Life and death in and of the Old World

This is my first post on this blog, 'Tablestrop Gaming'.  
I feel that it's important to first give a small, simple bit of background. 

I started playing tabletop wargames in 1998. I'd been fascinated by them for a few years, but that was the year I actually got to start playing.  
My first experience with wargaming was provided by Games Workshop - I tried an introduction game of Warhammer 40,000 and got into the game, and then tried the other games they had available, eventually starting to play Warhammer Fantasy Battles in around the year 2000.

By the current year, 2015, I'd grown to love the Old World, it's armies, characters, stories and locations. I was attached to it and cared deeply about it.   
I was interested in the End Times - doomsday perils in the Old World, with some of the big bads coming back and major alterations that advanced the story? Teriffic.   
Of course, then came something unexpected I didn't feel so enthusiastic about: Age of Sigmar.  

I know most people either bandwagon hate about the system, or are bored of hearing about it... But I really wanted to get my opinion across. After all, I'm a wargamer, I've been with the system for a decade and a half, I'm invested. 

For those that don't know, Age of Sigmar follows on from the End Times. The Old World as we know it gets destroyed. The entire planet is ruined, Sigmar discovers new realms of reality and everything gets really confusing...  
Here's where my first problem comes in.  
It's not the Old World anymore. Any of the places or people I cared about are gone. 
While they've very generously provided us with rules to use our old models in this system, eventually they're going to stop selling them and replace them with new models for the new armies that formed in the wake of the End Times.  
I don't care about these guys. I don't know any of it. It's all new.  
The things I do care about are all gone. Any battle to defend or attack a place that happened no longer matters - Chaos literally blew it up.
So, firstly, I already have no emotional connection to this new world. I don't know anything about it, so it's impossible for me to care about it. None of the armies will be the ones who hailed from the lands I knew and cared about, so... I don't care.  
And I think that was the main problem: They chose to advance the story too far.  
No, I'm not saying it should be static forever, it's their property and they can do what they like with it.  
But imagine, those of you who play Warhammer 40,000 if we do advance into the next few years:  
The 13th black crusade nearly broke through the Chaos Gate, being routed at it's apex hour. A weakened and weary Imperium with little fighting spirit left stands brave.  
But there's a crap-ton of events that are meant to happen now:  
At least two Hive Fleet tendrils are going to intersect Earth.
Multiple Ork Waaarghs have been heading this way.  
The Void Dragon on Mars is meant to wake up.  
The Emperor's life support is meant to fail.  
Now think if this happened. None of what you know would survive.  
Cadia would be eaten and destroyed, meaning the fact that all models they have, being Cadians, are from a dead world.  
The second the Emperor dies, Terra floods with Daemons, destroying the Imperial High Council.
The second the Void Dragon wakes up, Mars is doomed - Perhaps all AdMech technology that isn't from STCs is based on his infernal whispers, splitting the Cult Mechanicum from the rest of the Imperium.
 The remnants, scattered and beaten, are forced into a chaotic skirmish...  
The Emperor comes back to life to lead those remnants to a new era, but they're already shattered and beaten.  
As an Imperial player, you'd have to admit you'd probably be pretty miffed. Your Forge World for manufacture of Titans and Imperial Power Armour, your source of Guard... all gone.  
They'll be replaced with something similar, new worlds will be founded, things will go on... But it'll be different. Do you even care anymore?  

Sometimes it's better that impending doom is just that: Impending.
The fact it's looming over your head the whole time is dark enough, new advancements may happen slowly, piece by piece, bringing the doom closer...  
But once it's happened, that's all it is. Happened. There's nothing else to it, everything's changed and there's no going back.  
It's a risky move, and one that will divide fans.  

Personally, I'm happy to keep playing 8th edition Warhammer Fantasy. I liked the system... If I'm honest, I thought it was superior to 7th edition Warhammer 40,000 - and I do play both systems and love both systems too. 
I see this now as a specialist game. Just like Necromunda and Gorkamorka and Mordheim, people will still play it. Many groups will make tweaks and their own fixes to the systems to run them by themselves, some of those groups will even make annual outings to Warhammer World to show them that people still give a crap about the old systems, too, which is wonderful, and a true testament to how even decades after support is dropped, fans can still love and use systems that their parent company has likely all but forgotten.

So, supposedly one of the reasons Games Workshop killed off Warhammer Fantasy was because it just didn't make enough money anymore and was dying as a system: It was too expensive to keep all those models on the line, so simplifying the game, downsizing the range of models and stepping away from the less popular regimental battle system to a more popular skirmish system all made sense. 
And I guess it's a sensible move to make.  
But the thing is... I like regimental battle systems. And I liked Warhammer Fantasy. So I'm keeping with it - I already have the rulebook, after all.   
So they didn't get me to spend more money with them (which is the overall intent, more profit) by stopping the system I did play - Now, when they stop producing the models for my army, I'll go source them from another system. After all, Fantasy models manufacturers are dime a dozen, even if I don't think many are on the same level of quality as Games Workshop was.  

Now, I've tried Age of Sigmar, and it's okay as far as tabletop skirmish games go.   
But that's just it: It's okay.  
And there's so many other tabletop skirmish games out there fighting for attention and players that merely being okay isn't okay anymore.  
20 years ago, when Games Workshop were kings of the field and there weren't so many well known  rival games, sure, this could have worked because people didn't have an alternative - it would be a case of this, finding an almost entirely obscure system, or not gaming.  
But this isn't 20 years ago.  
There's a lot of tabletop skirmish games out there, many of them have free starter rule sets online. 
You can probably find one to fit you and your friends.  
So, after trying Age of Sigmar and deciding it's not for me...  
Well, they didn't get any money from me here, either. I'm not going to buy any rules or stories, I'm not interested in the current range, and if I am interested in models in the future, it'll be to paint - so I won't ever need an army. 
Essentially, they just reduced the amount of potential revenue from me.

I'm aware that being just one fan, I don't really matter. My profits, or lack thereof aren't a concern to Games Workshop because it's making the average happy, rather than pleasing everyone, as it's impossible...  
But I do wonder if I'm entirely alone on not being interested in their new game - I don't believe for a second that every single Fantasy player is going to welcome Age of Sigmar with open arms, and I doubt it's suddenly going to bring in people who were intimidated by the complexity of it's predecessor either.  

Oddly though, Games Workshop did make me thirst for a tabletop skirmish game.  
I never enjoyed the Lord of the Rings/ Battle of Five Armies/ Hobbit systems, but Age of Sigmar did make me think more of something akin to Mordheim, stripped down without the advancement system built in.  

It just so happens that I was in attendance at a local wargaming exhibition a fortnight back, as people were adjusting to Age of Sigmar and as you'd expect, there were a few companies and many fans of companies showing off what there was in the wargaming world for people to enjoy - possibly the best chance to find a new game.  
Oddly, absolutely no one had brought Age of Sigmar for a demonstration game. 

At the wargaming exhibition, I saw a small skirmish game called Relics, made by TOR Gaming. This company, unlike the others, didn't seem to have a generic setting I'd seen a million times before. 
Their game looked like something you'd expect to see in the world of Labyrinth or Dark Crystal - Jim Henson style creations that were cute, but a little odd or creepy, but in their own way unique and charming. 
The system itself is fairly simple, has familiarities that any wargamer would understand instantly, but has its own unique properties that make it stand as it's own product, rather than trying to immitate any other successful game.  
So...  
Games Workshop, in trying to re-invent and improve a product... managed to get me to stubbornly stick to a product they no longer support and managed to encourage me to pick up items from someone who is now a direct competitor to one of their games systems.

They do say that irony abounds in war. I just never knew it applied to the tabletop variety, too.

No, I don't hate Games Workshop - I still play and enjoy Warhammer 40,000 and will continue to play it in the forseeable future, too - they've just lost my custom in the fantasy game market. 
I just felt that I needed to get the thoughts out of my head about what has happened lately...  
I feel strange, because Games Workshop were the company responsible for getting me into tabletop wargaming. 
They are responsible for me being a part of this wonderful hobby and several wonderful communities as a result, and I really do feel a little lost with them dropping support for Warhammer Fantasy.