these days I'm not sure someone would want to put in the effort to fix it and while it's the biggest wargame, it's still small potatoes compared to something like a video game or movie IP (which is partly why GW is so stupid for not capitalising on the success of the DoW games).

Not saying it wouldn't be picked up.... but I wouldn't be counting on it.

Even without GW you can still play WH40k. Why not? Without constant new models and codecies I think fans willl be able to make som sort of coherent rules with them.

I would get a loan out and buy so many models at a 10th of the price that GW and panicked gamers are selling for the next couple of years. Then, after owning an entire storage garage full of models for only 2 or 3 grand, I would carry on playing the game at whatever local gaming club there is.
Then in 40 years time if GW hasn't been bought out and restarted, and the 3D printing never reached the right quality, I would sell them all at a massive profit and retire to the South of France, probably somewhere near Sete, Meze or Marseillan, but a few miles out from the seaside towns, most likely one of the villages, where the old men's game of boules takes precedent over traffic, and the local vinyards wine is cheaper than Morrisons Own Blackcurrent.
I would of course have to open a bar of my own to demonstrate to the French how to pour a pint - all french barmen I've ever met (majority of southern europeans as well for that matter), believe a perfect pint consists of 1/2 beer and 1/2 head. It would be an english bar to benefit from the large British tourism to the Languedoc in the Easter and Summer holidays (not to the same scale as Provence of course, but that area may as well just be called The British Netherlands at that time of year). There would be no need to worry about the British larger louts that haunt the British bars of the south of Spain and Mediterranean islands, as life in the south of France is so slow and relaxed that British larger louts can't cope and would fall asleep in a drunken stupor before their pint arrives. Of course my bar would introduce the concept of a pint though rather than a demi-litre or formidA(h)ble, as you feel very silly asking for a formidable drink (it means the same in french!).
Living in the Languedoc and owning a bar means regular day trips to the Spanish border for even cheaper beer and cigarettes (no need for wine obviously), which would lead to us stopping off at such beautiful places on the way such as Carcassone or Perpignan, or maybe spend an extra day to go slightly out of our way for a visit to Toulouse.
It would be such an amazing life.

I'd eat them.

Being that I've just started playing and haven't even come close to a 'completed' army, I would be very disappointed and curse my luck again. I would buy as much Space Wolves/CSM/Chaos Daemons that I could, though.

That said, I would hope someone got the IP, like maybe Mantic (just with better equipment to produce minis).

I'd cry.

I'd just keep playing. I'd help create fan-made rules sets. I'd personally release a "revised" rules set for the core rules with a comprehensive rules set to back it up to make sure there'd be nothing that could happen in a game that wasn't covered by the rules (similar to the Magic Comprehensive rules).

If GW tanked?

I'd play a ton of skirmish games with 2nd edition, and large games with 4th or 5th. I have nearly all the printed material up through 4th edition, and about six 1500+ armies. Why the hell would I abandon all that?

The reason I bring this up is because E:A is a great template for what could happen when GW dies. They stopped supporting E:A game or selling models many years ago, and yet people still play it. The rules are maintained by the community, and other people and companies make models. Aside from the rarity (and therefore price) of second-hand models, Epic is honestly better off for GW having abandoned it when they did. The rules were still in good shape and there was an official community established to support it. GW's "churn" on 40k and Fantasy rules never actually improves anything, just makes the game different for the sake of selling new books and models, generally with the side effect of making things more bloated. It's better that the rules for Epic: Armageddon were more or less frozen when they were, allowing the community to tweak and streamline since then, and add fan-made army lists.

100% true.

I would hold onto my miniatures because an IP like Warhammer would get bought out by WoTC in about three and a half minutes. ..maybe even four.

Id play whatever rules Fantasy Flight came out with for 40k. Because I'd bet any money that's how GW would let go of the IP-FF would get it.

I'm making a diorama anyways so I'd keep all of them. I'd also keep whatever current books I had in case I came across someone to play with again. I've kept my DnD stuff and my MtG cards because the next game might be just around the corner.

Just keep playing normally? That's what I did with BFG and Epic after GW stopped supporting them. And with 40k, there would be a huge pool of existing models to eBay.

LunaWolvesLoyalist wrote:
I would hold onto my miniatures because an IP like Warhammer would get bought out by WoTC in about three and a half minutes. ..maybe even four.

my thoughts as well.

 Blacksails wrote:
I'd eat them.

Passing them would be painful.

 Crimson Devil wrote:

 Blacksails wrote:
I'd eat them.

Passing them would be painful.

Whoa, come now, do you think I'd just eat them whole, like some kind of barbarian?

No no no, I'd prepare them in a nice sauce, then ensure they're cut down to reasonable sizes. I'd wash them down with a nice Cab Sauv.

Okay, on a serious note, I'd keep my models, seeing as they aren't GW to begin with, and use them with another 28mm sci-fi system. Worst case ontario, I paint them up pretty and never play with them. Such is life. I have a bunch of BFG models that have only seen table time once or twice, but I'll be damned if they don't follow me around everywhere across this country.

If GW tanked, I feel that a better alternative to playing 40k would be to take a supported game and port 40k units into that system. That way you get to use your models in the universe you know, but with a supported ruleset and active community that will more than likely contain a fair number of ex-40k players willing to help with a conversion project.

Keep playing and hopefully pick up more models at a discount for the next few years before demand raises the prices so much higher than gw ever could.

For all the griping about gws "outrageous" prices; 2-3 years after they tank(not that they are likely to, half the people i hear complaining about the prices still have all the new models shown in the painting/modelling sub) you won't be able to get a tac squad for less that $100usd(unless it is 3d printed, then it'll be $50-$75)

If and when GW goes under 40k won't disappear. The IP is too valuable, it will get purchased by someone.