Well, the Hobbit SBG is not the "hobby." The "hobby" doesn't need saving. It changes. However, the particular subset we like - skirmish level miniatures gaming in the Middle-earth setting, has some issues. Those issues are obvious: low rate of production, premium rate prices for what are not premium rate figures, the weaknesses of the source property, the tensions within the GW community over the "odd man out" game and so on.
On the plus side, it represents a solid game, represents a loyal community and involves playing in the foundational work of the modern fantasy genre.
However, every hobby needs a functional social network (not the electronic kind) to remain vital. Dungeons and Dragons, for example, expanded along such a network as various members of the network pitched the game to someone, anyone, who might want to play. Those drawn in did the same thing, all to ensure a stable group. GW is an outgrowth of that network, and its particular business model saw it inserting itself into the network with commercial hubs to maintain the hobby or game or whatchamacllit. They made their network indistinguishable from the hobby, to many.
Anyway, point being, that hobby games survive on that network. And not all hobby games will survive, despite having a lot else going for them. Hobbit/SBG has struggle to keep its network vital. A key reason for that struggle has been prices, but also these networks thrive on news and new releases. "Oh my, I heard a rumour that next month we will see a ..." is a weird glue that binds communities together. Even people going "man, those new...whatevers" helps create that network.
What can be done, I suspect, is:
- stop waiting for some future event which will cause a resurgence. There won't be any more films for a long time, if ever. - demo the game to others. SBG is a good starter game, and is a lot of fun. its an asset. - write your own content - Think about maybe creating an open source rule set that plays similarly (a retro clone, to use the industry term), with the same sort of speed. - Create a set of community approved alternate manufacturers. Seriously, chasing ebay for a few figures to make a warband playable is expensive and playable. As nice as the LOTR costume designs are, a lot of them are pretty derivative. Alternates can work. Indeed, there may be no alternative (no pun intended). Even if GW continues the line, its never going to be affordable to do much more than warband on warband games. - of course the ultimate would be if someone made a bunch of IP scraped figures that work with a skirmish game and look nice alongside the SBG figures
But in the end, what will keep the hobby/the game going is that social network, that way of maintaining the game, and luring new people in. Without that, it will fade.
_________________ Dreaming of getting back to painting...any month now.
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