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Hi everyone. I made a parody of GW's latest "formations for 40k" announcement video.
I'm glad they're making a new edition, and including special formation rules, but the unbound announcement just needed making fun of. I hope you guys like it.

Here it is:
http://youtu.be/8EgWGN7ZfT0


The original video by GW is here: https://www.youtube.com/embed/7JnMByJVUow

Very funny! Although I'd personally suspect that Jervis is a willing participant in the whole "design" process that spent all that time and money supposedly over the past two years to come up with the splendid army construction game mechanic of "ignore everything we previously came out with...just like in that other game variant we make!"

I loved it! Great job.

I guess I'm on the flip side; I didn't laugh once. Sorry, I just didn't see anything funny.

I had a good chuckle from this. Thank you.

Dat nid army

Almost died!

I have to admit, I can't pin down Jervis at all. I really don't have any idea what his opinion on the whole thing is.

I remember several Games Days ago, when the (then-current) Space Marine Codex came out, I was really disappointed that they removed the option for Terminators to deploy via Drop Pod (this is a while ago) and the reduced Wargear selection which precluded a Librarian from having a Power Fist (I had one with that and a Force Sword, since one of my regular opponents had several Wraithlords and another opponent had a Talos or two).

He explained that these options were removed because the 'iconic' way of deploying Terminators was through Teleportation, and GW wanted to make sure that was reflected in the background. He explained, again quite earnestly, that Librarians should use Force Weapons and Chaplains should use a Crozius because those were the iconic pieces of wargear for each of them in the background.

He didn't really have any response at all when I pointed out that GW, at the time, made a Chaplain model with a crozius and a power fist, so what remained legal and modeled for Chaplains was now illegal for Librarians.

However, at the time, he seemed very earnest in expounding and promoting the idea that GW should write rules which 'enforced' (or inflicted, or emphasized, depending on how you looked at it) the background narrative of the universe.

Now, he's putting out rules that allow you to follow that background, or allow you to completely ignore it, at your option.

Does he have an opinion? Does he just parrot the current company line? Does he genuinely think that the current system is for the best, or is he putting the best face on a bad situation, hoping to keep his job? I can't tell.

The Unbound Nid army was pretty classic.

Da Butcha wrote:

Does he have an opinion? Does he just parrot the current company line? Does he genuinely think that the current system is for the best, or is he putting the best face on a bad situation, hoping to keep his job? I can't tell.

"The mind of Jervis Johnson is utterly inhuman in its depth and complexity. Without mercy or moral feeling, his consciousness stands upon the edge of spiritual destruction. That he does not fall must be a result of constraints and balances that only a GW games designer could understand. To a mere Human it is yet another reminder that we are but children in comparison to that ancient and powerful race."

Haha, very good

Meh, it was okay.

Thanks everyone. For those of you who don't like it, if you want to give some feedback as to why exactly, it might help me for next time. Then again, it's fairly subjective so I know I can't please everyone.

warboss wrote:Very funny! Although I'd personally suspect that Jervis is a willing participant in the whole "design" process...

Da Butcha wrote:I have to admit, I can't pin down Jervis at all. I really don't have any idea what his opinion on the whole thing is.

Now, he's putting out rules that allow you to follow that background, or allow you to completely ignore it, at your option.

Does he have an opinion? Does he just parrot the current company line? Does he genuinely think that the current system is for the best, or is he putting the best face on a bad situation, hoping to keep his job? I can't tell.

I'm still trying to figure out if he is willing or not. Everyone has a different opinion on it. Sometimes the company line seems to be so focused on accurate representation of the background that I wonder how they made a playable game at all, and sometimes stuff like this comes out.

I have no idea why the whole thing isn't being sold as 'house rules' for new players, or something like that. It's a shame, because the formations could be fantastic if done right.

MWHistorian wrote:The Unbound Nid army was pretty classic.

Selym wrote:Dat nid army

Almost died!

Glad you liked it. The nids and the fake rules page were the most fun to make.

I'm not really sure why I didn't like it. My our sense of humor is different from a lot of you I can tell.... Which is ok. I read the typed rules back grounds, and I almost cracked a smile. I think the dialogue just wasn't on the level of the average person, so the jokes tended to blow over my head.

I did watch all of GWs stuff, so I knew what the parody was about etc.

I guess I was expecting blatant cleverness and serious jabs below the belt that would make anyone laugh, even if they had no idea what a GW was.

Everyone's funny is different, and if can tell you put time and thought into it. On that front you did well on the production as a whole.

Love the video it cracks me up.

I will say this about Jervis - I owe the man a great deal as Adeptus Titanicus and Space Marine v1 was the first real tabletop game I ever got, and it changed my life. I have spent all those years since with at least part of my brain in that universe, whether actively playing or not.

But when Epic A came out, and listening to his arguments for how the new game should play, and what armies he wanted to release, and the schedule, and then release a family of Epic style games, I began to think he was a little out of his mind. I think It must derive from being a 'game designer' and the enternal pursuit of developing a game system that is endorsed by not just gamers, but other designers as well.

To be honest, during Epic As development, I thought that if GW just re-released Epic Space Marine (v2) as it was, with updated minis) the game would fly off the shelves and Epic would be huge again. But Jervis couldn't handle that. It meant not being allowed to be creative, and he was already set on his idea of what Epic A should be like.

With 40k he no doubt has much greater restrictions on the rules that can be implemented. And I sometimes think that's probably a good thing. While most of us hate 40k's game engine, for the most part people accept it. Its easy to pick up each new edition, because its similar to the previous. If it was drastically overhauled to the point where we were alternating activations in one system, then doing something completely opposite the next, god knows where we'd be.

But anyway, the point I guess I am trying to make is that Jervis is good, but he isn't perfect and makes mistakes too. He was willing to listen to us on some things during Epic A's development, but had his mind set on others.

I just look at what happened to Epic A, and Specialist Games as a whole as an example of what could happen if you just let him run free.

That's harsh I know. I am very appreciative for what he's done, yet bitter over some of it too.

Kal-El wrote:
I'm not really sure why I didn't like it. My our sense of humor is different from a lot of you I can tell.... Which is ok. I read the typed rules back grounds, and I almost cracked a smile. I think the dialogue just wasn't on the level of the average person, so the jokes tended to blow over my head.

I did watch all of GWs stuff, so I knew what the parody was about etc.

I guess I was expecting blatant cleverness and serious jabs below the belt that would make anyone laugh, even if they had no idea what a GW was.

Everyone's funny is different, and if can tell you put time and thought into it. On that front you did well on the production as a whole.

This is quite helpful, thanks. What do you mean by on the level of the average person? I was attempting to be too subtle, or it wasn't realistic dialogue?

I figured I could either go the way of making a video for people who already saw the original video, or had a good working knowledge of GW, or make a video that would be more accessible. I went for less accessible because the video was for my wargaming channel, and not a general channel.

I was careful not to make fun of Jervis himself, as I felt that for my first video I didn't want to cause any hate to be directed towards him as a person. I think that ended up limiting what I could do.

I think I know better what to do next time now. Hopefully I can pull it off.

KTG17 wrote:
Love the video it cracks me up.

I will say this about Jervis - I owe the man a great deal as Adeptus Titanicus and Space Marine v1 was the first real tabletop game I ever got, and it changed my life. I have spent all those years since with at least part of my brain in that universe, whether actively playing or not.

But anyway, the point I guess I am trying to make is that Jervis is good, but he isn't perfect and makes mistakes too. He was willing to listen to us on some things during Epic A's development, but had his mind set on others.

That's harsh I know. I am very appreciative for what he's done, yet bitter over some of it too.

I know exactly how you feel. I started into wargaming with Adeptus Titanicus and Space Marine v2. It can be very hard to be a good game designer that is listening to a fan base. Especially when you're under the constraints a company like GW would set for you.

Being a game designer with open feedback on the rules set you're working on probably requires a strong will and an open mind in such a combination that I don't know if you can do that while working for a company instead of yourself. And even then I think many people would struggle to achieve it.

Is he a shareholder ?

Very funny . Classic Hashek type of humor.

Favorite Part: Unbound Nid Army (of 20 riptides)

Somewhat predictable, but still got a good laugh out of me

My take on Jervis has always been that he looks tired. For what reasons, I can only imagine, but I believe he's at least somewhat culpable for the current state of 40k by, at the very least, not sticking up for himself as a designer and a gamer.

Cool vid, btw.

So many... ponies...

And anyone who doesn't bring Gandalf to the table is just going to plainly lose.

Give more time for the viewer to read the fake rule pages.

 MWHistorian wrote:
Give more time for the viewer to read the fake rule pages.

Yeah, I had to pause the video twice (as the rules page is split up) to read it accurately, while remembering the dialogue in that ridiculous voice
Funny, though. The 2 1/2 D animation bugged me a little, though. Probably just personal preference.