White dwarf

I was looking at the price for White Dwarf. It went up to $9 an issue...correct. Well at $75 for a year at 15 issues thats $5 per magazine. I also just read that if you spend $15 or more shipping is free in the U.S.. Did someone with brains and a soul take over?

Nah.. probably just responding to market woes.

$75/year is $6.25 per mag, which might be OK if you were not just buying a large GW ad.
The free shipping is only for the rest of June.

15 magazines at $75 a year is $5 an issue. Are you adding something else to the price? As for the shipping ,I knew there was a catch.

I see what you are looking at now.......

They only publish 12 per year (one per month). You get 12 mags for the annual $75 fee.

If you already subscribe, then they are giving you 3 more free months with a one year renewal (so 15 for $75).

It doesn't matter because the magazine sucks ass anyway !

I agree - zero value IMO

Only GW would think that their magADzine has any vaule and customers are willing (and stupid enough) to pay for overpriced AD's.

JerryB

Yes GW is the only corporation to ever think about making money.

Kyle there are a lot of companies that make money and do not have idealogy of fucking the customer with every action.

GM (another two letter company) time again shown their contempt for there customers needs and it caught up with them.

JerryB

White Dwarf sucks donkey dick. Better off reading hobby forums. Or browsing the GW site for that matter.

Kyle wrote:Yes GW is the only corporation to ever think about making money.

What other company has consumers purchase their advertisements? One of their few advertising forms and the consumer has to pay for it.

jerryb wrote:Kyle there are a lot of companies that make money and do not have idealogy of fucking the customer with every action.

It's funny how GW is pretty much the only game company to have lasted more than 25 years without any serious hitch... wonder why.....

Not everything they do might be the best, but they have been successful and lived for so long while pretty much every other game company folded, had to be sold, etc, because GW is run like an actual business and not like a bunch of yahoos with no business sense.

GW is not forcing anyone to buy White Dwarf, it's fully up to the consumer to decide, if your think it's horrible then good don't buy it, but others have no problem buying it. Yes I forgot, GW is evil and people have no control of what they do with their money. It's funny you think that only GW can think of this, because it sure as hell seems to have been a big success for them and brings in the money. If I could shit on a piece of paper and people would pay for it, I would do it.

Your missing the point Kyle - the GW business model is LACKING

GW games are played by people who are smarter than average and they easily see through most GW smoke screens.

In other words - they are not fooling anybody when they try to sell a giant ad for their products as a magazine.

Optimum Nutrituion sends me the same deal - looks like a magazine, but it is a giant Ad for ON products. Big difference - it is FREE.

Not to mention companies like Vicky's Secret, Fredricks, Ikea, Pottery Barn, etc.

Except your also ignoring that many stores and people DO purchase White Dwarfs and have been for many years now. If the average GW player was so smart and apparently knew better, the white dwarf wouldn't be selling. Not fooling anyone? Hardly. A couple folks don't like it, realize it, and post on the net and somehow think it's the majority hivemind.

They do it because it works, unless they have an incentive to change, they won't.

They aren't lacking anything when its making them money. Only way they will see any form of lacking is if people stop buying the magazines forcing them to make a change.

GW is not successful, and that is not my assessment. GW is traded on the stock market and you can research the facts (I have) and you can see how poorly and unsuccessful they have done the last nine years. And GM (the car company) did poorly for the last 30 years and limp along until the recent taxpayer handout and bankruptcy.

Your right, I don't have to buy GW's magADzine, I don't.

And I would not shit on piece of paper and sell it even if people would PAY for it. I guess that's why you appreciate GW business practices and I don't.

One financial analyst stated that if GW's continues on their current trend they will be out of business in 4 years.

JerryB

Kyle, the main reason that GW has been around for so long is that in the beginning, they were about making money AND helping out the customer.

I bring to you previous examples of WD for proof. I have WD issues from the late-90s and even early 2000s. They are about twice as large as the current editions. Not only this, but each issue has a battle report for EACH game system. To top it off, it has conversion ideas, modeling points, and a little tid-bit about one of the specialist games.

That WD is one I would have payed $9 for, because it had high quality content. I believe they sold it for $5 or something like that.

GW has been going downhill recently because they have a poor business model. Rather then focus on their current customer base and support, which in turn would produce a long lasting company (which they had at one point), they are focused on the immediate sale. Each codex for some of the games have been slightly more powerful to bring interest to that army (example: 40k Orks) and push people to purchase that army immediately. They have been shifting the gaming community they are trying to reach by (IMO) going for the younger, computer gamer generation rather then the older, hobbyist generation.

I believe that GW was a very good company once, but unfortunately they have been losing some money and have taken, again IMO, the wrong direction in which to gain money.

You can't say it's the economy, because BattleFront (the one who does FOW) just bought GaleForce 9, and they own 1 game system, not 3.

Just my thoughts, and I think thats what's frustrating everyone.


PS. If you want to see some of the old WD issues I can bring them in, I really like them.

jerryb wrote:GW is not successful, and that is not my assessment. GW is traded on the stock market and you can research the facts (I have) and you can see how poorly and unsuccessful they have done the last nine years. And GM (the car company) did poorly for the last 30 years and limp along until the recent taxpayer handout and bankruptcy.

Your right, I don't have to buy GW's magADzine, I don't.

And I would not shit on piece of paper and sell it even if people would PAY for it. I guess that's why you appreciate GW business practices and I don't.

One financial analyst stated that if GW's continues on their current trend they will be out of business in 4 years.

JerryB

You can see GW's financial data yes, and you can see what is successful and what isn't. Much of their trouble stems from many other issues and not so much the magazine. They still have the number one selling miniature game in the world but the company has issues to resolve in other areas. They have been trying and doing things to change for some time now, some good, some bad. I really could care less, I don't even buy White Dwarf but it's hardly what is going wrong for them.

They need to change in many aspects that's for sure, but as long as they got a product that sells, which they do, they can easily pull out of their rut. GW's main source of problems stem from outside of actual game product sales as it's their other expenditures and wastes of money that are draining the company. If the product wasn't so successful the company would have folded long ago. But being a publicly traded company and with so many shareholders involved, change is a difficult thing for a company to do since their is too many hands in the cookie jar looking over their own interests. 2008 though did turn out better for GW than 07 which was it's bleakest year, how they do in 09 will be telling if their internal changes and such are having any impact.

No matter what they chose to do people are not going to be happy as things are going to be cut, people will be outraged either way.

Wow, let me get my stompin' boots on so I can kick GW in the gut too.

When it comes to the business aspect of GW I really can't add any insight to the discussion. I did however get into Warhammer 40k in the late 80's and have realized how much it sucks that once you have learned the rules, your team has been bought and your codex memorized (which back then wasn't a codex but actually printed up in a lovely White Dwarf, later collected in the Compendium) GW decides "Hey we're a business, how can we continue to make more money? Let's redesign our miniatures and redesign the way our game is played so we can sell them all over again."

Now grant it, the miniatures have been getting better and better throughout the years so no complaint there. But if you're going to change the rules at least get them right. Thank God I never bought a Warhammer Fantasy Rulebook, hopefully the day I do it will be the last one they make.

I also own a ton of old White Dwarfs and one thing I love about GW back in the day was that their issues had a ton of content that didn't even pertain to the mighty 2 vehicles (Fantasy & 40k) that put them on the map. GW was always trying to invent the next cool game. I'm sure some sucked but others were and are very cool. Anyone remember Dark Future? I also loved that old White Dwarfs even had "modules" for games like Dungeons & Dragons, or Judge Dredd and comic strips of Thrudd the Barbarian. And you're right Scurrdi, whatever happened to acknowleding that your company also has a slew of Specialist Games that are pretty kick ass. I know, I know GW at least still produces NEW miniatures every once in awhile for these red -headed step children. But what about the forgotten? remember SpaceHulk? What a money maker that could be. They already produce all the necessary miniatures, all they gotta do is make a rulebook print up some tile rooms & corridors and there you go, they can feed their familes for another month.

You know $9 is a pretty hefty price tag. The least GW could do is do what they used to do every now and again and throw in some Card Stock buildings or some nifty posters maybe some useable poster maps. They should Definalety glue a free miniture to the cover as has been done before.

I don't think I'll ever stop liking the worlds that GW has created. Their Fluff is fantastic. The novels are lovingly written by writers who still care and their miniatures are top notch, well some of them anyway.( I never did like the new wood elves)...I think I'm done.