TWINCG - Mantic Games: Defender of Decency!

Yet another week has gone past, so it’s now time for yet another This Week In Non-Competitive Gaming!
Though it is more This Week In Competitive Capitalism, Or Lack There Of.
Recently, after my daily trolling over on BOLS, I have found myself infuriated by the comments on Mantic’s new game Warpath.

The main criticisms of the game are that Mantic are just ripping off GW’s ideas. The ignorance of this statement, while versed in some from of truth, is quite annoying to me. Firstly, GW are not the sole owners of the Fantasy in Space setting, which was built upon the Fantasy setting, which was built upon the Middle-Earth setting and so on so forth.
There are no entirely original ideas these days, ok? I wish people would accept that. Scriptwriters and authors claim that there is only 5 storyline themes, with each, so called, new idea being just a variation upon these initial ideals.

Lets have a look at some comparisons between Mantic’s Warpath concept art and GW’s actual models

Orx Marauder, from Mantic

GW’s Typical Ork

The similarities here, while somewhat obvious, only play a minimal role between the art, with radical differences being observable.
Firstly, the gun is more vicious and deadly than GW’s sluggas.
Secondly, the armour is far more minimalist in GW’s Orks than those from Mantic.
The proportions of head, body, arms, teeth and hands appear more balanced.
I could go on further, but honestly cannot be bothered to rant anymore…. Apparently some people don’t like reading my rages for 58 pages, who knew?

So for those who TL;DR
Yes, Mantic has done Fantasy in space
No, they have not done a blatant copy of GW’s range
Yes, there are similarities, being Mantic’s niche in the market. Most people I know bought the models as a far cheaper alternative to GW, with no real interest in the game. After a few months we played some KoW and loved it. Too put a long story short, people buy their products primarily as an alternative, so it makes sense to include this similarities.

So, as a final point, everyone hates GW’s business model. Just take a glance at any large, online 40k community and try not to find over 9000 examples of such rages. Mantic has a much better one in my opinion, with their game being open to changes based on criticism and being very in touch with their fan base.
If you want to have a discussion with the higher ups, help them out or rage at them, it is all easy to do, and they are open to external help. As proof of this currently I am drowning in code, creating a list builder for their armies in KoW, something I am happy to do for such a company and they seem happy to receive.
Everyone has rages at GW’s price hikes, and then rages at Mantic, who are providing a far cheaper alternative for said models, yet they rage none the less!
Hypocrisy of the internet never ceases to amaze me, and trust me, I have seen terrible, terrible things…. 4chan for example

And so ended yet another This Week In Non Competitive Gaming Article…
Thoughts, criticisms, unfathomable rage?

Posted in: This Week in Non-Competive Gaming