The life expectancy of a model/range...

[Sleboda]

23 minutes ago, EccentricCircle said:

"Meta" literally means "Beyond" or "After" (Quoth Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meta#Original_Greek_meaning

Yep, so still wrong in the way 99% of people use it when they say "in the current meta." 

If folks were just talking about metagaming, I'd begrudgingly get over it. They're not. They are using the word meta in place of the highly suitable word environment.

"I enjoy the metagaming aspect of Warhammer where I can take my results after the game and reconsider what I'll include in my list and the tactics I'll employ next time."

That's very different usage from 

"The meta pumps out lots of mortal wounds. Gotta alpha that it die."

[Bufkin]

I don’t get why people use the argument “there is a perfectly fine word for….”

Since when have we decided that we don’t need synonyms?  And environment for me is not even a perfect synomym.

If I got the the question  “what is the current meta” I would answer “favours CC over shooting, horde armies are popular….” and so on.

But for “what is the current environment” I would answer “we have a growing community with people who really like competitive play  who are friendly and fair minded and you would not mind having a beer with afterwards”…

[michu]

Yeah, I think if so many people in so many games (wargames, online, CCG) use word "meta" as "what are the favored army builds (or deck builds or character class ) right now" then it basically gained that meaning. Maybe it used to mean something else, but right now it means exactly that.

[RuneBrush]

+++MOD HAT+++

Can we get back to talking about models rather than what's feeling increasingly like a an English lesson

[Malios]

Two weeks old. Apologies if this is considered resurrection, but this is an interesting and engaging topic.

Being made of plastic, resin and in some cases white metal, the models themselves if cared for will physically outlast us, the people who buy them many times over. Their role in the games they were created for has a much more finite lifespan however, and the more competitive the game the more finite the lifespan barring classical examples like Chess or Checkers that by their design will never change or need to change. 

With that in mind, the life expectancy of a model in a GW game in my opinion will be highly influenced on which of their "three ways to play" is considered the dominant for the player. For example:

• Old Matey A's Bretonnian army will happily last him 60 years because he plays with his close mates in a garage and develops a deep, sentimental attachment to them. Eventually those models will be used to inspire his kids and grandkids into the hobby and will be passed on (or more cruelly sold for $20 in a garage sale by the significant other whilst Old Matey A's away).
• Old Matey B, who plays in the ITC tournaments regularly and plays nationally at least once every 12 months, that Sylvaneth Army may only last until the next general's handbook then its either podiumed in the display cabinet as "that army that won me the ITC in 2018" or sold and they're back to the chopping block for the next competitive army for 2019. 

Regretfully, my view on the matter is that GW's only right decision in how they've handled Age of Sigmar was that Fantasy needed to go. No matter which way they went with Age of Sigmar's release, they would have shot themselves in the foot doing it. By keeping the majority of the Fantasy lines intact to keep the fanbase happy as they did, they've created a very, very crowded internal market for new releases and a nightmare for game balance. On the flipside, if they were more ruthless with their purgings, they would have achieved  releasing factions that solely fit into the Age of Sigmar setting  but would have the expense of a very loud, very angry and very toxic former fanbase trumping their sales through bad publicity for the next decade (Most of my close friends still refuse to even acknowledge "Age of Derpmar" nearly four years post Fantasy being discontinued and half of them never actually played fantasy to start with as an example. Now imagine how they'd be if they actually culled more lines then what they did). If they did the middle ground and split age of Sigmar as a third title separate from fantasy, it either would have taken a long time to transition from fantasy to gain traction or died out completely. There was no right way to go forward.

As it stands now though, it'll be a case in my opinion of older, Warhammer Fantasy lines needing to be dropped or better adapted in order to make space for something new that fits into the Age of Sigmar setting.  That may not involve discontinuing sales of models in the short term, the merging of sub-factions back into larger ones achieves the same goal. But there's two additional factions of Aelves (Tyrion's "light aelves" and Melarion's "shadow aelves") heavily implied as coming and both Slaanesh and Moonclan Grots are coming in the near future. Where the chaos range is robust (for now) with most of its factions sharing the four chaos god keywords for intermixing and destruction's shotgun spread of factions can afford some more depth (for now), order is an extremely crowded grand alliance. 

Eventually, something's going to give. How fast this gives depends on whether GW decides that either open / narrative play or matched play is their go to with the latter meaning faster transitions.

[Kirjava13]

11 hours ago, Malios said:

cruelly sold for $20 in a garage sale by the significant other whilst Old Matey A's away

This physically hurts me.