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White Dwarf Magazine; Better known as "We Lovez 40K Da Mostz!"
Topic Started: 12th December 2007 - 12:08 AM (2,402 Views)
chieftainskritchskritch
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The Freshmaker

Now, is it just me and my crazy brain making things up, or has anyone noticed that White Dwarf magazine is slowly but surely becoming the 40K love fest?

Ok, let me explain myself more clearly.

I've collected every issue of White Dwarf since I first got my paws on issue 277. Way back then, I was pretty happy with the magazine and how it was structured. All three of the major games workshop games (being fantasy, LoTR and 40K) got a pretty even spread throughout the mag, which is only fair. However, as the years have marched on, i've noticed that 40K has steadily creeped across most of the pages of the mag, giving less and less space to LoTR and fantasy. Sure, there are times when White Dwarf features fantasy heavily from time to time (read: new high elves), but this usually only occurs after about three or four 40K heavy issues (which is a quarter of a year's worth of magazine).

Having just gone and picked out this years issues from my pile, this is the run down of who got the major spread, the battle report:

Issue 325 - Fantasy and 40K
Issue 326 - LoTR and 40K
Issue 327 - 40K
Issue 328 - 40K
Issue 329 - LoTR
Issue 330 - Fantasy
Issue 331 - Fantasy
Issue 332 - LoTR
Issue 333 - 40K
Issue 334 - 40K
Issue 335 - Fantasy
Issue 336 - 40K
And with orks coming out in issue 337 - 40K

LoTR Total - 3
Fantasy Total - 4
40K Total - 7 (8 with issue 337)

Now does that really seem fair to you guys? By the beginning of next year, we will have read twice as many 40K battle reports as fantasy, and nearly three times as many as the LoTR. And its just not in the battle report stakes. Throughout this years magazine coverage, 40K has had a large expose every issue, and thats when 40K ISNT the main focus of the issue.

Just a little rant about stupid 40K. Feel free to comment.

(p.s: im referring to issues of White Dwarf sold in Australia. I dont know if its the same way with overseas issues in different countries).
You kids these days have it so easy, what with your Plague Furnaces and your Hellpit Abominations and your Bonebreaker Warlords. Back in MY day, all we had was Slaves and Clanrats!...and auto-hit Ratling Guns...and skirmishing Jezzails...and 2D6 Warp Lightning...and Lead From The Back...wait, what was my arguement again?
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Tysp
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I personally have no WD issues, but that does sound unfair - that is coming from a sole Fantasy/LotR player. It still seems unlikely that GW would do that on purpose though - typo, perhaps? :P
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Mebob
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I made a topic ranting about how the quality of white dwarf has delcined either in this forum seciton o offtopic..

But to aviod repeating what i said their i'll keep this short.

I collected WD around 2-3 issues before they introduced LOTR (so in the 250's)

And the quality of the magazine between then and the SoC was great! You could not fault its contents. But over the past year or two it's been more of a "BUY OUR NEW MODELS" than a hobby magazine.

Oversized pictures repeated agian and again. Every article being about one of the "big three". Hobby articles became "How to put together such and such". every month there was a new "Must have big release", the tactics were absoulutly crap and kind of usualy ended in "what would really help this tactic would be our new dwarf miner models". The stories looked liekt ehy were written by 2 year olds, the battle reports became rigged, whatever army they were advertising not only won, but won by a huge majority.

So saving myself £4 a motnh (well $13 now..) i stopped buying that crap ^_^

Try going back through thepast years worth of WD and see how many of those issues had al their fantasy artciles containing either: Orcs, Empire or Dwarfs.

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Bodacious
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That would actually explain the reason why only the 40k players in our store ever show up to buy WD's :P .
I honestly don't know a fantasy player in our store that buys 'em (including myself) except for the last one that was bought by a high-elf playing friend of mine... At least I never saw anyone buy them on a consistent basis :P .

Now, I would advise everyone to clear the room and wait patiently for Vinz to show up and totally rant this topic into oblivion :P ;) .
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scrivener
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*toot*

I actually like the way the WDs always go on about their latest products, with big spreads of pictures of the new models and what the sprues have in them. I look through those pictures and keep an eye out for bitz I like and could use in conversions: those mounted guns and the clock that came with the tower could be useful, I wonder if I could turn the asur lion into a rat... Then I put the mag back on the rack. :P
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Orcsbain
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And the battle reports have always been rigged :rolleyes:
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bakfire the experimenter
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i stopped buying wd quite a while ago.. there seems to be no life to the magazine. i seem to remember a time (6 -7 years ago) when there seemed to be some life to the battle reports ... a more personal take on it almost written from the models perspective (or is this just rose tinted glasses looking back on yesterday's gone by) it seems to have disapperared when necromunda vanished from the pages of WD. I would like to have seen the new high elf list take on someone that would have really tested them.

i would like to see an every race against every race thoughout the year and not just for fantasy as it seems to me it is the old favourates that make it into the battle reports. i cant remember seeing skaven vs anyone or guard vs tau and where has the story behind the battles gone.

on the tactics side i would like to see people submitting their own army lists and have the powers that be show people how to best use their armies. not just if you have unlimited funds and you can buy everything for the army then you can do this. or even better have the tactics lesson and then have a battle report right afterwards where they try to use the tactics... (sorry that last bit just hit me as i was writting).

i dont know if it happened anywhere else but over here (UK) that great new high elf eddition had one page in italian... and do you know gw's fix... if you want it in english you can download it from the website...

WD should be from a hobby perspective, i would be more inclined to buy models if my hobby was better supported and i would probably enjoy all aspects much more and start buying wd again.
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Skaven Lord Vinshqueek
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Bodacious
Dec 12 2007, 10:42 AM
Now, I would advise everyone to clear the room and wait patiently for Vinz to show up and totally rant this topic into oblivion :P ;) .

Yeah, that's right, 'ranting' is my middle name... :ph43r:

For a couple of months now, I no longer receive any White Dwarfs, which kept being sent to me while my subscription had ended at the beginning of this year. I don't know how others would feel in this situation, but it gave me an idea of how 'real-life spam' would actually look like. Nope, call me an old sod, but I definitely favor the older White Dwarfs (everything from before issue #270 is ace, in my opinion).

Personally, I feel the White Dwarf has turned more into a hideously expensive catalog, instead of a hobby-supporting magazine. I mean, with the release of the (latest) Redemptionist Gang for Necromunda, they listed eight/ nine models on a page that as such had a huge amount of white-space, which in my opinion is a BIG (if not: HUUUUUUGE) no-no for magazines... I mean, open up a random advertising piece and you see articles pushed together, in order to fit as much as possible on one page. The problem with White Dwarf is that they do not cram as much as possible on one page, but instead add another twenty-ish pages with their products.
However, it appears they've learned from this, as with the release of Apocalypse they had a two-page spread of a tank company, with all ten models listed on one page. Yeah, right, sure... Of course, after seeing one tank, we so definitely want to see nine more almost identical tanks, showing that their marketing skills are, well, poor. I mean, at least get some variations on the page then, but they didn't even do that! Gah, just the death of mucho trees. To the people dictating the content of the White Dwarf: SHAME.ON.YOU!

*breaths in deeply*...

Ah well, this weekend I'm buying an old White Dwarf from someone, which means that I can give you guys a review of an Epic 40k (which is Epic BEFORE Armageddon) battle report done in 1998-ish. Really, if you're talking about something that makes me smile... Tee-hee. :)

Anyways, in regards to the 40k, I can only blame Apocalypse...

Next year you'll start with LOADS of 40k Orks, hopefully some Vampire Counts and who knows what might follow.

Greetz
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Sammy the Squid
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Quote:
 
Of course, after seeing one tank, we so definitely want to see nine more almost identical tanks, showing that their marketing skills are, well, poor


I must point out here that most of those Tanks are the same tank copied and pasted. I've noticed with the release of these big Apocalypse sets that instead of showing 10 different Tanks, they show 3-4 and then just use the same pics to make it look like 10. I know they would have 10, because you can see it in the Battle reports, but in the advertising area its just a few models duplicated. I mean thats just lazy...

I don't have a lot to add onto whats already been said, so Ill keep my rant short. WD used to be brilliant, with very good editors and crew (Fat Bloke and others), awesome battle reports, actually decent tactical and modeling workshops and above all a decent sence of humour about themselves. I dont see any of this in the current WD's. I still buy them, but find very little of use in them, especially compared to the old ones. My old WD's were read over and over again because they were just so useful. Todays ones, I read a few articles and put it on my shelf probably never to be touched again. Its rather sad just how far the quality has fallen over the years...

- Sammy
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Sid
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[rant] white dwarf has gone down hill, alot.
i personaly have never bought a WD but my school buys them and puts them in library, i used to borow them but not anymore, (maybe when the VC comes out :P ) but it has turned into a really big cataloge, but atleast i can still read the SBG. [/rant]

p.s. a little off topic but can wee submit ideas to the SBG?
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Warlord Bloodfang
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I buy White Dwarf mostly for the painting guides. The pictures are useful to me as I can get ideas form them though the step-by-step painting are the best. Other then that, let's see... I check to see what unique models are at the back in the ordering part, what's coming out next month.

If I must point out something that irks me, it's the sections where they basically go on and on (and on and on) about how great this new thing (re sub-game, army book, figures) are and how they are "the best we've done so far". I've read that line soo many times it's just not funny.... never was actually.

Other's have mentioned how it could be improved and I can't add anything there, anyway, as long as we can make up the short commings of WD with the Skavenblight Gazzete I'm happy. ^_^
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Skaven Lord Vinshqueek
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Yesterday, I bought some old White Dwarfs (issues #112, #216, #226 and #235) from a guy I'd meet on the games convention I went to. Looking at those, the content was just much more varied, didn't purely focus on the three core games, but also on Dark Future, Mordheim, Epic 40k (which is just too awesome for words to describe) and others.

*shrugs*... Ah well, there are worse things to be worried about. It's just such a damn shame of a magazine that has been known to be the number one hobby magazine.

@Sid:
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Greetz
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Vermin Lord Skreek
Clanrat
Has anyone noticed that at times GW dosnt even kniow it's own rules?

Example, the latest issue

It was in the tactics section and it was concerning wizadrs on flying mounyts.

There example of a good one was this:

Exalted champion of chaos
Mark of Tzeentch
Disc of Tzeentch
Additional hand weapon (On a flying mount, WTF?)

Thet claimed the champion had 5 attacks (Base 4, +1 for addition HW)

They alos said that they reccomend castin Yellow AND orange fire on them...... this is impossible as they are BOTH remins in play spells that ONLY effect the caster.

Impossible!

But there have been others

Character on a mount with an additional hand weapon And a magic weapon (doubly impossible)

and a whole host of others

I dont think I will renew my subscription when it ends, but I dont loose hope that one day it will be evenly spaced between the big three.

Vermin Lord Skreek

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Morkskittar
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Well, 40K generally makes more money for them than Fantasy... :P

But yes, I have noticed WD's getting worse. Which is why I didn't resubscribe. :P

And Skreek, I know exactly what you mean. :P During the SoC, a GW person came to my local shop to run an event, and he didn't know the rules at all... saying that nothing could destroy castle gates, and that Archaon wasn't a wizard, and Chaos armour was a 5+ save... <_<

Fool-fools.

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Vermin Lord Skreek
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Why didn't you lynch him? :lol:

Vermin Lord Skreek

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