What the heck is going on with our attachment with GW? This should be a rhetorical question, but I'm sorry I have to answer it. (I'll apologize later)
When we buy a new car do we tell everyone how terrible our old car was? Do we tell people to never ever in a million years buy a car from that automaker? Do we complain about how much money we lost, and promise others to avoid them at every cost?
Why do we treat picking a new primary miniatures game as going through the worst divorce one can imagine? What about GW stirs such deep abiding and unholy passion? At the end of the day GW is just one more publicly traded company trying to make a profit in a world full of publicly traded companies trying to make a profit. What the heck is going on? Let me attempt to explain. (Wow, that is a rather large claim.)
Reason number One: Games Workshop produces a hobby product, not a necessity.
No one ever in a million years, needs to buy GW product. Can you imagine a world where this was a necessity? It sincerely scares me. The fact that this is a hobby means that it competes with literally every non-necessity. Doritos, condoms, those fantastic little mints from Andes, everything. It becomes a true question of, do I spend this money buying an engagement ring? (This could be deemed a necessity,) or do I really want to buy twenty nine Dwarf Gyrocopters for this fantastic proxy Brettonian Flying Circus list instead?
Reason number Two: Games Workshop produces a hobby that is predicated on collecting.
While you know what you are getting every time you buy a box set, you do not know how many box sets you will eventually buy. Just one more, just seven more. What if I wanted a horde of Empire Greatswords? What if three Steam Tanks just looks cooler than one? (I'll use the third as a unit filler, it'll be fine.) "But sweetie, I don't own this box set yet, and I have every other one for this army."
Reason number Three: This hobby requires serious effort. Even just simply assembly. To assemble a single box set to a level that does not reduce the value of the product requires hours. Not to mention a unit. Even then, you have not even begun to create an army. You have simply assembled.
Reason number Four: Painting is an art form. Even the basic painting requires artistic decisions. Color choice, shades of color, shading, highlighting, literally every decision between primed and painted is yours... I"m gonna stop counting at Reason Number Four, because I believe we have hit the nail on the head.
Many many potential Warhammer players have quit after painting a smattering of models. Warhammer makes no bones that models should be painted before you play. I will reiterate, before you play with a single miniature it should be painted. Let's list the other hobbies that require this ..
Okay 1. .... ummmm
Warhammer implies that you are not playing Warhammer unless your models are painted. And painting requires honest to goodness artistic choice, license, and effort. You put all your heart and soul in the models before they even hit the table. It's my honest belief that this is why paint scoring is so contentious. You have painted every model you have fielded to the best of your ability, or with every minute you had available, or to the limit of your artistic vision. Part of you can't help it, but how dare someone tell you it's not as nice as you think.
Everyone has a model that rolled a 1 and died the first time they hit the table painted. Everyone has models that have become useless in the meta due to rule changes. Everyone has models that are painted that are no longer useful or good. Even if you are not competitive, your paint improves, and that beautiful mini you spent all that effort on is just not to the level you want. Part of you can't help it, but that model could always be a little better.
In a very real way, you fall in love a bit with your favorite model, unit, or army. You have spent hours on paint, assembly and maybe even conversion. And then GW comes along and changes it. Not physically, but conceptually. It's no longer the newest Chaos Lord, or the army has been squatted, or the unit is no longer a Core Choice, because they've switched it to a Special Choice. Part of you can't help it, but what gives GW the right to change your army?
GW acts as a company, but it affects your models. Because the moment you paint that fig, it is no longer GW's model. It is yours to its' little plastic soul. You created your own Chaos Lord. He might have a name, but he most definitely has a list of achievements and disappointments. And you commanded him through those events. Part of you can't help it, but it doesn't matter who sold it, you made it what it is today.
Your mistakes meant he was eaten by a troll, or battered senseless by a bat swarm. In game he dies over and over again, but as long as you choose to field him again, he is reborn, the majestic leader of your forces. And when GW makes you consider using another model or unit, it makes you cross, because what right do they have to make you care for your flawed but wonderful figures any less.
When you abandon GW you don't just abandon a cash investment, you abandon a purpose for your efforts. You give up on your accomplishments, as little or great as they be. You tell people not to invest money in Warhammer because that's the only part of your investment they'll understand. Deep down you are choosing it, but it's not all your choice, GW forced part of it. And that's why we care so much. At least I think so. And now, I apologize for tackling a rhetorical question. It's poor form, but part of me just can't help it.