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I think the comment made about value really underlines why the hobby industry is less affected by macro economics. If you compare the cost of going to a movie it can run around $20 give or take for two hours of entertainment. The hobby industry, while having a greater up front cost, provides more than two hours of entertainment. Think about it. You spend X amount of $ on some figures, you get entertainment from assembling, painting, and using the product, and you get to repeatedly use the product. Once you have an army you can use it multiple times with no cost other than transportation to a place to game. When you compare this to one shot entertainment like going to the movies or a night out at the clubs etc... it really does have a greater value. A good friend of mine who owns a game store says that during times of economic strain, such as the recent gas crisis in the US, he actually sees an increase in sales for the very reasons I listed above. Vices such as drinking and gambling rarely see any disruption as a result of larger economic woes, and lets face it, for a lot of us this hobby is definitely a vice.

It is good to see that it looks like GW will weather this storm. Their games have been steadily improving and brought me back into the fold.