Trasvi wrote:Of course their opinion is important! The 'outsiders with no real knowledge' are the new incoming customers. If they feel turned off by the price,
GW loses a potential customer. The game and price point has to make sense to a larger number of new people than it currently does.
Of course, price matters; at some point, even real fans can't afford product, and that excludes customers. And when selecting a new hobby, the general price range (or perceived spend) does matter. But I think there is a legitimate debate to be had about whether, if price were removed as a primary barrier (for instance, if the prices were 1990 prices adjusted for inflation), whether the number of young hobbyists (wargamers and modelers) would dramatically increase.
I'm not so sure. There's a lot of other things to occupy their time, and I really haven't met that many young people who are interested in building a model,
regardless of price. They'd just rather play
CoD, WoW, Neverwinter, Marvel Heroes, etc. In the hobby/gaming shop side of things, more
MtG and Yu-Gi-Oh than anything. At a very minimum, compared to 1990, there are more things that someone who is 10-16 can choose to occupy their time with today.