Well, its that time of the 40k season again. The sky is falling! Whats worse is with this being an edition change there are WAY more chicken little’s than usual. The hype train from Games Workshop is real but for some, it feels like the tracks arn’t complete so they are trying to fill those gaps with whatever they can find – for good or bad.
Whats missing then? Context and Perspective.
Context Matters
We have seen plenty of rules previews so far – hints at crusade and how you can ‘level up’ your army. Revised missions for matched play, sneak peaks at a new phase called command and more. I’m sure there will be at least a couple of weeks of this happening and in all likelihood it will happen right up until the release of the edition.
People have taken these snippets and nuggets of information and have applied their thinking through the lens of 8th edition and then coloured by their own excitement, anxiety, fear and bias and have then shared these thoughts with the world. This then leads to others taking that information on as part of their own bias and the cycle repeats.
Yes I am aware of the irony of me talking about this cycle while simultaneously writing an article on the same topic.
Excitement is natural with a new edition. It breathes life into our hobby with new possibilities, challenges and time with friends and family. That’s then coupled with anxiety at what those changes might be and how they will impact the way that we enjoy the hobby personally. That naturally then leads to fear – where we postulate on how they can ruin the game with a few changes that we don’t think are necessary. What if they don’t address the ‘real problems’? and so on. Lastly, our own bias and past experience colour this and the glass can go from half full to half empty pretty quick.
Whats missing with all these previews is context. We don’t know what size the tables will be with the new edition though plenty have already speculated and gone down a rabbit hole of negativity because they “bought a $150 neoprene mat that’s now useless!” We don’t know how and when command points are gained, used or cycled but again the speculation has been rampant around “my army needs more CP!” or “That army only gets buffed while mine doesn’t” – another negative vortex all because we don’t have the whole picture.
Without context none of the previews give us the full picture to allow us to build a true opinion on the new edition.
Perspective
Now, I’m not without fault here – I’m a gamer as well and in past weeks live on Facebook, on our podcast and in person I’ve made speculations myself and expressed concerns about what might happen. Time for a deep breath.
This morning after seeing my feeds full of negativity and hyperbole I made a choice. I’m going to try and look at the new edition with a new perspective. Its an opportunity to re-engage with hobby on a personal level – not to mention as an organiser. Its a chance to reflect on what really matters with the hobby and why we are a part of the community in the first place.
All I can do is encourage people to keep a level head and wait to see just what it all means when all the pieces are in place.
So I’m going to take my own advice and take a deep breath and remain calm. What ever the edition brings – we will adapt. I’m going to enjoy the hype for what it is – a chance to be excited with a community I love.