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.

 d-usa wrote:

 Redbeard wrote:

 d-usa wrote:
Ads are a part of every magazine though.

Every other magazine we end up paying $8 for the privilege of reading ads that somebody else already paid for.

Most other magazines aren't $8. Most other magazines are cheaper, because the ads pay for the content and you're just buying the medium.
White Dwarf is a rip off because they don't operate like a magazine. Magazines pay for content with ads and the buyer pays for the medium and the delivery. White Dwarf has no outside advertising, and has to pay for the content somehow. So they charge you for both the content and the ads and the medium. White Dwarf's cover price is double what any other magazine charges, and their subscription plan is a whopping 17% savings, where industry standard is closer to 66%. $10/month is a lot to spend on some pictures to look at while crapping.

So you admit that other magazines have a subsidized price because of ads. So White Dwarf is a ripoff because you have to pay the money that they don't make by not having outside ads? You admit that they don't have any ad income, and then complain that the price is double that of other magazines (who have ad income).

The reason other subscriptions are cheaper is also because of ads. They use the guaranteed "x subscribers" to charge more for ads, they have an incentive to have a guaranteed number of magazines sold each month so that they can charge more (and make more income). Since White Dwarf doesn't have ads, that doesn't work.

WD has ads. It shouldn't matter if the ads are their own or somebody else's. What WD is trying to do is sell us a magazine at a premium cost and have us pay for the very ads we are so privileged to see. GW should pay the magazine out of it's advertising budget (lol) and then the magazine could be sold at an appropriate cost to the consumer.

I don't get it, what has changed about the magazine exactly? I haven't been able to go down to a store and look at it yet, but so far it sounds like they just prettied it up.

 Aerethan wrote:
Why on earth would you have your subscription sent to the store instead of your home? That sketchy goth kid down the hall stealing it every month?

If you live in an apartment building like I do then yeah, having stuff delivered isn't usually a good idea. If it's bigger than a standard letter then it won't fit in the mail box, so it gets dropped by your door. And it doesn't matter what it is, if it's laying there in the hallway, someone's going to take it. And sometimes I don't think the mailman even knocks, I once had a package turn up missing even though the USPS website said it was delivered at a time and date when I was at home, funnily enough, waiting for the damn package. Was basically told "tough luck man."

So I don't use USPS anymore if I can help it, and if I have to buy something online I usually have it shipped to my dad if at all possible.

 Surtur wrote:
I don't get it, what has changed about the magazine exactly? I haven't been able to go down to a store and look at it yet, but so far it sounds like they just prettied it up.

Yeah, pretty much. From what I can tell the rumors of a "new" White Dwarf with actual content were bogus. It just got a new cover and pictures with a red filter over the lighting.

 Surtur wrote:
I don't get it, what has changed about the magazine exactly? I haven't been able to go down to a store and look at it yet, but so far it sounds like they just prettied it up.

Not much changed. As you said, they just prettied it up. But I'm willing to give it a shot - they put the effort in to get a new team to do it rather than keeping it internal, so there's some hope. If they haven't turned it around in a few months, I'll start giving it a miss again.

I think the part that impressed me the most was the paper they used for the pages and cover. It no longer feels like a mailout catalogue.

With the release of the new Chaos Codex, White Dwarf looks like a real bargain. The codex has 104 pages for 50 bucks. WD is 'only' 10.

Of course most people will not be fooled by this nonsense, as both are ridiculously overpriced. It was only about a year ago when a codex was 25.

 spaceelf wrote:
With the release of the new Chaos Codex, White Dwarf looks like a real bargain. The codex has 104 pages for 50 bucks. WD is 'only' 10.

Of course most people will not be fooled by this nonsense, as both are ridiculously overpriced. It was only about a year ago when a codex was 25.

25 euros, perhaps.

 helium42 wrote:

 d-usa wrote:

 Redbeard wrote:

 d-usa wrote:
Ads are a part of every magazine though.

Every other magazine we end up paying $8 for the privilege of reading ads that somebody else already paid for.

Most other magazines aren't $8. Most other magazines are cheaper, because the ads pay for the content and you're just buying the medium.
White Dwarf is a rip off because they don't operate like a magazine. Magazines pay for content with ads and the buyer pays for the medium and the delivery. White Dwarf has no outside advertising, and has to pay for the content somehow. So they charge you for both the content and the ads and the medium. White Dwarf's cover price is double what any other magazine charges, and their subscription plan is a whopping 17% savings, where industry standard is closer to 66%. $10/month is a lot to spend on some pictures to look at while crapping.

So you admit that other magazines have a subsidized price because of ads. So White Dwarf is a ripoff because you have to pay the money that they don't make by not having outside ads? You admit that they don't have any ad income, and then complain that the price is double that of other magazines (who have ad income).

The reason other subscriptions are cheaper is also because of ads. They use the guaranteed "x subscribers" to charge more for ads, they have an incentive to have a guaranteed number of magazines sold each month so that they can charge more (and make more income). Since White Dwarf doesn't have ads, that doesn't work.

WD has ads. It shouldn't matter if the ads are their own or somebody else's. What WD is trying to do is sell us a magazine at a premium cost and have us pay for the very ads we are so privileged to see. GW should pay the magazine out of it's advertising budget (lol) and then the magazine could be sold at an appropriate cost to the consumer.

It does matter who places the ads.

1) you are paying to read the ads no matter what magazine you pick up.
2) other magazines have their price subsidized by charging companies for ads.
3) there is no additional income from selling ads at WD

Every magazine you read is full of ads. The only difference with WD is that the ads don't subsidize the magazine and they are much more noticeable because they are all on the same subject.

The reason I did it is so I can go to the Shop at least once a month. My mailbox does actually hold mail. If my 87 year old neighbor is Goth, when in the hell didn't she tell me! Maybe we can share some music. Nah, I did it to go to the shop to see friends and catch up with whatever is the new Hotness there.

Leave your house?

But the outside, the sun, the brightness, it burns!

So sorry about that. I posted this about the New White Dwarf:

Petey88 wrote:
I come on Dakka faithfully 2 or 3 times a day. I don't want to cause any problems, but this is what happened at my GW store when I picked up the new improved one. It's the 8th Street store in NYC.
1. I went to pick up my monthly script.
2. They told me I will no longer have a mag waiting there for me.
3. They gave me coupons, 9 bc thats how many mags I have left on the script.
4. They told me to make sure I don't lose them bc then I get no mag.
5. Each month I go in and get my mag and use a coupon for it. No prob. But I was told that if the mag sells out I can not get it that month. They don't do back issues anymore.
6. I was told that I can use the coupons and purchse 9 of the same mag if I wanted.
My response was that when I signed up for the subscription, it was so I can pick it up at the shop, and it will be there waiting-no selling out.
I'm kinda pissed about this.
Pedro Sierra-AKA Petey88-NYC

P.S. I think the new mag is amazing


Then someone replied about a working mailbox, or a Goth Kid stealing my Mag. I was just pointing out why I did the in store subscription.

I was just trying to be sarcastic...

My bad dude. As you can see I'm new to the whole posting thing. I makinly read and look for info.

 MeanGreenStompa wrote:
And yet... I just don't get why.

How difficult would it have been to actually, really improved the magazine. To have additional content that was not just advertising... because anyone with half a brain could see that it's ALL advertising and investment into the hobby, it continues or increases engagement and promotes the hobby further. Increased actual content would lead to an increase in sales, improved customer relations, reinvigoration of the hobby and improved takeup.

This smoke and mirrors must be around as expensive as an actual relaunch with content. I just don't understand what the harm in real content would have been, perhaps the upper management of the company is now so far from the hobbyists who started and led the company before that they don't even understand what they're selling any more.

It's because GW is now (and to quote here from a well known developer who left Atari, a company in which a similar transformation took place) "populated by suits on all levels". There is no focus at all on producing something good, at excelling at something for it's own sense of fulfilment and the ability to make something special and give enjoyment of that to others, it is all focused around hitting that bottom line and margin.

Anyone who stays within the company has to either follow the almost Evangelical level of zeal towards GW and its products, resulting in the 'yes man' culture we can now see, and those with any ability towards independent thought and criticism have long since departed, perhaps with the exception of a few creative types who can occasionally squeeze out a winner despite the oppressive 'sales or nothing' mandate operated by the upper management (such as the Dark Eldar range). The line from Kirby at a previous company address, "Oh ye of little faith", I think speaks volumes about the kind of business culture that exists - vaguely religious or cult-ish sounding.

The problem with all of this is that while it leads to a strictly controlled hierarchy within the company, ultimately it is inefficient and can damage the economic and developmental strength of the company; the Finecast QC issues, the lack of new ideas and concepts, lack of use of new technology, the antagonism towards FLGS and other sale avenues, lack of marketing. And now a new WD that is both deeply disappointing but, if we were honest with ourselves, in actual fact is completely expected to anyone who has charted the progress of GW over the last ten years or so. They weren't going to rectify a problem if, in the minds of the people putting together the targets for the magazine, no problem exists.

The current issue was a nice improvement over the previous just on the "clean up" alone. But complaints about lack of promised content are valid. Yes, the battle report is better than previous but that's not why I (used to) buy WD.