I would agree with others who have said, if computer gaming was going to \'destroy\' tabletop gaming, it would have happened by now. Just as e-books won\'t ever replace paper and ink, people will always want something physical to interact with.
1st person shoot-em-ups certainly haven\'t dented the market for Paintball and Airsoft gaming, uf anything, they\'ve increased it. I think the fantasy/sci fi strategy games on consoles and PC\'s will only boost tabletop gaming.
I think GW are on a bit of a downward spiral IMHO, having seen what they\'ve been up to the last few years and working in the toy/games industry myself, I feel they didn\'t capitalise as they should have on the massive, but short lived, income boost from the LOTR franchise and are a little too stuck in their ways... they aren\'t spending enough time or money on looking at the future and aren\'t willing to accept that anything other than the status quo could be viable... they also have a tendency to loose their best creative staff at an alarming rate.
I would also agree that there will be an increase in the number of small mini producers coming from the painting/modelling scene and producing low volume stuff for all of us painting geeks, which can only be a good thing.
I think, unfortunately, Rackham may dissapear following the (imho very bad) decision to start veering towards pre-painted plastic minis which I think seriously alienates their primary market in a vain attempt to capture a new larger market who, without gargantuan (and unfeasable) marketing spend they won\'t capture.... which is a pitty.
In general, I don\'t think that an enormous amount will change. Like many niche hobbies I think what we do will always have a level of interest at which things reach equilibrium. Surges such as LOTR and the GW/MB tie ins will come and go but overall things tend to even out with a general trend to growth in line with population.
Jeez that all sounds excessively dull
Screw it, I go with the zombie appocalypse scenario.
\"Crshhhhhhht\"
\"This is Robert Neville, I am a survivor living in New York, if anyone can hear me... do you fancy a game of 40K?\"
Ben