Open letter to white dwarf

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Karond
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Open letter to white dwarf

Post by Karond »

Dear Sir/Madam,
 
Let me start by saying that I am quite a lazy person.  It’s a monumental effort for me to drag my almost lifeless body out of bed in the morning and get to work.  I always look for the quickest route between A and B (hint: it usually involves a car) and I like to always find ways to speed things up.  Why am I telling you this?  Well, because I wanted you to understand that I would need to feel quite strongly about something for me to go to the effort of writing an email of this nature.
 
I started playing Warhammer about 16 years ago and I have loved the hobby.  Not sure I enjoy the usual connotations associated with people that play the game, but it is a fantastic, if expensive, hobby.  I really enjoy the tactical approach to the game, the fluff and universe Games Workshop have created, hours spent agonising over an army list and of course the building and painting of an army.  Unfortunately due to limited funds and time spent exploring other debaucheries (if you’ve been to university, you will know what I am talking about) I was unable to partake in my loved hobby for a long period of time.  However, once a month I would root out a copy of White Dwarf to allow me to stay in touch with the gaming world.  Seeing the great new models, reading battle reports and short stories, and all the articles on the hobby kept a fire burning, albeit smouldering embers, deep within.  In fact, it was white dwarf that brought me back into the fold when I saw that a new range of my beloved druchii had been released and I could resist no longer.
 
Perhaps you can imagine my trepidation when I heard the announcement that White Dwarf was about to change.  Fortunately, through my work, I have been indoctrinated in a culture of change and improvement, so I maintained a stance of curiosity.  The new magazine was to be called Warhammer Visions and my first thoughts were that it was a strange name indeed.  Little did I realise that it was an apt name for what it would contain.  White Dwarf would now be sold weekly and be reduced in scope and size.  My curiosity made me think positively: the new magazine is larger than white dwarf and I could get it on my current subscription and the weekly White Dwarf would be there whenever I stroll by the store and it’s small enough to hide from the fiancé (who is trying to enforce a Stalin-like control over my expenditure).  I started to get excited about the change, told others not worry; “They know what they are doing.”
 
But, alas, you did not.
 
Let us start with the abomination that is Warhammer Visions.  It is essentially a model porn magazine and like the periodicals of the more smutish variety it has absolutely no substance.  Shame on you for corrupting my eyes with a standard of painting that I cannot ever achieve and now forcing me to be disappointed in the quality of my own workmanship.  Also, shame on you for forgetting that it is 2014 and for at least the last 15 years porn magazines have been usurped by a little known entity called the Internet.  Unfortunately for you, I have been sating my perverse desire for high quality pictures of models (warhammer variety now) through the various fan websites that are available for FREE.  You cannot possibly compete with this.  Don’t even try.  You will be just throwing money down a well which could be better off spent elsewhere.  Needless to say I cancelled my subscription (by using my vouchers to purchase something else within the GW stores) and haven’t touched a Warhammer Visions since the first issue.  If yousee it as a way to attract more people to the hobby you are kidding yourselves.  The smaller size of the magazine means that it gets dwarfed when it is on the newsstands at my local supermarket.  You are competing with large magazines showing half naked women, the latest movies releases and sports heroes.  It seems like a huge design flaw to me.
 
Now onto the weekly White Dwarf.  As a weekly promotion of new releases it is OK.  However I feel that the familiar sections have been neutered (don’t get me started on the length of the battle reports now).  Basically the new White Dwarf is like a bud light compared with the award winning real ale of the old magazine.  It seems familiar, but doesn’t give the same loving warm embrace.  Also, there is a worrying focus on 40k world which, for me personally, means that I walk right passed it.  Also not all of us can make it to the nearest GW weekly (please see paragraph 1)so now I am stuck. There is a gaping void in my life, where do I get my monthly hobby kick?  Can you please recommend some other magazines for me to peruse?
 
Now if you are starting to realise the error of your ways and reconsidering your monthly offering.  Here are a few of my recommendations:
·         Get rid of the endless pages listing all store locations and numbers.  This is the age of the internet.  People can look up on their phone and instantly have directions to their nearest store.  It is a waste of paper and surely drives up the cost needlessly.  One page listing new store openings and closings over the last 3 months would suffice.  You could even have one of those QR codes that people could scan on their phone to take them to the same information.
·         Fancy cover material and fold out pages.  Don’t get me wrong, they are cool and I like them, but I am guessing that some of the decision to change was a business/financial choice and this seems like a needless expenditure to me.
·         Where are the new rules?  I used to love the old white dwarfs that would feature rules that could be used if your opponent agreed.  This was a big reason to buy white dwarfs and I know it was loved by the wider community.  A personal favourite of mine was the rules for different types of War Hydras.  I know the modern world likes micro-transactions and that GW may wish to sell these separately online but this just feels like it devalues this noble magazine.
·         Multiple battle reports.  My memory may be fading as I move into middle age but I seem to remember that White Dwarf’s used to have at least 2 battle reports per month, that were detailed turn by turn accounts.  I also remember short stories attached to them to bring them to life.  I don’t think this is too much to ask and is key to showing new people the real joy of playing the game.
·         Short stories and fluff.  Bring a bit of character back to the magazine and enrich the Warhammer World.  Get regular black library authors to write some short stories and this may help boost their sales if people like their style of writing.  Also gives you a chance to collate them at the end of the year and release a short story compendium for people who don’t get the magazines / avid collectors.  Even really small stories/scene setting of a couple of paragraphs are great.
·         Make the magazine a bit more fun.  It seems to have lost some character and is a bit dry.
·         Keep the excellent modelling guides, kit bash, etc that are in there.  Love seeing other people’s armies and the golden daemon pictures are always great.
·         Competitions – where are they?  Surely this is a great way to attract readers and this can come in many guises.  How about a short story competition and you could publish one or two a month and have a vote at the end of the year.  (this saves you from paying for a fiction writer).  How about rules competition (same benefit as the short story).  Painting competitions, ideas for new armies, etc. How about a membership type thing with exclusive models, discounts in store / loyalty card that comes with a subscription. 
·         Don’t price people out of the market.  If you can make savings elsewhere then make them. 
 
Now I hope you are able to consider some of my points as they are said with a genuine respect for the magazine and hobby.  My concerns may be my own and perhaps you can reflect on magazine sales numbers that show I am in the minority.  But please consider adding more substance to these magazines.  Warhammer Visions is a great disappointment and I miss the good old days.
 
Kind Regards
 
Ian
"The call for blood can only be answered in sundered flesh"
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Karond
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Re: Open letter to white dwarf

Post by Karond »

Please let me know if you feel the same way. Also feel free to share on other forums, maybe GW will listen...
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Aurelius
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Re: Open letter to white dwarf

Post by Aurelius »

Whilst I agree that the White Dwarf vibe isn't what it used to be, as it is weekly, we have more battle reports than ever before. I agree that they are shortened, though one aspect of the magazine is that it should encourage players and hobbyists to visit every week to check up on new releases. I don't like that the magazine cost adds up to around $200 a year, which is a huge increase from the monthly cost; and that there is no subscription option which could be speculated to be a result of the weekly visit design. Now, while I have each WD issue up to now, I may limit what I purchase as the funds saved allows more models or supplies to be purchased over a magazine which can be read in about an hour.
Clockwork
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Re: Open letter to white dwarf

Post by Clockwork »

Wow, they still list all the stores worldwide? WTF. That is honest-to-god pants-on-head dumb, even for GW standards. This right here proves how little they value White Dwarf, and the people that they are trying to sell it to.

I'd drop the porn allegory. Its amusing, but it undermines the tone of your letter and in that regard is self-defeating.

On rules and battle reports, unfortunately I don't think there's much GW can do here. In regards to the former, in the age of digital downloads GW are always going to milk this for everything its worth: see the data slates/battle scrolls, battlefields, etc. I'm not totally opposed to these ideas when they are extremely cheap, but that just means the chances of ever seeing their like in a WD again are gone. As for battle reports - the internet is saturated with them. Video battle reports, map ones, podcasts, etc - many of which are superior even to WD's heyday. If you want your WD to read battle reports, save yourself the money and just browse the internet instead. Its almost like GW understand this, which is why their battle reports are narrative retellings instead - they are there to show off and inspire, but not necessarily to educate on finer points of the hobby.

I actually think its very hard for GW to reignite White Dwarf as a successful enterprise. In itself, its not necessarily a GW problem - print media has been in decline for some time now. Properly reginiting WD as a successful enterprise would mean embracing the internet, but GW has a proven track record of trying to pretend that it doesn't exist.

EDIT: It would also take some actual honesty. The thing that I'd like to see is the sort of thing I like reading on forums: list discussion, tactics and strategy. Bizzarely, this is almost unanimously absent from WD in the attempt to promote everything as being awesome and thereby encourage sales of all their products. In expressing preference, WD wouldn't necessarily need to point out the stinkers (of which there is many).
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Karond
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Re: Open letter to white dwarf

Post by Karond »

I actually emailed this to Gw before thinking about posting it here, so can't make any changes. Was interested to see if I was in the minority and people like the new style. Take on board all your points about the decline in printed media. Gw do seem to be missing a massive trick with regards the Internet. I do fear for their future with the proliferation of 3d printers and the strong online community. They need to do more to embrace their customers at a corporate level. The staff in their stores are great and I can't think of any other franchise retail stores like them.
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Gidean
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Re: Open letter to white dwarf

Post by Gidean »

Karond wrote:I actually emailed this to Gw before thinking about posting it here, so can't make any changes. Was interested to see if I was in the minority and people like the new style. Take on board all your points about the decline in printed media. Gw do seem to be missing a massive trick with regards the Internet. I do fear for their future with the proliferation of 3d printers and the strong online community. They need to do more to embrace their customers at a corporate level. The staff in their stores are great and I can't think of any other franchise retail stores like them.



I agree with you 100%. I buy that weekly piece of junk once in a blue moon when one of the armies my son or I am interested in comes out. Thus I bought ONE White Dwarf Weekly so far since they started the concept. I have not bought nor see any reason to buy visions.
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Dalamar
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Re: Open letter to white dwarf

Post by Dalamar »

I haven't bought a single White Dwarf since Fat Bloke left. I can get everything they sell for free online.
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Gnosis
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Re: Open letter to white dwarf

Post by Gnosis »

I used to think the revamp from a couple of years ago made WD a decent mag again, but then I started getting into historical wargaming and magazines about it. Wargames Illustrated, WS&S and the like are great magazines and illustrate how good WD could be if they still cared about the hobby.
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Gidean
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Re: Open letter to white dwarf

Post by Gidean »

Gnosis wrote:I used to think the revamp from a couple of years ago made WD a decent mag again, but then I started getting into historical wargaming and magazines about it. Wargames Illustrated, WS&S and the like are great magazines and illustrate how good WD could be if they still cared about the hobby.



Wargames Illustrated is not produced by a company pushing their own product.
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Gnosis
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Re: Open letter to white dwarf

Post by Gnosis »

Gidean wrote:
Gnosis wrote:I used to think the revamp from a couple of years ago made WD a decent mag again, but then I started getting into historical wargaming and magazines about it. Wargames Illustrated, WS&S and the like are great magazines and illustrate how good WD could be if they still cared about the hobby.



Wargames Illustrated is not produced by a company pushing their own product.

WI is part of Battlefront, publisher of Flames of War ;) There's a couple of pages on FoW releases and an article or two on the game or models in every WI but that's about it - no endless pages of stores stocking their products and the like. Kind of like what WD was like in the beginning - a much wider scope than just GW games and models.
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