From The Wargames Website:
22/08/2021 at 09:25
#160809
ian pillay
Participant
Nice article on the positives of table top gaming by the BBC
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-nottinghamshire-57996237
Tally-Ho!
Bit too much on the Evil Empire but a good article....
Quote from: Lord Kermit of Birkenhead on 22 August 2021, 12:23:11 PM
Bit too much on the Evil Empire but a good article....
They are the biggest and best known company by a country mile.
Nice to see Annie getting a mention though not so great to hear she's not getting the same boost as the big companies.
Quote from: Lord Kermit of Birkenhead on 22 August 2021, 12:23:11 PM
Bit too much on the Evil Empire but a good article....
It is a good article -
But I don't think its that GW centric (other than the photos of figures) they have spoken with 3-4 gamers, who happen to be GW gamers, though the last one also has WWII figures pictured.
Then they have Warlord, Mantic and Bad Squiddo owners interviewed - they don't interview anyone from GW.
Bearing in mind it is also from BBC Nottinghamshire - they can hardly not mention GW as it must be one of the biggest business in the area.
Hard to not be GW centric given their market share.
I think we have to accept that most mainstream coverage is going to involve photos of 28mm figures with Orcs and space Marines to the fore.
It's then down to us to ensure this rising tide lifts all the ships.
Mrs Orcs says she can tell if have not painted for a while. I get "tetchy". she then sends me to my room to paint.
The annual WS&S review confirms that 28mm is streets ahead of any other 'scale'/size, which to be honest surprised me a few years ago. Now I know why the magazines focus their advertising and pictures on 28mm, with other 'scales' getting and occasional look in.
Quote from: Steve J on 22 August 2021, 08:39:51 PM
The annual WS&S review confirms that 28mm is streets ahead of any other 'scale'/size, which to be honest surprised me a few years ago. Now I know why the magazines focus their advertising and pictures on 28mm, with other 'scales' getting and occasional look in.
Yeah, but which 28mm?
* Heroic.
* Regular 28.
* More like 32.
* 1/48.
* 1/56.
It's OK where the models are people.
it's very noticable when mchines are involved.
Besides, who wants a tank that's half the length of your table.
The news item is intended for general consumption and 'generally' lots of people know about GW products, they have either bought them for themselves, or bought them for their kids or walked past one of their shops - it is a real world, reality article and good to see and I say that as a punter that has just 10 GW figures and lots of things by everyone else!
Quote from: Steve J on 22 August 2021, 08:39:51 PM
The annual WS&S review confirms that 28mm is streets ahead of any other 'scale'/size, which to be honest surprised me a few years ago. Now I know why the magazines focus their advertising and pictures on 28mm, with other 'scales' getting and occasional look in.
And that is one of the reasons I no longer subscribe to their magazine.
A few years ago now I was involved in a conversation with a magazine editor (and several others) where he was sounding off in frustration at the lack of non-28mm articles submitted that were suitable for publication. One of the people involved (don't remember who, sadly) said that he was constantly being shown pictures of beautifully painted 28mm stuff but that those specialising in smaller scales rarely posted pictures online of thier stuff. "It is,"he said,"as if all of the extroverts play 28mm!"
Quote from: steve_holmes_11 on 22 August 2021, 03:39:27 PM
Hard to not be GW centric given their market share.
I think we have to accept that most mainstream coverage is going to involve photos of 28mm figures with Orcs and space Marines to the fore.
It's then down to us to ensure this rising tide lifts all the ships.
fancy imagry hem hem
At a show that Nik Harwood organised, we got chatting to the photographer for one of the big wargames mags and he said one of the reasons that the smaller scales don't get featured is that it is very hard to take good shots of the smaller scales that look good in a magazine. They may look fine on a Blog etc, but generally not when only a couple of inches square in the midst of some text.
Another issue I've come across is the delay in getting paid for articles submitted and accepted, often a year or so later, so the writers had simply given up trying to get stuff published. The now use Blogs, Facebook etc instead :(.
Quote from: Lord Kermit of Birkenhead on 22 August 2021, 12:23:11 PM
Bit too much on the Evil Empire but a good article....
Don't knock GW - without them we wouldn't have any of the Commander rule sets
Quote from: Shedman on 23 August 2021, 08:02:04 AM
Don't knock GW - without them we wouldn't have any of the Commander rule sets
Too True Shedman
Coincidentally, I cancelled my sub to Wargames Illustrated the day before the first post because I don't have any personal interest in 28mm figures and even less in space orcs/zombies etc. Before I am deluged with hate mail, I am perfectly happy for others to love them.
The curious thing is that for decades, 15mm seemed more popular. Plastic soldier review shows zillions of 1/72 soft plastic sets and forum members can probably name numerous 10mm manufacturers who survive somehow. As do the 2-3-6-8mm folks. So the "niches" are pretty big,
It seems to be a general trend with lots of stuff: what is on offer in the mass market is consolidating and if you want anything even slightly out of line with what the Marketing department says you want, you need to go to the internet whether its online retailers, facebook groups, blogs or forums. I have recently twice failed to get things in B&Q for example which were readily available through Amazon.
For real wargamers in periods before 1500 who still need paper mags , Slingshot remains pretty scale agnostic, even including paper armies for example.
Interesting read, although I found this bit odd:
"Kieran Wilson, 26, from Exeter, lost his job as a car salesman at the start of the first lockdown. He started buying Games Workshop miniatures after finding himself with time on his hands and said they were his "saving grace"."
Eh? If I lost my job, I think I'd be trying to save money, not splashing out on un-essentials.
Quote from: Raider4 on 23 August 2021, 09:53:55 AM
Interesting read, although I found this bit odd:
"Kieran Wilson, 26, from Exeter, lost his job as a car salesman at the start of the first lockdown. He started buying Games Workshop miniatures after finding himself with time on his hands and said they were his "saving grace"."
Eh? If I lost my job, I think I'd be trying to save money, not splashing out on un-essentials.
that furlough cash goes a long way (not as long in GW instead of Pendraken)
but I did find it an interesting read.
Regards
Sean
That article did make me look up Bad Squido and now i want a dark age 28mm female mounted warband, but no idea what I'd use them for. Suspect they'd be too big for GW LOTR games...
The magazine coverage issue comes up regularly and I've spoken to most of them about it. Some are less interested than others... but Guy at WSS has always tried to get more 10mm in there, and Henry Hyde also did his best while running both Battlegames and MW. As others have said though, it's more difficult to photo 10mm as they don't generally lend themselves to the mini-vignette images that you often see on the covers of the magazines. They do however look fantastic in bigger engagement/overall battle shots, so that's where we need to focus I think.
It's another one of those things that I'd like to work on going forward, setting up some nice table layouts here at Pendraken HQ for photo sessions. The problem then is trying to entice the magazine writers/photographers to leave the comforts of the Nottingham leadbelt...! I'll let Guy at WSS off the hook there as he lives right down in Torquay so it's not quite a daytrip for him!
Quote from: sultanbev on 23 August 2021, 02:27:57 PM
That article did make me look up Bad Squido and now i want a dark age 28mm female mounted warband, but no idea what I'd use them for. Suspect they'd be too big for GW LOTR games...
I use a lot of het figures and bought into her 28mm WW2 Female Soviet range kickstarter.
No idea what a commander rule set is, but in their time GW have produced some lovely Italian Wars figures in 25/8mm. some great landsknecht plastic arquebusiers, and a lovely set of lighter armoured Italian cavalry, plus artillery, crossbows etc. Used to enjoy going in to GW and asking if my Italian Wars order had arrived. :d :d :d
Blitzkrieg Commander, Cold War Commander and Future Wars Commander - all (now) published by our hosts here.
Their spiritual predecessor is Warmaster, written by Rick Priestly.
Not that I have bought any gaming mags for years but I always tended to ignore the pretty pics (of larger scale figures) and just read the articles ;)
Mags such as WI used to have lots of fairly useful or at least interesting articles with a few pics, but now it seems the pretty pics of the latest stuff far outweigh any very meaningful wriiten content.
When a kid, back in early 70s, Airfix Mag was on order from newsagent. If lucky, managed to find occasional Miniature Warfare (?) copies on visits to Model Shops. Very inspiring at the time.
Started to get Military Modelling (?)... but Mags got too expensive to keep up.
In late 80s, bought a couple of mags.. no idea what... but, although 'of interest'... too much 'focus' on perfectly painted figs in close up pics.
Recently, was amazed to find Airfix Catalogue on Tesco shelf! Bought... but nowhere near the excitement that the 'New Airfix Catalogue!', 'used to have'... back in the day. LOL!
Buy the occasional one if there are interesting Sprues on give away. Never subscribed to any, although I used to buy MM and Airfix mag on a regular basis. Bit difficult atm since Smiths closed in Birkenhead.
Quote from: pierre the shy on 24 August 2021, 04:46:55 AM
Mags such as WI used to have lots of fairly useful or at least interesting articles with a few pics, but now it seems the pretty pics of the latest stuff far outweigh any very meaningful wriiten content.
I agree. I haven't bought a WI for some time when it seemed to be nothing more than a vehicle for advertising Warlord Games stuff.