HollowHills Posted January 21, 2019 Share Posted January 21, 2019 https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2019/jan/21/heroin-for-middle-class-nerds-how-warhammer-took-over-gaming-games-workshop Heroin seriously? Middle class? Coupled with comments about ruining your social life... This guy seems ashamed of liking the hobby. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gaz Taylor Posted January 22, 2019 Share Posted January 22, 2019 It’s almost like the journalist is writing the article for their readership.... I learnt long ago to ignore newspapers (especialist British newspapers) as at the end of the day they need to sell newspapers. Just reporting on the news (GW has done well and bucked the trend in retail in the UK), they need to make it appealing to their readership. 😉 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CaptainSoup Posted January 22, 2019 Share Posted January 22, 2019 1 minute ago, Gaz Taylor said: It’s almost like the journalist is writing the article for their readership.... I learnt long ago to ignore newspapers (especialist British newspapers) as at the end of the day they need to sell newspapers. Just reporting on the news (GW has done well and bucked the trend in retail in the UK), they need to make it appealing to their readership. 😉 This pretty much sums it up. For those of us more "in the know" with the games it can be a cinge-worthy read but its all about getting other audiences to read it, not us. A few quips like the "heroin" bit did seem a bit off putting though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Overread Posted January 22, 2019 Share Posted January 22, 2019 In fairness "plastic crack" and such are terms that many geeks use to describe their GW habit. It's more of an injoke. Plus in the UK GW is pretty widely known by many parents who dread the moment their child discovers the "EXPENSIVE" hobby. Even though its actually cheaper than many others. A good bike or camera can easily set you back the cost of a good army and paints. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kenshin620 Posted January 22, 2019 Share Posted January 22, 2019 Hey could be worse, could be a warhammer fan site that wants to see AoS burned to the ground! Hahahaha...ha...😓 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Knight Scáthach of Fimm Posted January 22, 2019 Share Posted January 22, 2019 The anti-social part was off, since that's like... the core of the game since it takes more than one to play warhammer. Middleclass? That's assuming that all middleclass people have the disposable income that seems to allow for warhammer in the first place, and is the only thing it's spent on, while forgetting that people from all walks of life spend hundreds or thousands on one off football tickets and the like. Regardless, it was still a positive article since the health and growth of the company is critical to our hobby. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JPjr Posted January 22, 2019 Share Posted January 22, 2019 I’d say that’s a pretty fair and decent article tbh. If you can get through one like that in a paper like the guardian with just a couple of, let’s be honest hardly unmerited, digs then you’re doing well. If they wanted to run a hit piece on the hobby, and the people into it, then it really wouldn’t be hard to so all in all it’s pretty friendly and well meant. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ollie Grimwood Posted January 22, 2019 Share Posted January 22, 2019 The Guardian does love a condensing sneer, but as their articles go it isn’t too bad and I did recognise at least one of the people he’d interviewed. The underlying message is a good one if a bit hidden Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kirjava13 Posted January 22, 2019 Share Posted January 22, 2019 Good ol' Graun. If you can't abide the overwhelming upper middle class-ness of it all, steer clear of their opinion and features sections and just stick to their excellent journalism. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eciu Posted January 22, 2019 Share Posted January 22, 2019 8 hours ago, HollowHills said: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2019/jan/21/heroin-for-middle-class-nerds-how-warhammer-took-over-gaming-games-workshop Heroin seriously? Middle class? Coupled with comments about ruining your social life... This guy seems ashamed of liking the hobby. Well you could almost see his point with those places in the internet saying "no complaining, reasoning allowed! Only positive attitidue (we are all doing heroin hobby here)!". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greyshadow Posted January 22, 2019 Share Posted January 22, 2019 Maybe it is because I am Australian and knocking people down a peg as a sign of affection is probably in our citizenship test but I am not in the slightest bit offended or annoyed by this article. I thought it was quite good, funny and well written. Also, the subtext is that Warhammer is doing well because it is fantastic. (The author ends the article saying he went and got his shelf fix so he can again put his models on it again, read the article to the end). The bit about the meditative and relaxing benefit of painting is also a true. I know a lot of people who would benefit if they had a hobby like ours. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jamopower Posted January 22, 2019 Share Posted January 22, 2019 I found this article to be very good. In fact I would say that it is the best I have ever read from a "mainstream" media and one of the better ones in overall from any source. It has really good quotes in fun way and it is written by a guy who clearly knows what he is talking about. i loved this part: Quote “A fundamental 40k thrill is probably something involving a chainsword, which is a sword crossed with a chainsaw. That is over-the-top and silly, but also, in a very heavy-metal-guitar-solo way, exciting.” Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lare2 Posted January 22, 2019 Share Posted January 22, 2019 Aye, I thought this was a pretty good piece and was in support of the hobby and how well GW's doing. Also liked how the dude ended by being convinced to start an eldar force as well. Good luck to him! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lucur Posted January 22, 2019 Share Posted January 22, 2019 I, too, think the article is overall positive, though the social life bit stung. Then again, there are people around my local store i wouldn't hang around in other public places with, so, maybe, just maybe, there's more truth there than we'd like. And it's a good thing to get those people off their screens and under a shower once or twice a week 😂 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mosquito onthe TenthFloor Posted January 22, 2019 Share Posted January 22, 2019 Don't see anything wrong with it. Its written for people who don't have the faintest idea what the game or company is, not for diehards who take apart every word and then get all reactionary in the comments. Its almost as if noones heard the term "plastic crack" before. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kramer Posted January 22, 2019 Share Posted January 22, 2019 11 minutes ago, Mosquito onthe TenthFloor said: Its almost as if noones heard the term "plastic crack" before. What's that? What's that? Sounds good, really good? Where can I get some? Quick quick tell me! Tell me now!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kramer Posted January 22, 2019 Share Posted January 22, 2019 Read the article, and besides a few comments that are clearly his opinion and some misconceptions on his part, understandable when looking from the outside in, it seems like fine article. I like my news more objective but hey that's personal. Nice that they had an returning (male) player, a new (female) player and a retailer in there. Only missed a direct comment from a GW designer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jamopower Posted January 22, 2019 Share Posted January 22, 2019 11 minutes ago, Kramer said: Only missed a direct comment from a GW designer. Which they had tried to get, but as said in the article, they won't speak to press, but prefer to communicate only through their own medias. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JackStreicher Posted January 22, 2019 Share Posted January 22, 2019 The article isn‘t bad. Though I disagree on the heroin part (concerning social life) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brad Gamma Posted January 22, 2019 Share Posted January 22, 2019 The heroin comparison, as tongue in cheek as it is, is something that I agree with and actually get quite passionate about (EDIT: the cost bit, not the social life bit). Almost everyone I know who plays this game is unable to control their purchases, unable to complete what they wanted to complete. Most purchases are made with some grand plan in mind and rarely ever get to that stage, which does make me sad. I wonder what % of GW purchases go unfinished? I wonder what would happen if a magic omniscient thing could tell you, "by the way, you won't finish these" before you bought them. Would you buy them? What if you know that you only ever complete 20% of what you buy, would you buy them if it had a big sticker saying "80% chance you will never finish these" on them? Add this to the fact that at least two of the people I know who can't control their hobby purchases are not in a great financial situation, which means that it suddenly becomes a real problem beyond shrugging off as an inconsequential hobby with little plastic men. I sympathise massively, it took a great deal of organisation on my part to rein in my own purchasing habits. I won't go into it much more here, but I do think that talking about the hobby and addiction in general are discussions worth having. I thought the article was great by the way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nos Posted January 22, 2019 Share Posted January 22, 2019 8 hours ago, Knight Scáthach of Fimm said: The anti-social part was off, since that's like... the core of the game since it takes more than one to play warhammer. Middleclass? That's assuming that all middleclass people have the disposable income that seems to allow for warhammer in the first place, and is the only thing it's spent on, while forgetting that people from all walks of life spend hundreds or thousands on one off football tickets and the like. Regardless, it was still a positive article since the health and growth of the company is critical to our hobby. You pretty much have to have a middle class income to spend hundreds or thousands on anything that isn’t life essentials though, in the UK at least. GW has been at least a lower middle class thing for as long as it’s existed here. It’s probably more affordable than it’s ever been but if you want to persist in the hobby it’s an outlay or several hundred pounds at entry level even with stuff like Ebay etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Overread Posted January 22, 2019 Share Posted January 22, 2019 Considering that if you lurk ebay you can find things bought 10 or even 20 years ago that are STILL in the packet then I'd say there's a reasonably high turn over of models that never make it to the tabletop, nor even get built. It's one of those hobbies where when you're new to it you can buy, slap together a model and get it on the table in an afternoon; whilst once you get more experience that afternoon can be spent just leaning the mould lines and preparing a couple of models from the box. Yet as you gain more experience your spending habits are unlikely to dwindle without financial pressures forcing them. So yeah its very easy for this hobby to get out of hand; or to build up a backlog. And that's before we've even touched army hopping! There are honestly very few armies that I wouldn't enjoy putting together and building an army of and I know I'm not alone in that. It's terribly easy to burn out on one army and drift into another - a surge of new models, new ideas, new inspiration which can then fizzle and die. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Overread Posted January 22, 2019 Share Posted January 22, 2019 1 minute ago, Nos said: You pretty much have to have a middle class income to spend hundreds or thousands on anything that isn’t life essentials though, in the UK at least. GW has been at least a lower middle class thing for as long as it’s existed here. It’s probably more affordable than it’s ever been but if you want to persist in the hobby it’s an outlay or several hundred pounds at entry level even with stuff like Ebay etc. And yet I probably know of more lower-class gamers than I've casually met middle or upper. GW armies are expensive when viewed in their entirety, but can be reasonably affordable at their individual state. Heck these days cut out social drinking and that can be a £5-20 saving easily per week (and possibly more for some). Scrounge ebay and build the army slowly and you can actually amount a fairly healthy collection. Plus I think GW pushing things ilke Necromunda and Killteam and (eventually) skirmish are going to increase the uptake fast. GW has always had a big eye on the dedicated/affluent/insane teenage market. That young teenage market is where they snare many of their long term fans and its rarer to meet adults who drift into the hobby (at least unless they've already had a background of miniature model making) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nos Posted January 22, 2019 Share Posted January 22, 2019 46 minutes ago, Overread said: And yet I probably know of more lower-class gamers than I've casually met middle or upper. GW armies are expensive when viewed in their entirety, but can be reasonably affordable at their individual state. Heck these days cut out social drinking and that can be a £5-20 saving easily per week (and possibly more for some). Scrounge ebay and build the army slowly and you can actually amount a fairly healthy collection. Plus I think GW pushing things ilke Necromunda and Killteam and (eventually) skirmish are going to increase the uptake fast. GW has always had a big eye on the dedicated/affluent/insane teenage market. That young teenage market is where they snare many of their long term fans and its rarer to meet adults who drift into the hobby (at least unless they've already had a background of miniature model making) As I said, middle class income. You can be if a working class upbringing, like myself, but that rarely dictates your income anymore. As a support worker who works with people who don’t have middle class incomes, the £5-20 a week you talk about as being as no issue to put aside underline how middle class an assumption that is. If you have £20 spare a week, so roughly £100 per month, £1,200 per year, to spare on any hobby or past time or social activity that you don’t have to worry about spending on food or bills or clothes or rent or such or put into savings to protect against long term uncertainty, you’re not occupying the bracket of a lower class income comparativley speaking at all. You’re doing alright in those circumstances. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lucio Posted January 22, 2019 Share Posted January 22, 2019 The lack of research into the reasons for growth are disappointing, even without an interview it should have been clear when and how the improvements started. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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