The Optimistic Gamer: White Dwarf Weekly and Visions
Hey everyone, Tyler M. here bringing you the first installment of The Optimistic Gamer where I take a look at whatever seems to have the community’s ire up and show you why it might not be so bad. This time, the new White Dwarf Weekly and Warhammer: Visions.
When the rumor of the death of White Dwarf was first making the rounds a month or so ago I was pretty disappointed. I’ll be the first to admit, it wasn’t what it use to be. Back in the heyday in the early 2000’s every issue was gold, chocked full of beautiful models, great hobby advice and interesting battle reports.
Did I want to see the magazine return to form? Of course I did. When they re-launched it a little over a year ago I saw a lot of promise. The layout was great, the photography was better then ever and the articles seemed interesting. Paint Splatter, Blanchitsu, the columns by Jervis and Jeremy (reminds me a bit of Ask Dirty Steve), they all were pointing in the right direction. It even had some drawings from Jes Goodwin’s sketchbook, which by the way, I would love a full art book of (hint hint GW).
Sadly I will admit the last few issues seemed to be dropping in quality again. Now in retrospect this may have been due to them preparing for this big shift behind the scenes. Despite all of this I could not understand all the people on the internet that were seemingly overjoyed by the death of this magazine that is as old as the hobby itself. All I read were people screaming “I CARE NOT FROM WHERE THE BLOOD FLOWS” and shredding their copies of White Dwarf in devotion to their dark gods. Yet soon the clouds parted and we learned that they would be splitting the magazine into the monthly Warhammer: Visions for the hobbyists and collectors and White Dwarf Weekly for all the standard fare.
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| Rabble Rabble Rabble! |
I was pretty excited, we now get even more content! Yes it is at the expense of a greater price tag but I’ll show you why that may not be as bad as you think a little later on. Lets first take a look at White Dwarf Weekly, the spiritual successor to our beloved tome.
White Dwarf Weekly
White Dwarf Weekly is for all intents and purposes what the original magazine was minus a bit of the hobby content which got moved to Visions. This first issue has all the info on this weeks new releases as you would expect and take up a little less then half of the 32 pages. This is in the exact same format as before but I honestly don’t mind it that much. It has top notch photography and is at least worth a quick read. With the new weekly release schedule it will also be our first look at much of the new releases. I saw nearly zero leaked pictures of the Dwarf models until someone had their hands on their copy of Weekly since it shipped out early.
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| Can’t tell me this isn’t awesome |
Jervis gives us some new rules for a mini game to determine first turn, a couple of designers talk about their views on the new Nid codex, we get a Paint Splatter, some hobby advice, rules (!!!), a look into the design studio on the new models and the typical round up of what the WD team have been up to. This weeks Paint Splatter is also interesting to me since it seems to be a little more advanced compared to the usual fare which I’m a fan of. I taught myself how to paint by reading the old ‘Eavy Metal painting articles. All in all this is definitely worth the $4 price tag, and the best part, its not shrink wrapped so you can browse before you buy. Don’t want it? Wait a week and see if the next issue is more to your tastes. Gone are the days of buying a issue of WD and only reading 1/4 of it because you don’t care about The Hobbit or Fantasy, now you can pick and chose. At the end of the day its the price of a cup of coffee, just put it into perspective and determine where your priorities are for small purchases like this.
Warhammer: Visions
Next off is Visions. Now this is the one I have heard the most negativity about and I think a lot of it stems from people not understanding what it is supposed to be. This is not White Dwarf, if thats what you wanted then you will be let down. Visions is something new and yes it has room to improve but for a first try and the start of something new I think they got a lot right. Let me start with the format. It is slightly smaller then Weekly but much, much thicker and has a high quality gloss finish to it. A common complaint I head is “Well I can just google search for pictures of models.” Yes this is true, but I for one prefer to have a physical copy of something in my hands as opposed to purely digital.
The start of the issue was a little bit of a let down since it mostly covered all the new releases from last month’s WD, it even recycled a few of the pictures. This is a big no no for me, only new content please. Many of the battle shots in the following pages were beautiful to look at though and quite inspiring.
Once you got past the “new releases” we get to some Forge World stuff. These are all shot in the same style as the battle scenes which gives us a look at FW’s products we don’t normally see and I for one welcome it. Next we get the Army of the Month which really suits this purely visual style. The best part of this for me is the Parade Ground, which this month is Golden Demon US 2013 and gets a full 52 pages! I may be a little biased since some of my models are showcased but I am looking forward to the other countries coverage as well. The few negatives I found in this part include that it isn’t organized by category or winners so you have to read the blurb by each one to see if it was a winner or a runner up and that some of the pictures seem to be overblown a bit and the color is noticeably off on a few of my models which makes me wonder about other people’s work.
Following this is a Battle Report, which I’ll admit, I don’t really get. This needs more text and should be moved back to Weekly I think. We also get Kit Bash and Blanchitsu which again, really suit this format. Wrapping things up is a look at the different Hive Fleets including an absolutely gorgeous scheme of Purpley-Brown and a Paint Splatter looking at how to paint some of the splinter fleets.
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| nom nom nom |
Now let me go over what I think they can do to improve upon it. More reader submitted content, more hobby content like Splatter, Kit Bash and Blanchitsu (wheres the segment they use to do on building their awesome tables? I really liked that one) and no reusing pictures from previous publications unless you somehow make it unique again. Keep the “new releases” to at least half of what it is now. Thats about it, otherwise I like it and their first issue is a solid foundation for them to build off of.
Now some of you may be thinking $12 is a little steep, which it is, but here’s where I let you know why the price tag isn’t as bad as you think. If you crack open the first issue of White Dwarf Weekly each month (which remember isn’t shrink wrapped so you don’t even need to pay for it to do this!) and look through the new releases it has that month’s Vision in it and tells you what is in that issue! So now you can look at this for free and decide whether or not that month’s issue is worth the price tag for you, personally I will buy any issue with Golden Demon coverage in it (honestly I’ll probably get them all).
Well this turned out to be lengthier then I planned but I hope it gave you a more optimistic view on Games Workshop’s new publications and at the very least gives you a little sweet to all the sour out there.
I know that there are a lot of passionate views on these new publications so lets hear them in the comments, love it, like it or hate it?
