What "sucks" about ENWorld General Forum....

[pawsplay]

Regardless of edition, minis work for all of them.
...
There's a great set that just hit the streets and there's a minute thread in the 4E forum and another about wondering why his ground-shipped minis aren't there yet.

That's it.

...

With all the pseudo-philosophical edition war talk and otherwise general filler talk going on, why not much buzz in the general forum about something that is good for us all?

Is it good for us all? I don't want to come off negatively, but I will state the reasons I don't get excited by WotC minis any more.

1. They look terrible. While in individual respects they probably aren't a whole lot worse than they ever have been, holistically, they look like they were produced in a factory by overworked Chinese laborers with head colds.
2. Even if they looked good, I find it increasingly more difficult to find uses for recent releases in my game, as blue-haired people, "female dragonrborn rogues," and Freddy Krueger Trolls are not frequently appearing characters in my games.
3. Even if they didn't look terrible and depict strange creatures from another edition, I don't like the new school art style. My opinion of D&D art peaked somewhere near the end of the 3.0 cycle, and began a slight, gradual decline starting with the 3.5 core books which has never really improved. Neither Pathfinder nor 4e really scratch that itch for me. Thus the appeal of individual figures has declined with me over time.
4. However, forces beyond my comprension have started something of an old school Renaissance in third party minis. I have my pick of Reaper metals, plus some really nice plastic prepaints, and there are many other fine miniature makers as well. I am really happy with a "Marsh Troll" I started painting recently.

In short: War Drums was really the last set that got my motor revved.

EDIT: It also doesn't help that I can't even find a page on wizards.com that admits the existence of minis.

 

[Jhaelen]

EDIT: It also doesn't help that I can't even find a page on wizards.com that admits the existence of minis.

I kind of agree with that. While they did six Previews for the new set, I couldn't find a Gallery showing every mini, including the rarity information.

I also kind of agree about the choice of minis. This set includes a lot of very specific minis. I realize, though, that they're in a difficult situation: If they put too many 'classic' minis in the set, it will not be attractive to players who already invested a lot in minis.

I can't agree about the quality of the minis, though. The majority of minis in this set are really quite good looking. Maybe not as good as during the prime of this line, but at least as good or better than any set they released after Night Below.

Another thing I don't like are the new 'Very Rare' minis. This new set is even more random than any set we've ever seen before for DDM. This is bad news.

Still, this thread got me interested enough to search for more info and order a case

I hope I'm lucky and get the majority of the 50% of minis that I'm interested in...

 

[Oryan77]

EDIT: It also doesn't help that I can't even find a page on wizards.com that admits the existence of minis.

That's because the whole "new & improved" wizards website is complete garbage. I seriously get stressed out when I try to browse the site now. I can never find anything I'm looking for. I don't see why they changed it. It looked nice the way it was before and I never had any problems navigating it or using it's features.

I swear it takes me 10 minutes just to figure out how to get to the new RPG trading forums there. I finally remembered to book mark it the last time I navigated to it.

I still don't think I am able to delete my PMs that I've sent from my sent box.

Can't find any minis gallery.

Posting on the forums is a pain. If I edit a post, it messes with the alignment of the text and everything is double spaced when I save the edited post (wasn't double spaced in my edit).

There's I think 1 bajillion menu buttons on any page I'm currently viewing. So I have to see if I need to click on one of the buttons on the left, top, right, and probably bottom (I usually fall asleep before my eyes make it to the bottom) of my screen to do what I want to do.

There's just way too many buttons, menus, & info scattered around each page. It's confusing. And I'm not sure, but it almost seems like ENworld is now trying to see which site can place the most links, buttons, and menus on the screen at once. I still think Wizards is winning though.

 

[fireinthedust]

Suddenly the image of someone playing in the bathtub with D&D miniatures comes in my mind.

And while writing that, an image of 5 ppl doing the same in a single bathtub comes in my mind too.

If they're playing 1st edition, does that mean they're in a HOT TUB TIME MACHINE? No? (great white buffalo)

 

[Aeolius]

I saw this in an aquarium catalog and immediately thought of this thread:

Though this might be more to scale, as it's 43" long:

 

[pawsplay]

I can't agree about the quality of the minis, though. The majority of minis in this set are really quite good looking. Maybe not as good as during the prime of this line, but at least as good or better than any set they released after Night Below.

There are a few standouts in the new suit, it looks like, now that I have been able to find the previews.

 

[Christian]

I was about to ask pawsplay for links, since some posts above indicated that the previews were hard to find, but then I managed to hunt them down myself. Maybe I'm secretly a 12th level internet ranger ... Anyway, in case anyone else has trouble:

Lords of Madness Preview 1
Lords of Madness Preview 2
Lords of Madness Preview 3
Lords of Madness Preview 4
Lords of Madness Preview 5 (Holy *$)(^@#--they have a trebuchet mini!!)
Lords of Madness Preview 6

There are some sharp-looking pieces in this set, that's for sure & certain!

 

[pawsplay]

I dig the Heroslayer Hydra, and I would like a closer look at the kobolds, they look kind of cute. Definitely have no idea what I would do with one of those Zombwing thingies, though.

 

[Zaukrie]

1. WotC clearly doesn't care if this set succeeds. There is no more minis page on the site that I can find.

2. For the lack of excitement, 3 of the FLGS near me are sold out (and were sold out the first day at some of them). Not sure if they didn't order enough, or it is pent up demand.

3. The set looks like it might be nice. Three cases just came to my house, but I'm splitting them with three other guys, so I can't open them for a week. It's some kind of odd torture, I think.

4. I hope this isn't the last of the minis, but if it is, it will save me a ton of money. I like the 3D aspect of minis a lot.

5. I miss the skirmish game, but oh well.

 

[pawsplay]

As nearly as I can tell, Wizards is letting the minis line lumber on like a zombie because it acts as a promotional tool for 4e and the costs are not necessarily high if they re-use the sculpts for Heroscape. If WotC could get a bunch of people paying for DDI, regularly sell their core rulebooks and the Essentials materials, sell tie-in products, and float Heroscape as a popular standalone past-time, all at the same time, that could be decent money for them and would keep the creative staff fairly busy and well-funded (i.e. happy).