Mantic Fanatics

Wow. What a mess.

The guy doing the video had little to no idea of where to put the mini's/tiles/rulebook so that they were in frame for the camera. He kept fumbling with the mini's so that you could never get a good look at them... And he rambled on like he had very little idea of what he was talking about.

I'll admit I've never been the biggest fan of a lot of what BoW has done, but way back when they first started their unboxing videos they were a LOT better and much more professional than this mess. The former original unboxing host showed the figures well while giving a good description of what he was showing in addition to a well thought out review of the boxes contents, no comparison really with the current videos. I'm quite surprised by the backwards steps in quality that has happened here.

It's way past time for BoW to get their act together  and start behaving like a bunch professionals if they want to put themselves forward as the face of the hobby. Time to change up the on-air "talent" and get a proper producer/director to film their videos. This is just an embarassment for Mantic and other game company that has their product reviewed in such an amatuer manner.

Rant over.

Thank goodness that their On The Table video review show is at least still watchable.

Yeah, they've all been pretty bad lately, typically a review of any mantic kit goes along the lines of:

"Okay, open up the box and here we've got this wee little baggie of guns and stuff and extra little bits and stuff which I think is just smashing, I mean really it's great. Now here we've got some other little bits and I'll just open that up now and get one of these little guys put together, aha! This is nice, you get a big ol' fist for the little er, leadery type guy so he can wave it in the air and stuff and be all leaderlike. Now, I'll just put one of these guys together and show him off after the break."

"Okay, I'm back, here's this wee little leadery type guy that I've just built up real quickly, he's got his wee little pistol there and he's waving his big ol' fist about in the air to show that he's in charge. I think these are amazing, just amazing and will be really good for all types of sci-fi-ey type games and whatnot. Guys, what do you think? I think these are just great, let us know in the comments!"

This the problem with having a commercial-type outfit reviewing products. They can't be honest if don't like or just plain aren't interested in the product.. BoW stopped putting effort in a long time ago, these days it's just about securing an income, which means cranking out the reviews, securing interviews and keeping the content stream going so that they can keep the hits coming and the ad revenue stream going.

Vast gulf between sites like BoW and BoLS where you can tell they're just doing it as a commercial thing, offering news articles in exchange for traffic-driving exclusives (or backstage pass content in the case of BoW), and sites like bruckenkopf that seem to be doing their reviews out of a genuine interest in the product, with a strong desire to offer a quality review.

I am really, really, *really* hoping that we get the beta for Warpath 2.0 and KoW 3.0 up for discussion on the mantic forum instead of backstage-pass only this year.

I have no problem with BoW getting rumours first, but as far as rules debates go, they'd be much better off sticking to their own forums. I think Warpath 1.0 would have turned out a lot better if they'd posted on their own forums asking for feedback.

i don't want to pay for a backstage pass, waste of money i say.
only got to the 1.0 warpath rules and think it was a missed oppertunity.

i really do hope the new rulesets come out on the mantic forum, as
i think the get much more support from their.

Cheers

 ;D This is perfect.

Don't be too harsh on them though guys. They put out a huge amount of (often) professional quality content that we all get to see for free, and they give essential exposure to companies that most of us would otherwise never really come across. I think they've contributed a lot  to Mantic's rise on the scene.

I'm not a backstager but I have considered it. It must cost them a fortune to run the site, rent the studio, buy the cameras, lights etc. They've clearly invested a lot in it.

That unboxing was pants though. Darrell is their resident WAAC player so I don't this kind of thing is his forte, they used to have a guy called John who was much better but he left a while ago.

Yeah, even though I did the Backstage Pass for Warpath, I thought it wasn't terribly useful.

I can understand wanting to keep your profile on your products up by spreading around some exclusives, but I don't think BoW is offering serious, thoughtful reviews on much.  They're certainly not overly useful.

It'd also be nice if they actually review materials submitted to them a year ago.

They just need to get someone who is actually interested in the fluff, modelling and painting aspect of the "hobby" to do the reviews instead of the current incumbent who has no interest in these aspects or ability to make an intelligent review. 

Also, a little background on BoW... Warren used to run an internet company (web development etc) which was also listed in the back of White Dwarf in the suppliers section, which used to confuse me... ???  The company, called Netramedia, has since been sold on... But I am assuming the current studioand equipment comes from that business, which I believe was very successful...

I don't find BoW very cutting edge either. I've learned of more companies new to me through sites like TableTop Gaming News, The Miniatures Page, or even Warseer, which is so GWcentric it's scarey.

It seems to me that BoW likes to jump on the Bandwagon after other sites have already brought new companies to the forefront of hobbyists awareness.

To me, having someone think of BoW as the face and news source for our hobby is akin to those who think of GW as the epitomy of the miniatures hobby. Both companies know how to hype themselves rather well, but at times I seriously believe they are a hindrence to the growth of the miniatures hobby.

Tabletop Fix is also a good place to watch: ttfix.blogspot.com

For as long as I've been reading TGN, I can see myself eventually replacing it as soon as another, smaller site manages to get more news items out and keep them more relevant. Lots of stuff about painting awards and board games on TGN lately.

A quick look at ttfix shows some ral partha stuff for demonworld and some new MDF terrain from warlord that TGN hasn't got up on their site.

On the negative side, about a third of their posts are for concept art sketches, which I really have zero interest in seeing unless they're finished (unless it's for mantic, which I'll end up seeing anyway). There doesn't seem to be any way to filter out the concept art by tags either, it gets tagged as "preview"... which could mean "half a dozen posts of rough sketches by some company I've never heard of" or "cool new fully-painted model pictures, just not for sale until next month".