So Long, and Thanks for All the 40K Podcasts…
After well over four years of reviewing 40K podcasts for both ‘From the Warp’ and here at ‘Bell of Lost Souls’, I have decided is it time to put down the ear buds, so to speak, and walk away from reviewing 40K podcasts.
It has been an amazing run, it really has, but the time has come for me to step away from being the loudest supporter of the 40K Podcast community. So, many of you may ask the question, why?
The Reasons why?
Well, there are several reasons in truth. First and foremost, REAL LIFE! For those who don’t know me personally, I am a husband and a father of four, and that is starting to take up a LOT of my spare time. My evenings are filled with Baseball, Cub Scouts, Dance Recitals, and so on. Also, as I advance my real life career as a senior software developer; the amount of free time available to me to listen to the myriad podcasts available out there is getting smaller and smaller.
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| So many podcasts to listen to…. |
However there is a much larger and more overwhelming reason. I hate to admit this, but I have lost the fire for the game of 40K as it stands today. The IP itself is still amazing and I will argue the best Sci-Fi universe ever written. I will still read the novels feverishly. The models, while getting a bit crazy on the price side, are still spectacular, second to none in the industry! However, the rules to the game currently are more than a little wanting. In fact, they are a complete cluster $&%! if you ask me. I do not recognize this game anymore, and as each new Codex/Supplement/Multi-CAD garbage rolls out at breakneck speeds, it is becoming overtly clear to me that the old GW doesn’t care at all about the rules to this game system anymore. Heck, look at some of the last Codex releases; it is almost like THEY themselves don’t care for writing the game rules anymore! Just sell those models!
Point being, I loved this game once, and one of the parts I loved most about it, aside from the tactics to the game, was the social interactions of friendly competition in the tournament experience. However, that is not what this game is about anymore. It has fallen so far from that since mid-6th Edition that I do not even know what this is we are playing anymore. Is it 40K, or is it Apocalypse, is it ‘just field every model you own’? Forget fluff, forget competitiveness in any way shape or form anymore. We all know if you are trying to play a fair, balanced and competitive game, 40K isn’t it! But it has gotten SO much worse lately. Why does it have to be that way? I am really getting tired of being told that by wanting to play a fair and competitive game, that I am playing the game wrong. I do not understand that. So I took the very heavy handed hint from GW, that ‘this is NOT a tournament game’ and if I were looking for a game that is fair, balanced, and the company that cares about things like that and supports the competitive community, that I would need to go elsewhere. And I did.
X-Wing – My New Competitive Passion, and my Podcast
So you had to of heard of it by now, right? X-Wing? The game is amazing, check it out if you haven’t. The rules are simple enough to pick up in a few minutes but in-depth enough to foster a fierce competitive community, very similar to chess in that way. And FFG is great with their community, with a forum that they monitor, sponsoring sanctioned local and nation events, including a National and World Championships each year. The community has exploded over the last year, and a lot of them are old 40K converts. It was such a huge paradigm shift to come from a GW environment to FFG’s X-Wing, where they actually care and support their competitive and casual players equally. And, I love the game so much that I decided, with members from NOVA Squadron, to start a podcast where we discuss this amazing game. NOVA Squadron Radio, check us out, every other week!
And this, above anything else, was really the last nail in the coffin for this article. The time needed prepare for the kind of show I want to produce has taken up the rest of the time I had for this article. With my attentions drawn between the two games, something had to give, and I am afraid it was 40K that lost this fight for me. In order to dedicate the time to my own podcast that I feel it needs to do well; I had to give this article up.
Farewell, well, not really….
My point being with my competitive passions, and now my podcasting passions as well, now fully entrenched in the X-Wing game, I really have lost that fire I feel I need to continue on with this article and give it the attention and passion I feel it deserves. There will always be a part of me that loves this game and the universe, and of course, the podcasts that surround it! If the game ever hits the reset button and gets back to a more balanced system, I could be back. I am keeping my three painted armies in case that happens. But as it stands now, I am stepping down to peruse my new X-Wing passions and podcast.
I am not leaving Bell of Lost Souls as a writer, however. I will remain on staff to help Clint and Kris (who already do great articles) with the X-Wing articles here at BoLS. So I’ll still be around!
Well that’s it my friends. So long, fare well, thanks for all of the great memories! Keep listening to those great 40K podcasts guys! I know I will!
I could not leave you all without one last Top “Something” list. So here is my Top 6 list of 40K podcasts that I will still be listening to, even after I walk away from this article. For shows not mentioned here, and there are a lot of great ones out there, I do apologize, but I had to pick just 6 to take with me.
Top 6 Podcasts I will still listen to even after I retire...
2) The Independent Characters – Great show top to bottom
3) The Overlords – Love the cast and the show, can’t live without it
4) The Heroic 28s – Amazing show that always makes me smile
5) Life After the Cover Save – Life without this show is not worth living!
6) Jaded Gamercast – Because I used to play bass for Jaded Gamercast!
