If you read my last post, you might understand my current dissatisfaction level with the current format of White Dwarf and my love of 'formats past'. So, here are some content items or features I would adopt (in no particular order):
1. Background content. Articles like the Index Astartes articles were brilliant (and even included customization rules which were nice).
2. Fiction. One of the elements that kept some readers continuing to buy Dragon magazine for so many years was the short story you got with each issue. With the cessation of Inferno! magazine, White Dwarf should've picked up on this. In fact, now that I think about it, it would've been nice to have seen more Inferno! elements adopted by the Dwarf (comic features, diagrams, etc.)
3. Paint articles. The current painting articles aren't bad, indeed, I think they're quite good for introduction articles, but old 'eavy Metal / Blanchitso articles were extremely helpful and not afraid to speak to new gamers in such a way to encourage them to become experts.
4. Fanatic. Whatever became of that imprint? Anyway, it would be nice to have at least a few pages each month with some Specialist Games scraps.
5. Experimental/playtest content. Pre-releasing lists for greater trial and error and player feedback would be nice. We could perhaps nerf some cheese combos before particular books are published. It'll be interesting to see just how the upcoming Sisters of Battle list will be presented (hopefully not as disappointing as the WD Blood Angel list a few years back, granted the codex they got was arguably loaded with compensation for the BA players out there...)
6. FAQs. Seriously, why can't these be in WD? "We don't want people showing up to tourneys with a stack of White Dwarfs!" Fine, put them online after you publish them in White Dwarf. This was a valuable asset for WD, and used to be the first few pages we turned too went back when WD had this feature.
7. Chapter Approved. Granted, the #5 & 6 probably covers this, but the feature was often always different, and well worth the read. There was a WHFB version, but I don't recall it being around that long.
That's all that comes to mind at the moment, but I think I could definitely fix the 'content' issue the magazine has now if I could only get 1/3 of my wish. Big flashy pictures are great, and they still need to be in there, but not at the expense of reading material. Which makes the experience of reading through a White Dwarf seem so 'huh' right now. If this means they even go back to sneak-peak content from upcoming releases, hey, it's better than nothing.
So what would you include?
2 comments:
A price reductions as well as pulling out the 1/3 devoted to LoTR.
My issue isn't the price, aas much as the quality not matching the price. I was getting a higher quality product (content wise) when the price was half of what it is now! The LotRs stuff...it's painfull to watch them struggle with it, trying to keep the rights for that IP alive until the Hobbit movies are made. I don't foresee LotRs going away soon.
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