Hey guys! It's been nearly two years since my last post, and even prior to that, my posting schedule has been painfully light compared to what I originally envisioned for this blog. I decided to leave the blog behind indefinitely back in late 2016 despite having a few articles almost ready for public viewing, for no reason other than I simply no longer have the same motivation to write that I started with. There are a lot of factors that contributed to that loss of passion, namely my own excessive critique of prior and in-progress work, my inability to keep up with Games Workshop's accelerated release schedule while still providing content that was up to my own standards, and even the dreaded "writer's block" with me sitting for hours on end trying to formulate a sentence but leaving my computer in disgust with no real progress made. Unlike earlier stretches of my tenure as the sole contributor to this blog, I don't really have any personal issues to work through currently; I've been in good health, am not battling depression and just generally feeling pretty good about how my life is progressing. It isn't a perfect situation that I'm in but I'm content and that's really all that matters in the end.
With that out of the way, I've seen a few comments left regarding my opinions on 8th Edition and I can say with confidence that it's my favourite iteration of Warhammer 40,000 to date. It definitely has its issues and is still working through what I like to call "growing pains", though contrary to earlier versions of the game we now have plenty of evidence that Games Workshop can and will make timely changes to address those problems. It could do with a bit less homogenisation between armies and some changes to how Command Points are generated for forces comprised of multiple different factions, but these are comparatively minor grievances to the wealth of flaws I found with the 6th and 7th Edition rule-sets. On the flip side, Age of Sigmar has also truly come into its own as both a competitive and narrative-based game system over the past two years, so much so that it has now supplanted Warhammer 40,000 as my primary war-game of choice. The increased focus on player-driven storytelling, properly selling the individuality and character of the numerous races and their goals after giving us meagre scraps previously, as well as establishing a more cohesive and tightly balanced core game structure, all contribute to make those amazing models actually worth buying into. I still miss Warhammer Fantasy but I can no longer say with clarity that I prefer it to Age of Sigmar, and that's an incredible change of direction from a team that's been mostly finding strong success in recent years.
Now, the burning question; will I do reviews again? Realistically, I can't commit to a yes, but I refuse to admit to a no. I prefer to be succinct and direct with my words both verbal and written, though in this situation I truly can't make any promises either way; I can, however, answer some other inquiries with certainty. There will be no more reviews for 7th Edition 40K, Horus Heresy or Video Games. The first two are because I haven't played either in a long time and refuse to touch 30K again until Forge World decide to update it to the 8th Edition rule-set, and the third is because I honestly believe I don't have the capability to adequately critique video games; my video game reviews were all far too positive, and the quality of writing was not what I consider acceptable. Further, I am disabling ads on the blog effective immediately. Originally, Imperator Guides was intended to become my primary source of income and work, a plan that was doomed to fail from the start. Nowadays, my priorities are more realistic and in keeping with my perception of my own character, meaning I would rather leave behind a blog filled with - hopefully - useful information that any potential viewers can consume without being advertised to. If I continue writing for Imperator Guides, it will be motivated by passion, not greed. Lastly, regardless of whether I leave the blog behind or not, all the content will remain as-is. I don't particularly care for the concept of "legacy" but I understand that there is a sizeable audience for my previous work; I personally know many people that do not share my excitement for Games Workshop's recent gaming releases, and continue to stand by their earlier works. Those articles may still be useful to other like-minded individuals, and so they will remain untouched.
Now that Age of Sigmar 2.0 is upon us and Chapter Approved 2018 is soon to follow, I am strongly considering doing some army-specific articles by the end of the year, but as always, I make no promises. We'll see what happens, eh? In any case, thanks for the read and have a highly enjoyable day!
