R.I.O.T.S.

October 6, 2013 by warzan

So that's been an interesting couple of days. See why here: Important Announcement (GW Coverage)

First off a huge thank you to the community for your continued support. We're still trying to get through all the messages!

I would like to take a moment to remind everyone of R.I.O.T.S. or as we all may know it as:

Remember It's Only (Insert your choice of Expletive Here) Toy Soldiers!

There has been (to be fair, yet again) a huge outpouring of negative GW sentiment, and while that is not unexpected, it was obviously not the intention of our statement, no we will happily (and selfishly) admit we're are more concerned about the ongoing sustainability of our community.

Undoubtedly, there is a lot of pain out there these days. We have the leading company, who choose not to have a dialogue with its fans, and seem to think that the only way they can communicate with us is through imperium speak! (Never breaking the 40K illusion)

The reality is we are in (and hopefully coming out of) a time of austerity, and well, many of us are not children, and maybe find it a little patronising, when a company we care about, does little to demonstrate it's understanding of the times we are living in.

It looks out of touch, and it hurts.

It hurts because our hobbies are like lovers and family to us (yes perhaps even a drug), it's heart wrenching to walk away from, it's not as simple as if you can't afford it then that's your problem.

It hurts just like when we were teenagers, and fell in love with the most beautiful girl in our year, every day she was beautiful, perfect even, but she still didn't talk to us, or perhaps even notice us.

Feelings are feelings, and If you invest a lot of your self into something, deep down it does hurt if you suddenly feel the love is only in one direction.

But R.I.O.T.S

Games Workshop do care, they care hugely, and I know this because I know plenty of present and past employees of the company, and they are some of the finest individuals I have ever met.

Games Workshop like all of us are also living in these times of austerity, and they have the unenviable task of supporting thousands of families, by meeting the payroll, and ensuring they have built the sustainability of their community.

We may agree or disagree with how they are going about it, and I think it's fair to say I do disagree with a lot of their approach to building that sustainability, but I don't disagree with their ultimate goal, which is to be doing what they do, forever.

Live and let love

We have grown from 'the hobby' to today a thriving industry of many hobbies, and each and every one of them have a right to be here.

YOU ARE ALLOWED TO LOVE YOUR HOBBY, NOT MATTER WHAT IT IS!

I love Space Marines, Imperial Guard and Tyranids, I absolutely f****ing love them! There I said it, and guess what, I am allowed to love them. I also happen to love loads of other stuff in the industry and particularly Flames of War - Now I'm one of the best players in europe! 😉 (OK Im 12 from the bottom, but 'best' is a big wide term to me!)

If you love your hobby, just get on with loving it, and if you want to help your hobby, then when the opportunity arises (and without being an arse) show it off to people.

It doesn't matter which part of the industry you get your kicks from, because that is your choice, and if you enjoy it... then it's the right choice, if not... you are still spoilt for choice.

Our decision is based on integrity

I wasn't joking when I said the easy thing would be to walk away, and perhaps if I we're more of a 'brains' instead of a 'heart' guy we would have done just that.

But I am a 'heart' guy, and it's simple, if we're going to participate in this industry, then it has to include Games Workshop, otherwise what we are doing would be a false representation of our industry.

I understand that many of you haven't and wouldn't miss the coverage, but this is a much bigger industry than we often realise, and we'll I'll let Spock finish this for me...

So Remember It's Only Toy Soldiers, today is day 2 of quite an uncertain future for us here at Beasts of War, but we all realise and understand, that as hard as this is, we have to try and remember that a little job reporting on little plastic men, is infantesimaly small when compared to the importance of our friends and family and each other. (But yeah, we’re still gonna fight for this community!!)

Go have some fun today!

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