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Alright, first off I realize I might be opening up a can of worms here, but I'm hoping that this thread can be constructive.

Ever since I announced that MiniWarGaming.com would be covering Infinity in the near future, I've seen some comments on some forums that expressed their dislike of us covering the game.

This made me curious, as I wonder why anybody would dislike the fact that the game they like gets more coverage.

Now, I realize that a lot of people like us and our videos. Heck, the support we are receiving in our current IndieGoGo campaign proves that (along with all the views, comments, and Vault members). I realize there will always be haters, especially as you get more and more views.

But I am genuinely interested in hearing what those people think we are doing wrong. I know we are very far from perfect, and we can improve in a 1000 ways.

So, this thread is your opportunity to tell me what you really think about MiniWarGaming. Don't worry about hurting my feelings. Running this business for 6 years has created some pretty thick skin.

Having said that, constructive criticism is more welcome than just blatant name calling and insulting.

So, tell me what you think! And more importantly, tell me what you would want us to do to improve.

I promise I will do my best to reply with constructive responses rather than just getting defensive about everything.

Matthew

I'll admit that I've never watched one of your strategy videos, game reports, or how to play videos.

I've only been interested in your modeling and painting videos. I've enjoyed those a lot. I went out and made an Ork Tower after watching your how-to video. I'm personally just not looking for gaming advice, just modeling and painting advice.

I'll let others speak to your game reviews. Kudos to you for asking for feedback on open forums, though. I hope everything works out for you gentlemen.

First, no matter if you hit some bile please keep a presence here, there's nothing better than knowing a company is available somewhere I feel welcome as well in case something goes wrong, and I think you guys will fit in.

I for one really look forwards to you covering Infinity. More so Owen and yourself than Dave, since I personally find the concise approach that you and Owen have more entertaining than the rambling of Dave (although that does have it's place and following obviously). I can only watch one of his videos at a time, whereas if I have been away from a while I can catch up on a string of Owen's or yours without needing a break. But then again a string of your videos does about equal one of his in length...but then I'm rambling.

One of the things I think would be quite important will be make sure that you either say the names right, or just have a crack at it once and be consistent until you are eventually corrected as to the right way around it. It can really kill the flow of a video if everything gets hung up on the pronunciation of something like 'oceania'.

Another is to get the rules down early, I like your videos but the 'learning phase' can be a bit frustrating to watch. I know that is entirely unreasonable to expect people learning the game not to make mistakes but...mush! Get those rulebooks out, get some practice games done and then start filming the ones to go up, or alternatively just magically upload the rules to your brain...I dunno. I'll watch the early ones anyway, I'll just enjoy the later ones more.

And lastly (and most definitely least), I hope someone collects a Caledonian Highland Army Sectorial, because since Dan left no one collects any armies that I do...

edit: and to echo kronk I find your painting videos really useful (I haven't watched any of the modelling ones). I can't wait to try some of the techniques like wet blending and what not, I found the tutorials very useful (and they used a cygnar 'jack, which was happy coincidence for me)

I especially like your battle reports. They are among the best considering the technical execution.
The banter batreps are very annoying though. Too much banter, too little actual gaming.

I would like to see more videos about Infinity. I do not know the game yet, and your reports always give a great impression about how a gaming system really works out on the table.

I used to watch your videos a lot, mostly because my gaming was very limited and it gave me background noise at work. As my gaming picked up my views dropped. I enjoyed for a while the walk and talks you (assuming you're Matt) and Dave did for awhile. With regular gaming, and my time being taken up by that and work, my viewership has dropped off almost completed.

I have several of your hobby videos (snagged them in the brief time I was a vault member) and I enjoy those.

I've got nothing against ya guys!

Some people just want 40k, they probably see the wider coverage as a move away from GW stuff (despite your vids saying otherwise). Personally I only really watch your hobby stuff, but I did occasionally watch the odd 40k batrep, don't think I would've done if it were a smaller game.

I really think your move to cover a larger variety of games is only a good thing though. Maybe you'd have less negative feedback if you hooked more people onto the alternate game systems, you could do this by making your 'how to play X' vids a little less dry (less talking, more visual examples, annotated pictures, even narrative tutorials could be interesting).

Massive fan though, and since you've been around 6 years, you're obviously doing something right.

Oh, and as for your vault. Great idea, but I (and I'm sure, many other 'hobbyists') are only really interested in the painting/craft side of things, you've done some nice work creating lower price memberships so far, but I think you'd get a fair bit more interest if you did a straight 'hobby membership' (at a slightly lower price still ), that way you'd feel you weren't paying for something you wouldn't watch.

And one more thing, get some videos of Kris reading an encyclopaedia or something. That guy has a beautiful voice.

Great feedback!

And don't worry, no matter how negative anybody ends up being, I'll always love DakkaDakka.

@V1ND4LOO: What do you mean by a "hobby membership?"

The world needs a move away from a GW-centric view of the hobby. There will always be growing pains, but I think for your business to survive, you MUST embrace and support the new tabletop games that are coming out.

--B.

 Briancj wrote:
The world needs a move away from a GW-centric view of the hobby. There will always be growing pains, but I think for your business to survive, you MUST embrace and support the new tabletop games that are coming out.

As much as I enjoy 40k (and now, 30k), and even though I personally will not be playing other games, Brian is correct that more people are moving to games like Warmachine and Infinity. There's also a (seemingly) large and growing player base for the X-Wing miniatures game from FFG, but there's not much hobby-side for that, other than playing surface perhaps.

 miniwargaming wrote:
Great feedback!

And don't worry, no matter how negative anybody ends up being, I'll always love DakkaDakka.

@V1ND4LOO: What do you mean by a "hobby membership?"

A vault membership which just includes your painting/building/craft tutorials. I'm just not really interested in batreps (great as yours are), and so I don't really want to pay for a full vault membership when I'd only really be watching half the content.

I definitely agree that we need to diversify the coverage of games, although not at the expense of the 40k coverage as that is popular, and we are a business.

@V1ND4LOO - That's an interesting idea actually. I could take it a step further and offer a "batrep-only" membership too.

That's definitely going in the idea box. Don't expect it soon, but don't be surprised to see it pop up later.

I love your how to stuff, and really enjoyed the "Beat Matt" battle reports.

My only advice/criticism would be your cuts between turns. Show some of the stuff, not just where everything wound up after the turn is over.

Keep up the good work and I hope you have success with the new business model.

The only parts of your organization I've taken part of is your Apoc BatRep videos which I enjoy fully (even if some of the players are a bit goofy).

I found the BatReps good and comprehensive in explaining what had happened, and it keeps me interested in playing larger games of Apoc.

Big fan of MWG. It was thanks to your batreps that I decided it was time to start playing tabletop 40k and hobbying. My wallet regrets that decision

Moving on: I'm a big fan of your batreps, they are great for showing off what a game looks like, look at great minis and even figure out some new strategies since you guys are always switching up your lists. What I hope is that you don't forget some games in favor of others. With WHFB, WH40k, Dreadball, Warmahordes, Infinity, X-wing and Dark Potencial, I hope you guys are able to balance things.
Other than that: I'm very happy you are going Infinity and if possible, other games in the future. I'm very curious about Infinity and the miniatures are BEAUTIFUL. It will be a nice help to learn how it works and consider playing it

Owen's "Gaming with the Cooler" is an excellent idea. With many of your fans in another continent (myself included), a possibility to play stuff with you guys is always welcome, now that Skype batreps are gone, and yeah, I understand the problems that thing had but it was better than nothing.

Chain Kris to his table and force him a constant release of tutorials. Now seriously, Kris is an amazing artist. Not only his stuff looks but he is an excellent teacher. I have been following his instructions and I actually feel I'm improving.

My biggest complain is the lack of Dan :( I understand it's a business and tough decisions must be made, but man, did that hit in the gonads.

Overall, your site is getting better and better, with plenty of tutorials, batreps or Live shows. I'm a very happy Silver Subscriber (Speaking of which, sorry if I'm being a bit dense, but what's the bonus for being a Gold now? I remember we had an extra 10% discount, but because I wasn't going to use your store I decided to go Silver.)

You guys sent me a t-shirt/free stuff a few years back when I was in highschool

Solid company, I have not watched most of your recent vids, but back then you had it together. I'm a fan of your battle reps

Thanks everybody!

However, I'm worried that those that had expressed negative views on other topics are not posting here, maybe because everybody else is being so positive.

If you are out there, don't be afraid to post any harsh comments (keep 'em constructive of course), as I really do use it to make improvements.

@TheDraconicLord - We'll be announcing something about the Gold membership soon.

Not an infinity guy, so I can't comment on that, but I appreciate that you guys do videos for terrain and painting. I haven't utilized them, myself, but I love that they are available for the modelers who need them. I have used your store before, while it was up, and when I had part of my order go missing, you guys quickly fixed it and sent out the missing parts without any delay. Now, the reason I bring this up was that the items were on a serious clearance sale, and you guys ran out while putting together orders, so my missing models had to be re-ordered (I believe) to get them back in stock to ship. Doing that, with restocking, was a very fast fix, and you guys deserve a lot of kudos for a job well done. Thanks for all you do!

I have watched some of the Warmahordes battle reports you did and outside some common rule things that happen when everyone plays a game (has anyone ever played a flawless rules related game?), they were pretty well done. However, I did lose interest when you started pushing Sean and Blue Table Painting.

 miniwargaming wrote:
Thanks everybody!

However, I'm worried that those that had expressed negative views on other topics are not posting here, maybe because everybody else is being so positive.

If you are out there, don't be afraid to post any harsh comments (keep 'em constructive of course), as I really do use it to make improvements.

@TheDraconicLord - We'll be announcing something about the Gold membership soon.

First time I've heard that! Normally, people join to complain about the complaining on dakka (despite the irony of doing so). I'd repeat the above about getting to know the rules a bit better before posting videos. Other than that, the videos are enjoyable and a good way of at least seeing others play when watchers are in a personal play slump. I'd recommend not really paying much attention to the people complaining about shared coverage for games increasing in popularity. Gamers are frequently elitist and whiney (and cheap but that's for another thread) and don't like to even entertain the idea that something may someday rival the popularity of their chosen game. I think even dakka had a bit of a backlash (but not too much) when the coverage expanded to include more non-GW games (simply because non-GW games were being played more and more often).

I am a MWG Vault member, you video's are great. I especially love the Beat Matt Batrep's and the Banter Batreps. Shame Dan has moved on, loved his Ork Batrep's.

I do want you to keep up with the 40K Batrep's, that's my #1 game at the moment. As for other games such as Infinity*, I certainly have no problem with you including such content. In fact the more content the better. It was your Star Wars X-Wing Batreps that actually got me to buy the game.


* just add that I won't be playing Infinity though because I really don't like metal models.

I agree with 12thronin a bit. I do not want to see blue table painted figures against other pro-painted figures all the time. For how-to and learning the rules i guess its fine but for me i related to the fact that you guys were painting and playing the armies you like. If you get 100 cultists and other stuff from a pro-paint place it lessens it a bit. I know you guys might not have time to do all that painting as you have a business to run but just keep what you are saying in mind.

40k is passing away for me. My loving Blood Angels are so effed up with these new rules that it is getting hard to loose so gracefully so often. I have been playing necromunda with infinity figures and interested in infinity quite a lot.

You videos are pretty awesome and i like the interactions you guys have with one another. Some of the banter batreps are a bit intense to sit through BUT that is what the dude does best so i am ok with it.

i dont like the Cooler. He seems to play to good all the time. Except with Wood Elves

I watched my first live painting feed last night. Great time and great information. I'm not much for the rest of the site but keep the live shows going especially Hugo's.

I've always enjoyed your site, the batreps keep me going at work when I get a few minutes to myself. Your doing a great job. Keep it up!

As for the Infinity thing, well, I guess people don't enjoy change. I myself am going to be starting Infinity soon with my brother, then trying to get the rest of his gaming club to play it... It's all in the grand plan and I'll be keeping an extra close eyeball on your site for the next few months.

I'm subscribed to you on youtube, and was sad to hear the store was going. I love your batreps, and ork tactica videos. Your modeling tutorials were also excellant. Your videos are the standard I hold my own 40k videos up to. I can't say much about infinity, but I would love to see some flames of war videos.

I'm all for covering multiple game systems, hell, cover some Boardgames too if you want! Just an idea, for any new game you take upon covering, do a few introductory vids explaining the rules of said game, maybe even background of it. That way, those who aren't into the aforementioned game can get a grasp of it.

I like your site, make the bat reps you want, and if people don't like that game they don't have to watch those videos.

I really liked dan's style of bat reps. You guys should send him a camera and let him post bat reps from where he moved on to.

Since he left things really slowed down on your site it seems.

I'm a huge fan of you guys. Great battreps, how-to's, and the various army tactica's were great too.

And I like Weirdboy's idea too, would be cool if you covered a bunch of stuff and with proper introductions to rulesets, gameplay, etc.

I only recently discovered you guys and have found you VERY useful. I saw some of the backlash you mentioned when your Infinty announcement sit n talk video was posted in the Infinity thread here, and I was just as baffled as you seem to be by the reactions.
I'm waiting to see what those people have to say about it in this thread, as the only rationalization I can think of is a kind of hipster "I liked it before it was cool" argument.

Love your batreps, not watched much of your hobby stuff yet, but I will, and am trialling the 7 day vault membership.
Keep it up. (More Orks!)

 TheDraconicLord wrote:

My biggest complain is the lack of Dan :( I understand it's a business and tough decisions must be made, but man, did that hit in the gonads.

Yeah, as an Ork player I loved his Ork Tactica, and his general enthusiasm. Also his epic beard.

I love all the batreps you do. I've seen plenty of them and I was actually watching one (Beat Matt, season 2 ep 10, Mark's Necrons against your Tyranids) when I saw this thread. I think your history videos are definitely interesting but you guys as a group could do a lot more with the warhammer/40k/dark potential/infinity fluff and I know I personally would watch gak out of that

A note:

If I am paying for access to videos, I would like one of two options:

1) No embedded/stealth ads. I don't have any interest in having someone's painting service pimped to me (or whatever), unless I am specifically watching a product review video.
2) If necessary, I will pay MORE to see un-pimped videos, to make up for the loss of ad revenue from whatever is being pimped.