Dead Dwarf 2: the sequel

[Darkson]

Are there any decent Sci-Fi/Fantasy gaming magazines around that the moment? I know mags like Wargames International sometimes have the odd article, but I mean one that covers the subject exclusively?
Would be nice not to have to rely on emails from places like Wayland to be shown the new stuff (without having to go through 50+ manufacturer's websites a week ).

[axiom]

I'm also not sure where the actual content has gone; if White Dwarf is a weekly catalogue of new releases & Warhammer Visions is just pictures, where are the evocative background stories, detailed descriptions of races and expert painting & modelling tutorials? Its like they've gone out of their way to make the whole thing as superficial as possible!

Oh they removed all that stuff years ago so this change didn't take that much work.

Just goes to show I haven't bought a WD for around a decade

[JT-Y]

Are there any decent Sci-Fi/Fantasy gaming magazines around that the moment? I know mags like Wargames International sometimes have the odd article, but I mean one that covers the subject exclusively?
Would be nice not to have to rely on emails from places like Wayland to be shown the new stuff (without having to go through 50+ manufacturer's websites a week ).

PP's mag, No Quarter, is good. Contains all manner of things including fiction, modeling/painting/scenery articles, and new rules.
But it only focuses on PP's games, WM&H and IK:RPG alongside their different board games, so not really a very wide appeal outside of what they do.

Actually it's like WD was once upon a time. It's almost as if they know what gamers like.

But I can't really think of much else. There is always Wargames Illustrated, but that's a real grab bag of articles.

[Darkson]

From Facebook Tales of a Tabletop Skirmisher:-

Well, the new WH Visions mag arrived in my shop this morning.
Not impressed.

Half the size of WD (A5) and just photos of models with the odd caption and a couple of painting tutorial pages at the end.

All this for the new price of £7.50!!!!!!!!!

Looks like they have moved all the vaguely interesting stuff to the weekly 'in-store only' White Dwarf.

As my nearest store is over an hour away, I won't be picking up any GW mags again.

- HB

Doesn't sound like it's popular so far!

[nobby]

Are there any decent Sci-Fi/Fantasy gaming magazines around that the moment? I know mags like Wargames International sometimes have the odd article, but I mean one that covers the subject exclusively?
Would be nice not to have to rely on emails from places like Wayland to be shown the new stuff (without having to go through 50+ manufacturer's websites a week ).

You could just ask me each week and I rant at what's crap and what's great. Oooooooh! have some great alternative void sirens btw! I'll show you tuesdya if they have arrived by then.

[Darkson]

http://quirkworthy.com/2014/01/31/white ... rn-part-2/

[Darkson]

http://quirkworthy.com/2014/02/01/white ... rn-part-3/

[Thadrin]

Lovely quote from the Dakkadakka thread on this subject:

"You can't polish a turd but GW will do its very best to roll that fether in glitter."

Winner.

[traveller]

Some long time ago I once collected the WD (yes, the very old ones wth the great pencil drawings of Orcs & Goblins) from issue 1 to about 300. Than i stopped and just the last months i bought the lasted three German again. Mostly because of the tutorials and because my son asked me. I will give the "Visions" a try, but i think from the content i saw at this review at youtube i will not GFI

Sometimes i m glad, that there is no BB at GW anymore... so i dont have to take care about GW.
And there is so much FF now...

Traveller

[Darkson]

Jake actually quite likes the new WD: http://quirkworthy.com/2014/02/02/white ... rn-part-4/

[Thadrin]

The new WD doesn't look too bad...beyond the fact that its only 32 pages and one month's worth will cost about 150% of what old WD cost...and its only getting sold in their shops and some independents....meaning there'll be minimal impulse buying.

I'm not sure what they're hoping to acheive here. Maybe they think a weekly will pull people in to their shop once a week...I don't see it working.

[Darkson]

Maybe they think a weekly will pull people in to their shop once a week...I don't see it working.

Not a great plan when many of the shops are one-man jobs and aren't open 2 or 3 times a week.
Personally, even if it was great I've no way of getting it regularly as the local independent can't get it ("GW say we don't sell enough") and GW have decided not to sell via newsagents. I'm sure I'm not the only one in that boat.

[JT-Y]

The new WD ain't bad really. Pricey for a weekly compared to some of the womens chat/gossip weekly mags you see and considering the tremendous imagination and creativity that goes into concocting some of the crap contained in them.
It contains a few good, interesting things, and combines with the new army release format (some models one week, army book the next, then some more models) to enable them to preview new rules early, allbeit only one week early. This is a positive change though as it's so many years since anything like this has even been considered.
Obviously it's very focused on new and recent releases, but we've come to expect that. Alongside the daily stuff on the website it allows them to really drive new stuff and focus on all aspects of the new releases.
Available only direct from stores is a nuisance intended to increase footfall into stores, which may indeed work, but it also seeks to promote their e-book selling for i-pad and Kindle as an alternative means to buy, and that isn't a bad choice in this day and age even though they seem to have forgotten that WFB is a thing when publishing e-books.

The other mag though, the other mag is a bag of shite. Anyone having their monthly WD sub replaced with that should be justifiably pissed.
It could be a really good publication, a chance to showcase far more interesting stuff from within the staff and without and include some inspiring and interesting articles, even were it to only focus on the painting and modeling. And it needs to be good to justify that price point.
But it ain't good, it's woeful.

None of this is in response to the falling sales in the last 6 month period but will have been planned 12 or more months since.
I guess time will tell if the timing of it happening has been a help or a hindrance, but I suspect that the half arsed approach taken towards the Visions mag will bite them in the arse next month as I don't see many copies moving and doubt it'll even turn a profit in its second month.

A very mixed bag.
I don't hate GW, but I do wish they could be consistent in the effort put into new initiatives rather than doing just enough and sitting back on their laurels to see if it is well received.