Hey Rumormonger, you are not Special

Why do we go through so many 40k rumormongers and why do many think they are so damn special?

You may have heard last week, probably you didn’t, but the latest rumormonger site is dead. If you can remember for a brief few months a German site known as Gametrust was populating your rumor aggregator sites and Facebook feeds. The reason why you even knew they existed wasn’t because you really visited their site, but was because they would annoyingly watermark every piece “leaked” Games Workshop stuff they would find.

Here is an example…

Now this site was mostly known for aggregating video games and other geek culture items. With the help of free money from the German government and being able to live off ones parents anything is possible. As it turns out though, those things can only get you so far, because watermarking GW products surprisingly gets a response from a legal team. Even though the owner of Gametrust said they would fight GW a fight  that lasted a whole three weeks. As Gametrust will be closing down permanently by the end of January 2016.

Gametrust was the first to be so bold when using GW images for profit, and as you can see with horrible results. As is typical with many failed enterprises Gamestrust seems to be already failing and maybe this was a last ditch effort to capitalize by using 40k rumors to generate traffic. Thinking 40k rumors is some secret elixir to loads of money shows just how misguided they are on how money is generated on the Internet.

Then we have the other type of failed rumormonger, the fame chaser. If you can think back even further this year you will remember a certain rumormonger who would spam every forum and blog with their rumors. Lady Atia remember “her”, she had cute little icon of an female ad-mech? Yeah I am sure you have pretty much forgotten. Still, this is a case of someone one who thought they were so special. If I can remember it all started around the beginning of 2015. Rumors were flying after the release of Daemonkin and Atia seems to step right in with some great insights. As things progressed Atia would constantly send messages to other sites promoting her surefire rumors. Making it very clear everyone was to give “her” proper credit. She would also go out of her way to correct any other rumor making sure “she” was the right one all along. At some point it dawn on “her” that creating a personal Twitter account would be the best place to post leaked images of GW products. The Twitter account quickly blew up with thousands of followers within a few weeks. Then out of the blue Lady Atia “deleted” her account. The reason because sites like BoLS and Spikeybitz were not giver “her” any credit.

I have theory though, the real reason was GW had twitter close the account and Atia decided it best to place blame on someone else for “her” overreach, because it seems someone who is predicated on attention wouldn’t give up a great way for self promotion like Twitter. Besides have you noticed many other Twitter accounts surviving just posting leaked GW material? Now Atia still exists, “she” has her own website War of Sigmar where “she” continues to post rumors and leaks. Interestingly though most of the material there is leaks and rumors from other sources, no longer is “she” the originator if “she” ever was.

What both these cases show is ever since GW went to the rapid release the average life span of a rumormonger is about six months. It seems GW is doing a good job of two things. First, they target only the most aggressive rumormongers who post their stuff and second it takes a few months for them to close up any holes in the rumor moat. What it leaves us with is a rumor industry relying on material only a few days ahead of offical White Dwarf announcements, or at best a month ahead of a future Warhammer: Visions issue. The hardcore rumor publishers are just aggregators at this point with BoLS, Spikeybitz, and Natfa leading the way, which all them have been doing the same thing for years. Funny how those three survive by living off the constant stream of fly by night rumormongers who think they are next great thing.

If rumormongers would understand they only have a finite amount of time before the well dries up we would better off without the unnecessary drama they create trying to chase a dream they can never attain. One thing is for sure and I have repeated before, is GW finally almost total control when it comes to what and when we hear about products come down the line, not the hurbris divine right of quickly forgotten rumormongers.