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So what do people think of white dwarf these days?

I ask as I'm not impressed with it much. Yes I still get it (don't technically buy it, long story) and it keeps me up to date ish but cpmared to what it used to be it seems poor. Years ago I'd come home and read the thing cover to cover, now I just skim through it and thats it. Some times there is a good one (Jans I think stood out for me) but on the whole I don't think it's the magazine back in the days of 'fat bloke'. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying the guys writing it are rubbish, they do put effort in but it lacks the interest to me as a long time gamer that it used to hold.

My gripes with it are:

too much wasted space - there tend to be a lot of 'white' space around pictures etc these days
too much in the 'new releases' - by this I don't mean there's ltterally too much, more that it fills too much of the magazine. And also there's little descriptive text for much of it now...
poor modelling articles - Doc Butchas' conversion clinic was great and used so little space. I'm also not a fan of the current 'masterclasses' - I don't think I own, and am unlikly to own 99% of the models featured in this, and of the many painters I know, those who are up to the standard of adding several layers like it shows in the articles don't actually need the article anyway! I would like to see these articles put in but not taking up soooo many pages. I'd rather have a big picture featuring a model and then much more detailed descriptions highlighing anything special. I'm, sure they used to be done this way rather than a step by step for the whole thing.
More readerrs armies! - again another old favorite of mine - a featured army over two or three DOUBLE pages of how someone else has put an army together and converted it, where their inspriation came form etc.

However I do like some things!

I think that the painter features are great! It's nice to interview a 'proffesional' painter and let them talk about thier own style. This is far more helpful than the master class features as it's got me thinking about 'spot colours' and how to make heads etc the focal point by painting them slightly lighter. It's also discussed height, I noticed on painter ensures that the hieghest part of the middle is always central on the base, even if it's an ariel.
Tactics - some of the 'tactica' articles have been great (even if some were poor, but that could just be because they were 'basic' for the less experienced players)
Free stuff - was always good, even if most of it was useless
Golden deamon - can't beat it, especially the booklets with the wining entries!

I have no problems with them aiming the magazine at more inexperienced players/modellers, as seems to be the case, but they seem to put little in that interests me any more, and the bits that do (the alternative baneblades in febs issue) are in far too late. Yes I do find them inspring, no I'm not buying a 2nd £60 tank just to build it slightly differently. Why couldn't this have been in a month or two after the release istead of the 'how to build' article (again after I'd built mine) followed by how to paint (a month too late for me too!).

And just because experienced gamers like some articles (e.g. painter showcase) doesn't mean others who can't paint that well don't either, a lot of the advice given is suitable to all players regardless of standard, and for those who can't do it then they have somewhere to work up to.

p.s. the orginal tale of four gamers - PERFECT, the 'lets try again half hearted' - what?........... More of the older type articles please, or at least fill up those white (if oldly shapped) spaces.

Just curious if I'm just being adverse to change or if others have noticed this too?

Personally, I don't buy it anymore now that they tend to not put any rules material in it (trial or official). I really enjoyed the old Chapter Approved section and whatever the Fantasy equivalent was (can't think of the name off of the top of my head ...the stuff that always ended up in the annual). I liked having a print version of the rules material and the new material kept things dynamic and interesting. The internet pretty much provides me with all of the pretty pictures that I need and is a much better source for rumors and news on what is upcoming due to the nature of the medium. This is also sort of sad when you think about it that unofficial channels are a much better way of finding out what is upcoming than from the company itself.

tomguycot wrote:Personally, I don't buy it anymore now that they tend to not put any rules material in it (trial or official). I really enjoyed the old Chapter Approved section and whatever the Fantasy equivalent was (can't think of the name off of the top of my head ...the stuff that always ended up in the annual). I liked having a print version of the rules material and the new material kept things dynamic and interesting. The internet pretty much provides me with all of the pretty pictures that I need and is a much better source for rumors and news on what is upcoming due to the nature of the medium. This is also sort of sad when you think about it that unofficial channels are a much better way of finding out what is upcoming than from the company itself.

Ditto'd. I finally gave the up ghost on that for going on a year. I bought the issue with the first portion of the BA codex, but not the second. I just couldn't stomach spending that kind of money on a catalog bereft of any value added material.

Yea, i used to like/buy it but half of the damn thing is LOTR which i dont give a gak about at all. Like tom said, it used to have chapter approved and the index astartes/xenos articles which were totally sweet. Nowadays it doesnt really hold my interest.

I still have a subscription.

Can they kill LOTR already?

And bring back Fat Bloke, Andy Chambers and Gav Thorpe. They wrote some good stuff.

I also feel like they're taking the whole thing too seriously, there's a definite lack of humor in the writing. Which I miss.

LOL it's nice to know i'm not alone!

The humour has gone. Maybe the black gobbo needs to make a comeback - and what would be even funnier is if someone in the printers did it so it was actually a hijack!

Chapter approved was good. I remember getting a deathwatch kill team, then was annoyed when i realised just how many points they would cost! Still added interest though.

My main gripe aside from those already listed here is that the magazine has become very formulaic. It is now a creature of the release schedule and the content just rotates from front to back. They always have the 'Designer's note's' article about whatever the featured release is, followed by a picture of the new sprue parts painted (I don't know why they think this is all that interesting), a sample army list followed by the Battle Report. Then they have a dozen pages of advertisements, a tactical article, the masterclass time-waster and maybe a Golden Daemon gallery. Then the whole last third of the magazine is filled with upcoming events, most of which isn't applicable to anybody.

Also it is poorly balanced content wise, only one game really gets the attention for the whole issue. LOTR persists even though NO ONE PLAYS IT!!! I hear that it is more popular in Europe and the UK, is that actually true?

I feel that GW could use the Internet to deliver the new releases, painted sprues, and Golden Daemon winners while the magazine had more hobby articles like Firebase does (much better magazine)

I haven't bought White Dwarf in three years. I made a vow at issue #300 to only buy White Dwarfs with good articles in them, My last white Dwarf was issue #303.

WD was great back in the days when there were chapter approved and thge other thing. stuff like wild creatures or "zombie pirates of the vampire coast" was really cool. but CA left with Andy and the fantasy part too for some reason.

you know what I just remembered: Chapter Approved even had FAQ from time to time. at least the german ones. so, yeah, it was usefull....

...before it became one big advert. I want to see conversions. I want to see armies which do not exactly look like the ones in the 'Dex I'm buying anyway and I really don't need Lotre. which for some reasons, does get rules suggestions from time to time.

about LotR in general: at our local store LotR minaites and the game are still bigh with the kids. the ones between 9 and 12 that is. before they discover the concept of battles IN SPACE!

No humor?!?!

What about all of Grombrindalololololol's asides????

Gold, Jerry, GOLD!

My favourite part of the WD used to be the last pages where each and every bit of the new releases was photographed in black and white, and with individual numbers for each bit. It was a goldmine to get that specific bit you needed for conversions.

As of today's WD it feels like I have to leaf through roughly one third of the magazine before i have even passed all the glossy photos of the boxes of the new releases. And once the articles are through, the last third is yet more ads and worthless whatnot... The actual content seems to be not only worse and worse, bit also les and less for each issue.

I had a subcription for 4-5 years and once it ran out I never missed it.

Too Much LOTR
Too Many how to paint articles

What I like that they didn't have before is the Full color layouts of the plastic bits. The Black and whites worked, the pictures of the sprues were okay, but the full color, well photographed layout of all the bits on a sprue is nice.

Things that are to uncommon and they need more ?
TEMPLATES - I'm never more excited than when they have some black and white templates for something.
Bunker, Dragons Teeth, Porta Potty, I don't care. Just Gimme some more damn templates do I can build stuff !!

The issues with the BaneBlade plans, or Ork Vehicle plans, are legendary.

Price went up, content went down, battle reports and scenery articles degraded massively, no more experimental rules releases (remember when Mordhiem and BFG were released through WD? I had great fun with both), drastically weaker writing, more "ACE!!!", garish colour schemes on studio models (am I the only one who thinks the studio chaos scheme is just fugly?) and far too much "hard sell".
So I don't buy it unless I've got a long train journey and I'm sick of reading work stuff and forgot to bring an interesting non work book.

dienekes96 wrote:No humor?!?!

What about all of Grombrindalololololol's asides????

Gold, Jerry, GOLD!

Sarcasm, I hope... I personally find Grombrindal's little editorials tedious.

All the other comments, I pretty much agree on. I glance through each WD now before I decide to purchase it. More often than not, it stays on the shelf. I feel that it should be GW paying to get their advertising in front of me, not me paying $6 to see what they are releasing this month.

I have never bought a WD and it sounds like I was right.
Also does Gav still work at GW or did he leave like Chambers?

The subsription delas also became complete junk

When I got my first subsription it was get 1 year and get a $15 box of fig free.

When I got my two last years of subscription it was buy a year and get GORKAMORKA free.

Now it's, we've gone up a buck an issue, get a subsription and get 2 issues free. Of course your paying $10 more, so your basically paying for those two issues anyways, and they don't give you any models anymore.

White Dwarf is bascially a catalogue and propaganda tool they should practiacally be giving away and they want to charge you $6 an issue, for the thinner, less actual content version.

I also can't stress enough, I'm a HUGE fan of the warhammer and warhammer 40K universes and it drives me nearly insane when half the content of a White Dwarf is LOTR, painting and Battle Reports.

adamsouza wrote:I also can't stress enough, I'm a HUGE fan of the warhammer and warhammer 40K universes and it drives me nearly insane when half the content of a White Dwarf is LOTR, painting and Battle Reports.

I know right? How do they not see that half an issue of LOTR is excessive to the Nth degree? Its a good game im sure but by the logic of that they are saying its more important than WHFB and 40k COMBINED.

fellblade wrote:

dienekes96 wrote:No humor?!?!

What about all of Grombrindalololololol's asides????

Gold, Jerry, GOLD!

Sarcasm, I hope... I personally find Grombrindal's little editorials tedious.

You will have to judge my ode to Grombrindal solely on the merits of my initial post, I'm afraid.

I think the magazine misses the point when it corporatizes the content. It should corporatize the presentation, but allow enthusiasm and talent to dictate the content. I want professional, quality articles on GT/reader/staff armies, battle reports that illustrate tactical game concepts (or variations of playtypes), experimental rules, and both basic and advanced modeling/painting advice. It's a social hobby and should be a social magazine. It feels like a sales pitch now, month in and month out. Oddly enough, the creative stuff seems to be the LOTR section, which I could give a toss about.

I agree that the full color photos of all the parts on new plastics is a quite good thing. However, it's annoying to no end that after having seen the parts, you still cannot buy the sprues, unless you buy the whole box. I agree with previous posters that WD nowadays is simply a montly catalogue of GW stuff - only a vastly inferior catalog than it used to be, where you actually could buy each and every bit that was featured in the WD.

And FAQs in Chapter Approved. Taste the word - FAQ! The holy grail of WH40K. Granted, having FAQs in WD might be somewhat "unfair" thus "forcing" people to buy it. Still, why not release the FAQ both in WD and on that internets. That is, if the holy grail is found...

*sob* You brought tears to my eyes, Da Boss. I had forgotten that WD actually featured such superb content as the first incarnations of Mordheim and BFG.

Even though I think that WD of today is worse than it has ever been, I still buy it. My prime reason to do so is to maintain some link to GW in my own mind. Most of my friends I used to play with has gotten married, and started sprouting children, and are too busy to play. Myself, I work a lot abroad. Thusly I buy WD - and I am disappointed each and every time...

I almost forgot about LOTR. I like the movies and books and all but I could really care less about the GW game. I do not care to buy a magazine a third of which is going to be about something that does not interest me in the least. And to make matters worse they STILL insist on wasting all sorts of space on LOTR. I can see why they did it when the movies were coming out but why must they keep charging for a feature that not many people even want? If nothing else just cut it out and reduce the price (yeah right).

Edit: I also miss the old cardboard inserts from back in the mid 90s. The datafaxes, terrain, and board game pieces out of white dwarf were awesome!

There was the bar fighting games for orks !!!

The point of having the FAQs in White Dwarf was so that they were distributed in a timely manner.

The Chapter Approved was origanlly just a collection of the good stuff from the White Dwarfs that year.

Also, aiming EVERY issue at the newbie gamer is annoying.

WD is s h * t.

Has been for 5 fething years.

I don't even look at them anymore, totally a waste of my time.

33% catalogue (you mean, you sell minatures?! orly?!) and 33% dead game (LOTR...that was a movie, right? 4 years ago? wtf?) leaves very little interest.

It's like buying a comic book when you read 100 pages an hour. 5 bucks for 2 minutes? Please, I can think of something else for that price/time range that's alot better.

I have obtained two issues of WD in the last few years.
Both were back issues given to me for free as part of store-event goody bags.

I purchase the off WD here and there. Mainly for a hard copy of Golden Deamon competitions. If they would just put out a yearly GD book in the hardback Fantasy Miniatures format I'd be a happy camper.

I just read the articles, I mean look at the pictures, I
mean wait what?

Yeah, I still buy it.

Battle Reports were much better in the old days with the more specific breakdowns of the turns. I used to actually learn a thing or two.

Mostly its garbage now

I miss chapter approved rule supplements, altho I think they did a deathwatch one not toooo long ago. post current SM Codex?

agreed on sense of humour.

even black gobbo sucks the last while.

it's just not worth $10 CAN. I'd consider it for $5 or $6.

As with the rest of GW, it needs an upgrade.

Everything posted here is exactly my opinion, as well. Too much sales pamphlet, not enough substance. Get rid of the self gradios " Oh how lucky I am" stuff and bring on the meat. There are no real posts of substance in the WD, the pictures are of lower quality then they have been in years, and the curiously simplistic pats on the back for half hearted attempts at humor really miss the mark.

More serious discussion, more painting and modeling tips, more scenarios ( maybe some for small 100-500 pt games) something for the fanboyz, and something such as some cupons, or some fluff articles.
maybe a small gift or two every now and then, like a figure, or some weapons specific for the mag. ( maybe something like the old cardboard terrain stuff.) or a box or bush, or something.
Cut the pages down. Its too fat, with nothing in it to justify the price.

I agree with alot of what's posted here.

I still get my WD (most months). I've only been collecting it for a year or 2 .... but even in that short time I can see a fairly obvious decline in quality.

Battle reports have been a joke since Apoc came out. I still like reading them though. And I am getting sick of being able to predict the winner once I know which races are involved in the battle.

The painting articles are quite usefull for me (I'm not a big painter) and most of the tactica articles have been useless (as most of the ones in the WDs I've got are for fantasy or LOTR).

The WD does seem to have too much LOTR. I know that they sell quite a bit of it and it is a fairly popular "game" (around here anyway) ... but most of the people I know of that collect LOTR don't game ... they simply collect & paint the minis to make nice dioramas.

I would like to see more featured armies (like the had a year ago), some fiction, a good hobby article (not just painting) and some game theory (how to build a ballanced force, how to cheeze it out, the benifits of infantry, etc) articles for EACH of the three systems.

I don't mind the new releases pages and stuff or the upcomming events stuff (It's always a nice read).

As for the price .... looking at the price points of other magazines of similar size the WD isn't too bad. I've found that the WD actually has less advertising than other magazines of comparable size and / or cost.

White Dwarf is 100% advertising. It's just disguised as content.