Stupid Observations

[ZaPhOd]

OKay, I have been absent for a while but I come back and see things that frankly pick my butt! I see riderless horses, that are painted very nicely but are definately lacking in detail and are definately not \"Cool Minis\" that have higher rankings than some of my best and many other artists as well! I just wanted people to know that I think it is crap! The scores here are bogus, and people should not worry about them at all! I really enjoy getting comments from people who are themselves artists, RPGers and *real* hobby enthusiasts. I laugh when I see my Monique deNoir sitting at 7.3 but all of my comments are giving her a 9 or 10! I mean maybe she doesn\'t rate that high, and maybe she actually sucks but those comments mean way more to me than the score. It does, however, bug me to see a riderless horse with absolutely no detail ranked higher. Sorry. It is a very nice horse lol
Oh, Celtois suck! The amount of strength a person would need to wield a slab of metal (or say rock like Tanath has) would be fantastic indeed! I never evr saw a Celtic warrior with a sword that was 2.5 feet wide before???? Haha! Oh well. Maybe I am just bitter because I can\'t buy any mostly naked men figures with giant swords around here.... Okay, maybe not

 

[Chrispy]

You go glyn! Make them punks suck it down! Umm.. yeah! The whole idea of a riderless horse is ludicris! I man, what\'s next, swords without users?

 

[Duende]

Heehee

Yes, Chrispy, evidently it is. I saw a pic of a spear on here that someone (I forget who) had hand-sculpted. It was very nice, but it was just the spear, nobody holding it or anything...

It still counts as a mini, though, it\'s a mini spear. I mean, the site is \"Cool Mini or Not\" not \"Cool Mini People or Not\".

P.S. And as a horse-lover, I have no problem with people posting just horses, I\'d just like them to be well-painted. I\'ve known some horses that have way more personality than a lot of people I know.

 

[kevd82]

As a new member I have to agree with Zaphod. I have only posted 2 miniatures, but I am surprised at the low ratings they are getting. Now, I personally would only give them about a 6, but most of the votes are coming in at 5. Looking at some other fives and seeing how sloppy they are I am kind of insulted. And I saw 2 other just posted miniatures by Brooding Paladin that looked really good (better than mine anyway) and they are only getting fives. What criteria are people using here? Are they even looking at other miniatures to get an idea how to compare? I am not complaining too much about my own ratings, as they are not far off where I would put them, but I see alot of way off ratings here. Just wanted to throw in a new memnber perspective.

 

[Rene le Bon]

This thread makes me smile!!!
First rule of getting a higher score: Big breasts!!!
Second rule: Never forget the first rule!!!

Well even though I want to avoid too much of a rant thread I have to sympathize with Glyn. I have a couple dozen pictures posted and have now reviewed and rated (and posted _some_ comments too) some 3500 minis here. Fact is, I continually scratch my head at what criteria many people use to evaluate miniatures sometimes. Even in my own file, several minis that I really did nothing fancy with and are rather banal get close to an 8 while others that I\'m quite proud of and are relatively sophisticated get pummeled down to a mid 6!(or worse!!). Its abit fun though..... rooting for your favorite (underappreciated) miniature and watching the scores fluctuate. I particularly love it when you have a couple of dozen votes, you check back latter you have one or two votes more and your score drops 4-5 tenths of a point. That means that some jackass had to give you a 1 for shits and giggles (but of course no posted comment )


Fred

 

[Stupidcow]

Re- Horses w/o Riders
I am also not against people posting horses w/o rides just like some of the other\'s here. It\'s like posting busts, only the head w/o the body and they not minis. Well what I can say is if you dun like what you are seeing, just skip w/o rating it. That\'s what I\'m doing now.

Re-Unjustified Ratings
There have been numerous rantings on this issue already. I\'ve also started a thread on this issue. \"Comments R better den Ratings\". Read it if you want, might make you feel better. I know it\'s hard to accept the fact that the more well known painters here get good ratings all the time and you get shit. Just live with it, art is art, and you cannot please everyone.

 

[vincegamer]

honest opinion

I have to disagree with Stupidcow. If you don\'t like what you see, give it your honest opinion in score and forget about it. If you don\'t rate it, it will keep showing up on you screen over and over again until you do. At least that\'s my experience.

Riderless Horses: all for it. My wife wants me to start painting some of her Breyer horse models and when I do I\'m putting them up here for comment.

Reputation doesn\'t do everything. I know Haley has a great rep and a well deserved one, but I recall seeing one of her pieces with a relatively low rating. It just didn\'t strike anyone\'s fancy.

My last word on the rating system:
People are afraid to give low scores or if they give them they won\'t comment. Thus your score will always be lower than your comments.
I\'ve found the scores to be mostly consistent with a few aberrations only.
<5 = Pretty much means an unfinished model. If you don\'t paint the base, some folks are giving it a 4 even if the rest is faboo.
5 = the lowest score some people will give and still leave a comment.
...Huuuuuuuge leap to next level...
6 = darn good piece that the average gamer would be proud to have on the table.
...sortof less huge leap...
7 = A character piece that people will stop to look at in the hobby shop.
...another Huuuuuge leap...
8 = Holy Cow! Anyone passing by your gaming table will get low and move around the piece trying to see every angle.
9/10 = when they exist it is a matter of whim why it\'s not an 8. People are just more turned on by it.
To get there you have to have a detailed base with lots of extras.
Vehicles will never get here no matter what.

So basically, if you are here to get an ego boost you are in the wrong place. Take your minis to the local game shop and set up the army some night for that.
What you can get here is inspiration and a few souls are even willing to help you improve.

Oh, and I swear someone has a program set up to give a 4 as soon as any mini is uploaded. See how long it takes your score to drop next time you load one.

 

[Stupidcow]

Well I just had a rating 8 mini dropped to 6.9 within a couple of votes. Answer? You just got an 1 dude!

I think I have to correct myself on what I siad earlier about the better known painters here. I should have said that they are the ones who gets a rating that truly fits the quality of the mini.

I\'m not sure whether this is possible however I\'ve been wanting to get it off my chest. Only allow members to vote and limit it to one. With so many members here we are certainly not short of voters. Better still if they can keep track who has voted and the score they gave. This I\'m sure will prevent any tom, dick or harry who can simply vote an 1 and get away with it. At the meantime, this will also prevent people from voting highly for their own minis.

 

[nadinbrzezinski]

Well this has been beaten to death... and my solution is:

Post because I like to share mi minis and to heck with the score! I apreciate the comments, but to HECK with the score!

Nadin

 

[Badaab]

Here\'s my two cents...

Since I\'m too much of a procrastinator to actually post anything of mine, I really can\'t say much, but...

Please people, share only your top work, stuff you\'re proud of, etc...
I\'m frankly sick of seeing 5 pages of somone\'s Tau army, or their entire collection of painted Reaper stuff. Don\'t get me wrong, I like painted minis as much as the next person, but a unit of 25 dwarven warriors shouldn\'t be photogrpahed and posted individually.

Joe

 

[vincegamer]

too many dwarves

25 dwarven warriors shouldn\'t be photogrpahed and posted individually.

Why not? I bet they were each painted individually.

I for one like seeing the poorer old stuff of someone who now could win demons. It lets me know there is hope.

 

[kevd82]

A suggestion for vincegamer - your rating system sounds like it could be made into an article with accompanying pics to illustrate the various levels. Maybe a newbies guide to miniatures...

 

[vincegamer]

article suggestion

Weeeelllll....
I *did* say that was my \"last\" comment on the rating system, and it\'s so subjective that I\'m not sure it would be that useful.

I\'ll think about it though.???

 

[raginggaijin]

Questions and Comments

Here\'s a shout out to my peeps on Techlords!

Vincegamer: I\'m in agreement. Would you write an article? (And you wouldn\'t want to see older gear of mine, trust me. I sucked ass when I first started.)

Zaph: Dude, this isn\'t the place for valid/quality responses to your painting/minis. CMON is IMO a forum to showcase minis. Anyone can make a comment and they aren\'t always on the mark. (Check out my own gear for funny comments. *chuckles* I was almost tempted to put \'It is you who are the ball-lickers!\' I look at the gear of the people who post, and that puts it into perspective. Especially if they look like they paint with their knuckles...)
There will be people who post retalitory commentary, bring down scores to keep their minis higher up on the Top List, and those that are just jealous of your abilities. If you want quality replies and critiques, take it to Techlords or Mini-Painters.
CMON is a great place to show, crappy place for valid responses.

Question: Is this the main area where people get critiques?

Last thought for the day: No one gives a [delete] what your rating is on CMON. It doesn\'t put more food on the table and it doesn\'t get you laid easier. At the end of the day what matters is if you are happy with it. Or not.

The Gaijin That Rages

 

[Chern Ann]

Originally posted by stupidcow
With so many members here we are certainly not short of voters.

Actually, we are. Members don\'t visit every day, and few vote on everything. We need about a thousand voting regulars to implement the above, and we\'re nowhere near that.

Originally posted by raginggaijin
Question: Is this the main area where people get critiques?

Yeap. You should post your image id and request reviews and comments. You\'ll get them here, as public comments and maybe even a personal message or two. The sheer volume of the archive means that most folk will only comment on request unless a mini is particularly good or particularly dire.

 

[ZaPhOd]

Oops!

Hey Rage! Ya I exploded out of place is one thing but I think I misworded much of my rave. Not the part about the horse or the Celtois but the scores. I couldn\'t agree with you more about absolutely everything you said. I like the comments because they are actual feedback. There are far too many variables involved to make any sort of rating system valuable. I don\'t care about the scores at all anymore. I used to be number 38 or somethign and now I\'m number 70 but it was out of 500 artists and now it\'s 800. Whoopy! Like I said before, there are many awesome artists out there (maybe in the house behind yours) that don\'t post here or can\'t.... There is little point in an artist rating if it doesn\'t actually include all of the artists. All of the folks that like to vote down other minis to move up will eventually just get beat out by the next group of awesome painters that join up (and hopefully only post like 5 pics at a time instead of 74.6
As for my whining? I am sorry! I paint minis becaus I love painting and collecting them. I don\'t have armies and I hate 40K but that is just me. I am an RPGer from way back and I don\'t like Rakham or Celtois mainly because they are not useful in my \"classic\" RPG environment. I also feel that so many people strive for \"realism\" with their fantasy minis that they should consider some of the ridiculous sculpts that are trendy (like the 2.5 foot wide swords I mentioned before) and bring back classic, plated Paladins, laden with baggage and loot, or the perennial thief, stashing the pouch in his vest while holding the knife behind his back....
Anyhow, I am still pissed about the horse, but I don\'t really care!

 

[raginggaijin]

No Worries Mate!

Zaphod, you\'re not whining, you have a legitimate complaint. Until a person is held responsible for their scoring and commentary, the sky is the limit. I bet people would score differently if they had to sign in to score, and if a scoring average was by their name. *cheeky grin* \"Hoo boy, the Gaijin scores a 3 on average. Wotta dick!\" *chuckles*

And for the record, I say the bigger the sword the mightier the man! The larger the baggage pack on his shoulders, the better prepared! I too yearn for the minis that don\'t reflect the realism; the days when a hero was truly Heroic. But this is a trend and eventually the pendulum will swing our way again. \'Til then smile and tell \'em they\'re just jealous. *wink*

Where\'s this horse? My g/f loves horses. Easy 10 just on the subject matter. *cheshire grin*

The Gaijin That Should Not Be

 

[vincegamer]

celtois

Originally posted by ZaPhOd
Oh, Celtois suck! The amount of strength a person would need to wield a slab of metal (or say rock like Tanath has) would be fantastic indeed! I never evr saw a Celtic warrior with a sword that was 2.5 feet wide before????

Oh, I forgot to lend support here.
Celtos don\'t suck. Many of the figures are really nice. And Celtos are not Celtic warriors, but the pre-celtic warring tribes of Celtic myth so they get some slack.
What do suck are their weapons. I\'m totally with you there. I like the spear woman, but that spear head could be used to forge an entire suit of armor. The thing must weigh 75 lbs.!
Now don\'t get me started on Confrontation! I know people like the Red Lioness, but she has what may be the dumbest sword in mini history.
Then there\'s that Feana, you know the one, the weight of the sword seems to have pulled her shoulder out of socket.
I plan on taking part in the mini contest coming up, but the weapons on the sculpts are a definite disappointment IMHO.

rant rant rant rant rant..........

 

[Bent Brush]

Deal With It

:flame:Not Directed ant any one in particular.:flame:

I have been posting to this site for a very long time now. I have been voting for even longer.

I remember orkcollector and the abuse he heaped on tons of people, myself included.

And this topic has been BEATEN TO DEATH in other postings.

Deal with it, cause griping about how someone elses \"unworthy Mini\" is doing better than yours is useless.

No one realy cares and even if they did go back and look at your stuff chances are they would give you the same rating again.

 

[Badaab]

BLEH...

Um, about my Dwarven warriors comment...
A.) it was an example...
B.) the whole unit can be illustrated through the veiwing of one standard trooper and the command section... I don\'t want to see 22 identically painted miniatures posted in individual pics.
How would you guys like it if I posted my entire Space Marine army in individual pics? I think you all would get sick of seeing Tactical Marines... after all, I\'ve got about 60 of them.
lol

Joe