NagoyaHammer.com

Pour, pour, pour the hate!
(And no, I don't think Spev wrote it. There are some quite tasteless bits that lack his poetry.)

An excerpt

Games Workshop
Examples of typical Games Workshop customers, alongside five million 10 year-olds with loaded parents.
Games Workshop is a company that has cornered a niche market in tactical wargaming and stealing 10 year olds money while sending them high on super glue. The company owns 95% of the wargaming market, the remaining five percent being comprised by enterprising six year olds who pretend their airfix fighter planes fire real bullets.

To play a Games Workshop game such as Warhammer in the officially approved GW manner you must first purchase their expensive rulebook (£45), then purchase another rulebook specific to the army you want to collect (£20), then buy their over-priced gaming table (£155) and some model trees and buildings to decorate it (c.£60 for a decent amount), then finally you get to purchase the actual models (an army big enough to play a proper game could set you back about £200 plus paints and glue). So there you go, all it takes to get into this game is an initial investment of £500 and giving up all hope of ever owning your own home. It is reputed that Warhammer is the favoured pastime of Pentagon tacticians, who often seek inspiration from sources other than Rome: Total War and are the only ones with the funds available to play it any more.
The days of Games Workshops dominance are thankfully numbered. Companies such as Mantic Games, Privateer Press and Gripping Beast are producing better game systems and much better/cheaper/more original products which are growing in popularity at GWs expense. And it's about damn time! GW have abused their loyal customer base for years, seeing them as a license to print money and everyone is getting well and truly p*ssed off with it! Therefore, don't be surprised if in the next few years you see your local Games Workshop store close down to be replaced with a branch of Poundland or Oxfam.

Many people sadly cannot perceive the attraction of wargaming because they want a life and disagree with the exorbitant prices of Games workshop products. What they fail to realise is that the concept was developed by people who think painting small lumps of plastic and rolling dice is entertainment.

http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/Games_Workshop

It's so deliciously true but it's a shame it puts down gamers at the end there.
Although I agree with many of these points regarding rip off price hikes and the middle class I still think GW is so different to what it was when it started we would be mad to try and compare the two.
Ian Livingstone knew what was good for him and went and made even more money than GW by investing in Lycos and Tomb Raider. He's recently done a lot of good work for IT in govenment schools and still works in games for ipads and iphones.
I suppose once a company starts making money and gets away with charging the earth they won't stop until everyone stops coughing up. Or the economic market changes. I guess GW are on to a winner as you can't download a painted Terminator for free like you could with music and film. (HMV went bust recently sad to hear).
In my honest opinion and final say on the absurdity of the price hikes I remember a box of metal Terminators used to be 9.99 back in 1990 and that was a lot of money even then. I can remember my parents saying so.
For me the days of splashing out on GW has ended, not because I'm angry with them or have any personal vendetta just as a married man with a kid I simply can't afford to throw money down the drain anymore.
If my boy ever gets into the hobby I'll do my best to make it affordable for him.

I can't say that I disagree with most of what was written.

The last part about gamers was quite rude but has an element of unfortunate truth to it.

Yeah, one of those rants which is mostly-true. And if my son ever gets into wargaming I doubt he'll be playing 40k. GW will have overpriced themselves into extinction long before then.

I could pick this apart but it would not change the opinion of the man who wrote it or those who agree with it. What It is is really good example of a stacked deck slander tactic.

Not convinced.

then buy their over-priced gaming table (£155) and some model trees and buildings to decorate it (c.£60 for a decent amount)

This is the only part of the rant that I dont agree with.

Rulebook, codex, and army are essentials when starting out.

Of course there are discounts available if you shop around but most people who start out in the wide world of "the hobby" get their first taste of it from a GW store or WD magazine. It is only once they become jaded, bitter, twisted old farts like me that they branch out into the alternatives.

To be fair, the writer did stipulate "To play a Games Workshop game such as Warhammer in the officially approved GW manner you must..."

http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page
The whole site is one big troll. Any attempt to take any of it seriously is a waste of time and effort.

I dunno, man - this sounds pretty gospel to me...

White Dwarf (otherwise known as 'How To Buy Space Marines') used to be a hobby and gaming magazine which had articles on stuff which interested hobbyists and gamers, such as how to make model hills out of polystyrene. However, some time in the early to mid 2000s Games Workship decided that this approach was not profitable enough and so White Dwarf became an monthly advert for GW products (e.g. model hills, now available as a plastic kit from GW for £15) with articles aimed solely at making ten year old boys pester their decadent middle class parents to buy them the latest overpriced releases.

Gospel: the good news?