Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

I am subscribed to Beast of War youtube channel, i like their news and such.
But their reviews annoy me, are they ever critical of something?

Every new thing they review is, awesome, some of the best in the business, great stuff. beautiful and so on.

It is like watching a Japanese food show, everything is ooishi, umai ( tastes great, tasty)

or am i just to cynical?

Because their business model and salaries are based on a paid-for website and monetised Youtube channel. In order to drive that, they have to continually be reviewing and displaying new content, meaning they are at the mercy of having good relationships with suppliers and manufacturers to get early eyes on stuff. If they start pissing the suppliers and manufacturers off with overly critical reviews then that early access dries up and so does their revenue stream.

That is the double-edged sword of having a business monetised by critique. If they survived purely on ad revenue alone then they could perhaps be a little more independent. As it stands, that is why you have to take their reviews with a pinch of salt (and indeed, anybody's reviews for that matter; everything and everyone has an inherent bias).

Nope, you're not being cynical, they really are that bad.

BoW is vaguely useful for three things:

1. Occasionally useful unboxings of niche systems and historicals.
2. The Weekender to put on in the background when you paint and very occasionally find out about something upcoming you didn't already know about from elsewhere.
3. If you're the type of delicate flower who takes even the mildest of criticsm of a thing you personally like as a deep and abiding personal insult that requires either a visit to your therapist or a generational blood-oath of vengeance.

Seriously though, they had some entertaining painting videos for a while as well, but those got paywalled pretty sharpish so eh, and none of their "review" content is worth the name unless your only desire is to have a purchase you've already made validated, since as you say they never actually critique anything.

Now, they can do the whole "ah but we're trying to be positive about the hobby" angle if they like, but that's not reviewing - I don't go to Which to find out which toaster or hoover to buy and expect to find 100 different products all heartily endorsed without qualification, I want them to (fairly)tear everything down and find its limitations so I can best inform my own purchases.

It's like game sites that give 7's at their lowest or magazines that praise movies that are garbage.

Thanks i thought it was just me :p

Nope. I've got nothing especially unique to add as you and the other posters have written it up perfectly. Your best reviews of stuff is going to be written by individuals who have purchased the thing themselves, though even then you have to account for personal bias.

I couldn't tell you as I've never managed to sit through a whole review, they have a slick presentation and production value but as soon as they start talking it just sounds like they are trying to talk with a bag full of marbles in their mouth and I can't make sense of the supposedly english words coming from their mouths. It's like trying to understand the teacher in Charlie Brown.

I was watching the conan unboxing, and it was so "awesome", miniatures were ok for a boardgame IMHO,but "look at the cracks in the tray! "

Yeah, even the Kings of War Bassilians got a nice review from them.

 Azazelx wrote:
Your best reviews of stuff is going to be written by individuals who have purchased the thing themselves, though even then you have to account for personal bias.

They're *definitely* going to be biased. If you own a few hundred games, which ones would you rather be writing about? The ones you like, or the ones you dislike? Unless it's to warn people not to buy the game, why write a negative review and go through the negative experience you had with the game?

There's only one way for a review to be unbiased, and that's for it to be paid for by the person reading the review. Everyone wants everything free, but, like shipping, reviews aren't free, either. Somebody has to pay for these things, be it through free product from companies, ads from companies, or paid subscriptions (which most game review readers don't use). Maybe someone will write a review to build up a brand name or general narcissism, but brand names lead to ads, and narcissism just means unboxing videos. (Okay, not being that serious with that sentence.)

Consumer Reports reviews products and the reviews are paid for by their subscribers. But, until games become expensive necessities like appliances and insurance, I don't think anyone's really going to pay for reviews anytime soon.

Which ones would I rather be writing about?

Heh, I've written a few on my blog and elsewhere, and more of my (video game) reviews are overall negative than positive.

I'll be reviewing some paints shortly (once they arrive):
- The Citadel Air set. I'm not on GW's review-promo list..
- The Vallejo Special Effects set, because I was only able to find a couple of reviews of them, and they were just regurgitation of promo material with no useful information whatsoever. I bought them with my own money and there's certainly no contra involved.
- I'll also be reviewing several of Warcolours' ranges shortly. Again. Purchased and with no external motivations.

Why? Because I like buying paint and having a wide variety of tools at my disposal. I also enjoy writing. I know Wordpress throws some ads onto my blog, but I'm not monetising it myself and get nothing. I figure what they put on pays my (free) hosting costs.

I'm in a similar boat, Azazelx - though I suspect I've written far less than you have.

I've got three reviews up so far, with another 4 in the pipeline (1 waiting for a replacement figure, 2 waiting for me to finish painting something, and 1 waiting for inspiration to kick in again). They're all for things I've either backed on Kickstarter or bought in a store.

I'm not writing them to get stuff out of people, but to try to give an honest appraisal of a product, so people - if they read what I write - can factor my experiences into their expectations.