This is just an assumption, but i think GW's bound to 'stop' people from playing LotR and make them 'hungry for some White Dwarf love' since The Hobbit's out in less than a year. Come October the WD will end up being a Hobbit CatalogueOriginally Posted by notquiteallhere
(Not that I mind, i'm already planning on buying some of the model sets for the fun of it
)
I do subscribe to white dwarf but more and more i find myself reading the `standard bearer` and thats about it. The masterclass series should be a regular feature and then do alternative months at differing levels of difficulty to compliment the mastercalss. Also dok butcha should have a regular minimum of two pages you see some excellent stuff on there and only a few lines explaining it all. I dont play, just collect and paint but still used to enjoy reading the batreps but recently you would know who wins before they played, depends on whats new. The new armies shouldnt always win wheres the `dice factor` in that! Another thing not enough terrain projects everyone likes nice looking terrain without spending a fortune on the GW stock. considering it is a collecting, modelling and painting hobby there is not enough empaphis on the latter two aspects. GW needs to stop ramming advertising on every other page down our throats and cater for the experienced hobbyist a little more. Bring back a tale of four gamers but give them enough space to actually make a contribution not just tell us how much everything costs.
To be fair, Necrons and Vampire Counts both lost recently.
I made a Genestealer Cult! --- 2nd edition Tyranid army!
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I'm an old time White Dwarf reader. The Dwarf hasn't been right since about Issue 120. Actually, anything past 100 got a little bit off by my criteria. However, that's more to do with the fact that I role-play more than I wargame these days. Old Dwarf did have a good range of articles and those rarely stretched beyond four or six pages. Most actually covered two or three and you good a solid range of game systems. I have seen some really disturbing Dwarf issues in the last decade that have been little more than adverts. I dislike endless battle reports, unless they're backed up by some seriously engaging and interesting articles. I want to see new content, variant rules, tactics, etc. I love a good guide to special miniature painting techniques, too.
I think for the price that it is, it should include something that adds to the game exclusively that WD purchasers can get.
I've never purchased an issue. If there was something which looked like it had potential I could go to a store and just browse through most of what I need in a few minutes with the rest just being garbage. Realistically the majority of what they provide can be found on the internet for free. Batreps that aren't used to show how uber this new units which you have to get is are found online. New model pictures are found online often even before it is in WD. How to paint online is 1000x better places to see how to paint with actual techniques rather than, step 1: base, step 2: color, step 3: color 2, step 4: pro level paint job picture. Sneak peaks or new releases I find from the awesome people here within the day.
The only reason I'd buy it is if there are rules which can be used or adds value rather than charging for what should be free whether it is the stuff mentioned above or just simple marketing. Chapter approved is a bit much considering the imbalance and horribly tested rules even for codexes so monthly magazine amendments or new units would be horrible. However, something like a wargear/item punch out card 1 for each system of 40k, WHFB, LOTR would be amazing. While it can be easily found online as well, just make it worth your while to get it like having a tiny hologram on the card to make it official so you'd have to bring it with you if you wanted to use it in a tournament.
I remember when I bought my first WHFB set I thought the cards for magic items like the biting blade & armor of meteoric iron were the coolest things in my mind since it sparked imagination and it made units feel special. The item cards don't have to be super powerful or game breaking, just something that adds some flavor that everyone can use, like 5 pts for grenades/equivalent that also adds +1 initiative for one model in your army for 1 turn; or 5 points for a 1 time curse that makes a weapon add +1 to combat resolution if you kill a model that turn. Especially making it a consumable or 1 time use would make it easier to track if you did have to card.
Give it a few sentences of fluff, throw on a hologram and I'm sold. With new editions coming out every couple years you'd only really get 30 or so common items having 1 WD per month and maybe even increase interaction and sales for having people trade cards or collect whole sets
Last edited by Sykorax; 01-03-2012 at 05:55.
I have many different bones to pick with White Dwarf. I would pick the whole skeleton if I could, which I can, so I will.
White Dwarf used to be the go to place for hobby articles, scenarios, interesting asides, cool campaign ideas, specialist games stuff and engaging, detailed battle reports. Now it is little more than a catalogue.
I don't want a catalogue. I especially don't want to pay for one month in and month out. You want me to peruse your new products, give it to me for free. Heck, you have a website for precisely this purpose. I'm happy with six pages of detail on the new releases, a nice painting article highlighting a new painting technique used on one of your new models and one good, detailed battle report with maps and strategies. Everything else should be how to make your own terrain (not just a push on the stuff you yourself sell), how to start a new army, some nice detailed campaign stuff, a couple of short stories maybe, some cool concept art and project articles (like tale of four gamers, studio guys home campaign diaries, conversion masterclasses, green stuffing techniques etc.)
Not only would White Dwarf sell better, but you'd be arming your readers with more hobby knowledge, thereby increasing their personal investment in your product.
When I see this happening, I'll buy White Dwarf again.
Finding it IMPOSSIBLE to get this issue in my town. Nowhere has it! Reading these comments maybe that's a good thing?!
I think GW have figured out a way to spend as little as possible making White Dwarf as they can these days, ie, they pad the magazine out with product shots and stretch everything else to cover as many pages as possible(turning the painting guides sideways just to use two pages instead of one comes to mind). As far as I can see, the latest issue has less than twenty pages of actual content, the rest's all adverts. Very poor...
Especially so due to the fact the magazine has now... what.. 120pages?
Member of J.A.D.E.DTrying to convince Warseer that GW are anything less than perfect is like trying to teach a horde of zombies that lettuce is a perfectly acceptable alternative to brains.
Lest we forget
You'd think that with everything that goes on at Games Workshop(tournaments, workshops, hobby camps, BL, FW/WF, WH, Warhammer World) they'd have so much more they could write about in White Dwarf. And then there's all their retail stores, filled with plenty of gamers and staff who all have something new and original to contribute to the hobby, how come GW can't find a way to include them in each issue?
Because they don't sell the current month's "secret" previewless new release sadly. Apparently having a million giant pictures does though...
Member of J.A.D.E.DTrying to convince Warseer that GW are anything less than perfect is like trying to teach a horde of zombies that lettuce is a perfectly acceptable alternative to brains.
Lest we forget
I stopped buying White Dwarf years ago, probably around the time Chapter Approved was removed. I didn't see any point in buying a magazine that did not give me interesting rules and fluff to augment what I already had. Cool conversions and tales of 4 gamers, Index Astartes, amusing articles about playing in the shed, etc were all becoming rare or non existant. I think LotR was taking up half the magazine (upsidedown) at that time too.
All in all I decided I was getting most of what I was missing for free on the internet anyway so I stopped.
Every month I hear how it has gotten worse, or has remained terrible. I made an exception to buy the WD Blood Angels rules, even though I wouldn't be using them. It was nice to see rules in WD again.
I didn't make the same mistake for the SoB codex or the recent fliers.
I doubt it will ever become a good mag again and I really cannot understand why anyone still buys it.
Can someone tell me?
There are 120 pages in the white dwarf, the first 6 are dedicated to showing off the new flyers and orks. Understandable, cool, I gotcha. No problems with that. Next page Editorial. No problems.
Pages 7-24 are all advertisement for the flyers. I mean really? Is that needed? You can't go a page without it boldly stating "on sale" or "advanced order from blah blah blah" I basically paid for an advertisement.
24-27 how to paint stormtalon. fine. But let's not forget it opens with a "veteran painter" needing to use the how to paint Citadel Miniatures guide in order to select paints. Must be a real veteran let me tell you. Blatant attempt to promote a product.
28 BUY OUR PAINTS!
30-39 an extremely lame attempt for a narrative battle report? Really didn't do jack crap for me considering it wasn't a battle report 1 and 2 on the last page of the magazine it advertises for the same damn thing next month. Don't believe me? Look for yourself. What should we interpret from this? We really didn't have anything to say this month because GW won't let us. So we will actually do a battle report next month for 6th edition.
40-45 just when you thought this section couldn't get any dumber, they lay out the armies and attempt to dress it up like there is something to actually talk about here. I love how they attempt to show how cool their Khan model is... even though it is the silly looking Assault on Black Reach one (more on that later).
46-47 Scramble mission objective. Would be ok except for (once again) ludicrously stupid product placement in the Deployment paragraph.
48 pictures of people playing a game.
49 grand opening advertisement.
50-51 advertisement for other flyers.
52-62 painting guides with a check list at the end, reminding you of everything you need to buy.
AND THEN I SAW IT.
63 Assault on Black Reach Advertisement. I mean really? Who the hell decided to do this. If there was never a more diabolical, money grabbing scheme ever attached by GW this is it. Who in their right mind advertises a start box whose rulebook is going to be obsolete in their month? Do you know how pissed I would be if I bought this box, only to find out a new box was coming and that fancy rulebook I paid for is now pointless? Its extremely upsetting GW doesn't treat their costumers, especially newer ones, without respect. Disgraceful.
64-65 Jervis is just a ray of sunshine isn't he?
66-73 Finally the important pages with rules on them. Finally got to them HALF WAY through the book. Most people already knew the rules because they were online.
74-77 Pictures of stuff to buy
78-79 advertisement
80-81 armies on parade
82-87 advertisement
88-89 pictures
90 painting guide
94-97 advertisement
98-99 Golden Demon
100-105 advertisement
106-107 events
108-111 games day advertisement
112-117 events diary
118-119 store finder
120 advertisement.
Because I have every issue between 37 and 390, and with just 36 more successful eBay auctions I'll have the complete set... my OCD won't let me stop buying it.
Because I have an emotional attachment to how good it used to be.
Yeah, that's it. Not very good reasons to be honest, but at £3 a month on Direct Debit, it doesn't make a lot of difference. Understand, I don't mean to say it's good value for that £3; it's not, it's a ripoff, I feel insulted that I'm paying for this tripe. But, £3 a month versus breaking my complete collection is something I'm still - grudgingly - prepared to pay.
My other half got me a subscription for Christmas and I didn't have the heart to tell her it was a waste of money. So now every month I have to read it and pretend it's awesome. I think that may be why I've started running it down so much on here.
"Damn you White Dwarf - you should have been a battleforce!"
How do they have the cheek to call these painting guides? It's the same technique in each one, just the model and colours change...
I wish we got a scenario every issue, or at least some kind of new rules to play around with...
I don't mind that once every month, in fact I think it's important for beginners to see that fairly straightforward techniques can produce quite reasonable looking results. Any given issue of WD will be somebody's first issue, and they should always be able to learn the basics from a painting guide that gets them started in a simple, clearly-presented way.
It's just when there are four painting guides in an issue, and they're all like that, with no more advanced techniques, no mention of conversions, and no Masterclasses to give the more experienced painters something to aspire to... that's when it goes horribly, horribly wrong, in my opinion, because suddenly WD is only for the brand-new hobbyist, and what are the rest of us supposed to do with our subscription copies?
(Occasionally someone will claim that Masterclasses are bad because they put off new painters who simply won't be able to paint that well yet, and get disillusioned. That might certainly be the case if, again, Masterclasses were the only painting guides in the magazine; but if you've got a mixture of standards - beginner / intermediate / advanced - catered for, there's absolutely no reason why that should be the case. As things stand currently, they show people how to get their first models on the table, and they show Golden Demon winners occasionally, with absolutely no clue whatsoever how to get from one to the other, or even just a little bit further along the path. That's tragic IMO).
...but these aren't even painting guides, they're just a list of paints they're telling you to buy.
This is an old argument. I wonder how some critics of intermediate and advanced articles want people to learn more advanced skills? Do they assume that every modeller is a minor who cannot get a competent adult to assist? People do not need to learn how to paint any more freaking Ultramarines...
For learning, scale model magazines and related forums (note: take a close look at Forge World's tutorials and writeups and you will see that scale modelling is where the majority of their techniques are derived from) are probably the best resources for learning the general skills needed for painting miniatures and terrain. They do not shy from encouraging people to learn and to stretch during the process.
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