Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Ok so i have been a subscriber of WD for 2-3 years and a buyer on and off for the 7-8 before that, I used to love some of the awesome stuff contained within the mag from painting and converting articles to full campaigns and loads of other cool stuff, Recently however I have noticed a worrying drop in actual content (I know it hasd been going down for a while anyway) since the new editor took over, In the last 4 issues I dont remember seeing a decent HM painting article or a modelling piece, just page after page of "look what we want to sell you this month" everything in the magasine is geared towards glorifying whatever the last 2 or 3 months releases are. rarely do we see anything outside of the flavour of the month.

I cant be the only one who feels angry at paying for a catalogue, there isnt even any news or previews in there that havn't been rattling round on the net for about 6 months beforehand, I wouldn't mind if they gave you previews of next months model releases or something, but nothing just a recycled picture or piece of artwork on the inside of the back cover.

You're not, somebody starts a thread of this ilk on a weekly basis.

Yes, WD is not what it once was. For shame.

Stop buying. You won't miss it. I know I don't.

Ugly Green Trog wrote:Recently

Sure, as long as 10 years ago counts as recently.

I stopped playing about nine years ago or so work kind of ate into my game time and I moved out of range of a good FLGS (my only real gaming social network). I picked it up again on a whim when I stumbled across two local shops that I liked. I dusted off my armies, dug stuff out of the attic, and picked up the new rulebooks to catch up on things. Out of habit, I picked up a WD, which I used to get pretty much every month.

I figured that issue had to have been a fluke. So I got another. OK, maybe it was all the extended coverage on the new release. I mean, a new version of the BRB doesn't come out all the time, so of course one issue might be overhyping the retail push a bit. So I got another. And then it sank in. Well, the good news now is that I have a few extra bucks each month to go towards miniatures, I guess.

I actually found my copy of the Chapter Approved Annual 2003. When White Dwarf was so full of fun ideas you could put all the custom lists, scenarios, and whatnots into a big book at the end of the year.

I've been buying the White Dwarf from issue 279 (March 2003) until now and I've got a feeling I'm done with it, the odd fun article of old generals or the obligatory excellent 'Eavy Metal paint-through aren't enough any more. More often than not I find myself skimming the mag, reading the odd blurb here and there before putting it in the bookcase with the others.

Wargames Illustrated has won me over with their history lesson heavy articles so that's going to be my bedtime read from now on.

It is scary how ever since I started with this game (1997-ish), there has been a steady stream of people getting fed up with WD. It's hard to imagine how a publication can so consistently be perceived as "worse than it used to be" and yet still be around. It's hard to picture how it could get any worse. Perhaps in a few years they'll come out with a WD that spontaneously combusts? A 3D WD that requires bulky and expensive glasses in order to read it or permanently damages the eyesight of anyone under 7 who looks at it?

whatwhat wrote:

Ugly Green Trog wrote:Recently

Sure, as long as 10 years ago counts as recently.

Yeah i know its been going down hill for longer than recently just the rot seems to have increased with the new editor, Jervis seems to be the last genuine article writer in the magazine.

Okay, I lied. I got both the February issue of Wargames Illustrated and White Dwarf just now. The tiny headed Blood Angel compelled me!

I like it back pre hersey ( 2001 ), now it's like someone locked the emperor in the cupboard and the servitors are running lose...... i still get my wife to buy it for me

I personally think that WD went downhill at about the time Paul Sawyer took over as editor. It was great under Robin Dews and Jake Thornton, but Fat Bloke was the beginning of the end. Don't think I've bought more than a handful in damn close to a decade now.

It is really bad. I wish they would open it up to advertisers so they might be able to charge less and actually pay people to write decent articles.

The problem with the rag is not that they don't have advertisements but that GW doesn't advertise.

They then resort to slipping that cloying, syrupy sales pitch into everything they do.

Yesterday one of the kids brought in a copy of WD. In a DE feature there was a nice double spread of eye candy with a column of DE boxes. Is this an advert or illustration ?
Blurring the boundaries between advert and article does no favours to either aspect of the magazine.

Hasn't this been noted/discussed about a thousand times at this point?

Can we just sticky this thread and be done with it so people don't feel the urge to break the news to us that WD is an advertisng rag/not as good as before every couple of weeks?

Yes there is a 3 page thread on the same subject about 10 or 12 places below this one.

the mods will close them down if it is a problem.

Interestingly there is very little defense for WD in any of the myriad threads. One of the few things that Dakka members universally agree about.

You'd have to be a company tool or completely soulless to defend it.

It always provides pretty pictures, which is enough for some folks to enjoy. It is a bummer that they don't have substantive articles anymore. OTOH, I played CONSTANTLY from 1999-2004, back when WD regularly had rules content in the form of Chapter Approved and I know that a fair amount of unbalanced junk got through (Feral Orks, anyone?) and a lot of more casual players got overwhelmed and confused with the new rules content.

Type "White Dwarf" into the search bar. Notice several other threads of the exact same nature. Comment on them if you really actually have something to say that is new.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
For example,

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/341136.page

Yippee! Another thread criticising WD!

Or as Flashman more aptly stated:

Flashman wrote:You're not, somebody starts a thread of this ilk on a weekly basis.

Yes, WD is not what it once was. For shame.

Since another similar thread was opened 5 days prior, is three pages deep, and is still on the front page of this forum, I'm going to go ahead and lock this as a duplicate.

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/341136.page