Please don't sign up for Warhammer+

[HollowHills]

I am strongly encouraging my fellow AoS hobbyists to avoid signing up to WH+

Reasons

1) There is little to no AoS content at launch. 

We know there are no AoS animations as part of the launch offering. The only announced AoS fiction for the platform is the Blacktalon animation that lacks any clear release. 

We know there are two battle reports and two painting videos, it seems likely that one of each will be for AoS. However, there are tons of free painting videos on YouTube (including by GW) and if you are looking to go to the next level I would advise spending the money supporting a pro painter who has a patreon. There are so many free battle reports on YouTube.

2) We have no idea when the AoS app will launch or the state it will be in.

Put simply it could be a complete car crash or totally lacking in features. We also have no idea when it will be updated or how much premium access will be included initially as opposed to a free "beta".

If you think I am being pessimistic look at the 40k app and how that went.

3) We have no idea how often new content will be added.

Very simple. They could add several new episodes each week, or it could be a couple a month. We also don't know how long these episodes will be. For instance, painting videos may only be 5 to 10 minutes. 

4) There is no harm in waiting.

Give it a few months. You can get an idea of the quality and schedule of content, as well as hopefully see the release of the aos app. 

If it turns out to be great then you've got a few episodes of different series lined up to binge. If it turns out ****** then you've dodged a bullet.

Sure you are going to miss out on some store vouchers, but most countries have access to LGS who offer 10 to 25% discounts on GW products. You also potentially save more money by just waiting.

AND MOST IMPORTANTLY...

5) Put pressure on GW

We should all remember that up until now a lot of the content that exists on WH+ has been available for free. The old AoS app, painting videos and so on. GW is monetizing something they used to give away, and as consumers that isn't a good deal for us.

Nor are they actually sticking to their commitments, I.e. including a premium aos app at launch.

If the service struggles to attract subscribers at launch do you know what will happen?

They will have to make it more appealing to consumers.

Do you know who wins from that?

YOU!

A final word...

If you are already using the paid features of the 40k app or are really keen to set aside time to pour through old white dwarf articles, then go ahead and subscribe. 

I know there will be value in this content to some people. This post is meant to argue that the cost exceeds the value for most AoS players.

If you are 100% happy and excited for what's already been announced then I truly hope you have a lovely bug free launch day and enjoy it!

 

Edited August 24, 2021 by HollowHills
Title tweak

[jamie.white]

The old aos wasn’t free . 

[Twisted Firaun]

11 minutes ago, jamie.white said:

The old aos wasn’t free . 

The war scrolls were, the actual faction rules weren't.

[The Jabber Tzeentch]

For 4.99 I don’t care if it’s not the most amazing content at launch. I’m happy to support it to see what comes. 

All GW will do if no one supports it is to drop it entirely. I can’t see that happening though tbh. 

[jamie.white]

8 minutes ago, Loyal Son of Khemri said:

The war scrolls were, the actual faction rules weren't.

Faction rules weren’t in it other than some batallion composition . You paid for the army builder - if you want to boycott it that’s up to you . But I think the content is more than worth it . The  model alone is worth half the price of admission . 

[Neverchosen]

Yeah I am absolutely going to skip out on this service, there is not enough content for me to subscribe. Plus they are just locking things that I would have had access to for free anyway behind a paywall. I suspect that there isn't a big enough market for the content and they will transfer most of the original works to youtube in a few years anyway. In the end they will likely make more money off of ad revenue and expanding their audience with more easily accessed content then from Warhammer Plus. 

Streaming services are currently saturating the market and I think this bubble will likely burst, so I have little hope for such a niche service. But then again Miniwargamming is still floating with a similar model but they freely use Youtube as a means of generating community and an interest in their content and have a much smaller overhead.

Edited August 24, 2021 by Neverchosen

[Sleepa]

The whole model of WH+ stinks of GW extorting their fans into paying for community fan content in order to sell subscriptions to their incredibly underwhelming apps.

 

[Twisted Firaun]

18 minutes ago, jamie.white said:

Faction rules weren’t in it other than some batallion composition . You paid for the army builder - if you want to boycott it that’s up to you . But I think the content is more than worth it . The  model alone is worth half the price of admission . 

I never used the army builder, I just downloaded the free Tomb Kings rules. 

[PJetski]

30 minutes ago, The Jabber Tzeentch said:

For 4.99 I don’t care if it’s not the most amazing content at launch. I’m happy to support it to see what comes. 

All GW will do if no one supports it is to drop it entirely. I can’t see that happening though tbh. 

Personally I would not pay $5 a month for something I don't currently want in hopes that they eventually give me something I do want, but to each their own

[Lord Veshnakar]

The thing is, the alternative is likely very little content whatsoever. So basically white dwarf+warhammer community+paint videos like we have had. It's for the most part bland and uninteresting; glorified advertisements. Usually just stuff to get us hyped about new launches. And it's quite likely that any budget that they put towards that would detract from things like miniatures design and production which is WAY more important to me. 

I would much prefer animation from the universe, lore videos, free miniature, battle reports, meta talks etc. It will especially be worth it if I can read the lore from some of the old warhammer fantasy books in the "publication vault". I might balk if it was like $15 a month, but $6 a month is like nothing. That's less than most Starbucks drinks. And it's coupled with the app, and I was already paying for Azyr so its even cheaper than $6 for me.

This whole anti WH+ movement has the same flavor as people who get upset about paid DLC. You can obviously do what you want with all due respect, and I will too. 

 

Edited August 24, 2021 by Lord Veshnakar

[Sleepa]

33 minutes ago, Lord Veshnakar said:

This whole anti WH+ movement has the same flavor as people who get upset about paid DLC. You can obviously do what you want with all due respect, and I will too. 

I have no issue with paid DLC or even subscriptions for products I'll appreciate and use. My issue is entirely in making me pay for a bunch of things I don't want for access to one thing I do want. If GW goes all in and sponsors some truly awesome original content and media, then sure I'll consider checking it out. But GW is big enough that I'm not about to subscribe up front for an unknown quantity of unknown quality. And while Azyr was always kind of worthwhile for the sub price while I was attending events; the second COVID hit I couldn't honestly justify paying about $1.37 per month for something I just wasn't using. The 40k app was basically nothing BUT unfulfilled promises missing features. I'd gladly pay for it if at any point they delivered the product we were advertised when they originally announced it. 

GW just hasn't set a past precedent of putting as much effort in their media content as the youtube fan community has been willing to (for free). So all I'm asking them to do is show me something I can rationally defend paying $10 a month for (I'm in Canada). 

As for the former Azyr sub cost: It's not that I can't afford it; I just chose to put that money towards a Warhammer Youtuber's patreon instead, since they showed me they were putting out regular content I consistently appreciated and consumed.

Edited August 24, 2021 by Sleepa

[The Jabber Tzeentch]

58 minutes ago, PJetski said:

Personally I would not pay $5 a month for something I don't currently want in hopes that they eventually give me something I do want, but to each their own

But I do also currently want it 🤷🏻‍♂️

[Enoby]

The value of Warhammer+, to me, really relies on the quality of the AoS app. Yeah, Azyr had its problems, especially later on when it came to updates, but it was super simple to use. If the new AoS app is a clunky, bloated, glitchy mess then W+ doesn't really have much else I'd find paid value in. 

As for animations, I understand they have many more 40k fans, but as an exclusively AoS fan there's not a lot I care about. And I worry that AoS animations will suffer in the same way that AoS books do popularity wise, where the spread of faction popularity is much more even so it's much harder to make a guaranteed hit, unlike a Space Marine animation/book.

I want to like W+, but at the moment it feels so heavily towards 40k that I can't justify it until the content that I would actually use is on there.

[SunStorm]

Unfortunately you are wrong to assume that because I subscribe to an AoS forum that I am only an "AoS Hobbyist".

It is also wrong to think that you only know the truth and that I am not able to make my own informed judgement. 

I will make my own decision, just like I made my own decision to subscribe to and support this site. 

 

[Gaz Taylor]

2 hours ago, HollowHills said:

If you are 100% happy and excited for what's already been announced then I truly hope you have a lovely bug free launch day and enjoy it!

I think this is what we should all be thinking personally. If anybody wants to sign up to it, do it. 

Warhammer+ sounds ace and seems like a bargain. I’m not subscribing purely due to limited supported apps to let me watch on my TV. If this support was here I would be signing up to it (also helps I have a £25 gift voucher to spend on GW stuff from my birthday a few months ago 😁). Yes I know about streaming from other devices but my TV doesn’t do that.

[yukishiro1]

There's almost no content at launch, to a degree where I really wonder what they are thinking. Like less than 10 hours total, aside from old WD PDFs. But I guess the thought is "people'll sign up anyway, and some portion of them will stay subscribed forever just because it's too much hassle to stop the subscription, so why not start collecting that cash now?" 

We'll see if it's a good call. Launching with no content is a big risk, once a product develops a bad reputation it's hard to reverse peoples' initial impressions. 

[Maephi]

15 minutes ago, yukishiro1 said:

There's almost no content at launch, to a degree where I really wonder what they are thinking. Like less than 10 hours total, aside from old WD PDFs. But I guess the thought is "people'll sign up anyway, and some portion of them will stay subscribed forever just because it's too much hassle to stop the subscription, so why not start collecting that cash now?" 

We'll see if it's a good call. Launching with no content is a big risk, once a product develops a bad reputation it's hard to reverse peoples' initial impressions. 

$5 for 10 hours beats the hell out of any Movie ticket I've bought.

[amysrevenge]

I'm not boycotting for any ethical reasons, but I also won't be signing up until there is a workable AoS army builder.  Not as a protest, but just because that's the service I want, and once it's available I'll sign up.

I don't care even a little about 40k cartoons or lore, and I also don't care about battle reports or painting videos. WH+ is a service aimed at people other than me - which is fine, not everything has to be about me.

[Landohammer]

GW's history with Apps is pretty terrible and given their neglect of 3rd edition as a whole I don't forsee the AOS app being any different. Ya'll remember when the GHB and LRL codex hit and Azyr didn't update for like 2 months?  

I personally still intend on getting it simply because I currently use the 40k app and wish to maintain access to it. (and the cost difference between 40k app and WH+ is negligible) 

That being said, if you ONLY play AOS then you should listen to the OP. GW is very likely to miss the AOS app launch date by several months given recent trends. No need to give them money until you can use the product. 

 

 

[RuneBrush]

Think it's important to remember that everybody is going to have their own views and opinions on this that we need to respect that rather than try and brow beat people to follow our own views.

Personally I will be signing up.  There's content that they're going to be putting up that I would like to watch/read and the miniature and voucher makes it pretty reasonable - certainly less than I spent on Patreon and Twitch each month.  It does help that having been in the hobby some 30 odd years and playing/collecting multiple systems with an interest in all of the GW system backgrounds.

One point that I do think is worth making is that masterclass, loremaster, out of print content etc, would never have been available without GW doing Warhammer+.  From what they've said they're still going to be producing YouTube painting videos and streaming on Twitch.  Warhammer+ content is extra content on top of that.  Yes there is an argument that you can access battle reports and painting videos for free* on YouTube, but I've easily watched as many awful painting videos as I have good ones.

 

* aka stuffed with adverts

[Gaz Taylor]

+++ Mod Hat On +++
Just a quick note about this topic as we’ve had some queries about this. This is all opinion and so far hasn’t gone too much one way or another. Here at TGA we don’t mind criticism as long as it is constructive. Not everybody is going to like Warhammer+ and they are entitled to that opinion, just as much as those who think it looks ace and want to sign up. 
 

 

 

 

[Gareth 🍄]

I'm giving it a go, I enjoy their output and it doesn't seem like a crazy price to me. Plus I want the Megaboss  

[HollowHills]

54 minutes ago, Gaz Taylor said:

+++ Mod Hat On +++
Just a quick note about this topic as we’ve had some queries about this. This is all opinion and so far hasn’t gone too much one way or another. Here at TGA we don’t mind criticism as long as it is constructive. Not everybody is going to like Warhammer+ and they are entitled to that opinion, just as much as those who think it looks ace and want to sign up. 
 

 

 

 

Obviously this is just my opinion. It's coming from the same place as asking people not to pre-order video games at full price before they've even been reviewed.

Basically I'm just saying don't give a company money until you know the product is worth it.

I don't really understand why some people would stan so hard for GW that they'd want to shut down discussion. But hey, this forum has taught me there are some people willing to praise GW regardless of what they do.

 

[Overread]

We aren't shutting it down (thread is all nice and open :))  - just reminding people to remain polite and constructive. 

It's got nothing specifically to do with GW themselves (this thread could be about anything); but its about the general goal to maintain TGA as a friendly and welcoming social group first and foremost. Criticism and critique are perfectly fine and allowed. We just take steps to help avoid it crossing the line into just ranting/raving/hating/insulting. It's not something that we, as moderators and admin, want to happen to the tone of TGA. 

 

 

 

And that aside I'll most likely sign up for Warhammer+. I do love that assassin model for 40K (and I don't even play Imperials in any form); the videos are neat from what we've seen and I'm eager to see more; the backlog of White Dwarf; masterclass painting; battle reports and more are all good sounding extras. For me its a model and videos first and foremost. The app's don't actually impact me at all as I don't tend to use them much for gaming; but having them there is a neat thing. 

Part of me actually wonders if GW will close WD and shift over fully to Warhammer +. I'm actually half considering cancelling one for the other, even though I do still love print media. Thing is things like battle reports, well made, can simply be better on video. We'll have to wait and see, but Warhammer+ is sounding like its designed to be a major thing to stay around for a while and fast become a cornerstone of the GW experience. 

 

That said if you're on the fence do wait There isn't a vast amount of content going out tomorrow, so you can get a sample and see or wait for a few months and then dip in and see. In the end each of us makes our own choice. For me the price and content are worth it. 

[ManlyMuppet88]

If you want it, get it. If you don't want it, don't get it. 

I have no interest at all in Warhammer+ but for those who do, I hope you enjoy it.