Digger Goreman wrote:Olaf the Stout wrote:I honestly wonder....
Perhaps, Olaf, but I don't think so .... Seems to easy to marginalize me and ignore details .... Like painting your miniatures with a single color, wide brush, stroke.... Doesn't work for miniatures either ....
Well, it was a snarky comment from Olaf, but on the flip side, your post could be construed as raining on someone else's parade. If it doesn't matter to you, then there's really no need to post, right?
Digger Goreman wrote:
Since I'm in an analogy mood...
Granny Wendy is like an abusive parent .... To maintain her sense of control, she beat and bludgeoned this community viciously .... Now she offers us a toy .... But the circle of abuse is unbroken ....
...
Another analogy: Behavior is like paving a road .... If you've left nothing but potholes and burned out bridges in your wake, then people expect the same .... As I tell the youth I work with, if you want people to believe in a better road, you have to pave that better road until they no longer remember the rough ride .... GW has nuked the highway system ... not I ....
Well, really, Games Workshop is like a capitalist company who has a vested interest in maintaining rights to the true intellectual property they've created and in ultimately turning a profit, for the purpose of enriching both their employees and stockholders. In this, they are really no better or worse than most publicly traded companies. Part of the negative feelings towards them are I think fueled by the fact that GW originally was very unlike their current state. They were a company founded by geeks who wanted to make cool miniatures and play games with them. This earned them a rabid fanship who were understandably disappointed when GW became more of a corporate entity.
While I disagree with a lot of their decisions -- and how! -- I ultimately cannot say that GW isn't acting within their rights (most of the time) and in the interests of their shareholders. I liked it better the old way, but change is inevitable, and the financial conditions that allowed them to succeed as a small company made no longer exist. (That refers to both the fact that their game/mini designers have grown older and are no longer willing to work for shoestring budgets, and the fact that changing prices of petroleum and legal issues with lead miniatures may result in higher operating costs.) I don't know any of that for sure, but none of what I'm suggesting is unheard of or illogical.
I think the beancounters and lawyers have taken GW in the wrong direction, personally -- I think they were better off when they were actively engaging with their fanbases and crosspromoting their products via the Specialist line. But of course I do, I was one of the fans who got the benefit of working with them the most.
Revoking permission for the NAF to use the block dice designs seems pointless -- they've redesigned the dice now anyways -- as it just gets them bad press for no real value. Send your legal guys out to make sure that websites using Blood Bowl have to cite it properly and provide links back to GW, that sounds reasonable. But why wouldn't you want an active and motivated fan base spreading your trademarks around, as it's just good and free advertising? It doesn't make sense to me. Far from maximizing their profits, I think some of this heavy handedness has actually cost them money in the long run.
Had they not been so GOOD before, they wouldn't seem so BAD now. In a way, they're victims of their own success.
But within GW, there are still GOOD people with GOOD ideas. I'm hopeful that Forgeworld bringing back the Specialist Games is a sign that someone sees the value in them and will make some wiser decisions in the future.
Digger Goreman wrote:
Milo just posted some rivetting reading about the history of Blood Bowl in the Taking Back Blood Bowl thread .... I would support a reconstitution of the old BBRC (even with its biases)....
Granny is out of the picture till she completes therapy and paves that better road ....
Really? I was expecting people to just write that drivel off. Glad you liked it, at least.
Now, I've read your screed. I don't agree with a lot of it, but I respect your opinions. I think it's impossible to make a game like Blood Bowl PERFECTLY balanced, and pointless to try. There are too many variables. Even in Chess there are a limited number of possibilities -- the pieces always start in the same locations, are identical on both sides in terms of movement and offensive capabilities, and each turn consists of a SINGLE action. But Blood Bowl isn't like that. There are an almost infinite number of possibilities, from dice rolls to free-form movement and initial setup at kickoff. Then you throw in separate variables like length of season, player progression, etc. It can't be done.
Even if you use the metric of win percentage, some teams are more likely to win in short term leagues and others are more likely to win in longer term leagues. The starting skills influence that heavily, as does the cost of the players. If every position for every race was 6338 for 50k, then yes, it could be balanced. Short of that, you have to just shoot for the best you can, which I assure you IS what the BBRC attempted to do. (With the exception of the fact that some teams, notably stunty teams, were not required to meet the same general power level as the others, because the fluff acknowledges that they are more challenged.)
I think it's pretty close now. Sure, there are some rock/paper/scissors elements to that balance, and a few teams which aren't as good as others, but I think the NAF results show that most races have the ability to be competitive in the hands of a good coach. I'm sorry you don't like playing against some styles of teams, but that doesn't mean there's something wrong with it. I don't LIKE it when someone fouls one of my players every turn, but that's their right within the rules and I don't take issue with it.
Regarding your feelings to GW, I understand where you are coming from. I got some letters from GW legal when I ran bloodbowl.net. I've heard some of what the NAF and Tom has gone through with them. They have burned a lot of bridges. I don't want to say there are BAD people at GW, but I do think there are people who see their IP and trademarks as dollar figures and don't understand the value of a GAME company maintaining positive relations with the PEOPLE who play those games. But I also know, from my personal experiences with them, that there are some good people there too who still love the games and the players who play them.
So I'm generally willing to keep an open mind to this new Specialist Games division of Forgeworld. For one thing, Forgeworld has ALWAYS catered to the niche markets and the hardcore gamers and collectors. They have become a profitable division of GW by creating all sorts of unique figures for their mainstream games, specifically aiming for Space Marine chapters/Eldar craftworlds/etc. that fall outside the commonplace. In that regard, I feel like they have a better finger on the pulse of their most motivated gamers than the core GW does.
Put me down for cautiously optimistic.