zobo1942:
… and they invariably let me down.
One of the reasons I stopped buying it in the first place was the lack of content - all big pictures and advertising… nothing that added anything to my vision of the Warhammer world.
There is more content than there used to be, but the issue I bought - WD375 - just bites for someone interested in Warhammer. The only Warhammer content is from pages 30 - 39. Other than that, it’s all 40K, plus a few pages of ‘War of the Ring’. And all the warhammer stuff is ‘waaghs of the past’. No modeling. No painting tutorials. No terrain tutorials. In short, no way at all to make the warhammer world a richer place for me to experience.
The ‘Sarlin’-era US White Dwarfs were STUFFED with ideas and methods to improve your gaming experience and offered many new ideas and methods to allow anyone from a casual hobbyist to the hardcore gamer to participate in ‘The Hobby’. I still constantly re-ready them to this day. It appears that the ‘Games Workshop Hobby’ has become ‘The 40K Hobby’… as least as far as White Dwarf is concerned.
The purpose of this micro-rant? Actually, to say thanks. You see, thanks to the content of this site, I no longer need White Dwarf.
Here, there are awesome fan-made army books. There are painting guides. Model stripping guides. Contests to showcase talent, while encouraging participation and skills development. Even help to win auctions on ebay! This is a community of people sharing their enthusiasm while encouraging others to gain the skills to better enjoy their hobby.
So… I suppose I just wanted to say thanks.
And ask when does the next ‘Word of Hashut’ comes out. 
Glimpse the Void:
White dwarf has not been worth buying in a long time. I like the hobby sections that they do when a new army comes out, assuming that you interested in it.
I hear that unseen lurker is rad, but I haven’t had a chance to check it out yet.
Necrotique:
@zobo1942 - Agreed. I have a collection of a few hundred White Dwarfs, and they’re mainly at the least 4 years old, when they did that Chaos Incursion mega-campaign, which was good 'cause they did lots of Chaos terrain and conversions.
These days it’s all mainly 40k. And the Waaaghs of the past is all a near-direct copy from the latest O+G army book anyway. Kinda dissapointing really, for a $12 mag.
nitroglysarine:
I have about 150 of the first 300 books.
I gave up after the last edition empire release, I so ‘browse’ it in the shops, yes I’m a bad man, but it REALLY isn’t worth the cash for a big 40K advert.
G.2:
I must admitt that I have a subscription to White Dwarf, which was a Christmas present from my wife. But the last 3 issues that I have received were still in their plastic wrap until yesterday. So basically I don’t rush to ‘crack them open’ and start reading. I will also admit that I have been collecting a back-log of magazines which I didn’t own, due to being away from the hobby for 19 years, and I like reading these older WDs much more. They are full of character and lovely models and stories. I definately agree that the older mags are a fun read, but due to my complusive collectiveness I need the new ones too. I am looking forward to when the WDs become good again.
nitroglysarine:
The old ones (even no 200) are far better, cardboard scenery, lots of battle reports, about 50/50 mix of WFB and W40K, bit of other stuff thrown in, good times!
In fact i’m feeling all nostalgic, i’m going to open the drawer with some of the old ones in!
snowblizz:
FWIW, the 40K players have the same exact rant. “The mag is only full of the bloody WHFB and some LotR stuff”.
With Tomb Kings next month I’m expecting to see the same thing again from the 40k crowd, completely ignoring that there’s been a fairly steady stream of BA, DE and now GK content.
Quality-wise I do agree, though note that the US WD was much content richer than the UK version ever was, so you can only blame the previous editors for making the fall that much greater.
I say it all the time, but GW doesn’t quite grasp who WD should be geared towards, ie the veteran gamers. Every now and then they do manage to get a great article in there. Then again the veteran gamers get more and more demanding I think. With all the stuff on the net we have more and more things to compare to and the monthly WD means relatively speaking less.
I like to compare WD to WI, where they admittedly have a lot more historical periods to cover, but they tend to have a “theme” for each issue yet still provide a selection of “random” other articles. In this way even though your interest may be primarily in one era, subscribing doesn’t feel such a bad idea, there’s almost always something of interest. Then again I have a broad interest in history so…
Thommy H:
FWIW, the 40K players have the same exact rant. "The mag is only full of the bloody WHFB and some LotR stuff".
Yeah, in fairness it does go in cycles: when there's been a big release for one system that month, it's pretty obvious that they'd focus on it at the exclusion of the other. Back when 3rd Edition 40K came out, there was hardly any WHFB stuff for ages, but that was reversed when 6th Edition Fantasy came out later. So it does tend to go in waves. Not that I'm defending White Dwarf per se, just saying that maybe you picked a bad month to "give it another chance".
zobo1942:
Could be… I may also be a bit frustrated that, after driving for more than an hour to get somewhere that sells GW products (the one game store in the town I live in stopped stocking/selling GW products a few years ago) I was hoping that I could get my hobby ‘fix’ by picking up an issue of White Dwarf. Unrealistic expectations, I suppose.
Tarrakk Blackhand:
Ok…so here’s a question…when did WD go “Bad” for everyone? I have an older one from 2006 and it still seems good to me.
Necrotique:
For me? Ever since the Storm of Chaos issues
nitroglysarine:
around ed220ish
This message was automatically appended because it was too short.
snowblizz:
I remember the first issue I put down and though “wow, that was decidedly meh” was one with Blood angels on it, came out in may. But number and year escapes me.
But pretty much since Fat Bloke left as editor, around 300ish it was basically pants.
Hashut’s Blessing:
Fat Bloke left, it dropped a bit in quality, then the next one dropped a bit more, then it plummeted, flatlined and I think it’s dropped the barest of fractions once more.
