White Dwarf Feedback Over Time

[Skaven13]

I do miss the older issues. Everyone mentions Fat Bloke and how the magazine was great back then. To be honest, I also miss the
Jake Thorton(sp?) and Robin Dews days as well.
I'm constantly going back to my older issues to flip through them for ideas and whatnot. I can't seem to do so with the newer ones. Some things:
I cannot STAND the new Battle Report formats.
I HATE the stupid mock interviews with developers when a new product comes out. Interviewer: "Really? All High Elves strike first now? I didn't know that!!!" Well...uh, Warseer did for months...and YOU work there? Hm. I actually prefer the old style that just had the developer write up what he did, how and why he did it, and the obligatory "Conclusions" section that would start out with something like "All in all, I'm pleased with how Doom of the Eldar turned out".
Fluff is all but GONE pretty much. Someone mentioned the Codex Astartes articles and stuff like that. It seems to have been replaced with more advertisements.
Taking Golden Deamon, Games Day, and GT coverages out nearly altogether was one of the most IDIOTIC moves GW could do. That alone was one reason a lot of people bought the magazine in the first place.
You know, with the price rise, combined with the constant lack of material in comparison to the older issues, I am starting to get onboard with what Crazy Harborc said in his post. This really does sound like an attempt to phase WD out completely and put everything online.

[Crazy Harborc]

For myself.....an $8 per issue magazine should have first class quality paper that is NOT just thicker (as WD has done in the USA recently/last year) to give an illusion of more pages when the thicker paper means less pages, less words and less photos.

$70(USA) to renew a subscription for 12 issues??? $80 for a new subscriber and or $96 total a year to by them one at a time!! NOT gonna be happenin around here anytime soon......or later either!!

[self biased]

it's nine dollars an issue.

i'm with skaven13, as well. the golden daemon, the painting articles, and the short stories were why i bought the magazine. also seeing ian pitscock charge with his ratlings multiple times over the years.

i was appalled and astonished to see that the price had gone up as much as it had.

[Desert Rain]

I stopped buying White Dwarf at around issue 320 or something. The interesting and useful articles that were fun to read disappeared completely to be replaced by huge pictures of new minis with big BUY ME signs on them. I don't want to pay for a magazine that's made up of 80% ads for new products. If White Dwarf returns to the 'good old days' sometime in the future them I might start buying them again.

[Darth_Blade]

Yep, I miss the White Dwarf of old. I remember articles purely fluff based. For example, there was an article about the different tribes of marauders inhabiting the Chaos wastes. Then of course there were the famous Chapter Approved and Index Astartes articles- happy days! WD used to be a two way communication between hobbyists and GW. We tried out rules in WD, sent them feedback and helped in our own small way to improve the games. For me it all went pear-shaped with WD 'BUY THE GIANT IT GREAT' 316, where they turned it into a massive pimpathon for miniatures and nothing else.

Since then, I think they've realised (to a small extent) the heinous crime they perpetrated and the magazine has swung back a TINY amount towards hobbyists (getting rid of Grom-pimp-all as 'editor' was a good start and the greater amount of gamers and hobbyist articles is an improvement). But it still has a long way to go before it gets back to its glory days (largely IMHO under Paul Sawyer) and personally I don't think it ever will because I'm not convinced GW want it to be that way.

[Lord of Worms]

I stopped buying White Dwarf at around issue 320 or something. The interesting and useful articles that were fun to read disappeared completely to be replaced by huge pictures of new minis with big BUY ME signs on them. I don't want to pay for a magazine that's made up of 80% ads for new products.

Interestingly enough, in the anniversary edition they published a few months/years back, they actually bragged in the timeline of WD about the "new format" they started after issue 314, which is the LAST issue I would have given a seven or higher. When we had local content like the little eight page o 'zine the GW Canada guys put out it was ok. Sort of like a consolation prize, but now it just blows. The only thing I even tolerate is the occaisonal Standard Bearer article, and the schematics of new sprues. WD used to be essential for anyone who played even one of the games GW produced, now it is essentialyy useless. In every way.

If they want an advertisement, they can make their website work properly! Charging us to look at ads telling us to buy stuff is going too far.

[Templar Ben]

It has been a little while. Here is an update with the new polls. There was not a poll for the January issue that I can find.

[mrtn]

Interesting statistics Templar Ben, but what is the Issue inbetween 339 and 340?

[Templar Ben]

It was the way Excel popped it out.

[Marneus_Calgar81]

I used to regularly buy WD. I stopped a while ago now, and when I look at the store copy I want to spit. No content, just pictures and pictures. I want the old WD, Issue 282 bought aged 10. The single greatest issue I have ever seen or read.

If I want adverts, I'll go onto the new website. If I want content, I'll read my old WD from years past. I'm being priced out of this hobby anyways- even though I'm only 16 I'd consider myself a veteran, by dint of the money I've spent and time invested at the store. I used to look forwards to WD being released, now I couldn't care. I just read the Forge World catalogue, but the latest one hasn't arrived yet -.-

Well, in Spain we are by issue number #171, August will be issue #172, and we have the same problem as you: here it costs about 7 €, with 2 more € you can buy here a blister of any 40K miniature (of the cheapest, of course), and the queality of the magazine has deeply fallen from a good one, with news, interesting pieces about painting, modelling, etc, to a worst one: many pics, every month speaks mostly of the news of that month, in the Battle Report always and suspectally wins the new army of the month... And there´s little more.

[JeffJedi]

Has anyone noticed they don't put prices in the new releases section anymore?

[Skraal2099]

So that people are more likely to rush to the store to buy them without thinking about the price. Once they are there and find out the price, they will buy it anyway because they took all the trouble to go there.

[Crazy Harborc]

Nope, if I can't find out the price without going into a store....it costs too much....period. I really doubt that many, if any grandparents are throwing money around these days. Heck, I doubt many parents, uncles and aunts are doing so either.

It has little to do with GW. A rule of thumb learned long ago....If a price is kept secret....it's too high.

[Angelwing]

It has little to do with GW. A rule of thumb learned long ago....If a price is kept secret....it's too high.

I think thats related to shops that stock very expensive products, but don't have any price tickets: 'If you have to ask the price you cannot afford it'

[guillaume]

I am wondering something:

Here we are debating ad nauseaum the past, present and future of the WD magazine, with polls and graphs in hand.

Do the overlords in Notthingham not also have those sales graphs? what do theirs say? could it be that our perception of the WD magazine is a skewed one?

Could it be that there are so many short term new players buying into the hobby that sales of WD are up?

I am asking, because it seems obvious to us mere mortals with our excel and warseer poll that quality is going down and from people's opinion that sales are down.

Why isn't it obvious to GW, or is that WD is in fact doing very well than you very much!

[mbh1127]

Yep, I miss the White Dwarf of old. I remember articles purely fluff based. For example, there was an article about the different tribes of marauders inhabiting the Chaos wastes. Then of course there were the famous Chapter Approved and Index Astartes articles- happy days! WD used to be a two way communication between hobbyists and GW. We tried out rules in WD, sent them feedback and helped in our own small way to improve the games. For me it all went pear-shaped with WD 'BUY THE GIANT IT GREAT' 316, where they turned it into a massive pimpathon for miniatures and nothing else.

Me too.

I used to subscribe to the magazine but when they sent me the issue with the giant in the mail I called the GW customer service line the same day. I can't really remember the details of the call but I told the guy how disgusted I felt with the new format and that I would be letting my sub run out without renewing it. I remember that he said he was sorry to hear that but basically he didn't care at all.

I hate that I was a subscriber for about two years before that issue. When I look back at some of those magazines, they were not very good. I wish I had bought the older issues when I had a chance back in the day.


Last week I did take a look at one of the new issues and I do have to say that it seems to be getting better.

[Crazy Harborc]

I dropped my subscription about 2000 due to being fed up with seeing the WD on the indie store rack 2 to 5 days BEFORE I got it at home. They mailed the subscribers copies out when they shipped copies to the stores.

I started up again when the GW stores started the pick up a copy at subscribers reduced rates at the store....BEFORE it was sold on the store's rack. THAT only happened for the first few months. That ended when the store closed.

A longtime opponent has a subscription expiring very soon. He has gone into shock...."$9 a copy!!" $75-(80) a YEAR to subscribe(his words)!!

It's alllll part of GW store restructuring plan.

[Dexter099]

If I want a catalog, then I'll buy one. And that's all that WD really is anymore.

[Elanthanis]

I used to defend it- heck I was one of the optimists in the polls stating that I thought the content was acceptable. I took the $60 two year subscription deal almost two years ago- even got some "free" models out of the deal.

The content isn't good enough to keep even that price up let alone what they're charging now. I really WANT to support them, but they sure aren't making it easy.

[akinokurisu]

It's pretty simple for me. There is no more content in WD than there is on GW's webpage. Why sink the cash?