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| Just flippin wait. |
The long: What's the point, really? Assuming that 50% of the rumors are accurate, there is still not enough information to make any kind of informed decisions. They is so much BS and chaff, that you can't separate the fact from fiction until after the official rules are out. Then even after they are out, it still takes months for every to get a grip on the changes to the game.
Take a look at this. This is The Back 40k and my new favorite community. They usually have their heads screwed on straight. In that link they are giving a review of some rumors for the GK Codex as reported by Blood of Kittens. You can read down them and see that even 4 months out from release the rumors are fairly accurate at least in kind of a general way, but not accurate enough to relate the subtly in some of the rules. None of that was readily apparent until you could get the codex in your hands.
And even then, the real impact of the changes do not come through until months later. That point was illustrated very well on World's End Radio in a recent episode. (I would link to it but that would mean re-listening to a 3 hour podcast.) They were talking about their review of the Dark Eldar Codex and how they were way off on how some things worked until after they had played many games.
The kids over at BoLS, blood of Kittens and everywhere else that reports rumors does a disservice to the community. I know why they do it. It is the same reason that they do the worthless "Caption Contests" and idiotic Goatboy articles. They generate hits and those hits are how they sell advertising. It is just like the local news. They do not care what they report as long as you read it and they can get real paid.
I can wait. I am gonna wait. Don't get me wrong, I have my pennies saved and I'm going to get the rule book the day it is available. Then I am going to read it. Then I am going to write about it. Them I am going to read what other people write. Then I am going to play lots of games and only after all of that will I have enough information to make any sort of informed decision.
Rumours certainly are an interesting beast, and have only gotten moreso since GW's "official clamp down" on the information leaking out of their design studio (intentionally or otherwise).
ReplyDeleteFrom a retail sense, rumours can be a big double edged sword. On one hand they can keep ahead of the game (if the owner or their staff are knowledgable enough about the hobby) by seeing what armies and units are going to likely be popular due to new release trends and plan their stock & ordering accordingly (Something that has been made very difficult for them over the last 18+ months). On the other hand, creating buzz for something prematurely can be very detrimental to sales of that item months down the track when it finally is released. Byt then the buzz may have dies down - or potentially even worse - customers have held off on their purchases until a particular release drops, which doesn't impact sales particularly positively at all in the long term.
Because retailers and customers alike have become so desperate for information on upcoming products as of late, rumour mongering has become big business. Knowledge is power after all, and sites like Warseer, BoLS, Beast of War and their ilk are profiting greatly from the increased trafic that their supposed accuracy ratio on rumours is bringing them. We're seen this really come to a head with the upcoming release of 6th edition 40K, arguably one of the most anticipated GW releases of all time due to the number of people playing 40K today.
Personally what I would much prefer to see would be GW taking the initiative to plan a controlled release leak period in the same manner as how Wizards of the Coast does it for Magic: the Gathering. WotC engages a dozen or so different websites, bloggers, media personalities, podcasts etc - and each of them are given a small item (usually a new card of set mechanic) to spoil at a predetermined time. This not only controls the flow of information getting out there in a way that builds hype without impacting sales too much, but it involved and engages the playing community and those out there in the hobby that are investing their own time to promote and grow the game. It's a good win/win model for almost all involved. (Privateer Press also somewhat does this currently as well)
Do I expect GW to ever go down this path? Doubtful. It could be a great opportunity for them to do something more worthwhile with their valuable commodity of information, but as we all know - this doesn't tend to be the way their marketing model operates, which is a real shame. Until then, I really don't see a lot of what is happening currently changing. Although maybe things will quieten down a little after the dust from the 6th ed release settles...
- Luke @ World's End.
PS. Thanks for listening and I hope you enjoyed the show!
That's a very thoughtful and measured response.
DeleteI get what you are saying about retail and rumors and those are very good points.
I too would like to see a little more openness from GW. I'd love to see what they are working on while it is in progress rather than a few weeks before it goes on sale. If they had shows little hints of the Ork Bomma weeks and months back, we would have all been drooling and gibbering by the time it dropped (pun intended).
My big problem with the rumormongering is that it is not useful information. When the Necrons were turning the rumor mill, I tried to tailor my existing models to what would be useful when the Codex hit. There was so much inaccurate and contradictory information that I could not get a fix on what was true. Then after the real rules were realized, it still took quite a long time to get a handle on things.
There is also a disappointment factor to these rumors. I covered a lot of this in a previous post. People latch onto the rumors they like and, because many of these rumors are inaccurate our outright lies, they feel let down then their pet rumors are not true or not precisely what they expected. Then the tone of articles then shifts from excitement to disgruntlement. I think that is a great disservice to the hobby.
I love the show. You guys do great work and WER may be the best thing on the podcast airwaves.