Be very,very quiet...We're hunting Art thieves.

As I check on deviantArt regually (I'm here), I was reading the journal of one of the artists I have on deviantwatch.

Journal Update

Now I know art theft is common on the internet, but I must say I am impressed that this artist and her friends have managed to find various individuals who have stolen her art and claimed it as their own. She then links their sites and exposes them as art thieves. While it may not seem like much, an artist is very protective of their work and that simple art theft is a major blow to the artist. Sometimes a simple email to the thief will cause them to take the work down, but in many cases that thief may choose to insult the artist back and thus a vulgar and violent language slinging match between the artist's fans and the thief's allies begins. In some cases legal action may be threatened (an artists published work is copyrighted and they can sue you for theft) and in a minority of those cases it actually goes to court.

I applaud this artists actions and hope that down the track people will stop stealing her work, which is fantastic I must say. Now if only I could draw that good.

Alas poor MundoRare..

MundoRare Closes

In a recent looking through sites I visit occasionally, I was shocked to discover that MundoRare, a fan site of Rare, had decided they could no longer continue. MundoRare has been a great sorce of Rareware info and to see them having no choice but to close is disheartening. I admit that this whole 'wii' clone style that Microsoft is doing is rather boring as having both an Xbox 360 and a Wii there is no way in hell I'm going to get a wii-style game for my Xbox, cause that's what the wii was for duh! (plus Nintendo have had time to fine-tune their system games, unlike Microsoft). So while people like myself wait for another Conker or Perfect Dark game, Microsoft will keep pushing companies like Rare into whatever direction they like.

That said, I don't think Rare is itself without blame, though the recent fan abuse is somewhat uncalled for. Even MundoRare coped it too. For those that didn't understand, they were planning on closing it down but decided to go for an all-or-nothing shot with a documentary. When Rare shot them down, they had really no choice. Another publicity attempt to win back fans blundered and any hope of redemption for Rare (atleast in MundoRare's point of view) was lost. I admit that trying to run an up to date website on something that appears to be dying in your eyes is not worth the amount of time it takes up.

As for the future of Rare itself, I wonder if they suffer poor sales for Kinect Sports will cause Microsoft to distance itself from Rare or will Microsoft accept responsibility and admit their Natal (seriously, is that what the things called?!) project seemed doomed from the start. Somehow, I doubt the latter will occur.

Ken vs Archie update

It seems many have expressed their...concern over the issue. This has forced Ian into fan cooldown by giving a brief personal view on the matter.

Ian says :)

While this is also my point of view, it at least shows that they are taking it seriously and still pushing for the future.

Skaven March On

Sat - 10th

The battle was a multi-force battle with Chaos, Greenskin and Vampire allies vs Dwarf, Dark Elf and Empire alliance. My force was Snikkitch and his 50 strong Skavenslave unit. Unfortunately for me, the opponents had limited numbers and so were given a Steam Tank. The tank went for me, but where as the Vamp lord character Mannfred and his skeleton group got beat in turn 2, mine lasted till turn 3. I re-arranged my slaves now into a single group.

Wed - 14th

My first battle vs Greenskins at 1,000pts proved to be interesting. It finish in turn 5 with a Greenskin victory, but it was a very rocking battle. My Doomwheel was just crazy and ultimately destroyed a large unit of Goblins and magic n Jezzails shrunk down the unit of Black Orcs and their Warboss. More embarrassingly for them, they got beaten by the Slaves in turn 4 and fled being overrunned by the slaves. The Globadiers win the award for comedy, 4 killing themselves by dropping their orbs, yet the 6 or so hits failed to wound the enemy.

I have been 'encouraged' by the staff to drop Gnithnik and put a chieftain instead for Ld and hitting/survival. As such, I have begun working on Glitch - Skith's Chosen Champion, a converted Skryre Chieftain. Expect to see him soon on my deviantART page.

Whipp'n Da Slaves

With tomorrows release of the new edition of Warhammer, our city store is throwing battles about. The only real rules is that you must bring one regiment and a hero to lead them. Unfortunately, the only unit of force I have are my Skaven slaves. So I've spent today adding another 16 more models (Lizardmen Skinks) to produce a good 50 strong slave unit with Snikkitch at the helm. I am so ticked from painting, it's really getting annoying, so what better way then to force these guy's into battle.....that'll teach em.

Now your probably thinking, 'What the hell? Why use one of the worst units in the game?'
Yep, all I need to do is loose a single break test and it's all over for me. Sounds like fun to me and who knows, perhaps if they win the fight it will be more humiliating for the opponent.

We shall see...

What is Ken Penders up to?

I've been a big fan of Archie's Sonic the Hedgehog series, but recently this link caught my eye.

http://www.kenpenders.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=133

Now my thoughts are - WTF? Is he serious?

Don't get me wrong, I loved what he did with the series and as the owner of a number of characters it is easy to get attached to them, but I am wondering what is the point of this venture? I was under the assumption that when you work for a company and are working with such an icon of a rather strict owner (Sega is well know for their over-protection of their characters at times) that anything you produced and published was owned by them since you needed their permission to print anything. Apparently, the U.S Copyright Office see's it differently.

What worries me is the future for both the characters and the comic itself. Though I admit I'm not too happy with the comics current story n character progress, the possibility of a massive overhaul or even cancellation has me cringing and confused. What's going through Pender's mind? What does he hope to achieve by doing this? And is this a good thing or a bad thing? Personally, I don't know. From what I've gathered, Archie comic's lawyers have said it won't cause problems and given Sega's history, they won't take it lightly.

I wonder how this will effect other artist's and companies in the future, as I'm sure this isn't the first (nor the last) time this has happened.

Projects - July

This month is Skaven month for me. With my new digital camera and the release of the newest addition of Warhammer, I've decided to put as much effort into completing my 1,000pt army. Unfortunately due to the new points list percent, I've had to make changes (see Blog) by reducing points from my heroes and adding them to other units and that means.......I now have an additional 22 more models to paint...sigh.

It's also single fantasy miniature at the stores mini-demon comp and for this entry I will be painting Packmaster Skweel Gnawtooth. Though I am dedicated to Clan Skryre, the Skweel model and story is something that has caught my attention and I look forward to painting him.

As July moves on I'll try to give updates on my Blog of how things are going and when I start playing I may attempt to write my battle reports through narrative story.