If you're buying less, why?

[Kisanis]

Price increases removed my 'impulse' buy factor.
I've bought a little more in recent years (after about a 4 year hiatus) only because in that time there was a solid quality increase.

That said, I'm back to painting what I have and reducing the pile of pewter and plastic on my hobby desk.
I also play less - but I stick with it cause we all already play (my friends and I) its hard to pick up a new system if no one else plays...
i've drifted towards 28mm historicals, and gotten back into RPG's to try and suck more of my attention away from GW.

[The Phazer]

Two things for me really. One is that I just find the secrecy policy incredibly passive aggressive and rude, so it's implementation makes me want to spend a lot less money with a company, especially given how hard it makes planning.

The second is that I feel GW have done their damnest to drive all the creativity out of the hobby in recent years, with bringing in no interesting third-party contributions to White Dwarf, all the other policies above driving away player base and so creative people making awesome stuff, the withdrawal of the bits facility and the dumping of so many archive models.

[Tupinamba]

I haven´t voted, because for me it´s a mix of several of the given options. The most important ones are relative prices (I can afford it, I just don´t feel that it´s worth it in comparison with the alternatives) and the increasing "normal" points for games. I was quite interested in 6th ed. 40k, as I still love the universe and like most of the minis and the what I read about the rules seemed to address the things I didn´t like about 5. ed.

However, after reading everywhere that the new game size went up to 2000 pts and realizing what that would mean in terms of money and time investment (painting...) I gave it up and focus on FOW again for my modern wargaming. 1500 was already too much stuff for a skirmish game (and yes, I consider 40k to be just that, a company sized game of 50+ guys is not a battle) and left too few room for manouvre and a very strange visual impression, with all the vehicles lined up and people bunched up at very short range.

There is another important point for me, which doesn´t have anything to do with GW policy, but is about the way the GW playing community is becoming. It seems to me that the WAAC mentality is becoming ever more proeminent and acceptable. The whole increase to 2000 pts that I read everywhere is justified because of the rules abuse it makes possible in taking more allies. WTF? Every tactics tread I read is about loophole exploitation, spamming etc. and very few talk about actual tactics. The only things that seem to be discussed about the 6th edition is how to exploit the wound allocation rules, allies etc. to break the game, which makes me sad.

I know, this has nothing to do with GW, but together with the increased costs and points size, it takes away my enthusiasm to start new GW games/armies. The barriers of entrance became just too high.

[TheBigBadWolf]

The price increases, I just can justify paying for the models now, I have found other hobbies, WoW, Magic, got a decent laptop at last so can play DoW2

[TimLeeson]

1) I have less disposable income these days.
2) Price Increases.
3) Rising model count.

Havent given up, but even with budgeting and discounts it's sadly too much for me! hopefully things will get better once I am in a better financial position.

[Crovax20]

Price increases
Rising model count necessary to play
Finecast

The price inceases are sort of tied to the rising model count they are promoting. Paying 2.30 euro's for an ork boy isn't too bad, untill you realize you need 3 boxes of them to make it a useful unit in the game. Then you realize that GW is constantly promoting bigger armies and suddenly the model itself might not be overtly expensive the cost of a gameplay effective unit is. Then you realize those 30 ork boyz are only 180 points or something and you just spend 69 euro's for 10% of your army.

[PointBlank]

Hit click something because it's a combination of the following :

- Rising model count for 40k
- Disappearance of 'specialist' games (and just the fact they got sidelined as 'specialist' in the first place)
- Increase in low detail (compared to metal), plastic kits that look cheap but cost a bomb - part of the rising model count.
- Subversion of rules, background and releases to serve a purely sales-driven strategy (codex creep, Ward flavour text, wave releases)
- The over-simplification and straightjacketing of the 40k universe.

The last is in bold text because this is by far the biggest issue, and actually puts me off buying even the rulebooks, BL books & WD just for fun. Somebody else pointed this out in another thread in this sub-forum : whether in an attempt to draw clearer lines for newer / younger players, serve the wave & codex release strategy, or pure misguided enthusiasm, GW have sucked all of the fun out of the 40k universe by trying to explain and account for everything in it.
The 'old' 40k (& WHFB) had an anarchic, infinite feel to it - it felt like anything was possible, and there was always new stuff to discover with every new WD or compendium or mini-game release. Even during 2nd ed, when they started to try and give the rules and army lists a little more structure, the background, illustrations and random miniature releases (remember when they just released minis for the sake of it?) still hinted a stuff that you could explore on your own. Now it feels sterile and unchanging - even when an entirely new element is introduced, it's done in a controlled, crass, marketing-dominated fashion (A new race is emerging, in the war-torn galaxy, and it's the most powerful EVAR!).

The new 6th edition has brought a smile to my bitter old face, for all the 'daring' and 'inventive' game mechanics are a welcome reminder of the days of 2nd Ed. I doubt I'll get back into it though, it's a step in the right direction but years too late to reverse the stagnant decay of the game's spirit. I'll have to stick to the video games and the occasional high detail model (almost entirely Forgeworld, finecast is artificially over-priced, even ignoring the poor quality) that catches my eye for painting.

[mughi3]

First off for me, i have lots of games i play and i have lots of models for all those games including 40K, i do not really need to buy alot more. also secondly the ones i would love to buy are horribly expensive for my budget(storm eagles ....so pretty). then there is the time and effort put into building and painting, frankly i am a bit burned out by that part of the hobby, i want to play more than build now.

[Hrw-Amen]

I am buying less for a combination of reasons.

Firstly there is the obvious, the rise in prices compared to not having had a pay rise for about four years.

Secondly I really preferred metal figures for specials and characters, it just felt like you were getting something substantial.

Thirdly and perhaps the most important is that I feel generally there is nothing new that has grabbed my attention. They keep releasing stuff for space marines, orks and the usual suspects but the armies I am interested in are getting very little attention at all, those being SOBs, IG and BFG from the specialist games range.

I could just buy and paint more Cadian IG changing the heads or whatever but to be honest there is only so much one can do with that and well, it is just boring doing the same stuff all the time. I did get some Dark Eldar when they came out but that was the last thing I bought.

[Ebon]

The last is in bold text because this is by far the biggest issue, and actually puts me off buying even the rulebooks, BL books & WD just for fun. Somebody else pointed this out in another thread in this sub-forum : whether in an attempt to draw clearer lines for newer / younger players, serve the wave & codex release strategy, or pure misguided enthusiasm, GW have sucked all of the fun out of the 40k universe by trying to explain and account for everything in it.
The 'old' 40k (& WHFB) had an anarchic, infinite feel to it - it felt like anything was possible, and there was always new stuff to discover with every new WD or compendium or mini-game release. Even during 2nd ed, when they started to try and give the rules and army lists a little more structure, the background, illustrations and random miniature releases (remember when they just released minis for the sake of it?) still hinted a stuff that you could explore on your own. Now it feels sterile and unchanging - even when an entirely new element is introduced, it's done in a controlled, crass, marketing-dominated fashion (A new race is emerging, in the war-torn galaxy, and it's the most powerful EVAR!).

While I'm still playing and buying (less than I once did), I completely get where you're coming from here. I remember with fondness the days when GW put out minis just for the hell of it (I still have an old mini of the devil that sees occasional use in my VC army). I agree with a lot of what you say although I think they hit the right balance point with early third ed 40k. You had decent, mostly playable rules (yes, they were heavily simplified but I think that was necessary) but the universe still felt vast and mostly uncharted. A lot of that random feel seems to be lost in the more recent editions.

[Rogue]

I picked price rise given that my finances severly limits what I can get right now. However if there was an "all of the above" I would have picked that.

[BaloOrk]

Price increases removed my 'impulse' buy factor, as mentioned before.
And Im saving for a chaotic autumn/winter.

I might not be buying for much less, i need my monthly fix, but i do get less bang for the buck...

[Wintermute]

Should have allowed for multiple selections and now can't figure out how to edit the poll.
Now kicking self.
Apologies.

Even if you had found the edit option (its the pencil icon next to the Poll title) you couldn't make it multiple choice now.

Wintermute

[Kozbot]

For me it's pure price/relative value. My GW purchases come out of my entertainment budget. I enjoy assembling and painting models as well as reading the fluff, but over the years the value I get from buying some new models or the new forgeworld book does not rival that of competing options, and it's not a rival game company, I switched over to historical WWII tanks and what not that can be picked up absurdly cheap for my modeling fix.

Mostly I have switched over to spending my entertainment dollars on video games, movies, music and books, as I get more enjoyment from a 10 dollar indie game or a good book than I do from 1/4th of a marine squad. It's unfortunate as I think GW has released some beautiful and amazingly high quality models of late that I have been sorely tempted to buy. I'd especially be interested in starting Necrons or expanding my fantasy armies to meet 8th edition model requirements, but I just do not feel that current prices offer a good return of enjoyment for dollar spent.

[Dervos]

Two main reason,

Don't have money to spend on more models right now

and for the second reason even if i did have money i still have 3 boxes of bloodletters and 2 blood thirsters that are still unassembled that i bought almost a year ago? I just opened the first one yesterday.

I have a bunch of eldar models and then i branched out to sisters of battle and then daemons and now i want to do a biker sm army(which i would have never fathomed doing 8 years ago, I was all about eldar and hurr everyone plays the spess marines) I'm trying to keep these additional armies small at the moment because I have a terrible system of transportation for my armies. I put rhinos and wraithlords in a small plastic box and just hope they don't fall over while im driving, I have 1 gw case for small minatures but anything oddly shaped needs to go in said box, so my exarch flags break a lot and my fine cast models get bent, I don't think i have a single warlock with a straight sword anymore.

So i guess that was 3 reasons.

1. No money
2. Have models to assemble and paint
3. Don't have enough storage material to transport or even store everything, most of my models hang out on shelves wondering when they'll finally have a home.

[Thuggrim]

Was discussing this with a friend in a different area of the country, and we have both seen ourselves and others decrease spending on GW, although some of us have decreased hobby spending overall.

1) The cost were a factor but more because they are a barrier to impulse buying and buying new armies.
2) increased competition is certainly a factor, which is heightened by the fact there have been few significant changes in GW games in a decade (Core play and mechanics) with gamers moving onto board games, PP, FoW, wyrd etc.
3) Backlog of models, many of us have just hit that critical mass were we cannot justify continual spending until we do something with our exisiting models. In addition we are fed up tinboy gaming, and want to complete projects.
4) Decreasing quality curve, or put simply the difference in quality between models made 5 years ago and now is less than those released 5 years ago and those released 10 years ago. New models are often a new take on or tweak rather than a massive jump in quality that the first chaos warrior plastics and the latest chaos warrior plastics. This means coupled with price hicks etc we are less like to feel we 'need' new models.

Which says to me that GW needs to re-evaluate its business model, stagnation will simply heighten the problem. Latest results seem to show they have it right though, although I suspect that in 5 years the current direction will cause them massive pain. I hope not, I hope they can become industry leaders by virtue of quality and innovation again.

[Calgar]

The rising prices did it for me. No more impulse purchases nor planned ones for that matter.
It made me "quit" 40k about 3,5 years ago since the prices made me and my gaming friends buy less frequent, then play less frequent, couldn't keep up whit the new editions & books that came out and then our interest just stoped. The lack of good quality models didn't help either.

I've now switched to scale modelling and reading more Black Library books.

[paddyalexander]

For anyone looking to experience the 40k universe without spending a lot of money then I would highly recommend the Fantasy Flight role playing games.

[Xelloss]

I voted "price increase", but more than being more expensive, I find the game being less worth its cost because of the rules favouring randomness over player skill - being always more expensive is just adding insult to the injury. After all, if I want to play Yahtzee, I don't need to buy and carry dozens of minis.
I didn't vote "prefer other companies rules/minis", because when I dropped WH40K and WHFB, I didn't go to an other company, I just spent my money on other hobbies.

[Dai-Mongar]

I voted price increase, but more than that it's the embargo. I used to buy a bunch of stuff from Maelstrom a couple of years ago, but I can't bring myself to pay NZ retail.
There are other companies that I'd rather do business with, and I still have enough GW minis to play their games if I want to. But a new WFB army is likely to be made up of Mantic rank and file with Reaper characters.