Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Well just gonna go off on a little rant here... About GW...

I noticed this past week that they removed their articles off the website, like fully removed... not "we're reformatting" or "they'll be back soon". The links that said things such as "Imperial Guard Articles" are gone, which to me is kinda a last straw thing. Thus this rant.

I remember when GW used to be cool, when they used to rip you off by selling a Leman Russ at $40 but made it up to you with online articles and articles in the white dwarf about all kinds of cool stuff.
Things like converting a chimera into a small "counts as sentinel" tank thing, or ways to make terrain out of random stuff you found in an old vacuum or at Bunnings (for those who don't know what that is, its a hardware store). I remember being like 14 and just pouring over amazing tau communication nodes, and drooling over the various conversions of guardsmen on the old gw webpage. I remember being so heartbroken when they changed the site, to make it more modern... at the cost of removing almost all the amazing stuff they had.

And yet still, they had just a handful of useful pages that you could work through. I liked knowing how to make chaos space marines more "chaosy" with greenstuff. I loved being able to learn how to paint various scenery pieces in the way that eavy metal did. And what did they do with the arrival of finecast? they got rid of those too. By removing even the articles link, officially ruling out me ever being able to read those amazing articles again they have become just about useful to me as a brain dead horse.

Oh yes I know the counter arguments to this.
- Their main job as a company is to make money, they don't have to serve customers in any other way.
- They have to think about shareholders
- They don't have to care about us
- Blah blah blah

But I mean really, they used to operate just fine when they did support the gaming/modelling/painting/converting community. Is it really so hard for them to just keep those articles there and actually support their gaming community?

Just ranting guys, not aiming for a colossal argument or trying to change peoples opinions. Just felt the need to share my personal views of the way that things have gone for GW and my bottomless remorse at the loss of one my favorite parts of warhammer 40k... GW's articles.

I'm relatively knew to the whole thing (just started over the summer), but what were the articles? Just like the WD stuff except online? If so, I'm not even sure why they'd take it down. I don't want to be a part of the GWhatetrain, but I don't see the benefit in removing something as simple as that.

Then again, if you're in need of tutorials there's never a shortage of them here or elsewhere online. Not that I'm defending them, just putting it out there.

The articles have been gone for quite a while now actually. I have no idea whether they will be back or not, but considering they were all based on a very different edition (some of the articles had even been around for multiple editions) they were probably too far out of date to be of much use anymore anyway. I'm guessing that they will post new articles at some point in the future that are more focused on the new edition.

Dakkadakka is a great source of articles, but it was kinda nice having ones by gw no offence to you amazing gaming/modelling/painting article writers on the internets.

As for whether we'll see them again, I doubt it... They removed the links for them entirely so i don't think they're gonna bother with article writing in future. I reckon a lot of the stuff still applied across multiple editions, they removed them around the time that the new paints came out and honestly I don't think it would have taken that long to re-write those articles and just change the names of the paints around. As for gaming, they were never that specific anyway, but they did (admittedly just to get you to buy the figures) have articles about how great the occasional underused unit could be.

I dunno, its just depressing that this has happened. Some of the articles from the old website were just incredible! unbelievably so!

I dunno, its just depressing that this has happened. Some of the articles from the old website were just incredible! unbelievably so!

I agree with you there. It's just that this isn't the first time this has happened. For example, they use to have battle reports in the articles for each army. There was an amazing battle rep (I believe it was for 3rd edition) between Dark Eldar and Necrons. I remember it being one of the best batlle reports I had ever read and the photos were amazing. I would love to be able to re-read it now, but it was taken down along with a multitude of other articles some time early in fourth. But then they eventually did start putting new articles back up again. I'm not saying it isn't a bummer that some of the classics are gone, I'm just saying that so far, this is following the usual GW pattern and that there is a good chance new articles will, at some point, appear.

The exact reason I joined Dakka. Back in the day GW used to be articles with products on a separate page, I used to spend hours reading their stuff. I really don't think they "lose" money by providing that stuff, because Warhammer is an addiction, those of us that are hooked aren't just going to stop.

I hope so man Because those articles are awesome

I remember them having even some amazing short stories about various armies. Also I feel that 40k (don't yell at me for this) has become a bit more... tame? used to be in every codex you could find some dark, graphic short story ending in some unimaginable horrible ending for the main character? Might just be me but i remember as a kid some of those stories being just so freaky, like a group of Kroot eating an Eldar ranger's arms and legs whilst she was still alive and then cracking open her rib cage to eat her still beating heart. Or an Imperial Guard stormtrooper, swallowed alive and conscious by the Tyranid "Red Terror". Those stories just embodied everything in 40k and I find it a little bit harder to find recently written fluff and background that graphic and full on!

God I miss being a kid and reading those codexes for the first time

It's really undeniable GW has gotten worse in its treatment of the customer base and just general quality of their products as of 2005 or so. The LOTR bubble bursting seems to have had a negative effect on their mindset. But of course the reasons for them sucking so bad have been done to death here....

I'd guess that a lot of the articles went away because they want to sell you something. Having an article about how to make a cool landing platform would possibly cut into the sales of the landing platform kit they have, but not as much as they fear. (And I remember when that article showed up in WD.)

It is dangerous to go alone. Take this:

http://archive.org/index.php

Seriously, the GW website used to be incredibly cool and offer tons of interesting articles about painting, construction, even fluff. Use google and the link I just posted; you should be able to locate some of it. It may take some time to get used to it, but it pays off. Good hunting.

You only just noticed those links are gone? Have they been up on the other countries pages? Coz they've been gone for almost a year now (in the uk at least) because I was using their 'paint tzeentch swords and runes' article when they took em down and that was back when I had just bought my plastic DP so last year some time...