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| Image Source: Bell of Lost Souls |
Warhammer: Visions
Warhammer: Weekly
Two more days and another big change will come to our beloved hobby.
Games Workshop discontinues the just recently revamped White Dwarf (we celebrated the new and improved layout not so long ago).
I am a subscriber to White Dwarf. I have all of them since #1 (at least the German ones, that is). To be honest, I usually don't read them. At best I glanced through the pictures and put my collectible magazine in my collection as mint as possible. I am convinced they will be really valuable some day :P
LOL. Such Nerd! :D
LOL. Such Nerd! :D
February 1st - a new beginning?
So let's have a look at what is past and gone:
Old White Dwarf: monthly, 8€, 152 pages
New White Dwarf: weekly, 3,20€ ~32 pages (same as old WD)
Warhammer Visions: monthly, 9€, 230 pages (smaller format)
Our monthly dose of delight used to cost us 8€. Now we are up to about 22€ a month, depending on how many weekends we find in a month. The question is: Is it worth it?
Excited or not?
The New WD
I have to admit that I had mixed feelings. First of all - for a very personal and collector only reason - I didn't like the fact that the new weekly WD is not a subscription service. I am absolutely positive that I will not go to the store every week to pick up my weekly 36 pages of plastic.
And I am certainly not willing to mail-order-order an average of four 36 page publication for almost 10€ per month. So for me it was like another end of a collection addiction. Honestly, it was a sad feeling of parting pain mixed with a big sigh of relief. I guess all (good) things must end - and this looked like a good time to stop yet another life-long collecting addiction.
And I am certainly not willing to mail-order-order an average of four 36 page publication for almost 10€ per month. So for me it was like another end of a collection addiction. Honestly, it was a sad feeling of parting pain mixed with a big sigh of relief. I guess all (good) things must end - and this looked like a good time to stop yet another life-long collecting addiction.
Warhammer Visions
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| One of the most inspiring hobby books out there. |
But the name Visions reached the cozy-tingly-comfy-center of my brain as I am a biiiiig fan of the book "The Horus Heresy - Collected Visions".
It has just been re-released as a Collector's Edition by Black Library - and it took all my power to resist the temptation. To me, this is one of the most inspiring books that GW has ever published.
It has just been re-released as a Collector's Edition by Black Library - and it took all my power to resist the temptation. To me, this is one of the most inspiring books that GW has ever published.
So I kinda hoped that monthly 230-page Warhammer Visions would be similarly inspirational. Deep in my heart I feared that this hope would be smashed as so many miniature dreams of late, but we all know that hope dies last.
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| Just my 50cents... |
What made me curb my high hopes and appetite for nerdiness was when I read about the 'stunning new extended pictorial style'.
How do I say it delicately... Most people did not read the White Dwarf for its Pulitzer-prize winning articles. It shared its fate with other publications such as the Playboy, I guess. (All hearsay, not heresy!)
But too many words confuse mostly male maniac masses and pictures say more than 1000 words anyways...
So, the Old WD was full of big pictures. As painters more than gamers, many of us felt that the quality of the images was great, just the content of the images was not-quite-equally-as-great...
So now we were told to expect a 'stunning new extended pictoral style'. And from the moment I heard that visions of a small thick magazine full of pictures and very very little text danced in front of my third eye.
So naturally, we were scouting the Interwebs for news constantly. F5, F5, F5... Until now.
Monty's Review
And the award for the first review goes to.... *ding ding ding* Monty who lives in or near the San Francisco Bay Area. We literally assimilated every word he said and every frame he showed in his 10 minute review of the new WD and mostly Warhammer Visions.
Thank you Money! Your review has hit home - smack in the middle of our soft spot for the hobby :D Best regards from Berlin!
Thank you Money! Your review has hit home - smack in the middle of our soft spot for the hobby :D Best regards from Berlin!
Vision meets, well, reality, I guess... Happens ever so often ;)
But before I have not seen it myself, I will refrain from my final verdict on the new publications by GW. I am still kinda excited about them as I think especially the WH Visions has great potential. I guess we'll have to see which direction this takes.
Whatchatalkingabout?
What do you think? What did you expect? Excited? Disappointed? Do you think this lose collection of images is 'inspiring'? What do you think about the few lines of text in three languages? (English, German, French). I have heard that other languages (including Japanese and Chinese, most likely also Spanish, Italian etc) will be available, too.
We would love to hear your opinion! Please leave a comment in the section below - one of the best parts of having a blog a reading your comments. Often times they are more interesting than the original posts ;)
We would love to hear your opinion! Please leave a comment in the section below - one of the best parts of having a blog a reading your comments. Often times they are more interesting than the original posts ;)
I like Visions! What's the problem with rotations and little text? Seems to me the only interesting thing about WD lately were the images. There you go! Lots of images! :D
ReplyDeleteYeah, as I said, I also only looked at pictures. Unlike the Playboy which we all read for its interesting and enlightening, sometimes entertaining and often whimsical articles ;)
DeleteHey some of my best friends had their writing break in Playboy it really did used to be a stepping stone for a wider publication!
DeleteOnly 2 days to wait, we just hope this new version will be oriented hobby and not catalog. To see the next few number.
ReplyDeleteIt really looks like a mostly ads-free magazine more than a catalog. I find that very encouraging ;)
DeleteMy GF got me a WD subscription as a birthday present. One day before GW announced the death of the old dwarf. They turned it into a Visions subscription for the same cost as the old WD, so I am super excited how it will turn out. My first impression of the new format was 'ugh', but on second thought it is actually more practical, as I like to skim through the magazine while in bed :)
ReplyDeleteNice! My subscription only holds till April I think - and I might not continue it,... will see.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI think its a good idea, a good collection of photos, but they should not repeat and it should showcase more than just battle scenes. Its the first issue, they have time to perfect it. I would perhaps try and use the golden demon catergories as a basis for the format, so the photos have some kind of variance. There is potential but they need to include modelling step by steps and painting step by steps. There are plenty of painters out there they could ask to do guest articles and they have their own inhouse team they can profile. People could submit their armies for inclusion which could be profiled. Heavy metal painters personal collections could be shown. There is a lot more they could do and will need to do in order for me to buy it. I can look at the CMON galleries for FREE!!!
ReplyDeleteSo it's basically a picture book! Crap, that is extremely lazy, they don't even have to think of words to add now. Unbelievable. I thought GW had sunk to the lowest depth, but I was wrong. It's an insult. Pictures like this (but far, far better) are freely available all over the web, why would you pay for it? Talk about dumbing down, this is aimed at 10 year olds.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree
DeleteMaybe we should start a competition, guess how many editions of visions will be printed before it evolves once more - presumably into a colouring book with free crayons.
DeleteFree crayons from GW? I'm not convinced "Free" is in their vocabulary!
DeleteLOL. I love the idea about a crayon coloring book :D
DeleteCaiphas might be a good one for that. Hero of the Imperium colouring book series. ^_^ Just Caine in heroic poses chopping up the enemies of mankind. xD
DeleteOr it could be aimed at peple like me: a painter who wants something they can flip through for inspiration and isn't interested in much more text than brief descriptions or how-to guides. I much prefer that to looking at images on the web. If CMON did a monthly book of the best of thier webpage I would buy it. There are some highly successful digital art galleries that produce hardcopy books as well as game and film artbooks- all mostly pictures. This is exactly the sort of thing that I have always wanted. Sure, they won't get the content right off the bat (and I love the idea of 'Eavy Metal profiles and galleries of thier work) so I'll be interested to see how it evolves over time.
ReplyDeleteDownload the WAMP magazine for free - that's aimed at painters. Or buy the aptly named web mag Figure Painter for the grand sum of $1 per issue - full of painting guides by golden daemon winners and other top painters. Full of pictures but also meaningful and adult commentary. Or stick with WD, maybe you will get a free lollipop in issue 2.
DeleteI already download both Portal and FPM. Both are fine publications (in fact I am a columnist on Portal) but, like I say, I like to have a physical thing to flip through when I feel like it. I would happily buy hard copies of both, just as I am going to happily buy these new magazines. The weekly holds less of an interest for me, as it contains more gamer material which isn't my hobby, but I will get it for reference, so that I have hard copies of the newest releases and something to have a flip through once a week. And a lollipop to suck on while Iread it would be most agreeable.
DeleteI did like the WD, it had the right balance between pictures and text. Visions seems totally overpriced to me, 9 bucks for a catalogue full of pictures? Use your browser, go to blogs, look at forums and check coolminiornot and you get the same for free.
ReplyDeleteThis 100 times
DeleteOr it could be aimed at peple like me: a painter who wants something they can flip through for inspiration and isn't interested in much more text than brief descriptions or how-to guides. I much prefer that to looking at images on the web. If CMON did a monthly book of the best of thier webpage I would buy it. There are some highly successful digital art galleries that produce hardcopy books as well as game and film artbooks- all mostly pictures. This is exactly the sort of thing that I have always wanted. Sure, they won't get the content right off the bat (and I love the idea of 'Eavy Metal profiles and galleries of thier work) so I'll be interested to see how it evolves over time.
ReplyDeleteHonestly, it seems to me just a very heavily watered down soup. All the things that used to be of any interest in the magazine are long gone, it's just lots of photos of THE SAME MINIATURES over and over and over. In other words, a publication you skim through quite fast and that you are probably not going to pick up. Ever. Again.
ReplyDeleteI have a vast collection of the old White Dwarfs, and most of them are treasure troves even today, with lots of interesting stuff, from technical advice to background pieces, which are and always will be the most important thing to me.
I am not going to waste a single cent on these new "publications"
Rafael seriously. get off that high horse. eyecandy!? there are a gazzilion internetsites where you can find better eyecandy than this. you're being a GW fanboy here or are going at lengths to defend them, are you working for them? did they hire you ? you are a very good talented painter, I give you that. but your reasoning on defending this is ridiculous. a pile of shite with a cherry on top is still a pile of shite. stop defending GW, I know it's good for your moneyflow regarding commisions but this is just...no.
ReplyDeleteRafael hardly sounds like he is on a high horse Alco; that’s an unfair accusation.
DeleteYou do know he does commissions for other line as well as GW hmmmm?
He may be right that this is a product that a lot f people (painters) want. My guess is that this is likely incorrect. There will be people that like this but I think in the main they want quality content or at least the content to be original. Honestly my wife started using in design a month ago and her community magazine is already on par with the design choices here.
It may be a nice product but I think it is a lazy product.
Rafa does not live of commissions ;)
DeleteAnd I have not seen him on a horse often, either :D In fact, never at all!
Lets Kick start him a horse...
Deletethanks for the kind words about Portal by the way fellas, not far off 3,000 downloads on our most recent issue! Personally, I'd probably just stroll into my local GW and ask to take a flick through an open copy every now and then. Maybe pick up a few on ebay if any are especially good. The issue of WD I got as a xmas present was quite an enjoyable read, though the price (as are all magazines to be honest) was too high. Not exorbitant, but too much to justify.
ReplyDeleteThe guy reviewing this seems just a tad condescending.
ReplyDeleteOn another note, I am now kind of sad I sold my Firebelly which was the one with a full page spread. Kind of weird that the Firebelly didn't even make final cut yet they thought it was worth a full page spread... Same with my Nurgle Dreadnought, it made Final Cut but didn't place but still got a full 2 pages dedicated to it...
In relation to Warhammer Visions - maybe older, more mature readers will think of porn magazines from Private... three languages, sold to wankers
ReplyDeleteAfter looking over the video review, it seems to me that this is a first step in moving White Dwarf, or whatever it is now, to an electronic publication. It may take time for them to eliminate print, but looking at the content of the weekly and, in particular, the pic-heavy/word-lite Visions book, these both just scream to me that they would be better offered as ipad subscriptions.
ReplyDeleteI expect the same!
DeleteI'm quite sure what to do with this visons.
ReplyDeleteOn one side it's 0, pictures I can find on the web for free and pics they have on their on site for free.., so it is kinda rip-off.
On the other hand I like to flip through books with pictures, that may inspire me in painting --> I'd like it independent of price or similar.
What the result for me will be? I'll probably buy this one (I don't have january's WD, so duplicate pictures from there won't bother me), and depending on future youtube reviews 1 or 2 more, where the theme looks interesting.
I know that I won't buy it monthly/subscribe, that would be too much and I'd rather spend more money on other things (like Season 2+ here :) )
As a gamer first and a painter second, I lost all interest in WD a long time ago.
ReplyDeleteI think that GW missed an opportunity to bring back more gaming into the magazine, like scenarios, small games and experimental rules. That could induce people like me to buy it.
However, it requires more investment than printing pictures on glossy paper.
As a subscriber to WD for 27 years I will not be renewing my subscription when it finally expires. WD has disintegrated into two miserable, lackluster publications, one is a picture book and the other paltry showcase of the latest and greatest army to be released. Gone are the days when it contained interesting articles regarding the background of any of their products that enhanced the army books themselves. The old WD even contained experimental rules and army lists that didn't justify a full army book/codex themselves but made the game that much more interesting. My older WD's are treasures that I still flip through to find inspiration for new ideas, which is exactly what ForgeWorld is currently doing.
ReplyDeleteWarhammer Visions promised "70 more editorial pages than the old monthly White Dwarf". What they failed to mention is WV's pages are 30% smaller for a net gain of only 3 or 4 more pages than a WD monthly for a $2 increase in price. Then add another $4 for the 32 page WD weekly so we're paying $6 for 35 more pages than a standard WD monthly. And the current content of WD weekly and WV is much less than a monthly WD in my opinion. And in the age of the internet, do we really need pages worth of the locations of GW stores? A simple Google search would free up that space for more/better articles/rules updates/fluff.
WD weekly is geared towards the latest and greatest Army to be released, in this case the Dwarves. So if you aren't into the stunties then neither issue #1 or #2 is going to be worth much. The paint splatter articles are going to be compiled into another "How to paint Citadel Miniatures" or "'Eavy Metal Masterclass" so they're not very interesting either.
GW has also alienated the people that do not live close to a GW store, or independent dealer, hobbyshop or bookstore that carries WD weekly. Not to mention the people like myself who are frequently deployed to other countries. Without a subscription I can't get WD while I'm gone.
This is an epic fail on GW's part. They've completely lost touch with their fanbase and have violated our loyalty in the name of pure greed.
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