Thursday, December 31, 2009

Move Complete - End Turn

So not only have I been working... I've been moving. With a family moving becomes a horrendous affair. Plus so many delicate minis and terrain that I don't have proper packaging for. Luckily we're only moving about 15 minutes drive so we've made a number of trips for delicate stuff we didn't feel good about packaging. Today is our last day of moving and then I look forward to being able to have fun again and enjoy our new place!

We've got a nice garage in the new place that we're going to use for storage, as an art shop, and for gaming. We'll have a gaming table out there so we can keep games of Arkham Horror or Runebound out without having to put it away from the kids every night.

Speaking of which, I had a very nice Christmas haul. Runebound Frozen Wastes expansion, Runebound Scepter of Kyros expansion, Anima Tactics Momiji, and a visit to Cipher Studios. Once we're a little more settled in you can expect to see some youtube reviews of things and a nice blog entry with pictures about our visit to Cipher Studios.

Until then look forward to a normal resumption of blogging come January!

Saturday, December 12, 2009

Working yay!

So another reason I haven't blogged recently is because I'm working... and moving... and I've had friends and in-laws over.

In other good news if you're a VOR fan be sure to note that the MASHER Sneak peek is here! Merry Christmas to all the VOR the Maelstrom fans! Hopefully 2010 will be a good year for us.

Also of note is that my friend Kirara won the Samael agent painting contest for Anima Tactics.


I'm eagerly looking forward to next month and debating entering the next leg of the Cipher Studios painting contest for Church agents. My funds are going to be limited for a while so we'll see.

My friends and even random people on the internet keep telling me I need to play DragonAge. Is it really that good?

Thursday, November 26, 2009

Capcom... demonizing the Religious?

An article from MCV about Capcom responding to Clergy criticizing the newest Resident Evil game has been making the rounds. Proof yet again that journalism is suffering these days because everywhere I've looked I've seen no more information than presented in the original article. It just isn't much.
"Bishop Bryant of Jarrow, Archdeacon Brian Smith and Rt Rev John Goddard have all accused the game of promoting such interests amongst the UK’s youth, with the latter stating: “If we dabble in this area we open ourselves to influences and put ourselves at risk. I would regard any encouragement for children to be drawn into this behaviour with extreme horror.”
You'd think after being totally had by EA with their fake controversy their might be a little more journalistic investigation before joining the angry mob with "Torch the Christians" hysteria.

The initial article leaves me with several questions:
  • Who are these Bishop Bryant, Archdeacon Smith, and Rt Rev Goddard?
  • What organizations do they belong to?
  • Where did they originally say or write these quotes?
  • Were the anti-Resident Evil quotes published?
  • Why did Capcom feel the need to respond?
  • Why do these news sites keep passing around stories without investigation when they've been had before?
Unfortunately I've not found anyone who has really tried to answer those questions. So I spent a couple hours today and worked on the first question. Who are these 3 guys. Archdeacon Brian Smith was the only one I could get to come up in a google search not related to the Capcom article as there appears to be or have been an Archdeacon Brian Smith on the Isle of Mann off the coast of Britain. Nothing came up providing any context. I've also found reports from a few other bloggers who've found as little or less than I have.

So let me be a cynic here and postulate a theory. Resident Evil 5 initially got loads and loads of free publicity because of the "racism controversy" because it was set in Africa and a lot of black zombies (Shooting White Zombies okay... shooting Black Zombies racist?). Capcom wasn't really sorry, they ate the press up and fanned the flames for free publicity. There were even flash games on the web where you could shoot black african zombies.

But now Resident Evil 5 is being released to not much fanfare. How many of you even knew that it released in the U.S. last week? There wasn't even a peep about it. It releases in Europe next week and surely Capcom wants people to know but the budget for advertising is low in this recession. I suspect after seeing all the publicity EA got for it Capcom is now giving it a try. How about another controversy for RE5? We've got a cult in our game so we can pick on a religious group... lets see Christians or Jews are always the modern favorites aren't they? (They don't have the brass ones to pick on Muslims).

I mean it wasn't a controversy before this, so why would Capcom create the corporate publicity blitz around a protest nobody had heard of?

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Recession Time Lapse

Found an interesting time lapse of how the recession has swept across the U.S. Follow this link if you want the gory picture. Almost as bad as a slow motion picture of a smoker's lungs deteriorating.

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Lessons not learned

Once upon a time there were more a lot of brands of PCs that were incompatible. IBM created the personal computer that almost all of us use today. How many competitors can you name though? Apple, Macintosh, Texas-Instruments, Radio Shack (Tandy), any more? There were a lot but the personal computer we have today won out... why? Because they had more than one company making components for them and were able to provide a better overall product because of it. IBM allowed anyone to make PC compatible parts and software, something their competitors didn't allow.

For most mainstream technology that people use all the time it is the same way. Competition was allowed instead of proprietorship and the technology caught on. However, in gaming platforms they're determined not to learn. Nintendo in Spain just lost a lawsuit to prevent 3rd party manufacturers from improving their product under the guise that it might sometimes be used for piracy. You know what the same argument has been used to try and stop VHS tapes, writable CDs, and MP3s. Why is industry frequently determined to fight an uphill battle against their own consumers demands for free use of the products they buy? Microsoft also just got slapped with yet another anti-trust suit for trying to block 3rd party development for the X-box by Datel. Yet, 3rd party development always seems to boost sales for any platform. Nobody would use windows if it wasn't for the 3rd party support of applications it gets. A lot of people prefer Linux but don't use it because of that very same lack of support from their party hardware and software developers. Being rich and powerful seems to always make one a control freak, even though being a control freak is detrimental to what made you rich and powerful in the first place.

Now Microsoft is trying to pay Newscorp (owner of Fox News) to take their news articles off of Google so that they're only found on Bing
. I wonder who will lose out from that deal? I really doubt it will be Google. If I was one of Fox News' few conservative competitors (i.e. Pajamas TV) I would be praying that Fox took MS up on the offer so that I could get my articles promoted on Google without Fox competition.

Big business will just never learn. People like to customize things and make it theirs, even if sometimes piracy happens. It is coutner intuitive to the control freak nature But but but... Piracy can happen! is the objection. Yes, it can... Piracy can ALWAYS happen. Are you going to discourage Piracy by making it more beneficial to be a Pirate than a customer? No. You have to discourage Piracy and make it difficult while at the same time making it being more rewarding to be a customer than a Pirate. The stick will never work if the other side has ALL the carrots.

Sunday, November 15, 2009

Slothing to 2010

I can't believe another decade is around the corner. Sigh. Where did this last one go? I graduated from college in 2000 and suddenly... zoom it is 2010 almost already. Meanwhile I had a big job interview last week. I'm in the final 3 for a company that is actually determined to hire someone. It sure would be nice to be collecting a paycheck again! I'm trying to ebay stuff I don't use so I can have some sort of Christmas on my own money. Doubly so since we're moving by the end of December with a job or not. So excuse me if my posting is very infrequent until then.

I'm playing a pen and paper game of Elemental that can be viewed over at their website. It is going about as slow as my blog posting these days though. The others are too afraid that I'm going to win that they can't even make their moves is the way I look at it.

If ebay goes well I'll be buying a new Wii Nunchuk for playing games with my daughters and maybe some cheap Wii games as well. Meanwhile if you want some good reviews of Wii games, check out the Wiiviewer channel on youtube!

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

EA, owner of the Ethical Low bar among video game companies

This just in:

EA "restructures" people's jobs to save $100 million a year.
and can therefore spend $300 million to buy Playfish, a facebook app developer.

Because you know it isn't like people can be retrained to write java for less than $200 million. Oh wait, we can train people and don't have to treat them as disposable!

Story courtesy of Broken Toys

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

I'm slow

I was writing a post the other day to go with a video but I couldn't get the video to load. Meanwhile I ran across this powerful video that I wanted to post even though it has nothing to do with games.

Be warned this is a somewhat graphic video that doesn't pull its punches about what is going on in Sudan. You may have a visceral response to watching it.

Monday, October 26, 2009

What I've been doing

I'm still unemployed and my family has to move out of our apartment by the end of December so real life is becoming more of a focus and this blog less so. Posting will probably be sporadic and sparse until next year at least unfortunately. Got a job or a cheap family residence? I'm in desperate need of one of the two.

Meanwhile to keep at the QA thing and keep having fun I've been working on this:



Elemental Beta baby! One of the most primitive early betas I've been a part of and I've done a lot of betas. But playtesters are getting much earlier input than normal into a game's development which I think is going to make this a totally awesome game by release time.

Saturday, October 17, 2009

Still here.. Activision hasn't censored me

I know it has been a while hasn't it? I'm a lot faster than updates on the development of VOR though!

Still unemployed, the economy is oppressing me and honestly there just hasn't been much to right about. VOR is in limbo, there isn't any local Anima Tactics action because the local game store doesn't want to support it, Elemental has been a few weeks without significant updates. So when I play games I've been playing more free DDO which is a great game and you can't beat the price! Unfortunately nobody I know is playing it which makes it not quite as fun as other games I could be playing.

So why Activision? Well it appears those who are protesting their latest Guitar Hero game are facing a lot of censorship for unknown reasons. Activision isn't talking much about their Nirvana critics, but their critics are being silenced by someone one after another. People say now that they've gotten huge from the merger with Blizzard they're trying on the scruples of their large competitor... EA. I say they still have a long ways to catch up but I hope they never get there. I don't have a significant reason to avoid Activision games yet (other than Quality) and I hope not to despise them like I do EA.

But if my blog does suddenly go silent, they're the ones you should blame!

Sunday, October 4, 2009

Video editing isn't easy to learn

So I've been working on video editing skills with my latest video for Anima Tactics. I've been working on it for a few weeks off and on. My biggest issues all seem to be software/budget related. Basically as an amateur I can't afford real software that will do what I want it to. So I got stuck first with a video that was way longer and larger than it should be. Then using another program I found and installed to fix it, the quality got reduced slightly and a "unregistered product" notice added to my whole video.

So I guess the moral of my story is: "We are all still learning, I'm just proving it".



The plan is to keep getting better at it from here on out.

Saturday, September 26, 2009

Guild internet

If you're a MMO player then I sure hope you've been watching The Guild's 3rd season (having already seen seasons 1 and 2) on MSN. It is a hilarious series of internet shorts about a bunch of gaming addicts and the ways they interact with the real world. Season 3 features Wil Wheaton playing a new villian and is absolutely hilarious.

Well, what few people know is that they've also created some mock ups of internet sites for in-game goings on. The Axis of Anarachy website and which I find absolutely hilariously... awful! Hopefully the humor isn't just from episode tie-in.

I've not been blogging as actively because of real-life. I've been frantically working hard to try and get my unemployment extended early so our cash crunch wasn't too masive. I succeeded and there is now no interruption in my unemployment checks. Even if this last week's check was a lot smaller because it was the end of my funds for that period. I also had a great job interview this week which I felt I rocked, but no call back yet... so we'll see. At least it looks like I should have unemployment to keep going on with till this next spring. Which means I can keep writing and not looking for family sized cardboard boxes under an overpass! (It isn't that bad but it feels like it)

In my play time I've been busy beta testing Elemental, working on Anima Tactics models and playing DDO unlimited. I'll be certain to write more about them soon.

Monday, September 21, 2009

Video Games keep me from killing people

Today's article is courtesy of two entries from Gamepolitics.com on games and violence. First a buddhist monk who uses video games to sate any violent impulses so he can live a life of pacifism. Second, an article about how in Germany a school principle is banning all "killergames" due to an incident where an 18-year old (not a minor and not affected by the rules) went on a killing spree with an axe, knives, and molotov cocktails (obviously they need more GUN control to stop violence). Furthermore the murderer in this case... was not found to have played violent video games. So maybe they should try the opposite and if like the monk he had some violent games he wouldn't have taken his rage out in real life?

I wonder what the school is like because it sounds like the principal is desperately looking for a scapegoat. At least in these times it is so much more difficult to just randomly blame Jews, Gypsies, Turks for things so... video games? It seems like anything to not hold people responsible these days. Just remember the old phrase is true: "Guns don't kill people, People with Guns (and knives but not video games) kill people."

Thursday, September 17, 2009

Betas

Well I can reveal now that one of the betas I had been in previously was Fallen Earth. It is a good post-apocalyptic MMO PC game. I really liked the post-apocalyptic setting and skill based MMO play. I'm not playing it now for two reasons: First and foremost I don't have the money if I really wanted to. Second the bigger reason is that some really fun things I enjoyed got cut during the beta. I'm hoping they'll get re-introduced later on in the game, but at this point I'm really starting to doubt it. What got cut was the Stealth skill and the meaningfulness and specializations of each faction got diminished. It is still a great game and if you're looking to play a non-fantasy MMO right now you should definitely try it out.

In other beta news, I just finished downloading the first beta for Elemental: War of Magic. Time for me to go join all the crashing and my favorite work profession ... bug reports!

Finally as a little bonus for the miniatures gamers! I did another video for Anima Tactics. This one covers the line-up of models available for the Church organization in the game. Enjoy!

Monday, September 14, 2009

This should be the last about PAX 09

Still on the post PAX high. Doubly so as not me, Svayvti or any of our families kids have gotten the swine flu that took down Penny Arcade, Wil Wheaton, host of game developers and who knows who else. No, just like Wil Wheaton I have a hard time coming down from that Post-PAX high, though nobody serenaded me on video as they did WilW (or off video either for those curious).

By the way I think Bioware continues to show off why parent companies should sometimes just allow themselves to be run by subsidiaries. I guess EA should be glad I'm not a majority shareholder because I would clean house of the execs and replace them with Bioware people. So I bet the Bioware execs are "invited to resign" within the next 3 years or so. Kind of like how Mythic is being trampled under foot right now. Anyways Bioware had a very, very busy booth in contrast to EA. They also had the best handout of the convention as pictured to the right for their new Dragon Age game. They gave Dragon condoms... err, shrink wrapped inflatable swords (hmm, maybe I was right the first time) and had enough for everyone who came by. My family claimed 4 as part of our successful game swag haul.

Funcom is another company in my dog house but they did pretty well with their showing new game "The Secret World". I'm hoping that with Gaute Godager gone and Ragnar Tornquist now in charge of The Secret World that Funcom can make a good game again. Ragnar was most of the creative genius I originally liked behind the story of Anarchy Online. Then Gaute got a hold of it and tried to turn it into Everquest with future magic in several expansions and. With Gaute in charge Funcom could never keep track of what direction Anarchy Online's development was trying to go in.

I'm curious to see what PAX does to come up with more space next year, because they're definitely going to need it. Maybe they can add a 4th day? If the explosive growth of the convention keeps up then within a few years they'll just have to rent the entirety of downtown Seattle for the weekend.

Oh yeah, and Starcraft 2? It absolutely rocked.

Friday, September 11, 2009

Techie stuff at PAX

PAX had a lot of kewl gadgets as always. Super cooled computers, gloves that work as your keyboard and mouse, new touch based interfaces, a neat black glove that works as an interface, and of course the return of the incredible tables from Geek Chic.

Actually I mostly just noticed the peregrine glove and not just because it was next to the Elemental/Stardock booth. I always pay attention to new interfaces as they promise to be the really big thing like the Nintendo Wii Remote or the next big flop like the Nintendo Power Glove. The Peregrine glove is a much more intuitive interface, if they can produce it cheaply enough for the mass market then I expect you'll be hearing a lot more about it in the future barring any unforseen disasters.

Jupiter broadcasting covered the Peregrine and a lot more tech stuff from PAX a lot better than I can:

So I guess I have to retract half a point about EA being smart enough not to continue their stupid "Sin to Win" promotion at PAX. They didn't do it at PAX... but they are still promoting stupid, stupid contests directly with gaming media. See this adult humor webcomic making fun of EA today at Ctrl-Alt-Del. In Mixed news the pro-Draconian EA is now selling their games on the Anti-DRM Stardock's Impulse digital distribution network. Something has gotta give here, this is NOT a match made in heaven or hell. Watch this become some bad EA promotion for Dante's Inferno about "Limbo" (the portion of hell that always looks at heaven but can never get there).

Real life has been too hectic or stressful to do anything with painting or terrain. Baby doesn't want to sleep at nights now. Unemployment extension is running out (so having to get another extension) as I'm now going on way the heck too long without a regular paying job. I am Looking into training or returning to school to make myself more competitive on the job market but I'm not sure the government wants to pay for that. I'm hoping within the next week I'll have the time to do some more videos about terrain or models I've painted. Plus hopefully the first Anima Tactics organization video.

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

PAX is now a great holiday

Here is what I took away from PAX. My oldest now considers PAX one of the greatest of holidays. She was begging me to take her back today and yesterday. I asked her what was so great about PAX and she proclaimed presents, toys, getting stuff, etc. So I asked her what about Halloween or Christmas because those are coming up? She said yeah, they're as good as going to convention and that Convention, Halloween and Christmas are her favorite holidays.

So Sallust might not know it yet, but I'm going to have to talk Dear Guild Leader into going to some more conventions with kids before PAX 2010.

More PAX coverage in which I also pick on EA

I'm glad for labor day after PAX. It is so intense, especially when you take an excited kid on the second day. One thing I certainly noticed about PAX this year though was that families and women made up a much higher percentage of the demographic. 5 years ago there was about one girl out of every ten or twenty attendees. Now it is more like one out of four.

I noticed EA didn't have their "Sin to Win" contest. As I'd said I wondered if they'd try it at PAX after the previous disasters at E3 and Comic-con. The PAX crowd would mob them if they did and so they finally appeared to have dropped this idiotic promotion. EA itself was kind of low-key and swallowed up by the great displays from subsidiaries Mythic and Bioware. Maybe they could take a few lessons from them on how to promote a game? Honestly I had trouble finding EA until I realized that what was next to the Diablo III booth was Dante's Inferno and not a continuation of Diablo III.

By the way I have to contrast this with Turbine who had a Succubus themed contest for D&D online. They got a booth babe (Pictured on the right) who was both devilish looking without sinking to below-the-groin sleaze. On that note I should also announce for all of those interested in a free-to-play MMO that D&D online is now free to play. Extra content can be bought with micro transactions (consider yourself advised) but you can enjoy all of the basic game for free. Get on board soon because I'm sure their subscription levels are going to shoot through the roof.

The second part of the PAX "Legend of Neil" panel is now up on Youtube if you enjoy that kind of crass humor, you sicko. I noticed that episode 4 is late. Stop slacking Sandeep! Also, Comedy Central you need to get these guys like an actual budget. Speaking of budgets... I'm sorry to say that I filled up my cameras only memory chip after this part so it doesn't continue on. Feel free to email me about a financial contribution if you'd like to make sure this doesn't happen again (I wish).

P.S. - Felicia Day is still a traitor for going to that other Con instead of PAX this year

Monday, September 7, 2009

Post PAX 09 Review

Soooo much fun. I feel sorry for those who dwell among lesser cons not knowing anything about what PAX is like. Given I didn't milk the pure fun out of it, as usual I came with an agenda and there is only so much time in the Con and different activities to choose from. First stop saturday morning was waiting in line for the exhibit hall and picking up all kinds of swag along the way.



The video above only barely begins to describe the haul of free stuff I pulled out of the con. My daughters are beating each other silly with inflatable swords from DragonAge. Lost track of how many free T-shirts I got, last count was about 8 or 9. In previous years I've gotten keyboards, my nice Razer gaming mouse and others from raffles. Unfortunately I had no raffle winnings this year.

I headed straight for the Stardock booth and got to play with the Elemental Alpha build which is already a ton of fun. I've been posting more pictures of the Alpha over on their game forums if you're following it. I couldn't wait to get back the second day and pay for my pre-order of the game.



Then I just had to get a few pictures of people in costumes. There are so many I didn't get pictures of that I wish I had. Luckily I'm not the only one there taking pictures so I can enjoy the exhibits while other people do the business of covering the convention. But I did get the picture of Pirates up on stage. Yeah, dancing Pirates on a Tom Clancy Splinter Cell stage... what did you do with your weekend?


All this before the day was even half over. I got to talk with several HR people about advancing in the gaming industry and how to sell my myself. So hey, maybe somebody is looking to hire a good QA person who can double as a great editor? They actually had better tips than a lot of other "get a job" discussions I've been to.

I got in a good game of Anima Tactics at the convention, sat in on the Legend of Neil interview panel (and saw today's new episode ahead of time), and a few minutes of concert before heading home on the first day.

Yeah, I'll be blogging a lot more about PAX all week!

Sunday, September 6, 2009

Legend of Neil Panel at PAX 09

Wow, Tony Janning are Sandeep Parrikh are two very funny and... very Crass guys. I kind of feel guilty about laughing at their show. But amazingly enough I don't feel more guilty adding a link to it at the bottom of my blog.

So warning, if you watch the video I took of them these guys have a wicked dirty sense of humor.



In general PAX 09 has just been simply amazing. Huge exhibits, more prizes than last year (though not as many as the early years). I only heard of one bad panel (Sex in video games). Plus so many fun games of all types were there to be played or watched (RPGs, board games galore, card games, Console Tournaments, PC tournaments and more).

Much, much more on PAX 09 yet to come. I'm probably going back today for a little bit more, especially as the Elemental Pre-order is $10 off at PAX.

Friday, September 4, 2009

New Anima Tactics video

In the midst of getting ready for PAX. It is a much bigger endeavor when you're leaving your kids behind for a day. Gone are the days of just doing things, now I've got to make sure there isn't going to be a revolt by the children to overthrow my wife's dictatorship while I'm gone. With young children in the house I'm afraid even one day of gaming convention bliss can be too much, and here I was hoping to have a weekend pass. Given with a weekend pass I probably would have spent about the same amount of time actually at the convention but spaced it out more and returned home for more time.

Anyways, the real reason for this post is that I put another Anima Tactics video up explainging force formation for the game. I hope it entertains and informs.

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

PAX is completely FULL

Wow. They sold out the entire Seattle convention center a week before PAX even starts. I'm lucky that I got my saturday tickets as the 3-day pass sold out the day before I was able to get mine. Still I should hopefully have a lot of good pictures and videos from PAX to show by next week.

Other than that I don't expect any news in gaming until PAX. So I'll try and get some videos made of my terrain projects (trees done for swamp project) and maybe some videos for Anima Tactics or VOR.

Sunday, August 30, 2009

My Wargames



A little review I did of one of my two miniatures wargames, Anima: Tactics. Who sadly are not showing up to PAX to do anything this year.

I find it amusing that VOR and Anima: Tactics have so little in common. VOR is an army game, AT a hero combat game. VOR has army books, AT has cards for miniatures. But I think what they both have in common that I love is that neither is super expensive and neither has a lot of sitting around doing nothing. In VOR you alternate activiation and quickly have a turn to do something besides defend. In AT it works that same way while also having reactive actions to decide on like dodge or counterattack during your turn (and sometimes special abilities).

In addition to possibly doing more reviews of Anima Tactics sometime I'm also thinking of doing a review of VOR and the Shard force. Anyone interested in that?

Saturday, August 29, 2009

They don't like our Games

I asked before if being against free speech in video game development was a liberal or conservative thing. In my opinion it is neither, it is a generational thing where both parties tend to attack the hobby of the young in misguided cultural warfare. Just as my grandparents generation hated watching as much TV as my parents generation (and my parents themselves) do. Well now it is time for the Boomer generation who are totally addicted to way too much sex and violence on television and in movies to complain and pretend the world is ending because we have half as much in the interactive environments of video games. But somehow it is worse because kids are interacting with the virtual environment rather than staring blankly and closed-mindedly at the television.

President Obama has been one of the repeat offenders urging people to be more active by putting down their Wii (The video game system in his family is a Wii) and ... prowling the streets or something. So message to Youth, get off the streets and go indoors where we expect you to put down your video games and go outside.



Maybe it would be slightly easier to take if Obama was really more concerned about setting a healthy example for his own children. Like by showing proper bicycle safety (his daughters and one other are wearing helmets in the picture) or... not smoking.

But Obama is not the current offender getting me riled up. Those awards would go to the Socialist government of Venezuela and the conservative PajamasTV. The first one is just continuing their waves of censorship of all media because they might contain a subversive message that says something almost critical of the government. The second is a bunch of old guys trying to typecast the young guys with guilt by association.

Venezuela isn't all bad, as they crack down more and more they make more and more enemies. Now they're going after the pasttime of the army and in so it wouldn't surprise if they seal the fate of their own evil government. Yes, power and wealth in Venezuela are gained by working for the corrupt Chavez government... but the other side has more fun. That administration's days are numbered as they just get more and more fanatic.

The PJTV guys are the ones I expect better of. The conservatives are not aging well and they wonder why young people go to folks like Jon Stewart rather than those who tell them they're evil because some kid of their generation (and might we say probably from an abusive family or other bad situation that had nothing to do with game playing) threw a tantrum. I'm not trying to make Gamers out to be saints, 2 minutes on the World of Warcraft forums will show you there isn't a lot of maturity there... but there usually isn't among the 11 year old crowd and online anonymity can only make that worse. But these kids grow up, they learn that even while anonymous their bad behavior has repercussions and has disadvantages. I'm glad we have these online worlds because we're making more socially advanced kids out of it. They're learning about adults and adult social behavior and they're learning about the fallout of bad behavior in a way that is less damaging than reality.

Mark my Words: This MMO generation is going to be a lot more socially aware than the Boob Tube Gen... I'm sorry the... "Boomer"Generation that is mocking them across the old media spectrum.

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Media showcases Elemental

Elemental: War of Magic is the PC game I'm following most avidly right now. It seems as they gear up for PAX they're really ramping up the media blitz. No surprise either as Stardock intends to really show off the game for the first time at PAX. My favorite article so far is the one from Kotaku.

Saturday, August 22, 2009

Youtube Wargaming Community

It is a said statement of the times when I'm seeing more news from Blizzard Corp's convention that Gencon. I'm following the announcements of the new World of Warcraft expansion with amusement (I dropped WoW hard, so excuse me all you still fans of the game) and watching eagerly the news of Starcraft 2.

More importantly to me right now I wanted to announce what has long been coming on Youtube, the development of the Wargamer's Community. Just founded and already with over 205 members at the time of posting and at least a hundred videos. You'll find videos on everything related to wargaming from battle reports, to painting guides, to terrain making guides, and a lot more. If you are one of my wargaming blog followers you should check it out because you'll love it!

Friday, August 21, 2009

Back briefly

Well the ocean was fun... and a lot of work with 3 kids. The kids are stressing me out these days, but we're all cooped up at home together going nuts. Hopefully I can leave the unemployment rolls soon in a good way and life returns to sanity.

Though when I got back I learned that PAX 3 day passes had sold out before I got a chance to buy one!!!! ahhhh!! Anyone got one they're not using?

Post GenCon and pre-Pax gaming news seems to be rather slow. Doesn't seem like much in the way of big announcements came out of Gencon. Did I miss something?

Also, the head (outgoing? they're being absorbed into Square-Enix) of Eidos is an idiot. He hates the whole second-hand games market. Does he prefer people just pirate his games if they don't want to pay full retail price? Look, the reason people sell games is because of these:

1) they didn't like it - it sucked.
2) There wasn't enough game there - they played it out thoroughly in a short amount of time
3) Post release support for the game was lacking

People BUY games, they DON'T RENT GAMES. Ask the "U.S." (no, not Toyota and the companies which make their cars actually in the U.S.) auto companies, they don't like used cars either but there are benefits to it. Why do people trade in cars at auto dealers? the same reason people sell USED games... to buy new ones. When you're a game producer complaining about used games... it is because people are selling your game for one of the above reasons and buying new someone elses game.

The solution is simple MAKE QUALITY GAMES. Pick one of the above three reasons for game sales (problems for some designers) and work on it till people don't sell your games any more. So that instead they sell your competitors' games in order to buy yours.

Maybe notice that you'll never see a Stardock game for resale, but plenty of people ditching bad Eidos games to buy them. Stardock are the ones who introduced The Gamer's Bill of Rights pictured to the right. They're also one of the companies with top selling games who never use any DRM on their games. How can they do it? They're games are great, replayability is high, and you'd never pirate their games because you wouldn't get the wonderful post retail support Stardock offers.

It is why Elemental is the only MUST BUY game of the year.

Monday, August 17, 2009

Upcoming

The Guild Season 3 is coming... and they have an awesome music video as a commercial.



and in other fantasies... Elemental is getting close to a public beta release. It isn't going to look like the picture during early beta they've warned us... warned us! After years of overhyped games (*cough* FU_com *cough* EA_Fail) it is a breath of fresh air to be warned about the unplayabilty of a beta. This is now the beta I'm waiting for with eager anticipation. For the rest of you too... this beta has no NDA.

So I hope these teasers tide you over, I'm going on vacation to the beach for a while. Then I'll be putting my possessions in hoc so I can have some spending money for PAX!

Friday, August 14, 2009

I prefer Gamer Chic

Gamer girls and Gamer wives are a rare and wonderful commodity. I already got mine and I'm quite glad to be the envy of so many guys who are stuck with non-gaming wives.

Why? well one reason is when geeking out on Star Wars you don't want your girl to need a script and have bad acting when you're playing around... in your swimwear.

and if the philosophizing doesn't work for you watch the video anyways, it is hilarious!



"When 900 years you reach, look as good you will not"

Thursday, August 13, 2009

Terrain: My project update

So it has been a while since I did an update on my terrain projects. Work on my swamp terrain stopped when I got sick and I really want to get some trees done more to my satisfaction. Also some river terrain pieces have been started as you can see in the following video:

Monday, August 10, 2009

Other people blog too

If you even casually enjoy watching The Guild like I do then you would be interested to know that Wil Wheaton is appearing in season 3. He blogged about it for quite a while about his trip to Comic-Con with the cast of The Guild. Though I do wonder about Felicia Day's alternate identity wearing a costume like that. (Edit: Picture "like that" was deleted from its source)

Brad McQuaid has also completed his part 3 of his Vanguard Post Mortem about why he created a flying flop. Have to give him some credit, most people in the MMO industry never admit to failure. SWG NGE... they never admit failure. Gaute Godager driving AO to needing to give away free accounts to keep the player base alive and single handedly destroying Age of Conan... not in his words. So it is nice to see someone in the industry publicly learning from their own mistakes.

or read the very weird Emerson Wild: Monster Hunter blog. I did warn you it was weird though so don't come back complaining.

Been under the weather a bit so enjoy other people writing about (hopefully) something interesting.

Saturday, August 8, 2009

My childhood replayed

It seems like these days everything big and new from mass media is just an attempt to remarket my childhood. Transformers, G.I. Joe, Ghostbusters, Land of the Lost, Mechwarrior, whatever. Most of them are pretty big failures, or in the case of Transformers don't manage to find that winning formula even if they hit upon success.

But wow! I just saw the new Mechwarrior trailer...

when I was a kid playing the old battletech and citytech I imagined it just like this. No matter how bad they screw it up as the years go by, you never entirely forget that original feeling playing the game.

Incredible job Smith & Tinker, now what are you going to do for Shadowrun?

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Terrain: Play mats & craft store bought terrain

It is surprising to a lot of people how many good terrain pieces can simply be bought ready to go for cheap from a craft or hobby store. If you've got a small budget this is the way to go!

Fabric stores often have on discount weird or exotic fabric types that work great as play mats for wargaming terrain tables. Most won't even need any changes done to them. Honestly when you see playmats from "terrain stores" they're often buying the exact same fabric store mats and marking their retail price up by as much as 4 times! When if you go into the fabric store you'll usually find them on discount. The ones I've picked up I generally picked up at 60-75% off discounts which is a HUGE savings. Not to mention I like seeing stuff in person and having the instant gratification of walking out the door with it.

Not enough players who want some decent tabletop terrain consider hobby and craft store pieces. Your friendly local game store probably doesn't carry model train supplies, but hobby stores often do and many of the items you can find are perfect. Bachmann trains for instance has a lot of trees and vegetation making material which is perfect for any scale of gameplay. See in this video where they are being based and put to use by Terranscapes:


Your local craft store might require more work to find something in the correct scale for 28mm wargaming, but you should be able to find it or modify it without too much difficulty. The extra nice part is that the terrain pieces sold at a craft store tend to be on the very cheap end. Woodland scenics sells a lot of very nice terrain making materials mostly intended for use in school projects or modeling. I've bought some of their trees before and they work very nicely as cheap tabletop terrain throw-downs. You can go a lot further in making elaborate designs with some of their other materials and best yet for those of you new to making your own terrain is that they have a lot of instructional materials as well. Another one in the "love-it but won't admit it" category is Lemax collectables. A lot of these aren't in the correct scale for 28mm gaming, but a fair amount of them are. Gravestones, vineyards, and crypts can be found in the correct scale and they go a long ways towards making a very realistic setting. Plus when can't it be fun to detonate a traditional halloween or christmas display in a fantastic battle of miniatures wargaming?

Saturday, August 1, 2009

Terrain: My projects

So I thought it time to show you some of my own projects that I'm working on. You can see a thatched roof and a project just started where I'm using a wood base to plan a new project in this video:



You can see the progress on the roof thatching and how well the paper mache worked in the followup.



This blog entry was supposed to have a lot more info in it. It got cut short however by a glass explosion in the kitchen where my wife detonated my favorite cobbler dish. More entries on terrain should be coming soon and I should have some videos showing off making realistic water with envirotex at some point.

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

It sure is hot

One of the things I looked forward to when moving back to Seattle was the more moderate climate. Doesn't feel like it right now though I know things are a lot worse in the interior of the state.

Speaking of heat, I wonder if anyone at EA is ever going to feel it?

EA and their Dante's Inferno publicity stunds are a Penny Arcade punchline now. I'm almost eager for them not to repent, they're a sponsor of PAX and if they pull this kind of stunt there they'll be invoking unholy retribution. The kind that would just put a smile on my face.

I've been working a lot on terrain lately and I intend to do a terrain segment showing off what I've built and how I've done it. Here is a prelude of what is to come.



Speaking of excitement, all you VOR fans are going to start getting excited next week I'm informed. I'm sworn to secrecy but I think monday will be a good day to be camping the bioplazm forums. Meanwhile I've been working on my Golem, trying to figure out what detail colors I'm going to be using for my Pounders.

Monday, July 27, 2009

The Inevitable Fallout of EA & "Sin to Win"

How is it that EA manages to stay in business? They're just one EA-Fail after another, such that they just got the before linked twitter site dedicated to their constantly occurring failures.

So well now they've issued an apology... sort of... on the obscure twitter service twitpic:
We understand there's a lot of debate right now around our "Sin to Win" promotion at Comic-Con and wanted to clarify a few things. We created this promotion as part of our marketing efforts around the circle of Lust (one of the nine sins/circles of Hell). Each month we will be focusing on a new Circle of Hell. This month is Lust. Costumed reps are a tradition at Comic-Con. In the spirit of both the Circle of Lust and Comic-Con, we are encouraging attendees to Tweet photos of themselves with any of the costumed reps at Comic-Con here, find us on Facebook or via e-mail. "Commit acts of lust" is simply a tongue-in-cheek way to say take pictures with costumed reps. Also, a "Night of Lust" means only that the winner will receive a chaperoned VIP night on the town with the Dante's Inferno reps, all expenses paid, as well as other prizes.

We apologize for any confusion and offense that resulted from our choice of wording, and want to assure you that we take your concerns and sentiments seriously. We'll continue to follow your comments and please let us know if you have any other thoughts or concerns. Keep watching as the event unfolds and we hope you'll agree that it was all done in the spirit of the good natured fun of Comic-Con.
There is a lot of debate? Yeah, about whether the people at EA are stupid or just sexist misogynists. They take the concerns so seriously they're not even willing to give the apology the same attention they gave the contest. The good news is that apparently not even the lowliest comic-con attendee can match EA's level of low... because nobody sent in any entries for the contest. Wow! EA thought we were confused but the reality is everybody thought you were just stupidly misogynistic to participate. Plus the marketing morons advertising yourself like a game of Evony is not a way to impress hardcore gamers into playing your game.

So at least EA sticks to its guns. In the EA manuscript their customers are pirates, they're stupid, and they just don't understand these disgustingly stupid mysogynist contests they produce... they will never admit to making mistakes, being outright wrong, or making bad management decisions.

Maybe instead of laying off competent people at your studio acquisitions, you should be laying off the managers at EA. Instead of merging and firing the heads of successful studios like Mythic and Bioware, maybe you should be asking what it would take for them to replace the incompetent managers at the parent company with a long, long history of being unethical screwups.

Maybe pigs will fly and I'll get rich writing a blog.

Terrain: Plaster - Hirst Arts

So when it comes to making terrain to play with out of plaster, Hirst Arts is the first and last website you should go to. Bruce Hirst is the primary artist selling plaster molds for terrain making, most places selling plaster molds or plaster terrain are doing what they can to copy from him. Go direct to his videos page and you can see exactly how it is done along with some other extra helpful stuff. His videos cover how to use plaster molds, how to use resin in them, how to paint, painting lava, and best of all how to make water features.

The basics are you buy a mold, poor wet plaster into it and let dry, then you have super detailed building blocks for making a sturdy building of whatever you like.

In addition to the buildings you can make with blocks from his mold (My buildings are pictured to the right), he also has a wealth of information on how to do other terrain effects and general hobby advice. Whether you are looking for sculpting techniques,
creative tabletop monsters, creating realistic water fountains,
making colored windows, dead trees, tips for painting futuristic models and a lot of other tips and tricks then Bruce Hirst's site is the one to visit. I have to give an extra special notice though to his river sections, they're just amazing and create the most realistic water you could ever want to play on.

For the Anima Tactics players I have to recommend all the Gothic molds Hirst has for evoking the setting really well. Shard or other sci-fi game players could do really well with the Schematic Mold which I have my building pictures of above and to the right. Though I'm eager to see a Neo-Soviet player make good use of the Pipe Molds and create an impressive Soviet chemical factory.





























Have I convinced you to have a look at his website yet?

This just about concludes the series I had intended on tabltop terrain. If you got anything else I should add, a different series idea, or whatever please leave a comment.

Sunday, July 26, 2009

Bad News for Bioware fans

I've got a few friends who are really looking forward to the Knights of "The Old Republic" MMO from Bioware. I warned them not to get their hopes up too high since EA is now in charge.

Sure enough, EA has put Paul Bennett in charge of Creative Director for Bioware-Mythic. Yes, coming over from the greatly successful MMO studios of EA (what MMO didn't they sink?) and coming on board for the slowly sinking ship that is WAR (recently laying off massively in their QA and customer service departments as per my prior blog entry) is now in charge of Creative development. Because when you're a big egotistical manager for a hugely egotistical corporation like EA or SOE you always take your failed managers and promote them on to your new great endeavors.

Head for the link to read more of this creative vision that he is bringing or enforcing on Bioware.
Paul Bennett: The concept of there being MMOs is probably dead. There are just games. There's online games, and very soon there will just be games. They will all be online anyway. I don't think there's an MMO any more. I think there's online games and there's online revenue, and they're sort of going to combine.
Tip of the Hat to Broken Toys

Update note: I guess the working title of the new MMO is simply "The Old Republic" and the 'Knights of' is not part of it.

Friday, July 24, 2009

Yet another reason to boycott EA

Lets see...

They exploit their workers (underpaid and revolving doors)
They push garbage on the market (i.e. "Deer Hunter")
They take the lead in dead MMO titles
They punish their customers with hostile DRM that does nothing to stop piracy
They've used DRM that can damage a legit customer's computer
Acquire companies and their employees through hostile takeovers
What customer service? ... or Quality Assurance?
Have weird policies regarding homosexuality for their games
Mocking religious groups at large conventions for advertising
Shipped illegal weapons as a publicity stunt
Want to forcefully educate you about homophobia in their games

and now....

and now we have EA's "Sin to Win" contest as yet another reason.

So go to Comic-Con, get pictures of yourself sexually harassing a booth babe and EA will reward you? Note that nowhere in the flyer does it say ANYTHING about EA booth babe's so if you think it is just their employees and they're prepared... think again. Even if it was EA employees I think it would be (or is?) fodder for a sexual harassment lawsuit. However, they've opened themselves up to a lawsuit from any girl working as a booth babe for any company at Comic-Con.

Wish I could get some of the lawsuit money EA is going to have to dish out for this publicity stunt.

With companies like these, it starts to feel difficult NOT to endorse piracy for those who feel the need to play their games. I think EA is trying to make Walmart start to look ethical.

Thursday, July 23, 2009

Ramblings on Game Industry

Time for another intermission from the terrain fest.

Brad McQuaid has another new blog entry on how Sigil failed with its Vanguard MMO launch. I'm glad he has noticed that the MMO industry is WAY too caught up in its developer's egos. I think it is standard in most U.S. corporations for the managers and execs to have super bloated egos but in the MMO industry it seems to filter right on down to the Janitor as well. I won't name names but having worked at 3 different .com websites that covered the MMO industry... I interviewed and and met a number of developers who just couldn't get over themselves. As a QA professional I've ground into many people many times that "The customer isn't always right, but you give them what they want anyways because they pay for your sorry ass to to have a job". Like having a paycheck? Make sure your customer is happy.

Of course I believe it would help if the MMO industry and a lot of other game companies put a lot more resources into Quality Assurance. A lot of failures (including WotC's Dreamblade which I was a contractor for) just didn't test their stuff enough before throwing it out to customers.

Another BIG problem with game developers is that not enough of them play their own game. A lot of the already mentioned egotistical MMO developers were horrible for it. They had this great theoretical expertise about game development... but they didn't play their game and didn't see problems which would be obvious to someone who did for a couple minutes. If you can't enjoy the game you're making, then you're working on the wrong project or maybe in the wrong industry.

Though maybe I shouldn't talk too much. I'm still unemployed and looking for work. At least my housing issues are settled for now with the landlord deciding he didn't want to go to court and settling for letting us stay in our place. Which is why I can enjoy my unemployment a little less stressfully and put out some new articles soon on terrain making.

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Terrain: Sculpting materials

In general it is a bad idea to make an entire terrain project out of these materials, but they can really help you get exactly what you want. The obvious idea is that you use them to make your terrain project look the exact way you want. The reason not to use them for the entire project is that they're rarely sturdy enough nor economical enough.

Sculpting materials that I've seen used a lot are:
I won't include foam for the same reasons I won't include wood or metal. People who use blue or pink foam a lot insist it is a sculpting material. It isn't. You can sculpt them by taking parts of the substance away, not by shifting its mass into a different shape. Besides I've already covered them in an earlier blog post.

Green stuff and Brown stuff are both forms of Kneadatite sculpting materials usually used by miniatures modelers. Some people because they're familiar with it use it on a large scale for terrain projects as well. This stuff is expensive though, don't waste it like that! Also, these materials are designed for being very finely sculptable... not for supporting heavy weights. Your finely sculpted terrain project may deform when heavy weight is placed upon it. But if you want to do something small with a lot of detail, like sculpt a miniature flower for the terrain scene you could use this just like you would with sculpting miniatures.



Brown stuff is very similar to green stuff with slightly different properties. Advanced sculptors use it in conjunction with green stuff when sculpting models. Most importantly all forms of Kneadatite are mildly toxic! Always wash your hands before touching your eyes, eating, or handling babies.

Clays and polymer clays. The big difference is that clays harden by drying out and polymer clays are designed to harden by baking. How much time do you need to complete your sculpting project? While these are used a fair amount, I recommend only using them on a limited basis because when they harden they also shrink and deform small amounts. On the plus side they can be fairly cheap (especially compared to green stuff!) and are very sturdy for storing or playing on.

Easily my favorite and most recommended is paper mache or Papier Mache for my french speaking wife. Basically made from paper and glue. It is cheap, sturdy, and doesn't deform while it hardens. The trick is not letting it deform while it is still wet! But you can add a lot of things to paper mache to make it harder initially. The same things you add to your mache can also be used to change the texture. Right now I've been experimenting with adding different kinds of sand to the mix because they give a different texture. Once dry it takes paint readily, after all it is made from paper and glue right?

Here is an example of how you can use it and the size of projects that can be made from it:

Friday, July 17, 2009

Terrain Projects: basing

The most important skill for making terrain is having a good eye for finding stuff to use. But the most important part of your actual terran making is selecting a good base. The base is very important to the playability, but most importantly it is the main determiner of durability.

Without a good foundation the terrain project is not going to be durable for play, storage, and transport. On Metal or Resin terrain pieces you might get away with not having a base, but for everything else it is just about essential.

Here is a video which shows off some wood based terrain and the natural rocks and things it can support. In general (but not always, varies on type) wood is sturdy at thinner proportions than foam and gives support to heavier structures but it isn't as sculptable.



All good bases I've worked from have either been metal, wood, or foam. Avoid the temptation to use plasticard or cardboard. They're sturdy but they also warp too easily. Good metal bases are hard to come by unless you have friends in a metal shop as they can often get you scrap material that is perfect for it. If you're not a professional metalworker, stay away from making your own!

That leaves Wood and various types of foam. There are a lot of ups and downs to both and even more when the varieties of wood and foam are taken into account. My preference is for wood because I have more of the tools to work with wood and I like to avoid the toxic gasses that are produced when heating foam. This is really a preference thing and the majority of tabletop I know of is made from foam.

This plus some good air circulation is what you need for scupting foam properly:

Let me stress it again, don't work with heated foam in a closed off room. It isn't good for you or anyone else who has to breath vaporized foam.

Aside: Here is the second part in case you want the link

If you don't have the tools and the materials already for more advanced foam or wood work then you're mostly going to be buying flats. You can go to a home supply store (i.e. Home Depot) and buy large boards of foamboard (foam with plastic on the sides) or your local craft store (i.e. Michael's) is likely to have a good selection of wood flats (mostly Balsa wood, but also some others). A good hobby knife or box cutter is usually enough for these to get the correctly proportioned base you want and need.



As a general rule of thumb when putting things on your base start with the largest things first. Doesn't matter if you're building ruins, basing figures, or wilderness scenes. Full buildings and fortresses, then trees and boulders, then smaller plants and rubble, etc. It is easiest to work form largest detail to smallest.



P.S. Here is a series of 5 youtube videos on making a set of foam hills by Blue Table Painting.

Thursday, July 16, 2009

EA at it again

For those few of you who aren't here exclusively for articles about miniatures gaming here comes something else courtesy of Electronic Arts.

Sigh, EA can you ever do something to NOT make me hate your organization more? Can I stop boycotting you, so I can re-boycott you? You're always finding all kinds of ways to show you have no respect for your customers. Seriously, what is the point of a single player game if you have to be online to play it anyways? News flash, people buying single player games and not MMOs or online shooters are likely to want to play offline. Maybe on a laptop on an airplane?

Now the next thing that bothers me is this:
Electronic Arts will play host to a panel on homophobia in videogame culture organized by the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation this Saturday<...>

Topics will include "how to provide safe spaces for LGBT people online, how to ensure the best policies are in place to prevent virtual attacks against LGBT people and how to educate the users of online communities about the effects of homophobia."

Emphasis in bold is mine, I don't care about the rest. I'm of the opinion that most people playing games want some time away from the issues of the real world. Pick a political hot button issue and people want away from it. I really don't want my games trying to educate me about homo-anything. Most popular games are a variant of "kill things and take their stuff", where does sexuality have anything to do with it? We aren't talking obscure japanese hentai games here. In any guild I've been in leadership for this rule has always existed: We don't talk about politics, religion, or sexuality in guild chat. People have strong opinions about those subjects and talking about it in guild chat tends to break an otherwise fun guild based around roleplay, raiding, or PvP. In WoW I was particularly vicious about guild kicking and /ignoring anyone who used gay pejoratives and I would lurk around on alts to enforce it with new recruits. I'm not promoting the behavior, I just don't think anybody trying to have fun wants EA or anyone else to have a homesexuality debate shoved down their throat.

But given EA's media circus at E3, maybe it isn't homophobia they should worry about but maybe religious phobia's?

But they don't want my respect and I don't want to support their disreputable activities by buying their games.

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Quality Terrain from Random Stuff

If you're going to build your own terrain then the first skill I recommend developing is a good eye. There are lots of things all around you that can be used to make great terrain projects. If you look in my boxes of standard terrain making materials you'll find a lot of things that I just picked up.

Sticks of the right proportion can be used to make great trees or tree stumps. Tiny gravel scales to become large rocks and small rocks can be used as boulders. Got Cotton? String it out and use it as fog on your battlefield. Collect some lichens and use them as alien plants. Terrainaholic on youtube has a lot of videos where he just uses stuff he has laying around or finds on car trips.



Why do those pieces of bark work so well as rocks? Shape and texture, that is what you're really looking for. If you're in the miniature wargaming hobby then you shouldn't be afraid of painting things and a lot of stuff that doesn't work initially works well after you put a coat of paint on it. Sometimes the gravel rocks you find might not be the right color for frozen tundra glacier rocks... so why not paint them? It might seem odd to paint rocks the color you want, but it can work really really well.

One of my favorite tricks that I use for basing figures and making terrain is gathering my own Talus. People can pay $10 for a little plastic store container of talus material that isn't as good as what you can find in your concrete driveway or parking lot. Where the concrete pavement has cracked you'll find small bits of sandy and rocky material that can be sorted for all kinds of diferent sizes of Talus. Water Glue it on, and if you don't like the color paint over it.

Sometimes a little bit of cutting or assembly will get something of the right size and texture to a good piece of terrain. Here is another video from Youtube channel "Wargamepainting" that makes excellent "dead trees".



Work on it and share with everyone what you've found that is easily available and works to make great terrain or figure conversions.