Or maybe I'm just getting old. I was thinking of making this thread a long time ago, but it seemed kind of petty (and let's face it, it still is), but after seeing the new Dark Elf sets I couldn't not make this thread anymore.
For the entire time I've been playing their games their policies have been, save for one notable exception, baffling beyond belief. Never have I seen any company have such an openly hostile "fuck you" attitude towards its customers. But what are we gonna do? They make the rules and miniatures, and while there are some alternative miniature manufacturers, getting alternative models for any army beyond the most typical stuff is next to impossible.
As you all know, the prices for GW products are absurdly high, and are raised like every 2 years. Some of it I can see justified, but most of it I cannot see be anything else than "We wantz ur munny!!!!1" I understand the rising cost of plastic and making those molds for all those detailed miniatures has got to be pretty damn expensive. But how do you justify raising the prices of all the other products (ie. rulebooks, paints, brushes, tape measures, accessories like spell cards etc.) as well? I'm pretty sure there's still quite a bit of wood left in the world to make paper for all those books.
I once heard a GW employee justify the ridiculous prices by saying that making the molds for the miniatures is really expensive, and the molds don't last very long. Fair enough, but why do they keep bringing more and more detailed miniatures out each year while also remaking old ones if the production costs are so high? The Dark Elf War Hydra, for example, has been reworked twice during the last 9 years. The most staggering slap to the face was the new Dark Elf warrior set, which I'm going to compare to the one I saw in stores for most of the time I have been playing:
- The old set had 16 models, the new one has 10
- When I started playing, the regiment sets were 25? each. The new one costs the same, but has less models
- The detail and weapon options have been significantly diminished in the new set
So they're charging the same amount of money for a set that has less models of poorer quality with fewer options. I just... don't even... what?
The "Fine"cast line (aka Failcast) was also another "Wut?" GW replaced all their metal models with lighter, softer resin cast versions of the same models, and then raised the prices. The detail on the resin models was slightly sharper, but it couldn't make up for the air bubbles that made some models nearly impossible to even assemble properly and the fact that the resin models could almost be squished with bare hands into tiny little pieces, whereas the old metal models you had to beat with a hammer to really damage them.
Add to this the drop of support for nearly all their smaller specialist games, lack of support for fan events and websites, turning their own magazine and even website into disgusting circle-jerks of ads and hype, i.e. removing nearly everything worthwhile from both, the "special offers" on their websites that don't give any discount, the removal of almost all their special collector's models from their webstore, and many many more things that I've surely forgotten to mention here, and you have a company that makes EA and Activision look like tender choir boys in comparison.
TL;DR: Forget calling EA evil, just look up the shit GW has pulled on their customers. Is there any company that has an even worse policy in regards to its customers? Because GW goes beyond merely trying to take our money, and seems to actively want to alienate its supporters.
Shit, this turned out to be another rant on GW, didn't it?
For the entire time I've been playing their games their policies have been, save for one notable exception, baffling beyond belief. Never have I seen any company have such an openly hostile "fuck you" attitude towards its customers. But what are we gonna do? They make the rules and miniatures, and while there are some alternative miniature manufacturers, getting alternative models for any army beyond the most typical stuff is next to impossible.
As you all know, the prices for GW products are absurdly high, and are raised like every 2 years. Some of it I can see justified, but most of it I cannot see be anything else than "We wantz ur munny!!!!1" I understand the rising cost of plastic and making those molds for all those detailed miniatures has got to be pretty damn expensive. But how do you justify raising the prices of all the other products (ie. rulebooks, paints, brushes, tape measures, accessories like spell cards etc.) as well? I'm pretty sure there's still quite a bit of wood left in the world to make paper for all those books.
I once heard a GW employee justify the ridiculous prices by saying that making the molds for the miniatures is really expensive, and the molds don't last very long. Fair enough, but why do they keep bringing more and more detailed miniatures out each year while also remaking old ones if the production costs are so high? The Dark Elf War Hydra, for example, has been reworked twice during the last 9 years. The most staggering slap to the face was the new Dark Elf warrior set, which I'm going to compare to the one I saw in stores for most of the time I have been playing:
- The old set had 16 models, the new one has 10
- When I started playing, the regiment sets were 25? each. The new one costs the same, but has less models
- The detail and weapon options have been significantly diminished in the new set
So they're charging the same amount of money for a set that has less models of poorer quality with fewer options. I just... don't even... what?
The "Fine"cast line (aka Failcast) was also another "Wut?" GW replaced all their metal models with lighter, softer resin cast versions of the same models, and then raised the prices. The detail on the resin models was slightly sharper, but it couldn't make up for the air bubbles that made some models nearly impossible to even assemble properly and the fact that the resin models could almost be squished with bare hands into tiny little pieces, whereas the old metal models you had to beat with a hammer to really damage them.
Add to this the drop of support for nearly all their smaller specialist games, lack of support for fan events and websites, turning their own magazine and even website into disgusting circle-jerks of ads and hype, i.e. removing nearly everything worthwhile from both, the "special offers" on their websites that don't give any discount, the removal of almost all their special collector's models from their webstore, and many many more things that I've surely forgotten to mention here, and you have a company that makes EA and Activision look like tender choir boys in comparison.
TL;DR: Forget calling EA evil, just look up the shit GW has pulled on their customers. Is there any company that has an even worse policy in regards to its customers? Because GW goes beyond merely trying to take our money, and seems to actively want to alienate its supporters.
Shit, this turned out to be another rant on GW, didn't it?
