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My club had five members in it at the start of 8th, one of them left in dispair to GK sucking, and the other three threw in the towel just prior to FAQ2 when they burned out on metachasing.

I will be joining a different club in the near future, but my FLGS is basically dead outside of three or four people who show up for Kill Teams.

PuppetSoul wrote:
My club had five members in it at the start of 8th, one of them left in dispair to GK sucking, and the other three threw in the towel just prior to FAQ2 when they burned out on metachasing.

Flavor of the month is a problem, especially as it seems tied directly to selling whatever new models GW is pushing. I am paradoxically happy that GW is regularly releasing FAQs and CA and hold out hope that it will contribute to the long term health of the game, even if it invariably fails to address their bias towards newer and shinier models.

 Arth-Rytis wrote:
To those that have witnessed a change in your local community, what elements of 8th edition do you suspect is the cause of the increased or decreased popularity?

From my core group:
1 plays Grey knights. He played 1 index game on release day. Hasn't played again. Refuses to start a second army, or play anyone else's spare army for free.
1 Nids guy quit in 7th. All of his complaints and wish lists were answered in 8th. Never played a single 8th game.
3 moved.
1 made babies, like an idiot and can only play at his house, on Saturday nights, after 9pm.
1 got a promotion and is only off work every third tuesday from 4 am to 4:15 am.
1 quit 6 months ago, but is back in full swing as a result of Ork codex.
1 went to prison for soliciting underage girls. He played Tau. Not sure if there's a correlation. (I'm not even kidding. Dude's in jail.)

The gaming store as a whole:
Most of the people either moved away or became too busy with families and work. Kill team brought a lot of people back, but it's still slim pickings.

The local community here is active, though not as active as when 8th launched (which I think is a pretty common occurence). However, this area has never been a tournament or even area and continues to not run any. The community here suffers from zero stores (outside of a poorly placed GW store). There is no common meeting ground.

Lots of players, many small groups.

My personal group is narrative/campaign aimed and we play lots of games, not just 40K. We also modify 40K to make it more enjoyable in the way we want to play. It's the advantage of playing 8th and not being beholden to tournaments or events.

My local store came under new management a little over two years ago and there has been vast improvement.

There's a pretty strong 40k and Sigmar community, multiple games being played every week, etc.

I've recently gotten one new player into 40k with Tyranids. He happens to also be a member of the stores Magic the Gathering crowd and as a result of him getting into the game, about 6 more Magic players have all jumped on-board the 40k train to varying degrees. I'm trying to serve as a reference for them, helping them with lore, background, suggesting units to look at and ultimately choose to purchase if they wish to do so, etc.

All of them are very much into it, and playing a few games a week on average. It's bee a lot of fun and re-invigorated my interest in the game. I'm going to be hosting a small fun tournament for the newer players at the store in early December as a welcome to 40k event. Also, for any interested, we have quite a spread of armies purchased;
Two different Tyranid players, one of which who has opted to also build a smallish starter Thousand Sons force, one Ad-Mech, one Necron, one Eldar, one Dark Angels, and one Death Guard player.

They're learning how to paint, which I'm helping them with as well, and generally have jumped in with both feet. Sufficient to say, I'm excited to have them be a part of the local 40k community. I think the ease of entry for them has been the start collecting boxes, coupled with the free, much simpler, core rules. It really made showing them the game and explaining how it works much easier compared to editions past.

Just figured I'd offer my experience. Personally, 8th edition is the best place 40k has been in a while rules wise. There are still issues and problems, but nothing is perfect.

Take it easy.

-Red__Thirst-

My local store completely died in 7th edition but that was because the only employee there who knew anything about 40K left so there wasn't anyone who even had an idea of how much product to buy on new releases let alone host events. 8th did nothing to rejuvenate. I still go there primarily to buy things and for other events (mostly card games) and I think I have seen people playing 40K once since 8th edition released. It's a shame becasue the last event that was run in 7th edition filled up with a lot of really nice people.

My close second store (technically in a different city but it's about the same drive time from where I live) has had a massive surge of popularity since 8th edition started. They would normally get 8-10 players for a tournament there and now they are sold out at pre-registration so as a popularity thing goes it has definitely been a boon but the player base is different. I went to a tournament there late in 7th edition and I had a really good time. Only one person got salty about a their loss and I made a bunch of new friends. Fast forward a year to 8th edition and I played again and everybody just seemed really try-hardy. I only had one good game the entire day and the atmosphere in the room was basically that almost no one was having fun. I know that's not true of the global warhammer community because I also played at Adepticon last year and everyone I played against there was good sports and we laughed together and despaired in each others bad luck, but in my local community the attitude change with 8th has really pushed me out of events.

I generally only play 40K now when my friends want to. If I am going to pick something to play it will either be AoS or Star Wars Legion. It's really bummed me out because I grew up on 40K and really want to like it but between the local communities and the rules starting to bore me I'm afraid I will probably just be moving on until there is a big overhaul of something to spice the game up for me.

Massive resurgence, levelling off a bit now, but with a harcore of about 20-30 players. Good times.

I've been in 40k for c. 20 years, and I love 8th edition. Massive increase in players in St Louis, new players show up at our local shop every month. Within my personal gaming circle, everyone has started at least one new army with the arrival of 8th, and no one has quit. A couple who quit in 6th/7th are back too.

Personally me and my brother who have been playing since early 4th ed hate 8th. I mean, yes the rules needed simplifying but personally I think they took it too far. The upgrades are gone, or at least diminished, a lot of my favorite units (like an actual space marine chapter master with orbital bombardment) are gone and although simple rules do speed things up there are some things like the new combat rules and moral that goes with it which just seem to have became childishly simple. don't get me wrong. Its certainly good to see new players coming in and all, but me and my friends will be sticking with 6th or 7th ed for now. The new models seem to follow the same trend too, there's very little customization on a lot of them such as the new sisters of silence.

8th was fairly popular with my group when it first came out. The indexes were a bit bland but fairly balance and there was something nice about having a ton of bloat gone from the game. Since then a lot of that has faded and a lot of veteran players have actually switched backed to 7th. One thing that I hear as a common complaint is that GW being more involved but not really fixing things just having knee jerk reactions every few months. I think a lot of what is holding the game back is still being bound to physical books and semi yearly updates. A living rule set needs to be more dynamic than that.

The FLGS where I used to live lost most of it's 40k audience when 7th edition hit. It was too soon after 6th edition and a lot of players boycotted.

I go there every other month. From what I can tell, 40k has picked up quite a bit. A lot of people have been buying specialist games but no one seems to be playing them at the store.

My usual group is playing less now but that's because the host has a baby. The Tyranid player stopped because 'the codex lacks flavour'.
I'm playing more but not because I prefer the rules. While I like some of the changes, in general I prefer 7th, providing certain things are not used. I.e. formations. I'm playing more because I'm forcing myself to find other groups and meet more people.

My community is thriving. I brought some new players in who have within the span of the past year gone from zero to fully competitive/optimized 2k point lists. Everyone keeps up with the latest releases and the tournament scene and the big faqs and meta shifts. It's all been very engrossing among my group and I continue to meet new people who have the same experience. The nature of the hobby and the slow and steady progress of building up a collection works well with people's busy schedules. Meeting up to play some KT or even just a regular 2k game always feels like a special event and always ends up being memorable.

We've had a huge upswing in both number of players and games being played. Our store's quarterly 1-day events went as low as 12 players in 7th and I think on a couple of occasions had to be cancelled for lack of interest. In 8th it's selling out 40 places, with a waiting list.

We've run one 2-dayer and another is in the works, which is already outselling the first one. The store had given up on 2 dayers in 7th because they weren't worth doing.

A huge, positive upswing all told.