Slight Delay

So yeah, going to be a slight delay on projects with a few things going on in my life and not being home as much. Working till midnight doesn't help either (but need that money). That said, focusing my efforts into getting those wizards done first.

Also, saw some minis at the store I'm trying those new paints from from some game called Malifaux. Very strange looking, but also very interesting. I'm keen to paint a couple of those in the future too.

Damn It!

If I wasn't addicted to Civ 5, all these blasted Mods I'm adding have sealed it now.

40K Assassin Board Game

This costs $210. Just think about that.

$210 for a one shot board game with no future support. Dreadfleet is the same and I know what happened to that. My brother and his girlfriend bought Dreadfleet, no longer play it and still haven't finish painting all the ships.
I imagine playing a similar board game to this one would cost $70-$100 max. Apparently it costs $120 in the US and given currency exchange rate plus shipping it would probably be cheaper to buy it from the US (which is why GW tries to stop overseas consumers from re-selling products to us in Australia).

There are many things I complain about, some of which are just for the sake of it, but this seems too ridiculous, even for me. $210 for a one shot board game? Many have pointed out that the cultists, marines and lord are basic stock ones, which anyone can get cheap enough on Ebay and the Assassins don't look that much more better then the base ones. Hell, many people overseas think the Australian $210 price tag to be a bit of a joke.

I'm sorry, I just honestly don't get this.


Edit:

OK, so looking back, it seems Dreadfleet did cost around $190, but they were all new sculpts. And to those who have argued that ' Board games like this are used by GW as a gateway into the hobby', I can argue that Dark Veneance is the two player starter set into the hobby and it only costs $165, you get more models, rules to get you into the game and both armies are legal. If you want to use a board game as a gateway into it, then it should be more affordable. Board games like this are more for die-hard fans who are willing to blow a load of cash on a simple side game.

Is it the End?

So finally got around to catching up on watching some shows I've missed, with the big one being Shaun Micallef's Mad As Hell. Was saddened to learn that it was probably the last one ever and I really love watching that show. There's very little comedy on tv these days and political satire is rare to find on them. Not sure why this is, but that's it. Perhaps Shaun will bring it back or do another show, but I don't know.

I loved the show and I'll miss it so.

Death & Light - WiP

A quick pic of the work in progress of the Amethyst and Light wizards. You can see I've used Blu-Tack to hold the various parts together as I need to paint the body before attaching the heads and the book/hourglass will need to be painted separately before they will be attached. I tried a number of poses and conversions and this was what I felt worked. I know that it lacks some of the conversion work that I could of done, but I'm happy with these stances (they feel more like they're on a battlefield). The paint scheme is what I want to focus on next.

Some problems I'm having is that the robes on the Amethyst wizard has holes that I've tried to cover up with some success but not fully and since this photo I've also removed his robes back top and replaced it with the hood part as I found the head wasn't fitting properly. As for the Light wizard, it's more on the struggle to get the painting right as white paint is terrible to work with.

Also, I used a small metal creature from the Empire Cannon set to act like an Imp familiar for the Amethyst wizard, but I currently have no familiar for the Light wizard. I'll keep it that way as Light wizards tend to have acolytes instead. May possibly make a few in the future, though don't hold out for that one.

New paints and fresh ideas

Depression and lack of motivation really hinders this hobby, though all this Games-Workshop talk lately really just throws any enjoyment away. That said, I'm trying to slowly get back into the swing of things with some fresh ideas.

The first thing I'm doing is trying out some new paints. Games-Workshops current range is somewhat useless at times and is a constant pain to use. People on those painting videos on Youtube seem to use Vellajo, but the hobby stores I've been too say they keep see complaints about them being too watery and not going on right all the time. I've held back on ordering them, but in the mean time I'm going to try the Privateer Press Formula P3 range and see how they go. I've started with their flesh colours and from them will determine if the product is worth investing in.

I'm also starting two wizards, one Amethyst and one Light. A user on DeviantArt suggested I do the other remaining four Orders and was lucky enough to bag a Empire Wizard box on Ebay at a decent price. I chose those two as I don't have the right bits to convert an Amber wizard and Bright wizards are just too common for my liking.

Finally, I want to go all out painting a unit of Horrors. Just want to go nuts on colours and patterns to the point that they just seem too bizarre to even exist. Wanting just something where attention to detail and stuff if more fun then a hassle.

DOTT Remastered? Why wasn't I told?

Yeah, so apparently I noticed a great Day of the Tentacle star wars parody art (which turns out was a poster design back then) and found an various articles stating that the game was to have a remastered version made and released THIS YEAR.

Apparently after the success of obtaining the rights for Grim Fandango, they decided to go for some more. Speaking of which, I should get that one too as it's been on my list of games I've been wanting to play for a long time and isn't that expensive.

Youtubers Vs Youtubers

Oh boy did all hell break loose today and it seems it will continue for some time to come.

It all started with with a video uploaded to Youtube by Angry Joe (well, it actually started with a bad policy by Nintendo, but we'll get to that). Under Nintendo's own decided policy, they flagged it and took any revenue from it. Joe takes the video down and tweets that it'll be the last Nintendo video he does and follows up with a video on a poor policy. Nothing new, business as usual. Let's face it, the last article was on Jim Sterling and another battle with developer, it's not like these are a one off.

Then Rooster Teeth's own 'The Know' channel on Youtube decided to do are story on this. Not something like a developer attacking a critic like Jim Sterling or something that is a news story of some great battle. No, they instead decided to do a video on this and it comes off at lashing out at Joe. This was the start of a war between the Rooster Teeth fans and the Angry Joe fans and now other Youtubers are getting involved. All the while, the whole point was about Nintendo's bad policy and a debate on it was completely ignored.

So  where do I stand? I am a fan of both Rooster Teeth and Angry Joe, but in regards to this one, I'm siding with Joe. Regardless of what many think, there was no need for Rooster Teeth to do this video, it was completely unnecessary. I might expect someone like Totalbiscut to talk about it, because he tends to focus on the facts and not on petty insults. In fact, I expect Totalbiscuit might have something to say about this real soon. Joe was right to be annoyed and Nintendo's policy is bollocks and needs to be reworked to be fair. Let's Players have said that they are happy to give a percentage, but it had to be fair and it should go through Google, just like every other expense that gets taken out before a Youtuber is paid.

Overall, I was both shocked and surprised that a video like this was even put up. It was unnecessary and pointless and all it's done is turn gamers and Youtubers against each other while the real villain Nintendo gets away with it. Though to be fair, Jack Pattillo (who works at Rooster Teeth) did say in the AWU video that he was behind Joe all the way, so perhaps it's just some of the staff there that have a beef with Joe.

Either way, this was pointless and all it's done now is spout more unnecessary hate in a time when gamers/Youtubers need to unite.

When you strike at Jim, Jim strikes back.

Another developer and another strike at Jim Sterling. While these videos can get a little over the top, it seems that again, the person of Jim Sterling is being attacked instead of the character Jim Sterling (there is a difference between the two I've noticed). None the less, this is another developer having a go at him because of him criticizing their work. In this case, a Steam Greenlight video and for those who don't know, Greenlight is when a developer displays a trailer for a game that they would like to get on Steam and for people to support it. Consider these trailers a pitch to the consumer to support their game and, when it's up, purchase it. Thing is, there are a tone of them, many of which are not very good. This is advertising or a product and a good pitch is needed to get consumers interested.

It's no wonder then that there will be some people who will review these trailers, informing those of it's existence and whether it's worth your time. Jim Sterling is one such reviewer of said trailers and it's the result of one such review that lead to this. It seems odd that someone would loose the plot over what does appear to be a bad trailer for a game, but one would think an accepting response followed by something like 'we know it's bad, but we're working on a better one' would be more appropriate and thus not draw negative attention to themselves. I can understand that it's very difficult taking criticism, but there are better ways to deal with it, particularly if you are marketing a product that your making and want people to buy it.

Admittedly, one can't pin poor reactions on indie developers alone as many bigger companies for various products do the same thing. Personally, I feel that Steam's reached that point where they are flooded with would-be developers trying to get their games in and that a notable number that do get through create such over-priced garbage that people have begun to grow weary and critical of the indie scene. For example, the Five Night's at Freddy's series was under the $10US price tag and was a fairly good and polished game and yet there are many reviews of indie games $20US+ that are still buggy, incomplete and in a few cases, unplayable (Then again, I could say the same thing about some of the bigger releases we've seen in the last few year's). Think what you will on all this, I rarely look at such things now and tend to rely on game reviewers or Let's Players on Youtube to find out if any such games are worth it.

Final note, the end speech of the video might sound arrogant or bitter, but he is right. If anyone remembers such names of games, it's usually associated with a game reviewer that the developer attacked such as Totalbiscuit and Day One Gary's Incident or indeed, Jim Sterling and the Slaughtering Grounds. I guess it's just like with famous stars, people will always remember a stars break down instead of their work.