Yeah I see where you're coming from, but at the end of the day it's their story so in the end your characters and my characters don't really matter because they're all part of Games Workshop's story, and if they were to end it all then we'd just have to deal with it. The only way you're going to find true satisfaction regarding your own fantasies and whatnot is if you create something yourself, like writing a book or something.
A valid argument, absolutely. However, on some levels I have to disagree about people's own characters etc. effectively being owned by Games Workshop. That's kinda the thing - they're not. Both in the sense of legal Intellectual Property (even tough this can be disputed in some cases) and, as I see it, the somewhat esoteric right an artist/creator/writer/whatevs' has to her/his own work. For example, fan-fiction is by many legal scholars considered to be the intellectual property of it's direct creator - not the creator of whatever background it was based on - given that it is a matter of an "individual adaptation".
Ergo, your 12-pages long background-fluff about your Vampire Lord Javier von Necksucker-Blütgobbler is your intellectual property. A story about Mannfred von Carstein, as described in the "official" fluff, is not, however.
However, I've got a rant of my own going on, so strap in 
:
The thing I don't like about these tectonic changes to the setting is that, whenever a series/faction/setting is discontinued, it inadvertently takes away the thing that is the most important thing to people love to immerse themselves in creating their personal characters, background and whatnot: Their audience - the other members of the fanbase.
You've all probably met them. The Grade A+ Writefags who spends
hours coming up with and writing down their army's or character's place in the setting, their motives and personality, their history and background etc. When her/his army/faction is discontinued, the models no longer produced and the fluff effectively rendered null, the patience other players might have had for his little escapades into quasi-creativity dissipates.
Lets make use a silly example: Say that I
luuurve Twilight. I
luuuurve it so much that I want to write an extensive piece of fanfiction about it. Just as I'm about to post my creation on some obscure fansite, another book by Myers drop. As it turns out, my piece of fanfiction is
completely and utterly incompatible with her latest work. Naturally, the other diehard Twilight-fans on the website aren't really as interested in what I have written as a result. Had I posted the story one month prior, would the response and interest of the other fanboy/-girls been different? I'd say so, yes.
Is Myers in the wrong? Obviously not, I think you'll all agree. However, it's still a shame for that ambitious fanboy/-girl who spent all those hours writing that fanfiction.
The same thing goes for the Warhammer-enthusiast. In the eyes of many others in the fanbase, his work is not
relevant anymore. Whatever little, sympathetic interest they might have had would heavily diminish - or at least that's my prediction. Consequently, a whole lot of effort and soul goes down the drain.
As
Undying Scourge very rightly pointed out, the Warhammer-world as such is Games Workshop's intellectual property and they have the right to develop it, better it or change it however they please. I'm not saying that Games Workshop
needs to or indeed have
any sort of obligation whatsoever to take this into consideration when deciding how to develop the setting. However, what I am saying is that I don't like the
implications of such massive changes to the backstory and setting, and I would have greatly appreciated if Game Workshop would have been more conservative when making these (suspected) changes - even if I can't level any criticism at the company for going the way they seem to go.
To sum things up: I don't like these proposed changes to
WHFB because in invalidates and renders null a lot of work and soul that hobbyists have poured into their hobby - painting, writing or otherwise. And while I am in no position to criticize the suggested changes, the setting still being Games Workshop's intellectual property, I would have appreciated a more conservative approach, as to not distance the hobby to much from what many hobbyist's have grown attached to and based a lot of work around.
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*Phew* Long rant, that! I have no idea if I make much sense.
Anyone in agreement?
Cheers!
/Werner
