So there are lot of posts going up all around the blogsphere about the trolling and hateorade of Games Workshop (GW) and how the negativity people are expressing is ruining the hobby. An to some extent I completely agree with this camp. Expressing your opinion about being "done wrong" is everyone right (Freedom of Speech and all that). Expressing your opinion over and over and over in a public forum such as the Internet with no real recount to why or defense when your opinion is addressed as invalid however is just flat out trolling. Don't be disillusioned, trolling can be done to a company or an object just as much as it can be done to the person or group of people. This past weekend however I was posed with an interesting view point as I talked to some fellow Iron Fist Leaguers.
Is the negativity the gamers are providing Games Workshop warranted? Are the gamers being Internet trolls to get attention, or is this the result of GWs business practice and people expressing in an overly opinionated environment that "enough is enough"?
The community on the Internet lack any other venue to address this issue with GW directly save the Internet. They post on various forums and blogs in hopes that someone is watching and willing to listen. This being said is the negative, on the Internet, of the hobby a product of the gamer or is it a product of the gamers being exposed to negativity from the hobby (the Company).
Now please do not take this as a defense of Internet trolls, but in any note worthy break-up you want to always listen to both sides. What is the riding agenda of each side. GW the company doesn't like this negative attention. They have even established various policies within their own company that prevents their employees from "feeding the trolls". Negative Publicity is publicity but for a company like Games Workshop that has their own publicity to ride on, they don't need this type of attention. This is stretched even more so with 6th edition 40K being right around the corner, they do not want to loss business to the other sharks in the water smelling blood.
What then is the other side of the argument. Why is the blogsphere entering into this virtual dog pile on the company. Are they doing this to get attention (I imagine some are), or is this a result of the hobby community being feed up with Games Workshops policies and general business practice. Trying their best to declare in once voice "We are not going to take it anymore". It's easy to look at the negative speakers and say "If you don't like it then leave" (GW does it all the time through their actions), but this is not only a bitter response from people to the community but also an impractical one. Way to many gamers have invested so much time effort into the game they don't feel they have reached their full return on their investment. An that is what this hobby is to many, an investment of time and money. Both of which are commodities that anyone should fight tooth and nail for in this day and age. As such they are balking at the recent events as loudly as they can in hopes that by some impossible chance GW will hear and pay attention.
In either camp I can see the point of both sides, and the only foreseeable outcome I can personally see to the argument is that, at least for the 40K populous: When 6th comes out it will be a love/hate response from the community on a micro level. Either people will love the new addition so much they will forget their woes, or they will hate it so much that it will be the proverbial straw that broke the camels back and they will truly have had enough. They will address their feelings on the Internet and the loudest of the two factions will rule the day and write in history the tide turn moment of GW in 2012. Will their fate be solidified for another 4-6 years or will to many bites be taken out of the Goliath for it to continue on as the leader of the pack. Only time will tell.
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