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barlio wrote:A $9 magazine must have either boobs, articles on beer, and/or 'free' stuff included. Anything else is not worth the cash.

I give a thumbs up to more free stuff. Either that, or the price needs to be slashed in half. Also having a meaningful discount for subscriptions would be nice.

One of the biggest problems facing White Dwarf these days is that most of the modelling articles - while well written - contain information that can easily be found on the internet. Also, most new models showcased have likewise been spoiled on the internet. That leaves the "new rules", editorial articles and batreps. This makes buying White Dwarf for new content a dubious endeavour indeed... as the customer is paying twice the cost of a typical news stand offering for half the content!

Waaagh_Gonads wrote:I wish they would bring back battle reports with a map and pics for each turn, like they did for 15 years, instead of the ridiculous 1-2 turns and a double page pic of the table with dot points down the side of the pic trying to explain what is happening.

QFT, I still read the nice detailed and clear batreps from ages ago in my old WDs, I havn't bought one since the issue you got the free termie and nob. The new style reports just aren't interesting and easy to read.

Although if they made the battle reports bigger there would be less room for ads, so no chance there.

In my experience the worst battle reports are those for WotR, the 40K and WFB reports are still good quality, with information about what was going on each turn. Instead of doubling up turns to cut down space.

You're amazing Oshova. I'm surprised you haven't tried to sell a Stompa to everyone in this thread yet.

H.B.M.C. wrote:You're amazing Oshova. I'm surprised you haven't tried to sell a Stompa to everyone in this thread yet.

Be careful, you know what he is like when he gets defensive...

Yeah, how dare Oshova enjoy a GW product...

Nurglitch wrote:Yeah, how dare Oshova enjoy a GW product...

C'mon man you know this guy is pimping the heck out of GW like he is in a store.

Oshova= Staff member of GW

I keep this in mind when he is talking about GW and their products. The fact is I would do the same for any other 24-hour salesman.

"Note"
24-hour salesman is practically in the job description of a manager... ahem.

Don't be intentionally obtuse Nurgy.

We've got a bunch of people saying how they like the detailed Batreps, yet the Games Workshop employee thinks everything is prefectly fine. In fact, he's happy they're smaller because they save space.

Save space for what???

H.B.M.C. wrote:Don't be intentionally obtuse Nurgy.

We've got a bunch of people saying how they like the detailed Batreps, yet the Games Workshop employee thinks everything is prefectly fine. In fact, he's happy they're smaller because they save space.

Save space for what???

Advertising.

barlio wrote:A $9 magazine must have either boobs, articles on beer, and/or 'free' stuff included. Anything else is not worth the cash.

I can get unlimited boobs for free on the Internet, so why buy a magazine?

For $9, I'd rather just buy a microbrew sixer.

JohnHwangDD wrote:

barlio wrote:A $9 magazine must have either boobs, articles on beer, and/or 'free' stuff included. Anything else is not worth the cash.

I can get unlimited boobs for free on the Internet, so why buy a magazine?

For $9, I'd rather just buy a microbrew sixer.

What if the WD advertised your microbrew... would you buy it then?

GW employees (Oshova) get WD for free, it puts a slant on your opinions of a magazine when you don't pay for it.

In fairness the 'Ruffians vs. Farmer Maggot kicking over some dustbins' (Scouring of the Shire) was a LOTR battle report and was the worst battle report of all time. It was like reading a Famous Five battle report. Ruffians, WTF? Not long after that LOTR bombed.

I stopped caring about WD when they pimped out space to LoTR in the first place. A couple months for crossover advertising- sure. But then they should have spun it off into its own publication, go bi-monthly or quarterly.

But, as has been mentioned, all the 'cool' stuff we used to get out of it, super secret paiting tips from the 'Eavy Metal guys, sneak peaks at new figs, Chapter Approved fluff and rules....They either stopped doing them, or we can get better online.

Combine this with a slowed 9$ price...Id rather buy a couple pots of paint and have something useful left over after I let GW bugger my wallet.

Did I say I liked the shorter battle reports? No, I was just saying that it's usually the WotR battle reports that get the doubling up of turns. In actual fact I don't like the short battle reports I love being able to read about Brother Siberius shooting down a bunch of ork boyz with his bolter . . .

Also I've never payed for a WD so me getting it for free now doesn't really change that view . . .

And I'm not trying to sell you anything, I'm just saying my 2 pence, I'm just as entitled as any other person to say what they have to say, just because I work for GW does that mean my views are less valid than the next person's?

It appears that everyone is settled in their ways of GW bashing . . . I'm sorry for going against the trend there, is it my fault that I see more positives than negatives in GW? Is it my fault that the majority of posters on this forum appear to moan about the negatives, forgetting about any positives that are around at the same time?

Oshava wrote:And I'm not trying to sell you anything, I'm just saying my 2 pence, I'm just as entitled as any other person to say what they have to say, just because I work for GW does that mean my views are less valid than the next person's?

You are making this a blame thing, and acting overly defensive again. A lot of people have opinions, yours just reflect what I would hear from ANY other person who sells the stuff for a living.

Looking at the positives is entirely different than IGNORING the negatives when other people present them. Do I really have to present my opinions in a way that resembles an ice cream sundae? ESPECIALLY as a paying customer, I just don't understand how you expect to change my mind by acting like this.

In no way do I ignore the negatives. I just focus more on the positives. Nothing is perfect, and to think that way would be closed-minded and idiotic . . . but then the same could be said if you ignore the positives. Maybe you're just not reading what I say correctly, if I don't like the way GW does something I will say so, just that usually I follow it with a reason why I think they've done it. Is it such a bad thing to try and even things out?

In my opinion, there should be REGULAR articles for each White Dwarf. Most other mags have regulars, why not ours?
The regulars would be:
3 Battle Reps -one each system, at least one preferably in the longer, turn by turn standard, and preferably with real player's armies. Hopefully also not always containing the latest release.
A Eavy Metal masterclass
2 GENERIC painting articles. I don't want to see 'how to paint Cadians'. I'd like to see 'how to paint Brown', 'how to paint Camoflague', perhaps with reference to the FOTM army but also to older armies.
I generally skip over the '9001 ways to paint Smurfs' articles, but on the rare occasions I do read them I sometimes find real gems (a very interesting/effective way to paint White that is actually grey). Putting painting articles more generic would make more people read them.
2-3 Tactics articles.
A conversion corner
A 'Send us your army' section where you can see someone else's army
A terrain article
A 'house rules' or 'chapter approved' page
an ERRATA/FAQ page.

One of the articles I really enjoy are the ones going through the Eavy Metal team and either showcasing their favourite/best painted stuff, or the Eavy Metal competitions/displays (Empire Wizards, Dark Elf Dreadlords, Harry the Hammer) where you can see different takes on the same model by professional and talented painters.

Stuff I DON'T like:
Sprue previews.
10 page spreads on a new kit
The entire magazine devoted to the latest release.
Whilst some of that stuff might be necessary to promote the new releases, can it perhaps only be done once in the magazine, or at most twice? Currently every single 40k section is Imperial Guard (though they're still showing off Stompas in IG vs Orc Breps.

I don't actually mind the LotR stuff. Whilst I don't play LotR, there is a real difference in the muted/realistic painting style for LotR stuff that can look great when transferred to GrimDark 40k.

/rant

Oshova wrote:In no way do I ignore the negatives. I just focus more on the positives. Nothing is perfect, and to think that way would be closed-minded and idiotic . . . but then the same could be said if you ignore the positives. Maybe you're just not reading what I say correctly, if I don't like the way GW does something I will say so, just that usually I follow it with a reason why I think they've done it. Is it such a bad thing to try and even things out?

I prefer to hear from other customers, not that I mind hearing what you have to say Oshava, I have heard it many times before that's all. DO NOT BLAME THE CUSTOMERS... seriously though, that is like basic customer service, and whether you like it or not, you are still on the clock for GW as a manager.

You are still inadvertently advertising GW, which is fine, just give it a break, and try not to get offended when someone disagrees with you.

If you feel like talking about this more please P.M. me instead, this is simply not the place.

@Trasvi . . . QFT

It would be awesome if WD could be more like other magazines. The good ol' days of Chapter Approved . . . where I started by Kroot addiction actually . . . Also all the tips on making scenery, painting techniques are great . . . but sadly only pop up from time to time. Basically if you took all the stuff from 3 or 4 White Dwarfs and put that in each month's WD then it would be better . . . obviously some stuff would have to be cut, as you don't want to be buying a new book every month. But the basic principle of all those juicy articles being regulars is brilliant =D

H.B.M.C.:

Intentionally obtuse? Well, whatever you want to slur me today, but why are you of all people complaining about White Dwarf? There's plenty of fan-produced battle reports out there, Warseer has its own in-house fanzine the last I checked, there's Bell of Lost Souls. I'm pretty sure you've mentioned producing your own set of rules. So why are you still reading advertising copy and complaining that it isn't a newsmagazine?

Everyone has a right to their opinion, I personally have not purchased a White Dwarf in over 10 years.

Hell I would say when they went to the more glossy content it turned to crap pretty fast.

I miss the days of waiting at the gaming store for the shipment of white dwarfs( hey, it was summer we were 13 )

Because the next issue had the EVERSOR ASSASSIN which you could totally see tearing gak up on the battlefield.


Hells YEAH.

I still kind of remember the cover for one of them was the Lich Sitting on a throne it was the next expansion for Warhammer Quest.

Oh wait and then there was the Warhammer Quest articles and paper photocopies and the paining articles.

And holy crap did you read that battle report where Tyranids VS Space Marines, that guy is a idiot he should have...


Seriously, White dwarf is a overpriced piece of gak for years more than years like at least a decade.


Citadel Journal :( Oh how I miss you.

I don't think they can squeeze a lot more out of LoTR, so maybe, maybe this will become a specialist game in the next year or so and they can expand on the decent content.

They are heading back in the right direction IMHO. Painting articles are very good at the moment and have encouraged me to get my paints out on the kitchen table and just play around with some spare models.

On the subject of Battle Reps, JJ has the cheek to use this month's Standard Bearer to harp on about how the BRs have evolved into the great ones we see today. Pardon?

Oh how I want to send him a letter with the words "OH JERVIS, YOU HIDEOUS HYPOCRITE"

Here's a thought. If they could stop Jervis writing the self-indulgent tripe that is 'Standard Bearer', they'd have four pages they could use for something useful...

No, if they removed standard bearer it would just be four pages shorter, for the same price. And then it would be a glossy overpriced magazine full of useless advice and advertisments rather than a glossy overpriced magazine full of useless advice, advertisments and self-indulgent tripe.

It's funny actually, the older and better issues were also crammed with advertisements and whatnots, but because of the great content they aren't that glaring or distracting.

Indeed they were. For an example, here is a page from WD187:



My fav bit of that ad is this bit:



YAY! Transfers!!!!!

But you never cared about the giant full-page ads for things you already knew about, because back then WD had awesome BatReps like this one:


VS


Including proper maps:


And Andy Chambers:


Ahh... the good 'ol days...

I have the one where they released the Leman Russ and where they still talked about Adeptus Titanicus, good times.

I think the saddest thing is though that they've stopped involving the community with non-Studio army photo shoots, people's letters, short blurbs of fiction or great articles about the spirit of the game and tactics, I'm looking at Mike Walker mostly for those last two. Not you Jervis, oh no.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

H.B.M.C. wrote:And Andy Chambers:


Ahh... the good 'ol days...

I miss the days when Andy and Gav had full manes of hair, before they became a corporation and had to wear suits and ties so to say.

In fact, the issue where they first previewed the Russ, was also the issue where they first previewed Titan Legions (issue 177... why do I know that?).

H.B.M.C. wrote:In fact, the issue where they first previewed the Russ, was also the issue where they first previewed Titan Legions (issue 177... why do I know that?).

Memory like an elephant? Or just fond memories? I've memorized WD 220, which is my first issue I ever bought as a youth and one that I still fondly pick up and leaf through every now and then.