40K is Dying in my Area: What I Have Observed

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**Sir Arun**

Harriticus wrote:
"Playing the game however you want" is clearly something GW is working against[...] They have said a definitive no to concepts like kit-bashing, rule modification, conversions, and so on.

rulebooks says otherwise.

**nobody**

In my LGS (before I went on hiatus), open gaming night looked something like this:

40K being played on maybe 3 tables, usually kids playing slowgrow armies based on Dark Vengeance or the hardcore tourney types playing against each other.

Flames on 1 or two tables, usually pre-arranged.

And the Friday Night Magic crowd (easily over 20 people).

Warmahordes didn't show up much at all, but it had more presence than fantasy. Infinity and Malifaux had a small showing for a while but both disappeared completely. Other games didn't show up at all.

**Orock**

Sir Arun wrote:
Harriticus wrote:
"Playing the game however you want" is clearly something GW is working against[...] They have said a definitive no to concepts like kit-bashing, rule modification, conversions, and so on.

rulebooks says otherwise.

and yet, if you went into a games workshop store for league play, and tried to tell them your space lobster space marine chapters terminators all have 2 wounds (for balance purposes) and that your mark 1 dread that was barely taller than a space marine is legal because its an official games workshop product, they would tell you otherwise. funny how much weight the rulebooks "play like you want" suggestion holds outside of 2 friends deciding how something should be.

**Commissar Benny**

Yeah its hurting in my area as well. I travel between several FLGS in 30-50 mile area & there has definitely been a decline. In the event that I am playing its pretty normal for people to come up & inquire about the game & they seem interested until they see the cost of entry. Its ridiculous. I was at a GW store for several hours recently & to my surprise there was alot of foot traffic. I'd say 20-30 people came in & actually looked at WH40K models. Mostly younger kids/teenagers. The moment their parents saw the cost, they left immediately. I think maybe 2-3 out of 30 made small purchases & that is it.

**Ir0njack**

herpguy wrote:
I remember a similar thread popping up here recently. However, I wanted to talk about what I have noticed primarily in the past year, and probably more specifically in the past 6 months. Anyway, most stores around me run 1-2 tournaments a month, in addition to casual game days usually once a week. Out of 4 stores, which are each located 1-1.5 hours away from each other, they have all noticed a significant drop off in 40K recently. In my opinion this is too much to chalk up as coincidence. The store closest to me has seen tournaments go from 12-16 people always showing up to 3-6 on average now. Last month I showed up and nobody else came.

I had a very long chat with the owner of a store about 1.5 hours away from me since I was in the area. He said that ever since the menagerie of releases he has seen the community get burnt out and lose steam. He said there was about a 3 month period where everybody was loving the fast releases and hitting the game hard, but players have since dwindled significantly. He also said it almost seems as if Escalation and Stronghold Assault were the final nail in the coffin to the game. Although there are a few powergamers who love those additions, the vast majority do not see D weapons as fun at all. He's not really a huge 40K player but he knows a problem when he sees it, and he told his GW rep know, and the rep's response was "Well people can play the game however they want."

Does anybody else have similar experiences?

Really sad to hear this, Especially since I'll be moving back stateside to OK in the summer, I was really looking forward to getting back heavily into the 40k scene again. Not to say it isn't alive here in Germany but I'm not a native andsome of the "magic" get lost in translation. You wouldn't happen be from the Lawton area would you OP? Whatever the case I'll still fly the Aquila with pride in my heart and faith in the golden throne in my soul

**pepe5454**

It might be the season weather and school and such but I have noticed at one of the LGS monthly tournaments a large drop in attendance where now only 4- 6 people show up instead of 14 or so. The other store does not do tournaments on a regular basis but has seen an uptick in games since they started an escalation league so that is good. On the other hand that store really wants to make warmachine their main focus and I think part of that is how they feel they are treated by GW.

**Hollismason**

Everything really does just drop off during winter for retail specifically.

**Makumba**

Well our big regional w40k/WFB tournament had the fewest number of people in its history and it was in summer.