Rant: White Dwarf and their goddamn Space Marines..

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Khamontep

Skeleton
Jan 5, 2008
94
Zombies
62
Hey guys. So, I found the latest issue of White Dwarf in the store today, so I bought it with little hesitation as I wanted to check out the new tyranids, and perhaps a fantasy-related article, as I'm not a 40k player.

It took me 15 seconds to skim through the magazine. After that, I was disappointed that I had bought it.

Oh, not only because of the topic's name, I'll get to it. I don't really know why it made me bitter, I just took a too-long-to-be-healthy inhale of GW's finely polished marketing that they enjoy doing nowadays. Same with their new site (if you remember my older rants).

I read a perfectly fine line somewhere, maybe it was on this forum, maybe not. It was something along the lines of "Games Workshop is putting less and less emphasism on the 'Games' part, and much more on the bloody 'SHOP'-part, which I get irritated by.

It's like one of Bugs Bunny's cartoony gloves, slapping my face every time I read a White Dwarf that's newer than five years of age. And on the glove it says "BUY ME BUY ME BUY ME!", without the humbleness of punctiation marks or anything resembling in between.

I mean, there must be a limit to how much you can improve your sales by marketing. I guess everyone of us have been bugged by one of those annoying salesmen calling by phone, with the sole purpose of selling underwear, tampoons or medicine of all sort (I should know, I've even been working as one, feeling like the worst kind of person right there, on the line!)

Nowadays, GW's 'official' prints and sites annoy me exactly the same way as one of those salesmen do. No more, no less. Well, alright. perhaps a little more.

Still, I laugh out loud when I see the "Buy all"-button on GW's site. Good riddance! "Buy all"? Not only do they have the indecency of having such a feature, but hovering your pointer above it unleashes hell upon your computer screen. Clicking should be enough, but no. GW has that "in your face"-policy that I dislike so.

So, I totally forgot what I was originally intending to rant about, but coming back to it, I really, for some reason, dislike the frequency of Space Marines in White Dwarfs. And it may (just may) have a thing or two in common with what I've written already.

This january-issue features the new Tyranids. What a joy for a tyranid-player! For a fantasy-player, not so much.

But, as in every goddamn issue of White Dwarf, they include these new goddamn articles and releases of goddamn Space Marines, right up your face once you flip the page. In the middle of goddamn Tyranid-articles!

These habits can be seen in almost every White Dwarf I have - as if there are not enough Space Marine models, exclusive special characters and multiple-version models circulating already, GW is doing CHAPTER models, releasing stuff for THEM, and having articles about chapter fluff! Instead of using this energy and time on models and rules for other armies?!

Enough is enough. What happened to the other Warhammer 40k-races? I have NEVER seen a White Dwarf without Space Marines. Never.

YES - I know many people play Space Marines.

YES - I know it's so these hordes can have their satisfaction and so that WD covers more players (and cash!!) each issue, but..

The fact that so many people are playing Space Marines could, maybe relate to this excessive marketing in the first place?!

As a GAMING company, I'd never want 50% of the players to play to most popular army. Never! Every army should, in a perfect world, have the same amount of fluff, the same amount of popularity and models. That would make for a perfect game.

But, as I already wrote, GW puts less emphasism on the "Games"-part.

And more on the "bullshit"-part.

If I have uttered myself foolishly, please don't be upset. This came straight from the heart, and that would perhaps make this more enjoyable for you to read in the first place. So yeah. Discuss!
 
Yes, Space Marines are their highest seller. But could that be because they are always updating books and rules and models for them. If they updated other armies as much as they did Space Marines those armies could have the high sales too.

When I started in the hobby the White Dwarf was the source for interesting army themes cool conversions and the split between Fantasy, 40K and Lord of the Rings was about equal and each month switched game system on the cover and even mentioned Gothic and Mordheim.

There is a reason I have a goal for The Doom Seeker to be what the White Dwarf should be.
 
Never be ashamed to speak out when your heart tells you to :)
Better let out your feelings about this now, rather now than letting the feelings build up and up until following happens...

It was an ordinary day in a Games Workshop hobby center, Khamontep walks into the store and sees several games going on.
All having space marines on the table...he looks around and sees that the newly released Blood Angels are ALL over the place...
A customer with newly bought models asks for some help, Khamontep is happy to oblige.
"Let's see what you've got...."
As he opens the bag he sees a plethora of Space Marines.
The young man begins talking and talking about how much better marines are than any other race.
Khamontep explodes! Throws the models across the room! Smashes the blister packs! Rants and yells while he walks over to the tables and swipes the marines off the boards! Kicking and screaming as he is taken away by security.


Oh how much I would pay to see this happen...
Anyways, I am full heartedly with you my friend.

I won't repeat my other comments and rants i've made over the years about how I loathe their marketing and little babies all over again.
But just wanted to put my "support" in on your rant :lol2:

Ok fine, one thing.

GW didn't want the Nids to have bigger sales than Marines, therefore GW counters with releasing the Blood Angels :mad2:

Though GW is doing good considering the economy currently, so somethings working...
I'll have to shut my mouth there :silent:,
Not happy with HOW they're doing it though. :tongue:
 
I'm with you on Marines as well, i'm board of them as well. I do my best to annoy any staff member that try to sell me something.

My new favorite is saying i'm doing a Nightlord (Chaos marine Legion) army, then ask what they would suggest. They of course don't know what Nightlords are, so usually stand there and say nothing for a bit then walk off saying if you need anything just ask. But my favorite was when he tried selling me Dark Eldar xD

Khamontep said:
Hey guys. So, I found the latest issue of White Dwarf in the store today, so I bought it with little hesitation as I wanted to check out the new tyranids, and perhaps a fantasy-related article, as I'm not a 40k player.

Well at least you arn't a Lotr player, the last white dwarf i looked through had 1 page on Lotr... and that was just a page full of models they we're trying to sell (which we're all rubish and overpriced).
 
I do agree on the SM aspect. I too remember when WD was more balanced between the other armies, and I read the same issue as you Kham, and found it to be sorely lacking. It also seemed after every article there was a page advertising models and prices!
 
Unfortunately, space marines was their first and only army. Even their, under development, first 40K movie is called ULTRAMARINES. Personally I don't by the White Dwarf because I realize that there is not much to read especially if I am a WHFB only player. Except that many pages are with advertising and more advertising. The only thing I find useful nowdays is the painting hints and tips that you can find in GW site also.
 
The new White Dwarf is terrible...now there's a 40K expansion coming out with new scenarios and I'm like "WTH?! This stuff used to be in the WD man!"

I'm not completely against SM as I'm thinking about starting an Iron Hands list (but only because they buggered my EC and I refuse to take a Chapter Master, overpowered son of a *%$# :devil:) but there definitely is a SM overkill; books coming out, video game and a movie about Smurfs.
Where are my Dark Eldar?!:mad2: Oh but boy oh boy we have Blood Angels coming up soon! Guess Dark Angels will come out this year too?

Now I always wanted to play Iron Hands as I love the Mechanicus but since there is no Mech-codex *puppy eyes* or IMO a decent representative list anymore why not go for IH? BUT I feel slightly pushed to begin that army now as they've nerfed my EC to a point where I can no longer use my lovingly converted models and my Dark Eldar are so outdated that they get massacred by the new SM and IG.

As for the commercialism; GW is a company and I get it that they are trying to sell their models but if they continue like this they will start to annoy a lot of players. The WD is full of advertisements which I just don't get. We know what the models look like and we know the damn prices. You don't have to repeat every new army and its models on two whole pages for two or three issues.
:silent:
 
A breakdown of content to show how unbalanced things are:

Warhammer:

- 6 pages on Skaven Scenarios
- 3 pages on Colin Grayson's Skaven

Er, that's about it.

LoTR:

- 2 pages of introduction
- 2 pages of tactics
- 2 pages of a brief summery of a battle between Adam Troke and Christian Byrne.

40K:

- 34 pages of Tyranids
- 15 pages of Marines (Legion of The Damned)

Advertising:

- 17 pages: - 2 page spread for LoTR
- 2 page spread for Skaven
- 8 pages of Tyranids
- 2 pages for Marines
- 2 page spread for paints
- 2 page spread for battlefield terrain

When I get the time I will go through my old issues to compare to some of the more recent ones. I should be receiving February's issue soon, and I bet there will be a Beasts overload, but considering that they only got a footnote mention at the back of January's issue, it doesn't look like it will be.
 
I think SM wouldn't be so bad if GW didn't release new models every couple of months.. if they saved them all for a new release every 18 months or so then that would be less irratateing.. I just wish that they'd have a look at far more interesting chapters than those stupid angels and silly vikings in power armour.. like the salamanders or my beloved raven guard.

And I agree with the fact that GW's website is shite.. the UK site went really crap even before they changed the format and I used to use the US site to find all the interesting little articles but now all that has gone. The only thing the website wants you to do is buy, buy, buy.


And does anyone else agree that BFG / Necromunda / Mordheim really need to be given an overhaul and brought back?

I went into my local GW recently, looking for some paint (which is stupidly overpriced) and asked if anyone still played Necromunda (I got an Orlock and a Goliath gang sat in a box gathering dust).. the manager thought I was being funny.

Bad times.
 
BilboBaggins said:
Yes, Space Marines are their highest seller. But could that be because they are always updating books and rules and models for them. If they updated other armies as much as they did Space Marines those armies could have the high sales too.

All armies were first equal.

People just liked Space Marines more. Jervis Johnson susposedly was suprised by how well they sold, saying something to the effect that ''the modeling studio must be a front for crack or something''

So Space Marines earned the attention because they were first popular. Other armies had their chance.
 
If they are the most popular then why are they spending their advertising budget (White Dwarf/stores) pushing them like crazy? :D

I'm not saying they aren't popular, but the push, push, push on the Space Marines in the stores and WD hasn't been given to any other army.
 
I'm not going to disagree completely with the first post. Having been in the hobby for quite some time I've of course noticed the change in white dwarf. We'd all love it to be the hobbyist magazine of the past, but that just isn't possible. Our main problem as players of this game is that we sometimes forget GW isn't just there to be our friend, it's a company with real sales targets, overheads and a budget. In the past GW could afford to be more friendly fronted and so on, but that was when the hobby was at it's peak. As time moves on and consoles and computer games claim more and more of the market on leisure time, GW have to be more competitive and sales orientated. It's a sad fact of life, and not entirely their fault.

I agree sometimes they over do it, but if they don't push sales and make enough money the company will go under, and then where will we be? So it's with a somewhat sad heart I look at WD and so on and realise it can never be the publication of the past, because we aren't in that past anymore.

James.
 
BilboBaggins said:
If they are the most popular then why are they spending their advertising budget (White Dwarf/stores) pushing them like crazy? :D

I'm not saying they aren't popular, but the push, push, push on the Space Marines in the stores and WD hasn't been given to any other army.

Because they proved their popularity first. I already told you that in my first post. It makes basic marketing sense to push what becomes popular.
 
I do agree with James to an extent and see where hes coming from but It wouldn't kill them to put a little more time into warhammer or even some of the other 40k armies I wish they would do a piece on vampire counts Ive been searching for a VC article on a WD for ages.

Abd any one notice the last two battle kits have included space marines both times. They could have had Orcs vs Nids to fill in the hive fleet leviathan fluff, That would have been awesome.

I'm just afraid that soon the digital world will consume our poor Warhammer forever :(
 
The ammount of fantasy coverage is something I would agree with you on. I think the problem is that 40k has been simplified to a point where it's so much more child friendly than fantasy is, so the market for 40k is larger.

I was told in a local GW recently "2010 is the year of fantasy!". Then the beastmen got a footnote under the new lotr model that's coming out, I got a newsletter about the new 40k scenario book, and now the blood angels are coming out in april with a full model collection to support them.

The one thing I want to see from the next edition of fantasy is the same ammount of supplements as 40k has gotten recently. I realise this probably won't happen though, so I'll just plod on.

On cold dark nights I share your fear of where fantasy is heading Mr. Nightwere, lets just hope our fears are unfounded :)

James.
 
knightofni said:
And I agree with the fact that GW's website is shite.. the UK site went really crap even before they changed the format and I used to use the US site to find all the interesting little articles but now all that has gone. The only thing the website wants you to do is buy, buy, buy.

I disliked the new GW website when they introduced the new format, and I still dislike it now. It still feels clunky and really geared towards selling things, not having an equal amount of content. I also miss the Black Gobbo from the US site.

I wish they would do a piece on vampire counts Ive been searching for a VC article on a WD for ages.

When was the last time you saw the following in a WD:

- Ogres
- Wood Elves
- Bretonnia
- Dwarfs
- Orcs & Goblins
- Tomb Kings

The last VC article was probably the issue just after they were re-released.

I was told in a local GW recently "2010 is the year of fantasy!". Then the beastmen got a footnote under the new lotr model that's coming out, I got a newsletter about the new 40k scenario book, and now the blood angels are coming out in april with a full model collection to support them.

That made me concerned. It is apparently the year of fantasy, yet the Beasts release is made a footnote under a new model for LoTR. The February issue will probably have the Beasts as the main focus, though mentioning them in a footnote seems as if it's only a minor release.

It's also rumoured that 40K is likely to get another release before the end of the year. Then again, 8th Edition is also rumoured to be out in the summer.
 
My theory is if you have something selling that needs little advertising to sell then you put that advertising to boost things that are good but ignored by the children that are attracted to the Space Marines. From what I've seen over the years I've been playing is that 40K is most popular with the under 15 set, when they mature (and stop relying on parents to buy the armies for them) they head toward fantasy, or get out of the game all together.

GW seems to have tailored their marketing strategy toward these youngsters forgetting that there are others out there that would love the game that their constant push of 40K is alienating older players.
 
Yeah, they are probably saying it's the year of Fantasy because of the 8th edition release.

For Fantasy I'd expect to see four armies this year:
- Beasts in Feb
- Summer there should be TWO army releases that go with the new 8th rules, a month or two apart (Historically they have done this)
- Winter probably something else
 
Interesting discussion! :mrgreen: I have to agree that GW is trying to magnify their sales by marketing mainly Space Marines.

However, if you think about it, I can't see Eldar or Tau (or even Nids!) sell less than Space Marines if they got this huge attention, as they are really cool armies aswell with lots of good background. I mean, Space Marines are everywhere. Of course they have to sell more! Each Space Marine chapter gets the same attention (or more!) as certain armies, like Necrons, we never see them for example. I wonder how the sales would go if they balanced the attention out between the armies..

Wierd though, that the latest WD featured Crimson Fists (please correct me if I'm wrong here), only to have Ultramarines in the battle report against Tyranids. As if that made any sence?!

I am still of the opinion that GW is wrong with their excessive marketing!

Chunky Von Waffles said:
It was an ordinary day in a Games Workshop hobby center, Khamontep walks into the store and sees several games going on.
All having space marines on the table...he looks around and sees that the newly released Blood Angels are ALL over the place...
A customer with newly bought models asks for some help, Khamontep is happy to oblige.
"Let's see what you've got...."
As he opens the bag he sees a plethora of Space Marines.
The young man begins talking and talking about how much better marines are than any other race.
Khamontep explodes! Throws the models across the room! Smashes the blister packs! Rants and yells while he walks over to the tables and swipes the marines off the boards! Kicking and screaming as he is taken away by security.


Oh how much I would pay to see this happen...
Anyways, I am full heartedly with you my friend.


Bwahaha! That would work wonders, wouldn't it? Thanks Chunky, that totally made my day. :mrgreen:
 
WD has been bollocks for years. If you want a decent wargames mag buy Wargames Illustrated, all historicals but lots of great articles/scenarios in it that translate well into other systems and there modelling articles are great. If you want lots of battle reports/army showcases buy Tales Of Battle which is all WHFB. See my sig for links.
 
The WD now isn't as bad as the WD of 3-4 years back. Back then the battle reports were total tripe and you knew that the newly released army featured would always beat whoever it was they were facing. Now the batreps are not as bad, though a lot of the time they still are crap. The rest of the mag hasn't changed much though.

Funny how Chaos Marines' description of the God-Emperor as a 'rotting monolith' is perfectly applicable to GW itself...
 
Sweeney Todd said:
Funny how Chaos Marines' description of the God-Emperor as a 'rotting monolith' is perfectly applicable to GW itself...

GW are also surrounded by fanatical zealots as well. :lol:
 
So what we're saying is all the people who can see how much GW is starting to fail are chaos marines and everyone else are part of the ecclesiarchy?
 
And I always thought that GW was a Chaos Plot.

But then there are those who believe that the Emperor was killed and it was his opponent who resides in his place. The Space Marines are evil and Chaos Space Marines are on the side of good.
 

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