Reply FTW: GW scenery bad for the hobby?

Posted

I want you to first read ColCorbane article on From the Warp. In this article titled GW scenery bad for the hobby is something I had not considered before.

After reading the article I though a lot about the topic. Questions that came to mind were some of the following.
Is it good there is a familiar standard of terrain? no matter where you play in world? Are the terrain making skills of those new to the hobby not being developed or just postponed till they are truly motivated to create something unique?
Does GW continue expand its Scenery products to more race specific and/or unique?
Will competitors of similar scale games make scenery products to rival the popularity of GW's?

As I though about these questions and those posed in the original article I came to a couple personal opinoins. To answer ColCorbane
question "it all going to to be "Ultramarine" flavored in the end?" I would yes with and asterisk. That asterisk is if competitors decide to make quality kits such as GW's. I do not see the tables commonly found in game store or more home gaming tables being custom in the future. I already see this as the "norm" in my opinion. Their kits are generic enough to use for many gaming systems and detailed enough to display their quality. They are also an extremely easy to use kit(s). The pro's for using these scenery kits tend to outweigh doing custom work yourself or purchasing some competitor's product. It also doesn't help the case for competitors that GW has the largest market share for tabletop games of its type.

To the over arching question of "Are hobby skills being not being developed/lost for doing custom scenery work?" My opinion is this is somewhat true. I feel a great many will never develop the skills to make great custom scenery. The first reason is scenery is secondary to building the armies for so many. I am not one of those people (I feel I'm in the minority) as I have more scenery than models. When I see pictures of games I check out the scenery first to get ideas. On the other side I think because the hobby has grown so much over the past 10 years there are more individuals that have those scenery skills. As the hobby continues to grow standards have risen on scenery. Those determined will always create fantastic custom scenery. I can not remember 10, 5, or even 2 years ago seeing the level of custom work that I have seen recently in person or the internet now. Can you?

I do think that GW scenery has elevated the quality of our gaming tables and will continue to do so. My hope is that GW scenery and their competitors products become the "norm". This will in turn I hope inspire/give incentive for more custom work for any number of reasons.

Top Ten

Posted

This column is about the top ten things that I viewed hobby related in the past week on the web that I want to pass along as a "must see" type of thing. Check out the video for my comments and the links to them are next to the article.

10 BTP- Death Korps
9 800 point Warhammer Intro Game P1
8 Total War 100 Shiznaft Made the Semi-Finals Part 1
7 vlog #20 - 'ard boys 2009 battle report
6 Imperial Apocalypse Warhammer 40k Gaming Board
5 Inside Gaming Exclusive: Warhammer 40K Interview
4 GAME TABLE AND IRON SNAKES WARHAMMER 40K
3 Incoming! Space Wolves and Bastions
2 double-Bastion bash!
1 Power Tool Dip

Blastscape for Planetstrike...WHY GW??!!!???

Posted in

So I advanced ordered the Blastscape from GW simply because it was while supplies last. So I received my order today and damn if I wasnt about to ship the whole damm thing back to them. The quality is terrible! I repeat TERRIBLE!!! The details are ok looking but not great like in the advertised picture. That is why I bought it. It is a thin piece of plastic. If I put my old metal dread or any heavy model on it... it is going to crack and/or dent the shape. It is the same stuff in terms of terrain for italeri and zvezda WW2 models they have. ITS CHEAP QUALITY. So now I have to fill in the bottom with some heavy strong plaster or even green stuff to give it some rigidity and durability as terrain before actually basing it. For the price I would have thought better. Damn was I duped! below is my video and I am still upset. I even end up messing it up just applying some weak pressure in the video. Well I am done. Take from this what you will. I just needed to vent. So I feel duped and I over paid.

link to my video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_ZWUMzc2BM

Top ten hobby stuff to check out: 7/12/09

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This column is about the top ten things that I viewed hobby related in the past week on the web that I want to pass along as a "must see" type of thing. Check out the video for my comments and the links to them are next to the article.

10 BTP- City of Death Completed
9 Warhammer 40K - Apocalypse 8K - Eldar, Tau VS Chaos, Necrons, Orks
8 40K Intro- Warhammer 5th edition Tutorial Series 3 Part 1
7 Making a liquid storage facility, scenery & terrain for 40k
6 Vindicator Space Marine Tactics Warhammer 40,000
5 Necrons Vs. Eldar Battle Report Warhammer 40,000
4 planetstrike-hands-on-review
3 BaCon 2009: 2 Months, 20 Tables! (Warhammer 40k)
2 Started building my new table ...
1 Iron Lords Space Marines. 2nd Company.

Top ten hobby stuff to check out: 6/28/09

Posted in

This column is about the top ten things that I viewed hobby related in the past week on the web that I want to pass along as a "must see" type of thing. Check out the video for my comments and the links to them are next to the article.



10 painting yellow #1
9 Cellar Dwellers Tournament @ Dark Tower 6/6/09 1 of 2
8 BTP- Cities of Death Update
7 95,000 Point Warhammer 40K Apocalypse Game at Origins 2009
6 BTP- Hordes Overview part 01 of 30
5 Imperial Guard VS Tau Battle Report P1
4 TerranScapes Martian Waterfall
3 Imperial Guard Light Tank Tactica P1
2 Warhammer 40k Imperium Vs. Xenos (14,000 apocalypse game)
1 Warhammer 40k Magnetizing the Stormlord Part 1

Top ten hobby stuff to check out: 6/21/09

Posted in

This column is about the top ten things that I viewed hobby related in the past week on the web that I want to pass along as a "must see" type of thing. Check out the video for my comments and the links to them are next to the article.



10 Warhammer Battle Report One: Dark Elves vs Empire 1500pts (Part 1 of 2)
9 Warhammer 40k Space marine tatica The Land Speeder Storm
8 copper roof tutorial
7 How do you deal with Independent Characters 40k.
6 HOW TO: Build your own Realm of Battle board for 20% of the price!
5 How To Build A Lava Field Gaming Board
4 Sportsmanship scores
3 Table design - wetlands
2 CITIES OF DEATH ( work in progress )
1 Successfull operation

Top ten hobby stuff to check out: 6/14/09

Posted in

This column is about the top ten things that I viewed hobby related in the past week on the web that I want to pass along as a "must see" type of thing. Check out the video for my comments and the links to them are next to the article.



10 TerranScapes BB Pitch with Skull
9 Wargaming board making video log: Channel opening, test video.
8 Warhammer 40K Apocalypse Event
7 All comers, fluff or win at all costs?
6 Vash1313's Bretonnian Themed Vampire Counts
5 WHFB: High Elf Unveiling [p1/2]
4 Whatwhat's greenstuff tips and tricks
3 scratch built necron pylon completed
2 Heat Tools Tutorial #1
1 Warhammer 40k Battle Report Necrons vs Orks (PINK ORKS?!?!)

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