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I guess this could be stretched to all types of companies but I found this post from TMP on a topic about warhammer and I found it quite interesting. What does Dakka think?

Basically what the title suggest, is it unreasonable to actually "hate" a miniature company assuming they have done no technical "wrongs" like stealing or other illegal activities?

Correct billthecat, The people that are unhappy with the product/company can just walk away -- I so do not understand the emotions that go into "hating" a toy soldier company? I understand hating poverty, injustice, terrorrisim, child molesters etc,etc,etc -- but a soldier company?
They do not provide food,insulin, heart medice,warmth,protection,etc,etc.

As far as finecast -- my suspicion is that if it was such a huge failure they would have already backed off by now -- even coke --a huge firm did so some years back with their "new coke.

"The only god to GW is shareholders" I think that it just may be the law that they listen to shareholders?
What I strongly suspect is that in the beginnig they hit "lightning in a bottle" and it will never be replicated?

They have their own retail outlets, public support from non hobbyist,copyrights,financial backing,etc,etc,etc
Very hard to reproduce?

All of this of course is MHO.

In short, yes.

In the long, there is no reason to expend strong emotions on something that is so easily walked away from. If they haven't directly harmed you in any way, it's just a business/hobby and anything you get out of it emotionally is dependent on the level of energy you put into it. Games Workshop becomes more and more irrelevant to your life the more you ignore them and forget about them. It's not like it's something that is actively interfering in your life, or in the lives of the vast, vast majority of people out there.

Walk away, go play Warmahordes, Infinity, etc. Laugh at GW anytime it's mentioned and keep having fun with what you'd rather be doing.

Yes. Joking that you hate GW is fine. If you no-bull-for-real hate them, that's silly.

I can totally understand people disapproving some of the things GW do, extremely strongly disapproving in fact, but anyone feeling genuine hate needs to calm down. Normally I think saying something like "if you don't like it, don't play it" is a bit of a cop-out, but this time I think it fits.

When all's said and done it's a game company...I think their prices are getting crazy but ultimately, if a Land Raider costs £45 and I choose to buy it the only thing getting hurt is my wallet, it's not as if anybody's going to die.

Its basically the definition of "Your mileage may vary".

A lot of people rage as they see it as changing too much from when they started, the cost changes too much, their circumstances change so the price is now prohibitive, the style changes too mcuh.

GW provides a product, if you like it buy it, if you dont, dont.

Hating the company is rather pointless as it wont change anything, new customers dont know different so pay sticker price, not thinking what it cost 5 years ago etc.

Todays prices and models are important, not older ones.

Some love 6th ed 40k after hating 5th and vice versa.

simple human nature to moan.

Its also kinda what the internet is for hehe.

Hate is a pointless waste of energy in any form, I strongly believe in 'don't get mad, get even.'

To waste energy hating a non-sentient, theoretical construct such as a company is utterly futile.

One may as well spend one's time hating a coffee mug.

 azreal13 wrote:
Hate is a pointless waste of energy in any form, I strongly believe in 'don't get mad, get even.'

To waste energy hating a non-sentient, theoretical construct such as a company is utterly futile.

One may as well spend one's time hating a coffee mug.

My coffee cup said I was "World's Best Dad" I have no children, it doesn't know me at all, so I thus must hate it!

I dislike GW as a company, as well as 40k and some of fantasy. I do like many of their miniatures but buy second hand as I refuse to pay full price.

Yes, it's ridiculous.

If you don't like a company, don't buy anything they make ever, but HATE?

Isn't the entire premise ridiculous? You can hate individuals, but not a company.

I hate for example, a great many of the Muslims I have met on an individual level, but I don't Muslims en masse, because the wishy washy British ones that don't actually practice Islam properly are genuinely pleasant individuals.

 mattyrm wrote:
Yes, it's ridiculous.

If you don't like a company, don't buy anything they make ever, but HATE?

Isn't the entire premise ridiculous? You can hate individuals, but not a company.

I hate for example, a great many of the Muslims I have met on an individual level, but I don't Muslims en masse, because the wishy washy British ones that don't actually practice Islam properly are genuinely pleasant individuals.

yeah that's...not something I'd share with a large group of people

 Rainbow Dash wrote:

 mattyrm wrote:
Yes, it's ridiculous.

If you don't like a company, don't buy anything they make ever, but HATE?

Isn't the entire premise ridiculous? You can hate individuals, but not a company.

I hate for example, a great many of the Muslims I have met on an individual level, but I don't Muslims en-masse, because the wishy washy British ones that don't actually practice Islam properly are genuinely pleasant individuals.

yeah that's...not something I'd share with a large group of people

Your late to the party if you think that's the first time I've mentioned my Allah worshipping chums on here!

Its hardly a hate crime to loathe individuals. I have completed 4 tours of Afghanistan and Iraq....

To be fair I don't think the fethers I hated were very fond of me either.

I couldn't join the army, not psychologically sound, that and I know I'd have no respect for any of the commanding officers
I dislike humanity en masse as a whole

Is it unreasonable to actually hate a miniature company?

Yes.

 mattyrm wrote:

 Rainbow Dash wrote:

 mattyrm wrote:
Yes, it's ridiculous.

If you don't like a company, don't buy anything they make ever, but HATE?

Isn't the entire premise ridiculous? You can hate individuals, but not a company.

I hate for example, a great many of the Muslims I have met on an individual level, but I don't Muslims en-masse, because the wishy washy British ones that don't actually practice Islam properly are genuinely pleasant individuals.

yeah that's...not something I'd share with a large group of people

Your late to the party if you think that's the first time I've mentioned my Allah worshipping chums on here!

Its hardly a hate crime to loathe individuals. I have completed 4 tours of Afghanistan and Iraq....

To be fair I don't think the fethers I hated were very fond of me either.

A common misconception is that it's somehow wrong to dislike a race, religion or social group.

To the contrary, this is only wrong if it has no base in logic. If you are prejudiced towards someone just because, you're a bigot. If you are prejudiced against someone because of life experience then, while still being a little questionable if you just make assumptions, is much more understandable.

I always say 'just because someone's in a wheelchair, it doesn't mean they're not a gakker.' Treating people as an equal means feeling free to dislike them, even if they're a minority and not cutting them slack. To do so is patronising.

OT I still can't see how an emotional reaction to something that cannot possibly understand the emotion is in any way worth it?

Let me explain.....no there is to much, let me sum up.

Love the crack, hate the dealer!

Furthermore it's emotion, since when does emotion have to make since. Go and try and be logical with your wife or gf when she's emotional and see what happens, go on I Dare you.

 wowsmash wrote:
Let me explain.....no there is to much, let me sum up.

Love the crack, hate the dealer!

Furthermore it's emotion, since when does emotion have to make since. Go and try and be logical with your wife or gf when she's emotional and see what happens, go on I Dare you.

Actually, sometimes, being cold and logical with an upset female is exactly the right thing to do, depends on the circumstances.

Poor analogy though, as that's two sentient, emotional individuals interacting.

Go and develop an intense dislike for you kitchen window, that's closer to the mark.

Regardless, I guess I can maintain a sense of perspective, perhaps others that care more (too much?) can't keep a lid on it so easily.

Some people are just emotional about everything. Everybody's different. I don't blame anyone for being who they are.

Hate is in and of itself an unreasonable emotion. Physiologically its almost indistinguishable from love, in terms of the way the emotions are actually felt it is the same as love, but with negative feeling instead of positive. Love is actually a form of OCD, so in a sense to actually HATE a miniature company (or anything else) requires one to be obsessed with it.

I think the people who actually hate GW are the same sort of people that burn down their exes houses.


They do exist.

It's not hate that I think we see, it's frustration exhibited poorly. I really like the 40k universe, the books ect. I really don't like the company that produces it and I can't stand the latest set of rules.

This emotion of frustration manifests itself online as hate in so much as nuance and inflection just don't come across well in this here Internetz.

It is entirely dependant on what you view has being morally reprehensible. The OP mentioned things like terrorism and child abuse as being obvious ones. But claims not to understand hate towards a company. I've seen this argument a lot from GW apologists. They say things like, they are just running a business etc...

However not everyone is fine with the whole capitalist dog eat dog mentality: buying something cheap and selling it expensive to make obscene profits. Or cornering the market and then raising prices at the expense of customer satisfaction. Lots of companies do that, and a lot of people get rich doing it... But that doesn't make it good or right. Many people do find that kind of thing unscrupulous and thoroughly dislikeable.

One does not simply stop liking Games Workshop.

I wouldn't spend the effort on hating something like a company, movie or actor. I've never understood why people would join a Forum based on a subject they hate, go to the effort of registering and logging in only to be then be an ass. Much like the muppets who 'Like' Facebook pages so so they can type "I hate this" on the page. Really!? That much effort for something so petty that could easily be ignored?

Yes, it's unreasonable to hate a miniature company, or any company that makes hobby goods, as an end-user consumer. To do so indicates they have an outsize influence on your life beyond the norm.

It's not unreasonable to hate a company in general, assuming they have exerted influence over your life in a way a rational person would consider onerous - example would be a bank screwing you on a mortgage agreement.

It's not even even unreasonable to hate a miniature company in some circumstances, such as you run a profitable FLGS and then a Games Workshop opens up across the street. I

But, as a end-user consumer? Laughable. Only someone very small would let something so trivial generate that level of intensity in them. There is no shortage of alternate wargames you can play, many of which would be happy to take your money without generating the perceived slights of the original game company.

Yes, better to walk away and pick up something new to play. But some people might call me a hater if I point out flaws in a company, because they dont want to hear the truth. And I think people often get labled haters, when they are actually a truth speaker.

I can in good conscious for example say that I know that GWs game products warhammer 40k and fantasy have an unblanced and poorly updated faction rules. People that dont want to here this truth might call me a hater but it dosen't make it any less true...

I can also say that GW do not suport Offical Tournaments because their rules are so unbalanced that it makes it impossible to do. People who dont like this truth might call me a hater but it dosen't make it any less true.

I can also say that GWs way of releasing codexes is a way to make people pick up new armies and spend more money on their products. I think this is a bad businesses practis. For example the new 40k rules are geard towards shooting, and the codexes that are in the pipline for release are Eldar, Tau, IPG and more marines. This is not an accident, they do this to sell more miniatures.

Do I want to suport a company that try and manipulate their customerbase into buying more of their products? NO. But that does not make me a hater, and I have allready walked away and picked up another product, that is far superior and better.

Yeah, But im in the boat that its just a waste of emotion if you ask me.

A company is just a name on some legal paperwork, so I would say It's a waste to hate the company.

No.

Hate is good. Let it flow.

I hate GW with a passion, but it wasn't just one day out of the blue- " I think I'm going to try something new, I'll start by arbitrarily hating GW. The game's and stuff I've been working on for years."

They did it to themselves, one step at a time.


I have plenty of hate for them, as well. Enough to make up for all of yours combined

Hate is good...

Of course it is.

You either buy or do not buy a company's stuff. That's the only thing that matters and people care about.

Ummm, so I guess that I should put away my ANFO and gelignite then, eh?

I will profess that I do not like GW - I feel that they could be a very good entry point into the hobbies (plural), but are not.

I think that they are doing damage both to the hobbies and to themselves, or at least not broadening it as they could.

Hate... no, it's a lot closer to rolling my eyes and muttering 'idiots', then picking up Kings of War.

I feel much the same about WotC these days. Actually, worse, since WotC went from doing things right to screwing both themselves and their veteran players. (Though, given 5e is on the horizon, at least they recognized it....)

In both cases I enact my displeasure by purchasing products from their rivals - Mantic in the case of GW, Paizo in the case of WotC.

In both cases this is because I like what the younger companies are doing - I am not purchasing from them to somehow bloody the nose of the older companies but in order to increase my enjoyment of the hobbies.

In honesty, for both cases I get more annoyed with the rabid fanboys than with the parent companies.

I did get vindictive pleasure about those 4e players that claimed that Pathfinder was a dead end who then had to discover:
A. that Pathfinder outsold 4e
B. that WotC was dropping 4e like a shoe full of stank.

If Mantic outsold GW then I would be both well pleased and surprised out of my gourd....

The Auld Grump

Hating a company that makes little plastic men that no one is forcing you to buy is 14 year old emo ****.

Get some perspective and get a life.