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Not sure if this is the right place for this, but here goes.

Anyway, anybody that knows me on this forum will know that I've been involved with the hobby for years. They will also know I abandoned GW in favour of Flames of War and took a blood oath never to buy White Dwarf for as long as I lived.

Well the other day, I won £5 on a lottery scratchcard (woo-hoo) and decided that with this being bonus money, and White Dwarf getting a relaunch, I'd give it another go. Plus, I, like many others on this site, have fond memories of when White Dwarf really was an essential buy. Fetch me a violin

First impressions: The magazine looks great, smells great, and has some characters from the hobbit feature on the front page. The design is as good as any magazine on sale. However, alarm bells were ringing at this point, as I predicted total hobbit saturation, but I thought, this is typical GW when something new is about to come out. No problems there. There might be other useful stuff.

I really should know better by now. Out of 143, yes, 143 pages, nearly 50! 50 pages are dedicated to plugging new products. Yes, I think the minis look great, but nearly a please don't bypass the language filter like this. Thanks.Reds8n third of the magazine dedicated to something you can view for free on their website...words fail me.

The print magazine industry is dying a slow death, and GW are more or less phoning the undertaker.

After getting over the initial shock, we move onto the meat of the magazine. So so pictures of an ogre kingdom army, and various other pictures of minis. Again made redundant by sites like this, and GW's own website where you can view other people's minis for free.

Next, my favourite bit. A Jervis column on how the game showed be played in a fair manner. Well, Jervis, from the bottom of my heart, thank you. By all accounts, Jervis is a decent person (met him in Nottingham years ago) and he's probably under Kirby's orders, but this is an article that Jervis phones in every 2-3 years. I can dig out at least half a dozen WD's with the same article. What a waste.

Next we have articles on who's the best elite unit in 40k. A choice between wolf guard and ork nobz (it's ratling snipers you fools) the obligatory battle report (who'd have guessed the dwarves would win) and hobbit painting advice that should, but won't be, in the boxed set.
Finally, we have Jeremy Vetock telling us he loves playing warhammer on rainy days as opposed to counting raindrops, and 10 pages of the GW directory.

To sum up: A once great magazine has been reduced to a steaming pile of brown stuff, and all for the sum of £5.50. Repeat that 12 times a year and you're wasting £66. Spend it on minis instead.

Yeah, it looks great, but the magazine industry is on it's knees and if WD is anything to go by, the industry will be dying sometime soon. Rival magazines should seriously be considered, if magazine reading is your thing. Get me a knife, it's time for another blood oath.

Overall 3/10

Thoughts? Comments?

Would love to give my appraisal, however my issue didn't arrive as expected today so I haven't seen it yet. I haven't been particularly impressed with the relaunch, unfortunately. It strikes me as being very much the same magazine as it has been for some time now; content-lite, the only difference now being it is presented with a slightly different font, format and for a higher price.

As they say, you can polish a turd but you can't make it smell any better...

Filbert, that's exactly the phrase I'm looking for.

Sad to see a once great magazine reduced to this.

I've not even seen November's issue but it sounds like GW has done a full reverse on the direction of the White Dwarf! I've mentioned in a similar post that the likes of the stockists' directory is pointless and should only be available on their website. 50 pages does seem a bit overkill on new minis, severe case of the hardsell perhaps?. Also the witterings of staffers about who is best is also a waste of time, who cares?. Jervis(Gawd bless 'em!) does seem to repeat himself year to year. Ironically he asks us to write to him as he likes hear about what's happening in the melting pot of the hobby. Pity he never listens.
Incidentally Miniature Wargames are planning to release their own sci/fi wargames magazine which will be totally seperate from their main mag and I as far as I know it is going to be called Dark Horizons. It will cover all the sci/fi fantasy games minis etc. So there may something decent to read coming to us soon.
@do-I-not-like-that, do you know that Larry Hagman died today?

As far as the directory goes, one can only mourn for the tree that died for those pages.

do-I-not-like-that is right about the issues with WD. There is too less primary information to get out of it. New releases are also available from the website, and Jervis' column is not very original and very boring to read.

I also give it a 3/10 and leave it to others buying it.

Yeah, December is really, really bad...

I have been buying issues for the iPad (I own all three thus far.) The October relaunch issue was really pretty good compared to what had been coming out, and I really like November. November had some real hobby goodness in it both painting and conversion. (I'm kit-bashing a Dante thanks to the November issue.) December has some neat conversion stuff, but only about 5 pages or so of really good stuff. The Jervis article is sad. Pages and pages of boring photos of boring miniatures. I'm bored by December, and I think they are too.

I don't know what happened, but the Hobbit stuff and the WD that trumpets its arrival are both poor. It just feels half-ass, half-hearted and without passion.

Agreed, I picked up the issue today and I'm not exactly blown away or anything. The painting tutorials are kinda okay, but other than that, nothing to write home about in all honesty.

In all honesty, we knew that this issue would come and complaining about it is kinda pointless in this units humblest of opinions.

Does this month's issue have plastic wrapping that I'll have to remove before reading it for free in the shop?

May not even bother with that to be honest. I'm totally absorbed with Flames of War now. Wargames Illustrated is now my lunch time magazine flick through of choice.

I haven't picked up a white dwarf since the mid 90`s because it had pretty much become a trade mag and no longer a gaming mag .wargames illustrated also lost credit after battle front took it over . bar the mandatory 2-3 sections on FOW at least there is other content in there .not sure i could say the same for white dwarf .iv flicked thru a few but never felt the need to pick one up .if you only play whfb or 40k then you`d prob get a lot more out of it .

It makes me sad and happy all at the same time, I gave up on GW right after 6th ed hit and am happy in the armies of PP.

Its like looking up an old girlfriend. You kinda wanna see that they have moved on and are happy, but its still makes you smile when you realize they are living in the trailer park with their abusive methhead boyfriend.

 Do_I_Not_Like_That wrote:
I really should know better by now. Out of 143, yes, 143 pages, nearly 50! 50 pages are dedicated to plugging new products. Yes, I think the minis look great, but nearly a third of the magazine dedicated to something you can view for free on their website...words fail me.

It's been this way since the relaunch. The first 50 or so pages are just that month's new releases. It's mostly big glossy pictures taken on dark backgrounds with small bits of text telling you what's in the pictures (pictures, already being worth a thousand words, are obviously worth a few words more to the WD team). And then they'll have "articles" in the other pages that are also about the new releases. In the first issue of the relaunch there were three separate "articles" about the Horus Heresy launch, including the section in the new release area.

And people think it's improved because it's on fancy paper and has a higher production quality.

 Do_I_Not_Like_That wrote:
...and 10 pages of the GW directory.

Oh gak... are they putting that "Every store and stockist on the whole damned planet" nonsense in each issue? Once every 6 months or even one a quarter would be enough. Once a month? What a waste of pages!

...but I thought the New "new" White Dwarf had been revamped by GW to not be bad.

GW even had an advertising campaign like what Domino's Pizza did. "White Dwarf doesn't suck anymore" they said. The first month was great, so I hear.

Pity they couldn't keep it up beyond the first month.

 Absolutionis wrote:
...but I thought the New "new" White Dwarf had been revamped by GW to not be bad.

Your definition of "not be bad" and GW's obviously differs.

All the store listings stuff in the back has been used as padding for years. Even when I stopped buying it regularly about 10 years ago it was getting a bit annoying that I was paying for the same bumf every month. You don't need that especially in the Internet age.

They used to confine it to just a page or two and then you'd get some mail order offers and sometimes the latest models were photographed in black and white as they were in the catalogues. That was actually useful because you had an opportunity to see the miniatures in detail, unpainted. But they stopped that, the mail order offers dried up and the store listings got bigger and bigger until they spanned several pages.

That is indicative of the problem with WD. That and the way the news pages are all listings of new products over far too many pages, that every article is just pushing these new products rather than offering hobby and gaming support, and that apparently this isn't advertising enough because there are regular one page adverts for their own products pushed in between all these. What do they need to advertise their own boxed games in their own magazine for? They only sell three games, if you're reading a wargammer article in their company magazine, it's safe to say you know about the fantasy game so why do they put a two page spread to advertise it? It's just lazy padding to make up the page count cheaply. Same with the store listings pages. They give pretty much the same information every month so it amounts to them being able to do that each month and tick off a chunk of the magazine at the back without doing anything at all creative.

And on top of all that, it's one of the most expensive hobby magazines on the market. There are more expensive magazines like AVF Modeller but they are a bit niche and very nicely printed.

After nearly a thousand posts, I get my first red letters :(

Apologies to the mods, but 50 pages of adverts had me in a bad mood.

Flashman, yeah, there is loads of plastic wrapping, but that's because there is a free poster this month, which I should have mentioned. The poster features minis of all the armies of 40k except for Sisters. Funny that.

H.B.M.C, I should have listened to yourself and other posters. The magazine really was that bad.

At this rate, WD will need another relaunch!!

Wargames Illustrated.
Mug of tea, comfy sofa and some biscuits.
Problem solved!

Also, the poster only shows kits that are either plastic or resin, metals are suspiciously left out, like Kasrkin, Ogryn and Ratlings. Hmmm.

I agree with the sentiments here. I just started buying white dwarf again, after it came out on iPad. The first couple of issues were reasonably promising, however, it took a swan dive this month. If I want to read a catalogue, I shouldn't have to pay for it. It is essentially one big advert, with nothing really offered beyond that. The superlatives they use to describe their own products are tiring, repetitive, and just plain meh.

Won't be buying a fourth issue.

Good review, I bought the October issue and I wont be going back either.

As you say, its all redundant because people like us who browse the web regularly have already seen all the minis and products that appear in the mag anyway, same goes for painting guides.

I only really enjoy the batreps, so the mags done and dusted in five minutes.

Its in my bathroom, and inside two days I was back to reading the back of a bottle of shampoo!

 Flashman wrote:
Does this month's issue have plastic wrapping that I'll have to remove before reading it for free in the shop?

May not even bother with that to be honest. I'm totally absorbed with Flames of War now. Wargames Illustrated is now my lunch time magazine flick through of choice.

I don't even play historical games but I love Wargames Illustrated for the historical titbits primarily plus the odd bit of modelling and painting goodness. As for White Dwarf and Jervis recycling articles I see this as something that will happen due to the nature of GW's customers. Every White Dwarf will be some persons first issue so some stuff will be cyclical. The first time I really noticed this wasfrom 3rd to 4th 40K when the Glorious Battles of the Imperial Guard articles were reprinted wholesale. If you are getting bored with seeing the same things come up, then you've probably outgrown what White Dwarf can offer you until the magazine significantly changes or there is a new version of the Citadel Journal.

I bought the October issue, and I've never felt so ripped off in my life.

So I've tuned out for good.

Yip i buy WGI if there's something historical im interested in .don't play FOW really don't like the game but at least there`s other bits in that are related to what im doing .

It's why I chose to become a DCM here, I realized just how much I get from the forum; battle reports, beautiful painted mini photos, tutorials, news and interesting debate and it updates every minute of any day. Given that GW wants $100 for 12 magazines that, despite recent promises and emperor's new clothes, contains little other than glossy photos and advertising, I find I am very happy to financially contribute to a website that gives my hobbying such a boon.

GW's management seems to 'not get' the hobby, fundamentally, if they think White Dwarf is anything like worth it's while to continue with in it's current format.

It would be much fairer if GW stopped advertising in their own magazine and dedicate more of their space to tangible things we gamers enjoy. Hey look, a new painting set...let's set one page aside for the advert, then do like ten pages of things you can do with the paint set showing off the new color palettes. At least demonstrate what could be done.

I'd take a one page advert for their new defense line, then go into a dozen or so pages of what can be done with them, paint schemes, customization work highlighting perhaps making them Orkified and so forth....

They keep tossing at us the inane pages pleading with us to buy their product. Buddy, we already spend money on a magazine about your hobby. We're convinced we want to buy your product. But more content rather than more adverts. We know it exists; just let us try and make an educated decision on buying rather than turn us away.

White Dwarf remains worthless. I went all-in and got the iPad subscription after seeing the first new WD back in October. November and December have been a complete and total waste. They came out with a bunch of new fortifications, but didn't bother to give us rules for them, along with an entire magazine full of pictures I can see on their website, and an article from Jervis explaining that they don't care how sloppy their rules are and we're donkey-caves for thinking that the rules shouldn't be sloppy.

The Caucasian midget magazine is horrible and has been for to long.i used to travel 40 miles once a month to get mine along with the New Releases.But i have not bought one in five years. oops i bought one at a discount rack to have as some toliet reading material.
GW just needs to quit beating that dying horse. What they need to do is bring back the Journal and some of the Specialist mags. but wait it is GW to bad that they are being greedy.I would really like to like them again.oh well , maybe that is why is switched to Flames of war.

 WarOne wrote:
It would be much fairer if GW stopped advertising in their own magazine and dedicate more of their space to tangible things we gamers enjoy. Hey look, a new painting set...let's set one page aside for the advert, then do like ten pages of things you can do with the paint set showing off the new color palettes. At least demonstrate what could be done.

I'd take a one page advert for their new defense line, then go into a dozen or so pages of what can be done with them, paint schemes, customization work highlighting perhaps making them Orkified and so forth....

They keep tossing at us the inane pages pleading with us to buy their product. Buddy, we already spend money on a magazine about your hobby. We're convinced we want to buy your product. But more content rather than more adverts. We know it exists; just let us try and make an educated decision on buying rather than turn us away.

Good post.

We don't need to be saturated with mass advertising about new products because we actively seek them out already.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 MeanGreenStompa wrote:
It's why I chose to become a DCM here, I realized just how much I get from the forum; battle reports, beautiful painted mini photos, tutorials, news and interesting debate and it updates every minute of any day. Given that GW wants $100 for 12 magazines that, despite recent promises and emperor's new clothes, contains little other than glossy photos and advertising, I find I am very happy to financially contribute to a website that gives my hobbying such a boon.

GW's management seems to 'not get' the hobby, fundamentally, if they think White Dwarf is anything like worth it's while to continue with in it's current format.

Good advice as usual from MGS.

Like you say $100 a year on WD = choice between medicore magazine or battalion boxed set. It's a no brainer. It's almost as if GW have never heard of the internet. Like music companies, film studios, and book stores, they're determied to keep their heads in the sand for as long as possible.

As for the directory, do I really need to know the phone number of a hobby shop on the Falkland Islands? No disrespect to the Falklands, but

Words fail me. Again!!

 Eiríkr wrote:
Wargames Illustrated.
Mug of tea, comfy sofa and some biscuits.
Problem solved!

I like the cut of your jib!

I think its the case that taking some shots of the new products and saturating the magazine with them costs a lot less than getting some to write up an article. I mean getting a generic set of pictures doesn't take as much effort as someone thinking up ten ways in which to convert the thing (though finding things to do with a model should come up naturally during its design process, and well seeing as the staff should be gamers, it wouldn't be much effort for them to come up with ideas on the fly). Right now I think GW's not caring about whether people enjoy their products, they know that they're going to make a minimum amount of sales each month from the kids and the "That Guys" of the world, anything else is just more money.

I kept with White Dwarf till about 2003, but even then its clear to see now it was heading down the route of just being a marketing tool. Popping in every few years to buy a copy's done nothing to dissuade this idea. GW know that people can get similar articles online, but instead of putting the effort in to compete with them they do the opposite. A decade ago, when the articles were at least still readable, there wasn't as much competition, so White Dwarf seemed to have plenty of readable content. So now they stick that stuff in campaign books instead of splitting it up over a few months copies, as they're getting profit either way. =P