Quote Originally Posted by 9mm View Post
And to be blunt, GW doesn't try to keep a permanent hype train going. That's you doing it to yourself. GW has far too many product lines to give everyone a constant feed of new products so they do the rolling releases they do.
They absolutely do try to keep a permanent hype train going in the way they announce products though. The rolling release schedule makes sense, but the thing that causes frustration and risks player burnout is the constant teasing of things coming out even in a few weeks time. Surprising people is good, but you want to have some certainty first as well.

To use an analogy, people know when their birthdays are coming up, and that they will get presents then. They have the anticipation of a surprise but they know when it will occur. By contrast, GW is hinting that ‘maybe you have a birthday coming up’ but refuses to tell you exactly when it is, then throws a surprise party for you when you already had plans that day. It still has the surprise, but isn’t giving it in a way that allows you control over it, which I personally find frustrating.

This is also bad because people like to plan their purchases, or even ask other oeople for them as gifts. Case in point, when the new AoS came out I really wanted to ask for it for my (mid June) birthday. But I couldn’t, because I wasn’t sure when it was coming out, so couldn’t say to family ‘this is what I want’. So I asked for something not from GW.

Psychic Awakening will include new rules for ALL armies, so how long do you think Psychic Awakening will last?
We can guess, but it’s not unreasonable to ask for this information.

Osiarch Bonereapers October
Mawtribes and Cities of Sigmar Soon(tm)
Plastic sisters within 3 months
Psychic Awakening will probably start within the next 3 months.
Marines will at this pace be completely done within the next 3 months.
2 more Warcry Warbands probably within next 3 months

your right, coming out with a rough overview isn't hard, you just need to just pay attention instead of turning your brain off the moment the info is not about your armies.
That’s a lot of maybes and probablys! The Warcry warbands are a good example of the problem: we know they’re coming, but absolutely no idea when. We know their names, it’s not unreasonable to want timing as well. I don’t want to know the exact models that will get released, that can come later, but knowing ‘there will be a Warcry release on X date’ would be nice.

It’s like I’ve said in the past regarding uncertainty in the game. Some uncertainty in the game is good, e.g. from dice rolling, but you need to be careful where it occurs in order to maximise enjoyment. Having to roll for your charge distance is a good moment of uncertainty, but it would not improve the game if you made every unit have to roll for movement in the movement phase as well. It’s the same thing with uncertainty in releases: building anticipation by teasing details of a release is good, not confirming when that release is coming is bad.