+++ In this article, Taken staff writer, Brian Dyer discusses his views on the current state of the hobby, casual play, tournament play, and the mentality of WAAC style of play, particularly the negative impact they are having on our hobby as a whole. +++
When I was in school and was given an essay assignment in English, I remember asking my teacher where was the best place to start. 'At the beginning,' was his slightly sarcastic answer (we've all had a teacher like that). So, I'll start here at the beginning and explain a little about myself first. I've played 40k (and other war games as a result) since I was 14. That's almost sixteen years now of being a hobbyist and gamer. It's important to note the order of those words. I consider myself a hobbyist first and foremost, a gamer second. I've a decent win/loss ratio in 40k these days with my Marine army, but generally I was never that good at the game. And that's OK. I didn't mind. I had fun and got to spend time with my mates building a world in our own minds that no one else shared. I still remember one epic close combat from 2nd Ed involving Abaddon, his bodyguard, plague marines, chaos marines, wolf guard, grey hunters, Ahriman, Njal and Bjorn the Fell Handed. That's what made the game for me and my group of friends. But when I look back at that time (the mid to late '90s) I can see the first signs of the infection that has come to blight the hobby.
I'm talking about tournament play. Actually, I'll re-qualify that statement. I'm talking about the tournament 'mind set'. There has been a concurrent development of this 'disease' in the computer gaming world too. With the advent of online multi-player games, computer gaming is now no longer about you versus the game in a test of skill and reflexes, which is what all classic arcade games were based on, but it is now a competitive 'sport' without the regulation that sports usually have. The tournament scene is the same. The hobby has been sacrificed for the game. The competitive mindset has taken root and sprouted bitter fruit.
In the early '90s tournaments were organised by local clubs for the most part and there was no real calendar of events. Then GW saw that there was a growing number of people in the community who wanted to get together and play games in the structured environs of a tournament. As had been proven already by Golden Daemon, the opportunity to improve the general standards of the hobby and showcase the game, but also the chance to make a little more money on the back of an increase in sales of toy soldiers was there to be taken. All sound business practice. The GT was designed to give an 'official' stamp of approval by GW to the growing tournament scene and to find the best players in the country/world. In the beginning it all worked well. Those who wanted to play competitively did so, practising for games and using the year to build towards the GT, much as the top painters built to Golden Daemon. So what's the problem? Where did it go wrong?
The simple answer is 3rd Ed 40k. The GT had grown to be staged in other nations besides the UK. 3rd Edition introduced the Force Organisation charts and stream lined the rules to aid faster play. Most hobbyists didn't mind. Instead of a whole day invested in a game, you could spend two to three hours playing on a Saturday or Sunday and still have time to see the family or head out with friends (for a post game analysis and pint). But why was this change made? Why speed up the game, why was it needed? The simple answer to that is it made tournaments easier to play. Quicker games meant more games. Tourneys could now give five or six games to each player over two days. The other factor introduced by 3rd Edition was the practice of accepting a 'standard' points value for a game. This was 1500pts for all of 3rd and most of 4th Ed's run. Again, why? Why not 2000pts? Or 1200pts? Again, it's tournaments. The GT used that as it's points level to ensure a balanced event.
So, the tournament mindset had determined game design. This is a trend which has continued through codex after codex. The accepted measure of whether or not an army is 'cheesy' or over powered is how it handles itself in a tournament game. This race to the bottom has persisted and is now, I believe, strangling the hobby.
So why am I on my hobby horse (pardon the pun, it was intended)? It's because of the one single development to counter the tournament plague that GW have had the guts to do in the recent past. Apocalypse. For those who don't know (where have you been? The Eye of Terror?) Apocalypse is a supplement to 40k that allows you to play massive games with no points limit bar what you can put on the table and play with (I've about 10,000pts of Imperials all told myself). Apoc was designed to capture the spirit of the days of Rogue Trader and 2nd Ed 40k when basically you and your mates put all your models on a table and duked it out. Points values back then for models were usually only used to restrict the use of powerful units. But the result of throwing everything you had on a table and blazing away was epic (see aforementioned combat in 2nd Ed). That's what Apoc was all about. And I remember what people said about it when it was released – 'It's not tournament play, you can't play tournaments with it. What's the point?'
Here's the point. It's fun. That's what the game is supposed to be. Fun! That's why I play it. It's also why I've only played the same five guys in the last two years. Cause tournament play has caused it to cease being fun. There is one guy I know, a good friend, who I will not play ever. I know this guy solely because of 40k. I've been on holiday with him. We're mates. We go drinking and talk about the game and mathhammer. But will I ever play him again? No. Because he only plays tournaments. Every list is min/maxed to eke out an advantage. Every unit is chosen to either a) cause maximum damage (a Death Star) or b) be a tar pit/road block to suck in the enemy and grind them down. There is no character to his armies. Different codices, same tactics. Even his Iyanden Eldar army, which could have had character oozing from it, was full of 'cheesy' selections such as war walker squadrons and four aspect warrior squads. It wasn't an Iyanden army. It was an Eldar army with some yellow wraithguard in it.
It wasn't a fun army to play against. It was super tough, and incredibly shooty. The warlocks and seers added to it with their psychic powers. For a friendly game, played to relax on an afternoon off work and try out a new army build I was working on (a shooting based Grey Knight army with the old Deamon Hunters book) it was torture. I hated it. Every minute. I ended up throwing the game by suiciding my guys into combat. Why? It was just that bad. There was no fun factor. It was effectively killed by tournament plague. And my friend is oblivious. He honestly thinks his armies are characterful and in the spirit of the theme he says they are chosen for. But they aren't. They pay lip service to a theme. We've all seen it.
My own Marine army is based on a simple theme and premise. The quick strike. I use drop pods, rhinos, land raiders and vanguard. My army basically deploys in the enemy's face and then hits it, hard. I've had good success with it, dropping on top of a Tau gun line so that they couldn't use their railguns is a favourite. However, I've had bad times too. A bad scatter, units in the open, enemy guns pounding me to dust. But above all, it's been fun. I've enjoyed it. And no game has been a tournament one. I will admit that most of the games I play have been tournament prep for someone else, but these are guys who play in the spirit of the game, not the tournament they are practising for.
So is that what I'm really saying is 'tournament plague'? That the spirit of the game, of the hobby itself, has been supplanted by the spirit of the next tournament in the calendar? Yes, basically. At the moment there is a discussion going on in the local gaming community as to whether or not Forgeworld models should be allowed in tournaments. The reason for this is the recently released Imperial Armour Apocalypse II (Apoc again, demonstrating that there are basically two games at the moment, tournament and fun). IA:AII introduces something that FW have been shy of doing since the start of the IA series. A 'stamp' on each unit entry page, which shows either 'Apocalypse' or 'Warhammer 40k', indicating whether a unit is intended for 'regular' 40k or only for Apoc. The units marked only for Apoc are generally super-heavies and mega daemons so I understand, while the land raider variants and dreads are marked for 40k. Makes sense to me. The argument is that FW rules are overpowered and that they are inaccessible to the general gaming public as you can't afford all the books.
Well, I can't afford all the codices either. I don't have the new Dark Eldar one. Or the Eldar one, or the Orks, or the Space Wolves. This is a hobby. I spend my disposable income on a wide range of interests and have to prioritise what I spend that money on. I don't buy a FW book, OK. I shouldn't expect special protection because I choose not to buy it though. If that were the case, then I should be able to refuse to play a Dark Eldar army in a tourney simply because I haven't bought the codex and not be penalised for it.
The other spanner in the works is that in the book it states that the FW units should be considered 'official' and usable in any 40k game. This has caused many to question the current anti-FW bias in the local tournament scene. If it states in the book it's official, shouldn't I be allowed use it if I paid the money for it? I say yes. But it's becoming clear that I'm in the minority. I hear tournament players bang on about the fact that you get to play new armies, different armies at tournaments. Sorry, you don't. You play different versions of the same cookie cutter army of the moment. That's it. And that's why they won't allow the FW stuff. It's new. Different. They haven't seen a blog about how to deal with it. They'll have to think about it. The worst symptom of the tourney plague. Lack of tactical thinking.
What happened to those days of simply getting together and putting models on a table and playing a game? What happened to the fun? Are we going to remain victims of tournament plague or are we going to take back our hobby and tell all of these WAAC morons to shut up and play the game? In the spirit it was meant to be played.
- +++Taken Staff, Brian Dyer+++
Interesting Article Mate. WAAC is a so convoluted now that even some debate what it means. Some will tell you WAAC is only crossed when someone is intentionally cheating. I tend to agree with you and its a reason I'm slipping away from 40k atm. There are other better rulesets around to get my fix. With models that are more in line with my disposable income. 40k was never built as a tournament game. It is a complex story heavy game that is overly reliant on luck to make a true tournament game out of. It is however very fun if you and your group play it as such. Although few things are more enjoyable then destroying a guard list with a fluffy Shrike list. Or frustrating tourney players with unconventional units and tactics. Yes that is what the current "competitive" attitude has bread lack of originality and tactical acumen. A large part of this I also blame on the high entry cost of the game itself. Its difficult to spend a lot of money on units and then but them on the table and not when. This is the instant gratification generation not like the good old good things come to those who wait mentality. If i'm not awesome in 5minutes this isn't for me. And I just spent 300 bucks and none of stuff is good. The internet while a tremendous communication tool and a great tool for growth of th hobby has also the root of its strangulation. Now that so much tournament build data and talking heads are readily available. If I"m a brand new player I can just go online and find out that all I should play is Space Wolves or whatever the new greatest tournament build ever this week is. Buy and win a reasonable number of games against what everyone else is playing. The old crabby players, I include myself in this category. All remember and long for when it was just fun to take stupid things and see if they worked. Or to play out the battles we read about. I am not a fan of Apoc not because it being nontourney but because it is literally too time consuming and not interactive enough. The spirit of apoc is great, but the execution isn't to my personal liking. But very nice article and we need a rebirth of the community who just wants to play for the fun of it. And not those trying to compensate the fact that they were picked last in gym class. 40k was never built as a sport or a competitive game, reading any codex will tell you that. It was built and still built to be a fun romp into the 41st millenium. Too bad in the community there is only war.
ReplyDeleteUmm... I get it, and then I don't get it.
ReplyDeleteHow does what someone else chooses to do with his toys affect your enjoyment of the hobby? Or more to the point, why do you let it? Your general unhappiness ranks right there next to the D&D grognards. They seem to feel that every new iteration of their game serves to take D&D further away from its roots, and somehow lessens the hobby as a whole.
As a counterpoint I would say that in the case of D&D and 40K, the more players you bring into the fold the better. The more socially acceptable the game becomes the better. Better because companies that are thriving will put out new rules, new minis, new books, generate new art, new stories, new fluff. And just because there may be half a dozen iterations of a particular game since yours was fresh doesn't make it any worse.
My favorite 40K is 3E, because that's what I cut my teeth on. But I have collected all the books from Rogue Trader to 2E in the hopes that my friends will someday want to revisit 2E. We still play the original AD&D because that is the most familiar to us. Sure we dabbled in 3E and 4E, but we still came back to AD&D. My game is just as good now as it was all those years ago when I made the decision to leave my Biology book in my locker so I could fit my friend's PHB and Unearthed Arcana in my backpack to take home and read. The game now costs me nothing, just like my Space Marines, because I already have all that I will ever need. And the best part is that the games have a large following full of talented people creating new scenarios, minis, books and whatnot that I can pick and choose among to add to my own games. If I see a marine model I really like, I just buy that one and add it to my existing army (or replace something with it). It really is the best of both worlds!
I feel sorry for the people just entering either of these two hobbies. The games get more expensive, and the push is to buy the latest and greatest just to keep up. At least us old farts have seen a few editions come and go, and can choose to play the ones we liked the most. Life goes on, and we can't turn back the clock, nor should we. Not all change is bad, even if it isn't in a direction we want it to go. From what I see, the tournament attitude drives sales, but also drives some people out of the hobby. The high cost of entry and the pace at which models and rules become obsolete kill the joy for gamers that are probably quite a lot like us. Instead of bemoaning the state of the hobby that caught their interest, be productive and show these fledgling generals how things can be different with a simple change of playstyle and environment. What we need to do is continue to preach the ideals of non-WAAC play, but without stooping to putting down tourney-style play. Both types of gamers are necessary for the growth and longevity of our hobby, and I believe that we need to adopt an attitude of inclusiveness rather than an exclusionary one. Besides, who among us hasn't felt the urge to club a seal once in awhile?
Its like my truck. She is rusty and beat up, she rattles and squeaks, she has chips in the windshield and dents on every panel. There have been a number of newer models since then; all of them faster, more efficient, stronger, safer... But every morning when I walk out to my truck and see the stainless steel trim and hubcaps, the west coast mirrors, the skinny black bias-ply tires, and the two-tone paint-job I can't even see any of the blemishes because I just happy driving MY truck.
And that's how I feel about my favorite games; 40K, AD&D, Marvel Suoperheroes, etc..
First, thanks for taking the time to read my rantings. Secondly, thanks for the reply. It's been almost a year since I wrote this article and I haven't been gaming much in the interim. In fact, I've played exactly zero games due to work and real life commitments. My view of the current gaming scene hasn't changed much really. Your view and how you describe your own gaming group in your area is to be applauded though. It seems that it is the exception rather then the norm. As an example, in 3rd Ed 40k the 'standard' game size was 1500pts here. When 4th came along, it stayed at 1500. Then the ETC (European Team Championship) came along. 40k 5th Ed was out at this time and again the standard was 1500. The ETC wasn't happy with that (in terms of the players not enjoying it) and the ETC set the level to 1750pts one year. Suddenly the 'standard' game outside of tournaments became 1750. This was because every game played was in prep for the next tournament.
ReplyDeleteTo me, that sucks some of the fun out of the hobby. Suddenly it was all about tournaments. And as someone who doesn't play in tournaments that made me apathetic to the general gaming scene here.
What you describe, a group of people who play just for fun and don't follow the pack, is what most of us would love to have. The limited gaming time available to most people in my group (family and work commitments etc) means that if two are prepping for tournaments we're all helping. That impacts the group as a whole. Whilst most of my group aren't WAAC heads by any stretch, it does become repetitive. I suppose my main concern and why I originally wrote the article is that tournaments are at their core restrictive. Restrictions on a creative hobby are never a good thing. I would love to have a gaming life that matches yours, but most of my gamer mates have drifted from GW and 40k because it's 'samey' and do other things. I myself have gone more to RPG and planning out campaigns. It is a shame, and the negative impression isn't good for the hobby. But the problem is that older gamers such as myself are not the target for GW and never really were. The teenagers and early twenties, where you have no bills or debts or wives and holidays is the age bracket that GW wants. Disposable income coupled with limited responsibilities. That leaves the rest of us who have other real life stuff on the fringes and juggling to afford the time and money to keep feeding the monkey on our backs.