i still love White Dwarf...
i have through every iteration from #75 on 'til today...
it makes me happy, each and every time it arrives...
it has given me something to look forward to every month, for over two decades...
i am sad to see the change...
if they lose me, as a lifelong subscriber, then you know they have screwed the pooch...
we'll see how the new format works, but i have a bad feeling about it...
I have a couple of points to make about this. Firstly with the overlong list of GW stores, it is too long, but you don't complain about the Argos catalog with it's list of stores. That bit is useful if you are in a new area and have no access to the internet in order to find a store or a place that sells the models. I also have seen some older WD, but I actually didn't mind the change to the new format. We have to be open-minded about change, and not panic at the first sight of trouble, ala Manchester United fans and pundits with David Moyes atm. I will wait paitently, if the first weekly one is good, i may get all of them, and I think from rumours the new monthly one takes over from the old subscription, or so I hope. But here's to change, after all the more things change, the more they stay the same.
I'm actually liking this. I often feel like buying a WD, but it's really the price more than anything else that puts me off. If it's around £2, I'd be more tempted to buy one that interests me.
It'll be interesting to see what the monthly version's like as well.
Warhammer: Visions will be available on the first Saturday every month in your local Games Workshop store, Independent Stockist, games-workshop.com and local newsstands in the UK, Europe and Australia.
Apparently, GW is not planning to sell their new magazine in their US stores. Or they merely forgot to include the US in this announcement, which is a huge oversight since the US is currently the market where their lackluster sales since last year are the best.
I spoke to a person at GW customer service re my iPad subscription and apparently that will change to the Warhammer Visions monthly mag. The White Dwarf weekly mag is going to be a physical only copy. I suspect that it's being touted as a way to get people into stores that grow the GW hobby. It will be orderable from the website but I dont know if they will have subscriptions.
Warhammer: Visions will be available on the first Saturday every month in your local Games Workshop store, Independent Stockist, games-workshop.com and local newsstands in the UK, Europe and Australia.
Apparently, GW is not planning to sell their new magazine in their US stores. Or they merely forgot to include the US in this announcement, which is a huge oversight since the US is currently the market where their lackluster sales since last year are the best.
I think it's a parsing issue; what they mean is "Warhammer: Visions will be available on the first Saturday every month in your local Games Workshop store (globally), Independent Stockist (globally), games-workshop.com, and local newsstands in the UK, Europe and Australia."
IE, it will be available at GW stores and FLGS everywhere, and newsstands in Europe, the UK, and Australia. I don't think I've ever seen White Dwarf at a newsstand or supermarket or what have you in the US.
Warhammer: Visions will be available on the first Saturday every month in your local Games Workshop store, Independent Stockist, games-workshop.com and local newsstands in the UK, Europe and Australia.
Apparently, GW is not planning to sell their new magazine in their US stores. Or they merely forgot to include the US in this announcement, which is a huge oversight since the US is currently the market where their lackluster sales since last year are the best.
Or you are reading the sentence incorrectly. The "in the UK, Europe and Australia" phrase almost certainly is only intended to modify the words "local newsstands."
Will see if they have anything different to add or they are just finding a way to fluff-up what they have for more revenue.
Utterly useless rag unless you have an interest in the latest release army, all other useful bits have been shunted to micro-transactions/publications.
I would say from 2012 or less the magazine was excellent. 2013 and greater I found little of use.
Wish they would as a sendoff have digitized all prior publications with an index. They could get good money for that.
The Shadow wrote: I'm actually liking this. I often feel like buying a WD, but it's really the price more than anything else that puts me off. If it's around £2, I'd be more tempted to buy one that interests me.
It'll be interesting to see what the monthly version's like as well.
It's the quality I have a problem with, rather than the price. I don't mind paying the WD price if it's a good magazine.
I'm really looking forward to the launch of the new magazine. Like I said earlier in the thread, when you're in my boat (not reading WD at all) it can only get better, really
Wait, I thought the weekly magazine was going to be digital as well? Because if it really can only be bought from GW and mail order, it goes from "of dubious worth" to "utterly useless".
Been informed that Subscribers (in the UK at least) will get a free copy of the first Weekly WD with the first copy of WH Visions. And then WH Visions 1 week early as their subscription. No idea if Subs are going up though,.
So a White Dwarf subscription has gone from a (pseudo) Hobby Magazine with the occasional hobby article to a literal Catalogue with all hobby content (ha!) siphoned off into the new weekly magazine?
Micky wrote: There was the comment about weekly mag containing rules....
pass the salt please.
They mention rules in the official post on GW's website.
Now, the really amusing part of that is how that post has embedded links to GW's homepage...which you're already on.
Aside from that, reference to weekly releases is interesting, though I imagine it'll likely be splash releases of hobby stuff, such as dataslates, paints, etc; I don't neccessarily see the monthly army release schedule really changing, save for maybe a few splash models which have been sitting finished for some time with no slot to release them in.
Stop press, we have a new format of White Dwarf incoming!
Starting February 1st. White Dwarf will appear weekly. Within it's 32 pages you'll find everything you need to know about all the week’s other new releases and latest hobby news.
You’ll also find new features, new modelling and painting techniques, new rules, new columnists and much more. All of this will be available, for the price of a paint pot!
Alongside the the new White Dwarf, we'll have a brand new magazine; Warhammer: Visions. Warhammer: Visions contains all your favourite sections from the old monthly White Dwarf – from Army of the Month and Blanchitsu, to Kit Bash and Paint Splatter. This 232 page tome will be available on the first Saturday of every month, for only 9€!
For those of you with subcriptions to the old White Dwarf, fear not, you will still be able to use them monthly. We'll have more information on the subscriptions for you on Thursday, so check back with us to find out how the new system will work.
Warhammer: Visions will be available on the first Saturday every month in your local Games Workshop store, Independent Stockist, games-workshop.com and local newsstands in the UK, Europe and Australia.
Apparently, GW is not planning to sell their new magazine in their US stores. Or they merely forgot to include the US in this announcement, which is a huge oversight since the US is currently the market where their lackluster sales since last year are the best.
Well, I have a store (non GW) in the US and we were told about it at the beginning of this week.
Micky wrote: Quoting this from three pages ago in this thread.
Like i said, pass the salt.
White Dwarf, now weekly.
From Saturday 1 February, White Dwarf will be available each and every Saturday exclusively in your local Games Workshop store, Independent Stockist and at games-workshop.com
White Dwarf will contain everything that’s new and exciting in the hobby that week, from news and information on all the week’s other new releases, to new columnists, interviews, painting, modelling, game rules and much more. And the price? The same as a pot of your favourite Citadel paint.
As the poster above said, it's on the "What's New Today" on GW's own website.
Aside from that, reference to weekly releases is interesting, though I imagine it'll likely be splash releases of hobby stuff, such as dataslates, paints, etc; I don't neccessarily see the monthly army release schedule really changing, save for maybe a few splash models which have been sitting finished for some time with no slot to release them in.
Or you might see a bit of a 'slowdown', with releases every week of the month for that month's release rather than all at once.
Are independents getting on board with stocking two magazines then? Because that means more outlay, and I know that my old FLGS complained White Dwarf didn't sell anything like it used to and that was before it was relaunched with a price increase. GW seem to think shops will pick up the tab to push these weekly magazines on top of a monthly, I think more will take a pass on at least one if these. Unless GW try to make it a requirement of having an account with them.
I hope somebody from gamesworkshop peruses these forums and reads this. I would buy or subscribe to the white dwarf if it had quality content. The white dwarf magazines I bought in 2012 & 2013 were a huge disappointment. Its eye candy at first glance. It's got corporate image and marketing department written all over it. It screams brand standard. And thats what kills it.
This is a hobby for most of us, a hobby we play with friends. I am not interested in show case after show case of gamesworkshop products, I'm not interested in paying for a commercial.
I am interested in the hobby and things involved in it.
Write me short stories, comics, small campaigns I can play with my friends. Show me epic conversions and paint jobs (not the heavy metal gak), show me REAL battlereports instead of the made up ones and show me multiple in a row. Discuss tactics and units.
And stop lumping together all your products in one magazine. I don't want to read about the hobbit and if I did, I'd buy a magazine about it. Im sick and tired of being force fed your product portfolio. Its annoying. I have the internet, I know your website, I don't need a monthly reminder on every little product you carry so that hopefully you can meet your monthly/quarterly/yearly sales figure to please your shareholders.
Give me a magazine that approaches the hobby in a way that I as an hobbiest would like to read it, not the other way around, where you are giving me a magazine you would like me to read!!!!!
aliusexalio wrote: I hope somebody from gamesworkshop peruses these forums and reads this. I would buy or subscribe to the white dwarf if it had quality content. The white dwarf magazines I bought in 2012 & 2013 were a huge disappointment. Its eye candy at first glance. It's got corporate image and marketing department written all over it. It screams brand standard. And thats what kills it.
This is a hobby for most of us, a hobby we play with friends. I am not interested in show case after show case of gamesworkshop products, I'm not interested in paying for a commercial.
I am interested in the hobby and things involved in it.
Write me short stories, comics, small campaigns I can play with my friends. Show me epic conversions and paint jobs (not the heavy metal gak), show me REAL battlereports instead of the made up ones and show me multiple in a row. Discuss tactics and units.
And stop lumping together all your products in one magazine. I don't want to read about the hobbit and if I did, I'd buy a magazine about it. Im sick and tired of being force fed your product portfolio. Its annoying. I have the internet, I know your website, I don't need a monthly reminder on every little product you carry so that hopefully you can meet your monthly/quarterly/yearly sales figure to please your shareholders.
Give me a magazine that approaches the hobby in a way that I as an hobbiest would like to read it, not the other way around, where you are giving me a magazine you would like me to read!!!!!
QFT
I really don't think it would be hard at all to make WD good again, you just have to actually want to put in some content instead of trying to sell that on top.
BL are putting out how many short stories these days? A bajillion, that's how many, or at least more than 1 a month. Throw one of those a month over to WD.
Battle Reports are not hard, you just have to have people who know what they are doing and someone to observe/take notes. Seriously, not hard. There are tons of them all over youtube and these forums to prove that, but having access to the new units of the month allows the WD ones to show people how they perform on the tabletop before any forum users can upload one doing the same.
At least a few armies have had scenario packs and painting guides quietly released along with the dexes on itunes, why not throw some of that in?
Dataslates. Why are they trying to sell these separate now? That is exactly the kinda thing that should be in WD, then a couple of months later they can put it out, hell at an inflated price even, on itunes or whatever for people who want it but missed the WD.
And for campaign stuff... seriously that's not hard when you have the Hobbit licence. I imagine there is a curtain amount of restrictions on any interaction between WHFB and Hobbit but if it's allowed by new line grab a bunch of points and say 'get X number of points of heroes from any good WHFB faction and pit them against these bad guys from army book A/B/C and reenact this scene from the Hobbit in the WHFB world. That's 6 months of campaign content per movie if you play it right.
If the contract doesn't allow that simple, run the Fellowship of the Ring through the Hobbit journey and or vice versa. See if Bilbo could have got past Golum and destoryed the ring, or if Aragorn could have led them to the Lonely Mountain.
Even just concept art, or blurred out pics of things being worked on that don't reveal anything at all but get people excited.
Hell if you wanted to get REALLY crazy the serialized White Scars Horus Heresy book released in WD instead of downloads would draw a lot of customers.
aliusexalio wrote: And stop lumping together all your products in one magazine. I don't want to read about the hobbit and if I did, I'd buy a magazine about it. Im sick and tired of being force fed your product portfolio. Its annoying. I have the internet, I know your website, I don't need a monthly reminder on every little product you carry so that hopefully you can meet your monthly/quarterly/yearly sales figure to please your shareholders.[/b]
Bring back Battle Games in Middle Earth for LOTR/Hobbit players. As both a Warhammer 40K and a LOTR SBG player, I'd be happy with that.
aliusexalio wrote: I hope somebody from gamesworkshop peruses these forums and reads this. I would buy or subscribe to the white dwarf if it had quality content. The white dwarf magazines I bought in 2012 & 2013 were a huge disappointment. Its eye candy at first glance. It's got corporate image and marketing department written all over it. It screams brand standard. And thats what kills it.
This is a hobby for most of us, a hobby we play with friends. I am not interested in show case after show case of gamesworkshop products, I'm not interested in paying for a commercial.
I am interested in the hobby and things involved in it.
Write me short stories, comics, small campaigns I can play with my friends. Show me epic conversions and paint jobs (not the heavy metal gak), show me REAL battlereports instead of the made up ones and show me multiple in a row. Discuss tactics and units.
And stop lumping together all your products in one magazine. I don't want to read about the hobbit and if I did, I'd buy a magazine about it. Im sick and tired of being force fed your product portfolio. Its annoying. I have the internet, I know your website, I don't need a monthly reminder on every little product you carry so that hopefully you can meet your monthly/quarterly/yearly sales figure to please your shareholders.
Give me a magazine that approaches the hobby in a way that I as an hobbiest would like to read it, not the other way around, where you are giving me a magazine you would like me to read!!!!!
Never a truer word has been spoken... well said.
I always loved WD for the hobby content...when that ended, and it became a catalogue, that was when my subscribing ended too.
DiabolicAl wrote: Been informed that Subscribers (in the UK at least) will get a free copy of the first Weekly WD with the first copy of WH Visions. And then WH Visions 1 week early as their subscription. No idea if Subs are going up though,.
I went into my local GW today and was informed that indeed as others have stated the sub's will automatically move over to Warhammer Visions. The price will remain the same until you have to renew the subscription.
In my case we pay every three months so next time it will go up, equal to £10 over the year (£2.50 for the quarter in my case). If you got a yearly one it's when that is renewed.
ok, so I sent an email to GW Customer Service the other day and have got a reply (I've added a bit of emphasis on the bits I think are important):
GW Customer Services wrote:Hi Koppo
Thanks for the email, there are indeed a few changes to the White Dwarf, from February the White Dwarf team will be releasing 2 magazines, White Dwarf weekly and Warhammer Visions.
White Dwarf weekly is exactly that; a 36 page weekly magazine, come February we will be releasing new products weekly rather than monthly, which means more great models and hobby supplies to enjoy. The White Dwarf Weekly will contain everything you need to know about all the week's new releases and latest Hobby news. You'll also find new features, new modelling and painting techniques, new rules, new columnists and much more.
Warhammer Visions is a completely new monthly magazine from the White Dwarf team. It will be over 230 pages full with a visual feast of Citadel Miniatures from the Warhammer, Warhammer 40,000 worlds and the lands of Middle Earth, with all your favourite sections from the old White Dwarf magazine from Army of the Month and Blanchitsu, to Kit Bash and Paint Splatter, along with new articles.
The White Dwarf weekly will be available to purchase every saturday from your local Games Workshop and independent retail store, as well as from the Games Workshop website.
As a subscriber, your subscription will now transfer over to the monthly Warhammer: Visions magazine, however you will also initially receive a free copy of the 1st issue of White Dwarf Weekly so you can see the difference between the new magazines. You should also receive a letter explaining the changes to the subscription, and if you would like to make any amendments to the subscription the letter should detail how to do so. You should receive this around the 1st February, (possibly a few days thereafter depending on the postal system in your area).
After the initial delivery you will receive the new Warhammer Visions issue each month, which will be released on the first Saturday each month, and as a subscriber you should receive the magazine a few days before the release in stores.
If you are a current subscriber the price for the subscription will not change until you need to resubscribe.
If they actually manage to get Warhammer Visions into subscribers' hands before the stores, I'll be pleasantly surprised. Although, my WD had just started arriving on time when I let my subscription finally lapse.
I have a suspicion this means you won't be able to subscribe to the weekly White Dwarf.
I actually think that it's good that the new WD weekly won't probably be subscribable. It means you only buy it, when there is something inside it, that interests you. I also think if you compare what is going to be inside the new monthly one, it may well be value for money compared to the old WD, and also compared to other magazines. EG:
Old WD: 154 pages for £5.50 = 28 pages per £
PC Gamer: 130 pages for £5.99 = 22 pages per £
SFX: 130 pages for £4.50 = 29 pages per £
Assumed Warhammer Visions: 230 pages (assumed) for £7 (assumed) = 33 pages per £
Those figures may be slightly incorrect, but it does mean it will be very good value for money. The weekly one BTW will be about 13 pages per £.
So, i will be keeping my subscription, because I like change and I don't immediately hate everything GW does. Have open minds people before you say it's going to be awful.
Azazelx wrote: Looks like when my sub runs out that's it for me. (Yeah, I know - but it's mostly out of habit since I started with WD 97 or 98)
Same for me. I used to ask for a WD subscription as a Christmas present. But waved people off this year, and when my current subscription expires, that's it for me. My first issue was the WD 10th Anniversary mag (#91 IIRC), and it's been a long , slow, death.
I'm still pondering if it's worth kicking up a fuss with GW about getting a refund on my remaining subscription since they've unilaterally changed their product. But somehow I doubt it'll be worth the effort. Best case, I'd get some GW credit probably and that'd be, what, one box of troops or something...
But, yeah... That's the end of the line for me GW's monthly ( and/or weekly) rag I think...
Left Hand of the Pheonix wrote: I actually think that it's good that the new WD weekly won't probably be subscribable. It means you only buy it, when there is something inside it, that interests you. I also think if you compare what is going to be inside the new monthly one, it may well be value for money compared to the old WD, and also compared to other magazines. EG:
Old WD: 154 pages for £5.50 = 28 pages per £
PC Gamer: 130 pages for £5.99 = 22 pages per £
SFX: 130 pages for £4.50 = 29 pages per £
Assumed Warhammer Visions: 230 pages (assumed) for £7 (assumed) = 33 pages per £
Those figures may be slightly incorrect, but it does mean it will be very good value for money. The weekly one BTW will be about 13 pages per £.
So, i will be keeping my subscription, because I like change and I don't immediately hate everything GW does. Have open minds people before you say it's going to be awful.
"Try Before You Buy" is a nice idea, but it only works if you live near a game store of some sort...
Left Hand of the Pheonix wrote: I actually think that it's good that the new WD weekly won't probably be subscribable. It means you only buy it, when there is something inside it, that interests you. I also think if you compare what is going to be inside the new monthly one, it may well be value for money compared to the old WD, and also compared to other magazines. EG:
Old WD: 154 pages for £5.50 = 28 pages per £
PC Gamer: 130 pages for £5.99 = 22 pages per £
SFX: 130 pages for £4.50 = 29 pages per £
Assumed Warhammer Visions: 230 pages (assumed) for £7 (assumed) = 33 pages per £
Those figures may be slightly incorrect, but it does mean it will be very good value for money. The weekly one BTW will be about 13 pages per £.
So, i will be keeping my subscription, because I like change and I don't immediately hate everything GW does. Have open minds people before you say it's going to be awful.
WH Smith A4 Premium refill pad, 160 sheets (so 320 pages) £1.99 = 160 pages per £
Merely counting the number of pages makes absolutely no odds, SFX and PC Gamer contain a much greater amount of editorial content than old WD, and new Visions I suspect, and that is what makes the difference.
Left Hand of the Pheonix wrote: I actually think that it's good that the new WD weekly won't probably be subscribable. It means you only buy it, when there is something inside it, that interests you. I also think if you compare what is going to be inside the new monthly one, it may well be value for money compared to the old WD, and also compared to other magazines. EG:
Old WD: 154 pages for £5.50 = 28 pages per £
PC Gamer: 130 pages for £5.99 = 22 pages per £
SFX: 130 pages for £4.50 = 29 pages per £
Assumed Warhammer Visions: 230 pages (assumed) for £7 (assumed) = 33 pages per £
Those figures may be slightly incorrect, but it does mean it will be very good value for money. The weekly one BTW will be about 13 pages per £.
So, i will be keeping my subscription, because I like change and I don't immediately hate everything GW does. Have open minds people before you say it's going to be awful.
WH Smith A4 Premium refill pad, 160 sheets (so 320 pages) £1.99 = 160 pages per £
Merely counting the number of pages makes absolutely no odds, SFX and PC Gamer contain a much greater amount of editorial content than old WD, and new Visions I suspect, and that is what makes the difference.
They also contain loads of full-page ads. Admittedly, WD has "ads" for GW stuff, but... why would you buy it if you weren't interested in GW stuff
It’s just 12 days until the launch of the new, weekly White Dwarf and monthly Warhammer: Visions.
Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock for the last few weeks, you’ll know that the new White Dwarf magazine will be published every Saturday starting on 1st February, bringing you gaming tips and advice, painting guides, battle reports and oodles of pictures of Citadel miniatures every single week.
On top of that, we’ll also be launching our new monthly magazine on the same day – Warhammer: Visions. It’s an eye-popping hobby extravaganza packed from cover to cover with pictures of beautifully painted miniatures including everything from Golden Demon and Armies on Parade to Kit Bash, Blanchitsu and so much more.
You will be able to see both of these publications in Games Workshop stores and many independent stockists around the world on Saturday 1st February.
Digital Editions
There will be digital editions of both weekly White Dwarf and monthly Warhammer: Visions.
White Dwarf will be available from the Black Library website in mobi format (for Kindles) and ePub format (for iPhones, iPads, iPod Touch, Android devices and pretty much anything else that reads eBooks). The address will be www.blacklibrary.com/whitedwarf. The ePub version will also be available from Apple iBooks.
Warhammer: Visions will be available for iPads from the Apple AppStore. On Saturday 1st February, the new version of our iPad app will be released, which will replace the existing White Dwarf app (but still allow access to all the previous editions of monthly White Dwarf). This will enable current (and new!) iPad subscribers to download the iPad edition of Warhammer: Visions.
Q&A for subscribers
We’ve had a few queries from subscribers about the new magazines, so we thought we’d share the questions and answers with you.
Current in-store White Dwarf subscriber?
You will be able to redeem your remaining subscription vouchers for a monthly copy of Warhammer: Visions in any Games Workshop store.
Current mail order White Dwarf subscriber?
If you have a subscription to the current White Dwarf magazine, your subscription will automatically switch over to Warhammer: Visions. With your first issue, we’re also sending you a free copy of the first issue of new White Dwarf weekly, along with a letter from Jes, the editor, explaining the changes. The price you pay will not change during your subscription period.
From March, we’ll begin mailing out your monthly subscriber copy of Warhammer: Visions early so that (Warp storms permitting, of course) you’ll receive your copy during the week before it goes on sale in stores.
Current White Dwarf iPad subscriber?
On Saturday 1 February you will need to update your app to the new version (which is free). You will then be able to download the launch edition of Warhammer: Visions, while still being able to view all your existing White Dwarf magazines. The price you pay will not change during your subscription period.
Will there be a subscription available for weekly White Dwarf?
There won’t be a subscription available for White Dwarf at launch. If for whatever reason you miss a copy, there will be a few weeks’ worth of back issues available at games-workshop.com (so long as stocks last). We’ll also have at least two or three issues of Warhammer: Visions available (again, so long as stocks last).
"Warhammer: Visions, now in Chinese and Japanese."
And God forbid of somebody leaking the news on their blog to generate some buzz. Plus they used the word extravaganza, that means the new stuff will be pretty but empty of content unless you love staring at pictures.
Notice they've taken "rules" out of this list. All of the previous communication had "rules" included in the list of stuff we'd see in the new WDW.
"Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock for the last few weeks, you’ll know that the new White Dwarf magazine will be published every Saturday starting on 1st February, bringing you gaming tips and advice, painting guides, battle reports and oodles of pictures of Citadel miniatures every single week. "
reds8n, any news on the directory? I need to know if we'll be getting the phone number of the hobby shop on the Falkland Islands! No internet in this part of the UK!
Well, doesn't the current (rumored) list of releases point to a new Dwarf book in February? Would expect to see them on the cover if that is the case. Though, even if the release order has been shaken up radically, I'd still expect to see dwarves on the cover of issue 1 of the new weekly mag.
Ah, that works I guess. I don't play fantasy so don't keep up with their rumours much. Although dwarves are far from the first thing I think about when reading 'Monstrous Invasion'
Do_I_Not_Like_That wrote: reds8n, any news on the directory? I need to know if we'll be getting the phone number of the hobby shop on the Falkland Islands! No internet in this part of the UK!
Not sure if serious here, but I'll bite.
Phil, who ran that shop, quit stocking GW after being told that he had to get his stock from Buenos Aires, Argentina. Apprently, GW management thinks its' South American branch is capable of breaking the 30 year economic blockade and can send its products here.
Do_I_Not_Like_That wrote: reds8n, any news on the directory? I need to know if we'll be getting the phone number of the hobby shop on the Falkland Islands! No internet in this part of the UK!
Not sure if serious here, but I'll bite.
Phil, who ran that shop, quit stocking GW after being told that he had to get his stock from Buenos Aires, Argentina. Apprently, GW management thinks its' South American branch is capable of breaking the 30 year economic blockade and can send its products here.
Cheers
Andrew
It wasn't an attempt to belittle the Falklands or the guy that ran the hobby shop.
The WD directory has long been a running joke on dakka. Despite the internet age, despite most of the hobby shops having their own web pages, and despite their details being available with a 5 second google search, WD or GW still insisted in giving us 11 pages of padding every month for 10 years!!! . It was symptomatic of how things went wrong with WD magazine.
Even the re-launch failed to shed the directory. I know of at least two hobby stores that had been closed for months, but their details were still being printed.
It wasn't an attempt to belittle the Falklands or the guy that ran the hobby shop.
The WD directory has long been a running joke on dakka. Despite the internet age, despite most of the hobby shops having their own web pages, and despite their details being available with a 5 second google search, WD or GW still insisted in giving us 11 pusage limitges of padding every month for 10 years!!! . It was symptomatic of how things went wrong with WD magazine.
Even the re-launch failed to shed the directory. I know of at least two hobby stores that had been closed for months, but their details were still being printed.
Hope that clears things up.
PM'd you.
Dont worry about it, I used the directory to try and find the Perth shop (UK) to discover it hadn't been there for several years. And your right about the internet, £100 per month for a 5gb usage limit.
Having said that, if you like wind, penguins, wind, sand, wind, sheep, wind, no trees and more wind, then this is the place to be!
Redemption wrote: What's that 'Monstrous In(vasion?)' bit on the cover? Looks like the top of some sort of Lizardmen model?
Doesn't match any of the Lizardmen models that I know of. Just did a quick scan of the Dwarves range & doesn't match anything there either.
Other than this thread, there doesn't seem to be much in the ways of rumours for Feb (& presumably they'll have something). Could they have stemmed the WD leak with this reformat?
Redemption wrote: What's that 'Monstrous In(vasion?)' bit on the cover? Looks like the top of some sort of Lizardmen model?
Doesn't match any of the Lizardmen models that I know of. Just did a quick scan of the Dwarves range & doesn't match anything there either.
Other than this thread, there doesn't seem to be much in the ways of rumours for Feb (& presumably they'll have something). Could they have stemmed the WD leak with this reformat?
Dwarves. Feb is Dwarves.
You can't find a match because I expect it'll be a new kit on the cover.
Monstrous Invasion is almost certainly a reference to one of the Nid dataslates.
Ulcis wrote: Other than this thread, there doesn't seem to be much in the ways of rumours for Feb (& presumably they'll have something). Could they have stemmed the WD leak with this reformat?
Dwarves. Feb is Dwarves.
Unless you've been living under a rock
Will that be up there with "This is great news", you people think?
They'll get the Warhammer Visions mag monthly for the remainder of their subscription, plus the first weekly White Dwarf for free.
Sweet, thanks.
I've got th monthly subscription untill July, sorry if this has already been touched on, but do we know what will be diferrent between The weekly and monthly?
Redemption wrote: What's that 'Monstrous In(vasion?)' bit on the cover? Looks like the top of some sort of Lizardmen model?
Doesn't match any of the Lizardmen models that I know of. Just did a quick scan of the Dwarves range & doesn't match anything there either.
Other than this thread, there doesn't seem to be much in the ways of rumours for Feb (& presumably they'll have something). Could they have stemmed the WD leak with this reformat?
Dwarves. Feb is Dwarves.
You can't find a match because I expect it'll be a new kit on the cover.
Monstrous Invasion is almost certainly a reference to one of the Nid dataslates.
Aye, Dwarves now the GW-released pic shows a rune, but no lengthy 'Feb release' thread beforehand (like there has been with 'Nids, Dark Elves, etc.) Doubt it'd be the entire reason for the rebrand, but am wondering if its had the side effect of preventing the leaks.
They'll get the Warhammer Visions mag monthly for the remainder of their subscription, plus the first weekly White Dwarf for free.
Sweet, thanks.
I've got th monthly subscription untill July, sorry if this has already been touched on, but do we know what will be diferrent between The weekly and monthly?
The monthly (WD visions) looks to be pretty pictures and glossy content of minis armies etc
The weekly is taking most of the news/columns and new release advertising
namiel wrote: What happens if we still have those subscription vouchers?
Already stated in this thread but repeated below for your convenience
Current in-store White Dwarf subscriber?
You will be able to redeem your remaining subscription vouchers for a monthly copy of Warhammer: Visions in any Games Workshop store.
Current mail order White Dwarf subscriber?
If you have a subscription to the current White Dwarf magazine, your subscription will automatically switch over to Warhammer: Visions. With your first issue, we’re also sending you a free copy of the first issue of new White Dwarf weekly, along with a letter from Jes, the editor, explaining the changes. The price you pay will not change during your subscription period.
From March, we’ll begin mailing out your monthly subscriber copy of Warhammer: Visions early so that (Warp storms permitting, of course) you’ll receive your copy during the week before it goes on sale in stores.
reds8n wrote: Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock for the last few weeks...
Like GW's marketing department? Other than their own website GW haven't gone out to tell anyone about this besides the people who have to sell it.
Hiding under a rock...
I browse the front of GW's website periodically, and I wouldn't have known about this if it wasn't for dakka "leaking" their uber-secret classified information. All I notice on GW's website is how there's 440 limited edition Tyranid codex's vs. the 467 there were a few days ago. That countdown's still going. Who knows when they'll hit zero. Tyranid dex is almost 2 weeks old now and they've sold about 60 of these things.
But yeah, GW not believing in advertising is another hilarioust hing they do. They're the only company I can think of that thinks advertising is bad.
Edit: gak! it's 424 now! They're flying off the shelves faster than you can make them, Dubya!
Warhammer Visions is a terrible name for the new monthly mag.
Maybe, and then again, maybe not. In fact, definitely not. When something has gotten a bad rep it's common business practice to "re-brand" it so that customers won't be turned off assuming it's the same old thing.
I got some info on the new mag the other day. It will be about 10 pages thicker than the current now defunct White Dwarf monthly and it will focus on both Warhammer systems (no LotR) and supposedly be full of hobby content the way the old White Dwarf used to be.
In other words, they changed the name to re-brand the magazine because White Dwarf now has a bad reputation of being not much more than an advertising catalog and they want customers to be confident that the new mag will indeed be full of useful hobby content focused on their best selling models and game systems, Warhammer and 40K.
And the White Dwarf name is still being used for the weekly publication, so it hasn't been abandoned.
Of course like the previous re-launch this is just going to be a case of 'Emperor's new clothes'. It's not going to significantly change the content of the magazine - low word count, poor journalism and every 'article' written as though it has to go through the political office prior to release - so if you had complaints about the magazine before, don't think for a moment that will have changed; if you do, you'll be disappointed.
Warhammer Visions is a terrible name for the new monthly mag.
Maybe, and then again, maybe not. In fact, definitely not. When something has gotten a bad rep it's common business practice to "re-brand" it so that customers won't be turned off assuming it's the same old thing.
I got some info on the new mag the other day. It will be about 10 pages thicker than the current now defunct White Dwarf monthly and it will focus on both Warhammer systems (no LotR) and supposedly be full of hobby content the way the old White Dwarf used to be.
In other words, they changed the name to re-brand the magazine because White Dwarf now has a bad reputation of being not much more than an advertising catalog and they want customers to be confident that the new mag will indeed be full of useful hobby content focused on their best selling models and game systems, Warhammer and 40K.
And the White Dwarf name is still being used for the weekly publication, so it hasn't been abandoned.
That's contrary to the GW 'press-release' that they posted on the website:
The weeklyWD will be the one that contains the editorial content and hobby related stuff and that magazine is only available by going in-store (assuming you have a store nearby and the inclination to visit it).
The monthly magazine just seems to be about photos:
...packed from cover to cover with pictures of beautifully painted miniatures including everything from Golden Demon and Armies on Parade to Kit Bash, Blanchitsu and so much more.
I am a subscriber so I will give it an issue or two but I am not holding out much hope. I'm not convinced that people will want to pay £8 or whatever to flick through photos of miniatures when that same content is available online in spades. I used to get WD as it was an interesting enough way for me to spend half an hour flicking through; I didn't take it too seriously but for £3 an issue (as is my subscriber rates) it was functional enough for me.
It wasn't an attempt to belittle the Falklands or the guy that ran the hobby shop.
The WD directory has long been a running joke on dakka. Despite the internet age, despite most of the hobby shops having their own web pages, and despite their details being available with a 5 second google search, WD or GW still insisted in giving us 11 pusage limitges of padding every month for 10 years!!! . It was symptomatic of how things went wrong with WD magazine.
Even the re-launch failed to shed the directory. I know of at least two hobby stores that had been closed for months, but their details were still being printed.
Hope that clears things up.
PM'd you.
Dont worry about it, I used the directory to try and find the Perth shop (UK) to discover it hadn't been there for several years. And your right about the internet, £100 per month for a 5gb usage limit.
Having said that, if you like wind, penguins, wind, sand, wind, sheep, wind, no trees and more wind, then this is the place to be!
Cheers
Andrew
Don't forget to add your details to the DakkaDakka player directory. You never know when someone will arrive in Port Stanley with a suitcase full of Tyranids!
So these four weekly supplements will be available in the store, but the rumour of a combined version isn't happening?
This doesn't look very groundbreaking. I could see the point if GW were going to hint at future releases and control there own rumours in a weekly update. I'd imagine the time from printing to shop will be reduced so they'd be less time for leaks. Actually giving us a heads up on what's coming would probably calm the rumour frenzy that surrounds GW.
namiel wrote: What happens if we still have those subscription vouchers?
Already stated in this thread but repeated below for your convenience
Current in-store White Dwarf subscriber?
You will be able to redeem your remaining subscription vouchers for a monthly copy of Warhammer: Visions in any Games Workshop store.
Current mail order White Dwarf subscriber?
If you have a subscription to the current White Dwarf magazine, your subscription will automatically switch over to Warhammer: Visions. With your first issue, we’re also sending you a free copy of the first issue of new White Dwarf weekly, along with a letter from Jes, the editor, explaining the changes. The price you pay will not change during your subscription period.
From March, we’ll begin mailing out your monthly subscriber copy of Warhammer: Visions early so that (Warp storms permitting, of course) you’ll receive your copy during the week before it goes on sale in stores.
It occurred to me that you won't be able to read this new version of WD for free in your local newsagent, anymore! Your evil plan is foiled!
namiel wrote: What happens if we still have those subscription vouchers?
Already stated in this thread but repeated below for your convenience
Current in-store White Dwarf subscriber?
You will be able to redeem your remaining subscription vouchers for a monthly copy of Warhammer: Visions in any Games Workshop store.
Current mail order White Dwarf subscriber?
If you have a subscription to the current White Dwarf magazine, your subscription will automatically switch over to Warhammer: Visions. With your first issue, we’re also sending you a free copy of the first issue of new White Dwarf weekly, along with a letter from Jes, the editor, explaining the changes. The price you pay will not change during your subscription period.
From March, we’ll begin mailing out your monthly subscriber copy of Warhammer: Visions early so that (Warp storms permitting, of course) you’ll receive your copy during the week before it goes on sale in stores.
It occurred to me that you won't be able to read this new version of WD for free in your local newsagent, anymore! Your evil plan is foiled!
Yes, I was probably responsible for this shift in approach. To be honest, I've stopped flicking through them in the shop in the last couple of months. I'll swing by GW Southampton to have a look at this Brand. New. Magazine., but it will have to be a spectacular change for it to prise open my wallet. I very much doubt a grumpy 38 year old man is in the target audience anyway
Dave Salisbury of Fan Boy Three in Manchester, England read about the upcoming changes to Games Workshop's White Dwarf magazine (see "Rolling for Initiative--Games Workshop Changes a Comin'") and had this to say.
Well, it takes bravery or insanity to do something this extreme in the world of magazine publishing. When we heard venerable industry institution White Dwarf was for the chop, we naturally assumed it was going to return in digital format like Dragon & Dungeon. Boy were we wrong!
Currently in the UK, Games Workshop produces one single magazine every month for £5.50. Now, if you want to keep up with the GW hobby there will be a New Release focused weekly magazine for £2.80 and a monthly magazine for around £8. So, just your *magazine* spend has increased-- as a consumer--from £66 a year to £241. Games Workshop freely admit they do not expect every player to buy every issue of the weekly-- just the issues that focus on the New Releases for armies that they currently buy, which would reduce the spend a bit for all but the most rabid fanboys.
But still, those rabid fanboys are about to be stung by a price increase of 365%.
Now, it is possible that Games Workshop can fly in the face of the closing doors and mothballing printers endemic in the current magazine industry. But in doing so they would have single handedly proven every other magazine publisher in the world to be wrong.
Games Workshop has made an entire industry out of treading the fine line between the devotion of their dedicated player base and the maximum price the market can bear. Lets hope they can tread the fine line between genius and madness as adroitly.
The opinions expressed in this Talk Back are solely those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff of ICv2.com.
It's a good point. Fortunately, I am a subscriber so my monthly issue of WD/whatever it's called now will cost me £3 per issue until such time as I cancel my sub so there is no price change for me. If I wasn't a subscriber however, there is no way I would pay £8 for a magazine, monthly or not.
filbert wrote: It's a good point. Fortunately, I am a subscriber so my monthly issue of WD/whatever it's called now will cost me £3 per issue until such time as I cancel my sub so there is no price change for me. If I wasn't a subscriber however, there is no way I would pay £8 for a magazine, monthly or not.
Those pretty pictures aren't cheap you know.
Joking aside, there may well be a niche market for this approach (possibly the same nutters who buy those limited edition codecies), but it's another example of a GW product leaving me cold.
I think they are aiming at the coffee table art book market, because some of them go for a lot of money. Whether this product really compares is still open to speculation though.
dakkajet wrote: Why in the name of gork did they make it issue 1? Its been counting onwards from 1977! 46 YEARS of counting up every month coming to an end! Why!
dakkajet wrote: Why in the name of gork did they make it issue 1? Its been counting onwards from 1977! 46 YEARS of counting up every month coming to an end! Why!
46 years since 77?
Crap, I just aged a decade in one post!
Sorry about that. I really need to get back into the habit of reading over my posts...
dakkajet wrote: Why in the name of gork did they make it issue 1? Its been counting onwards from 1977! 36 YEARS of counting up every month coming to an end! Why!
Because it's not the same magazine anymore.
And I get the impression that you're pretty young and can't have been following WD for a very long time (not that long anyway), so why does it bother you?
shingouki wrote: Bit late to the party,what happens to regular subscribers???
Flashman wrote: Already stated in this thread but repeated below for your convenience
Current in-store White Dwarf subscriber?
You will be able to redeem your remaining subscription vouchers for a monthly copy of Warhammer: Visions in any Games Workshop store.
Current mail order White Dwarf subscriber?
If you have a subscription to the current White Dwarf magazine, your subscription will automatically switch over to Warhammer: Visions. With your first issue, we’re also sending you a free copy of the first issue of new White Dwarf weekly, along with a letter from Jes, the editor, explaining the changes. The price you pay will not change during your subscription period.
From March, we’ll begin mailing out your monthly subscriber copy of Warhammer: Visions early so that (Warp storms permitting, of course) you’ll receive your copy during the week before it goes on sale in stores.
I've been buying every issue of the Spanish WD since 1995. My first issue was #12. Even in the recent years, when the magazine was plain crap, I've bought it to keep the collection full. Today I bought January's issue. I won't be buying 5 magazines per month for a total of more than 20€ just for the sake of it. Goodbye WD.
In my teenages, without internet acces and absolutely no specialezed press, my first issues were windows to the awesome. I guess that's not coming back.
Erasoketa wrote: I've been buying every issue of the Spanish WD since 1995. My first issue was #12. Even in the recent years, when the magazine was plain crap, I've bought it to keep the collection full. Today I bought January's issue. I won't be buying 5 magazines per month for a total of more than 20€ just for the sake of it. Goodbye WD.
In my teenages, without internet acces and absolutely no specialezed press, my first issues were windows to the awesome. I guess that's not coming back.
Same thing for me, more or less - started in 1992 or 1993, and I really loved having it show up in the mailbox every month.
Back then I used to call up GWUK Mailorder and get actual deals AND rare and often unreleased stuff!
Why in the name of gork did they make it issue 1? Its been counting onwards from 1977! 36 YEARS of counting up every month coming to an end! Why!
As fishy bob has said, this new magazine will bear little or no relation to its forebears - the only thing I'm really surprised about is that they didn't change the name to something like 'Complete Hobby Weekly'
Well I have been expecting this for years, all forms of magazines are dying a slow death, wd had its day (late 90's early 00)
And has sucked ever since
I e-mailed Games Workshop over the weekend, and I got this reply back from them on Monday morning about what's going to happen
I'll put it as a spoiler, because it's long
Spoiler:
Thanks for the email, there are indeed a few changes to the White Dwarf, from February the White Dwarf team will be releasing 2 magazines, White Dwarf weekly and Warhammer Visions.
White Dwarf weekly is exactly that; a 36 page weekly magazine, come February we will be releasing new products weekly rather than monthly, which means more great models and hobby supplies to enjoy. The White Dwarf Weekly will contain everything you need to know about all the week's new releases and latest Hobby news. You'll also find new features, new modelling and painting techniques, new rules, new columnists and much more.
Warhammer Visions is a completely new monthly magazine from the White Dwarf team. It will be over 230 pages full with a visual feast of Citadel Miniatures from the Warhammer, Warhammer 40,000 worlds and the lands of Middle Earth, with all your favourite sections from the old White Dwarf magazine from Army of the Month and Blanchitsu, to Kit Bash and Paint Splatter, along with new articles.
The White Dwarf weekly will be available to purchase every saturday from your local Games Workshop and independent retail store, as well as from the Games Workshop website. Where as Warhammer Visions will be released the first Saturday of each month and will also be able to buy from your local Games Workshop and independent retail store, as well as from the Games Workshop website.
There will also be a digital versions of both magazines available from the Black Library website in mobi format (for Kindles) and ePub format (for iPhones, iPads, iPod Touch, Android devices and pretty much anything else that reads eBooks). The address will be www.blacklibrary.com/whitedwarf. The ePub versions will also be available from Apple iBooks.
You should be able to subscribe to Warhammer Visions on the iBookstore from the 1st February, at the current time there are no plans for a subscription for White Dwarf Weekly
Games Workshop wrote:... come February we will be releasing new products weekly rather than monthly, which means more great models and hobby supplies to enjoy.
Does it though? Wouldn't it just mean the same amount of products spread out to cover each week?
Games Workshop wrote:... come February we will be releasing new products weekly rather than monthly, which means more great models and hobby supplies to enjoy.
Does it though? Wouldn't it just mean the same amount of products spread out to cover each week?
Considering we get reports all the time of GW just sitting on products until a "good time for release", it might be more models that we weren't really expecting.
Not sure how I feel about "hobby supplies" being part of their grand release strategy though.
Redemption wrote: What's wrong with that? Stuff like their latest technical paints (Blood for the Blood God, Agrellan Earth and such) seem be well received, no?
I assume Kanluwen means that things like the technical paints should be released as soon as they're ready, and that it's obnoxious if GW has just the paint you're looking for for your army, but refuses to sell it to you.
azreal13 wrote: Sadly, that needs a real artist, with real talent, for real money.
Photo covers just need a backdrop, digicam and a YTS kid.
GW and BL have plenty of talented artists working for them and no shortage of good artwork to put on the covers. Why they chose to not utilize it I don't know, but it's not for lack of actual art assets...
azreal13 wrote: Sadly, that needs a real artist, with real talent, for real money.
Photo covers just need a backdrop, digicam and a YTS kid.
GW and BL have plenty of talented artists working for them and no shortage of good artwork to put on the covers. Why they chose to not utilize it I don't know, but it's not for lack of actual art assets...
Do they? I was under the impression that it was one of the things that they still outsourced to freelancers? Or is that more an occasional thing?
namiel wrote: What happens if we still have those subscription vouchers?
Already stated in this thread but repeated below for your convenience
Current in-store White Dwarf subscriber?
You will be able to redeem your remaining subscription vouchers for a monthly copy of Warhammer: Visions in any Games Workshop store.
Current mail order White Dwarf subscriber?
If you have a subscription to the current White Dwarf magazine, your subscription will automatically switch over to Warhammer: Visions. With your first issue, we’re also sending you a free copy of the first issue of new White Dwarf weekly, along with a letter from Jes, the editor, explaining the changes. The price you pay will not change during your subscription period.
From March, we’ll begin mailing out your monthly subscriber copy of Warhammer: Visions early so that (Warp storms permitting, of course) you’ll receive your copy during the week before it goes on sale in stores.
This is all fethed. Completely. GW has done this so that people who want info, And people who want modelling, will have to buy more gak from them. It misses me off because I can only go into GW once a month, and I can't make online payments. Does anyone know if they will show new release in the vision?
the shrouded lord wrote: This is all fethed. Completely. GW has done this so that people who want info, And people who want modelling, will have to buy more gak from them. It misses me off because I can only go into GW once a month, and I can't make online payments. Does anyone know if they will show new release in the vision?
Luckily, White Dwarf Weekly and Warhammer Visions will contain neither info or modelling
NAVARRO wrote: Don't judge the book by the cover and all that... but visions cover is very LAZY!
Judging a book by its cover is perfectly valid when the selling point is that it's a "visual feast". Like a trailer, the cover is them putting their best foot forward. If they can't do that right, what hope is there?
the shrouded lord wrote: This is all fethed. Completely. GW has done this so that people who want info, And people who want modelling, will have to buy more gak from them. It misses me off because I can only go into GW once a month, and I can't make online payments. Does anyone know if they will show new release in the vision?
I'm afraid that you are at the opposite view to most people. Most of us were fed up with the glorified brochure that WD had become. If this dose contain real content and no sales pitch many people will be very happy.
Monthly Warhammer Visions having a no effort bad front page for the first issue is a bad omen.
Weakly White Dwarf having English text in a French advertisement is a bad omen.
Warhammer Visions and White Dwarf will be the ultimate test, if management has totally lost contact with the design team. If both magazines are full of lazy uninspired non-content without the managers noticing, then it's game over man, game over. If weakly WD is English language only, GW has totally given up all non-UK markets.
It would be so easy to come up with ideas for articles surrounding a given week's releases. The sad thing though, is that'll probably be full of the type of stuff that used to be free on GW's website. Simple painting tutorials. Galleries of marines by chapters. What paints to buy for a given colour scheme. Mostly useless borderline content that should have remained free.
Warhammer visions looks like it was designed to encourage as little sales as possible. I remember someone theorized that this was a plot to kill off WD.
thenoobbomb wrote: I thought that that Visions cover was the back cover!
Me too! Talk about uninspired for the 1st number of your new magazine. Keep up the good work GW, next stop an IG codex with just the pretty pictures, we can pay for the privilege of having stats and rules on the dataslates.
Lol.. havent bought a white dwarf for years now. Changing the name isnt going to entice me back to it; the internet obsoletes printed media in just about all respects.
Places just like Dakkadakka... this very website is a million times better than whtie dwarf ever was or could be tbh.
Them trying to save a dying medium by changing the name and making it shiny and new is kinda funny
Wouldnt even line a hamster cage with what white dwarf has become over the years! Its probably not even very good kindling for a fireplace on account of the glossy pages and all the ink
Dont get me wrong, it was great in its time before every one and their nan had internet. The prime demographic for it - i.e young lads and teenagers mostly arent going to be interested because it isnt on their smart phones or tablet pc's.
No. Just no. GW and free are like oil and water, they don't mix
Actually GW has done the odd freebie now and again.. For instance the recent Space Marine tactical squad paint guide for iBooks- that was free for a good while..
what i don't understand is why everyone thinks that white dwarf was better in the old days. i've recently collected about 50% of the WDs between issue 100 and now and quite frankly the modern ones are much better. some good stuff happened in the earlier stuff, you got how to make terrain once a year, you got a tactica now and again. but mostly it was exactly the same as it is now, except less of it. i think it's nostalgia rather than rationality.
anyway, what do i think about the changes now? well, it looks like warhammer visions will be my thing, i love that sort of stuff. not so sure about the weekly thing, unless they're covering an army i'm collecting.
i don't think this will last. i don't think that weekly is the format that most people will go for. i certainly cba to go to GW once a week!
No. Just no. GW and free are like oil and water, they don't mix
Actually GW has done the odd freebie now and again.. For instance the recent Space Marine tactical squad paint guide for iBooks- that was free for a good while..
A cynic might say that was all it was worth, even at GW prices.
daddyorchips wrote: what i don't understand is why everyone thinks that white dwarf was better in the old days. i've recently collected about 50% of the WDs between issue 100 and now and quite frankly the modern ones are much better. some good stuff happened in the earlier stuff, you got how to make terrain once a year, you got a tactica now and again. but mostly it was exactly the same as it is now, except less of it. i think it's nostalgia rather than rationality.
And I'm thinking you've got a serious cause of misremembering going on!
If the weekly White Dwarf really includes new rules, as GW has indicated on several occasions, I wonder how much that is going to muddy things (since we already have DLC from day 0 as well).
daddyorchips wrote: what i don't understand is why everyone thinks that white dwarf was better in the old days. i've recently collected about 50% of the WDs between issue 100 and now and quite frankly the modern ones are much better. some good stuff happened in the earlier stuff, you got how to make terrain once a year, you got a tactica now and again. but mostly it was exactly the same as it is now, except less of it. i think it's nostalgia rather than rationality.
anyway, what do i think about the changes now? well, it looks like warhammer visions will be my thing, i love that sort of stuff. not so sure about the weekly thing, unless they're covering an army i'm collecting.
i don't think this will last. i don't think that weekly is the format that most people will go for. i certainly cba to go to GW once a week!
Sounds like you've collected the wrong 50% dude!
Seriously though, my first ever WD was somewhere in the early 100s, forget exactly, it had a barbarian chained to the floor in front of an undead king on a throne on the cover, and sure, not every issue was dripping with hobby goodness. But the amount of usable hobby content was definitely higher, I read and reread all my copies when I was younger, I wasn't a subscriber but I did have it in regular order at the newsagent, so I had dozens before I hit the traditional "beer and girls" break in my late teens/early twenties.
Templates for building 40K scale versions of Epic vehicles, rules for whole games, terrain articles, fiction, extra missions and rules expansions for the various specialist games, datafaxes for new vehicles as well as battle reports etc which had distinctly higher word counts than anything in new Dwarf aren't figments of my imagination. These things existed in the old Dwarf, they no longer do, even if they weren't in every single issue, at least they existed.
daddyorchips wrote: what i don't understand is why everyone thinks that white dwarf was better in the old days. i've recently collected about 50% of the WDs between issue 100 and now and quite frankly the modern ones are much better. some good stuff happened in the earlier stuff, you got how to make terrain once a year, you got a tactica now and again. but mostly it was exactly the same as it is now, except less of it. i think it's nostalgia rather than rationality.
And I'm thinking you've got a serious cause of misremembering going on!
not at all. i've got maybe 200 issues of WD about a metre away from me that i bought off of ebay over the last couple of months. i've been reading them in order! honestly, whilst there are things that people might think are better, for example they had more games systems so you might get lots you enjoy but you might get nothing at all. the painting wasn't as good, especially in the mid 90s to early 00s. and in the early 00s WD was basically a children's comic. horrible.
it's basically a glorified catalogue and always has been! there was never a golden age of WD!
Seriously though, my first ever WD was somewhere in the early 100s, forget exactly, it had a barbarian chained to the floor in front of an undead king on a throne on the cover, and sure, not every issue was dripping with hobby goodness. But the amount of usable hobby content was definitely higher, I read and reread all my copies when I was younger, I wasn't a subscriber but I did have it in regular order at the newsagent, so I had dozens before I hit the traditional "beer and girls" break in my late teens/early twenties.
Templates for building 40K scale versions of Epic vehicles, rules for whole games, terrain articles, fiction, extra missions and rules expansions for the various specialist games, datafaxes for new vehicles as well as battle reports etc which had distinctly higher word counts than anything in new Dwarf aren't figments of my imagination. These things existed in the old Dwarf, they no longer do, even if they weren't in every single issue, at least they existed.
------
yeah, all of those things happened but once or twice a year each, and unless you collected all their games it wasn't much use to you - someone who only played one game got much less content!
Automatically Appended Next Post: wd 173 - may 1994 - 75 pages
contents not including news and 'eavy metal
eldar pheonix lords - stats etc
undead - fluff previewing warhammer armies
epic space marine q & a
blood bowl game report
-----
that's it.
Automatically Appended Next Post: wd 108 - dec 88 - 80 pages
contents not including new and 'eavy metal
john blanche on the lost and the damned - art
chaos dwarf ballistics - stats
dark future shooting
realm of chaos tactics
witch elves - fluff
warhammer armies errata
chaplains and commissars rules
warhammer fantasy roleplay missing
book reviews
blood bowl player stats
that's a good one, lots of stuff there.
Automatically Appended Next Post: wd 255 - mar 00 - 135 pages
contents not including news and eavy metal
tyranid planetary invasions - rules
golden demon 200 - pictures
the red terror - rules
dwarf kind alrik - rules
gmes development - feature
standard bearer - jervis waffles
night goblins - how to build an army
battle report - lotr warhammer tactics - army selection
index xenos - fluff
cavalry in lotr
daddyorchips wrote: what i don't understand is why everyone thinks that white dwarf was better in the old days. i've recently collected about 50% of the WDs between issue 100 and now and quite frankly the modern ones are much better. some good stuff happened in the earlier stuff, you got how to make terrain once a year, you got a tactica now and again. but mostly it was exactly the same as it is now, except less of it. i think it's nostalgia rather than rationality.
You are out of your mind.
I just selected White Dwarf 102 at random to look at.
3 pages profiling an artist of the time.
2 pages of news on the company's design team, upcoming games (indeed...) and talking about new miniature lines and events.
1 page of scifi/fantasy book reviews.
1 page of comic.
4 pages of The Fimir Army. Including all rules, stats and points.
9 pages of Fimir adventure for WHFR.
8 pages of art, writing, story and model previews (indeed...) of the upcoming Dark Future game.
2 pages of fan designed banners and shields.
6 pages of art and detailed instructions for painting faces and eyes in Eavy Metal.
2 pages of full rules for the new Eldar War Walker.
2 pages of On The Boil, a Q&A on using magic in WHFR.
2 pages of rules for using kickers in Blood Bowl.
2 pages of new characters for use in Curse of the Mummy's Tomb game.
3 pages on Daemon naming.
7 pages of Index Astartes, giving full rules for campaign injury charts and using healing characters such as medics in such campaigns.
Back cover 6 new Star Players to use in Blood Bowl.
Are you going to seriously compare what's been shunted out of late to that?
contents not including news and eavy metal and showing off miniatures
jervis rambling
battle report (20 pages thereof)
john blanche
converting ogres
painting tyranids
so there you go. i picked a load at random and compared them and they're all basically the same gak. there are less games now, but more pages of wd. there was no golden age! if it's gak, it always has been, if it's good, it always has been!
daddyorchips wrote: what i don't understand is why everyone thinks that white dwarf was better in the old days. i've recently collected about 50% of the WDs between issue 100 and now and quite frankly the modern ones are much better. some good stuff happened in the earlier stuff, you got how to make terrain once a year, you got a tactica now and again. but mostly it was exactly the same as it is now, except less of it. i think it's nostalgia rather than rationality.
You are out of your mind.
I just selected White Dwarf 102 at random to look at.
3 pages profiling an artist of the time.
2 pages of news on the company's design team, upcoming games (indeed...) and talking about new miniature lines and events.
1 page of scifi/fantasy book reviews.
1 page of comic.
4 pages of The Fimir Army. Including all rules, stats and points.
9 pages of Fimir adventure for WHFR.
8 pages of art, writing, story and model previews (indeed...) of the upcoming Dark Future game.
2 pages of fan designed banners and shields.
6 pages of art and detailed instructions for painting faces and eyes in Eavy Metal.
2 pages of full rules for the new Eldar War Walker.
2 pages of On The Boil, a Q&A on using magic in WHFR.
2 pages of rules for using kickers in Blood Bowl.
2 pages of new characters for use in Curse of the Mummy's Tomb game.
3 pages on Daemon naming.
7 pages of Index Astartes, giving full rules for campaign injury charts and using healing characters such as medics in such campaigns.
Back cover 6 new Star Players to use in Blood Bowl.
Are you going to seriously compare what's been shunted out of late to that?
Have you seen the painting tutorials in recent WDs.
4 or 5 years ago there was a great balance of painting articles in WD. An Eavy metal masterclass for experienced painters, and a couple of army painting guides of varying standard but still decent quality from the hobby team. The guides they have now are terrible.
Have you seen the painting tutorials in recent WDs.
4 or 5 years ago there was a great balance of painting articles in WD. An Eavy metal masterclass for experienced painters, and a couple of army painting guides of varying standard but still decent quality from the hobby team. The guides they have now are terrible.
Anything's better than a couple of pics with no description on what's going on. The Eavy metal master classes were great there was always some useful tips.
shingouki wrote: Bit late to the party,what happens to regular subscribers???
Flashman wrote: Already stated in this thread but repeated below for your convenience
Current in-store White Dwarf subscriber?
You will be able to redeem your remaining subscription vouchers for a monthly copy of Warhammer: Visions in any Games Workshop store.
Current mail order White Dwarf subscriber?
If you have a subscription to the current White Dwarf magazine, your subscription will automatically switch over to Warhammer: Visions. With your first issue, we’re also sending you a free copy of the first issue of new White Dwarf weekly, along with a letter from Jes, the editor, explaining the changes. The price you pay will not change during your subscription period.
From March, we’ll begin mailing out your monthly subscriber copy of Warhammer: Visions early so that (Warp storms permitting, of course) you’ll receive your copy during the week before it goes on sale in stores.
There's certainly no more than what, a year? left in the licence, so even if it is some sort of tacit admission, all that's really happened is it's happened a bit early.
so there you go. i picked a load at random and compared them and they're all basically the same gak. there are less games now, but more pages of wd. there was no golden age! if it's gak, it always has been, if it's good, it always has been!
Erm.. that's certainly an interesting opinion!
I think if you look at the articles, the information they contain, the way they are written, there is a massive disparity in quality. So not so much what they are covering (although there is a difference in that too), but the 'journalistic' content. I've seen similar things happen to other magazines in different industries, a couple of computer mags spring to mind where it was obvious that they had cut down on costs/staff, and the content of the magazine suffered badly as a result. Usually, not long before they close.
I know this from the average toilet-read time scores of the modern magazine, which dropped from a week or so to barely a single visit!
I like the look of the new magazines..... So is it White Dwarf weekly and then also Warhammer Visons?
Anyone know what the costs will be for them? It says the cost of the WD will be the same as a pot of paint so what $4.50? I wonder if the monthly one will be what $20 maybe $15? Considering its like 230 pages? I am going to pick up the copies of both the first ones just to see what it is all about. Maybe it will be a nice change...although I have never bought the previous versions.
AlexHolker wrote:Something that has been pointed out on Warseer: Warhammer Visions is an A5 book. For what is, loosely speaking, an art book.
Maybe someone on Warseer has read my post from 2 weeks ago
Kroothawk wrote:Some more info retailers got:
(...)
2.) Warhammer Visions is indeed mainly photos with short descriptions in 3 (!) languages and no editorial content like columns. Size is smaller, but more pages.
Its a scam to make more money, isn't it obvious? rather than having a £5.50 monthly magazine they are bringing out a weekly one (probably priced around £2.50-£3.00) plus the monthly one probably costing the same amount as the old one, they are trying to quadruple profits... plus anyone expecting refunds i wouldn't get your hopes up, this is GW we are talking about here...
It's a shame there'll be an end to the monthly WD. For me, the cover of WD 181 with the Mega-Gargant half of the Titan Legions box art was the first thing that drew me to getting into the hobby properly. That said I stopped buying it regularly a long, LONG time ago and the few I've had given to me or made a point of buying recently for things like the flyer rules have indeed seemed more like new release and store listing catalogues as others have said.
As for the new ones... dare say I'll get the first editions on general principle but can't see it thereafter.
Quite amusing, I was at a games convention today. There were a bunch of guys from Warlord Games, one of them was thumbing through an old copy of WD. He said, "Oh look, these are all the people I work with"
Lovely as it is to see Dwarfs get some attention, I do worry that now we've seen the full WD cover and it mentions rules, that the new weekly WD will become the same as data slates, like a DLC for the Army Book...
redbristles wrote: Lovely as it is to see Dwarfs get some attention, I do worry that now we've seen the full WD cover and it mentions rules, that the new weekly WD will become the same as data slates, like a DLC for the Army Book...
wrt the WD nostalgia, I was mainly a 40k player. I have played 4 or 5 games of WHFB in nearly 20 years of Wargaming. But I remember those Warhammer articles from the guy who used all the footnotes. I loved reading those articles. Engaging and interesting writing that made me forget that I didn't play the game. It would get me interested in WHFB for a short while, until I remembered I had no one around to play it against. That is the kind of content WD had and needs again.
The stories they used to put in before Black Library got popular were nice. I remember the Kharn story with the kill counter. It was awesome.
I still have every WD from about 125 or so to 320 I think. It seemed like every time they added a neat new feature, 2 things I liked would go away. I finally stopped getting WD when my FLGS couldn't get it in stock any more. Oddly enough, a new GW shop opened in town shortly after. But just by missing a couple months I was able to realize how little the magazine added to my hobbying.
redbristles wrote: Lovely as it is to see Dwarfs get some attention, I do worry that now we've seen the full WD cover and it mentions rules, that the new weekly WD will become the same as data slates, like a DLC for the Army Book...
That's what people have been saying they want.
"We want rules in White Dwarf! CONTENT!"
Oh of course, I completely agree. I just hope they don't leave things deliberately out of Codices/Army Books in order to try and sell the weekly mag, that's all.
But I remember those Warhammer articles from the guy who used all the footnotes. I loved reading those articles.
That guy was hilarious, all his mates playing in his garage while they all ate greasy fish and chips. Really good reads. I hope they consider getting more non GW employees to guest write some articles.
Hey Everyone,
Welcome to your weekly look at the upcoming titles from Games Workshop Digital Editions.
This Saturday sees the release of the new weekly incarnation of Games Workshop’s White Dwarf magazine.
I caught up with the editor of the magazine, Jes Bickham, to get his thoughts on the new digital edition of the mag.
It's been a long few months in White Dwarf towers; the team (otherwise known as my scrivener-servitors) have been chained to their word-machines day and night to produce the print versions of the new weekly White Dwarf and the new monthly Warhammer: Visions. They're finally going to be released this weekend, and we're hugely excited to be able to share them with you.
But that's not all! Because we're also proud to announce a digital version of White Dwarf, available in both epub and mobi versions, meaning that you, the good people of Earth, can read White Dwarf every single week on the appliance of your choice!* We've also produced an iPad edition of Warhammer: Visions too. I hope you enjoy them!
*Within reason – Kindle HD and Android phones, for example, rather than toasters or soda pumps.
Thanks, Jes.
You’ll be able to download the eBook edition of the new magazine this Saturday. Issue one kicks off in style with the articles on Warhammer Dwarfs, Tyranid monstrous creatures, painting tips, new rules and the lowdown on all the latest releases.
Check back on Saturday to get your copy.
That’s it for this week, thanks for reading!
- Eddie
from the comments on FB : ebook edition will cost the same as the print version.
Which is the same as a pot of Citadel paint " wherever you live" ...
.... is paint more expensive in certain parts of the world too perchance ?
No epub versions of Visions, for now anyway.
No subscription for/to the digital version of WD. Will be monthly subs. for Visions.
Wow they've really missed the mark with Visions, and here I was hoping it would be good (well, better, at least)
That thing really needs more text, I mean, sure, it's meant to be a picture/photo publication, but for Kit Bash and Parade Ground I'd expect more text, and that battle report, wow. I didn't think they could do worse but they've proved me wrong again...
I can just browse Dakka's Battle Reports section, P&M Blogs and Showcase for much for value. That thing literally doesn't have a single redeeming value I can see, especially as I don't like 'Eavy Metal's often gaudy paintjobs.
Right, so, lets see how difficult it is to cancel my subscription then - and get any money back from it.
So, basically, it's an Argos catalogue that costs £7.50. Plus, you can't even make out half the photographs, because they're double page spreads and you miss the middle.
I cannot fathom why anyone with beyond a rudimentary understanding of the internet would buy their Visions publication.
Through the internet I can...
Go to GW's own web site to see high quality pictures of last month's releases
Visit innumerable forums and blogs to access high quality kit bash and hobby articles that actually go in depth into the process of assembly as well as providing the opportunity to ask questions
Visit CMON to see award winning model entries
So why would I pay over 10 dollars to GW to do the same in a magazine format?
I cant understand why people would want to buy the weekly White Dwarf....hear me out.
The Visions at least comes only once a month and has enough photos to keep you entertained when relaxing with it on your sofa. Seeing some 200+ pages of quality photographs is nice.
The 30 page WD on the other hand is a joke. What are its contents? New releases! If I am following White Dwarf Daily and on top of that, go to GW's site, I can see the pics of their new kits + rudimentary info there already. Why do I need a magazine for that? There's also no batrep at all.
Did gw just deside to pay the guy who does the back covers of white dwarf a few extra quid a week to do a few more photos and bung a few brief discriptions into google translate to bulk out the rather sparse text?
Seriously can't see any benefit to buying this each month it adds absolutely nothing to the hobby for the gaming veteran at least the weekly wd looks to have some value although not having a subscription service for it seems like a shot in the foot.
In light of GW's launch of its new Warhammer Visions and White Dwarf weekly publications, I respectfully ask please could you allow a window of opportunity in the forums for all dakka dakka members to vent their frustration at the death of a once great magazine.
There would have to be no restrictions on foul and/or abusive language, and no penalty/sanctions against any member for doing so. I suggest a window of say, 1 hour (to be decided by your good self or the mods.)
I make this request for the good of the forum. I fear that many members may be overcome by mental anguish and/or instability, and I would argue that it would be better in the long run for forum members to vent their frustration in this way, rather than see individual actions, such as a commando raid against GWHQ to kidnap Tom Kirby (you are aware there are many dakka members with considerable military experience.)
Because quite frankly, the new GW magazines are the biggest pile of brown stuff I have ever seen, and I've been watching the English Football/soccer team for years, so I'm well qualified to identify brown stuff!
White Dwarf weekly I like and will likely be buying it for upcoming releases that I’m interested in. But Visions is a joke!!!
It’s a pure manifestation of everything hobbyists hated about the monthly White Dwarf! Worst they’re lazyness of it all and how images are used over and over again through cropping or different angles!
It makes sense they wouldn’t want the buyer to look at the content before purchase by sealing the magazine up.
Nice one GW and heres me thinking you’d start taking action to avoid the iceburg your company was going to hit after the financial alarm was sounded this month!!!
for us UK peeps, WH Smiths have had monthly for last 4 days and are selling it at old 5.50 price.. I wont be buying again, 99% pictures and what little text there is is bulked up by the fact its translated several times under each photo..
very poor GW... very poor.. its time to put the monthly mag out of its misery...
Regnak wrote: for us UK peeps, WH Smiths have had monthly for last 4 days and are selling it at old 5.50 price.. I wont be buying again, 99% pictures and what little text there is is bulked up by the fact its translated several times under each photo..
very poor GW... very poor.. its time to put the monthly mag out of its misery...
Can't comment on weekly until tomorrow...
I'm reading the weekly now. So far it just seems like a slimmed down version of last months White Dwarf. To be honest, I don't actually mind it. It's definitely worth the £2.30 you pay (on first inspection) The paint guide is more for the beginners etc but I think that's what they're aiming towards, seeing Golden Daemon painted minis is horrifically off-putting
Spoiler:
Tiny little editorial on the inside cover,
half of page 1 is the contents with new release on the other half,
2-9 are dwarf models,
10-13 is the black library/ebook/ios and visions release list,
14-15 is something about The Scouting Game from Jervis Johnson,
16-19 is something about tyranids,
20-23 is paint splatter,
24-25 are the rules for Belegar Ironhammer,
designer notes on 26-27,
28-29 'the week in white dwarf,
30 is an assortment of stuff 'weapon of the week', 'how do they do that?', 'readers model of the week
31 is 'ask grombrindal' and a small interview with a black library bloke,
32 'hobby in the white dwarf bunker'
and inside back cover is what's next week and another ad for Visions
I've put it as a spoiler in case people don't actually want to know
Derp, I've just scrolled up and saw the video. i don't feel so special anymore. well, special in the sense that I should be sat licking windows
reds8n wrote: Does it explain what the Liber chaotica/something like this is in the new release section ?
Index Chaotica...?
It has a Khorne demon on, a bloodletter I think
it says
"Index Chaotica is a series of articles delving into the dark lore being the creatures, servants and weapons of Chaos. ID: Volume 1 collets all eight of the previously published issues into one blasphemous (digital) tome. Within it you will find artwork and background describing Plague Marines, Noise Marines The Eye of Terror, Rubricae, Possessed, The Garden of Nurgle, Defilers, and juggernauts of khorne. ID: V1 is available in ePub and Mobi formats"
I honestly cannot see GW able to deviate from the course they have taken.
Anything that would be of use would be spun off as a "micro-transaction / publication" to be bought as an epub which leaves precious little content for the mags they are flogging.
I cannot see it being much different than the original content other than split between the two and even more filler.
What I would like to see in the new mags but is extremely unlikely:
- Khornversion Khorner: Featured cool ways of combining GW kits to create an alternate version of their models.
- Secret Sauce: Some interesting technique or recipe for painting or assembling that produces an awesome result.
- Armies Collide: Like a tale of two gamers but the army selection, build, paint and battle report with the added twist that it is to be blind, no knowing what the other guy has selected.
- Fan Fare: Dedicate a space for submitted publication from customers/fans of anything to do with the hobby that is cool.
- Forge Apprentice: Tips and tricks and possibly step by step build of various forge world kits and best practices with resin.
- Head Space: Pick interesting topic, pick two GW "veterans" to talk it out / debate. The monologue style is getting a little old... verbal cage match would be ideal.
- The Cultist: Some article of interesting use of GW IP: Cosplay, the giant radio controlled land-raider anything that is not the "traditional" application of the hobby.
- Rulez of Law: Pick the flavor of the month (week?) some inflammatory grey zone in the rules, outline the scenario and clarify, play it out as intended. Designed to kill certain issues dead.
- The Eye: Have a regular cartoon strip. Call up that guy from "Turn Signals on a Land Raider" (TSOALR).
- Fly the Colors: Focus on one faction and give detail on markings and colors and 30k vs 40k changes.
I think all of these would generate interest and could be spread out over a ton of issues with little thought.
People complained a lot about the state of White Dwarf the past few years, but it was brilliant compared to Warhammer Visions which appears to be flipping useless. The White Dwarf Weekly still looks to have at least some useful hobby content, but being so small and model range specific I'll only pick it up when an issue is of particular interest. Warhammer Visions doesn't appear to be useful or worthwhile at all. And for the first time in more than 20 years, I won't have a GW magazine subscription.
I honestly cannot see GW able to deviate from the course they have taken.
Anything that would be of use would be spun off as a "micro-transaction / publication" to be bought as an epub which leaves precious little content for the mags they are flogging.
I cannot see it being much different than the original content other than split between the two and even more filler.
What I would like to see in the new mags but is extremely unlikely:
- Khornversion Khorner: Featured cool ways of combining GW kits to create an alternate version of their models.
- Secret Sauce: Some interesting technique or recipe for painting or assembling that produces an awesome result.
- Armies Collide: Like a tale of two gamers but the army selection, build, paint and battle report with the added twist that it is to be blind, no knowing what the other guy has selected.
- Fan Fare: Dedicate a space for submitted publication from customers/fans of anything to do with the hobby that is cool.
- Forge Apprentice: Tips and tricks and possibly step by step build of various forge world kits and best practices with resin.
- Head Space: Pick interesting topic, pick two GW "veterans" to talk it out / debate. The monologue style is getting a little old... verbal cage match would be ideal.
- The Cultist: Some article of interesting use of GW IP: Cosplay, the giant radio controlled land-raider anything that is not the "traditional" application of the hobby.
- Rulez of Law: Pick the flavor of the month (week?) some inflammatory grey zone in the rules, outline the scenario and clarify, play it out as intended. Designed to kill certain issues dead.
- The Eye: Have a regular cartoon strip. Call up that guy from "Turn Signals on a Land Raider" (TSOALR).
- Fly the Colors: Focus on one faction and give detail on markings and colors and 30k vs 40k changes.
I think all of these would generate interest and could be spread out over a ton of issues with little thought.
Talizvar wrote: I honestly cannot see GW able to deviate from the course they have taken.
Anything that would be of use would be spun off as a "micro-transaction / publication" to be bought as an epub which leaves precious little content for the mags they are flogging.
I cannot see it being much different than the original content other than split between the two and even more filler.
What I would like to see in the new mags but is extremely unlikely:
- Khornversion Khorner: Featured cool ways of combining GW kits to create an alternate version of their models.
- Secret Sauce: Some interesting technique or recipe for painting or assembling that produces an awesome result.
- Armies Collide: Like a tale of two gamers but the army selection, build, paint and battle report with the added twist that it is to be blind, no knowing what the other guy has selected.
- Fan Fare: Dedicate a space for submitted publication from customers/fans of anything to do with the hobby that is cool.
- Forge Apprentice: Tips and tricks and possibly step by step build of various forge world kits and best practices with resin.
- Head Space: Pick interesting topic, pick two GW "veterans" to talk it out / debate. The monologue style is getting a little old... verbal cage match would be ideal.
- The Cultist: Some article of interesting use of GW IP: Cosplay, the giant radio controlled land-raider anything that is not the "traditional" application of the hobby.
- Rulez of Law: Pick the flavor of the month (week?) some inflammatory grey zone in the rules, outline the scenario and clarify, play it out as intended. Designed to kill certain issues dead.
- The Eye: Have a regular cartoon strip. Call up that guy from "Turn Signals on a Land Raider" (TSOALR).
- Fly the Colors: Focus on one faction and give detail on markings and colors and 30k vs 40k changes.
I think all of these would generate interest and could be spread out over a ton of issues with little thought.
So when are you starting your online fanzine? I'm in...
Tim
Talizvar wrote: I honestly cannot see GW able to deviate from the course they have taken.
Anything that would be of use would be spun off as a "micro-transaction / publication" to be bought as an epub which leaves precious little content for the mags they are flogging.
I cannot see it being much different than the original content other than split between the two and even more filler.
What I would like to see in the new mags but is extremely unlikely:
- Khornversion Khorner: Featured cool ways of combining GW kits to create an alternate version of their models.
- Secret Sauce: Some interesting technique or recipe for painting or assembling that produces an awesome result.
- Armies Collide: Like a tale of two gamers but the army selection, build, paint and battle report with the added twist that it is to be blind, no knowing what the other guy has selected.
- Fan Fare: Dedicate a space for submitted publication from customers/fans of anything to do with the hobby that is cool.
- Forge Apprentice: Tips and tricks and possibly step by step build of various forge world kits and best practices with resin.
- Head Space: Pick interesting topic, pick two GW "veterans" to talk it out / debate. The monologue style is getting a little old... verbal cage match would be ideal.
- The Cultist: Some article of interesting use of GW IP: Cosplay, the giant radio controlled land-raider anything that is not the "traditional" application of the hobby.
- Rulez of Law: Pick the flavor of the month (week?) some inflammatory grey zone in the rules, outline the scenario and clarify, play it out as intended. Designed to kill certain issues dead.
- The Eye: Have a regular cartoon strip. Call up that guy from "Turn Signals on a Land Raider" (TSOALR).
- Fly the Colors: Focus on one faction and give detail on markings and colors and 30k vs 40k changes.
I think all of these would generate interest and could be spread out over a ton of issues with little thought.
I really am only putting a name and detail to things I have seen in the past and had the thought "glad I picked this up!".
The main reason to go to Dakka is to get new ideas, some excitement in getting the imagination going. Hearing about others who "get" what is special about an immersive fantasy world and being able to play in it in multiple forms of media. GW is still not really focusing on that objective.
I have only two answers to me starting up a fanzine:
1) 2 kids and a wife.
2) GW IP lawyers.
I happily donate the ideas to the community and have more... if anyone from GW is reading this: steal as you see fit, I will sign whatever is needed.
Guys, I hate to be the one person who says something really silly but what were you expecting Warhammer Visions to be? They said quite clearly it was to be a picture magazine. A very high quality finished product. That's all. They didn't say it was going to reinvent the wheel. They mentioned there would be lots of pics and would have more images given over to "our" models. Finally, if those people who think they could make a better magazine, why don't you go ahead and do one to the quality of WV, or aren't you orky enough.
Don't confuse glossy pages for quality. There are online magazines producing much better content for free even if the layout is amateurish in comparison. Visions' quality is entirely superficial.
If you're a Beasts of War backstage subscriber, Jake Thornton has a very neat interview with them, where he talks about the old days of White Dwarf - Around 1991 - 1997 when he was working on the magazine.
It's cool to have more blanchitsu or kibash articles, but it's mostly filled with pictures like " This techmarine has really nothing special" or " A very casual group of orcs oppose a Tyranoflex that you've seen a hundred times before" or " Mike painted his firewarrior like everyone else".
Some nice pictures, but there are a 100 times more nice pictures in dakka. ( all free, do i need to mention it ?)
Left Hand of the Pheonix wrote: Guys, I hate to be the one person who says something really silly but what were you expecting Warhammer Visions to be? They said quite clearly it was to be a picture magazine. A very high quality finished product. That's all. They didn't say it was going to reinvent the wheel. They mentioned there would be lots of pics and would have more images given over to "our" models.
I partially agree. That YouTube reviewer got on my nerves. It's a photo book, for chrissakes. After you figure that out, it's not something that deserves the words "curious" and "surreal" 37 times.
Now, I do think it's kinda bogus that existing WD subs will move over to Visions. The sub is cancelled easily enough, but I still get that Visions probably isn't anything like what people signed up for. It doesn't seem like something that needs to be monthly...quarterly would be plenty. Then again, they might have simply wanted *something* monthly to make sorting out the old WD subs easier.
I have the first weekly WD...and I like the format overall. No, it's not the WD of yesteryear. But it's got a little content and some nice pictures for the price of a comic book.
I think it's great on the newsstand. If I flip through it and see an interesting article, it's an cheap impulse buy. If not, I can skip that issue. This is nothing but win as far as I'm concerned. The $11 or $12 price tag of old WD was too much for a magazine impulse buy or if I only wanted one particular article.
It's certainly a different format, but I think it has a chance to be reasonably successful once people get used to it.
jojo_monkey_boy wrote: I cannot fathom why anyone with beyond a rudimentary understanding of the internet would buy their Visions publication.
Through the internet I can...
Go to GW's own web site to see high quality pictures of last month's releases
Visit innumerable forums and blogs to access high quality kit bash and hobby articles that actually go in depth into the process of assembly as well as providing the opportunity to ask questions
Visit CMON to see award winning model entries
So why would I pay over 10 dollars to GW to do the same in a magazine format?
Because I would bet GW thinks none of that stuff exists, or worse that nobody cares. I've read elsewhere that they apparently hate that sites like this exist, so it would not surprise me at all if they were just totally ignorant of the fact it's 2014 and not 1994 and think that people would rather buy their magazine for "the hobby" versus look at better things and communicate with other people on a site like this.
I'm always impressed with the restraint shown by former GW employees when commenting on the new regime in interviews/blogs. Be fun to see someone let rip occasionally, but maintaining a professional attitude is to be respected.
Interestingly in the comments, someone references the youtube review video and he kind of mocks the guy for showing every single page. IMHO, that's what made the review so great - by showing every single page, we were left in no doubt there was absolutely nothing of interest in the damn thing.
Interestingly in the comments, someone references the youtube review video and he kind of mocks the guy for showing every single page. IMHO, that's what made the review so great - by showing every single page, we were left in no doubt there was absolutely nothing of interest in the damn thing.
Yeah - totally agree. That's the beauty of the video report over a static article that can only show a few images - he can flip through the entire thing as he talks. Should leave no doubt in the mind of the viewer whether this is something you'd ever want to buy.
I love the guy raging about it being a terrible review because he didn't do an in-depth analysis...Uh... it's a picture book! He talked about the change in size, price, discussed odd layout choices, re-use of images, lack of article text, and 3-language text blurbs. What else is there to say about it other than flip through it and reveal to everyone how useless it is.
Wow, you know what after looking at that vid actually cancel what I said about buying the first editions on general principle. I'd rather spend the money on more paints & brushes. Didn't expect Visions to hit all of the marks people will have wanted but being THAT light on content is ridiculous, and while the weekly WD does seem to have some merits... unless there's something specific I'm after (which I'm sure you good folks here on Dakka would confirm talking about it) it won't be worth it to me.
I buy enough expensive pamphlets going to football games with match programmes, and eventually they just pile up before being separated into 'keeps' and 'bins'. This would definitely end up being the same, the difference being I care enough about my club being as successful as it can be to view it as a little donation to them in keeping it going, but GW hardly needs that extra revenue.
Now imagine how big the gap must be between the deciding managers and the HQ staff familiar with the game, to let such a product hit the market. It's like Morloks and Eloi in one room. Now Tom Kirby must find someone who is responsible for this, and it most certainly won't be him.
You've got to admit, some of it is Joker level genius/insanity.
Switch to a weekly release cycle (Which I actually did predict ages ago), release the new models for the newly updated army.
Then don't release the new Army Book allowing you to use the new aforementioned models, until later / the end of the month, unless people buy the weekly magazine, which has the rules in it and will be completely useless and invalidated, within 3 weeks.
Left Hand of the Pheonix wrote: Guys, I hate to be the one person who says something really silly but what were you expecting Warhammer Visions to be? They said quite clearly it was to be a picture magazine.
It's an A5 picture magazine, their choice of pictures is uninspired, and their use of those pictures isn't much better.
It's why I said you could do the same thing but not be crap:
B4 instead of A5 so you have enough room for pictures worthy of the picture magazine label.
Pick pictures people would want to see, on a common theme. Old black and white artworks, conversions, Golden Daemon winners, all for the Tyranids.
For every full page photograph or artwork, have a full page of close-ups, WIP shots, info about the artist or what have you.
So they trumpeted Blanchitsu as a selling point for Visions but there are only 4 (!) actual pages of content which unfortunately, as someone posted here on Dakka many days ago, is basically John presenting yet another Nurgle Lord conversion. Oy vey... Well, there's £7.50 I won't have to spend after all. I was going to get a copy of both first issues just for the sake of it but, I am more depressed now having watched the youtube review.
White Dwarf weekly seems more promising but, I don't play WHFB so, not much in the first issue to interest me much. Hmm, maybe time to quit. I did once for about three or four years from 2006 but I guess White Dwarf really is dead. Very sad.
Left Hand of the Pheonix wrote: Finally, if those people who think they could make a better magazine, why don't you go ahead and do one to the quality of WV, or aren't you orky enough.
I think we are doing that on Dakka already. There is a percentage of collectors and players here who put their heart into modelling, painting and tactics, and do it exceptionally well. Some take incredible photos and post them, which are not hard to find. Thankfully, Dakka is also a place for the people still finding their way or just beginning. White Dwarf and GW seem to be just dumping great swathes of their fan base.
eflix29 wrote:Some nice pictures, but there are a 100 times more nice pictures in dakka. ( all free, do i need to mention it ?)
So I wonder if GW will attempt some kind of recourse against Dakka for reducing its bottom line?
Just went through the iPad version and this is really bad. Worst of all, Apple says magazine sales are final. Looks like i'm getting a whole year of this "magazine" since i forgot to turn auto resubscribe off.
White Dwarf, sadly, has been weak since the late 90s, maybe early 2000s. I say that because they stopped cool fluff, extra rules and content you couldn't get anywhere else. Further, the reality of the ever expanding internet and popularity of great sites like this one and others negated a lot of the coolness of covering the Games Days, and well painted miniatures. The newer WD format had the same tired articles trotted out each month, so variety was non-existent. It really saddens me though. WD was a great monthly escape for me and my brothers for a long time as kids, and then for awhile after, but alas those days are far behind us.
Samurai_Eduh wrote: Just went through the iPad version and this is really bad. Worst of all, Apple says magazine sales are final. Looks like i'm getting a whole year of this "magazine" since i forgot to turn auto resubscribe off.
Tell them that the magazine you subscribed to was cancelled and you did not give permission for them to transfer your subscription to this other magazine.
seems the digital subscription price has gone up from $65 last year, to $80 this time around...
Warhammer Visions 1 was the last issue in my subscription from last year...
i just checked it out, and i'm not sure if i want to renew my subscription...
the Golden Demon coverage has some really good photography, and is the best part of this issue...
Blanchitsu is cool, but seemed to have been cut in half, content-wise:(...
Kitbash had some fun converted Ork trucks...
Army of the month wasn't bad, either...
the loss of designer notes from the sculptors and Codex writers was a bummer...
seems any wordy content will go to White Dwarf Weekly, which doesn't seem like it will be available to download, screwing me here in Mexico...
all in all, it's a sad move...
after 30 years of collecting, i may just be done with my favorite magazine:(...
Left Hand of the Pheonix wrote: Guys, I hate to be the one person who says something really silly but what were you expecting Warhammer Visions to be? They said quite clearly it was to be a picture magazine. A very high quality finished product. That's all. They didn't say it was going to reinvent the wheel. They mentioned there would be lots of pics and would have more images given over to "our" models. Finally, if those people who think they could make a better magazine, why don't you go ahead and do one to the quality of WV, or aren't you orky enough.
This really isn't a good defense of Warhammer Visions, because even if it's meant to be a pure picture book it fails miserably at that.
The pictures are unspired schlock, the same cold lifeless setups of GW stock models we've seen over and over. Many of the pics are simply zoom-in/zoom-outs of other pics. If it was a book of conversions, interesting armies, and original 40k artwork it'd have some coffeetable book value but in its current carnation it's utterly devoid of any worth getting.
The book itself just reflects GW's disconnect and how they hate/don't understand that new-fangled internet. This is the kind of thing you'd see back in the day before any person under the age of 92 is able to use a computer and look at these kind of galleries themselves as soon as they hear about them.
went into GW today, the store didn't have an open copy of the weekly but they let me (carefully) skim through a copy of it. I was to scarred (I think that's the word) to have a serious look through it (this is like, the second time ive gone to the store and "hung out" after buying something. but it looked good, tiny, but good. it had enough pictures, good content in all. but I am sworn to my subscription, and cant wait to see some blanche, I find the guy creepy, but it gives me ideas for stuff to sell to my friend.
Had a browse through a copy at my local store today. Roughly 1/3 to 1/2 is useless. The tyranid pics, retail list, and battle report art pathetic and a waste of space. The GD, Army of the Month, and Blanchitsu (though short) were good. Was hoping for more of that.
That they recycled photo shoots from the vanity shots in the WD Weekly for the tyranids makes it worse.
Saxon wrote: Is it just me... But I can't find White Dwarf weekly on iBooks?
Think its only on the Black Library site.
found it on the BL site...
hopefully they put it in the iBook store...
i buy all my digital stuff with iTunes cards...
no joy for WD Weekly with iTunes money yet:(...
Anybody excited about an early leak of Warhammer Visions #2?
Magazine seems nothing but a placeholder, done by an imperfect google image search program that does not include proper formating and rotating of pics.
Kroothawk wrote: Anybody excited about an early leak of Warhammer Visions #2? .
Not really.
Incidentally, in the letter that subscribers got sent with their magazines this month, Jes invites people to comment by emailing him so I suggest if anyone feels strongly then they should send a polite email to him expressing their displeasure.
Not that it will do much good but I may well send an email voicing my disappointment at the format change. If GW really are serious about changing WD for the better (and that isn't clear at this point) then they will appreciate and use the deluge of customer feedback that they are likely to get from this change, whether it's email feedback or the volume of cancelled subscriptions.
I just noticed that in the digital weekly version, the entire white dwarf staffs emails are included, so maybe we can write them directly to leave feedback.
Samurai_Eduh wrote:I just noticed that in the digital weekly version, the entire white dwarf staffs emails are included, so maybe we can write them directly to leave feedback.
filbert wrote:
Incidentally, in the letter that subscribers got sent with their magazines this month, Jes invites people to comment by emailing him so I suggest if anyone feels strongly then they should send a polite email to him expressing their displeasure.
Not that it will do much good but I may well send an email voicing my disappointment at the format change. If GW really are serious about changing WD for the better (and that isn't clear at this point) then they will appreciate and use the deluge of customer feedback that they are likely to get from this change, whether it's email feedback or the volume of cancelled subscriptions.
Anyone notice the sneak peek of dwarf army rules? +1 strength on the charge, no leadership test for marching and a grudge table that gives varying levels of hatred.
Well having read the new ones, here is my opinion. WDW is very good. Short, sweet and also has some useful bits in. It also has some humour in, if read carefully. Visions however was a bit, well, poor. Pics only, not much text, the foreign languages, while a good idea, are a bit jarring. The paint splatter for all the nid paint schemes was excellent, inspiring for nid players. Could do better, but I can see the idea behind it, showing last months stuff in better detail. And for everyone to know, the battle rep was a bit crap, needs more detail, like points, and how on earth that forgefiend killed 2 flyers! Chaos won btw.
Saxon wrote: Is it just me... But I can't find White Dwarf weekly on iBooks?
Think its only on the Black Library site.
found it on the BL site...
hopefully they put it in the iBook store...
i buy all my digital stuff with iTunes cards...
no joy for WD Weekly with iTunes money yet:(...
cheers
jah
WDW is now available via iBooks. From the sample, which I downloaded, it appears to be a straight copy of the ePub file. The sample has NONE of the fancy apple iBook formatting that the previous WD or interactive Codices have. Since the subscription feature is gone and the content appears identical to the ePub, I can't see any reason to buy the iBook version, if you are an Apple fanboy. While the content might be good, I'm disappointed by the execution.
On another note, WD:V #1 was the last issue of my digital WD subscription. After about a 20 min flip through the pretty pictures, the 20 pages of minimal content (paint platter, kit bash and Blanshitsu) I opted not to renew my subscription. Was anyone else bothered by the reduced written word content in order to fit two other languages in the same document?
I think GW has achieved thier mission. After a year of digital subscription I'm going back to stopping in the game store on Friday/Saturday to see if WDW is worth buying after I flip through it.
Re the multiple languages in Visions, there are apparently multiple editions - here in NZ, my (presumably Asia-Pacific) edition has English, Japanese and Chinese. Anyone found any other international editions? E.g. English/Spanish/something else for the Americas?
Visions is roughly what I was expecting, and useful to me as a converter/painter. But certainly I'd like far more models I haven't seen before, as opposed to what look like leftovers from when they did the photography session for the Nid codex. And yes, the shrunken page size makes no sense, and the rotated images are just annoying.
As far as the Weekly goes, I'll have to annoy my FLGS by flicking through each issue before knowing whether I want that particular one - issue 1 was of little interest to me personally.
found White Dwarf Weekly on iBooks...
thanks punchdub...
it is the epub version, and looks horrible on the iPad...
some pages are just one sentence, pics don't enlarge, articles end, and new ones begin, on the same page, with no break or indication...
it just looks like a jumbled mess...
very poor layout:(...
they had just really brought the digital White Dwarf up to speed with all the iBooks doo-dads in the last few issues, now they have taken some huge steps backward...
i hate to say it, but i'm out...
sorry GW, don't let the door hit you on the arse on the way out...
Clang wrote: Visions is roughly what I was expecting, and useful to me as a converter/painter. But certainly I'd like far more models I haven't seen before, as opposed to what look like leftovers from when they did the photography session for the Nid codex. And yes, the shrunken page size makes no sense, and the rotated images are just annoying.
It seems to that Visions could have been good (or will be good?) if they had a curator for the content instead of more or less just using randomly cropped box cover photo variants to fill the magazine.
There are so many blogs from painters, army collectors, or other projects that they could easily fill the whole magazine twice each month with great content. How nice would it be to get some of the work from blogs that are not in your native language with some translated description or interviews.
Even if most of the magazine were images the content would be somewhat new and otherwise not that accessible (and also relatively cheap to produce).
And it would actually be Warhammer Visions form people around the world collected by GW for your convenience.
Visions was awful. Full or pictures of nids at the front... and then more pictures of nids at the back. Didn't think the battle reports could get any worse... but they managed it. I don't actually think there was a battle as the pictures show the units virtually next to each other. Kitbash told me nothing other than kitbashing is putting different kits together. Painting guide was useless. I want my £7.50 back
Hopefully next month will be better for Visions with new content, literally most of this content was just reused from last months White Dwarf =/ was a HUGE let down.
So, I thought for S&G's I'd pick up Warhammer: Visions to see what it was like. Pics are nice, but certainly nothing I'd want to get on a regular basis. A quick Google or looking through Dakka's Gallery would turn up images just as good and wouldn't feel like an overpriced catalog (don't most companies give their catalog for free?). It's an "#01", so maybe it'll be worth the sticker price in oh, about 30 years?
It's pretty apparent they just split the magazine in two parts and are charging 4x the cost of the previous rag. The weekly might survive due to the previews, but I think Visions is doomed - if it lasts a year with the same format, I'd be shocked.
Left Hand of the Pheonix wrote: Well having read the new ones, here is my opinion. WDW is very good. Short, sweet and also has some useful bits in. It also has some humour in, if read carefully. Visions however was a bit, well, poor. Pics only, not much text, the foreign languages, while a good idea, are a bit jarring. The paint splatter for all the nid paint schemes was excellent, inspiring for nid players. Could do better, but I can see the idea behind it, showing last months stuff in better detail. And for everyone to know, the battle rep was a bit crap, needs more detail, like points, and how on earth that forgefiend killed 2 flyers! Chaos won btw.
Yeah, I was wondering how the forgefiend pulled that off too. Also was wondering what the hell a squad of terminators were doing in the Stormraven (to get shot down with the Stormraven) instead of deep striking in separately.
Noctem wrote: Hopefully next month will be better for Visions with new content, literally most of this content was just reused from last months White Dwarf =/ was a HUGE let down.
Next month's Visions will undoubtedly steal its "new" content from this month's White Dwarf Weekly.
Stormonu wrote: The weekly might survive due to the previews, but I think Visions is doomed - if it lasts a year with the same format, I'd be shocked.
I also can't see Warhammer Visions survive for a whole year. But at the same time, I don't think GW expects that. It is too obviously a no-effort placeholder trying to give the subscribers something. GW expects the weekly WD to survive though.
reiner wrote: The best part about White Dwarf Weekly is that it smells like Magic™ cards.
Actually, I think you'll find that's the new Citadel Finesmell™ Anyone caught making any comparisons to the smell of other new products will be litigated into Oblivion.
I haven't seen anyone comment on it but why do they need to print in three languages? Surely they have the capacity to produce one batch per language in English, French and German, instead of throwing them all together? Yes, I know this would be assuming that GW has some degree of common sense but this is just...weird. I can't remember every buying a magazine from a company as big as GW who can't even print in languages relevant to the area.
Valkyrie wrote: I haven't seen anyone comment on it but why do they need to print in three languages?...
Because they are trying to be a "classy" magazine. Some people think that having more than one language in a magazine looks exotic and arty. Magazines like this are meant to be coffee table books that are very pretentious. This is not meant for the average person, it's meant for (and bite your tongues because this is going to sound nasty), it is meant for people who can afford iPads and Apple macs, it's for people who drive a Volkswagon or Saab. In British terms it comes over as a very middle class magazine where they don't mind the french because they already speak French or German or Italian when they go on their skiing holidays. It's a pretentious magazine dreamt up by a very pretentious person for very pretentious people. GW have expanded into the iPad market and found that there are many of their fans with iPads and then they have extrapolated that area of the market and come up with this flippin' terrible magazine.
The other area this market is for is model makers who are already familiar with Japanese publications that have very little text and lots of pictures of robots. In my experience this has been another area where people with more money than sense try to create an atmosphere of exclusivity where they imply they understand what it is all about and anyone who doesn't get it is a pleb. The odd thing about this strategy to me is that this style of magazine is nothing new. I saw them in comic book shops in the 90s and they came across as what they were - catalogues of products. GW have just taken out the element of telling you how much the models are because quite frankly, if you need to ask you can't afford their hobby.
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jah-joshua wrote: found White Dwarf Weekly on iBooks... ...some pages are just one sentence, pics don't enlarge, articles end, and new ones begin, on the same page, with no break or indication...
it just looks like a jumbled mess... ...very poor layout:(...
It looks much better in the print edition and I think that this was very rushed because they didn't think there would be a digital demand for the weekly magazine. Also if you are trying to read it on the iPad turn it sideways and you get two facing pages which make a little more sense but not a lot. Also because it is epub format you should be able to change the text size. I think it was done this way to be readable on as many devices as possible.
i hear you, Bloodwin, but the thing i don't like is how small the pictures are in the digital Weekly, and they get even smaller when you swith to sideways viewing...
Valkyrie wrote: I haven't seen anyone comment on it but why do they need to print in three languages? Surely they have the capacity to produce one batch per language in English, French and German, instead of throwing them all together? Yes, I know this would be assuming that GW has some degree of common sense but this is just...weird. I can't remember every buying a magazine from a company as big as GW who can't even print in languages relevant to the area.
1.) We are talking about the company that for no reason deleted all foreign (except French, due to Canadian law) product names from their product boxes and blisters.
2.) Just printing one issue for all Western languages saves a bit of money. Esp. when they expect sales to go down even further. And it shows how much GW respects their customers in Spain, Italy and Eastern Europe.
I sent this to Jes recently. It pretty much sums up my feelings.
Hi Jes,
You asked for constructive criticism on the new formats of Games Workshop’s magazines, and I have some thoughts that I will respectfully lay out for your consideration.
The new White Dwarf format is pretty good. There was some good content in Jervis’ article this time around, the rules previews are nice and all in all it was a quick and fun read with some useful hobby content. If my White Dwarf subscription had continued with this magazine, I would be most pleased.
Warhammer Visions however, falls completely short. I thumbed through the whole magazine in less than five minutes. There is literally no content as any content space is taken up with very brief and obvious statements in three languages. The battle report had literally no use as there was no description of any tactics, tricks or even the actual army lists that were used. Paint splatter was so abbreviated as to be unusable. And again, a large chunk at the end of the magazine is taken up with the worldwide GW directory which should simply be available on the website, not in print. The photos, while lovely, are something we could just as easily peruse on the website instead of paying for a monthly photo book.
As Visions is what is taking the place of my subscription, I will be cancelling said subscription on Monday and asking for a refund of my remaining issues.
If White Dwarf was available in subscription format, I would be continuing to the end. But unfortunately Visions is not what I signed up for and not what I, nor my gaming group are looking for.
I appreciate that this format change was a big decision, but I think it was misguided. Restricting the availability of White Dwarf to stores only really hurts those of us who don’t have a local Games Workshop store available. Cutting all useful content out of the magazine that is available for home delivery only serves to put salt in the wound.
I do hope that this new format will be changed significantly, as I have been a fan of White Dwarf since 1994 and enjoyed the insight into the hobby it provided. My group would be much better served by keeping the content in the new White Dwarf as a monthly magazine and letting Warhammer Visions be a quarterly magazine that focuses on Golden Demon entries, and cool photos that haven’t made their way to the website yet.
In the other thread in Dakka Discussions, someone posted their fairly cut-and-paste answer from Jes.
One of my favorite lines from Jes' response:
Jes Goodwin wrote:
Warhammer: Visions is not for everybody, granted. If you like gaming more than collecting or painting, then it's probably not for you
Having seen both versions now of the new WD spin-offs, the whole concept is a poor one. They just took WD and split it into two new magazines with added pictures in Visions. What WD needed was to go back to the 90s and incorporate more original content only available to the magazine, or the on-line version of the magazine, and really make it unique. This could certainly include more pictures of well painted models, but didn't necessitate a separate magazine. Given the advent of the internet, the only hope for a magazine, hard copy or on-line, is for there to be truly unique content.
I predict this new dual format will last less than a year and they will re-launch WD again. Maybe that is the whole plan anyway. In any case, when they do re-launch WD I suggest the following:
1. Unique campaign ideas and wargear.
2. Original story material and fluff not re-printed elsewhere.
3. Continue putting out Armies on Parade and Blanchitsu
4. Most importantly - Bring back 'EAVY METAL painting tips and walk-thrus. Paint Splatter is a big disappointment. With the internet, the techniques on offer are so rudimentary as to be near worthless. Arguably any painting techniques one could want are available for free on-line, but at least the days of 'EAVY METAL saw pro-painted models with detailed (usually) tips and recommendations. Paint Splatter tips are available anywhere, and most are too basic for even a beginner to stay interested. You want to be the premier miniature painting magazine, then offer your readers the very best painting tips.
I make no apologies if this sounds harsh, I feel i've earned the right. I've been reading and purchasing WDs since 1992, so it is simply very disappointing to see what has transpired. I got high hopes, though, that WD will be re-born and return to greatness.
I view this change as pretty disastrous for GW insofar as I will now not spend any money on Visions where I would have picked up the odd issue of White Dwarf that interested me beforehand.
Warhammer Visions is absolutely redundant for myself in the face of sites like 'Cool Mini or Not' and the painting sections of forums such as Dakka and beyond which are able to provide more content than Visions ever will and is available as a resource for free.
Sure Visions is proffessional painting of studio armies but that doesn't really matter when you can find technically superior paint jobs from amateurs, semi pros and freelance artists from many sources on the web, all for the cost of an internet connection!
Visions might be handy for an ol' grognard (I'll get there one day!) without access or time for the internet but given how 'net savvy' everyone and their dog is these days ist just seems to be a strange direction to take, especially if you're after the younger market. I'd never have bought any magazine for £8 when I was a kid! (I'm not about to start now, either!)
Honestly. Once home printing of miniatures gains traction Games Workshop are absolutely finished, their refusal to accept the 21st century (and all that it entails) will be their undoing. There's no way they'll adapt, the iceberg of modernity will sink their enormous ship soon enough.
What I can't help but wonder is if they think that the average GW gamer will be buying all of the magazines for any given month. At my (Canadian) store, the weekly was $5 and the monthly was $13.
That's $33 dollars a month for the (admittedly dismal) content we used to receive for $10 plus a bunch of extra filler (a ton of small format pages of pictures of last months painted releases we've already seen).
As to the alleged response from Jes about Visions. Since when are painted pictures of models hobby content? How do you convey hobby instruction without text?
This whole thing feels like we need Larry David standing in the background looking awkward and ashamed.
Hm classy, sure when i am entertaining my friends in my luxurious Villa, showing them my new Maybach company car, i really want to have a Warhammer Vision on my lounge table. NOT!
Joyboozer wrote: There is a blank page in a digital magazine, does anyone really think they give a gak if people aren't happy with the content?
The blank page is for adding your own content?
Maybe you want to write down notes with a sharpie?
"hello, I'd like to return this IPAD dEvice."
"certainly sire, why?"
"I tried writing my password but it didn't work!"
"well sire we can fix that for you if you would like."
"will that be cheaper then a new one?"
" sire, I'l do it for free."
*turns on iPad, revealing the word "password" written in sharpie on the screen*
Astroman wrote: Having seen both versions now of the new WD spin-offs, the whole concept is a poor one. They just took WD and split it into two new magazines with added pictures in Visions. What WD needed was to go back to the 90s and incorporate more original content only available to the magazine, or the on-line version of the magazine, and really make it unique. This could certainly include more pictures of well painted models, but didn't necessitate a separate magazine. Given the advent of the internet, the only hope for a magazine, hard copy or on-line, is for there to be truly unique content.
Try to explain the concept of "hobby content" to a GW manager who thinks that the hobby only consists of buying the products.
Good thing that now it becomes financially relevant that the GW managers are totally incompetent to lead a gaming company.
This whole scheme and execution of the dual magazine format leads me to think this is a "placeholder" or transition format that leads to three possible outcomes:
1) They plan on no-longer publishing the magazine so Kirby can slash more overhead to show profit. Just fulfill remaining subscriptions and that is all. It is competing with their micro (transaction) - publications anyway.
2) A completely different format / distribution method is in the works: they may farm this out to a marketing / publishing company but could not wait for the internal restructuring.
3) They want to go completely digital in publication and will splash the new format once they are ready, in the meantime we have this new recycle-light-in-content-anyone-could-do magazines.
I would like any other theories to add, aside from that, place your bets. I am leaning toward #2, not sure why...
Only 1 makes sense, options 2 & 3 are seriously hindered by producing such sub-par content.
Though I'd have thought dropping it and offering any outstanding subscription value as credit would work better than releasing a completely pointless magazine with the aim of killing it off.
But I'm more inclined to believe that they just genuinely expect people to buy it anyway.
Not that I really think this but could they deliberately be throwing out sub-par garbage as someone said above to fulfill subscription obligations and then, in light of the cancellations/anger, state that they are discontinuing the magazine, and then show how much money they cut?
I don't really see them being that stupid as they'd be hurting their already-bad reputation with all the complaints, but this IS GW we're talking about...
So I downloaded the White Dwarf: Visions magazine on the weekend- it was ama- oh wait no sorry. It was awful. Just a frakking picture book! No real juice to the content whatsoever. Needless to say I will not be downloading it again.
Talizvar wrote: This whole scheme and execution of the dual magazine format leads me to think this is a "placeholder" or transition format that leads to three possible outcomes:
1) They plan on no-longer publishing the magazine so Kirby can slash more overhead to show profit. Just fulfill remaining subscriptions and that is all. It is competing with their micro (transaction) - publications anyway.
2) A completely different format / distribution method is in the works: they may farm this out to a marketing / publishing company but could not wait for the internal restructuring.
3) They want to go completely digital in publication and will splash the new format once they are ready, in the meantime we have this new recycle-light-in-content-anyone-could-do magazines.
I would like any other theories to add, aside from that, place your bets. I am leaning toward #2, not sure why...
Another theory is that they have noticed a revenue increase in WD sales during their "reboot" 2 years ago and decided to try it again, but with a bigger sticker price and content that is less expensive to produce. They know that this revenue increase is very short termed so they are trying to maximize profits on it and will probably cancel the magazine after a few months (or 1 year to let new subscriptions run out).
On the other hand they release the WD Daily so that "fans" can get the usual content that they used to have in the old WD, but for 3 times the monthly cost.
It is a rather brilliant plan if you think about it.
Madrilous wrote: If anyone is interested I have made a video review of the first White Dwarf Weekly.
Is the feedback from the GW staff on the Tyranids all positive? Do any of them have anything negative to say other than, I wish this model could take X or cost a minimal amount of points less? I suspect they are following the PP model where they release rules for certain models in the magazine running up to a book release, and then release the book with the same rules. PP has been doing this with No Quarter for years, meaning you can buy the magazine you care about now or the book later.
While I don't think Weekly WD is for me, due to the poor price/content ratio, I do have room for something like Warhammer Visions. I think the broad concept is a good one - a whole lot of high quality images of well painted miniatures. The problem seems to be the small format combined with the perfect binding, and of course the recycling of images even within the magazine.
I buy a few art books, Forge World books, and even GW art books. I used to buy the old GD collection books as well when they were available locally. I'm not fussed that there are better pictures online for free, because as far as I'm concerned, printed material often fills a different niche - which is why I buy forgeworld books and the Horus Heresy books (novels and FW volumes) when I could easily torrent both. gak, all the codexes are "available online for free" but I'm happy to buy a nice book (from US sources - not at Aussie prices, admittedly). But buy, nonetheless.
So yeah, if done well I'd be quite happy to buy and collect Warhammer Visions as a collection of printed nicely painted models. Unfortunately it appears that it's a middling effort at best, but we'll see how it pans out.
A 36-page White Dwarf? Sorry, not so much.
I'd love to see a return to the old quality of WD - as we had during the WFB3 and RT eras (though even then there were complaints about it no longer taking external advertising and reviews of non-GW products). Or the quality of the mag when Paul Sawyer was at the helm, but those days are gone, I can buy Wargaming Illustrated on and off, and his is what we have now - a magazine stripped of all content for the sake of some e-commerce items, so it ain't gonna happen.
Azazelx wrote: While I don't think Weekly WD is for me, due to the poor price/content ratio, I do have room for something like Warhammer Visions. I think the broad concept is a good one - a whole lot of high quality images of well painted miniatures. The problem seems to be the small format combined with the perfect binding, and of course the recycling of images even within the magazine.
I buy a few art books, Forge World books, and even GW art books. I used to buy the old GD collection books as well when they were available locally. I'm not fussed that there are better pictures online for free, because as far as I'm concerned, printed material often fills a different niche - which is why I buy forgeworld books and the Horus Heresy books (novels and FW volumes) when I could easily torrent both. gak, all the codexes are "available online for free" but I'm happy to buy a nice book (from US sources - not at Aussie prices, admittedly). But buy, nonetheless.
So yeah, if done well I'd be quite happy to buy and collect Warhammer Visions as a collection of printed nicely painted models. Unfortunately it appears that it's a middling effort at best, but we'll see how it pans out.
This pretty much sums up my feelings too. Issue #2 will be important, I think.
Having received WV, I rang to cancel my 23 year sub, but it was £22 back or another 7 issues, so I've decided to let it ride in the hope that WV gets to the point it is worth £3. Or when it folds after issue 2 I'll still get £18 back. Absolutely certainly will not be renewing.
Real shame - WD, Private Eye and Viz have been my subsricption based companions for a long time, only 2 left now. It's like Silent Running :(
just bought my copy of Visions - shan't be buying it again.
& as I would have to go into town & pay the extortionate parking charges to get my hands on the weekly mag or subscribe for the whole year I don't think I'll ever buy that either.
Normally I'd flick through the monthly WD when it hit the shelves in Sainsburys (usually on a Tuesday, sometimes as late as Thursday!) & then buy it if I thought I saw something interesting. This option is no longer available especially as Visions is completely sealed.
<Nice way for WD to die>.
. So bad!
