Loken here. As Nykona mentioned two days ago, I have turned this blog over to him. While I may write an article here or there, this blog is now his, and I am sure you won't see much of a difference (It will probably be better!).
So why am I leaving? Pretty simple. Games Workshop.
You see, this past June I opened a store in Rancho Cucamonga, CA called Dice of War. When opening my GW account, I had to deal with the head of trade sales in the US telling me that my blog violated their user agreement. I told them that this blog was a totally different company. He said he didn't care and that if I published rumors I would be violating the GW Vendor agreement and they would shut us down. We wouldn't be able to buy Games Workshop product.
Do I want to be in business with people like that? No. So I immediately sought out a buyer for the store. And after the initial buyer backed out, I found another group that has taken Dice of War over. Running a game store has never been my goal. I am an entrepreneur, have had several successful companies and you don't make a lot of money from a game shop. The store was a nice little project, that is all. I work in the film industry and that is where my energies need to be.
And now I have transferred this blog to Nykona. I really don't want to be promoting a company, that has a adversarial relationship with its vendors. A company that doesn't really care about its customers and is run by greedy suits who only care about their stock price.
And lets face it, this blog is one of the most popular 40K blogs out there. I am CONSTANTLY promoting GW. I run The Big Game, the World's Biggest Apocalypse Game, and am bringing a series of Horus Heresy events to the US. But they don't care about that. They show NO LOYALTY to someone who is helping promote their business. They hate the blogs and want to control all information (while leaking it themselves as they did with the Space Marine codex).
Let me be clear. I LOVE Forge World and the guys from The Black Library. They are the ONLY reason I am still playing 40K (well, 30K now!). They are the heart and soul and everything good about Games Workshop. Yes, the GW design studio are pretty sharp folks and they do amazing work. But GW corporate, both in the UK and US, is ruining this hobby. I don't buy any GW product anymore, and only buy Forge World and Black Library. I am moving out of Apocalypse (which GW has killed with its ridiculous price increases - no one can afford massive armies anymore) and 100% into Horus Heresy gaming. I only need deal with Forge World and Black Library now. Did I mention how much I love those guys? :-)
So I am signing off. It will be nice not to have to write a blog post every day, or when Forge World comes out with new stuff (which seems like daily these days!). And I hope you enjoy Nykona's take on things. You can always find me on the Horus Heresy Forum, which you should all join.
Thanks for your support and keep reading.
Loken