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I used to love watching 40k battle reports online. Long ones. Short ones. Any of them, really. But these days, I'm finding it more difficult to pay attention to them. Maybe I've just had my fill? Maybe it's because so much of the game is tied up in stratagems that aren't visible on the table? Maybe it's just trying to follow along with the stack of rules interactions that I'm growing increasingly unfamiliar with? I'm not sure. But it's a shame, and I'm hoping my interest in that sort of thing is rekindled at some point.

Has anyone else found their interesting in video battle reports waning lately?

I feel like I might be able to sink my teeth into more of a narrative style game or one of the small-scale variant systems MWG sometimes does, but those seem to be a rarity.

I mean, have you seen mine? I got cats!

But I agree. Between the rules always changing, everyone seeming slightly more meta focused, etc... I'm caring less. Even the people filming seem to care less. The enthusiasm with some of the bigger channels is... lessening I think.

I mean granted it was ALWAYS hard to tune in for like 2 hours to watch people play. But it seemed more fun when I first started seeing miniwarhammer playing narrative missions then now.

I say we have a Jersey Shore 40k BR style, where theres smack talking, betrayal, and the occasional overly emotional fight where 90% of it is people holding each other back and saying the same 2 words over and over.

40k specifically has always been a little rough. You see a 3 hour video and jump ahead to the 2 hour mark to find a title card for "Turn 2".

I do find myself less interested in video battle reports in general these days though. It might well be that the novelty has simply worn off. Might be any number of factors though. Quality is really hit or miss across the board and finding a well produced and edited report involving factions you're interested in watching with players with a similar competitive level as you can be pretty challenging.

Video battle reports have never been interesting and have been the doom of the Hobby.
They take hours, take ages to start, people act stupidly to try to get your attention and it's blatant irritating.
Written battle reports are clear, short, don't need your constant attention and are devoid of anyone people screaming in your ears and making private jokes.

Part of it might just be that we've come out of a period of high instability where gaming was shut down and where if you could game, unless it was in your own home with family, chances are it was a stressful interaction (facemasks, risks etc...)

And its not as if its all gone away, medical centres and such are still enforcing face mask wearing and running higher risk factors; its just not in the news as much right now.


So that might well have dulled some interest as the whole watching what you can't do loses its interest after a while.



It might also be that some of the quality channels aren't putting out as many or as a good a quality; there's skill and a considerable amount of time before and after in making a battle report not just a report but entertaining and its not just having a good camera angle. There's a lot of little bits in making it entertainment to watch and making it engaging.

You could also have just had your fill for a while- that's normal and natural and happens to most of us within hobbies and areas of interest.

 godardc wrote:
Video battle reports have never been interesting and have been the doom of the Hobby.
They take hours, take ages to start, people act stupidly to try to get your attention and it's blatant irritating.
Written battle reports are clear, short, don't need your constant attention and are devoid of anyone people screaming in your ears and making private jokes.

Agreed, somewhat anyway. I dont think they are the doom of the hobby though.

I'm having trouble envisioning just how bored I'd have to be to watch a video of someone else playing 40k....

A lot of video batreps now sound like men reading spreadsheets out, instead of genuine friends genuinely having fun.

Drive to create “content” has diluted authenticity.

Tend to agree.

With that said, in my view the channel is about the creators. If you like them, that's great. But you may get bored of them if you watch them too much. There was a time when I watched just about everything MWG did. And then, several years ago, I just stopped liking them. Not even sure why.

I do think 9th's explicitly "gamey" objectives sort of compel a style of list building and play which is a bit samey and as a consequence not as fun to watch. So a channel will go "we are running X again" and I'm just left thinking "okay, I've seen this 5 times already, I know exactly how this is going to play out barring the dice, I don't need to see it again".

Which was presumably true in 8th and 7th, but... seemed less explicitly so.

Kya_Vess wrote:I mean, have you seen mine? I got cats!

I actually have one of your videos pulled up in another tab that I simply haven't gotten around to watching yet. (The cats are, in fact, quite the selling point.)

I say we have a Jersey Shore 40k BR style, where theres smack talking, betrayal, and the occasional overly emotional fight where 90% of it is people holding each other back and saying the same 2 words over and over.

I'm... weirdly down for that. Give each of the players an over-the-top character that somehow ties into their army. Arrogant aeldari. Crisp and proper smurfs. That sort of thing. Let the games be at least mostly authentic, but pause to come up with some amusing lines after something of note happens. Send out arbites to break up the fights.

godardc wrote:Video battle reports have never been interesting and have been the doom of the Hobby.
...
Written battle reports are clear, short, don't need your constant attention and are devoid of anyone people screaming in your ears and making private jokes.

I can't speak for everyone, but I certainly found them interesting for a while. I like seeing other peoples' minis in motion, listening to other people having fun while I half pay attention, etc. There is certainly a charm to written battle reports with simple MS Paint maps though.

Overread wrote:So that might well have dulled some interest as the whole watching what you can't do loses its interest after a while.

Weirdly, I started really getting into them during lockdown, so I've almost had the opposite experience.

It might also be that some of the quality channels aren't putting out as many or as a good a quality; there's skill and a considerable amount of time before and after in making a battle report not just a report but entertaining and its not just having a good camera angle. There's a lot of little bits in making it entertainment to watch and making it engaging.

You could also have just had your fill for a while- that's normal and natural and happens to most of us within hobbies and areas of interest.

It's probably a bit of both of these. You can only watch people resolve their attack rolls so many times before it all blurs together. I'm not sure I feel that the quality/polish of the channels I watch has gone down (MWG seems good as ever for instance), but it does kind of feel like the battle reports being put out these days just aren't all that interesting to me personally. I like seeing quirky armies and weird missions and ideally a narrative mission here and there. It feels like a lot of the videos I've watched lately are more conventional armies, often trying to get a handle on new army mechanics that bog down the flow of the video. Like, watching people agonize over their synapse bonuses and miracle dice just doesn't do it for me, and trying to track which buffs and stratagems are in play at all times is kind of exhausting.

 godardc wrote:

Written battle reports are clear, short, don't need your constant attention and are devoid of anyone people screaming in your ears and making private jokes.

This.

Many, many years ago I loved reading battle reports by ColShaw, a chap on Warseer. He had several Imperial Guard armies and his battle reports were absolutely superb in terms of writing (as well as including several pictures to give you a better idea of the situation each turn). Sadly, I think he either quit around 6th edition or else stopped writing his reports if he didn't.

The only Battle Report videos I watch are the ones that fellow Dakkanaut Twilight Pathways posts on his YouTube channel. They're short, sharp, and fun. Just a series of photos taking throughout the game, a fun voice over, some good jokes, and it's over in 15m (often less).

I watch the table bits and army list bits of WinterSEO, but that's it, because his videos are 2+ hours sometimes.

I like the folks Tabletop Tactics, but again, their videos are so long (and they do an awful lot of symmetrical terrain setups, which drive me mental).

I just cannot watch 40k battle reports anymore myself.

But am still watching other games a fair bit.
And if I can I like finding good narrative game battle report.
Even the warhammer+ ones which I think should be a highlight I am done by turn 2 and that’s often about the half way point anyway.

Miniwargamings narrative missions are still fun to watch and the last two campaigns had rather short videos lasting about half an hour, which is a good length to get some paint on your models and not get bored.
I haven't been following their matched play Videos anymore, though. For that 9th mission Design is far too rigid, every game feels like it's the same.

Beside 8th and 9th being terrible for narrative wargaming, I think the bigger answer is that you and I have changed. The awe of learning something new and novel is past, 40k and wargaming as a whole may be more of a known entity, and we now see it with less impassioned eyes.

I used to like watching video battle reports from certain channels. Those channels are still around and haven't really changed much. If anything they've improved over the years. Yet I find myself agreeing with the OP.

Previously it was possible to have a batrep on in the background while I painted and stay just interested enough to follow what was happening. Now everything seems tied to special detachments, strats, special characters, auras etc to an extent that makes it so much harder to keep track of what's going on unless you really concentrate for the full duration. The problem with that is watching 40k like that, even an edited version, is really, really dull. Too much of the important decisions are taken off-table and only abstractly represented on the table, if at all. It also seems to me that the proliferation of auras and strats and so on produces many fewer statistical aberrations, which translates to much more predictable outcomes. Combined with an increase in lethality, you just end up with whole units removed in one go, which is usually the expected result. There's not much room for drama any more.

To be honest, the matches these days are never as good as the "professionally done" matches, with guys like TableTop Titans, or even the guys who do Vangaurd Tactics. They are focused on explaining their moves, their abilities, and presenting the ideal "perfect game between two mates". Now fast forward, and most youtube matches are two people who haven't showered in god knows how long, without good mic quality, just with a static camera pointed at the board, no score counter or after effects to speak of. Yeah, I'll take the charismatic guys who do hard work to make their reps look nice over the unwashed hooligans doing a monetized 4+ hour video about two broken factions.

By and large I’m still hung up on the “Golden Age” White Dwarf battle reports, which included tactical and narrative commentary. And on occasion became Canon (Tycho’s face melting was a result of a WD Battle Report. No, really!)

Warhammer+ BR vary for me, as it comes down to the presenters. Overall I like the format, but wish they’d slow down a bit here and there. That being said? It seems more likely I just need to find similar ones more in tune with my preference.

And I think that’s just The Thing. Everyone will have their own preference, and different shows will hold different appeals to different people.

For instance? I want to watch the battle report, not a comedy revue. Yes the hosts showing personality is good, but it can go too far, just as sometimes it doesn’t go far enough.

A given established community may love the heavy banter - and that’s fine. Just as one channel that does very dry, fact based stuff (think the Nerding immediately proper to Leeeeeeroy) will no doubt have its fans and adherents, because such presentation can help people wrap their head round the game and improve their overall understanding.

Some time ago I started watching 40K in 40Min battle reports. I was attempting to get myself excited about 9th. I did like the format for the most part but I prefer shorter battle reports in the past. I don't consume any 40K videos on line anymore. Not like I did before. I really used to enjoy videos by Templar crusade 01. I think that was the channel. His videos were brief and to the point. I tried to follow that model for my own battle reports trying to keep them under 20 minuets.
A huge turn off for 40K videos now is when there is a cast of hosts or players and they spend more time on their own in jokes as if everyone already knows them and what they're getting on about and not enough time right in the game and what's going on.
Long form battle reports do have their place but after taking in a few I know they're not for me. I tend to listen more than watch because I would be painting so I'd hardly get anything from those. I also don't enjoy tournament focused play so tend to skip those as well, historically.

 godardc wrote:
Video battle reports have never been interesting and have been the doom of the Hobby.
They take hours, take ages to start, people act stupidly to try to get your attention and it's blatant irritating.
Written battle reports are clear, short, don't need your constant attention and are devoid of anyone people screaming in your ears and making private jokes.

i mean, thats only because of which content creator you watch lol. Plenty of them don't do that.

As a tangent, Battlereports overall are okay, what I can't stand and seems to be a current trend is Videos with their clickbait-title in Capitals, a screaming guy in the thumbnail and content that is nothing more than a stupid dakka rant that can go on for 10-30 minutes. It really makes me question the credibility and quality of any other content people produce if they do Videos like that.
But maybe I'm just getting old.

I'v tried a number of groups producing video reports but found a lot to have issues:
- GMG: Only one who covered Titanicus which was good but he was mostly unintelligible at times due to crappy video editing.
- Tabletop Titans: Slow. So slow.
- Miniwargaming: Too "memey" for my tastes.

The only ones I do enjoy are Tabletop Tactics, although anything with Lawrence in it I ignore as I find him utterly insufferable. However as Cortez just said some of their recent videos are starting to have the "screaming thumbnail guy" look so I worry that they're going to go down the crapper in the long run.

Sgt. Cortez wrote:
As a tangent, Battlereports overall are okay, what I can't stand and seems to be a current trend is Videos with their clickbait-title in Capitals, a screaming guy in the thumbnail and content that is nothing more than a stupid dakka rant that can go on for 10-30 minutes. It really makes me question the credibility and quality of any other content people produce if they do Videos like that.
But maybe I'm just getting old.

They do that face because the algorithm likes it. Blame children for clicking on stuff like that and I suppose Google for being a soulless coroporation. If you want to gain any traction on the YouTubes you have to chase the algo, that's just how it is, it's not the content creators fault.

I always thought Wargamer Girl's Warmachine battle reports were about some of the best I've seen over the years in terms of pacing, production, editing and all. But they are clearly time consuming to produce with a lot of editing after to get things all together.

Most BR tend to be wobbly camera holding and limited cutting so you get all the exciting parts and all the droll dull ones and the "we can just about ish maybe read the dice but not really unless you've got it on a wall TV at close range"

 Valkyrie wrote:
I'v tried a number of groups producing video reports but found a lot to have issues:
- GMG: Only one who covered Titanicus which was good but he was mostly unintelligible at times due to crappy video editing.
- Tabletop Titans: Slow. So slow.
- Miniwargaming: Too "memey" for my tastes.

The only ones I do enjoy are Tabletop Tactics, although anything with Lawrence in it I ignore as I find him utterly insufferable. However as Cortez just said some of their recent videos are starting to have the "screaming thumbnail guy" look so I worry that they're going to go down the crapper in the long run.

WintersSEO
StrikingScorpion82 (skip ahead of the 5 minute ad spam at the start tho)

those are my two go to, they have a much more relaxed approach to the game and its got just enough banter

Unfortunately SS82 is kind of a knobhead as back when the Brexit vote was going on he made a video on his channel about how everyone should "vote leave because all immigrants are snakes" and he's routinely featured a Guard army on his channel that is full of nazi imagery and colour schemes and whenever people have brought it up he deletes the comments.

Plus in general his channel has literally not seen any improvement in production quality ever since it first started. Still shaky cam, no overviews or UI elements to keep track of scoring or anything else. Going from even the days of 8th edition Tabletop Tactics to now you've seen a giant improvement in how they do things and it's in general a much slicker, smoother experience with a lot more things to help the viewing experience and to keep track of what's going on in a game, while still having room to let the presenters shine.

I think the aforementioned political leanings and complete lack of improvement really show why his channel hasn't really grown or indeed seems to have overall shrunk in terms of views. Also, everyone gets the rules wrong sometimes, it's natural, but I remember his lot getting stuff severely wrong and very consistently too. That kind of thing will add to reasons why people might start to drift away from watching certain channels; I've certainly known a lot of people who stopped watching MWG because of their sloppiness when it came to rules.

And while I think there's value in every kind of type of play when it comes to 40k and people not having to play hyper comp armies, some of his army lists written in the past were just absolutely bizarre. If you ever brought this up in comments you'd have his most ardent simps jumping on you trying to explain he was just playing a fluffy army or something, but when you're writing an 8th ed Eldar list that is 3 different detachments all with 3 different Craftworlds, with 3 different Autarchs and with 0 Farseers anywhere then uuhhhhhh that ain't "fluffy" that's just a gak list. And it becomes especially egregious when he thinks he can make tactica videos about how to play the army in question because at that point you're just misleading people.

I have never enjoyed battle reports. It's like watching people play Magic on ESPN. I'd rather just play the game myself, not watch someone else do it.

I can "watch" longer batreps when I'm actively working on something else, but in my view the game has gotten less interesting. Strat-tactics etc are just kinda boring.

I'm more of a fan of lore videos but good-quality ones are hard to come by. Most people read from various Wikis, put their own opinions in (which then detracts from the experience), or just get it wrong. Occulus Imperia is my go-to currently but I also like ArbitorIan and the Templin Institute. Excluding certain incendiary people, the worst one I found was a series on Vraks where the creator kept interspersing the story with their own opinions on how everyone must have felt. Was very rubbish.

So I know this is crass and immature, but from a marketing standpoint, if my key demo was sweaty nerds, I'd be hiring waaaay more hot busty redheads to run these Battle Reports, but instead it's all middle-aged white guys. How has no one marketed from this angle? Granted, their are some independent hobby channels with "influencers" leaning towards the camera while painting their minis, but very rare. Seriously, why has no one tried to "americanize" this demo? Just make it boobs, beers, and battles!

Duff man approves!