Oh, I thought you were talking about these

Quote from: Sacrosanct;688490Oh, I thought you were talking about these

These (which you can still get as Coat d Armes colors) kick ass. Not only because the paint stays good for a long time but because of the amount of paint you get per bottle for about the same price.

I use Vallejo paints. Dropper bottles and great flow and way cheaper. At the same time I love painting plastic and would never go back to exclusively metal. I've painted a few metal minis along with a plastic horde recently, and plastic is just a joy to paint on. Also makes mods 10x easier.

But yeah, I have a friend who virulently hates GW. He thinks they're essentially geek crack dealers. I don't have really strong feelings. They make cool stuff I want to buy, and while the rules do change so people have to alter thier armies/ buy more figs every few years, that's only for people who want to engage in "official competitions". The editions by themselves that I've played all work quite well. I do think they overcharge, especially in situations when your paying for point value instead if plastic (seriously, $60 for warplock jezzails?!), but niche hobbies usually have to to break even.

The trademark stuff is pretty slimy and they've been merciless on smaller hobby stores, but that just puts them ethically on about the same level as Starbucks to me. They're not Disney or Monsanto-level of evil.

Quote from: Piestrio;688477That's a good one.

Most of the other complaints come off as entitlement (sorry if that sounds harsh), something along the lines of "This optional luxury thing that I choose to buy should be better/cheaper", which okay, fair enough but doesn't make GW evil.

They also sent a DMCA notice to stop the 3D printing of a tank and mecha that a guy had made that was in scale with one of their properties and intended to work with it.

Not a copy of something they did, a custom made model that a guy had made in a similar style and scale.

Quote from: Emperor Norton;688561They also sent a DMCA notice to stop the 3D printing of a tank and mecha that a guy had made that was in scale with one of their properties and intended to work with it.

Not a copy of something they did, a custom made model that a guy had made in a similar style and scale.

I read about that. My impression was that it was much more complicated than first reported.

IIRC the dudes 3D printing designs were taken by someone else who then offered to sell them. That second party was the primary target of the DMCA notices while the original dude was just caught in the fusillade.

Quote from: mcbobbo;688170I rather pictured the suit as being a Hasbro guy.

And they tend to suck at business decisions.  They strike me as a Disney - surviving by IP and market penetration alone.

Probably the single scariest thing I learned in business school (U of MN, MBA, 1987) is that your entire presesntation lives or dies on a one page summary with no more than five bullet points.

It does not fucking matter what's in your 200 page report; your boss is only going to read your "executive summary."  From you and six to ten other people.

Now carry that up three or four or five levels of management.

At some point, the entire issue came down to

"D&D has elves.  WoW has elves.  Therefore D&D should make as much money as WoW."

I wish there was any exaggeration or hyperbole in this.

Quote from: Emperor Norton;688561They also sent a DMCA notice to stop the 3D printing of a tank and mecha that a guy had made that was in scale with one of their properties and intended to work with it.

Not a copy of something they did, a custom made model that a guy had made in a similar style and scale.

If he was advertising it specifically using that connection, or it featured symbols associated with their products (chaos star, skaven runes, etc), then they'd have a case and it's understandable. Otherwise, that letter should go right in the trash. Most c&ds just bank on the person being intimidated by the possibility of a suit. It's just a way for one of thier lawyers to look busy for an afternoon. They'd need much more to go on than the size of a miniature before it be worth going to court, and there would have to be a more significant gain (if the guy was making good money selling them).

If I got a letter from GW because I made a Mini for my own use that was the same size as one of theirs, I'd probably send it back after using it to wipe my butt.

Quote from: Old Geezer;688564Probably the single scariest thing I learned in business school (U of MN, MBA, 1987) is that your entire presesntation lives or dies on a one page summary with no more than five bullet points.

It does not fucking matter what's in your 200 page report; your boss is only going to read your "executive summary."  From you and six to ten other people.

Now carry that up three or four or five levels of management.

At some point, the entire issue came down to

"D&D has elves.  WoW has elves.  Therefore D&D should make as much money as WoW."

I wish there was any exaggeration or hyperbole in this.

Reminds me of the Dilbert line about how layoffs are perceived by the grunts:  "We have to round up the most experienced people and pay them to leave."

Quote from: Old Geezer;688564Probably the single scariest thing I learned in business school (U of MN, MBA, 1987) is that your entire presesntation lives or dies on a one page summary with no more than five bullet points.

It does not fucking matter what's in your 200 page report; your boss is only going to read your "executive summary."  From you and six to ten other people.

Now carry that up three or four or five levels of management.

At some point, the entire issue came down to

"D&D has elves.  WoW has elves.  Therefore D&D should make as much money as WoW."

I wish there was any exaggeration or hyperbole in this.

This makes me cringe, but I've seen similar chains of logic in the workplace.

Quote from: Piestrio;68840040k 6th Ed has been out for some time and is just now getting a proper Space Marine Codex.

I kind of like that they make the effort to keep old codexes in play when they change editions. It's better than the likely alternative, "Nope, that codex isn't out yet so your army is unplayable with the new rules for x years."

That would suck much worse.

I disagree. In a (highly) competitive game, having basically a set of rules that is tailored to one version of general rules, and on the other side, a set of rules that's tailored to a different edition of those rules (8e had some pretty major overhauls), can result in a huge power difference that's built on a whimsical reason.

Quote from: Rincewind1;688397Not to mention that they don't release all armybooks at the same time, making it all a Byzantine mess when it comes to who is still supported and who is not. I understand they may not be a printing powerhouse, but a) offload it then

They deliberately don't print all their armybooks at one time because it would make them less money if they did so. It's not about production capacity at all.

Quote from: Old Geezer;688564Probably the single scariest thing I learned in business school (U of MN, MBA, 1987) is that your entire presesntation lives or dies on a one page summary with no more than five bullet points.

It does not fucking matter what's in your 200 page report; your boss is only going to read your "executive summary."  From you and six to ten other people.

Now carry that up three or four or five levels of management.

At some point, the entire issue came down to

"D&D has elves.  WoW has elves.  Therefore D&D should make as much money as WoW."

I wish there was any exaggeration or hyperbole in this.

I do this for a living now.  Or, at least, it is one of my jobs, and one source of income.  And I think you may be seeing a true pitfall.

And I will say, though I agree, the ability to mark up and link documents with a link to the relevant portion of the supporting documentation has actually changed this part of presenting a summary.  People DO look at the work a lot more now than in years past, since it is linked directly...and conveniently.

And actually, the big boss will have someone check your stuff and report on your conclusions.

That being said, I think that that there are people who are critical decision makers ( read this as money gatekeepers) who are too close and who do not understand our particular puddle.