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Alright guys? Basically I have returned from a 10 year on-off hobby hangover and have returned to find that my favourite monthly read, 'White Dwarf', has really gone downhill.

I bought the November 2013 copy last night with the hope that there might be something, no matter how small, that I might be able to sink my teeth into but once again I was left a bit disappointed with the blatant lack of relevant content.

In my opinion it's become a platform for a bunch of self-promoters to talk about themselves, gloat and brag about the models / projects that they have been working on and also for them to ingraciate themselves to more revered icons of the game (i.e the monthly 'Blanchitsu' article). The amount of inter-departmental high-fiving that goes on in those pages is really disappointing. Even the artcicles by Jervis Johnson, which I found to be the only interesting part of the new format, has become pretty dire - his latest rant about gaming templates nearly put me to sleep.

I still have a huge collection of WD magazine from yesteryear which I still go back to and read and even after many years the content for the most part is still relevant - simply because it spoke to the reader rather than spoke-down to them. The modern WD has totally lost touch with it's reader in my opinion. Here's what I would do in order to improve it :-

1 - Make the 'new releases' section smaller by removing the unnecessary centrefolds and have more information about how the products are used in the games.
2 - Have the main articles by Jervis Johnson, Blanchitsu, Jeremy Vetock etc - every other month to avoid them going stale.
3 - Have a battle report from each of the gaming systems.
4 - Include excerpts from the new books (i.e short stories, army histories etc)
5 - Include proper artwork on front cover of magazine rather than photograpy that's all over the interior of the magazine.

Well that's all I can think of off the top of my head - what would you all like to see tossed out of / included into the sad, sad pages of WD?

Yep. That's what happens when GW realizes that only dedicated fanboys buy the magazine when there are plenty of forums/blogs offering free content that just doesn't have the GW name on it. The fanboys will buy everything with the GW name on it no matter how awful it is, so why pay for actual content in their magazine when they can just sell you a couple blog posts in paper form and fill the other 95% of the magazine with more advertising?

Yeah very true. Me and a friend had a similar discussion not so long ago and deduced that GW has become very 'Apple' like in it's approach. Having fanboys leading the fanboys is never a good thing.....

Oh boy, yeah, the battle reports could use some work. Like maybe adding that map they used to have that told you what moved where.
Maybe also get them to learn to zoom out more so the entire board can be seen more?
Oh, and like you said, make them do multiple games instead of just the one that corresponds to the army being showcased.

Actually, it's been a while for me. Do they still have that standard bearer section?

To be a tad less cynical about it, they've re-purposed the magazine in order to adapt to the changing market. They've realized that the market for all the rules and scenarios that White Dwarf was known for is best served by the digital format, in which they could package together the new rules, a smattering of old art and new along with some fluff and sell it at a premium. A single, slightly modified article from WD was repackaged as a digital effort and is now available indefinitely for $7. Other articles like the SoB and Inquisition WD codexes have been expanded, turned into actual books and sold for $32.

WD as it is now is just a model magazine, presenting beautifully painted versions of their new models to build excitement for their latest releases. It's GWs version of a high gloss fashion mag - nothing more. Which is why many of us have abandoned it. But folks who love to look at painted models or get excited about the new release a week or two early love it.

Massawyrm wrote:
To be a tad less cynical about it, they've re-purposed the magazine in order to adapt to the changing market. They've realized that the market for all the rules and scenarios that White Dwarf was known for is best served by the digital format, in which they could package together the new rules, a smattering of old art and new along with some fluff and sell it at a premium. A single, slightly modified article from WD was repackaged as a digital effort and is now available indefinitely for $7. Other articles like the SoB and Inquisition WD codexes have been expanded, turned into actual books and sold for $32.

WD as it is now is just a model magazine, presenting beautifully painted versions of their new models to build excitement for their latest releases. It's GWs version of a high gloss fashion mag - nothing more. Which is why many of us have abandoned it. But folks who love to look at painted models or get excited about the new release a week or two early love it.

IF it were only that, it would be fine.

But actually, a lot of the joy has gone out of the painting... everything is so generic, and they seem to have got rid of all the interesting customisation options. I was lifting a few Ork customisation tips from issue 351, which was only four or so years ago, and there was much more enthusiasm about the models - an interview with the Stompa designer, then a big feature on a customised build. They'd put a bit of love into it, and that's what's missing now. It's bland.

Secondly, whoever thought you could fill a magazine with repetitive features of the same fat old blokes every issue, and sell the feature with a bland photo of a fat old bloke, should go back to kindergarten.

It's the epitome of laziness, and reminds me of those columns you get in "free" resident's magazines, where they get major advertisers, usually an estate agent or insurance salesman, to write a "guest" feature about how fantastic the local housing market is, or why we all need private health insurance.

Loads of good points here folks

I understand that there is a need to move with the times, markets etc - I've seen WD be revamped several times over the years to deal with such changes but never at the expense of the depth of the content - that was always decent until the latest incarnation of the magazine. I could happily tolerate the glossy centrefolds and overcooked images of the models - that still excites me to a point, after all I AM still a gamer and I do love the anticipation before the model releases but it's a shame that the lack of other content means that once i've taken 5 minutes to flip through the magazine i'll put it down and probably not go back to it.

Another thing that I feel made WD more exciting back in the day was that it empowered you to go and find out how to get involved, explore and improve certain aspects of the hobby yourself - now, as has been mentioned in an earlier post in this thread, it is all very generic and bland thanks to various tutorials and articles that exist with no other purpose than to sell the product - that's a shame.

As for the 'exclusives' for the digital market - that's all well and good but again it alienates alot of gamers who perhaps don't have the means to get these products and again that underlines that GW care more about demographics and markets rather than the needs of the people who want play their games.

I've only purchased two copies of White Dwarf, One for the Dark Angels release, and was disappointed then again with the Tau Release and again was disappointed.

The Disappointment for me, is I don't feel it was even a true "preview" of the army. Sure they did a great job of having well painted pictures of the new units, along with a teaser of information about them. But I don't want a teaser!

They don't need to bring back "Chapter Approved" to bring in more options for the game. But if they took the time to do a special scenario for people to play would draw a lot of people back to the magazine.

I won't claim it is perfect, but there are a couple of things I like about the new WD:
* Forgeworld gets space in there every month now, and it often details stuff they're working on.
* We have article highlighting a model chosen by one of the members of the staff and then the process behind it is explained by the creator.
*They show what people in the studio are working on, and these projects often are very creative and cool to look at.
*While the painting articles tend to be simple, they have them in every month, and often have instructions for painting armies the WD team plays in their games for Battle Reports. Plus with the toning down of the level of skill needed in the articles it's less of hurdle for new players as it teaches a nice tabletop standard.

All very true Clockwork but everything on that list kind of backs up my original point - the content of the magazine is about what the GW staff are collecting, building, how they paint things, how they build things, how they play their games. They don't reach out to their fans at all. There should definitely be a bit more space dedicated to the fans (i.e gaming clubs, projects, letters etc) rather than the machinations of the GW company after all without the fans, who saw them through some pretty lean years in the last decade, there would be very little to write about at all in their magazine. It's all very elitist and although they do a grand job promoting their very incredible models and telling us how to paint them they way THEY want us to , every month they are really not nurturing or enhancing the creativity or gaming experience of their newer gamers which in my opinion is what the "hobby" is all about. I agree though the 'Hall Of Fame' section is pretty cool - even if it is still another section where there's alot of retrospective butt-kissing and self-high fiving going on......

Old and new WD are a mirror of how the management thinks about their customers. Draw your own conclusions.

 Andy Bird wrote:
All very true Clockwork but everything on that list kind of backs up my original point - the content of the magazine is about what the GW staff are collecting, building, how they paint things, how they build things, how they play their games. They don't reach out to their fans at all. There should definitely be a bit more space dedicated to the fans (i.e gaming clubs, projects, letters etc) rather than the machinations of the GW company after all without the fans, who saw them through some pretty lean years in the last decade, there would be very little to write about at all in their magazine. It's all very elitist and although they do a grand job promoting their very incredible models and telling us how to paint them they way THEY want us to , every month they are really not nurturing or enhancing the creativity or gaming experience of their newer gamers which in my opinion is what the "hobby" is all about. I agree though the 'Hall Of Fame' section is pretty cool - even if it is still another section where there's alot of retrospective butt-kissing and self-high fiving going on......

What about "Blanjitsu"? That's all about conversions and cool looking stuff. It's not in every issue, but it's been a pretty big feature since the change to the current format.

Yeah I mentioned 'Blanchitsu' in an earlier post and I think it's one of the better articles although this month it seems to be (again) about what John Blanche inspired-work the GW staff have been working on. Blanche is amazing and his artwork is what got me hooked when I started the hobby 15+ years ago so when I saw his article in the latest incarnation of WD, i was very excited. It definitely has a place but I think it would be more anticipated if it were every other month. This month's butt-kissing 'Blanchitsu' article proves that it's stagnating a bit if they are using it to showcase anything other than Blanche's own works. That would be like getting someone to come in and write Jervis' column every month, which would make no sense whatsoever.

 Kroothawk wrote:
Old and new WD are a mirror of how the management thinks about their customers. Draw your own conclusions.

Could not have said it better myself. I sometimes look through old WD's that I picked up when I first came into the hobby and a little part of me dies each time I am reminded that it was once amazing.

 Andy Bird wrote:
Yeah I mentioned 'Blanchitsu' in an earlier post and I think it's one of the better articles although this month it seems to be (again) about what John Blanche inspired-work the GW staff have been working on. Blanche is amazing and his artwork is what got me hooked when I started the hobby 15+ years ago so when I saw his article in the latest incarnation of WD, i was very excited. It definitely has a place but I think it would be more anticipated if it were every other month. This month's butt-kissing 'Blanchitsu' article proves that it's stagnating a bit if they are using it to showcase anything other than Blanche's own works. That would be like getting someone to come in and write Jervis' column every month, which would make no sense whatsoever.

That's fair I guess. I know some of the stuff that has been in the articles was work from other people he wanted to show case, but I can understand that not everyone wants it every month.

I buy White Dwarf when forced to. Honestly, I'd love it if they had creative writing in it, like a Battle report done up into a story. I'd like New missions you can try (preferably tested a feww times first...). I would love them to seek interviews with top players and grill them about specific things they did in specific games. I dunno. I also think they might win a few people over if they had a section for noobs. Like specifically a tactical or list building section designed for the newest player. many of us wouldn't need to read it BUT it could be a real treasure for someone newer. For example, when not to shoot, spreadfing out and optimal formations for it, the idea behind organizing your unit when it emerges from a transport, the concepts of ablative wounds and how to build a unit for that eventuality. The little things that newer players might not always think about at first.

I'm no expert, on magazines but i know what I like and i dont really read White Dward unless im forced to buy it like with the Sisters of Battle thing.

All wd has these days is: shiny new model, shiny old model... Shiny
Its like they went and ripped everything good out of it and threw in 50 pages of releases and a crapy battle report. The only thing I like is the back cover, that's all!

Some cool Ideas here.

It would be nice to think that they would include the gamers in the testing of the games by publishing scenarios, missions, rules etc by offering constructive feedback on what they print (perhaps via the GW website) but I guess we all agree on here in some way or another that the powers that be at GW have the ball and they aint letting anyone else play - you just have to eat the stuff that they put in the bowl for you. Such involvement of hobbyists simply doesn't have a place in the corporate heart of GW these days.

Right now I would settle for them to be a little bit more "give" instead of just being "all take"......*sighs*

I gave the new WD a chance starting with the issue prior to the Chaos Marine release....even gave them a few issues to improve, and it actually got worse. There simply is no passion for the hobby there. It feels more like they hired a staff and then MADE them play Warhammer, instead of the staff being enthusiasts before working for GW.

If they scrap the current crew, they really need to get true enthusiasts back in control. People that are legitimately excited to be writing about the hobby. And please stop with the obvious attempt at getting the gamer geeks' attention with the "nerd grrrrrl". Its so obvious she got hired because somebody thought, "Hey, she's cute and has blue hair, what more could the geeks want?"

Massawyrm wrote:
To be a tad less cynical about it, they've re-purposed the magazine in order to adapt to the changing market. They've realized that the market for all the rules and scenarios that White Dwarf was known for is best served by the digital format, in which they could package together the new rules, a smattering of old art and new along with some fluff and sell it at a premium. A single, slightly modified article from WD was repackaged as a digital effort and is now available indefinitely for $7. Other articles like the SoB and Inquisition WD codexes have been expanded, turned into actual books and sold for $32.

WD as it is now is just a model magazine, presenting beautifully painted versions of their new models to build excitement for their latest releases. It's GWs version of a high gloss fashion mag - nothing more. Which is why many of us have abandoned it. But folks who love to look at painted models or get excited about the new release a week or two early love it.

this. I like white dwarf.. because I IS ONE

I used to subscribe in the late 90s/early 00s but then stopped as I took a break from the hobby.

I came back a while ago, and saw that my beloved WD had turned into one enormous ad. I remember the old WDs would actually be good reads, I carried it around for days reading all the new short stories and fluff, and looking at the terrain and conversion articles and artwork. /nostalgia

What I miss the most is the seemingly endless supply of "Hobby" that the original WDs had. My collection of WD is composed of 250-310 And let me tell you, those are VERY good issues.

What I like:
-Battle Reports. One per System almost every single time.
+The clarity, the thought, the everything was fantastic. Having an in-depth explanation of the battle in text while having fluffy narration while having strategic thoughts from the players is phenomenal. Not to mention that more often then not, the Batreps were done by random store managers and such.
-Chapter Approved. Gave official rulings to zany conversion opportunities. Like the "Creature Creator", "Zealots", or "Abhuman" articles.
-Promotion of conversions. Conversions were EVERYTHING to these guys before. They even promoted scratchbuilds all over the place, like the deodorant Tau Devilfish
-There was a whole article dedicated to "Count-As" and even a whole article on the side promoting the idea of "proxying.
-Model Showcases of awesome collections. (And more often then not, CONVERSIONS)
-Tactics discussions. Tips, Tricks, and more on deployment, Assault Phase, Nurgle Armies, Speed Freeks, and more.
-The New Release Section was about 4 pages in the front of the book with barely any detail other than a picture and a pricetag. (So you can get to the hobby)
-And More!

I constantly go back and re-read these issues because it always got me so excited for the hobby more than anything else has.

The trick that these older White Dwarfs had was the emphasis of Hobby over gaming. And then to have this coming from GW themselves was a god-send in the eyes of a hobbyist.

If GW would just do this again, they would once more have me throwing money at them like the good ol' days.

When the new team started a bit more than a year ago, they made a list of articles:

Jervis and Cruddace talk about game stuff, Blanche shows his models, 50 pages how awesome the new models are, several pages battle report without any revealed info, several pages of how awesome the team finds the hobby (with photos proving how they enjoy the hobby), then the 12-15 pages listing every damn GW and retail store IN THE WORLD carrying GW products.

You can endure than one month, maybe even 2, but not the same articles 14 months in a row and counting. Gawwd!

I basically stopped liking White Dwarf at about Issue 300. There is literally nothing in the current format of what used to make White Dwarf a good magazine. Used to be it was written like a bunch of us fans of the hobby wrote each issue. Now it looks like a store manager wrote each one.

Lol started playing a bit with mostly my old models, asked my dad who has stayed active in the game the whole time.

Myself I kept a subscription from 1993 to around 2003.
My dad did the same and gave around 2006.

I asked him about a new WD, i laughed when he told me their just AD magazines and your better off reading the back of a cereal box in the mornings instead.

lmao

GW goes out of its way to avoid its fan base, and WD is just another causality

I think that there is actually a market for White Dwarf to return to it's ancient roots of just a general specialist gaming magazine. I only play 40k but I know there is other stuff out there, especially with kick starters and everything else lighting off every few minutes it feels like. Back in the day White Dwarf wasn't soley a GW run show, there were book reviews of non BL books, talks about how certain fantasy authors were affecting the settings of games, DnD modules, etc. I feel like they could make more sales of the mag by inching back in that direction and gain some presitige and cachet back too. However I think they believe, maybe correctly, that people's hobby expenditures are zero sum, so that bringing attention to anything out of GW, even if it is not a direct competitor, takes away money from the bottom line. Still, I think there is a void to be filled there, for a gaming magazine that covers all the bases and looks at geek/fantasy subculture in general.

Haha Prehistoric UFO you are too right - my magazines are all tatty and dog-eared from spending month-upon-month in my backpack where they were read again and again on buses, trains, breaks etc, etc! Funnily enough all my recent ones are in mint condition because they simply aren't worth reading - as you say - it's just one big ad now!

Silverthorne is right - there is simply not enough time or effort given to the other games that are still played such as Necromunda, Blood Bowl, Mordheim etc - these are badass games that deserve the effort.....