From a business point of view I understand this system. You will learn which product is the safest bet to create/release. But I will not use it. If I am going to pay for Warring States infantry to be released quicker I want that money to go to that product and not a different product in terms of vouchers. Who knows how long it will take for a product to be released! Some products were announced in 2020 as being sculpted and are still not released*. And sure the move might have interfered with some but new sets have been announced in the meantime and some were up for pre-order within a couple of months.
But back to me, hypothetically, voting for the Warring States Infantry. I don't want the Warring States Infantry, nor the Cavalry or the Chariots... I want them all three, because each set on its own its pointless but together they form the core of a proper army. Which has been one of my problems with WGA for a while and simple accepted as relatively new company, the catalogue will grow with time. WGA doesn't release enough for an army or two opposing forces (Death Fields excluded, its a great range). Sure there are now enough kits for some skirmish games in certain ranges (Classic Fantasy, Renaissance, Decline and Fall, Great War and World Ablaze).
I do wonder if 1000 votes is feasible. With the last 8 Facebook votes only three hit over a 1000 votes**. Don't know how the polls go in the Articles & News section of the site. And sure with this system you can cast more votes. But there are a whopping 42 kits to vote on!!! 42 kits that can get a vote, which can and will dilute the voting process. And mind you, WGA released so far 38 products excluding Atlantic Digital. So more than half of WGA's products are in an unfinished state.
I am someone that start many projects and then stops or pauses them to work on something else. It could be a waste of time and money but most of the time I had fun and that is what I want to get out of it. So its not entirely of a waste. To me WGA seems to have this problem too, but WGA is a company... I am not a business person, and certainly not in the miniature world, but I see a problem here. Al those products that are in the queue have had manufacturing costs and you can only get those back with sales, but for that they need to be released. The Atlantic Digital store seemed to be a solution for this as I can imagine the process of converting a 3D file to actual sprues takes time. But a lot of stuff is being released on the Atlantic Digital store, which seems to me takes away time from working on products that are in the pipeline for plastic. Of course I am biased here, I don't have a 3D printer so as a consumer the Atlantic Digital store seems like a distraction but I am fully aware that if I had a 3D printer I would be pretty stoked about it. But all in all I think I am reasonably neutral here. But back to the voting system, I have the impression that WGA started so many kits that they don't know where the head and the tail is, and that they need the community (or their wallets really, which is fair btw) to decide what will be the safest bets for physical release.
My (unsolicited and biased) advice would, after getting these products out of the way, to focus on releasing rivals (as with Marines & Space Bugs and the Aztecs and Conquistadors) or releasing "army cores" Infantry + cavalry or infantry + heavy weapons. Something to give sustenance to a range and make it properly playable without having to rely on other manufactures. And perhaps be more modest with plans. Besides all of criticism I do think WGA is great and on the path to be even greater.
I have been having some of these thoughts for over a year now and this seemed the perfect opportunity to share them. Hope I have been a bit coherent.
* Only focused on what was announced in the news blog (still might have missed some) prior to 2022:
Napoleonic Spanish - April 24, 2020
Afghan Cavalry - September 4, 2020
Thureophoroi - May 5, 2021
Bavarians - June 4, 2021
Merovingian Franks - July 7, 2021
Conquistador Cavalry - July 7, 2021
Napoleonic Russians - June 23, 2021 (okay they have been released as 3D files so 50/50 ish?)
Warring States range - September 27, 2021
Trolls - August 27, 2021
British Infantry (1916-1918) - August 17, 2021
** 304 votes Vox Populi program
737 votes
1249 votes
571 votes
1142 votes
1100 votes
389 votes
483 votes (October 28, 2022)