I've noticed a big change in our local players after the GHB came out. Many players who left and then returned after the GHB only play points and only the matched play battle plans. Whenever I bring out my campaign book and convince them to try a narrative game they field crazy powerful combos. I discuss with them, hey not sure that will be a balanced game, and most of the time they just kind of give me the "Well I can't play this in matched play so I want to use this in narrative/open".
It seems like the community is more focused on winning than everyone having a good time.
Yes, and that was something I was very afraid of when the General's Handbook came out; that "winning" would trump everything else because now there's the one thing missing from pretending a game is "competitive" (i.e. some kind of balancing factor beyond talking to your opponent), so we are right back to pretending that Warhammer can be a competitive game (which technically it can be, but there are much better games with better rules for competitive gaming), and worse points have replaced everything else so that we are basically back to the pre-AOS style of "buy an X point army to play" instead of "buy what you want and build your force slowly adding to it".
Luckily it seems people at my GW care more about narrative/themed play than they do competitive, but the fact remains that points are the bugbear that always rears its head as "balance".
The Elephant in the Room: Why Matched Play Should Not Be The Default
in Slave to Darkness: An Age of Sigmar Blog
A blog by wayniac in General
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Yes, and that was something I was very afraid of when the General's Handbook came out; that "winning" would trump everything else because now there's the one thing missing from pretending a game is "competitive" (i.e. some kind of balancing factor beyond talking to your opponent), so we are right back to pretending that Warhammer can be a competitive game (which technically it can be, but there are much better games with better rules for competitive gaming), and worse points have replaced everything else so that we are basically back to the pre-AOS style of "buy an X point army to play" instead of "buy what you want and build your force slowly adding to it".
Luckily it seems people at my GW care more about narrative/themed play than they do competitive, but the fact remains that points are the bugbear that always rears its head as "balance".