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See I always say I am going to stop going to GW and start using counts-as from a 3rd party for my models, until I learn that I can't put my army on a table at a GW store/event ever again. So it's their house, their rules. I'm a married man with a family, and I still find the ability to save up 10-15 dollars a week and at the end of the month buy myself a new pack/model/book.

The problem tends to be the comparisons used.

Mantic is climbing the ladder more and more, but as their quality increases, so does their price.
Their cheaper stuff tends to be old and it reflects heavily in the sculpts.

Mierce, infinity, warmahordes etc are all around the same (usually higher for mierce) in price.

Sometimes you take a big hit in quality just for cheap miniatures.

On the flip side, you have companies like shieldwolf that are beginning to pick up really well while keeping prices down.


On character prices specifically - yes, they are expensive and always have had a sort of premium on them to reflect lower sales.
You’d notice this with more elite units too like the old empire greatswords.

FW is a different beast entirely.
You can see the dramatic price hikes just by scrolling through their character series.
Is it a justified and reasonable price? Hardly.
Is it something people will buy? Of course.

The character series also give a giant whacky base with stuff and the characters are more dynamic (overall).

 kirotheavenger wrote:
GW may not have a total monopoly, but there aren't many other fish in the pond and they're pretty small in comparison.
GW also has one of the most loyal fan bases I have ever seen. People seem to get personally offended if you say other games or companies are better.

I.e see above in the reply to my post. People are in the proverbial Egyptian river if they don’t think GW has a stranglehold on the uk market and other companies might as well not exist. They can give all the snark they want, doesn’t change the fact that GW=wargaming to the public at large.

The issue is what's the alternative. If plastic character kits are uneconomical to make for a lower price point, and the market stopped paying the current rate, what would happen? GW would make less of them, or they'd stay in resin. Personally I'd rather pay the premium and hopefully live to see the wide range of plastic characters some factions get - Marines, Death Guard, Necrons, GSC - expanded to others like IG and Eldar.

I think GW models are worth the money, and understand about characters costing more, it's just that I don't always have the money, or I would rather get more for it, so I have been buying mostly other minis to 'count as'.

I get that I won't be able to take them to a Warhammer World tournament which is a shame - and i am looking at how to do an official army cheaply sometime - but will I be okay at other tournaments in the uk, assuming my stuff clear enough and wysiwyg? Guess every tourney is different, just looking for a general idea.

Off-topic, sorry: what's the tourney scene in the UK like these days? can't seem to find out much, probs due to whats goin on in the world. Guess it will take a while to get going again, plenty of time to paint

 Grimtuff wrote:

 kirotheavenger wrote:
GW may not have a total monopoly, but there aren't many other fish in the pond and they're pretty small in comparison.
GW also has one of the most loyal fan bases I have ever seen. People seem to get personally offended if you say other games or companies are better.

I.e see above in the reply to my post. People are in the proverbial Egyptian river if they don’t think GW has a stranglehold on the uk market and other companies might as well not exist. They can give all the snark they want, doesn’t change the fact that GW=wargaming to the public at large.

If you're going to reference me in a post, at least have the decency to quote. I said dominant, but in no way a stranglehold. If that was the case, why can i walk into a store and find numrous other games and models from other developers? Doesn't sound much like a monopoly to me. Yes, GW will be at the forefront, like Apple for phones etc, etc. And them being "the face" of wargaming comes more from actually putting money into making it so. Partworks with tv ads, magazine and social media ads, the stores yadda yadda. That's just using years of experience to push themselves to the front.

I havent bought a single character from GW in ages, unless you count a Hive Tyrant, which is really more of a monster model with a bunch of options.

There's also the cron characters from Indomitus, but since they were part of a big box set they're super cheap.

Never said you can’t. Maybe you need to read up on what “de facto” means if you’re going to be petty...

De facto generally means 'not really'.

There's 4 gaming groups in my city, each with at least a dozen 40k players, some of them several dozen.
I'm lucky if I can find 4 people willing to play something that isn't 40k or AoS.
The disparity in numbers is immense.

The "networking effect" is very real. If I felt I had the choice, I'd have walked away from 40k years ago and played other games. But all too often the choice is 40k or nothing. And 40k is still better than nothing.

I usually do my characters just by making a special guy from a regular infantry kit, because char models are just way too expensive.

I know why, intuitively, since they have to cover the mold cost and while someone might buy like 4 boxes of intercessors will only ever buy 1 captain, but like its still too much for a single infantry model.

 Grimtuff wrote:

 kirotheavenger wrote:
GW may not have a total monopoly, but there aren't many other fish in the pond and they're pretty small in comparison.
GW also has one of the most loyal fan bases I have ever seen. People seem to get personally offended if you say other games or companies are better.

I.e see above in the reply to my post. People are in the proverbial Egyptian river if they don’t think GW has a stranglehold on the uk market and other companies might as well not exist. They can give all the snark they want, doesn’t change the fact that GW=wargaming to the public at large.

At least in America, unless you're in a small town, I dont think that's true. At the very least, apart from the 1 GW branded store, my local games stores almost always have some other stuff going on, even on "40k Night". I usually see Infinity being played concurrently with 40k, and they have about as much shelf space dedicated to Flames of War and Bolt Action as they have dedicated to 40k.

soviet13 wrote:
De facto generally means 'not really'.

Unless you are being ironic, it’s the opposite from what you think. De facto means “in reality.” It contrasts with de jure. De jure could be taken as “officially, but not really.”

But anyway.

Characters are expensive.

There's always been a premium, but it used to be much lower. Back in the 90s, a character was generally twice the price of a normal model from the same range, not the 5x-10x the price they now run.

A significant premium is fine for a kit with a lot of options - the CSM terminator lord/sorceror, for example - but it's downright exploitative on the monopose, mono-loadout junk that makes up a lot of their recent releases.

 Inquisitor Lord Katherine wrote:


At least in America, unless you're in a small town, I dont think that's true. At the very least, apart from the 1 GW branded store, my local games stores almost always have some other stuff going on, even on "40k Night". I usually see Infinity being played concurrently with 40k, and they have about as much shelf space dedicated to Flames of War and Bolt Action as they have dedicated to 40k.

I went into my FLGS yesterday and they had wall to wall Bolt Action. Neat looking stuff but their GW stuff was down to a couple of Primaris/Centurion/Scout boxes, a stack of Bloodbowl stuff and one box of legit WHFB High Elves cavalry.

I don't mind paying the prices of some kits, like the Chimera is the same price as a 1:32 scale Stryker, a Russ the same as a KV-2 etc but the prices they want for characters? Newp.

Obviously GW charge a premium, they are a business, but like all businesses if you price yourself out of the market the market will go elsewhere. Maybe they don't care that a couple lf sales are beimg missed but hopefully if enough people vote with their wallets then even the GW models or no play" wont be able to save them.

Yeah the prices are insane, GW is the enemy of free people everywhere. Obviously that is a joke.

All we can do is vote with the wallet, if enough people say enough, they will have to look at their prices.

If they stubbornly cling to rise rise rise then go out of business I'm sure we'll be told how it was all our fault because we didn't just buy buy buy.

I want the hobby to stay strong but it can only go so far before they price out new entrants, the current base moves away from it and even the whales have no one to crush tossing money at it.

I hope they will eventually reach that ceiling and dial it down, so far, hasn't happened yet.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:

And thanks to capitalism, that cost/sale ratio outcome is passed on to us, the consumer.

It's not thanks to capitalism the price is so high, it's thanks to the monopoly GW holds on their products (AoS and 40k for example) to set the price with no alternatives and has been supported by the community that allows them to set the price so high. The difference being that a capitalist system creates the environment for businesses to be created and products distrubuted by private (not state) entities. Monopolies are companies that hold such a stranglehold over a certain product or services that there is no other alternative (Microsoft in the 1990's).You want lower prices? Stop buying the models for a while. Vote with your wallet. It's worth note that monopolies are illegal in at least the US and EU. GW maintains their monopoly by forcing you to use their models in their sanctioned tournaments by requiring your army models to be a certain percentage (75?) of the official model for the unit. The Chapterhouse lawsuit was a big win for the wargaming community, it just didn't go far enough. Giving a company the ability to make compatible parts for GW kits does you no good if GW then says you can't use them in sanctioned play.

Capitalism
"an economic system characterized by private or corporate ownership of capital goods, by investments that are determined by private decision, and by prices, production, and the distribution of goods that are determined mainly by competition in a free market"
Mirriam-Webster Dictionary.

Monopoly
"1) exclusive ownership through legal privilege, command of supply, or concerted action"
"3) a commodity controlled by one party "
Mirriam-Webster Dictionary

*Edited for clarity*

There comes a time when a company becomes that well known that their products are no longer just seen as gaming pieces.

Most of GW's character models are now seen as collectables in their own right.

Once out of production some pieces can sell for a wealthy premium over what they sold for as new.

Then again many pieces on the seconds market have suffered from play or been abused, so if you want a piece badly enough you would somehow find a way of obtaining one from new.

My personal collecting tastes have taken me far away from the modern GW world into vintage pieces and smaller company's products. Things that really fire the imagination. Not things that everybody else plays with because they are the only miniatures sold in town.

crazysaneman wrote:
It's not thanks to capitalism the price is so high, it's thanks to the monopoly GW holds on their products (AoS and 40k for example) to set the price with no alternatives and has been supported by the community that allows them to set the price so high. The difference being that a capitalist system creates the environment for businesses to be created and products distrubuted by private (not state) entities. Monopolies are companies that hold such a stranglehold over a certain product or services that there is no other alternative (Microsoft in the 1990's).You want lower prices? Stop buying the models for a while. Vote with your wallet. It's worth note that monopolies are illegal in at least the US and EU. GW maintains their monopoly by forcing you to use their models in their sanctioned tournaments by requiring your army models to be a certain percentage (75?) of the official model for the unit. The Chapterhouse lawsuit was a big win for the wargaming community, it just didn't go far enough. Giving a company the ability to make compatible parts for GW kits does you no good if GW then says you can't use them in sanctioned play.

"If I want to play 40k in a GW store I have to buy 40k models from GW" isn't a monopoly.
40k is a game. You don't have to play it.
GW don't have a monopoly on games.
GW don't have a monopoly on plastic models.

They just have a product where demand exceeds supply, so they can push the price up until the market ceases to clear.

 kirotheavenger wrote:
GW may not have a total monopoly, but there aren't many other fish in the pond and they're pretty small in comparison.
GW also has one of the most loyal fan bases I have ever seen. People seem to get personally offended if you say other games or companies are better.

thats because in my experiance people tend to push agaisnt GW when the people don't wanna hear it. often because they feel they HAVE to convince others that "40k sux!" to get them to play their game. thus you tend to have an enviroment where someone comes into a 40k community and immediatly starts telling them the game they wanna play sucks and they should play something else (something that BTW they likely already looked at and took a pass on)

in comparison you simply don't see people visit I dunno... Battletech forums and say how bad they think Battletech is and how people should play heavy gear instead, just for example.

in short people aren't OFFENDED, they just don't wanna hear it, have heard it all before, and really don't CARE if you think another game is better

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
This....isn’t exactly news to anyone.

The justification offered is that characters simply sell fewer units, but don’t cost that much less to sculpt, tool and produce.

But they can do better than their current mono-pose offerings.

Imma quote myself to get the rest of my point across:

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
We know they can do better. We've seen them do better. We saw them do an entire range of Warhammer HQ models that came 2 to a box and had various options for different weapons, BSB, mounts, etc. We saw them do a Space Marine Captain kit with a whole bunch of options. By today's standards these kits are primitive, meaning that they could do seriously multi-part, multi-pose, multi-option HQ kits if they wanted to, but they don't.

Consider that in the space of one edition we went from kits like this, to kits like this. Just look at the damned sprues and see the devolution.

I've seen people praising this mini:

Spoiler:

... when it just as 2D as the basic single-piece metal sculpts of the old days. GW can do better than this.

crazysaneman wrote:

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:

And thanks to capitalism, that cost/sale ratio outcome is passed on to us, the consumer.

It's not thanks to capitalism the price is so high, it's thanks to the monopoly GW holds on their products (AoS and 40k for example) to set the price with no alternatives and has been supported by the community that allows them to set the price so high. The difference being that a capitalist system creates the environment for businesses to be created and products distrubuted by private (not state) entities. Monopolies are companies that hold such a stranglehold over a certain product or services that there is no other alternative (Microsoft in the 1990's).You want lower prices? Stop buying the models for a while. Vote with your wallet. It's worth note that monopolies are illegal in at least the US and EU.

Audi has a "monopoly" on Audi cars.
GW has a "monopoly" on GW miniatures.

There are other cars and other miniatures. Therefore, these aren't monopolies.
e.g. Wizards of the Coast doesn't hold a monopoly over CCGs, it's just the biggest CCG out there.

GW maintains their monopoly by forcing you to use their models in their sanctioned tournaments by requiring your army models to be a certain percentage (75?) of the official model for the unit. The Chapterhouse lawsuit was a big win for the wargaming community, it just didn't go far enough. Giving a company the ability to make compatible parts for GW kits does you no good if GW then says you can't use them in sanctioned play.

You can't use them in official GW events. There are other events, and there's play outside of tournaments. A lot of that.
You also can't use Pokemon cards in any MtG event (including non-sanctioned). I know that would be ridiculous, as the game wouldn't work - but if some company decided to create MtG compatible cards they wouldn't be allowed either - the only place you could use those would be kitchen table Magic, and events hosted by that company.

Just for clarification: GW is overpriced. I am not defending them. But that's not the same as having a monopoly.

 AngryAngel80 wrote:
Yeah the prices are insane, GW is the enemy of free people everywhere. Obviously that is a joke.

All we can do is vote with the wallet, if enough people say enough, they will have to look at their prices.

If they stubbornly cling to rise rise rise then go out of business I'm sure we'll be told how it was all our fault because we didn't just buy buy buy.

I want the hobby to stay strong but it can only go so far before they price out new entrants, the current base moves away from it and even the whales have no one to crush tossing money at it.

I hope they will eventually reach that ceiling and dial it down, so far, hasn't happened yet.

They are surely aware of the issue.

9th edition is seeing quite a decrease in the access barrier for this game.

Mostly through a push toward troops (which are cheaper) and by increasing the point costs.

It is interesting that the SM dex (+supplements), the necron dex and now the DG dex have in general increased the point cost of the army, while it was customary during 8th edition that the codici usually decreased costs of models.

A 9th edition codex army is now quite cheaper than a 7th edition one for an equivalent number of points.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

crazysaneman wrote:

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:

And thanks to capitalism, that cost/sale ratio outcome is passed on to us, the consumer.

It's not thanks to capitalism the price is so high, it's thanks to the monopoly GW holds on their products (AoS and 40k for example) to set the price with no alternatives and has been supported by the community that allows them to set the price so high. The difference being that a capitalist system creates the environment for businesses to be created and products distrubuted by private (not state) entities. Monopolies are companies that hold such a stranglehold over a certain product or services that there is no other alternative (Microsoft in the 1990's).You want lower prices? Stop buying the models for a while. Vote with your wallet. It's worth note that monopolies are illegal in at least the US and EU. GW maintains their monopoly by forcing you to use their models in their sanctioned tournaments by requiring your army models to be a certain percentage (75?) of the official model for the unit. The Chapterhouse lawsuit was a big win for the wargaming community, it just didn't go far enough. Giving a company the ability to make compatible parts for GW kits does you no good if GW then says you can't use them in sanctioned play.

Capitalism
"an economic system characterized by private or corporate ownership of capital goods, by investments that are determined by private decision, and by prices, production, and the distribution of goods that are determined mainly by competition in a free market"
Mirriam-Webster Dictionary.

Monopoly
"1) exclusive ownership through legal privilege, command of supply, or concerted action"
"3) a commodity controlled by one party "
Mirriam-Webster Dictionary

*Edited for clarity*

GW has no monopoly.

When the quality of the game lowered under an acceptable treshold (7th edition), we saw most of the players migrating toward other games. The alternatives are always out there, ready to strike when the big beast is wounded. This means that there is no monopoly.

Much to the dismay of GW decractors, the fact that today GW is again the big fish in the pond is because the company was able to redeem herself in the eyes of those that were driven away during 7th. It's not thriving because it is living on the inertia of having been on the market for many years, it is succesful because when it was on the verge of death, it was capable of doing a 180 and considerably step up its product.

I had left this game for good, and had no intention to come back. Yet, here I am with 3 40K armies and an AoS army. When I left I had barely 2k points of nids.

Spoletta 795402 11031274 wrote:
When the quality of the game lowered under an acceptable treshold (7th edition), we saw most of the players migrating toward other games. The alternatives are always out there, ready to strike when the big beast is wounded. This means that there is no monopoly.

No they didn't. GW was still making a profit, it was just one that was getting smaller every year. The reason the Horus Heresy expanded so much was because it picked up disgruntled 40k players, who still wanted to remain within the GW eco-system (and I suspect that's why so many of them now clamour for 8th edition rules, so they can use their Legion armies vs their friend's 40k). There was definitely an exodus to other games - which overall was the healthiest period in wargaming's history for quite some time - but it definitely wasn't 'most' players.

Much to the dismay of GW decractors, the fact that today GW is again the big fish in the pond is because the company was able to redeem herself in the eyes of those that were driven away during 7th. It's not thriving because it is living on the inertia of having been on the market for many years, it is succesful because when it was on the verge of death, it was capable of doing a 180 and considerably step up its product.

I had left this game for good, and had no intention to come back. Yet, here I am with 3 40K armies and an AoS army. When I left I had barely 2k points of nids.

All GW had to do was have a basic "WE ARE YOUR FRIENDS! " social media presence and people were eating out of their hands in droves. Nothing really stepped up - the rules are still bad (except for that five minutes in 8th where everything was so bare bone it actually worked), the prices are still eye watering, the fluff got even worse, the difference now is they 'engage' with the community (IE less soulless marketing) and... uhhhh, well the release schedule intensified dramatically and impulse control seems to be at a minimum among hobbyists these days, so there's that.

GW bounced back because there was a new edition of 40k and everybody saw their friends playing it, so they wanted in. Once they were back, those other games had dried up because everybody wanted to be where everybody else was (playing 40k and 'maybe' AoS). It's not a literal monopoly insofar as GW are literally the only wargaming company out there, but in many cases scaling Mt. Everest is easier than convincing people to try something that's not a GW game... or hell, even 40k/AoS in some cases.

GW's fan base is kind of like politics: people rabidly support them because they've always supported them and therefore anything outside the box can't possibly be good because it's not GW, no matter what it might do better it's always flawed because it's not GW.

Their "turnaround" is one of the biggest scams in gaming history and shows how devoted their fans are. A few smoke and mirrors "see we've changed!" abd doing social media like everyone else vwss enough to con everyone into thinking things are different (they are better but just barely) and make them more profitable than ever before for basically doing nothing.

It's exactly like the guy above said. Gw barely changed but conned everyone into thinking they did so tons of people came back, and gamers want to play what everyone else is playing so there's a large pool of opponents.

Which incidentally is also why it's so hard to get traction with other non-GW games. People are already playing Warhammer so they don't want to get invested in something that is untested, so those games stay untested and niche because everybody else is playing Warhammer and nobody wants to take the first steps to say this is a better game we should move to it. I have actually seen and even been verbally attacked for suggesting another game people should play simply because it wasn't Warhammer and nobody wanted to give anything else a consideration and this was years ago during the bad times

 Arbitrator wrote:

Spoletta 795402 11031274 wrote:
When the quality of the game lowered under an acceptable treshold (7th edition), we saw most of the players migrating toward other games. The alternatives are always out there, ready to strike when the big beast is wounded. This means that there is no monopoly.

No they didn't. GW was still making a profit, it was just one that was getting smaller every year. The reason the Horus Heresy expanded so much was because it picked up disgruntled 40k players, who still wanted to remain within the GW eco-system (and I suspect that's why so many of them now clamour for 8th edition rules, so they can use their Legion armies vs their friend's 40k). There was definitely an exodus to other games - which overall was the healthiest people in wargaming's history for quite some time - but it definitely wasn't 'most' players.

Much to the dismay of GW decractors, the fact that today GW is again the big fish in the pond is because the company was able to redeem herself in the eyes of those that were driven away during 7th. It's not thriving because it is living on the inertia of having been on the market for many years, it is succesful because when it was on the verge of death, it was capable of doing a 180 and considerably step up its product.

I had left this game for good, and had no intention to come back. Yet, here I am with 3 40K armies and an AoS army. When I left I had barely 2k points of nids.

All GW had to do was have a basic "WE ARE YOUR FRIENDS! " social media presence and people were eating out of their hands in droves. Nothing really stepped up - the rules are still bad (except for that five minutes in 8th where everything was so bare bone it actually worked), the prices are still eye watering, the fluff got even worse, the difference now is they 'engage' with the community (IE less soulless marketing) and... uhhhh, well the release schedule intensified dramatically and impulse control seems to be at a minimum among hobbyists these days, so there's that.

GW bounced back because there was a new edition of 40k and everybody saw their friends playing it, so they wanted in. Once they were back, those other games had dried up because everybody wanted to be where everybody else was (playing 40k and 'maybe' AoS). It's not a literal monopoly insofar as GW are literally the only wargaming company out there, but in many cases scaling Mt. Everest is easier than convincing people to try something that's not a GW game... or hell, even 40k/AoS in some cases.

You are entitled to having an opinion on GW's doings, but don't try to make it sound like an absolute truth.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Wayniac wrote:
GW's fan base is kind of like politics: people rabidly support them because they've always supported them and therefore anything outside the box can't possibly be good because it's not GW, no matter what it might do better it's always flawed because it's not GW.

Their "turnaround" is one of the biggest scams in gaming history and shows how devoted their fans are. A few smoke and mirrors "see we've changed!" abd doing social media like everyone else vwss enough to con everyone into thinking things are different (they are better but just barely) and make them more profitable than ever before for basically doing nothing.

It's exactly like the guy above said. Gw barely changed but conned everyone into thinking they did so tons of people came back, and gamers want to play what everyone else is playing so there's a large pool of opponents.

Which incidentally is also why it's so hard to get traction with other non-GW games. People are already playing Warhammer so they don't want to get invested in something that is untested, so those games stay untested and niche because everybody else is playing Warhammer and nobody wants to take the first steps to say this is a better game we should move to it. I have actually seen and even been verbally attacked for suggesting another game people should play simply because it wasn't Warhammer and nobody wanted to give anything else a consideration and this was years ago during the bad times

Again, this is just an opinion.

I have a totally different one.

I wasn't enjoying the game during 7th.
I'm enjoying it now. Quite a lot.
What they pulled was clearly not just a bit of smoke.

Between the time that passed from 7th to 8th, I invested in a quite big collection of everblight models. I've played extensively that game, which is why I can tell that (to me) Warmachine was a better game than 7th, but was a worse game than 8th. That everblight collection has been taking dust for quite a while now, I have no motivation to play Warmachine. With all its defects, 40K is a game that doesn't leave me wishing for something else, even now that I'm forced to play on TTS and could technically find players of any game.

Wayniac wrote:
GW's fan base is kind of like politics: people rabidly support them because they've always supported them and therefore anything outside the box can't possibly be good because it's not GW, no matter what it might do better it's always flawed because it's not GW.

That's just a toxic opinion, nothing more. "You like GWs games, that means you have no idea what's out there and you're stupid for sticking to GW". I like them, and I still play other games (eg BattleTech, Dropfleet Commander). It's the "the other guys are wrong for liking something I dont like!" that really annoys me most in the tabletop space, to be honest. We managed to get rid of that mostly in our local community, but online ... well.

I'd be fine with characters costing above average for their plastic amount if they had options. It sucks that the Farseer doesn't come with optional hands for different weapons or a head or two extra for variety.

In Japan they charge an unreasonable premium for everything, and that's just before tax.

Wayniac wrote:
GW's fan base is kind of like politics: people rabidly support them because they've always supported them and therefore anything outside the box can't possibly be good because it's not GW, no matter what it might do better it's always flawed because it's not GW.

Their "turnaround" is one of the biggest scams in gaming history and shows how devoted their fans are. A few smoke and mirrors "see we've changed!" abd doing social media like everyone else vwss enough to con everyone into thinking things are different (they are better but just barely) and make them more profitable than ever before for basically doing nothing.

It's exactly like the guy above said. Gw barely changed but conned everyone into thinking they did so tons of people came back, and gamers want to play what everyone else is playing so there's a large pool of opponents.

Which incidentally is also why it's so hard to get traction with other non-GW games. People are already playing Warhammer so they don't want to get invested in something that is untested, so those games stay untested and niche because everybody else is playing Warhammer and nobody wants to take the first steps to say this is a better game we should move to it. I have actually seen and even been verbally attacked for suggesting another game people should play simply because it wasn't Warhammer and nobody wanted to give anything else a consideration and this was years ago during the bad times

That's not true. Like many wargamers, I've been through a lot of alternatives over the years, from more well-known competitors like X-Wing, Infinity or Malifaux to outright obscure stuff like Bushido or Saga.

A fair number of companies employ far more predatory, unsavoury and unconscientious marketing methods than GW does (FFG and Corvus Belli being prime examples). Others simply offer inferior products, where the slight discount you might get over GW product in no way or form justifies the horrid quality issues you buy into in both miniatures and rules (e.g. Privateer).

GW offers a good product. They are not perfect and shouldn't be confused with a charitable organisation. But they aren't relying on cult-like brainwashing to sell 80s quality garbage like Corvus Belli or Privateer, nor do they quite stoop to ponzi-scheme deceptions and price-gauges like FFG and others. Overall, compared to a lot what's out there, GW has some reasonable stuff.