Reply To: The Price of being a Beastie

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I’ve been a backstager for a few years.  I love BoW and it is a key part of my hobby.  The weekend doesn’t start until I have a brush in my hand and Warren is winding up Justin on my screen.  When I run out of BoW content but still have many hours of painting ahead of me I feel a little lost (I’m using classic Lost in Space to fill the void right now).  BoW is definitely worth the money.  Throw in all the competitions and I think my BS pass has paid for itself over the years.  I’ve won a copy of Shadow Games, FoW boot camp bundle, a Mythic Battles: Pantheon model, and the recent CMON Expo swag bag (2 board games and more).  If I’ve paid £50 a year that’s got to be 5 years worth of content covered right there.  Plus I’m expecting to win more from the Expo competition, pretty please?

While I don’t like paying more (who does?) I would not object to a small price rise.  One suggestion to calm the naysayers might be to add a BS Gold level subscription.  You get the same content, but every few months, or perhaps when your subscription is renewed you get some swag?  Branded dice, a signed picture of Justin protecting his trouser region as he is  chased by the team brandishing clippers, a random piece of branded terrain Warren has 3d printed?  What happened to those sprues of Justin heads?  Maybe even an OTT shirt or cap? And maybe, just maybe, an ANZAC biscuit.  Nothing that costs BoW too much, but would likely cost us more if we were to buy so they can make money and we can feel like we are getting value while supporting the site.

A separate, but related request for BoW: I recently had £50 disappear from my bank account from Paypal and got all confused as I hadn’t bought anything from eBay recently (A minor miracle in itself).  Turns out it was just my subscription.  Money had been a little tight at that point (Stupid Kickstarters ending days before my gas bill arrived and my washing machine broke).  Perhaps we could get an automated one month warning email built in to BoW 2.0 letting us know that this money will be taken soon?

EDIT: As a thought you could use such an (bi-)annual subscription box as a means of getting everyone the same model for a painting competition like with that Chaos Champion from White Dwarf the other year.  It could help cover the costs of that, and not add extra shipping to the situation.  You could also coordinate with companies.  Suggest that if, for example, Army Painter add a brush or a pot of wash to each box they can also include advertising materials. I’ve no idea how many BSer’s you have so I’ve no idea how big an ask any of this would be for anyone.