The Powder Keg

Recently Games Workshop have been at the forefront of some worrying social media developments. Globally, hobbyists and staff members alike have voiced concern over the companies decisions recently that seem to many to be putting the business beyond the community that supports it. Whilst certainly, I understand that sometimes the community has to make sacrifices for the business so that the business can continue to support the community (the one man store model, as an example) there are sometimes events that make my mind boggle. I genuinely believe that my insistence on supporting the community was instrumental to my dismissal from the company back in December. 

Elitism

Today I wanted to talk about something that has bothered me for a long time. I've touched on it before when I talked about the social nature of our hobby, but now I wanted to take a more in-depth look at the canker at the heart of our hobby.

Elitism.

The Social Media Scandal Continues

It seems that Games Workshop's removal of their social media accounts caused a little bit of a stir. Some people got quite upset about it all; some claimed that they had paid a good deal of money to GW, and the very least they could do was to keep a Twitter account open; others cranked the lever to FULL PANIC MODE and started predicting the decline of Games Workshop - citing poor sales of Warhammer Monthly and the Imperial Knights (yes, some people really are that crazy that they think the Knights aren't selling...); others took it much more calmly and began looking into the possible reasons and examining what this could mean.

And that's what I've been doing.

The Curious Case of Disappearing Social Media

This morning I woke up, came downstairs to check my Twitter feed over breakfast, and discovered that Games Workshop have apparently shut down their social media. Heading to @ForgeWorld, @BlackLibrary and @GWDigital on Twitter all received the same effect. The feed would flash for a moment, then settle on: @GWDigital [or whichever] does not exist.