Whats the deal with GW?

[Lord Excelsior XIII]

I've always noticed that GW has always had an insanely large bias in their Warhammer 40k line with the Space Marines. What I don't see is what the big attraction is to them. They're just tesosterone dripped men in bland suits who blindly follow a false god. They're not interesting in regards to story or even aesthetic.

They even go as far to have new armies and codex's made for something that's basically just space marines with one unique new troop unit and a few new HQs. Why waste time on them when you could develop mistreated armies such as the Necrons, T'au, Dark Eldar or even work on making a new unique race for the setting?

I know the entire company is full of Imperium bumming fanboys. But seriously there has to be a limit.

[snowblizz]

It's not a company wide conspiracy to deprive people of models. Not really. GW likes to make money, they really do. So they make the stuff that really really makes them that money. Unfortunately you are in the minority. There is a lot and I do mean *a lot* of people who feel Space Marine are the coolest thing evvar. And to a certain degree I can understand that fascination. After all I bet you were rooting for John McClain in Die Hard.

I'm not certain of the veracity of the claim but it is often said in these topics that Space Marines outsell the entirety of the other ranges. I forget exactly the nature of the claim, sometimes it is more than the whole of WHFB and I've even seen it put that they outsell the entirety of GW's catalogue. Considering they have now have 1/3 of the developers they had in their Golden Era and a third core game to take care of the resources there must be spread thin.

They do make up a disproportionate part of their sales though. In part I feel this has led us to a evil spiral since they see Space Marines do so well so they keep updating Space Marines to drive sales and thus neglect other armies in favour of a quick buck. There's nothing to say that if they lavished the attention on other armies they couldn't make them similar successes. Space Marines have an infuriating good cost to profit ratio. You have the basics already, schlep some detailing on them, and you can sell another army to the same people really. Yes, I blame the players as well. I do agree that the new Space Marine releases have been very nice looking but I refuse to reward them for doing the easy thing.

FWIW they made an excellent job with the new Dark Eldar, so I see a lot of promise there.
And your assessment about one new unit and some HQ is completely bonkers. The recent Space Marine variants have been so much more than that. And FWIW the last thing I want to see is another new race for them to half-heartedly try and push for 6 months.

All this said by someone whose deep hatred of Space Marines is bordering on monumental. I play(ed) Chaos Space Marines.

[IBBoard]

As Snowblizz said, there is a bit of a bias but there are also people who love the idea of an army of super-hard warriors stomping all over everything. To them it is the epitome of SciFi.

And I agree with Snowblizz on the point about other races. GW released Dogs of War and Ogre Kingdoms (and, arguably, Lizardmen) to cash in on "look, we've got something new", even if it spread everything thinner. Tau were reportedly created to cash in on the growing Japanese market with the anime/mech-vibe. Dark Eldar started off as a bit of a weak army just to make money and sell the new 40K game as well. Whatever sells (including more expensive but smaller pots of paint, overpriced scenery and huge mega-models for "ZOMG!WTF!MegaBattleLulz!" game add-ons that they invent) is what they focus on.

I think the different chapters do generally play quite differently. I can't think of any of the current chapters with a separate codex that doesn't have a stand-out difference. Blood Angels have an assault-slant with the Death Company, Baal Predator and Furioso Dreadnaught. Black Templars had the special Land Raider (although everyone gets that now), Emperor's Champions, and the unusual Neophytes in squads, plus a few special rules that affect how they play. Dark Angels have the whole Deathwing and Ravenwing to differentiate them, plus a different style for heavy weapons. Ultramarines had a codex in 2nd Edition, but they're now just in the Codex, and their main distinction is background.

As a final thought, surely all gods are false? And the whole game is false as well, is it not?

[snowblizz]

As a final thought, surely all gods are false? And the whole game is false as well, is it not?

Nah, the Chaos Gods are totally true. You don't want to mess with those, trust me I know.

And the dice gods! Never ever leave those out, whoa nelly you don't want to get on their bad side.

[marxon]

Likely due to the fact it's the main source of revenue for them, I mean their millions of SM players, hardly any Tryanids, Crons etc.

Plus their alot of gamers out their who are into the entire "Halo" and "Power armour" thing. So pritty good reason to advertise SM and their fractions.

Now likely to be even less with the 19% price increase and chop of the metal models. As informed by a company representative. (Despite the fact their using cheaper resins for the metal models, and it affects all lines. Including Battleforces, Codex etc.)

[snowblizz]

Likely due to the fact it's the main source of revenue for them, I mean their millions of SM players, hardly any Tryanids, Crons etc.

Plus their alot of gamers out their who are into the entire "Halo" and "Power armour" thing. So pritty good reason to advertise SM and their fractions.

Now likely to be even less with the 19% price increase and chop of the metal models. As informed by a company representative. (Despite the fact their using cheaper resins for the metal models, and it affects all lines. Including Battleforces, Codex etc.)

I doubt there are millions of Space Marine players. There could be millions of GW customers but that's about it. They are an unfortunate majority though. There's an argument to be made that the reason there's so many SM players is because that's the onyl thing they are pushing. And in typical short sighted evil circle you concentrate on what there's most of, but there's the most of those because you only concentrate on them.

And yeah, WTF is it with the "metal is too expensive, so we make resin instead, but then we raise the price on the recasts instead". So not buying anything Citadel Finecast. Nto gonna say "ever" but the odds aren't good that's for sure.

[IBBoard]

I've not been paying enough attention. I thought resin was for the post Forgeworld bits. I know they'd already replaced some metal bits with plastic (e.g. Warhammer Regiments, which used to have metal command-group parts and then got plastic ones shortly before a price rise) and I thought that big kits were already pretty much all plastic (including things like Predator tanks, which used to have metal turrets and sponsons).

[snowblizz]

For your benefit, GW has finally announced what it calls "Citadel Finecast" after a months of rumours and all metal models disappearing from trading accounts.

Basically they are replacing all metal models with resin version instead. Ostensibly because metal is becoming so expensive, which is true, however since it's GW they are tacking on a 5-30% price rise on these new resin models, "on account of them being so much better".

Or in layman's terms, they are switching to a cheaper material and at the same time raising the price on them.

What an opportunity to buy back some of that credibility they've lost over the years it would have been to pass some of the savings to their customers.

Instead of excitement over this switch the discussion is now how GW is trying to gouge the customers ever more. Lame ass comments from the CEO and all. Oh yeah they managed to squeeze in another "draconian" competitive measure as well by restricting EU (UK) sellers to sell GW stuff in the RoW. Not exactly greeted with cheers by the community either.

[IBBoard]

I saw the EU thing via Wayland Games. I just saw the Finecast announcement now as well. TBH, I can't see much difference to the last lot of figures, and if they're more expensive then is there really much point? Still, they must have people somewhere buying their models...