Why Do I Do This To Myself?

Why do I do this to myself?  Why do I keep playing GW games when the company doesn't care about me? 

I'm definitely outside GW's demographic market.  I started playing WH40K when the old Rogue Trader rules came out in 1990.  By 1995, I'd stopped playing WH40K's second edition.  That had all sorts of magic and special rules cluttering up the game mechanics.  I got back into 40K in 2006 with 4th edition.  And I've stayed with the rules and expanded my armies with 5th edition 40K. 

Now, 6th edition is coming out.  And it's a throw back to 2nd edition 40K.  I'm not looking forward to this new rule system.  I doubt I'll even buy the new rules.  With the latest 40K price increase, I can't afford to buy 40K retail anymore.  There are places on the web and locally where you can get at least 20% off retail.  That is the only way to buy new 40K models. 

Last year, a Space Marine Land Raider was $66.00.  Now, it's $74.99.  To do the "Mathhammer", I have Dark Angel Deathwing Terminator army.  There are three Space Marine Land Raider, 33 Space Marine Terminators, 5 Space Marine Scouts, and 1 Space Marine Dreadnought in that army for regular 40K.  I also have 1 Imperial Bane Bade model for small Apocalpse games.  If you take the 3,300 points in DA Deathwing Terminators, the Space Marine Terminators are $10.00 per model, the Land Raiders are $75.00 each, a Dreadnought was $46.25, Space Marine Scouts were $25.00, and a Bane Blade Kit was about $120.00.  That comes out to $746.25! 

I also spent money on the past 12 months to thee new WH40K armies.  My first army of Blood Angels I bought at 25% off retail.  That still cost me $550.00.  The second army was a Chaos Space Marine Thousand Son force I bought for $200.00.  Even though it was used, I got $400.00 worth of product for about $200.00.  I also bought a 40K Traitor Guard army from my younger sibling for about $300.00.  There are at least $600.00 in kit bashing and builds for his former Traitor Guard army. 

If I had any advise for someone who was looking into getting into 40K, I'd say find an army from someone who is looking to get out of WH40K.  It is the most effective move you can make costwise.  Or look around at the local boards or Ebay for used armies.  Usually, you can get 50% off retail from someone looking to move their unwanted minis.  For an entery-level hobby, 40K is horribly expensive.  GW believes their target audience will pay whatever price they can charge for their models.  By and large, this has been true.  They figure that 12-18 year old teenages get into their game and then eventually get out of it.  Their parents will pay for their figures.  So long as GW is recruiting new players, they don't care about geezer players like me. 

If the marketing gods would get off their asses, they could make more money with old players who have greater disposable income than their target market.  But as I said in the beginning of this article, I don't matter to Games Workshop.  I'm finally waking up to that fact.  And I don't like way they're shafting the game.  I'll probably just play 5th edition with my friends until this new version of 40K dies and the marketing zombies realize few people are playing latest version of 40K...