It has been a long time coming, but Warhammer Historical has now formally shut down
http://www.warhammer-historical.com/ (http://www.warhammer-historical.com/)
As another neglected part of Games Workshop should we be concerned about Specialist Games? I know GW doesn't support any of it in any real sense, but I would be sorry to see the models they do still sell become unavailable (I still have plans for a few of them) and it wouldn't help if the rules were no longer downloadable through a legitimate source.
That said, I am hoping that the fact that Warhammer Historical did not support GW's own models is the key factor here and that Specialist games will remain in its sadly neglected state. But I fear the day that I go to the GW website and find a tab simply absent.
I think the fact that Specialist Games are more visible online is a big thing (I mean I don't even know how you got to warhammer historical from the main gw website, was there a link?), so we shouldn't go for the pitchforks I don't think. Also as you said the fact that the models for gw didn't work in Historical must have been a big thing (I mean they were just creating rules which from the off slashes their potential sales in half - not so with specialist games).
I think we're safe. Touch wood. Also I think we lost them and at least it isn't raining.
I'm more worried by things like not enough articles being submitted to Dark Magenta to allow it to keep publishing and supporting Inquisitor, or not enough events being organised to keep the community going. It seems to me that the community is more important to Inquisitor at this point than GW is...
Warhammer Historical was always kept fairly seperate from core GW stuff, plus the past couple years it's been under the care of Forgeworld, while basically anyone involved in it went off and wrote a load of rule books for other companies (Blackpower and its ilk by Warlord for example). W.H.'s passing has zero impact on us, or historical gaming as a whole.
Quote from: Kaled on May 25, 2012, 10:33:51 PM
I'm more worried by things like not enough articles being submitted to Dark Magenta to allow it to keep publishing and supporting Inquisitor, or not enough events being organised to keep the community going. It seems to me that the community is more important to Inquisitor at this point than GW is...
I'm busy with my thesis! I'll see what I can do on my holiday...
Quote from: Kaled on May 25, 2012, 10:33:51 PMIt seems to me that the community is more important to Inquisitor at this point than GW is...
GW has, for quite some time, done nothing more to support Inquisitor than continuing to host a scarce few files and begrudgingly let people actually (shock, horror) buy ten year old models from them, so yes, I think I have to agree that GW isn't hugely important at this stage. It would be disappointing to see the models disappear or lose the use of WHW, but not terminal.
And hopefully I'm contributing, given that I'm trying to put together a battle report with the Ammobunker guys and working on ideas for an event later this year.
Quote from: Denzein on May 25, 2012, 10:29:05 PMAlso I think we lost them and at least it isn't raining.
Oooh, I know: "Nothing can stop us now!"
We'll save "We're doomed, there's nothing that can save us now" for when we need to make things right again. Saying that in 40k means there's about a 90% chance a Dreadnought will smash through the nearest wall just in the nick of time.
I expect that eventually GW will stop doing specialist games, but I think that most new players come to the game through other sources, such as friends, but it would be a major blow if GW were to stop, if only for the models and ease of getting the rules.
At this point there isn't much more GW could do to neglect Inquisitor and the other specialist games, bar dropping the miniatures entirely. That'll likely only happen when the moulds wear out. Until then we're free to buy what's left of the range.