Recently I made an announcement via my Facebook Page. Give it a Like. I don’t post much, and it is usually just to keep the community updated on what’s going on. I don’t spam, though you may get the occasional meme. Or don’t. Its cool. You’re already here, and I can’t thank you enough for that.
In that announcement I let the community know that until GW takes the time to fix the issues with 40k, I won’t be running events. This doesn’t mean I will quit running them, it means that as a tournament organizer, I cannot in good faith take a player’s money to play a game as atrociously unbalanced and unpolished as this. Video game companies are better at fixing their bullshit than this, and also better at communicating. When they aren’t they face serious backlash and end up giving mass refunds (I’m not going to link it again, but remember No Man’s Sky, or even the more recent Cyber Punk).
I got push-back from some of the community, really only a small handful of people. However the majority of the community, and almost every organizer I’ve spoken to, is in the same boat. The rules are a mess, the balance is terrible, and overall the game isn’t a ton of fun. Bad armies are exceptionally bad, good armies are absurdly good, and the handful of the middle-of-the-road armies are still much better than the bad.
Initial push back came in the form of “Its an edition change, this is smooth for an edition change…” and rhetoric like this. I’ve been playing GW games for 20+ years, maybe not 40k the whole time, but I started there and I came back. This, in my opinion is the WORST edition change I’ve ever seen. Not because the rules are the most imbalanced, but because they are now on the biggest stage they’ve ever been on as a company. Effectively the world is watching, and GW as a company is showing them how to NOT treat their community, and how to NOT write rules.
First off, I’d like to point out that the only people that have said “you’re crazy…” are ones that have the disposable income to “pay to win”, and not only can, but try to. If that is your game, then fine. I don’t begrudge you that, but don’t tell me the game is fine if the only way to have a balanced game is that we all play the same 1-2 armies, and we all have to go buy that army in order to play.
Secondly, the rules are NOT smooth. there is muddy writing about keywords, contradictory statements in different sections of the rules, and other issues in the indexes as well. Fortunately the designers commentary did clear MOST of this up, but not all.
My issue with this stems from the fact that Games Workshop as a company makes hundreds of millions in NET INCOME. (After cost of doing business is deducted)
With that level of income you can afford to do the following things:
- Hire an editor/proofreader. There are far too many typos/punctuation/missed keyword type mistakes for your products to be considered finished (See: Trukk Boys in 9th, Ghaz in 10th)
- Hire/Outsource ACTUAL playtesting. It is clear that 10th was rushed, and it was clear that little to no actual playtesting occurred. Imagine any other company releasing a product with little to no QC, delivering a shit product, and then knowing their customer base will eat it up regardless.
- Communicate better with your customer base/community. It is also clear that the Indexes were akin to “beta testing”. Which is fine. Companies like Mantic also do this. The difference is they are up-front about it. They let their customers know they aren’t getting a finished product up-front. They DON’T pitch it as a polished/finished product and charge you hundreds of dollars for something we are doing beta testing for.
I don’t hate 10th, and I don’t hate 40k. I’m simply done trying to find fun in it right now. I’ll wait for an FAQ/Errata to try to balance things out and come back afterward. I’ll play pick up games and continue the league I’m in. I WON’T charge people money to play in an event that is centered around unfinished rules.
Sorry for the long rant, but we as players deserve better, and because of this I’ll be exploring other rules systems while I wait. I’ll share my experiences with you.
Chris.