White dwarf

[Grumbledook]

Does anyone else think white dwarf is completly useless when compared to how it was a few years ago? Used to have a good mix up of all the games, now it just seems a massive pimp of the big 3 games.

Painting articles seem to be in each issue and the same sort of stuff over and over, I remember it being more diverse. I understand they want to cover the big 3 but how do they expect to get more people involved in the specialist games range with only 2 pages of "whats happening" in every issue.

There aren't any proper articles regarding the specialist games. They may argue that the specialist games have their specialist mags. But getting hold of these seems to be a problem and also i guess they only get bought by existing players of these games.

White dwarf will allow greater exposure, I would love to see blood bowl match reports in the odd issue, there were never enough of these printed even a few years ago. I seen white dwarf as the games workshop hobby magazine and it should cover the spectrum, like it used to. There is nothing stopping games workshop to start doing specific mags for 40k lotr and wfb, if thats what they want. As with the current exposure of the specialist games range, there doesn't seem to be a lot to generate more interest in these games. If more games were covered then the mag would be far more diverse and would be of interest to a wider spectrum.

Having got back into playing blood bowl back in august after not playing any of their games for a good number of years, I have been disappointed with the few issues since then and looking at the "next months" issue on the website, its the same thing over again.

There is nothing wrong with the current articles, I love the new painting guides, but do we need to see how to paint LOTR minis every issue? Its just the same techniques but with different colours every issue. This is the sort of thing that can be done every few issues.

I loved reading the battle reports, and i see there are 3 in the current issue, great but it will get tiresome and mixing it up with blood bowl and necromunda etc will be more gratifying. Also i really liked reading about other people collections and tournament reports and such things like that.

Ive a big stack of old issues under my bed and i used to read through them a number of times, but having flicked through the recent issues they havn't made me feel like parting with my money, whereas i used to get every issue regardless, there was always things of interest.

Ok rant over, this is what happens when i am awake during daylight hours ;] How does everyone else feel about the matter?

[Ithilkir]

Does anyone else think white dwarf is completly useless when compared to how it was a few years ago?

You mean about 12 years ago right?

White Dwarf is giant advertisment (ever notice they used to ALWAYS have the new army winning the battle report?), WD was a decent magazine until around issue 140 then it became an even more glorified advertisment. It's just how GW does business. It supports the money making games (WHFB and WH40k) while the other games get rotated and new ones appear, get advertised into oblivion then dropped for a new game (Anyone remember Man-o-War or Mighty Empires?)

I don't buy WD.. Stopped just after issue 200, if I want GW news I visit the website, if I want articles about armys/teams/painting.. I use the net.

Buy the specialist magazines if you want info on the games you're interested in, other than that use the net

[Puggy BaconBreath]

IMO White Dwarf has been going down hill ever since Robin Dews finished as Editor a fair few years ago (WD 190ish)

[Grumbledook]

Heh i do, i just miss the good old days :/

Can't remember what issue i stopped at, wasn't long after the latest 40k came out tho iirc, can't remember the last issue that had a blood bowl match report in it.

I would love to see a staff league with reports, so they gain skills and things starting team match reports could get a bit repetative, specially if they don't mix the races they use in the reports. Blood bowl games are very diverse, yet all within the same boundrys and objectives (8turns 2 halfs trying to score the most)

Maybe this is one for blood bowl mag (might make me buy that seeing as i currently don't bother)

[Tamper Magnitude]

Does anyone else think white dwarf is completly useless when compared to how it was a few years ago?

You mean about 12 years ago right?

White Dwarf is giant advertisment (ever notice they used to ALWAYS have the new army winning the battle report?), WD was a decent magazine until around issue 140 then it became an even more glorified advertisment. It's just how GW does business. It supports the money making games (WHFB and WH40k) while the other games get rotated and new ones appear, get advertised into oblivion then dropped for a new game (Anyone remember Man-o-War or Mighty Empires?)

I don't buy WD.. Stopped just after issue 200, if I want GW news I visit the website, if I want articles about armys/teams/painting.. I use the net.

Buy the specialist magazines if you want info on the games you're interested in, other than that use the net

I was going to write a reply just like this

It has become a catalogue for them to flog their flavour of the month, GW became a corporate monster ages ago, it's no longer the big games club run by enthusiasts for enthusiasts. I think it was 8-10 years ago they changed their image totally and focused their sales on 10-16 year olds, rather than the traditional 16-40 age group who used to make up the hardcore of their gamers. I stopped buying WD years ago, it was the same thing week in week out, just a big Minis and games advert.

[Ithilkir]

IMO, the best thing to happen to GW in the last 10 years was setting up the Specialist Games / Fanatic Division to support the older games.

[SkiJunkie]

I remember those old WDs with Blood Bowl matches fondly. It is actually the memory of those Blood Bowl game reports that made be think of writing Java Bbowl. From what I remember they used colored circles with letters in them to represent the players. That's where I got the idea to use that in the java game.

Not that anyone cared to know that.

[Deathwing]

I still buy it monthly. 'Eavy metal articles are the biz, same techniques maybe, but some of the colour mixes I'd never come up with on my own in a million years!
Haven't played 40K in about 3 years now, but still enjoy the battle reports.
Specialist games? Well there's a new monthly specialist game column, this month featuring a battlefleet gothic battle report, (there was one recently between AndyH and JJ which was good reading). And the article on building the Helm's Deep terrain piece was pretty cool!

So yeah, I guess I still find enough in there to keep buying it.

[Puggy BaconBreath]

When I stoped collecting GW (around '98) I had almost completely switched to the Citidel Journal, really only reading borrowed WDs for battle reports and the like.

I have been sucked back in this year by BB but reading the last few WD's I can honestly say the diversity of the mag has gotten worse.

[Thadrin]

I think its on the way back. Seriously.

My Games club uses a locale that has an awful lot of really old gaming material in it. This includes a load of WDs from the 140-160 odd era. Dunno who was editor then...may well have been Gav Thorpe.

You think today's WD is a commercial document? dig up a few from then. Its unreadable garbage. The battle reports don't talk about tactics, the mintures aren't as good (even Golden Demon winners seemed a bit rough).

I buy WD monthly these days, got back to it about a year ago. Its mostly the fluff articles - especially the Index astartes on the founding chapters - that I like, plus the battle reports are usually a good read, especially if the Italian guy is playing. I'm actually enjoying the series about FAt Bloke's Chaos army too. They DO need to expand the Blood Bowl/Gothic/etc coverage, and keep up the inquisitor stuff. A monthly specialist game report - just like the Gothic one this month, with a couple of pages about Fanatic releases, would be fine. Lets face it, WFB and 40k are always going to be their bread and butter games, with the bulk of their releases, so they bulk of the pages. I think they REALLY need to tone down the LotR stuff a lot, but the terrain they build for it - did you see the Balrog Bridge they did (Khazak-dum or however its spelt) or Helms deep? Breathtaking stuff.

Its a decent read, and certainly a hell of alot better than any of the alternatives I've seen. I miss "Arcane"....

[Grumbledook]

I agree the articles are good, the quality is far better than it used to be, the painting guides and terrain can give some great ideas, its just that it appears that its the same kind of stuff over and over. I would like to see more variation in it. Maybe its just been that the specialist games havn't been available that they havn't been covered. I really hope that they start to diversify the magazine again.

[Dave]

Love the background articles on any game, really miss the diversity.
I came in with Necromunda ( must be 7 years ago now) and allmost have not missed one issue. I did the othet month though.

I am sitting on my knees, waiting for the Warhammer Wood Elves to come. Bet my knees are gonna hurt a bit more

[Darkson]

I started getting WD at issue 100, and wolud love for the diversity of the articles they had then in today's mag, but it's not going to happen. Can you really see GW promoting AD&D?

I agree it's got better over the last 12-18 months though. The inquistor battle reports are good, and i like the Index Astartes series.

[Al the Rat]

[wistful remembrance] I remember WD 142 was the first issue I bought, it had the Dark Angel(?) captain on the front with a power sword and bolt pistol, the same image that was then used on "The Armies of the Imperium" expansion for Space Marine. I recall that it was fairly commercial even then, the back pages were catalogue and many of the articles were pushing product, but I didn't mind because I wanted it all. Halcyon days, [sigh]

[Wistful, but sterner] After a few years of collecting and playing I realised I couldn't have it all, my priorities lay in other areas (beer and girls and beer and beer). WD drove me away even as I drifted from it though. The adverts became more blatant, more colourful, more pages. The catalogue at the back got its nice yellow border and changed from 2 to 3 pages to 5 to 6. And the orks became comedy parodies of the dark sci-fi/fantasy that attracted me in the first place. I went to university and used this break with the past to put away my childish minis, I started role-playing and didn't look back. Not for 6 years at least. Now though I've rediscovered miniature gaming. The attraction of tabletop games is still with me, but the youthful fanaticism has gone. I'm more selective though, I pick and choose my games dictated by other interests and other priorities. I no longer need or want all the minis GW can make, and so I no longer need or want WD. And unless I return to my teenage GW frenzy, I cannot envisage ever buying WD again.

And this dear reader is my story, one not unfamiliar to many of you out there I suspect.

[Bob-the-Fish]

Not having been a GW gamer for as long as some, I only started getting WD monthly back with issue 206 and up until earlier this year I had a subscription every year. I'd have to agree though that even in the couple of years I've been reading it, its gone down hill. I played 40K (after being introduced to GW with BB ) and WD did support the latest incarnation of that game into the ground. I didn't really like the redo rules anyway so reading about it over and over again really doesn't appeal to me any more. Now its nothing but Blood Bowl and LOTR for me!
The only reason I occationally buy an issue now is for the fluff that they decided to cut out of 40K and are now realizing is important and some of the articals on LOTR.