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To keep it tight what 3 changes would you instigate to make WD 'better'?

1: 'Studio Report'- A selected games designer/sculptor gives us a rant for 2 or 3 pages on what they are doing/have done. For example Jes Goodwin describes how he developed the Skaven race from scratch, add in some pics of his concept art, describe how it has changed over the years and finally what ideas he has for its future. Give us an insight into the what, where and how of the guys we depend on for the hobby.

2: Battle reports that I can follow. Divide turns up individually and give each turn a map so I can work out what is going on. A 2 page pic of the table with 5 dot points to cover 2 player turns is not sufficient. The standard of reporting on most battle reports on forums these days (as long as there are pics) is much, much better than WDs.

3: 'Players armies'. I know this has been in various international editions on and off over the years. The really, really great army wide jobs that regular players are doing. From some nut who has done an entire chapter of marines to a completely converted adeptus mechanicus force. I don't care. It inspires people no end to see what can be done with some planning and imagination.

I would have to say definitely better battle reports. I tend to agree with you that the way they are now, with 5 turns being summed up by a couple of pics, just doesn't do justice to what can be gleaned from a battle report...

also, price reduction. Not a deal-breaker, but I'm pretty cheap...of course, everything seems to be rising in price these days, and I know there's probably a discount to be had if you buy a subscription, but still I think $9 is a bit steep...

that's the only two I really have an opinion about, but I really like the idea of a ''studio report'' type segment, or even something like a ''You Make Da Call'' segment - even if they only FAQ/errata one question per ruleset [Fantasy, 40k, etc.] in each issue, they could at least make some progress towards making some of the rules interpretations less arbitrary?

I like OP's ideas. A studio report would be a great way to highlight upcoming releases (although advertising upcoming releases seems to be the exact opposite thing GW wants to do with their self-destructive business practices). It would also be cool if these master sculptors shared some of their techniques in this. It would be a great way to advertise products without being so obvious about it.

I agree with Bob about the prices too. 12 bucks for a magazine? That costs as much or more than a paperback novel, and WD doesn't exactly have nearly enough material to constitute that kind of value.

1.) Bring back Dirty Steve, haven't seen him lately if he's still there.

2.) Sneak peaks at new models or better hints of whats to come.

3.) Add new things more often (New scenarios / characters for friendly games) perhaps once per month & alternate WHFB & W40k.

1. I'd really like it if the GW guys who play the battle reports actually got to use their own armies. As much as I like the 'Eavy Metal paintjobs of all these minis, I think it would be really cool to see individual armies. It would also give the writers/editors/gamers more personality, as right now they're "balding guy with glasses X with army of the month" vs. "less balding guy without glasses Y with army that loses to the army of the month"

2. A testbed for new rules. If more experimental rules and the like were posted that would be pretty cool. Just say they're not official for tournaments and the like and let them be as crazy as possible.

3. Bring back the Konvershun Klinic! There's almost nothing to speak of with conversion guides these days. Even if it's something I could have done myself, I still like them for ideas.

Waaagh_Gonads wrote:
1: 'Studio Report'- A selected games designer/sculptor gives us a rant for 2 or 3 pages on what they are doing/have done. For example Jes Goodwin describes how he developed the Skaven race from scratch, add in some pics of his concept art, describe how it has changed over the years and finally what ideas he has for its future. Give us an insight into the what, where and how of the guys we depend on for the hobby.

3: 'Players armies'. I know this has been in various international editions on and off over the years. The really, really great army wide jobs that regular players are doing. From some nut who has done an entire chapter of marines to a completely converted adeptus mechanicus force. I don't care. It inspires people no end to see what can be done with some planning and imagination.

Brother SRM wrote:1. I'd really like it if the GW guys who play the battle reports actually got to use their own armies. As much as I like the 'Eavy Metal paintjobs of all these minis, I think it would be really cool to see individual armies. It would also give the writers/editors/gamers more personality, as right now they're "balding guy with glasses X with army of the month" vs. "less balding guy without glasses Y with army that loses to the army of the month"

2. A testbed for new rules. If more experimental rules and the like were posted that would be pretty cool. Just say they're not official for tournaments and the like and let them be as crazy as possible.

3. Bring back the Konvershun Klinic! There's almost nothing to speak of with conversion guides these days. Even if it's something I could have done myself, I still like them for ideas.

i agree with all of the above points!

Game appendices. Introducing new units or updating old ones.
Printed FAQs and rules revisions.
Scenarios and expansions.
Minor Race/Chapter/Craftworld/Sept/Hive Fleet background pieces.
Mini-posters (without ads)

1) Reduce the length of Jervis's column and introduce at least one, maybe more columns from other people with a different perspective on the hobby. (Not that Jervis would ever admit that anyone else's opinion was valid).

2) More behind the scenes columns, similar to the Citadel Hall of Fame, maybe, but more in depth. Perhaps take us through the design process for Skaven, like someone suggested above. This was touched on in a recent WD when Jes gave some quotes about the design of the new Eldar tanks, but it needs more depth.

3) More non-WD staff writer input. There have been a few reports on other people's armies, more of these. Perhaps a letters page. Something specific like Blanchitsu, even though that niche is maybe covered by the web these days.

4) Rules like they just had for the Night Spinner more regularly. Make them optional when in WD and use WD as a testing ground for what to include in the next codex.

I liked the old index astartes articles. It would be nice to see them flesh out some relatively unknown chapters and give them background, say like Marines Exemplar etc.

If they are not willing to do that, then perhaps, and this is going to sound a bit selfish I know, give armies like the BT an index astartes article to bring them somewhat current with the new rules.

Bring back Chapter Approved!!! It was the best thing next to the Citadel Journal, new models or conversions with their own rules for friendly games. Remember when WD came out with an article that allowed you to create creatures for Kill Team games? Or the beloved Vehicle Design Rules? Why, oh why has White Dwarf fallen into a morass of dogma and lame "articles" (Ads...)? It used to be a resource, now it's just propaganda!!!

The thing I see that is wrong with WD is that it has turned into a giant advertisment for all their new releases. Battle reports are only used when new models are released, and even then, they only serve to provide as many photos and to show off what they can do.

I also think that they should add more rules in the issues, apart from that joke that was Spearhead. I mean things like Liber Apocalyptia.

1. Remove Standard Bearer.

2. Remove Adverts (new release pages aside).

3. Provide something called 'content'.

1) Player submission pics for Conversion of the Month type feature. We have loads of pics here on their own thread.

2) "Official" comics based on the games.... from outside the studio.

3) this last is more of a 'feel' thing. Make WD seem less corporate, more like talking to the fans and not down at the fans.

1) Scrap the thing completely.
2) Use the money saved to hire Proofreaders.
3) Use the Internet (yes, it's not 1992 anymore) to errata and fix their bloody games and start acting like a real company who gives two gaks about their players.

1. MORE game content: campaigns, new scenarios, game variants( like Spearhead), etc., etc.

2. Have an ongoing monthly battle report campaign being played in-studio

3. articles (with lots of pis and fluff) on cool themed/converted armies from both GW employees and fans (allow submissions)


What I want less of : LOTR Enough already...

CT GAMER wrote:

What I want less of : LOTR Enough already...

/Thread.

1) Waaagh_Gonad's # 3.

2) Non-official scenarios for weekly casual caming, campaigns, and things like that.

3) Some sort of page long comic per issue, something like Dan Abnett and Mike Lee's Malus Darkblade.

1) Make the damn thing cheaper. The hobby is expensive enough.

2) Chapter approved rules again.

3) MAKE THE DAMN THING CHEAPER!

1.Hunt down all of the staff.
2.Burn the offices down .
3.salt the ground so it can never grow again ?

When I started reading White Dwarf some 12 odd years ago,it was filled with cool articles,chapter approved,how to convert and scratch build tutorials,battle reports that didn't exist to simply "sell" an army...but where actually entertaining and loads of other useful tid bits.

In short,it was everything the current incarnation of White Dwarf isn't.

So if I could improve White Dwarf,I would simply attempt to bring it back to what it was..an entertaining,useful publication,rather than a slick glossy sales add.

Local content. Tournaments and activities in the stores (not ads, coverings). More painting and scenography building stuff.

Gwar! wrote:1) Scrap the thing completely.
2) Use the money saved to hire Proofreaders.
3) Use the Internet (yes, it's not 1992 anymore) to errata and fix their bloody games and start acting like a real company who gives two gaks about their players.

I second this motion.

Anti-Mag wrote:1. Remove Standard Bearer.

2. Remove Adverts (new release pages aside).

3. Provide something called 'content'.

This

Oh and get rid of LOTR there are only so many ways of flogging that now skellington of a horse.

1) I would like to see straight forwards, easy to read articles. No breaking off for multi-page spreads of other articles, maximum 1 blurb per page, and planty of "stoping spots" in between comments that allow you to look at the blurbs without losing your spot.
2) Random Content. When a guy comes in and shows you his home-brew Titan for the Golden Daemon section, lock the room and don't let him leave until he promises to write an article on how to make one. Then Include a Data Sheet for it.
Heck, expand that Idea to apply anytime someone shows a cool model with no rules. So, If you want to show us cool models, put them in a tutorial.

Edit:
This month, there are:
10 pages advertising new products.
4 pages of more in-depth looks at the new projects
5 pages of advertising for old releases in the theme of this month
10 pages of pretty pictures of tanks with little other content
14 pages of new rules
19 pages of directory-like info
4 page of LotR
6 Pages of Advertising for next months feature product
6 Pages advertising Last months product
6 pages of pictures of a different Last months product
2 Pages of Standard Bearer
20 pages of battle report
1 Page Contents
1 Page Editors introduction
1 Subscription page

1. Make actual battle reports.

2. a FAQ or rules questions for both fantasy and 40k.

3. Allow a monthly contest, players submit photos and an email detailing their own battle report to white dwarf and the winners get published in white dwarf.

4. sneak peaks.

5. Random fluff or special rules like they use to.

6. Drop LOTR.

1 - A new variant army list in every issue. Tag them as untested/semi-tested/official. Get feedback, update them moving them from untested to official. The best example I can think of is the armored company which slowly moved from a messy list filled with random rules to something that looked more or less playable.

2 - A new special character (original, from the books, from older editions, variations of existing characters) in every issue.

3 - Love the idea of a monthly comic or background feature. In Inferno they had great illustrated accounts of famous battles usually in the form of a Osprey guide or even a medieval scroll. Bring those back!

Allow other companies to advertise.
Not companies in direct competition, but podcasts, armorcast, pigiron and the like could bring in new revenue and give those companies a larger base to connect with. if this lowered the price of WD to 4-5 dollars, I suspect many people would be more inclined to buy.

Bring back the chapter approved and conversion clinic articles. each month have 40k premiere in 1 article, fantasy in the other. rotate each month.

A campaign feature. have 4 missions that are played each week by a gaming group. Have the group follow along in WD with fluff and special rules for each mission. Each campaign can last 12 weeks (3 issues) then do a campaign for another line.


This might not be part of the thread, but bring back black gobbo. that was always such a treasuretrove of useful info before they neutered it a few months before the current website was created

Gwar! wrote:1) Scrap the thing completely.
2) Use the money saved to hire Proofreaders.
3) Use the Internet (yes, it's not 1992 anymore) to errata and fix their bloody games and start acting like a real company who gives two gaks about their players.

----------------------------

I really just want the army lists and such they used to do in the old WD's back. Those were boss.

Karon wrote:

Gwar! wrote:1) Scrap the thing completely.
2) Use the money saved to hire Proofreaders.
3) Use the Internet (yes, it's not 1992 anymore) to errata and fix their bloody games and start acting like a real company who gives two gaks about their players.

----------------------------

I really just want the army lists and such they used to do in the old WD's back. Those were boss.

"Let's see, about seven people have insulted white dwarf, though I choose Gwar!!!11!!/one!!"

Gwar! wrote:1) Scrap the thing completely.
2) Use the money saved to hire Proofreaders.
3) Use the Internet (yes, it's not 1992 anymore) to errata and fix their bloody games and start acting like a real company who gives two gaks about their players.

+1