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What ever happened to Grombrindal?

There are insufficient stances on GW's rerelease of the white dwarf catalogue. To. That effect I render my following opinion:



seriosly though, I doubt that GW can do anything to Improve WD. It can go back and rewrite how to articles, add new articles on conversions, etc. but by and large, you can't turn a catalogue into a magazine without actually generating content. The antics of the GW publishing team is not ttwg magazine worthy content.

From my perspective, the cynicism seems mostly unwarranted in this case.

For me, there is only one single thing that WD needs to do to make me interested in it: use it to release new rules and/or ally expansions. Note that "interested" in my case means that I will consider buying 1+ issues in the span of a year, which would be an improvement from my current stance, which is 100% disinterest (I would more than likely refuse a free copy of it, since it would just end up in the garbage can after a few days).

Over the last few months of rumours, the "new and improved WD" rumour was almost always paired with the "new units and allies supplements" rumour.

Given that we now have confirmation of the former, I'm assuming the latter is also true. So it follows that no matter what happens with the quality of batreps, conversion guides, terrain tutorials, etc. as long as the magazine becomes a source for new rules, I'll be more interested in it than I was before. I suspect many other people feel similarly, even if they haven't thought about it, or, in some cases, wouldn't admit it. I can't imagine many players turning down a shiny new supplement to their army, even if they have massive problems with the other meat of the magazine. So, for those people, people like me, I think this change is a complete, no strings attached positive development.

Altruizine wrote:
From my perspective, the cynicism seems mostly unwarranted in this case.

For me, there is only one single thing that WD needs to do to make me interested in it: use it to release new rules and/or ally expansions. .

This is bad. If GW starts publishing rules in this format, people will be ev,en more frustrated with these limited edition rule formats.the storm guppy is my example here. If GW however went and released special rules for characters to be used in campaign modes, that are not legal in normal or tourney games, then yeah, I'm all for it.

notprop wrote:

In truth if that was true if the had Thrud the Barbarian back i'd subscribe.

Haha, absolutely he was great!

ExNoctemNacimur wrote:What ever happened to Grombrindal?

Hopefully buried under a fething land-slide...

Seriously though, the big dip in quality of the magazine happened when the editor disappeared and got replaced with 'the White Dwarf'.

Altruizine wrote:From my perspective, the cynicism seems mostly unwarranted in this case.

For me, there is only one single thing that WD needs to do to make me interested in it: use it to release new rules and/or ally expansions.

Read any issue prior to about 310 or so. Now look at the Dark Vengeance issue, and lament what has been lost

I was reading an old issue the other day, 303 in fact (one with a hobbit-eared Elijah Wood on the front, holding a sword) and the biggest difference is in the amount of actual article content in the magazine. Word count in fact. But, for that you have to pay a journalist, someone who can write well, to sit down and write a couple of thousand words on something. There did used to be some great writers for the magazine, but a large number of them have gone to Black Library (Graham McNeil, Nick Kyme, Gav Thorpe, to name but 3), and it's almost as if no-one stepped in to fill the void when they left.

So, I think with the best of intentions in the world, we will only really see a difference if money is being put back into the magazine - specifically, skilled writers are being paid to write content. I think that will be the clincher.

 ExNoctemNacimur wrote:
What ever happened to Grombrindal?

He gets a new mini every year

Hang about, Jes Bickham is the new editor? He of N64 Magazine / Super Play / NGC fame?

This fills my boots with hope. I've only ever known him to write for decent mags

Also, I want card inserts back. And card scenery :p How about some cardboard battlefield terrain? (I know, no chance...)

Price Hike? Luckily i got my subscruiption in last month and the next issue will be first of my sub. Looks like i might have dodged the price-Hike bullet.

 Praxiss wrote:
Price Hike? Luckily i got my subscruiption in last month and the next issue will be first of my sub. Looks like i might have dodged the price-Hike bullet.

You mean the price hike RUMOUR started in this very thread with no evidence whatsoever?

UltraPrime wrote:

 Praxiss wrote:
Price Hike? Luckily i got my subscruiption in last month and the next issue will be first of my sub. Looks like i might have dodged the price-Hike bullet.

You mean the price hike RUMOUR started in this very thread with no evidence whatsoever?

I heard that the new paper will cause allergic reactions in 58% of people handling the magazine, and that the ink will produce stinging vapors that cause excessive tearing and possible damage to corneas.

Really hope this update works out. Went from having a 5 year subscription to only picking up a couple of issues the last three years and they were not worth it.

Just because it's GW, it doesn't mean there WILL be a price hike . . . though the chances are higher if there IS a price hike

FWIW, I think that GW's attempts to legitimately introduce us to the new team is a positive step that shows some outside thinking...or maybe some memories about the past.

WD used to be a magazine filled with *personalities*. But in recent years GW's been inclined to keep the team almost faceless, other than the managing editor and some of the designer guest stars. That hasn't helped WD shed its reputation as a glorified catalog.

This new approach may come from the new editor or their new agency. Regardless, it feels like an honest attempt to have the community get to know the WD team a little better and build some bridges.

Yes, if we have a clue who the people writing the magazine are, we may actually give a fig about something they write.

I don't believe 12 year olds are the main GW customers. I've heard that claim for years, but I've never seen it proven. When I go to my FLGS everyone there is at least old enough to drive.

I also think you are overestimating how much involvement those parents are going to have in their kids hobby.

 His Master's Voice wrote:
Oh, boy, oh boy, pictures from Flickr, that's what we've all been waiting for. WD is indeed in dire need of more pretty photos.

Seriously though, not mentioning actual written content does not bode well. At all.

This. I heard nothing about articles, just pictures from the Flickr pool. That doesn't look good.

I've got a complete White Dwarf collection going back to issue about 80, and it's never been worse than it is now. A lot of people point to the Giant issue as a low point, I say it's been going downhill since like the 280s, or 300s.

The White Dwarf logo was one of the few things I liked, very recognizable.

It's just going to be the same garbage repackaged, although I don't think anything could be worse than last month's issue, with no painting guides and no LOTR, and almost no WFB except for some army photos

I thought they hired a real magazine editor to keep things in line.

And the paper quality? Who complained about the paper quality?

They promise more pics of models, but those are fan-submitted pics, which you've probably already seen. And now they're charging you $10 to look at.

--Chris

So wait, why are we complaining about photos from Flickr being used?

There's been complaints for years now that GW does not do enough "showcasing" of fan armies, just showing whatever they have in the Studio.
Photos from the Flickr pool are exactly that: fan armies.

I am so puzzled.

Charax wrote:



Pretty much sums it up. It's a fairly transparent attempt to take the (generally quite OK) online content and whack it on some dead tree and hope people like it, forgetting the fundamental difference between the two media: You're not charging for online content.

So yes, it's all painfully cool and hip and funky (That one girl even has purple hair! And is a girl! See kids, this isn't the old bunch of balding guys anymore) but I seriously doubt it'll have the quality to carry that pricetag

"Change" seems to go hand in hand with "Schister customers out of money" at GW, Im guessing its $12 now

 chris_valera wrote:


This. I heard nothing about articles, just pictures from the Flickr pool. That doesn't look good.



They promise more pics of models, but those are fan-submitted pics, which you've probably already seen. And now they're charging you $10 to look at.

--Chris

Does no one actually read the articles (or other posts in this thread)?
The Flickr pool pictures mentioned are for WHITE DWARF DAILY. That is the daily blog, not White Dwarf magazine.

 Kanluwen wrote:
Yeah, I went and looked to see but all I saw was your FinePaper remark.

Someone has to be the voice of reason

 SilverMK2 wrote:

 Kanluwen wrote:
Yeah, I went and looked to see but all I saw was your FinePaper remark.

Someone has to be the voice of reason

It doesn't help when the voice of reason is a smartmouth, Silver.

I'm cautiously optimistic. They certainly can't make it much worse.

 Kanluwen wrote:
There's been complaints for years now that GW does not do enough "showcasing" of fan armies, just showing whatever they have in the Studio.
Photos from the Flickr pool are exactly that: fan armies.

I'd rather have articles than army pictures. The latest WD had no Lord of the Rings content at all, and just a few photo pages on WFB.

--Chris

 Ouze wrote:
I'm cautiously optimistic. They certainly can't make it much worse.

See Silver, this is how you do the whole "voice of reason" thing.

I agree with you though Ouze. Anything is an improvement.

 Lorizael wrote:
Does no one actually read the articles (or other posts in this thread)?

I guess not?

"Some of the best might even make their way into the pages of White Dwarf magazine itself."

(In the case of White Dwarf Daily my concerns about copyright infringement still stands. Unless you have your Flickr uploads set to CC BY or CC BY-ND you are entitled compensation for any of your pictures that appear in any other publication. Such as the White Dwarf Daily blog.)

I'm excited at the prospect of a new team of writers for WD. They need different blood in the office to keep it from being the same stale crap they've been shoveling for the past six years. Honestly, I'm amazed it took them until now to realize the magazine is underperforming, as I'm sure the quality is reflected in the sales.

 Ouze wrote:
I'm cautiously optimistic. They certainly can't make it much worse.

I dunno, Sign & Portents have articles, but they're pretty bad.

--Chris

 Kanluwen wrote:
See Silver, this is how you do the whole "voice of reason" thing.

Yeah, but that's no fun

General Veers over at Warseer wrote:Walked into my FLGS and asked the owner "What's new from Games Workshop?"
He replied "They just told me when the next White Dwarf was going to be sent and the price is going up a dollar."

Ghal Maraz wrote:According to my FLGS, the italian WD is going to go up one euro, from 7 to 8.
I guess it will be common to almost all euroland...

Hmmm, FinePaper

Any news on how this affects existing subscribers? I assume they will see the price rise same as everyone else then?