Weekender XLBS: Necromancy, Fantasy Baseball & BoW 2016 Plans
December 6, 2015 by lloyd
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Happy Sunday… Personas eh?
Calum Age 30 spends too much time on the internet, hasn’t put the toys away in the right place since he was 5.
Like that?
We do the same thing at our tech company for UX and CS studies and use case reviews. Basically you gather and analyze data to create a portfolio of “characters” that identify most of your audience / customers, and designate key aspects of their user experience profile that tell you how to best reach those people in the future.
How much time do you have, how much money can you spend on products like ours (wallet share), are you new to the market, have you been here a while, etc. How do you use our products, how do you use competitor’s products, what do you wish our products could do, are you an IT manager (i.e., do you influence what your company buys), etc. etc.
Could totally work for BoW as well. Formulating my answers already. 😀
Happy Sunday!
Has anything changed with the codec or the way you are hosting the backstage videos? My downloader can’t seem to handle this one and the last VLOG. If I can’t download them and watch them on the train to work I would never be able to watch any of your videos 🙁
Happy Sunday!
Fantasy Baseball? What next, Fantasy Cricket or even Fantasy Quiddich?
… What do you mean Quiddich is already fanrasy?
nah, it’s just a nast rumour. Quidditch is a real sport, with it’s own world cup.
Seriously: http://usqworldcup.com/
its a shame they are playing it in a no fly zone?
Happy Sunday! We did personas thing at work…basically archetypes, but with a specific story and a picture to humanize them. This is Tom, he’s a system administrator by day and loves watching the history channel by night. He has come across flames of war content as suggested by one of his gamer friends. etc…
I like the newsletters conceptually, but I check the site regularly and see all of the articles before the newsletter comes out. A newsletter that had previews of content, that would be welcomed. Even if it’s just a teaser. Might also be a good way to get early feedback and fast adjustments to productions.
I’ll also say that in Hawaii, the weekenders get released at 8:00 PM the day before (time zone differences), so I habitually watch as soon as it drops on Friday night and Saturday night. I took this Friday off this last week, and had an early weekend…expectantly and incorrectly waiting for the weekender to hit.
I really love the idea of hobby weekends.
XLBS Sunday!
Good to see Warren exploring the preferred formats that members of the gaming
community use to access the BoW articles. The daily emails remind me to check your site
for the latest gaming news. I enjoy the video clips (esp. Weekenders) but tend to only
have a little time in the evenings to watch them. Never seem to be able timing watching
live streams – probably due to being directly on the other side of the world. 😀
Don’t use Chat at all but sometimes read and participate in forum topics. A monthly
email highlighting Backstage content for the same month last year would be cool or
maybe links to all the last 12 months for Infinity content for example.
Always 100% focused on watching your shows when I get the chance to view them. Please
don’t shorten the Weekender! Love it the way it is – format, duration, content –
informal and entertaining. Please don’t change. 🙂
Will complete the survey!
The Bootcamps are great and once every six months would be enough. The workshop/Hobby weekend sounds brilliant. Would love to see coverage of community gamers interacting and sharing their projects with the Beasts of War Studio and the rest of the gaming community.
Be great if during a Bootcamp community members could have a question section where BoW would interview the gamers and pose questions from the community members about their experiences during the Bootcamp and maybe some queries about their own gaming interests. Perhaps get the Bootcampers to pick a few best questions from the community for spot prizes.
Yes, stuff I should just put in the survey, I know, lol. 😛
Interesting question about what it would take to visit the Beasts of War Studio. Well since I am in New Zealand, purely having the finances and then finding a reason to get my wife to the same part of the world. I would simply be happy to meet any/all of the team, shake your hand/s, and say hello and thank you. 🙂
Hope @warzan got his hot dog after the weekender. Oh and Justin, please don’t “whip out the cadaver and have a go at it” down at your local – there are laws against that. 😀
I also watch XLBS in a bed on a Sunday morning though the bit that gets the wife to stir is not “Happy Sunday!” but “hello Ben!” when the KS section starts.
I shall leave any answers to the survey questions for the survey itself, other than to say that whilst expanding the range of the events would be great, it would be a shame to scale back on the bootcamps as this is something that is unique to you.
“How did you find Beasts of War?” drunken wargame nostalgic web browsing best be on the questionnaire 🙂
“How did you find Beasts of War? drunken wargame nostalgic web browsing best be on the questionnaire”
You know, that might be how I ended up here as well.
Dungeon saga with 4 virtual players.
@warzan one of my favourite things to do when I was visiting the US was to go to a baseball game … if you going to a minor league game you get to sit really close to the action and it costs next to nothing to get in.
That were a long one but interesting – maybe a spin off of the Kickstarter watch show would be a good idea
Morning
Happy Sunday. Fantasy baseball looks fun.
The thread for “Ideas for future Bootcamps” is the Green Room within the backstage section.
http://www.beastsofwar.com/groups/backstage-green-room/forum/topic/ideas-for-future-bootcamps/
I’d like to echo the sentiment that the Kickstarter discussions are taking up too much of the XLBS time. You should definitely consider spinning it off into it’s own show
Interesting show
Theres chatrooms?. I didn’t know that
I’m not great with technology so haven’t heard of half the things you were talking about but as I am not allowed any form if electronic recording devices anywhere in my workplace coming home to endless messages etc doesn’t appeal to me but I can see the point in it. I like to receive info the same way I would like retail to do it .What I mean is not continually being bothering me with “Am I OK? Can I help you today, Is there any specific you are looking for” every 2 minutes.
When I need something I will come and find you
Where else in world would I like to see a BOW event?. Belfast would be cool as Coleraine is a good hour or so away so not having to drive as far would be great
I guess being local ,knowledge ofBOW gas always floating about the local gaming community
Keep up the good work and maybe we coukd see some different types of games given a showing on the site in the future
Interesting stuff all this…
I like the idea of hobby weekends a lot! Maybe they should have a kind of broad theme tho, like ‘vehicles’ or ‘infantry’.
A SAGA Bootcamp would be grand as I always wanted to get into it but never got around to.
Location wise I obviously would prefer something closer to home but living in rural Suffolk it seems like there isn’t much lol. Well, London..I guess.
Deffo video content for me whether its weekender style or shorts… I tend to dip in throughout the day as I work from home. If you were to organise an event on mainland UK Cardiff would be a good city but would also be happy with London. Loved the use of Periscope during the boot camp by the way.
Happy Sunday!
The virtual battles idea sort of sounds like a wargaming version of the old TV show “Time Commanders”.
Happy Sunday!
Am sat watching this whilst painting minis – my usual sunday plan 🙂
Will await the survey before adding any more
Went to watch a baseball game in San Francisco when I was there on my honeymoon a few years ago – really fun atmosphere, no inter-team “hate” that you’d see at a football match
@warzan – saw this and thought of you after wathcing the Cadaver section 🙂
?oh=2025c59fa3860648a3f9db1000b31983&oe=56F3781F
just because of the size of the venue, what about a weekend of gaming at Table Top Nation?
As far as event types go, earlier this year that was an “In-Store Comic Convention” that was streamed to 36 comic book stores – http://www.bleedingcool.com/2015/03/07/that-was-the-in-store-comic-convention-kick-off-that-was/.
A Comic Convention is quite different to a Wargames Convention – well the ones in New Zealand anyway.
Comic Conventions mainly consist of panels where people talk about a certain topic, creators and publishers promote what they are getting up to next, how they got into the business.
Most Wargames Conventions I have been to have mainly been about the tourneys and drinking – not always in that order.
Work on the 2016 version is already well advanced – http://www.bleedingcool.com/2015/12/04/kevin-white-to-host-next-years-in-store-convention-kick-off-as-diamond-joins-in/
It might be a way for BoW to help support FLGSs.
I stopped at 21:55 to say ‘YES SIR’.. I would most definitely appreciate a Backstage Content newsletter or ping notification! Ok, carry on.
I like the vid for Cadaver. Actually having the chips n dips on the table (or crisps and dips as I prefer to call them, crisps and disps even) to really hammer home its chipness and dipness.
I know that this may be a little early to state, as questions about the content will be released later, but I would love to see more Hordes and Warmachine content than the unboxings. Given that they won the Best Fantasy Game 2014 Award, there is obviously a lot of support for the systems from Beasts of War users. Where Privateer Press lead in the industry is their incredibly tight rules. However, there is rather a steep learning curve, so it would be ideal for a boot camp. To my knowledge, no one from Privateer Press has been interviewed on Beasts of War, yet they seem very willing to engage with the community. Smogcon 2016 in London currently has 450 attendees, so is there a chance of live-blogging it?
Ben was at SmogCon last year for a day to provide some live blogging. IIRC the request from the organisers came a little too late for there to be anything more.
Although I’m not really very interested in Warmahordes, given its popularity and the success of their approach to designing games and interracting with the community it does seem a bit odd that there’s not more PP content on BoW.
For a game to get video content it tends to need either one or more people on the BoW team to be playing it, or for the company to team up with BoW to do it. Presumably PP haven’t tried to set anything up, and from their point of view they probably don’t see the need, and Justin is no longer playing since the Essex sojourn ended.
I would be surprised if Privateer Press are not interested in setting something up. I know that some of their core staff did an interview with Darker Days Radio, for instance, so perhaps BoW could make the first move? An interview with one of their designers while they are across for Smogcon could be really interesting. While they are doing well, there are still a huge number of fantasy wargamers who have never heard of Warmachine and Hordes, let alone played a game. I recall Warren speaking incredibly favourably about their rules in an XLBS this year. Whether that was by reputation or experience, I am not sure. Definitely worth someone from the core BoW team trying it out.
Justin used to play it when BoW was based in Essex and there was regular WM coverage then, though no-one from PP was ever involved. It was done because Justin was playing.
Happy Sunday! First of all I have to say, I get everything I need From BOW now. You guys do a fantastic job. I check breaking news first thing in the morning and then through out the day. I have seen something cool on this site gone to the manufactures site and made a purchase within minutes of reading the news. I’m a small business owner that shares raising of a toddler. The majority of the
time I listen to content videos on my iPhone from your site or YouTube. When I get 30min free I’ll go back and watch on my TV from my AppleTV. My favorite thing to do is listen to the entire FoWFtW series! Love it, and I don’t even play the game. More with the Dr please!
I would love BOW in the US. I live in Baltimore, MD. If Justin is coming the America, I’ll be happy to host him. 🙂
Romain’s calm and gentle tones often cheer me up and indeed also sometimes send me off into a nice snooze. I could listen to him all day.
@warzan when I use to run a painting club called Sheffield Irregulars, we use to run hobby weekends on a Sunday, and every couple of months we use to travel out to other clubs for painting/hobby meet ups. It was a great way to see what everyone was up to hobby wise and pass tips on to each other. The great thing was that members of the painting club didn’t necessarily belong to the same gaming club.
We also use to run challenges such as only painting using paints with the word grey in the title. Along with painting a miniature from a particular manufacturer. Another one would be speed painting comps, basing techniques and painting for competition.
In regards to online radio, I regularly listen streamed radio, but only when I’m painting. Years ago I worked as tech in traditional radio, and for 4 years worked as an engineer for online/satellite streamed broadcasting. There are some quite easy set ups to run an online radio and software to allow you in a rather easy way.
http://www.pirateradio.com
This one software that will allow you run a radio online, but it’ll still quite a lot of work in regards to content. Another software to look at is Shoutcast.
Happy Sunday! To answer Warren’s question….I think I can speak for the female members of the community when I say we ALWAYS want it longer rather than shorter.
Or lord . . . 🙁
And yes, @dignity ‘s story at 32:50 . . . that’s me. I remember (and tell) that story also because it was the very first “karma point: I ever got.
Yes, @elromanzo . . . (*sniff sniff*) . . . you were my first. You never forget your first . . . 🙂
Not 100% sure if you literally saved anyone’s life that day, but I will say this . . . you almost certainly saved my job!
Online radio with Warren playing metal and from time to time waxing lyrical about the industry, this might be a good idea!
who the hell watches tv these days? i mean come on, Sharpe is not even on anymore.
Okay, THAT was funny. 😀
Too much questions and not much time to answer… Weren’t you supposed to post a link to the survey!? Can’t think riht now… I’m off to go get myself some hot-dogs (and a beer).
Can’t really remember how I found the place, but the best shows you ever did were turn 8. The two way interaction is what made those I think.
Of course, I realise the difficulty in putting that together and the time commitment make them a bit impractical, but I think the two way real time communication really does make a difference, could be applied to the weekend even coverage too I guess, whether bootcamp or something else.
Card games? I hate card games
I love card games 🙂
Not ‘Making it up as we go along’ but ‘Pioneers on the new frontier’.
Happy Sunday Folks, @oriskany Dude the work on the TY bootcamp just awesome. You and everyone else who helped on it, made it a wonderful time wish I could have been there. Now for @warren question love show from the start found y’all surfing the net looking for help to find gaming stuff. I was peed off at GW for another price increase ( one of way to many ), looking to fined another game system to play. Been with Y’all ever cease, I do most of my time on the PC, check in with y’all 3 times a day maybe more, love the content wish for a better way to talk with y’all. See when the hobby store in my area closed up, that I hung out at, it took away a place to kick up your feet an chill, and BS about all things gaming. So when I came across y’all and it was talk of gaming, and nothing but gaming from board games to table top all the way to RPGs. It was gaming nirvana, one stop for my great love of gaming. Side note when I was very young my Mom was real sick so I spent a lot of time going between other family members so I played nothing but games and with my toy army men as a kid. That’s why I love table top wargames and gaming in general . Would be ok with any thing y’all try out for the betterment of the show. Now to go to the land of my Fathers, a bit of a problem have to pick vacations a year ahead for time off. But man it would be oh so sweet to just come over and hang out for a weekend or more just to BS about gaming and play some awesome games, do some painting, learn anything I can about the hobby, plus drink, eat and be merry. Great idea coming here to the states wish there was some thing here in Buffalo NY to make it worth coming here ( are y’all into hockey by any chance? ). But say GEN CON maybe or if y’all come to say Chicago With Gianna and Dawn ( or where ever they are ) could take a few days off to travel there for a long weekend. Don’t know its all just thinking out loud for now. What would I like to see more of ? Most definitely more gaming by you guys ether its own show or a plog, vlog, or what ever. Maybe a live stream of the club once a month. Would like to see maybe more with Mr. Lyons and his families tanks , and more of the reenactors ( around here its Civil War crap and that’s it ). Would like to see y’all do some RPGs . But what ever you do I know it will be just awesome . Thanks for your time got to go to church with the family, take care folks. Pepsidan 🙂
Ok, for me lose the amount of time dedicated to Kickstarters, this week was total coverage. Your all shouting no it is not, I beg to defer, Lloyd had a running order sheet that went out of the window great, love it when that happens, and for over an hour we here sensible points on where BoW are and where they would like to be reference new content and/or means of putting content out and what that content should be, so one item. Followed by around half an hour just over of Kickstarters which we have taken to turning, flicking through, off. I aren’t saying drop the kickstarters what seen as the question what do you think, which means me too even if you disagree about it, move that content to a separate format and give more time to the other things like hobby time cant remember last shared hobby time. But instead we have to trawl through card games or any new game seeking funding. I have been doing some looking back and through stuff and find that although I have every intension to remain a backstager, if I can afford it and I believe it value for my very rare moneys. What am I getting for my buck. Well the community I would miss 100% of those of you who agree and those of you often disagree with my point/s on some subjects. Can I get the same sort of contact elsewhere without the built in cost, yes, I can on BoW for free, different people or same seen as backstager’s often discuss on both content format’s. How about York as a destination, no not because of its location to us. No, because it more central and is the centre of the eastern sides rail hub.
IMHO I think there is much that could be done to fit my persona but I do not think I would be anyones actual singled out persona. So I like what I get yes, do I want less damned KICKSTARTERS 100% yes as in lose them someplace else. In your questionnaire ask how many people actually buy into a kickstarter because it was shown in XLBS or how many would have done so in spite of the sorry in my point of view’s wasted time on XLBS.
Thank you for taking the time to read this, even if you totally disagree
Good hunting
Chris G
Totally agree on the KS stuff.It is time that could be better spent on new games that have actually been released
ive started flicking right through the kickstarters section aswell, its my least favorite part of current Bow setup
I watch or at least listen to the Kickstarters segment, at least the opening, because I like Ben and I think it’s great he’s being included on the show.
But yeah, not really my thing. It’s not even the “kickstarters” themselves that turn me off . . . it’s content of the Kickstarters — the “coffee table” tables, “eurogames,” cube-pushers, Settlers of Catan or Ticket to Ride clones, whatever you want to call them.
I like hearing about kickstarters when it’s Kingdom Death, Dust, DZC, i.e., WARgames.
A lot of these games are “Dice Tower” type games. By way of contrast, Dice Tower HQ is twenty minutes down the road from me (well, on a weekend when there’s no traffic). Never been. Probably never will. They think gamers like us are elitist and have said so many times on their shows. Instead I fly 4300 miles to come to Beasts of War Team Yankee Boot Camp. Because it’s Beasts of War. Not Beasts of Cubes or Beasts of Cards.
But please, IGNORE what I say if it means Ben not being on the show. THAT I want. 😀 Seriously, I’m not just trying to be nice.
My dream show at the moment? @redben vs. huscarle and Ben in a Saga campaign series. 😀
Splitting the KS section out doesn’t necessarily mean that is space freed up for other discussion. It could just mean XLBS is shorter as doing that won’t give the team more filming and editing time to film another 30 minutes. Other than the days during the Essex sojourn when the Weekender’s were short and padded with trailers, I’ve never had an issue with content on the shows that doesn’t interest me (and there’s usually always at least some). That said, perception can be reality and if splitting the KS section into its own show released later in the day makes those who don’t like it happy then it could be worth doing.
I assume they’re nightmares, @oriskany, if my ugly mug is in them lol
Perhaps @oriskany should lick the hand of the seer in payment for an interpretation of these dreams ? 🙂
I try to watch them but they’re mostly card games, which I’m not interested in and so I do often end up skipping the last half an hour of the show. If the show is 1:20 – 1:30, I’m not too bothered if I skip the last bit of the show though, afterall there are only so many hours in the day.
But to answer your question about kickstarters – I have bought into several kickstarters because I saw them on BoW, although they were all before the regular weekender/xlbs slot.
Kickstarters that I have backed because I saw them on BoW:
Conan by Monolith
Human Interface: Nakamura Tower
The Thunderbirds Boardgame
Route 666: Devil’s run
I can’t remember how I found BoW. It was around the time I got back into painting and stuff…so I guess Google or the YouTube.
I tend to visit BoW a few times a day to check for new stuff, there are a few websites I do that with. I get emails but I don’t read them…
Hobby Lab. Hobby Lab. Hobby Lab.
yeh hobby lab and more Romain, its the easiest thing in the world to buy all the miniatures but to paint them and to make gaming terrian are the hardest aspects of our hobby.
@deaddave and @toshkien = there speaks wisdom. 🙂
I thought it would turn up if I said it three times, like Beetlejuice…
Lol always worth a try.
Interesting xlbs. Thanks guys
Nothing against Romain as I am always amazed by his skill, would it be possible to feature and interview other painters and perhaps the sculptors as well.
I prefer the longer shows as they’re more worthwhile watching. You’ve got more time to really talk about gaming and what’s new and what you’re up to.
I sometimes put your videos on in the week, but usually I watch them over the weekend. As I work from home, I normally have youtube on for a while, especially if I’m doing some work on the laptop (I have it running on my PS3 on the TV), so if I want to watch the backstage stuff I’d have to have finished on the laptop.
I think I’ve missed the newsletter, as I don’t think I’ve seen it for quite a while now (might be yahoo playing up), so I normally just check the site before checking my email.
Now go get that hotdog, you – you’ve earned it. 😀
Could you put up the questions you asked somewhere?
It occurred to me that rather than host boot camp events elsewhere you could offer event packs for clubs that wanted to join in the HQ boot camps you host. So my local gaming shop / club could download one of those packs and set themselves up to hold an event simultaneously with the BOW HQ event. The benefit for those at the club / shop would be that they could tune in at key points in the weekend, such as when the game designers you have in give instructions, tips and advice. Clubs / shops would need to have a big screen for the live streaming, and beyond that perhaps some video equipment to feed back.
+1 for this idea.
OMG I HAD A MASSIVE TREAD HERE AND I WENY BYE BYE!!!!!!!!!!!
wtf!!
i cant be arsed to type it again
Can you not zoom in on Bens face when he is explaining something.
My wife just asked who that man was i was skyping with. 🙂
You forgot Denver!
Happy Sunday!!
I have to say I’m a bit of a constant lurker on the BoW site except when I’m at work.
I like the idea of Podcasts though I’ve started listening to some of them on the drive to and from work, a Beasts of War one would be great to add into the mix
As to coming to the Beasts of War studio, it’s on the agenda for the wife and I. Coming from Australia it’d be great if something was on when I’m there but it’s not essential the Sunday gaming session would be fine 🙂
My wife and I do a live weekly Internet Radio show on Wed mornings that is then syndicated to iTunes and also evergreen on the site. You can see the show page at http://smartcut.us/radio and the iTunes page at http://smartcut.us/itunes. We work with a producer out of Phoenix and if you want to PM me I’ll tell you more about the costs (roughly $100 a show). The reason we went with this route is because there are licenses you *must* have in the States to play music or audio clips due to copyright restrictions. They do our commercials as a part of the fee (worth it in itself as they do all of the voiceovers and we can change them weekly!), we have our own sponsors and can sell ads, we can turn around and do commercials for sponsors and charge them for the commercial or give it to them as a part of the package.
I tend to get most of my info off of the site and use Feedly to get updated RSS feeds. I also am subscribed to your daily news letters so I can keep up with anything I missed. I don’t know how valuable the live content would be since I am 7 hours from GMT but I did enjoy the Periscope series from the Team Yankee boot camp. I know that several of the other guys here in the local Utah area who are interested in Team Yankee watched them as well.
I watch things through a tablet or computer and use my phone for basic stuff.
I do like the longer videos because I feel like part of a discussion rather than watching a dedicated show. It’s part of that community aspect of the broadcast. I would enjoy longer or shorter videos but I think your length and content is about right and you guys obviously know how to repurpose the longer content into segments.
I don’t mind the Kickstarter info on the shows but agree with Oriskaney… I’m a wargamer not another type of gamer. I don’t mind seeing the wargames products on Kickstarter reviewed but I am already overwhelmed with hearing about them.
@warzan you need to come to baseball games during spring training in Phoenix, AZ. They’re cheaper and a lot less formal. If you go ever go to Arlington to Ranger Stadium, make sure you get a Boomstick. That’s a hotdog that comes in it’s own suitcase and runs 24 or so inches long with enough addons that your arteries will harden before you get out of the stadium.
sounds good about the questionnaire the virtual gaming may be a good way to get the likes of @oriskany playing @johnlyons which would be a great game to video. @warzan
happy sunday!
ok here we go…I found BoW on youtube because I wanted to get back into the hobby but I was looking for something different than GW. Working 7 days a week with 10 to 12 hour days and very little time off I needed something to turn off and calm down and I remembered the good old days rolling buckets of dice painting and assembling miniatures hanging out with like minded people babbling on and on about our hobby, so I went out into the internet and found FoW FTW on youtube which than brought me to BoW.
Now BoW in a way replaces the old hobby shop where went as a boy to gaze at all the weird and wonderful stuff, talk to the staff and like minded people. I still can remember one of the guys told me about this new game called man’O”war and I ‘pre ordered’ it on the spot. this shop back than was amazing and had everything you can imagine from axis & allies over GW to MERS (middle earth role playing system?) and that was the time before internet and mobile phones so. the weekender set reminds me every time of that small shop. And like back then I pop on BoW and gaze at all the weird and wonderful stuff that makes our hobby.
I read articles and forums on BoW almost everyday at work, can’t use headphones frequently during work. And no BoW is not blocked would be kind of silly after they include you on one of their apps. 😉 where I watch videos depends on what kind of video it is weekenders in general after work before I go to sleep or on my days off when I’m painting assembling during the week. Most other videos I watch/listen to when I’m painting/assembling.
what were the other questions again…oh yes I’m with deaddave ‘hobby lab. hobby lab. hobby lab.’ would be great to have more hobby lab videos I really enjoyed the hot wire foam cutting thingy. romain is always great and I learned a lot from his videos. A hobby/paint bootcamp would be great also my old youth club had every winter one day per week where we came in sit around a big table and paint and chat. everybody would bring a mini and paint it up. More FoW FTW with Master Dave please, I would love to see his Finns in action!
ui you ask to many questions at once I have to think about it a bit more. But to sum it up for me BoW is a great place to get news, learn new stuff (painting and hobby techniques, tactics, etc.), meet new people and gaze at all the weird and wonderful stuff that makes our hobby so great and unique. Thank you guys for that. 😀
As a community member I appreciate and look forward to be able to put some input into the direction BoW should go.
I will say now though I’d love to be able to download the xlbs weekender again. I’m quite a busy guy and quite often when I get the ideal opportunity to sit and watch I have no access to the internet. Podcasts would be good for me too.
Happy sunday!
One thing for sure: don’t shorten the weekender! I will complete the Survey.
How about a “welcome to Backstage” 5 minute video, telling people where they can go, and find things out about 40k / painting etc. All as something for people who sign up to Backstage. I think YouTube suggests something similar.
I always think when a Weekender goes over an hour, it’s got a bit too long. The material should be kept to about an hour, and if there’s more, maybe an ad-hoc mid-week update would be nice.
Happy Sunday Guys and Galls. 😉
Wow, how I found BoW?
Well it was a while back when I got back from being deployed from war and was in the Hospital doing physical therapy, I needed something to watch on my time off. Being a 40k player I was doing research of pics or vids on how to paint and got a hit on Roman’s painting and Bow.
But one of my favorites sections back then was ” On the Table” I couldn’t wait to see what Warren was gonna come up that week in the news.
About the satellite radio I think it would be an awesome idea, I’m very interested. I would be a customer of Bow and you could have various sections in your radio from, news to audio books ie. HH novels, Star Wars novels, D&D novels, etc. also re-enacted batreps narrated with the pros and cons of army lists of all games.
Hell the sky is the limit.
As far as XLBS the only thing I would say is try to add some hobby oriented section and you should be good. I like your show and I would make it a bit longer maybe 2hrs long.
🙂
Brother G
Everyone knows the best radios stations are found in Grand Theft Auto! 😉
yep — 11:58pm and watching you guys before going to sleep.
The user interface for the website can be difficult to navigate especially forum content, and the search tool isn’t intuitive as well.
Are those things that can be updated? I’ll definitely put in my input for Apple News once I get a handle of how they will display news.
Sydney, Australia
Sitting down with my coffee watching you guys right after it posts or when I get up the next day is a highlight for my weekend. The wife gives me a look, but gives me the time. It’s like catching up with friends and learning about new things. I really wouldn’t change much at all. It seems like there is something for everyone no matter what your taste is. The KS stuff gets a bit boring sometimes, but that’s just not always my thing. It still is something new so can be interesting sometimes. Modern war is not really my game thing either, but reading some of Oriskenys stuff has been very educational and fun, and community feedback and your feeds have been interesting and cool at times. my point is that seeing the different items, whether my cup of tea or not, is really pretty cool, exposing me to things I would have never seen otherwise.
I learned about you guys from your feeds on Geek and Sundry back a few years ago. It got me back into the gamer frame of mind after several years away after burnout. Glad I found you guys. The wife and my wallet aren’t to happy, but oh well.
I have watched all of Romans vide, some at work. The guys here at work have asked about it, and I have told them about getting better from watching him. I have described him to people here as a French, gay, very sarcastic Bob Ross. They got that. I love it. More please.
Overall, without trying to sound to much like a fanboy, I do enjoy what you guys are doing and recommend it to every gamer I know. Just waiting now for the 24/7 Bow TV channel.
Jason 33, Australia. Wish he could attend every BoW event ever, still upset he couldnt come to Infinity but its just too expensive for me to get there on my budget. Flights from Aussie to the UK arent cheap but I would love to plan one for sometime and save for it. 😛
I had an interest in 40k back in my college days but it never came to fruition due to budget. I then 3 years ago walked into a Games Workshop after coming across it by chance and walked out $250 AUD poorer. Following that I started looking for painting tips online and found Beasts of War through Google, I was a back stager within the week and Ive been here ever since.
Truth be told if I knew what I knew now I would never have bothered with the 40k and moved straight into other games.. But I dont regret my 40k, I have a Blood Angels and Tau force, but neither are used anymore
As far as my hobby is concerned I find myself painting and building more than playing but my first love is the game. Upon release of the “Dark Carnival” I fell in love with Malifaux, I still love Infinity but struggled to find people to play with.
hahahaaha, no not blocked, thank the gods
would love to get to a BoW event, but I’d be looking at approx $2000 aus to get there (kalgoorlie to perth(both west oz) to belfast. maybe when I win lotto……
Gladly listen to live streaming radio, or podcasts.
Mainly watch content for audio, so i can get on with hobbying (building and painting).
Completed the survey for y’all, sadly, the wife wont let me come over to you, unless we “win the lottery, so we can have lots of money to spend while your there, oh, and we’ll be coming too, not to the studio, but to Ireland…”
I,ve found you guys looking up youtube for Bolt action and FOW gameplays or battle reports. And after a battle of stug Wolves vs a Britsh army, both generals made me laugh a lot but also learn many interesting things.
Now i.m following the web on daily basis. And have share the exciting with you with the new game Antares.
I am in Madrid, but I went to Ulster when i was young, Very nice place.
P.S. I do a lot of cleaning while watching weekenders.
Well, I did the survey today as soon as it popped up.
I am really interested in you reanimating Twitter. I get the news on what’s going on the site more or less. What I sometimes find annoying is that BOW takes away my hobby time!!! 🙂 Ironic ain’t it? Yeah, I paint while watching. 😀 IN fact BOW is my hobby time. I am always late with the videos because I have no time during most of the weekends, but I love the show. I would come to BoW just to take a tour, meet you guys and have a pint, but that all would be on an occasion of me visiting Ireland.
Not the best XLBS I’ve seen. I know talking about the future of BoW is important but I’m not sure it’s what I want in my weekender content – especially as there was no weekender last weekend because of the Bootcamp. Mention the survey by all means but then spending an hour talking about it; that’s not a piece of content I would have watched had it been posted under that heading. That said, I think it’s the first time since you started doing the weekenders that I’ve been disappointed.
Also, a couple of notes on the Kickstarters.
1) There is, or seems to be, a big focus on card games; most of the Kickstarters covered in the weekenders seem to be card games mixed up with some board games. They’re not everyone’s bag (I don’t mind board games, can’t stand card games) but the Kickstarters section takes up a large portion of the show. Maybe that’s just because that’s what’s on kickstarter, maybe it’s because that’s what Ben likes but for me, I feel like I’m missing maybe 1/3 of ever XLBS because most of the kickstarters just don’t interest me.
2) Have you considered that kickstarters covered in XLBS are perhaps not getting as much publicity as Kickstarters covered in the frontstage episode? Obviously you guys will know your viewing figures better than me so I don’t pretend to have an answer to that question but if it isn’t something you’ve considered I thought I’d just put that out there.
We consider backstagers to be pretty integral to Beasts of War and not only value their input above all others, but do take the time to keep them in the loop as to the ‘direction and sometimes housekeeping’ of the site and community.
So from time to time an entire show may well be dedicated to this kind of thing (and has done in the past too)
It may not be your cup of tea this time but you are also not the only backstager and we do think its healthy as a community to keep as many involved and included in what’s happening as much as possible 🙂
As regards KS content etc, its worth remembering that the weekender is in two parts and every week is a battle to find cool topics and a balancing act on where to put them.
If we drop the KS content as @redben rightly pointed out earlier in the thread the shows will simply be shorter, and we have no plans to create yet another weekly show (there is sooo much hidden overhead in show production its just not possible right now)
As regards to the type of kickstarters, I have been asking for more variety and stuff other than ‘miniature games’ just so we can get a better picture of what’s out there.
I also ask for Indy stuff so we can see some of the rough diamonds.
My hope is that we get a better picture of the table top landscape and also do some coverage of games that maybe have a wider appeal (perhaps to female viewers or others who maybe haven’t sampled the delights of miniature gaming)
They can be interesting (and yes we are somewhat limited by what’s actually running a campaign at the time) and they all are at the very least ‘current’ so have a little more meaning in a magazine style chat show like the weekender.
But… All that said
We do take on feedback, and discussions and ideas always flow in here so who knows 🙂
I wasn’t trying to have a dig, as I said it’s the first one I’ve ever said that about – I suspect that there’s not many TV shows that can claim that (anyone who watched Stargate will remember that at least once per series they would include a “clipshow” which was just footage from previous shows).
I also accept that there aren’t enough miniatures games on kickstarter to fill a show and I think you are absolutely right to broaden your horizons to see what’s out there and maybe that’s what is out there; cardgames, far as the eye can see. When the show is an hour and a half (and 1:20 to 1:30 seems to be the norm of late), I’m not that bothered if I skip through the kickstarters. This week it was really only the combination of kickstarters that didn’t grab my attention AND the chat about the survey that have caused any disappointment. You don’t need to worry, I’m not exactly reaching for the unsubscribe link in Paypal!
Lol no probs
Your post was the handiest to attach the response to matey 🙂
Yes i watched the weekender in the night too. 23:41 at home in Frankfurt / Germany.
Pretty much lying in a chair in front of my computer 😉
It’s a shame that Backstage material can’t be played on PS3. I’ll watch the YouTube stuff on the PS3 on my main TV.
when i watch and what im doing depends on the content
for videos like the weekender, or like 40k charted, where its mostly you guys sitting around the table, having a discussion etc, either about plans, or new stuff, then i tend to watch those in the mornings, where i can just stay in bed with a cuppa and just chill and watch.
but for videos like painting tutorials or game tutorials, for example where a little more concentration is required, i tend to watch those in the afternoon where im a little more awake
as for what im doing, again depends on the content, the chat/dicussion videos i just tend to lie in bed, where as other stuff i may be painting, browing the web etc
So a common approach in this thread is “get in bed with Beasts of War”? Hmmmm
I filled in the survey but some extra notes ;
kickstarters in weekender are nice, but to long
Talking in weekender longer then 20 min on 1 content/topic is to long (for example : you rambled on and on more than 1 hour about plans)
Realy like the 3 colours up with ramon ( he is so funny and relaxed) , ( more airbrusch please, and put compressor in the other room, get some long tubing).
Realy like the VLOG , need only more
REPEAT OFF, try to not repeat over and over, We are not all americans ( example if in kickstarter they explaim what game rules are, less explain them again)
LIVE feeds are a good idea ( for sure when you have a running chat next to it, so people can interact ) , but make as option that people can look at them, on there own time later the month.
What do the mugs say? They look like a set.
You can sign me up for the hobby weekend. I have plenty of stuff in need of some love and attention. And getting to see some of the North Irish scenery would be a nice bonus.
BOOTCAMP IDEA
going along the idea of a virtual battle, you could have 4 or 5 linked battles with a ‘warcouncil’ of backstagers, being the generals in the back lines maybe setting objectives and missions per battle that the players at the event have to try to meet, say at the end of each turn they have to report to command for new orders. each side will be having a range of orders each turn and the enemy wont know… unless theres a spy
or could do campaign weekends
It depends on week but mainly i saw the show at bed on the phone, Pc troubles sometimes, when i wake up on weekend or prior to sleep, i prefer longest shots than shorters but donot mind at all, weekender is great at 1h long so other short vídeos are great cause you guys always do a great Job!
The good things for short ones is that can be seen in Few minuts.
Did the survey, but wanted to offer an overview of how I use the site.
I visit the weekender on night shifts 1900 to 0700 or sometimes at home if I’m off at the weekend. I will either see it on my phone or work / home PC.
I have an amount of Bolt Action and Infinity miniatures. I have been making my own terrain and have a single bed or dining room table to play on. I only play against my son. I don’t know where to go to play other players of these games.
I went to Salute this year for the first time and look forward to going again. I devote too much time to painting and making rather than playing.
I submitted a rushed effort to the Halloween game design competition. I won the access to the new space marine game, but issues with my home PC have meant I haven’t been able to unlock it. I love the way that comments give you a chance to win free and exclusive miniatures and terrain.
I visit articles on Saga, Infinity and Bolt Action but love to hear about a wide range of games. I often visit the breaking news section on the right hand side of the home page and like seeing these stories pop up on the Beasts of War Facebook feed as well.
I prefer videos to text. I like the long weekenders for relaxing in downtime at work or to playing whilst I model or paint. I like unboxing videos and tactics videos for when I sometimes commute.
I wish the plogs had a “play all videos” button, so I could use that as a longer piece to listen to as I paint, rather than pausing and playing each update, interrupting my hobbying.
I didn’t get into the latest bootcamp coverage. The addition of unboxings was excellent, but because I wasn’t enamoured about the game and my home PC has been out of action. That said I did enjoy the Lloydoslavia terrain building content.
I guess I’m saying I love a variety of games even though I’ll never have the money or time to commit to more game systems than I have already. I won’t always find time to follow what interests me at the time I spot it on the homepage. I think the dedicated pages for games like infinity should have some of the evergreen content more easily accessible. E.g. How to play, core mechanics and tactics. While the latest news should pass by as it does now.
So if I go to a game I currently have little experience of I can cut back to the how to play, battle report type videos you created a year ago to bring me up to speed. (The latest miniatures released will be slightly less of use to me when I want to know more about the overall game.)
I love the interviews you get with company owners and game developers. I would love to know more about that side of the industry.
Virtual games would be great for me to play someone other than my son, just as a rare change.
I would love to attend a bootcamp event. Many of the Mantic Games systems, Saga and Beyond the Gates of Antares would all attract me over to N. Ireland. A relaxing hobby weekend would also be appealing.
Beasts of War enhances my hobby experience and I will continue to be a Backstage member for some time to come.
Beasts is blocked on the computers at our school because it flags up as a gaming website – this is intended to stop pupils playing plash games but often stops websites like beasts that the school would not have a problem with pupils accessing as it is broadly educational.