Those Beasts of War chaps have got another video of me up today, this time talking about Dwarf King’s Hold: Green Menace. It’s sort of self-explanatory if you watch it.
It’s all a bit strange for me though, because I’m not really used to seeing myself on video at all, let alone repeatedly over the past few months as has been the case since DKH came out. It is educational though as I can start to see what works and what doesn’t. Hopefully I’ll get better at this as I go along. If I’m guessing right there’s another video for thursday and that should be the game play one. That is a topic which is much harder to film well and something I’ve been tinkering with myself for this site so that I can do some “how to” sorts of things. It’s a way away yet as I’m something of a Luddite at times. Well, not Luddite really, just not very interested in the process, more focused on the result.
For example, if I was more technically minded I would work out how to post the BOW video so you could watch it in a window here. I’m sure it’s easy enough when you know how, but I just don’t have the time or the inclination to look very hard. Anyway, I’ve got a Bushido game to prep 🙂
Quirkworthy 
It’s probably Bad Form to comment on your own post, but here I are 😛
Just to say that we played through some Bushido, like I said. Not a full game as we were just getting to grips with the basics, but we ran about and fought each other with a couple of models a side and with all the rules, so we saw the core of the play. Anyway, I’ll be writing a proper review once I’ve played a couple more times with whole starter sets on each side. I find “reviews” where people haven’t even got the game on the table to be pretty useless, and assume you will too. Hence the small wait while I do it properly.
I’m very happy to know that you’re interested in fan scenarios. I’m going to move in the following. But after that I’ll send you or publish in any way a couple of ideas I have.
And, by the way, thanks for creating Dwarf King’s Hold. I love these games.
Thanks wachinayn, always great to hear folks are enjoying my games.
Really looking forward to some fan scenarios for DKH. See if you can surprise me 🙂
Re-reviews of games before people have played them, I kinda agree whats the point. However I’ve had people tell me, my review and articles on Firestorm Armada, Dystopian Wars and Flames of War were all really helpful as they were written from the perspective of a n00b… although i had played all three games a few times even if only briefly before writing those articles.
Any way glad to see DKH getting some coverage, speaking of which I’ve got my DKH:DR 2 months on review up on my blog here:
http://thefrontlinegamer.blogspot.com/2011/07/dwarf-kings-hold-dead-rising-few-weeks.html
If you’re interested in reading it!!! Cheers.
Tsk, tsk. Stop pimping your site and get on with it 🙂
Read your review and wrote some comments there. As I said, for my personal taste you focus too much on what the card is like and not enough on the game itself, but it’s all a matter of preference. When I read a review, I want to know about the physical quality of a game, for sure. At the same time I do buy games that aren’t the highest spec because I want a good game first, regardless of the thickness of the card.
It’s really hard to get a game published, regardless of the quality, and even ignoring my own (brilliant) games that languish unpublished on my shelves, I know of several excellent games that are never likely to see print. What this means is that I know (and have found) some absolute gems of games over the years that are cheaply produced because the tiny independent companies that publish them simply cannot afford the component quality at the prices they can realistically charge. The only reason that FFG, etc can afford that quality is because they are producing a huge print run in China and have the capital to invest up front. That’s not bad, it’s just business. But it does mean that believing marks out of ten (BGG ratings, stars, whatever) based primarily on their components alone will cause you to miss out on some far better games.
Being shiny does not necessarily equal being good.
True, but for all my reviews of games, I’ve rated the game rules themselves as a ‘component’ and as ‘detail’. The game itself gets a mention in those sections as well as playing a major part in the summing up and overall. I did however have an initial section on all my reviews depending on what the product was game, accessory, miniature etc. but people didn’t like it. So I chopped them!!! Bloody people. I’ll be putting them back soon, if I can find the word document I saved them all in.
Cheers
Pesky humans. Always messing up the plans for World Domination.
The world is changing and the ability of end user to create their own components keeps improving. That would imply that the value of people who design good rules and games should be going up. It seems the future is bright for brilliant games designers like Mr. Quirkworthy if they can live to 111.
🙂
I was tempted to just leave it like that, but Don makes a serious point. I’ve seen articles making the same point about films and animation: technology makes the craft easier – the creative bit is the challenge. Working in that end myself, this is all good news.
Mind you, those evil boffins are probably hard at work even now, inventing an inventing machine, then we’ll all be out of a job 😛
Not if we get the boffins first… *reaches for shotgun*