Nostalgia, it is a funny thing. It is the glowing beacon of virtuous past deeds. It is the story of simpler times, fragments of things we hold pure. It is also the nexus of disappointment; nothing is as good as it once was, and nothing in the future will ever match the past.
So, when one of the architects of our nostalgia speaks about the current state of the hobby we listen. Rick Priestly one of the creators of Warhammer 40k recently responded to a fan on Facebook lamenting the current Games Workshop direction.
The conversation started with a simple enough statement.
--Tom Gordon
You sir are a legend! Its a shame that GW have lost their way a bit and moved away from the humorous, dark, irrelevant and very British state of Warhammer and 40k that you pretty much invented.
This is how Rick Priestly first responded.
--Rick Priestly
I worked for GW (Citadel in Newark and then GW at Eastwood and Nottingham) for 28 years, and the company changed a great deal over that time, but we always aimed at making money. I can just about remember the days when making money was about having enough in the bank at the end of the month to cover our wages - I don't know if that was ever literally true - but it certainly came across that way! We also enjoyed what we were doing! We enjoyed games and gaming and - of course - the models that went with that. The big recent change is that GW has actually stated - both during the Chapter House court hearing and subsequently to its shareholders - that it considers its market to be collectors of models and not gamers. The games are very much played down internally, and you can see with the latest (very nicely done!) models that they are conceived as collectors pieces that have very little practicality in terms of a wargame. It's perfectly fine for GW to turn its backs upon wargaming in favor of modelling and collecting if that is the vision of the current management. But the result is that many customers who are or have been passionate about GW's games do feel marginalized.
As you can imagine, this is the point in most 40k fanboi online conversations where I am supposed to pile on GW and say look! They are evil! They want me to stare at my toys only in glass cases and never take them out to play!
In reality Priestly's statements show just how much of a spectator he has become in regards to the current GW direction. He is repeating what we already heard from public and legal statements about a focus on collectors.
The biggest bubble bursting is Rick pointing out the obvious, GW always being about making money! I know, a shock to many who think GW owes them for their loyalty by just giving them models at cost.
It is very important to understand Priestly hasn't been connected to GW since 2010! This looks like the ramblings of someone who hasn't played a game of Warhammer 40k in the last five years.
Much like the current crop of GW whiners.
To say the current crop of models have little "practicality" isn't paying attention. This isn't epic where everything 6mm and game play is more important than style. He also seems willfully unaware of the campaigns, digital releases, and IP whoring GW has been up to.
The collector meme might be one GW tells itself at night to frighten away angry investors, but the reality is the game design department still exists and is putting out product faster than any time in the history the company; a history Priestly was mostly part of. This isn't to say the game doesn't have problems and huge ones at that, but to say it is purely for collectors isn't following the product release trail.
Speaking of the game design department, Rick's backhanded bitterness comes out in full force with more comments on this Facebook.
Rick Priestly said...
I should add that we always used to maintain a games design department that was fairly heavy weight - smart guys, some of them rebarbative, bloody-minded and mildly dangerous types (dangerous to themselves on occasion). I won't say who it was... but one of our staff once ran back into the burning building he'd just been rescued from by the fire brigade to recover his 'stash' from the flames! The design team has been run down over the years - the guys who work there now are just not doing the same sort of work and they're not the same sort of people. Probably for the best:)
Hit by his own nostalgia bomb Priestly, jokingly puts down his former co-workers, but in reality takes a swipe at the current team.
What is he trying to say?
They got rid of the drug addicts and now the design team isn't what its crack up to be?
It isn't a secret Priestly butted heads, with his final position heading up Warhammer Forge for Forge World, at worse he was Milton from Office Space or at best Lucius Fox for most of Batman Begins. This "not doing same sort of work" doesn't sound like someone whose tenure ended well.
Rick's statements do though feed trolls and current 40k haters as validation for their own nostalgic shortcomings. What at first sounds like an important insight is upon further digestion a bitter dish. The truth is Priestly isn't part of the current GW structure and to take what he says as hidden gospel only indulges ones personal bias towards GW.
Warning
Meat for Meta is rated editorial nonsense. These articles are meant to complain about some group, somewhere, that is playing the game for all the wrong reasons or simply to just make fun of 40k nerd rage.