Ugavine wrote:Amongst all the recent anti-GW sentiment recently there have been a few general comments that have intrigued me. Mainly players who are switching to other minis or ones that no longer buy GW minis anyway.
If you're one of these players maybe you can just shed some light on your gaming for me; I have been role-playing and board gaming for 20+ years but only came into miniature painting and wargaming approx. 15 months ago so am still finding my feet with this aspect of the hobby.
Do you play other none-GW games instead?
Do you Proxy/Counts As other minis for GW games?
And please, this is a genuine question and I don't want to open up a Proxy debate. I'm asking because everyone at my club plays pretty much WYSIWYG, so when playing say 40K they use 40K minis. It's not a club rule or anything, people just do.
And I have looked at other sites, dozens upon dozens of them! It seems easy enough to use other minis for say Fantasy Battles but for 40K that is a lot harder to find like-for-like alternatives. And while there are some really good miniatures from other companies I've not seen any real alternatives that would really be that much cheaper for 40K.
Cheers.
As much as i !@#$ about
GW, I was a dyed in the wool kool aid kid of the first degree for over 10 or so years, and then off and on for another .... 20 or so?( !@#$ has it been THAT LONG?!?!?) So I've seen some things, man..... AWFUL things, amazing things, and some other stuff? Just in between.
The thing about
GW's games used to be that they had a variety and a pretty good selection of accessable modeling materials and miniature lines. They had something for everyone, and the other lines inter related within the same game systems, as time went by though, and bottom line became the goal, that process and the integrity of the systems have broken down to the point of chocolate, Vanilla, or strawberry. No tutty fruity, no butter brickal, or any other 31 flavors of gaming. HENCE, you see the guy with the deer in the headlight look when you start talking about Adeptus Mechanicus, and then start talking about how you played Apocalypse sized games on a 4 by 4 table.
As that process continued, other companies out there have ALWAYS been there. As time marched forward, and focus stayed on
GW GW GW, these other companies have stayed the course, and if they did go under, they were picked upby someone else simply because of the tried and true method of stayablility.
These so called "Alternatives" were also some of
GW's rivals in the attention of gamers. So when you have maybe 10 kids that are true dyed in the wool fantasy,
40k, or specialist games plaers, you have maybe twice that amount scattered about far and wide, but arn't given the attention, based solely on the availablilty, the store access, or even the tital access themselves.
Short story long, if I have a second rate game/ comic store that has maybe three boxes of marines, and a blister pack of dwarfs, then the access to a playing table, then your really not given the access to variety, just access to
GW, the great and powerful...space marine and dwarf..., or the distribution of anything other then whatever that guy wants to sell. In the other hand, we see top notch comic and game stores that have access to 30-50 different games and companies, that will expand the horizens of more then the ones that only play with the sand box game of the one trick pony.
As to the cheaper...
Cheap isn't just about price. Access, affordability, buy in and time cost, etc.etc.etc. Can you pick up and play the game in five minutes after you learn the rules? Do I have to buy in with a second morgage? How many people in my area play this game? and other questiuons come to mind when we talk about the different aspects that concern gamers.
All and all it boils down to - Do me and my friends want to spend our time on this game, and how much effort do we put into it, as opposed to how much fun we're going to get out of it.?
As to
GW?
The proxy issue was never even an issue, until maybe 2 years or so ago, when some assclown decided out of the blue that it was verboten. As a matter of fact, I have a
RT book here that still has the plans on how to make a hover tank out of a soap bottle.
GW's figures have evolved to the point though, that they are thier own entity. You really CAN'T use them in other games.
Some too big, others, too flashy, others still are specific only to THAT game, or THIS game.
Back in the day, a figure was a figure, was a figure. NOW? EVERYONES system is specific, and theres a stretch between companies and thier products.
To the "Other Games" issue...
It boils down to getting up to the top of the ladder at the pool, and either wanting to jump in, or wanting to climb back down, because you don't want to fall into the pool. Your getting wet, one way or the other, so it just depends on how you want to do it- You can jump, or go climb in the kiddie end and walk in. (I/E- Spending that money... you can either spend it on something new, or something that is tame and you already know about. either way, that money is geting spent.)
You do not play the other games with
GW stuff. If anything,
GW takes a vacation. Anyone pulls out a Space Marine, gets the ragging and the marine goes away. You pull out a platoon of U.S. marines, and a bunch of Insurgents, or Cold Ones, or your aliens and spacemen, or the evil genius and his henchmen and the league of extrodinary gentlemen.
If anything, it's about just getting together with your mates, and a beer, or beverage, and trying something different and maybe trying something new.
You don't like it, you go get something else, or go back to your familiar kiddie pool. If not, you go get your pirates, cowboys, and ninjas- and start something else, and
GW takes a night, and cowpokes and Katana's get thier own night.
Most say they are going to Warmahordes, or
FOW, or whatever. And thats thier parogative, but personally?
Lifes too short to !@#$ around. I get a few minis from here and there, go get a system or two, and try it. If I like it, I get more, if not, it either goes in the closet, where, later I will, 10 to 1, find someone else that plays it. THEN- I can play too, and or sell them to them, or I just move on out to something else.
The thing to do?
Just try something new.
Get your own game of your choice, get a couple of minis, and try it.
Minis, contrary to popular belief, are not that expensive.
GW has only programed the world into thinking that they are. (Those of us in the know, know better.)
$20.00 to get your foot wet. You don't like it, you can pitch them off on someone else, or just sit on them. No blood, no foul.
WHEREAS- You drop $200 on a army, your stuck with it. You HATE the thing, BUT... you picked it because the kool aid kids told you it was a giant killer.
20 bucks for 2 teams, a book, maybe? 200+ bucks for 1 army.
Branching out to skermish games? Yeah, thats 200 bucks on 10 or so games if you so choose. OR.... Nothing. you get 180.00 laft to fool around with.
At the end of the day, its about what you want to do with your limited free time... for fun. And with the smorgasborgs out there, why stick with cold french fries?
