EDITORIAL

It is late spring/ early summer. That means it is time for everybody to lose their minds again as Games Workshop raises prices.

Now there are two things about this hobby that spin me. The first is codex creep, codex unbalance, codex over power, or codex rumors destroying the gaming universe. The second is the insanity that is caused when Games Workshop raises prices. I’ll only be talking of the second point and save the first point for another time.

Now I’m not a G.W. apologist, but I am a realist. This is a business first and a hobby/ game second. If they want to raise prices as a means to an end then they will. We can do nothing to stop them. All the angry internet vitriol and polite letters to customer service will change nothing.  G.W. has investors that want a return, employees and bills to pay. So, if they have to raise prices to get this done they will. What can we do about it? Well we can do a few things, but are any of them useful?

Now we can all nerd rage about it, quit the hobby, find another “cheaper” game, just accept it or adapt. Now nerd raging about price increases does not really help the situation. It does, for the short term, make that person feel better. It also helps that this is the common option among the gaming community. We can get validation if many people get mad and rant about the problem.

The second option is the easiest, just quit. If the hobby is too expensive, stop playing it. There is nobody forcing us to buy, build, paint and play with little toy soldiers. We can stop at anytime. There is nothing G.W. makes that causes a physical addiction. So therefore we can put our toys and paints away and suffer no physical damage.

Third, is to find or move to a “cheaper” game. Well, there are not a lot. Sure there are a lot of tabletop miniature games. However, they all cost something and if they get popular by us all switching to these other game systems, you can bet their prices will go up as well. There is also the chance that the new game you like fails and you now have models and books for a defunct game nobody plays. That can easily lead us to the first point again, rage.

Fourth is to put our heads in the sand and just face the fact that prices will always go up. We can just go all ostrich. This is the easiest solution; however, it is also the defeatist option. We all just give up. Companies raise prices and we just soldier on with the game.

Last we adapt. We become the ant and not the grasshopper (fable reference look it up).  We all know G.W. will raise prices. They do it, as do all businesses. So we change our habits. We budget our money better. We don’t buy all the cool new stuff for our army. We only buy what we need. We set aside some cash to get a unit a month. We realize we don’t have to buy the whole force at one time. We can also look for deals outside of Games Workshop. There are other outlets and sources where we can buy our models. We change our habits to make the game affordable for us. Then when price increases come it isn’t so awful.

It really just boils down to where you fit in the scheme of things. Are you a rager, quitter, traveler, ostrich or an ant? This is a hobby. A hobby does require an investment of time and almost always money. If the cost is too great, find a productive way to deal with it. If you dislike the product and where it is going then do what you must. Leaving, ranting and letters will not change the fact that this business will charge what it wants for its product. That is a fact we all have to face. How we deal with that fact is what is really important. Myself, I’ll continue to be the ant when it comes to Games Workshop. I’ll buy what I need when I need it and usually not from them.