Unfortunately, time took its toll. The staff of A40K then, and now, were doing so voluntarily and as with most things that are voluntary, they tend to fall by the way side when life rears its head and makes bigger demands of people. We did manage to keep the magazine running for 10 semi-monthly issues over two years, but it became clear to the staff that remained by that time that the inter-webs were changing, and the technical know how that remained to maintain our vision of a web-zine were insufficient to continue without a radical change and monumental effort.
With that in mind, we tried creating a simpler, easier to maintain web-zine but this massive toil, other personal demands, and the sudden squatting of our URL (which was bought out from under us by an internet advertising vulture) caused us to cease work in frustration. In essence, we needed a break, and quietly faded into the night.
In the intervening time though, Apocrypha 40K has remained available on the internet in its final form for most of that time, through the generosity of several members who did their best to maintain a new URL and server space. But eventually, even that was to fade away.
Fortunately, we managed to maintain the majority of the original Apocrypha 40K issues archive in their original format, and we have always remained true to the vision of the web-zine in our personal hobby endeavours and contributions, either as volunteers, tournament organizers, bloggers, and forum contributors, or just being positive role models in simpler ways.
During those years we have learned that, regardless of how unhappy people are with certain aspects of the companies that supply us with our hobby needs, or silly things like price increases, or product changes, or trade restrictions, the hobby lives and dies, and shrinks or grows because of the continued participation of people like you and people like us, who love the hobby. Along with the arrival of new businesses, changing business models, new game editions and models are introduced, and the old is phased out, being a major cause of change. For whatever reasons though, we who love it continue to play, contribute and be leaders in the hobby community in order to spread the joy of this hobby, in whatever form you take that joy. And during those years we have seen that the hobby indeed does wax and wane, it cycles with new gamers joining and old gamers leaving, and sometimes rejoining the hobby as the years pass.
The State of the Hobby
Over the last year, we have seen a lot of new stuff from Games Workshop, the creator of Warhammer 40K, Warhammer Fantasy Battle, Lord of the Rings, and other games. They have expanded the lore of the 40K and Warhammer Fantasy universe with the usually awesome Black Library fiction, and of course by reaching into the digital age with such excellent games as Dawn of War, and the new console game Space Marine, not to mention
finally venturing into the movies by issuing a license to Codex Pictures to produce Ultramarines, the first full feature 40K movie, which arrived with great fanfare and many mixed reviews.... and mixed opinions as to future movies...
Yet despite all of the great new things that have happened with the hobby, we have also seen and heard a lot of negativity towards Games Workshop, especially due to what many experts and fans in the hobby are calling massive mistakes, abuses, and outright failures, many of which are common knowledge and have already been heavily discussed over the internet and are the source of much discussion. Discussion that seems to be draining the hobby, and forcing it into a down cycle.
Which brings us to the WHY of Apocrypha40K.
What's Next
Like the hobby, this proud web-zine does have a fairly long and storied history, with its various ups and downs. But all along, the spirit of A40K remained in us. It is the spirit of improving the hobby as a whole. And now with the advent and popularity of the blogosphere, and a much easier to use and design for internet, we CAN return!
The love for the hobby is what originally drove us to create A40K, and what brings us back to it once more. For it was in a similar climate, where negativity and “Win At All Costs” attitudes seemed to permeate the internet, that A40K was born. And so we have come full circle for A40K to rise from the ashes and be a beacon of light in the hobby. Our mission is to promote and improve the hobby through positive and constructive discourse, tutorials, editorials, event coverage, alternate models, and systems, and anything else that we think will create enthusiasm and civilized discussion and appreciation for the 40K Hobby, as well as the war gaming hobby as a whole. Because we don't just love 40K, we love the hobby, and all of its facets.
If we talk about other systems, and we will, I'm certain some of you may lament "It's not all 40K!" Well, in all honesty, there is nothing wrong with such discussion. I think it is insightful to hear about the other systems out there. So how do we cover alternative systems and miniatures? Well, in my mind, we need to relate it to 40K in order to bridge the gap and give 40K players special insight to the alternatives out there by connecting it with something familiar in 40K. In essence, if we talk about other systems, we can find ways to relate those other systems to 40K, like comparing how the game plays, or talking about the models as alternatives etc. I think it would go a long way to neatly dovetail back into our main focus.
My hope is that the energies the staff of A40K find from alternate systems will help reinvigorate the 40K passion in ourselves, and we can transfer that to you the readers.
And yes, though we are fans, we have many varied opinions, and don't always like things that are happening in the hobby. So we will also cover things that negatively impact our hobby. The difference between A40K and the nay saying doom and gloom bunch is that we won't keep spinning the negatives. We will openly discuss the issues, and try to help with some creative ideas to improve and overcome.
Anyway, I do not wish to delay you from digging into the articles any further. We all hope you enjoy the new sleeker version of Apocrypha40K. We hope you Follow us, and that you find it fun, informative, and even exciting. Feedback is welcome. So please feel free to comment on articles. We do reserve the right to restrict inappropriate comments, so please keep it civil and constructive! Most of all, I look forward to our hobby remaining strong and growing due to all of our efforts, including yours!
Cheers,
Nick Itsou
Follow Nick here, and at
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