Reply To: [unofficial weekender] Gaming outside the comfort zone

[blinky465 17028xp 0]

Have you ever played something outside your comfort zone?

I played D&D once. By a friend who insisted on “theatre of the mind” – he too, it turns out, was playing it *incorrectly* by banning tabletop miniatures 😉 . I tried it maybe a few times,, even despite my initial reservations. I was talked into it, and tried to keep an open mind. But I hated it. It’s really just not for me. Nothing untoward happened – none of the kind of weird shit you hear about players swapping genders or anything like that. I just didn’t enjoy the experience at all. Give me little miniatures and terrain and some hard-and-fast rules and an objective, any day.

At the risk of de-railing the thread, I wondered who else is “cheering on” Army Painter these days?

I’ve been a long-time fan, ever since getting my first mega set nearly ten years ago. Quickshade dip was an absolute game-changer for me. Their paint range was never “the best” but it always served me well enough to block-colour minis before dunking them in their brown goopy stuff.

Contrast (and slapchop) in recent years has been like another revelation. And while Contrast Paints are very good, I found the Army Painter Speed Paints just felt “nicer” on the brush – smoother, more responsive; looking at my minis, I couldn’t tell you which were done with contrast and which with speed paints, the results are so similar. But the experience of using Speed Paints was just overall better, from a tactile point of view.

And yet, because some people didn’t like the way their speed paints worked (cough, reactivation, cough) Army Painter went and completely overhauled their entire speed paint range, to address the issues raised. Don’t forget, they were initially introduced as a “one coat solution” – you’re supposed to just whack on one thick coat, let it settle, then varnish/lacquer and done. Reactivation wasn’t an issue during product development, because nobody was expecting to paint over it with multiple layers (the clue was in the strapline – “one coat solution”). But users didn’t use it they way AP intended. And instead of going “hey, you’re not using it right” they looked at how people were using their paints and completely changed the formulation to accommodate them.

For this alone, I want to support Army Painter as a company.
And now they’ve completely redeveloped their entire warpaints line again.
Because they acknowledged that their initial paints were only “good enough” not “brilliant”.

For me, that’s absolute dedication to the cause.
And I wish them well for it.
A few weeks ago, we were asked “how long do you usually save up for your hobby spending?” and I was quite offhand in dismissing the question – if I can’t afford it when I want it, I simply don’t buy it.

But I think I *will* be putting some cash aside, specifically to buy the new Army Painter range when it comes out.
I think I want to buy their paints.
But more than that, I know that I want to support the company!

Anyone else have a “cause” they really want everyone to get behind?