I was looking at old codices and such and saw pictures of people next to armies. I think GW should go back to the fan-player models showing up in places like white dwarf and codices again...

Thoughts?

I would buy it if they added some content.

Meh. Magazine is for the newer player, I get all my kicks and stuff online.

So no need to change it at all really.

You know, I really don't have a great opinion of White Dwarf, but the last one with three IG batreps was kinda nice. I actually read the hell out of that one, as it showed some of the New Hotness in action, and gave tenative, unofficial, and prehaps wrong answers to how some of the new stuff works rules-wise. For that, I thought it was a HUGE step up, but comparing it to previous issues and looking at improvement isn't setting the bar very high is it?

They could turn the clock back around 15 years and go back to what they were doing then (this would have the added advantage - for me - of not having to flick past the lotr stuff).

It's so damn expensive for what you get, in the UK at least

Have something else other than "THESE ARE NEW MODELS BUY BUY BUY BUY BUY BLAAAAARGH!"

Seriously, they have the same models showing up in 3 consecutive months' WD! As much as I thought the Stompas are awesome, I didn't need to see the same GW staff painted models over and over again... Put in some crazy fan made content. Have interviews with tourney players. How about some Warhammer Cartoons? Or some inworld fiction?

[/rant]

If they control their upcomming release from being leaked months before (advanced order) Im sure people will actually care about it when they see it in the magazine.

1. Lower the price. For that kind of money I can buy a paperback novel by a reputable author.
2. Add content. I used to love the WD when I got into the game back in 2005 (yes, I'm still new at this) because I could look at the pictures and get all kinds of great ideas. Plus it had Battlefleet Gothic and other specialist games in there. More variety!
3. Stop being a shill catalog. Now before I get flamed, I do understand GW has to make money. But I believe that as the consumer I get to decide if I plunk down my hard earned cash whether or not it's worth it. I don't like paying for advertisements. I definitely don't like paying for weak and very watered down articles of how to paint using "GW's new fill-in-the-blank product." More ads should mean the magazine costs less. Would it hurt them to sell ad space to lower the price of the mag and increase readership?

My .02.

Lower the price (I've resolved to never buy a $9 WD)

Add some actual content (hobby tips beyond how great their [shi$] tools are)

Fan armies/submissions

NO LORD OF THE RINGS!!!!!!!!! Seriously who plays this? Is it enough to justify 1/3 of the WD? "Oh wow yet another Aragorn model! Wooooo..."

I am not opposed to the ads, they gotta sell it, but I hate the 3-page spreads of old stuff like Necrons with nothing relevant or new in it. Makes no sense and is insulting. "Oooooh look, the same old stuff. I gotta buy some!!!"

Problem with selling the adds is they sell the space to themselves - doesn't help with the cost. I do agree with you though!

I think the answer has been covered. Less new stuff and more fan stuff. I used to love the older issues when there were articles on readers armies and great conversions. I liked the recent article on the shadow sword with the unlucky gun or whatever it was, and the may issue has a couple of interesting pictures, e.g. the Mech Baneblade and the jungle temple, but they're just pictures, I want to know more than that, I want a modelling article! Same with the new sprue pictures, it's nice to know what you get but that's what the box is for. I'd rather be shown a few ideas and conversion ispired by the bits, like they did with the space marines when the plastic multipart frames were released in 3rd. Some of those were pretty clever and made you want to get involved and make it your own rather than jumping on the band wagon.

And yes it is a bandwagon, guess what I popped in to GW this weekend and hardly saw power armour (JUST TWO PLAYERS USING MARINES!!!! shock horror). What did everyone else have? IG. and bog standard ones at that, nothing inspiring. And what were the staff talking about? Selling you tanks (they have no troops, surprise surprise - off the shelves for a repack?)

And yes I do know they have to make money - surely there's better ways to sell stuff AND keep us online grumpy folks happy

Elric of Grans wrote:I would buy it if they added some content.

Seconded...

Everytime I have read WD, I feel like I'm having the latest trend shoved down my throat. What I'd personally like to see is more things from the consumers. Models they've made, tactica's, army lists, batlle reports (not the, we have just released marines so marines are uber, battle reports)

Until they improve, I'll not be buying White Dwarf

The problem is most of their "news" isn't news at all. Just look at the "lastest" from Forge World that they showcaser each month. The May issue is showcasing Inquisitor Hector Rex and retinue.

They used to preview stuff still ages away with little teasers and WIP shots. Remember the preview of the plastic terminators or the chaos marauders? The current trend in previews is two months before their release, which really doesn't help a lot to build hype and make people go apeshit.

edit.

Oh and scrap the column of Jervis, all he does is masturbate to his own greatness and what HE did for the hobby.

Elric of Grans wrote:I would buy it if they added some content.

QFT

@BrookM, lol, very true. I always suprisingly seem to skip his babbling, I think there are a lot more people on Dakka who know more than him.

Maybe we should try and buy the rights to White Dwarf? (White Dakka)

They need to give out free stuff With all the price hikes on everything, a special order mini a couple times a year would probably do the trick for the people on the fence.

The main problem is that White Dwarf is an Obsolete concept, that of printing on paper (i mean, look at how newspapers are doing).

In this day and age, there is no need to buy a White Dwarf for "news" and "Tactics" because you can get everything and more for free on-line.

Maxstreel wrote:
3. Stop being a shill catalog. Now before I get flamed, I do understand GW has to make money. But I believe that as the consumer I get to decide if I plunk down my hard earned cash whether or not it's worth it. I don't like paying for advertisements. I definitely don't like paying for weak and very watered down articles of how to paint using "GW's new fill-in-the-blank product." More ads should mean the magazine costs less. Would it hurt them to sell ad space to lower the price of the mag and increase readership?

Nurgleboy77 wrote:
NO LORD OF THE RINGS!!!!!!!!! Seriously who plays this? Is it enough to justify 1/3 of the WD? "Oh wow yet another Aragorn model! Wooooo..."

BrookM wrote:T
Oh and scrap the column of Jervis, all he does is masturbate to his own greatness and what HE did for the hobby.

gremmie0 wrote:They need to give out free stuff With all the price hikes on everything, a special order mini a couple times a year would probably do the trick for the people on the fence.

QFT!!!!

I hafta agree with anyone that says "add content". I quit subscribeing, now I pick one up if it has something in it of interest to me. That happens maybe 2-3 times a year now. I could stand to see a lot less LoTR stuff, maybe more useable stuff, like mini codexes, chapter approved rules suplements, and articles about scratchbuilding, converting and painting. The "Standard bearer" articles are a complete waste, Jervis talks about the hobby as if he had invented Rock'n'Roll, or something. It's a cool game, and a fun hobby, but it dosn't define my life or anything. I could also do without the "Citadel hall of fame", as I feel it is a shameless pitch for models that are about to go obsolete.

They should do more articles on the people that work there. I found the article on the Perry twins a while ago a fine read, as it was something other than just fun and games.

I'd like to give examples of what content I'd like to see, every month:

1) A comic page. There are at least three 40k-related webcomics out there. I remember, back in the day, that Wormy, and Phil&Dixie were in the back of Dragon magazine, and the ongoing stories were fun. Add a little humour to the magazine.

2) A short story. 2-3 pages, they have a ton of black library writers, surely someone can come up with a few thousand words once a month. Maybe serialized...

3) New rules. Make me excited to buy something. Ok, so it's only going to be datasheets (or the fantasy/LotR equivalent), but have it be something. Make me want to convert something.

4) Actual commentary from the designers about why they did things. Not just what they did, but why. Why did the guard need orders instead of a leadership bubble. I'm smart enough to figure out that they got orders from reading the codex, telling me that doesn't do much for me. Tell me why you removed things as well, not just what you added.

5) Battle reports that aren't necessarily the new army of the month. I've seen a few of these in the past.

6) Real tactics articles. They've tried some of these in the past too, and they've always been good reads.

7) More masterclass painting articles. One a month, every month. And, while you're at that, masterclass conversion articles too.

I LOVE the Citadel Hall of Fame segment.
I enjoy most of the battle reports.
Campaign rules/ideas/reports are a definite way forward.

Jervis ought to have a smaller column, and get a few others with opposing viewpoints so it is a genuine open forum.
Extra rules/data cards etc are interesting when they apply to you, but not when you don't, so it needs to be carefull.

I can get painting advice better online.
I can get tactics advice better online.

I haven't enjoyed the last few battle reports. The 40k reports have gone to a rushed format that doesn't show what has happend each turn. Instead, they broadly show what happens over 2-3 turns.

I also would like to see some tactica articles. The perfect place to insert this would be in place of Jervis's rant columns. Jervis's column should be called 'alienating gamers' and not the 'standard bearer'.

I also really like the masterclass painting articles, but when I saw it was another chaos model, I couldnt help but think.... Seriously? Again?

I would also be more prone to continue reading WD if the codex designers knew the rules of the game, or maybe addressed problems or inconsistencies. In the latest WD alone, Robin states that a squad of guardsmen can throw down 30 shots with the order first rank fire, second rank. This is an impossibility b/c sergeants cannot have lasguns. They also show the valkyrie landed in over 50% of the pictures in the battle reports and the rulebook states that skimmers must stay on their flight stand unless imobilized. This just makes me more confused on the already ambiguos rules surrounding the valkyrie/vendetta.

If they need to clarify a rule in WD, then do it.

Full blown tournament-usable Rules previews/mini-books dex's.

DE haven't had a list in years? Give us new rules to use models with if it's going to be another 2 years (on top of the 8-10 it's been already).

Put it up on the web 2-3 months after the issue is out.

That's pretty much the only thing you could do to get me to blow $8 on an otherwise worthless magazine.

The web gives me every other kind of content they could offer for free, and at a higher quality.

Maxstreel wrote:
3. Stop being a shill catalog. Now before I get flamed, I do understand GW has to make money. But I believe that as the consumer I get to decide if I plunk down my hard earned cash whether or not it's worth it. I don't like paying for advertisements. I definitely don't like paying for weak and very watered down articles of how to paint using "GW's new fill-in-the-blank product." More ads should mean the magazine costs less. Would it hurt them to sell ad space to lower the price of the mag and increase readership?

Why would you get flamed? Thats been one of the biggest complaint of WD for years now. Little content, one big catalog magazine. Even the battle reports are more pictures than actually whats going on.

More content, less shill.

Less lotr, more room for specialist games. I'd love to see more battle reports in it and tips/tricks sections for converting and painting getting more room. Some comics relating to either fantasy or 40k would also be very welcome.

Sounds like there are a lot of ideas on how they can improve the magazine! Keep them coming guys!

1. Drop price by half.
2. Include more profiles from tournaments and painting comps
3. generate more content, including reader submitted content (scenarios, map campaigns, army profiles, tactica, scenery building, optional rules for campaigns etc.)
4. Show some love to the Specialist games, WHFRPG and Dark Heresy, including how you can overlap/tie in games (e.g. your Dark Heresy characters in 40k or how your 40k map based campaign can influence your RPG experience, etc.)
5. Have an online version, with some content available to anyone, but double secret content available to subscribers.
6. FAQs and Rules Clarifications.

Basically, all the things we used to expect from Dragon/Dungeon magazine, still expect from No Quarter, and used to get (in drips and drabs) from both White Dwarf and Citadel magazines.

hellsguardian316 wrote:Maybe we should try and buy the rights to White Dwarf? (White Dakka)

I laughed out loud GW should really consider this!

Or more practically speaking- have a reader-generated content section! They could request people to submit pics of non-GW staff stuff, or even just put out an invitation (in general or to select people) to write articles with or without pics. This would be awesome, and mostly free for them, since getting published would be worth it for whoever contributed. All they'd have to do is pay an editor

Well, I think it's an awesome idea... which means they probably won't do it

LunaHound wrote:If they control their upcomming release from being leaked months before (advanced order) Im sure people will actually care about it when they see it in the magazine.

If they showed their upcoming releases - i.e. in green form prior to them being leaked, I'm sure it might be interesting.

i would be stoked if anyone from GW that had any pull actually read this thread, or let us know that GW realtes to the gaming community in any other way besides wanting our money.

I'd read it more maybe if they included content that dealt with some hot models... not miniatures but human female models like you see in Redline or Import Tuner...

I will buy it when it becomes a magazine again, and not an advertisement.

I will buy it when it becomes a magazine again, and not an advertisement.

Truth. While unpacking in my new house, I found some older issues. All unpacking progress halted, to the chagrin of my better half. These old issues are amazing! I want to scan some pages in and do a Kid Kyoto style retro review. Early 200's issues. March 1997, when Lizardmen hit the scene. Articles on Collecting lizardmen, painting different skin types, unit selection, the heinous Slann model and temple guard, and that's just 20 or so pages in. There's a collection of staff IG armies, featuring the armies, conversions, and the owners themselves. There's a multi page spread on the sprawling and beautiful Games Day display (Antioch planes or somesuch, massive Lizardmen vs. Brettonian display, supporting the recent WHFB edition) There's a multiple page article on rules lawyering, featurettes on skaven models and units, a sweet WHFB battle report (one not specifically featuring a victory by the current months new release) and several pictures of actual people playing actual games in actual stores.

I loved the hobby magazine. If it ever returns to that, I'll buy it. Right now, it's merely an overpriced monthly catalog.

I think we should go back to issue 50 when they had Call of Cthulhu adventures in it.

I must say that the May US version wasn't all that bad. The price was a bit steep, but they had a triple IG battle report with a nice character driven back ground. They had some okay modelling articles, but the NMM bit seems interesting and I will be checking that out when I get some time. The LotR stuff meant nothing to me as I don't play the game, but it seemed like some interesting tactic stuff for WotR. And they had rules for some of the new models to use in the strategy battle game.

I don't think I'd suscribe to WD, but I pick them up when I see something interesting and it seems a bit stronger than it had recently.

New battle reports are AWFUL. Remember the old ones from around the 150s to 180s? Maps of each player's turn, photos in-game, and a description of exactly what happened each turn, in narrative form (!!), plus the page long articles about choosing their army.

MUCH better than the current, rushed photoshoot they call a batrep...

I've just been reading the May battle reports, comments;
+ interestng character driven scenario (I actually want a go at it!)
+ 3 reports (although short they still give a good flavour for the games

- what if you don't have the models? Older battle reports (and many lotrs ones) give alternate forces.......
- should include a short (1-2 pages) on building the terrain - I'm quite interested in using the 40K ruins in new ways, the temple looks great but there's only a few photos to go on, a couple of wip shots and again alternate ideas would be good.

as far as the standard bearer goes, I actually liked mays (although it looks quite dull), good to have the extra boxes of related info around. Why can't more be like this instead of as was said earlier 'Jervis masturbating'. And cut some of the bablle - Jervis you say in the article you've gone OT and babbled - STOP IT its a waste of space and MY MONEY!

And yes again MORE READERS ARMIES!!!!

Teek - I've got those issues, they're great! The guard army with the storong highlighting and 'bright' colours in particular is a favourite of mine. I think it's got a converted Nork covered with small armour plates?

I keep finding old WDs in my local Half Price Books and they're awesome. I can see the love of the game that the writers had and the crazy artwork. It's like it was the "Golden Age of GW Articles". The models didn't look as great as these new CAD designed plastics but at least the articles didn't suck.

Now not too far back we had issue 300, which in itself may have been close to being worth $9 due to the amount of content. Plus the "movie marines rules" were a lot of fun. All I can do is scratch my head and say "what happened and why is this so damn expensive?"

What I had suggested about more ads was more from other companies. Sell some ad space to someone other than themselves and not only do they get revenue fo selling the mag but straight up cash money from the advertiser.

I agree that WD used to be better, hell in 1999 it was a damn sight better than it is now, all they seem to do is advertise, and what they can't fill with advertising they fill with LotR.

The balance HAS to be shifted, the last but one WD was about 70% LotR (i know it was the war of the ring release) but most issues are about 60% anyway. Personally I would like to see more painting/modelling articles (I have several old issues that I still revert to for tips from ~3 years ago), I also liked the fluff you used to get in there, stories and campaign descriptions (ogre kingdoms silk road campaign for example) and golden deamon coverage, something that has now been resigned to 1 page giving the 3 top winners.

but seriously, less LotR PLEASE!

I loved it 'back in the day'! New lists, new equipment, scenarios. Then they would through it all together and publish the Compendium, etc. They were still doing that sort of thing with the Chapter Approved books, if I recall correctly. Thats what I'd like to see again.

I have a huge collection of WD and I noticed in the back of some of the older ones (I don't remember which year though) that they offered free minis for ordering a subscription. Nowadays its just like thanks for the money.

2) A short story. 2-3 pages, they have a ton of black library writers, surely someone can come up with a few thousand words once a month. Maybe serialized...

There are so many Warhammer books, that they need not even have a short story, instead take a small sampling from a book (ie the first chapter) to incite people into reading. Honestly, thats how I found out about the Guants Ghost series.

Also, they need to bring back the Chapter Approved or at least the Founding Space Marine Chapters.

Well, thats my two cents on the matter.

Drop the price.

Make it fun. As others have said, add Apoc datasheets and stuff (I really liked the Ork Cityfight strategems from earlier this year). Angron was a nice addition, even if I thought he wasn't suitably powerful for a fallen primarch that slew a century of Grey Knight terminators. I think the biggest problem is it seems like the nutty, weird 'fun' stuff that we all nostalgically remember isn't there anymore.

I like the idea of having comics in it. Short stories would be nice - heck, publish the first three or five pages of a BL novel to wet my appetite and see if I want to buy it.

I'd like to see more conversion corner stuff, especially if they would offer the 'kit' at a discount through Direct Order for a limited time. Things like the Tycho Dread come to mine. Or a kitbash like Dave Taylor's Geswick (?) rifles, you can order a sprue of Brets and a sprue of IG for like 25% off. Put additional Razorback, Predator, Land Raider, etc. weapon configs and give you a way to order the extra weapons. Don't make a Razorback with MM or heavy flamer? Have a conversion from like the Immolator sprue, but you can order it with the Razorback for only $5.

I'm going to sound like a broken record, but:

1. More content
2. Less "advertising"
3. Cut price in half
4. Get rid of Jervis' article...4-5 pages of nothing...

I also would not mind the occasional "oversized" issue that costs what it does now if we actually got something usable in it...like a 10-20 page mini-update for an army or something like that.

I'd probably buy it now, even though it's a huge shameless advertisement, if it were about $3.

Start pimping some of their specialty games. Either start releasing new models for them or give good ideas on how to incorporate old models into their new games. They could just replace the LoTR content with info about other games every month.

The last time that I bought a white dwarf was when they shipped it out with the nob and the terminator. It was the first issue that I'd bought in years. A lot of other people seemed to have the same idea considering it was the first time that I saw an issue sell out at multiple stores in a long time. If they're going to charge as much as they're charging per issue they should ship some samples of upcoming products every month.

Either that or they could just cut the price in half.

Include cut-out rules fixes/clarification, so I can paste them in my codexi.

Alright, How about This:

1) Release of the Month- A good-sized section on what's new, including at least on Battle Rep, Designers notes, Stage-by-stage painting tips for that army, and a sample army list not used in the Battle rep, with notes on the thoughts that went into makeing it.

2) Chapter aproved/Liber Apocolyptica/Scenerio section- provideing new rules, Units, FAQ's or Scenarios.

3) Other Game: A small section devoted to whichever game system was not released this month, hopefuly devoted to armies that were not released last month.

4) Terrain/Conversion Clinic- 1-4 pages of detailed, step-by-step terrain building or conversion articles.

5) From the Fans: Articles submitted by fans may be shown here. Second Largest section.

6) Series Article: For things like the Tale of Four Gamers, Multi-part Tactica, etc.

7) Specialist Games- for Necromunda, Mordheim, Blood Bowl, LoTR.

8) Technical details: Advice on ordering, list of Stores, list of tournaments, etc.

I'd personally like to see interviews. Interviews with GD winners as well as interviews with tourney winners. Talking about painting or converting or army construction. I guess just a greater involvment with the community.

Also a painting/modelling portion that wasn't so focused on a game system as much as overall techniques, with examples of those techniques on a wide range of miniatures. Much of this could be community submitted or derived from the interviews.

Player army highlights would also tempt me to buy WD.

These things would appeal to me most, but I sure wouldn't mind seeing some of the old articles on SM chapters that don't have much documentation or craftworlds, and just a greater focus on the things that add detail and interest to armies.

Redbeard wrote:I'd like to give examples of what content I'd like to see, every month:

1) A comic page. There are at least three 40k-related webcomics out there. I remember, back in the day, that Wormy, and Phil&Dixie were in the back of Dragon magazine, and the ongoing stories were fun. Add a little humour to the magazine.

2) A short story. 2-3 pages, they have a ton of black library writers, surely someone can come up with a few thousand words once a month. Maybe serialized...

Heck, I would probably buy it just for the second point you mentioned.
Nowadays, I just pick one up whenever I come throught the train station, flip through it for a few minutes and decide its not worth a penny.

Edit: I have to add though, that this would only work if they publish the stories in english. Just seeing the translation of book titles is making me barf all over the damn store on a regular basis. Graue Ritter ... Horus: Aufstieg .... Schwarze Adepten ... yeah, nicely done fellas. So are we going to call Space Marines Weltraum Marineinfanterie as well? Idiots

Hmm. $9 for an issue, with nothing in it I really want. Or, put the money aside, take the $9 from next month, and I almost have enough to buy another 10 bloodletters. Option B please...

Of the things that have been mentioned so far, I disagree with having rules, datasheets, FAQ's etc in the magazine, unless they are immediately updated on the website as well (which would sort of kill the point of putting it in the magazine.) It's bad enough having to buy everyone else's codex and reading carefully through all their rules and rule exceptions to make sure TFG isn't pulling a fast one on you, to have someone pull out a copy of a magazine for a rule or FAQ that you don't have access to is a bit much.

hmmm I'd say if they gave away a couple of miniatures in every issue they'd sell mor and also if they featured more things done by the comunity instead of pages of promotionals and fake battle reports.

Does anyone have 1 or 2 old issues that are good they wouldn't mind sending me via mail or email. I'd love to basically do a study on what people want from the White Dwarf, and what they aren't getting.

If they do not know by now then it is likely that they will never know it is not very difficult


Give the reader what they want

OH SNAP! I went to work today at the bookstore and checked on the PC if the new WD had arrived (we're a bit slow here in SA)
There was nothing, so I asked the manager if there was a problem. He said no, we're not getting them in again because they don't sell...

>_<

My rat on a sticks worth...

Take what little content they have and use it to create a website similar to Black Gobbo, but little more like an online magazine. Use categories to organize articles so that people can navigate to the things they are interested in. Web traffic will show them what to concentrate their efforts on.

Release articles as they are finished without waiting for "Issues". Put teasers to new articles on the front page with a "Read More" link to the full article in the proper category. This will help keep traffic constant over time as readers will look for new articles periodically.

Best of all they eliminate the cost of publishing and distributing a magazine and can still get their advertisements in front of their audience.

Index something style articles. No need to be roid monkeys can be ig and even things that are directly war related. I want more fluff bout the imperium and xenos.. You can get everyting else online, rumours sneak peaks awesome modelling, tatics.. its all covered online.

I really miss the Index Astartes (sp?) and Index Xenos and such. That fluff was always fun to read.

I still read White Dwarf. I just don't buy it anymore.

frgsinwntr wrote:I was looking at old codices and such and saw pictures of people next to armies. I think GW should go back to the fan-player models showing up in places like white dwarf and codices again...

Thoughts?

Sell it in rolls? Make it squeezably soft?

Oh yeah... charge a reasonable price and actually make it worth reading?

White Dwarf in this day and age could stop publication and it wouldn't even turn a head.

Sack Jervis and print it in WD in a big 10-page photo extravaganza. That's content.

I'd buy that for a dollar!

The ork tactics article a few issues back was a perfect example of how lame wd has become. It gave a brief description of each unit and was beyond positive about each one. I understand you can't have an article in a gw publication rife with "these aren't worth taking, take these instead" sentiments but let the people writing it actually have opninions for or against using certain units. The article was like everyone's been saying, a thinly veiled add for ork gak.

I miss the days of chapter approved, there was an actual reason to buy it. I really miss the old very structured battle reports, now it's impossible to follow apoc games with a bazillion points worth of models in each picture.

H.B.M.C. wrote:Sack Jervis and print it in WD in a big 10-page photo extravaganza. That's content.

No, beat him up, film it, post it on Youtube, include a DVD of the footage along with an 'Up yours Jervis' T-Shirt in the magazine, proclaim Phil Kelly head of GW, then sack Jervis. Under the new regime, prices will go down, Dark Eldar and Necrons will get an update, Forgeworld will become competent, peace will come to the Middle East, China and North Korea will embrace democracy and freedom, corruption will be gone from the Church, World War III will be averted, humanity will enter a new age of enlightenment, and H.B.M.C and JohnHwangDD will become lovers.

Cheese now thats a load of bull if I ever saw it!

HBMC and HohnHwangDD will never become lovers.... yesh.

I'd still pay to see it.

You'd pay to see me and DD as lovers?

And you wonder why I don't talk to you often...

God, I remember just a few years ago getting the White Dwarf on its date of release and reading the whole thing, then re reading it over and over again for the duration of the month, when the new WD came out I would still have the month old one on my bedside table, now I'm lucky if the WD holds my attention for more than a couple of hours. I do have to say though that in April #352 the article on Major Korren had me re reading it for ages all because of one small thing. CHARACTER. I mean the little things like "The curse of gun four" or the story "The Battle of Anthrad Plain" just add so much to the hobby.

Character, in a setting as fascinating as WH40k's is almost hard NOT to create, yet somehow WD only manages to bring this great aspect of our hobby forward on rare occasions. *sigh*

I'm thinking along the lines of a lot more reader interraction.
Where is a proper letters page? Is there even one at all now?
Why not have reader created fiction related to the warhammer and 40k universe?
Competitions?
An inside look at what actually goes on @ 40K HQ?
All of this is not hard or expensive to put in, I'm sure they could fit in all their adverts around it lol

WD is just so boring in it's curent form and desperately needs to be shook up before it dies a slow and painful death.

Didn't they do a letter thing a long time ago and rather ironically dubbed it "fuel for the forges"

I have a subscription and i dont mind having it there to read, i spend awhile reading throught them, all of them. Yes they arnt as good, but sometime you find gems and you buy/keep them for that reason

This months WD was good/step up with 3 battle reports, however they need a consistant reporting format and to not skip bits of the report i want and sum it all up instead of making it action packed. They are also including letters/conversation from real people!! and it good to read.

Also to add more fluff addons, like conversion idea, unoffical rules. I remember back about a year and a half, were they had rules for movie space marines, each spaze costing around 250 or so and they kicked butt, they they were so much fun to play and i have made a modifacation to movie eldar and movie orks and it is so much fun. Thats a good WD if you can rember it after a year or 2 and use it.

Free-bees are ok but the mag is what i want.

I have a personal formula for WD average font size the lower this is the better. I stopped buying about WD 316 as the font had doubled and the content halfed in the space of one issue. Even recently when they redid the Tale of 4 Gamers they yanked the budget part out of it which I thought took out a lot of the fun. The Index Astartes was also awonderful series. A basic 1500pt battle report wouldn't go amiss either.

What about a Dragon-esque rules lawyer section that actually answers FAQs?

Cheese Elemental wrote:

H.B.M.C. wrote:Sack Jervis and print it in WD in a big 10-page photo extravaganza. That's content.

No, beat him up, film it, post it on Youtube, include a DVD of the footage along with an 'Up yours Jervis' T-Shirt in the magazine, proclaim Phil Kelly head of GW, then sack Jervis. Under the new regime, prices will go down, Dark Eldar and Necrons will get an update, Forgeworld will become competent, peace will come to the Middle East, China and North Korea will embrace democracy and freedom, corruption will be gone from the Church, World War III will be averted, humanity will enter a new age of enlightenment, and H.B.M.C and JohnHwangDD will become lovers.

...and we'll cure the swine flu, avoiding all that 2012 malarky.

If you ask me, White Dwarf needs only a little content fix.

The problem is, now with the internet, why even read White Dwarf? Do I wanna pay for material which can be accessed over the internet for no charge? Heck no!

Though, they need to stop focusing a bit on new releases and just focus on more gaming and hobby stuff. No, not "how to use a craft knife" but, "How I converted my entire Ork army" or some such. More army profiles would be nice. A normal battle report, not LOOK OUR NEW ARMY IS REALLY GREAT!. Stuff like Dark Eldar vs. Space Wolves before the new dex's.

and, Jervis, no offense, but please stop bashing tourney players. Yes, they make "Power Lists", but that's the point of a Tournament. You play your army to its absolute strengths.

If they included a nice, crisp $10 bill as a bookmark, it would be worth buying.

-Porkuslime

In Nomine Imperatoris.


Enough said, that stuff was always fun and interesting, adding a little tweak to the game almost every four weeks back in the day.


I want to have it back, that was my only reason to buy it, I mean: Those creatures and monster you got shown, with rules for and how to buy them, rules for wildlife on the table etc... *drooling*

1. Best of (Warhammer) on the Internet. Let's you look at all the best conversions, terrain, etc.. without looking through the crap out there.
2. Special scenarios with special missions, rules and characters(not for Tourney play).
3. Tournament Batreps so, we can learn from what the best players do. (unfortunately, this would require real work, and thus the least likely to happen!)

1. Best of (Warhammer) on the Internet. Let's you look at all the best conversions, terrain, etc.. without looking through the crap out there.
2. Special scenarios with special missions, rules and characters(not for Tourney play).
3. Tournament Batreps so, we can learn from what the best players do. (unfortunately, this would require real work, and thus the least likely to happen!)

they need to rename it! Why is it called white dwarf?

thedarkside69 wrote:they need to rename it! Why is it called white dwarf?

Because that was the name of the old Dungeons and Dragons magazine that Citadel eventually took over, and the name stuck. Sadly if they changed it now I don't think they would lose any sales because anyone who actually remembers the old magazine has long since stopped buying it.

Just lowering model prices (like some online stores do) would make me buy more GW stuff.

At this point they can't, they just can't I have such hostility towards what happened to that now.

I haven't read any of the old WD's so I'm used to the new ones, however when I started having it back in 2007 I can see the difference now. The mag is more into advertising it shows you the models, then the sprues, then talks about it followed by a bat rep and then finally the models again which are available to order.

I also don't tend to buy if focusing mainly on lotr and fantasy, but GW does have other model ranges. However, in last months edition they did focus on a players Khorne army which was nice.

But things like hobby articles, players armies, tournament winner interviews, some random bat reps I remember in one issue it was a random bat rep of blood angels and gaurd vs tau in a apoc game - also see different armies play as well. I've only seen Necrons in one bat rep report and I don't think I've seen either Eldar.

I've got loads of old issues, from early 100s then unbroken from 249 to just after 300 when I finally got fed up with the content changing to ads and whatnot.

I loved the old battle reports with the turn by turn text and maps, so easy to follow. And definatly miss specialist games stuff, Blood Bowl FTW!

I still read it as one of my mates has a subscription, but I wouldn't pay for it anymore.

right guys i have a

plan
(everyone groans)
everyone first each member gives 2£,2$ or 2y.
we buy sharees in games workshop. grey-death assasninates jevis and h.m.b.c becomes general of the geek army.
right

Nothing. I'd rather see chapter approved as web content.

George Spiggott wrote:Nothing. I'd rather see chapter approved as web content.

Dammn, I knew I messed up the Names In Nomine Imperatoris is the german term for Chapter Approved.... :-/ xD



I wanna see that coming back as well

I would love to see user-submitted articles but it'll never happen (because people will rip-off other peoples stuff and submit it as their own, leading to lawsuits)

I'd actually like to see Jervis listen to people's letters.

Cheese Elemental wrote:I'd actually like to see Jervis listen to people's letters.

He already did that when that fawning yank fanboy wrote in.

Putting the content online and ceasing publication of the hard copy might get me to read it. It doesn't need to be a PDF magazine (although that'd be nice), but links and proper categorization of content would actually have me look at WD again.

Easy question - Less LOTR more Warhammer (F & 40k)

I used to love White Dwarf. My first issue was somewhere around like 181, with an Imperator Titan on the cover, when Titan Legions came out. It made me want to buy the models because of how cool they looked and from reading battle reports. And it made me want to buy all kinds of models (not just the newest flavor of the month). And it never felt like it was being shoved down my throat.

I definitely appreciate the advances in magazine layouts and formatting and the nice pictures. However, when they started putting in ad pages for their own stuff when the magazine itself is a big ad, I was a little confused.

I also miss the whole mix of articles that WD used to have before they divided it up amongst the core games. If there was increased support and coverage of Specialist Games again, I would gladly pay even the ridiculous cover price.

Edit: Saw that someone else had mentioned that they show the pictures of the sprues now (I remember seeing pictures of painted individual parts when the Tau Stealth suit plastics came out). I actually like this as I am paying more than ever for the minis themselves and I enjoy seeing a detailed breakdown of what I am getting in the box. Pictures of sprues are fine, just can the ads.

Friend of mine just got a stack of back issue WD's, starting around the 174 mark (my first was 175 - 2nd Ed Ork Codex release). It was fun going over all the old stuff, seeing the haphazard and virtually random release sched - so much fun. Looking over the big long Blood Bowl articles with diagrams of different plays, the multi-part Warhammer Quest campaigns and alternate settings/total conversions. All sorts of things.

Then you look at some recent issues... like Jervis' back-scratching letter from a month or so back. Sad...

reduce the price to a reasonable level, include REAL content, not just GW adverts, in other words, go back about 10 years and follow that model.

I'm wondering if many of us are guilty of seeing the halcyon days of White Dwarf through badly tinted glasses.

What I mean is when I thought WD was best is when I was getting started in the game. Back then (circa issue 110) GW was still developing a lot of the models, background, and community that became WFB and 40K. Since issue 200 the primary new things have been new specialist games and the occasional new army (for 40K these are Necrons, Tau, and the various Ordos) although the approach is much more different than the way things used to be.

How long does it take for people to go from "WD is good/great at giving me what I want/need" to "WD doesn't do anything for me"? I'd venture 12-18 months for most people. By then the content has gone on a full cycle. Painting articles, tips, and new releases have lost their lustre - its all been seen before.

By content I mean FAQs, scenarios, etc. something we can actually use.

don_mondo wrote:By content I mean FAQs, scenarios, etc. something we can actually use.

The problem is, any attempt do do that is doomed from the start, as they fall into the situation they had in Ye Olde Times where someone had the latest FAQ and someone else didn't. They stop that by putting the content on the website, but then why bother buying the Magazine?

As much as I hate to say it, the concept of newspapers and magazines are an outdated concept that has not updated in over 150 years, and need to die asap. It's been dying slowly since 1995, I think it is time for the mercy blow.