Beasts of War – OnTableTop – Phase III: Time for speculations and conspiracies

[captainventanusParticipant 5097xp 2]

I don’t find the Weekender too formulaic, it’s exactly what you would expect from the news show. The issue is, and reason why I haven’t watched it in years, is that if you come to read the website for even just a few minutes every day to catch up, then by Friday there is no need to watch the Weekender as its all the same material. I doubt there is enough of two audiences to warrant articles and a show.

What needs to go are the ‘Breaking News’ AND ‘News’ sections on the site. Never understood the difference between the two or the point of having two sections. Just makes it difficult to keep track where the news actually is.

• This reply was modified 6 months ago by  captainventanus.

[grantinvanman 2523xp 0]

I like the idea of both articles and the show; to be fair, I don’t often catch the show until after, and skip around to bits I like.

[captainventanusParticipant 5097xp 1]

Sure I can see some people liking to have both, and its ‘cheaper’ to recycle the material in two formats. On the other hand it still costs time, people and resources and I doubt that doubling up on the same thing really makes the best use of everything involved.

[zoidpinhead 12536xp 1]

As with a few others a more sturdy Projects system would be cool.  I’ve had less upload issues of late and download speeds from the site have improved markedly recently so perhaps there are more/better organsied hamsters in place already?

I love the idea of a virtual Bootcamp.  Let’s do that please 🙂

I like the idea @warzan mentioned of a creator focus with content from creator members but would not like to see the same people repeatedly so I think you might run out quite quickly.  Perhaps it might be possible to bring the UHH inside the fold and encourage a few more of us to view and enjoy each other’s projects that way.

Bring back the VLOGs.  They seem so infrequent and small-scale now.  I loved seeing a big terrain build or other big project take shape at the studio.  All of it, right from the initial concept discussions onwards, is interesting to me.  Hopefully this refocus will see the brothers Johnson and the rest of the team with a bit more time to do some big projects that the rest of us find so inspiring.

It would be good to make a bit more of the other content the site has – Games, Reviews etc.  Maybe a UHH focus on selections of content from there would be good.

@lloyd to build Rome, obviously.

Whatever you do – I’m all for it 🙂

[a27cromwell 3207xp 2]

I haven’t watched more than a half dozen Weekenders / Sunday show since the Covid lockdown was lifted . In fact I let my membership lapse for a couple of years . I did renew a while ago , but probably won’t when the year runs out . I miss the in studio weekend shows. I miss Justin or Warren derailing the conversation and taking it way out into left field . The only head I want to see on a vid screen is Holly , I mean Ben . I miss Sam , I miss Lance , I miss the girls ( sorry I bad with names , ask my grandkids ) , I miss updates from the American studio .  I know things change , people move on  , direction of the company changes ,etc , but I still miss them .  Is there still a physical studio with those large game tables we saw on the Boot Camp weekends ? I miss watching those as well .  I’ve noticed that comments on various broadcasts seem to be stuck around 30 -40 comments , I’m sure we had 150 – 200 comments on shows pre covid . Has the site lost members or are we getting older and ditching hobbies  I know the crowd at my LHS on a Saturday has really thinned , with a couple of guys hanging up their paint brushes due to sight problems and arthritis , and a couple have died . Its not just the OTT site , many groups I am involved with are in flux . Sign of the times maybe ? Hopefully things will turn around and sort themselves out .

[redscopeParticipant 2721xp 2]

The biggest problem is the project site. It could be a wonderful tool to show case peoples work and products. However it is such a pain to use. It is slightly better than a year ago but when it does go wrong i feel like walking away from it. Today for example I spent an hour writing an update, adding pictures to a detailed post. Only to hit submit, get a cloud flare error and lost all the work and effort.

To be honest I rarely look to view other peoples projects because it is so slow to navigate and track down what you are looking for. I just get annoyed sat waiting for pages to load like I am back using a 56k modem to access the internet.

Like most people pre-covid and post covid this site feels completely different. I know it is not just the lockdown but the business being sold, people stepping back. However I think it is also the hobby companies changing as well. I am sure the bootcamps had in the past be largely funded by companies like battlefront with flames of war. I dont know if companies are willing to fund that type of cost and effort as prices are rising.

I think how do you make that business model work today? A lot of the companies paying for adverts these days are kickstarters and often much smaller 3D printing companies. Kickstarter to me has perhaps seen its golden age for the hobby and we are in much smaller efforts. The question becomes how do you fund extra bits to do bootcamps ?

What would I like to see if money was not an issue ?

I actually miss the board games information. Post Free leaving that link into wayland games who sell a lot of board games appears to have died off. Which on the face of it seems to skip over a large market and additional source of income.

The other thing I would like to see if the staff be given more chance to showcase more of the hobby they are into. Outside of the site Ben puts his passion into Middle earth, Age of Sigmar. John one assumes from what I know into the tanks, and battletech. If you have seen bens youtube channel you will see the passion he has for those games and it seems a shame that type of content is not reflected more on the site.

I understand you need to seperate what is news about a new product from your own seperate view and that can be difficult. It would be nice to see ben review models and games he is into. John reviewing the new tanks for flames of war, doing more battle reports.

Not that I have anything against the current format for the weekender but sometimes you need to change things up. To get people excited about the hobby. I feel like generally on social media I see a lot of doom and gloom about the hobby when actually we are in one of the most exciting and expanding points in the hobby. The site is generally a positive focus on the hobby and one of few sites that does so.

 

• This reply was modified 6 months ago by  redscope.

[limburger 21922xp 1]

They’re not doing a lot of GW content (thank the maker I say), so numbers aren’t going to sky rocket … which kind of sucks.

@a27cromwell the studio space is still there. It’s where Warren and Justin are doing their Armoured Clash tables.

Oh … and speaking of VLOGs. The current ‘tale of two tables’ that’s kind of hidden inside the weekenders could do with being more visible. Folk not watching the weekender might have missed this.

Can we have the return of ‘Warren meets mat’ ? or a similar small segment ?

I like the news segment in the Weekender, because you also get to hear the opinions (or snarky comments) from the team.
Plus seeing and hearing someone like Ben or John go full ham on enthusiasm when one of their favorite systems is in the news is always great. That’s something a mere bit of text can’t capture and it helps spread the passion for the hobby.

XLBS is at times real fun to watch when they’re talking about their own hobby projects.
Even if it is something like GunPla (sp?) that is more scale modelling and less game-related. Seeing new things and learning from hobbies that aren’t directly related to tabletop gaming does add to the fun (and value) of the site.

“Ben on the Telly” … maybe all that part of the studio-show really needs is a way for the team to better interact with him. At times it felt like he was ignored as the guys weren’t as aware of his presence. I’ve seen this at my job as well where the guy joining the meeting by remote can be ‘forgotten’.

I’m not sure how to solve this, but maybe it’s as simple as having a monitor with Ben visible for the team as well ?
They could add a remote device so Ben can physically interact (or hit [target] with a clue bat for fun :D).

[avernosKeymaster 34528xp 0]

we show off our own hobby weekly in the XLBS

[templar007 52379xp 4]

I’m not sure what to hope for/wish for………..

But…….

if phase 1 was “Beasts of War”

and phase 2 was “On Table Top”

Will phase 3 be “Gerry’s World”

 

😃👍

[limburger 21922xp 1]

One Gerry to Rule them all

One Gerry to Bind them

One Gerry to bring them all

and in metal cast them ?

😉

[sundancer 43388xp 4]

Its not just the OTT site , many groups I am involved with are in flux . Sign of the times maybe ?

Probably. @a27cromwell  I rarely see anyone below the age of 30 in the hobby locally. Maybe it has lost its appeal? Maybe the previous “what got us started” company is just too bloody expensive? Who knows.

Will phase 3 be “Gerry’s World”

Or “The Attack Squirrel” XD

They could add a remote device so Ben can physically interact (or hit [target] with a clue bat for fun :D).

A remote controlled robot arm to slap the others at the table! Grand idea! 8)

All that fun banter aside: we (the users) cry for “more and better” content but let’s not forget how many people are involved in creating stuff for OTT. If I counted that correctly we are at 8 people. And some of them do only “part time” as they are now working with/for business daddy. The team was much bigger 5 – 6 years ago. Lance, Sam, Tim, Free and at least 2 from the US. And what is taking front seat at creating content: the stuff that makes money and keeps the team paid. Aka adds. We might not like that but that is life.

According to the Members section OTT has 14,614 members. I feel that is a bit of a bloated number for two reasons: many of them are one-offs for give aways and some are just spam accounts. So how many Backstagers/CoGs/OTTers/Cultists are we? 100? That’s not even close enough money to pay any one in the studio. So how big is the community really? At the time of writing roughly 130 people where online on site. 1%. That is not a lot in my book.

Maybe, and I’m probably getting nailed to the cross for this, maybe we (the users) should focus on the community aspect a bit more. Create more stuff, show more things, write stories. But in order to do so we need: a stable, good running project system and a proper platform for writing (aka a forum)

All that said I do love the discussion here and I think there’s stuff in it for the team to grab and run with.

 

[limburger 21922xp 1]

I’d be surprised if some of this stuff isn’t on their backlog already.

I’m not sure if the ‘on line’ bit is accurate as I think there’s an option to be ‘invisible’ (not 100% sure though).

The challenge is to convert those lurkers into active community members.
Part of the problem is that not everyone is as open to things outside of their comfort zone or they don’t have a wide array of interests so the things they like get not enough screen time for them to want to engage with the rest of the community.

A faster project system / forum would help, but it’s not going to convince folk to share their creations on-line.
That’s a hurdle that not everyone is comfortable with, especially given how hostile/toxic a lot of the on-line communities can be.

(Yes … OTT isn’t hostile, but it still is intimidating to post stuff and open yourself up for critique.)

As fun as the UHH is … the feedback you get from projects shown there can be a bit harsh as well.
I know that’s not the purpose of the channel, but if you’re new to the hobby it may be another thing that could scare folk.

It’s something every community has to deal with so it’s neither new nor unique.

The various contests have this effect as well. Seeing all the top tier projects does make one feel inadequate when trying to decide whether or not a project is worth entering. I’d like to think that the entry level rewards are one of the things that can help mitigate this. Scale model contests have separate brackets for the ‘professional’ and ‘beginner’ for this very reason.

[collins 16365xp 0]

I think that OTT have done a good job in the past at giving projects an equitable way to win prizes… sure some are epic builds and fantabulous with multiple golden buttons in them too showcasing skills beyond our kin but they don’t win the tutorial or idea prizes do they…

[avernosKeymaster 34528xp 1]

when has the hitlercast been harsh on projects? Sometimes they get told off for not painting Baylan Skoll but beyond that?

[zoidpinhead 12536xp 0]

I think the UHH is pretty fair – we need to get told off about mould lines!

I’d like to add that there are some things that I really love about OTT and I’d like them to stay please:

The positive perspective of this community.  Unlike most everywhere else comments here are positive.  There are plenty of places to go and rant about stuff so it is lovely to find somewhere so pro-hobby.

Golden Buttons – It is great seeing projects discussed and recognised and Ben & Gerry do a great job in picking not just the brilliant modelling, building and painting but also those with different perspectives, ideas and from across the experience and ability levels.

Whats in the Box – is done so well here.  Seeing others attempting similar you recognise just how much skill is going into these.

The Weekender.  Still the best place to get a roundup of what is new in the hobby

Video production values.  Always high quality content.

VLOGs although less frequent they are always welcome and I watch most everything in this format.

Projects.  I love having somewhere to keep stuff and showcase it.

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