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I also have my aim crooked fantasy wise, I mean I loved Ilyad minis and shazam! Got some celtos and it died...Collected Confrontation for years and what a disaster! Collected Kraken and its going belly up... loved helldorado and after a deadly sleep seems something moving again? So yeah my fantasy share of disapointments is way to big!
A shame for Ex-Illis fans but to be honest this Hybrid system was neither meat or fish... I coul ignore all that if minis were great but that was not the case for me.

So Navarro, I have YOU to blame then, don't I?!?

(Yes, I'm still upset about the whole Confrontation debacle...)

Yes! Im the curse... every fantasy skirmish line I collect is doomed to fail big time

Man, Confrontation still today sets the standart quality wise they were the fantasy infinity back in the day.

I agree - it is a shame what happened there!

Do me a favor though, either DON'T collect INFINITY, or STOP if you do!

I recommend he stays well away from Infinity and Helldorado as well.

Hellfury wrote:I recommend he stays well away from Infinity and Helldorado as well.

Thirded on Infinity.

The motion is carried! Navarro, don't collect Infinity please

Alpharius wrote:Do me a favor though, either DON'T collect INFINITY, or STOP if you do!

I heartily approve of this message.

Poor Navarro. Banned before he even knew what hit him.

Well deserved ban if you ask me This thing has been going on for years and its about time it stops.

In my defense I think the curse doesnt apply to Scifi because I collect infinity for some years now and they are still doing well Just in case... I will buy very small quantities, dont want something to break down if I buy to much.

OK, a pass of SF miniatures, but definitely still banned from, well, whatever cool Fantasy Miniatures range/game that we decide.

Sounds fair to me!

Actually Alkemy is back on track, but transfered to a new studio.

plastictrees wrote:This threads bring out the wackiest analogies.
So the US auto industry wasn't growing by leaps and bounds in the early 20th century? Given context, volume of sales is the real meaningless number there.

Healthy, growing manufacturers clearly indicates a healthy, growing player base.

Wow, I thought this thread was dead days ago. That said, this may be the most illogical post I've seen in days...

First, since the whole point of my comments was about how you can't necessarily link the number of manufacturers to the size of market, complaining that size of the market is irrelevant sorta... misses the point. But that leads to the really weird part...

Second, if we were to accept Plastic-fantastic here's idea about the importance of "Healthy, growing manufacturers" as the important metric, I guess we have to presume Plastic thinks the 1920s would end with nothing but smooth sailing...

Moving on,

Kilkrazy wrote:Yes, in essence PP et all are unsuccessful in challenging GW in the arena of big, proprietary wargames. I know War Machine is fairly popular in the USA, but not as big as 40K, and it's a lot less popular in Europe.

All the companies like GW and PP fail to provide consumers with a variety of interesting products and services. Look at GW, they are brilliant if you want to play Warhammer or LoTR, and useless for anything else. PP are useless if you don't want to play Warmachine.

The small companies, however, are doing very nicely, providing a wide variety of historical, fantasy and SF models and rules. The variety is much wider, and more accessible than 20 years ago.

At the same time, these small companies are successful in the terms they have set themselves.

I don't equate success with being "biggest company". Financially, GW although they are big are not doing well.

I think this is the real point: the more we think that GW is the hobby (as I must shamefacedly admit, was what colored my initially sour take on this news) as opposed to a part of the hobby, the more their (mainly self-inflicted) troubles lead to pessimism.

All of it gets a lot easier to take if you look at the "hobby" in the same terms as the fast food industry. If McDonalds isn't doing well, do we all freak out and think that the age of fast food is gone, just because McD's decided to start putting Barb Wire toys in Happy Meals (pointless musing: what would be worse, Barb Wire toys, or actual barbed wire? Moving on...)? No, we look at the other members of the market. If al of them are doing bad, then is time to start investing in sprouts.

Now, of course, GW wants people to think of them as the hobby, just like McDonalds presumably wants you to think of them when you think of fast food.

Just as moving beyond McDonalds leads to better eatin', moving beyond GW leads to a view with more context of the Hobby field. Besides, Everyone knows the best burger is from 5 Guys Burgers and Fries...

Who says so? Norman Osborn says so!



I totally didn't write this just so I could post that image. Nope.

NAVARRO wrote:Yes! Im the curse... every fantasy skirmish line I collect is doomed to fail big time

For pity's sake, don't start Malifaux!

____


@Buzzsaw: When did 5 Guys add shakes & onion rings?

It should be bacon cheeseburgers with grilled onions & mushrooms, and cajun fries.

And why's he getting them to go? 5 Guys fries are to be eaten on-site, or they get mushy.

That said, shakes would be awesome!

Malifaux has been tempting me but I got into Hordes Trolls (espect some financial difficulties at PP )

Thanks Duncan, I have also heard they will switch to metal blisters instead of plastics... lets hope its just not one of those projects that will never kick off... Its a wait and see and we have been waiting for some time now on alkemy... crossing fingers.

In what is quickly becoming a Monty Python-esque sketch, the guys who used to work for a company that used to exist are promising news of their attempts to solidify new financial backing, on the 11th or 12th of February.

Of course this is "the deadline for solving the issue", according to one of the former team members, so it sounds to me as if a solution has not yet been found. With less than two weeks remaining before Bastion Studios finds itself carted away for a measly ninepence, I can hardly say that this news inspires hope.

None the less, one of the two loudly raving loons that are still regularly posting on their forums has made a pretty slideshow of Ex-illis artwork, in an attempt to raise support for the currently non existent "Bastion Staff".

The link to the BOW article is the same as before, as is the link to the forum thread discussing it.

The video/slideshow (called "impressive for a ten minute creation" by one Ex-illis forumite) can be found here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhhRZmPU1Iw

If I sound a little annoyed, let it be known that I am not annoyed at the game, or the staff, but rather at one or two particularly ridicule-worthy fans. Seriously... ask them how to get realistic blood effects

may i suggest telling the creator that starting the video off with a picture of the murdered leader of one of the main current religions is not the best way to lead off a video as it is remarkably offensive? jeez...

warboss wrote:may i suggest telling the creator that starting the video off with a picture of the murdered leader of one of the main current religions is not the best way to lead off a video as it is remarkably offensive? jeez...

Yes, yes. We are aware of how you feel about Ex=Illis and their fantasy-setting pope.

Indeed. While I can understand why their decision to play in a world of actual religions in which people still believe today is a bad one, I also try to remember one fancy word: "fantasy".

Their world isn't honestly my cup of tea (I'd much rather see fantasy elements that nobody goes home believing in after a game), but I can understand why some would find the pseudo-historical elements interesting.

That said, since the opening artwork also happens to be on the box for the starter at least he's not offending anyone *new*, right?

groundedcontrol wrote:If I sound a little annoyed, let it be known that I am not annoyed at the game, or the staff, but rather at one or two particularly ridicule-worthy fans.

Looks like they have issues in giving up for lost what they surely must realize is lost already.

It's their choice to put that type of thing into their storyline, their box art, or their video. From what I read, they were really in love with the idea and with their backstory.

It's other people's choice to be offended by it. You should sort of expect that when you incorporate a current religion into your storyline, and accpept that some people may not like it. I can imagine that bit of story might not have gone over in some communities, and I can imagine some store owners might have passed on it because of that.

I wasn't aware of the image on the starter box. I didn't get it into my store because I never could get a decent explanation from the company of how the hell to demo it, and the people who were supposed to stop by to demo the game to me never showed up. Saves me from trying to liquidate dead stock. Quite happy I never invested hundreds of dollars in it.

I'm still waiting for the 3-D holographic chessgame from star wars though.

mikhaila wrote:
I wasn't aware of the image on the starter box. I didn't get it into my store because I never could get a decent explanation from the company of how the hell to demo it, and the people who were supposed to stop by to demo the game to me never showed up. Saves me from trying to liquidate dead stock. Quite happy I never invested hundreds of dollars in it.

Yeah, it's too bad. It really was a worthwhile game. Certainly worth a try if it does happen to miraculously stay alive. Of course the silver lining of not having had a "Bleeding edge knight" show up to demo it *is* particularly evident in your case, and if you didn't have any of the devices to run the software, it would be just about impossible to demonstrate in store.

The game had to overcome a lot of negativity from me to even get me to sit down and give it a try. The two problems, from my perspective as a potential buyer, were the software dominating game play, and the "setting". As I said, I just prefer to play games which don't encourage people to continue telling me about how orks or fairies really exist, and they've seen them in real life. Just the same, after giving it a try I fell in love with all the things it had the potential to become.

Our FLGS still has a couple starters, an integral and tons of "reinforcement boxes" on the shelves, collecting dust. I wish I could say I had purchased some, but the figures weren't worth retail, IMHO. Online stores strike again. The game should have really made up its mind about who it wanted to sell to.

I still wonder if Fred really thought his figures were incredibly well detailed, and this new link answers my question. http://www.assemblymag.com/Articles/Column/BNP_GUID_9-5-2006_A_10000000000000987388

Why is it that right around when this company goes bust, it's suddenly held up as a perfect example of how awesome this type of modelling is?

groundedcontrol wrote:None the less, one of the two loudly raving loons that are still regularly posting on their forums has made a pretty slideshow of Ex-illis artwork, in an attempt to raise support for the currently non existent "Bastion Staff".

He also popped up on the Mantic forums to suggest Bastion would be a good investment opportunity for them.

AlexHolker wrote:

groundedcontrol wrote:None the less, one of the two loudly raving loons that are still regularly posting on their forums has made a pretty slideshow of Ex-illis artwork, in an attempt to raise support for the currently non existent "Bastion Staff".

He also popped up on the Mantic forums to suggest Bastion would be a good investment opportunity for them.

I bet the Mantic lads had a good laugh about that one.

Wait
a fictional murder of a fictional Pope is offensive?
I thought is was a metaphor for the ex Ex-Illis gaming system and a most appropriate an image to use.

Killed before they got off to a good start?

BrookM wrote:Killed before they got off to a good start?

I swear I never shopped EX-exillis but I think that Spontaneous Combustion is a more accurate metaphor...

Looking a youtube vid from fan... well what a silly boy, mentioning GW like that

NAVARRO wrote:

BrookM wrote:Killed before they got off to a good start?

I swear I never shopped EX-exillis but I think that Spontaneous Combustion is a more accurate metaphor...

Looking a youtube vid from fan... well what a silly boy, mentioning GW like that

Care to share a link, oh destroyer of companies?

BrookM wrote:

NAVARRO wrote:

BrookM wrote:Killed before they got off to a good start?

I swear I never shopped EX-exillis but I think that Spontaneous Combustion is a more accurate metaphor...

Looking a youtube vid from fan... well what a silly boy, mentioning GW like that

Care to share a link, oh destroyer of companies?

Sure, its posted some posts up in a link but I will attach it here... this major fail needs better exposure

In the middle he starts to write some interesting verborreia, then more images and ends in more silly talk.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhhRZmPU1Iw

"Let's not let GW calm[sic] another life" and "join the revolution"?

"damn, you're a c--t wherever you are !"

Apparently the "fans" feel the need to insult those who offer support with anything like a critical viewpoint.

I know that's the experience that was had around here with the big demon base. I tried to warn them, I really did, that their best bet was to embrace criticism and grow from it, rather than continue repeating the same old platitudes. What do I get for the many hours of unpaid bug testing, and helping newbies out on the forums? Hate. Frankly, I hope the game survives, but let's be honest, Bastion brings nothing to the table for investors. I really do suspect that the guys at Mantic had a good laugh, but even if another miniatures company does buy this product, the first thing they'll do is bury it.

The "fans" say that their story and universe are awesome, but I can't find anything about it which they own. They certainly own the bastardized french misspellings of unit names, but couldn't any game simply replace the missing "L" in viliens, and produce a similar figure without infringing on Ex-illis' IP?

I mean, they've carefully crafted every detail so that it is based on material from the public domain. Why buy what you can have for free? As for buying a customer base. . .