Okay we have had some time to think this through what killed MK? Was it rule changes, retiring of 1.0 pieces or did it just run its course.

Personally, I don't think it was the game. IMHO I think it was broken promises and the lack of effort for WK. I mean, the game is awsome! Way better then any game I've ever played and its affordable. So, I think that the only real reason could have been the broken promises and lack of go-to attitude by WK. But then again, I'm slightly uneducated in business marketing and the such.

1) The Dial. Too limiting and repetitive. People got tired of it.
2) WK mismanaging the retail environment, elitism and lack of respect shown the grass roots gamer. People got driven away or left for better games.
3) WK mismanagement of the secondary market. People got tired of paying two bucks for figs that weren’t even worth a quarter once out of the booster.
4) Individual consumption fatigue coupled with a proprietary system and lack of hobbiest appeal. There’s only so many pre-painted plastic figs that a person will buy when there’s a very limited number of ways to play with them. Completely different from build-n-paint figs. WK keeping complete control over official use of figs also killed any individual initiative to find other uses. Along with WK lack of sustained initiatives to create other uses (Dungeons, Conquest, RPG), this meant that if you didn’t Skirmish with all those 100s or 1,000s of figs, you didn’t do ANYTHING with them. Finally the odd scale of figs on an oversized base meant they don’t fit with the RPG standard or 1” squares. People just looked up and said “I ain’t buying any more because there’s nothing to play.”
5) Terrible competitive environment; too loose (stalling, funky terrain, arbitrary and contradictory official ruling, unbalanced scenarios) to be taken seriously, yet too cut throat to be much fun for 90% of gamers who might want to participate. People stopped seeing the official competitive environment as fun.
6) Lost focus. Simple or complex? “Realistic” or abstract? People who did stay for the long term found the game shifting seemingly randomly the longer they stayed, and gradually left as a result.

Relics. I know it's made me want to quit the game a few times. A few times I've lost ONLY because of a relic. The other day I got to face Vorgoth with Blade of Dominance. As soon as he picked up that relic, I was toast. Game over. Nothing I can do with Lady Rowan, Tythania and a ***Battle Mentor.

The worst part is, I killed Famine horse 3 times, Famine Avatar once, Pestilence Avatar once, and Vorgoth twice (before he got the blade) among others, and still lost. it was a 4 way game, 600 pts.

seems as if everyone has a different reason.In my own expierience the rule changes in 2.0 were the single most reason

In my opinion, part of it was the crappiness of many 2.0 figs, and how it seemed the newest set always had nore junk figures than the last one. And maybe partly because it at least looks like WK likes some faction more than others, if you judge by the stats. Some factions have plenty of good, playable stuff, and others have less. While other still have incredibly powerful things i nevery set. I've looked at plenty of figures, and wondered "What were they thingking?" Take the new Phinidae, for example. If she had a 10" range instead of the stupid 9", and was a BC, I'd happily use her. But she doesn't.

The butler did it.

Sorcery. This was the very worst release ever. The rules were so complex that I even gave up trying to get the mechnics down. At our venue (when we still had a Warlord and could play) we all avoided (no one was forced not to use Sorcery spell Books) using Spell books. And all those crappy :wand: figures just made you want to cry.

I have lots of ideas and theories, but at the end of the day we are all just guessing unless someone from WK or Topps jumps in and gives us the real story.

Steve

What does WK know about why people stopped buying their product that the people actually not buying it don’t know?

There could be some internal machinations that doomed the line, but everything that's been said makes it clear that the corporate reason was lack of sales. I don't think it's guessing to hear from those not buying the reason(s) why they're not buying. Find that out and you'll find out what killed MK.

Unless, of course, it was the butler, and he refuses to talk.

Really? I thought Sorcery was pretty good. I really liked it. It was nice that :wand: finally got a proficiency, even if it was defensive. There were a lot of sucky figures though, as usual. Trance Warriors really blow. I didn't really have that much trouble with the rules, not that I've actually had the opportunity to use spells, I'm pretty much the only Mk player at my venue anymore. The only thing I've been wondering is about the 2 tab browse cost; it makes it sound like you can make a 2 tab spell face up and ready to cast without actually pushing. It says if the sorcerer has one or two tokens remove one and give him a special action to browse. And knowing Wk, I might be misreading it.

i THOUGHT THE DARK RIDERS RELEASE WAS THE WORST.tO FIELD A MOUNTED UNIT WAS TOO COST EFFECTIVE .fOR THE SAME POINTS AS A RIDER AND THE MOUNT YOU COULD USE A GOOD UNIQUE.

Well, maybe, but remember, even unique and le riders generally have lower defenses than non-rider uniques and les. They get the +2 I think against range for horsemanship, but their melee DVs suck, and they die faster, so they have to be able to hit first. Not that their AVs are that high either....

I forgot to add, what really irritated me about DR was that I MUST have bought at least one CASE worth of boosters, I have a box full of mounts, mount heads/wings and riders, and I never pulled one single avatar.:( I didn't pull a single DC pegasus either, I got mine with the Blackguard I traded for. That was disappointing and upsetting. I did, though, get lots of doubles of the same few uniques.:mad: Which was good for trading, but pulling 3 Chitterlings kinda sucks. Especially when you're hoping for Tazia or Vextha. Every MK/MW and HC(when there used to be tournaments) set had at least one unique I really wanted, everybody else knows how that feels, I'm sure.

Or Colonel Mustard working for Wizkids....:)