Sunday, September 16, 2012

Breaking News: Changes to White Dwarf

Good evening everyone!

I wanted to pass on to you some of the hottest rumors circulating in the rumor mill.  I'll have my reactions in red text with the original rumors in black.  Many thanks to Natfka and his many minions slaving away to pull this knowledge from the aether.

via multiple sources on Feait 212 (multiple separate sources saying the same things)

-White Dwarf will be available digitally.

-This is going to be a great step in moving into the more modern age of media
- a new logo - So?

-The subscription model has changed. No longer will you subscribe for 12 months. You will purchase 12 vouchers to redeem at your choosing. This means you can buy 12 magazines from one month, or 1 magazine any month for 2 years from purchase. Basically you choose what months you want to pick up at the store. Dont want next months.... no problem. - THIS. As you may have noticed I'm a proponent of choice, both in gaming and in life, and this makes me so very happy. This will allow subscribers to choose what issues they want to buy and that will tell the writers what content their readers want to read. Everybody wins

-If you purchase the vouchers and pick it up in the store you will get 4 free issues. Subscription price is $80 ($5/issue) - One of the biggest complaints I've heard was the increasing price of WD. I've rarely seen the value of buying it at $9, but at five dollars I think it will bring the magazine into MUCH wider circulation.

-If you purchase on the website or get it sent to your home, you will get 2 free issues. Subscription price is $100 ($7.14/issue) - Still worth it at that price, especially if you consider the portability, assuming you can access the file from multiple devices.

- The price is going to be $10/issue or 8 Euros - This is going to be a great incentive for people to subscribe.

- They are shooting for around 160 pages an issue. - Damn. If they're throwing that much content in each issue they're probably going to have something good in each issue.

- higher quality paper, different cover quality

- very picture heavy

- more articles featuring the Black Library, Eavy Metal Team, Design Studios... Much more

- They expect to have more items attached (posters, key fobs, etc.)
- I've been a fan of the 'Eavy Metal and Masterclass segments as a way to improve my techniques, the rest not so much. Swag is always nice to get, but I'd love more rules supplements.

- On September 21st, all old issues will be removed from the stores and website - Why?
- At the end of the month (the day before new white dwarfs are released) ALL issues will be destroyed permanently (you won’t be able to order back issues from the website). These are going to be inventoried items and tracked, so there won’t be holding any back at the end of the month, similar to the process when they took the old rulebooks and core sets off the shelves. - NO! Bad GW! You shouldn't be destroying these issues. They've already spent the money to make them, any money they get from them is better than destroying them. Hell, after a month make it half price, then you can make some money on your investment.

- Many more issues will be sent to the store. - So you're going to print a lot, spending a lot of money and then destroy what you don't sell? Why not print more or fewer based on your expected sales?
 
- The issues should feature current products and not be filled with advertisements for the first 1/3rd of the magazine. - The more enjoyable and informative the content is, the more advertisements the readers will be willing to swallow to get what they want. Hell, why not allow outside advertisers who sell similarly nerdy products (e.g. Mana Potions, anything on ThinkGeek) some ad space, then they could make some money even if they don't sell a single issue of WD.

Well that's my thoughts on these rumors, what are yours?

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