Monday the 16th - The End of the World?

[Seb]

1) Just a status update for me on the matter.. I will keep on buying from GW if there is anything that I need and I will probably buy it at Ikeda san's place, I am very glad to have such a store in Nagoya and I am very glad of having a choice not to go to Yellow Submarine. I buy so few models anyway that the price increase doesn't have such a big impact on me, to start with I never had a credit card anyway so I coudn't order from abroad. Actually even though I think that GW with their price rises are bad for me as a customer I don't expect them to be different from any other big company out there.. Just like Mike said.. I can look around in my own home and see products of companies that are so much worse, so I will try to keep looking at the good things they do as a company instead.. The models that they produce are still awesome.

2) My thoughts on PC, it is sad when in today's society you can't criticize person A openly for his/her faults because people will call you a racist for it, the thing is most people don't get that race has nothing to do with the critique.

In Sweden this has gone so far that even the flag/cultural symbols/traditions are now in many people's eyes something that people associate with racism. I think that this is a serious act against the freedom of speech and eventually this will have a large impact on how people vote because that is the only way you can freely express your opinions wthout people calling you racist. In the next election in Sweden no doubt that one of the biggest parties will be an extreme right wing party (Swedish Democrats).

Same goes for:
Finland (last month's election The True Finns Party gained 4x the vote and is now the 3rd biggest party)
Denmark (Danish People's Party, now 3rd largest party)
Norway (Progress Party)
Netherlands (PVV)
United Kingdom (BNP, don't know how much power these guys have now..)

Just an example but moe countries on http://www.guardian.co.uk/gall/0,,711990,00.html

I am not saying that I am either Pro or Con or anything, I am just saying that I believe that the current hunt for PC today has left people with a bitter taste due to their inability of criticizing things that are actually not racist. And yes, some people who actually are racists may vote for these parties as well.. Which is why it is so sad that people who want a normal debate are only left with these options, and with a "normal" debate I mean critique to the establishment that is true IF you have eyes to see past the PC obsessity of today.

[Mike the Pike]

True, I think thats why they did everything simultaneously (the shipping, the price hikes and the resin switcheroo), this way everyone is angry at the same time rather than getting people angry at different times. See, they really do care about the customer.

Told ya'

Seriously, does anyone really think GW are doing all these things to P*ss off their customers? They may not be angels but I really don't think they would jack up prices just because they can.

BTW I just noticed that GW's foundation paints are made by GW Shanghai. While the vac-formed craters may have been less than stellar the foundation paints are ace.

If resin was so cheap for PP then why are their models not 5% of the price of GWs? A quick look at the Maelstrom site reveals that many of the models are in the same price range as the GW equivalents and won't be too far behind even with the price rise?
e.g. Those Jack thingies range from 15-30 pounds at Maelstrom. A Dreadnought is 25. With a 25% increase that will make it 30.
Scibor Minis a small outfit from Poland (with significantly lower overheads than GW I suspect) sells it's resin single minis for between 4.50 and 5 pounds.
Neither PP (AFAIK) or Scibor, or for have any B&M stores (rent, insurance) or dedicated Sales staff to pay for (salaries, benefits, insurance etc). Someone else has to take on those costs and risks.

Just saying, that's all

[Primarch]

Scibor Minis a small outfit from Poland (with significantly lower overheads than GW I suspect) sells it's resin single minis for between 4.50 and 5 pounds.

Economies of scale. GW can buy materials in MUCH larger quantities and can expect to sell in much larger quantities since most players dont need more than 3 or 4 'jacks.
Looking over the Maelstrom site, PP's resin kits are a little more expensive than the metal ones they replaced. But in their defence, the resin kits come with the parts to make 4 different models whereas the metals were 1 kit=1 model. With some magnets you can essentially use any of the 4 variants you want.

Just so you know who PP are.
They are the company that went to Adepticon, the biggest GW event aside from Games Day. They are the company who gave the first 1000 guests through the door a FREE $50 starter set. No strings attached. Thats $50,000 of models at retail given away. It wasn't included in the ticket and they weren't paid to be there.

[Mike the Pike]

As for the Merchant of Venice it doesn't matter about the characteristics or otherwise of the character Shylock. The fact is the name has become synonymous with all the most vile stereotypes of Jewish people. Even if Billy Shakespeare meant Shylock to be a sympathetic character the term Sh*lock has come to mean something altogether different. As you well know, many of our most offensive racist/homophobic slurs have rather innocuous etymologies.

[Mike the Pike]

@Prim: PP Apologist
The Adepticon giveaway was indeed an interesting marketing ploy but it remains to be seen whether it actually worked or not.

[job]

Who's Ikeda-san? I think I'm out of the loop since its been awhile since I bought something.

[Seb]

Who's Ikeda-san? I think I'm out of the loop since its been awhile since I bought something.

Here you go, I just discovered it myself.
http://www.nagoyahammer.com/forum/viewt ... f=21&t=982

[Colonel Voss]

It's not so much a harsh reaction. Things just finally hit the point where I can't spend money on this stuff in any great quantity. I basically took a pay cut when I forgoed my overtime and weekend work, so for now it is outriding plastic only for me.

My reason for looking into warmachine and hordes is that I know there will be some shifting and I don't mind the idea putting up enough money for a small collection (but only one) if the game is fun enough. For FoW, I have already been considering expanding but I just need to play some games and see how much I like it first.

So I'm basically using this as a reason to test the waters

[me_in_japan]

Unlike the rest of you, I actually have read The Merchant of Venice. (I'm edumacated, like...)

The character of Shylock was a baddie. Ever heard the term "get your pound of flesh"? That was Shylock.

Short plot summary (as I recall from high school)

Young lad falls in love with young pretty lassie. Said lassie's father is Shylock, a Jewish moneylender who wants his daughter to marry a rich old fat-cat. Note: It is made clear that the young lady (i.e. the heroine) is also jewish. This is not a jew-hating play.
Young man gets into some financial bother, and borrows money from Shylock, in exchange for a pound of his flesh if he doesnt pay up. The young man (of course) fails to pay up, and it goes to court. The wise old judge decrees that according to law Shylock may have his pound of flesh, but flesh only. no skin, fat, bone or other stuff. i.e. its impossible. Shylock throws a hissy fit and the two young lovers get married and everyone says "yay" (except Shylock). exeunt omnes.

So,

Shylock = bad
Jewishness = neutral
borrowing money = risky

This is the message of "A Merchant of Venice" (ok, many theatre critics may disagree with me on this, but hey, its my post!)

The word Shylock in modern context is most commonly used, as Spev used it, to mean "one who is tight with money and will claw as much out of folk as possible."

Note: no reference to Jewishness. Yes, I am aware that there is a stereotype of Jews being selfish money lenders. Yes, Shylock was both Jewish and a selfish money lender. However, the fact is that in both the play and in the common usage of the name in its idiomatic form, the emphasis is upon the stinginess of Shylock. Jewishness and slurs thereupon are not explicit in the expression.

The fact is the name has become synonymous with all the most vile stereotypes of Jewish people.

No - the name has become synonynmous with being tight fisted. There is a stereotype of Jewish people being so, but these are two separate connections.

If a madman murdered someone with a dagger and then went a bit mental and kept trying to wash away their guilt, I would not take offence if someone said they had "gone a bit Macbeth". Why? Because that's what the Macbeths did. Yes, they were both Scottish, but their Scottishness did not define their characters. Likewise with Shylock. He was Jewish because it suited Shakespeare to make him so (I daresay the jewish moneylender stereotype was around then, too) however the character himself was a right bastich, and that's why the name is synoymous with tightfistedness.

[Mike the Pike]

I couldn't disagree more mate. As I said, it actually doesn't matter what happens to the character of Shylock in the play, it is the associations and connotations of the word that are offensive. Sh*lock the slur is not the same as Shylock the literary character that it evolved from.

I have never heard Sh*lock used in the context of someone who is tight-fisted with money. I have heard it only as a slur against someone who is both a money-lender/loan shark/banker and Jewish. All of the online definitions I found referred to lending money, loan sharks and the like. None of them referred to someone who is tight with money. Again, I think you are confusing the similar sounding slur 'Sh*ster' with the above. Look it up if you don't believe me.

As for it's offensiveness, take a gander at these links...
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/04/2 ... /-Shylocks
http://www.postonpolitics.com/2009/04/shylock-shunned/
http://www.adl.org/ADL_Opinions/Anti_Se ... 101308.htm