Have I lost interest in Games Workshop?

 

I think it’s about time we addressed the elephant in the room. Have I lost interest in the Games Workshop hobby?

 

To recap, I got back into the hobby with Warhammer 40,000 about 6 years ago, after a childhood spent playing the likes of HeroQuest, Battle Masters, Blood Bowl and Space Crusade. I have 2000 points of Ultramarines, 2000 points of Eldar and a 1500 point Space Wolves army, as well as a pile of codexes and Horus Heresy novels.

 

But things have slowed somewhat over the past year. Here I will list the evidence and then I’ll go back and address each in turn with what I intend to do about it.

 

Those who read this blog or follow me on Twitter will know I’ve discovered Fantasy Flight card games in the last six months, falling particularly hard for Android: Netrunner, and so my attention has been taken away from the battlefields of the 41^st millennium.

 

Until this past week, I hadn’t put paint to a model since Christmas.

 

My reading of the Horus Heresy series has stalled after Tales of Heresy.

 

 

Firstly, the card games. There’s going to be no change there, I’m afraid, I’m obsessed with Netrunner and that’s that. It’s just going to be a case of trying to balance it out. At the minute, the Games Workshop hobby suffers because my other hobbies require far less effort. All I have to do is get out my cards and deck build or sit down and switch on the Xbox.

I need to remind myself that with effort comes reward and so I’ve started painting again.

 

I have a small mountain of Eldar and Space Marines to paint, as well as scenery and bastions to finish. So what I’ve decided to do is start with the final Dreadfleet model I have left to paint. After that, I’m going to pick a single miniature like the Games Day model from last year and paint that. These are projects that you can see an end to and so can more easily get motivated.

 

The Horus Heresy reading slowed because I thought Legion wasn’t great and Mechanicum was bloody awful. That, coupled with the fact that Fallen Angels is like rocking horse s**t to get a hold of, things just ground to a halt. Now, I know I could just order the book from the Internet, but I’m old school. If I can purchase from a shop from a real life human being, I will. So what I’m going to do is buy the next book or two at Games Day, where they’ll have an abundance of them.

 

And yes, I have bought my Games Day ticket. I always enjoy the day and it is bound to spark my enthusiasm again. Also, I’ve told a friend from Twitter that I’ll give him a quick play through of Netrunner while we’re there.

 

There are a few other gripes of course, but I can’t really do anything about them. I’ve not being that excited by some GW’s latest products. The Khorne Lord of Skulls has crossed the line into toys and I’m unsure about the Space Marine Centurians from the leaked photos I've seen.

I’m still not a fan of the hardback codexes. They feel too much like the WWF and Dandy annuals I used to have as a kid and they aren’t conducive to flicking through in search of a quick rule clarification at the table.

And I’ve grown increasingly annoyed with the corner of the community who constantly moan about the company and their practices/prices/lawsuits etc. But then, as a videogamer, I'm used to whining, entitled communities.

 

But these, I’ll just have to live with. In all, I don’t believe I have lost interest in this hobby, I’ve just been distracted – moving out of the parental home and finding myself with bills to pay and cleaning to do hasn’t helped!

But I am hopeful that the next few months will see me back into the swing of things. While a new army won’t be on the horizon for some time, I aim to get more painting done and some games played.

 

For the Emperor…..