Warhammer Visions Decadence
I wrote my thoughts after a few WH Visions numbers a while ago. It wasn't too good but as we are nearing a year of issues and there are some rumors of no more numbers after 2014 (due to the failure it has been), here's how it has become even less valuable from my point of view.
First, is a mostly a showcase of "trending miniatures". Example: If you don't like Dark Eldar, you're going to get minimum 1/3 of the magazine dedicated to them. Although there are always different topic sections, throwing away sometimes half of the pages because "is not your army" is not very appealing. And as there is no lore text, you're probably not going to start an army only by looking at the paint jobs. The tactic of bombarding once an again during a month with all the new minis doesn't works on me at least.
All official articles have too many minis. Games Workshop seems to want us to only play at Apocalypse scale, because now you see dozens of vehicles and usually no less than 30 miniatures per photo (excepting close ups and the like). Battles have gone insane, like with the Dark Eldar bomber... it is somewhat cool, but really showing 3 of them plus other flyers as a detachment? Or around 30 wracks, when a box is only 5 models? Or probably around 100 tyranids each time they appear?
It is also a tactic so that we see the need of having bigger and bigger armies "like WD guys have", but I kind of miss the old, less packed photographs, so many models distract me and I don't give as much attention to the details as I did in the past, when I could stare at each photo for minutes appreciating everything.
The best painted miniatures are no longer the White Dwarf or Heavy Metal team ones. I didn't like at first the Parade Ground section too much, always displaying winners and honour mentions instead of "also non winners", but now they are usually the best painted ones. Probably due to having to paint so many minis for so many photos, quality is uneven, and, despite doing too much mud watering/painting, Forge World photographs are also quite cool. White Dwarf ones have cool illumination and backgrounds but... They are no longer the coolest guys in town, it looks like "mass pro painting" instead of "awesome painting" (still years ahead of my painting skills, of course).
Same happens with conversions... The only conversions you see are Kit Bash articles and Parade Ground ones. GW has like forbidden showing converted minis, so no imagination, no creativity, only different color schemes. And half of the Kit Bash articles are too basic or uninteresting.
Blanchitsu is unclear of authorship. John Blanche is a great illustrator, a cool miniatures creator, but come on, I don't even remember the last time the minis showcased at his section were from him. Most minis are from other people, and while they are really really cool there's only a small text fragment saying the name of the real author. I don't like the misleading look of the section, as if all were from him.
The "how many nurgle chaos lord conversions in this issue?" joke is too much already. The same mini appears at every single issue, in all sorts of cool, normal and crappy conversions and/or paint jobs. It gets really tiring to see it once and again. While is a good mini (I have one in fact) it really annoys so much lack of variety.
So, counting with the not precisely cheap price, the too narrow content variety of each issue and the complaints I've put... I'd recommend at the very minimum to peek an isue before buying it.
Let's see if WH Visions survives this winter.
White Dwarf Weekly and Warhammer Visions Review
Background
White Dwarf is like your first love. It might not last forever but you will always remember it.
I've been reading the magazine since I can remember. The cover at the beggining of this post is from the #113 issue, the first I think I ever read; it's been a long time, but I think I made my parents buy it because of the Space Hulk contents.
I kept piles of old issues, when it was at least 30% lore, stories and background, instead of a mere shopping catalog and painting showcase. When "battles" in Warhammer 40,000 were with less than 15 miniatures per side, and there were new rules in most issues.
As I was young first my english was pretty basic, using constantly a dictionary and guessing many "strange" (fantasy) words. But I gazed at the impressive drawings, at the beautifully painted miniatures, even at the ending pages order lists and metal pieces.
I read them over and over, because I could convince my parents to buy me one each few months, until I could subscribe to it... well, really a local store near my house would bring it to Spain, sometimes missing a number or arriving quite late. But it was ok as I still got the chance to read more articles.
I read about Space Hulk, about Advanced HeroQuest, about Blood Bowl and Epic 40,000 ("Space Marine" in the edition I have) and Necromunda... Games that not were "pure Warhammer", and that either I already had or I've ended up buying years later because of that nostalgia and earlier reading.
But I've also known about Battlefield Gothic, about Man'O'War or Mordheim or Gorkamorka, games that I haven't played but I have read lore and articles and seen great minis and scenarios based on them.
I had too the first spanish number when White Dwarf was translated, with months of delay and older contents, before it was monthly and fully localized. I stopped buying it but I've been able to read many many issues and kept it's evolution "under surveillance" during most of the latest 15 years.
In the last years it slowly became a pure, badly concealed, marketing tool. A beautified shopping catalog with a few interesting articles among tons of new products showcasing.
When in late 2012 it was redesigned and a digital version was presented, I decided to give it another try and subscribed for a year for the digital. After those 12 numbers I've kept reading it all months until now.
In all it's "redesigned existence", the magazine has slowly falled even deeper into the marketing pit. Despite the beautiful HD zoomable images and embedded 360 degree images of some new minis, the digital version is only better in the fact that is cheaper than the physical one. And both have zero lore articles, crappy battle reports that no longer are consistent, repetitive conversions and endless miniature showcasing (there's a chaos champion mini that I love and have but I've come to hate because of having seen it so many times in the magazine).
It promised more quality and just had more advertisement. It is like a big ad, a pure catalog that you pay for. You get more and better news from internet this days, and for free.
And now, the next genius turn from Games Workshop: You want rules in the mag and no ads? No problem, you'll pay for it! And just in case you are interested in the new catalog items, you can buy it separately too, in a weekly basis!
Simply brilliant... charging you more for fixing mistakes and removing self-advertisement, when the main purpose of the whole magazine is already that. And even use it to speed up the release cycle so the information leaks around the net are less effective.
And it gets even better... So let's review both magazines separately.
The White Dwarf (weekly)
Imagine compacting the normal White Dwarf into 30-something pages. Imagine almost 50% is pure "new releases" and the other 50% is what was in the "old" WD plus the "new and awaited" rules for a single model.
Images are bigger so less text is needed to fill pages, but you get so few actual content (less than 20 pages) that should almost be free.
The paper magazine has exactly the same paper width and height, just with less pages. There is an epub/mobi version at Black Library, which further demonstrates the bigger images by having just one or two paragraphs per page and a big image (not all pages but many).
So basically is an ultra-minimalistic version of the old WD, with some sections missing.
3.20€ per week (2.99€ the digital edition), almost 13€ per month if you want all issues. Nice marketing idea to allow you to choose but end up charging you more than before.
The Warhammer Visions (monthly)
This is actually quite surprising, and really dissapointing. It can be summarized as hundreds of pages... of photograpies of miniatures and battle scenes. The "sections" are only as a way of categorizing the photographs, but the text is so scarce it could be entirely removed.
It is "multilanguage", as texts and descriptions come in english, french and german, but at least there isn't much around the photos.
Photos are nice, until you notice they are overabused. Tons and tons of Tyranids, same units in different angles, zoom levels and color schemes, until smells like pure page-filling.
Digital version needs to be read in landscape mode (rotated), but the plus is you don't get "cut" images as in the paper version.
It has a new releases section (like the weekly WD), just having tons and tons of pictures, Parade Ground and battle report... full of images and that not even tries to make sense anymore or just communicate properly what happens in each turn.
Kit bash is also here, as Blanchitsu, and the small painting tips. As everything is in big pictures, what was a 3-4 pages article now spans over 6 to quite-too-many pages of and unnecessary huge photos.
And the store list is here instead of in the weekly WD, which also makes no sense except to make fatter this magazine and thinner the weekly one.
Last White Darf was about Tyranids, first Visions is also focused on Tyranids on the 40k part. Repetitive and looking as not wanting to make much effort for a first issue that should be amazing to hook people up.
The "best" thing is that, as some people around blogs have been suspecting, some of the photos of the Tyranids are actually repeated. I have also January 2014 White Dwarf digital version and I can confirm 100% sure that some images are repeated from last White Dwarf.
For example the Hive Crone images are the same photograps, some of them cleverly cut in different rectangles, some like the first one with violet background exactly the same in Jan WD and Feb Visions WB.
Se we have like half of the old WD, with less text and going towards a photo catalog. Such a dissapointing "new" magazine.
9€ per month (9.99€ the digital, more expensive than paperback one!).
My conclusions
They've lost their minds. They have hacked into pieces the old and already bad White Dwarf and made it even worse and way more pricey for just a few rules and more photos. Whoever thought it was a good idea to divide the magazine in two should probably be congratulated by getting fired.
The nonsense goes as far as not even being consistent: Weekly version has a cheaper but worse digital version (with quite minimalistic formatting) in compatible formats, while the Visions one is more expensive, only available for the iPad but with the paper version design.
Why they didn't just went one way? we can't know, although maybe they want to get the most from the new weekly magazine not sharing any revenue with Apple.
Either WD will die, or I'll lose my faith in humanity if people really welcomes this absurd and money-grabbing change. This is the worst movement they could have thought about.
More proof that Warcraft was based on Warhammer
In 2011 I found some "mouth proof" from an ex Games Workshop sculptor about Warcraft being originally a computer version of Warhammer Fantasy.
This week, reading the Retro Gamer Magazine issue 111, I would more proof, this time from the other side.
Starting at page 86, there is an interview with Patrick Wyatt about the making of the first Warcraft videogame. Patrick was an ex-Blizzard designer and coder, so we're not talking about gossip but words from one of the game creators.
As the text fragment is in english no translation is needed, so read it for yourselves:
So that more or less settles the "legend" as confirmed. To what extent influenced or why the license was not used we will probably never know, but at least it is not fake.
Where to buy Games Workshop miniatures online
Many people loves Warhammer and/or Warhammer 40.000, but GW has been increasingly rising prices up to the point of making it an elite hobby, at least if you want to keep with it more than one or two years and then move on.
But we are lucky that internet allows also to break barriers and access multiple shopping alternatives.
I am going to mention a small list of online shops where I have at least once bought something, explaining in my opinion the good and bad aspects.
Maelstrom Games (Closed, alternative can be Wayland Games)
The good: Really competitive prices (my favourite shop). Deals and special offers. Free shipping with small shopping cart.
The bad: Small stock on some items. Slow restocking. Limited catalog of products.
The good: You can find virtually anything. From really good deals, to nicely painted full armies, to old goodies like really old boxed games, books or miniatures.
The bad: I am not a fanatic of eBay because I have friends who had bad shopping experiences, so my advice is to stick to good reputation people, well known bloggers, or those announcing at websites like BoLS.
Miniatures Hobby
The good: Insanely cheap. Free shipping with small shopping cart. Cheap Forge World item clones. A few no longer available metal miniatures.
The bad: Resin is low quality (specially in thin areas). Molding lines and general cleaning work needed. No instructions, no box... just pieces. Really slow delivery.
The good: Really old treasures can be found here. 100% reliable (unlike eBay). Some items are real deals.
The bad: Very limited catalog. 1-item stock most of the times. Delivery quite slow (3-4 weeks to Spain, and not free!).
The good: Free standard shipping. Exclusive online-only old models. Best customer support (fast, efficient, solving your problems*).
The bad: Same price as physical stores. No discounts, no special web offers, no extras. Delivery times are also slow (at least in Spain, around 2 weeks).
The good: Exclusive official side-factory of GW for normal/non-finecast resin miniatures. Titans, conversion kits, uncommon miniatures (alongside the Imperial Armor codex-like manuals). Some of the miniatures are awesome. Quality is much better than Finecast.
The bad: Price ranges from expensive to insanely expensive. Some miniatures have shopping tricks (like buying separately the two arms) that make them even more expensive.
I also love visiting physical independent stores. Some might have the normal prices (same as GW website), but others usually have discounts or interesting offers, not mentioning maybe one or two no longer available relics.
Also if you want to avoid Finecast, some will probably still have metal minis.
And lastly, ask your friends if they play WH/WH40k if they have some minis they don't want. You might get a positive reply and be able to negotiate a reasonable amount!
Feel free to add more shop recommendations in the comments, indicating where have you bought from to give a hint of delivery locations.
(To avoid being flagged as spam please keep a limit of two or three web links maximum per comment, sorry)
* I had two different problems (a missing sprue from one item, and a delivery problem) and in quick phone calls they took note and fixed it really fast and easily for me.
Very interesting info from ex-GW employees
Reddit has a section called "IAMA" in which actual and former employees of all kind of jobs talk about them. In this case, an ex trades sales representative who worked for severeal years at Games Workshop has given lots of interesting answers.
I'm going to do a small list of the most interesting points because the thread is huge and quite long read, but has some gems inside, and also other former employees (like a casting manager) added info and answered questions.
Italic parts are comments from me, the rest are some of the employee answers summarized.
- Price jumps and high prices are because miniatures are not a non-necessary commodity, and because people can pay for those prices.
They are also high so that initially you cannot buy everything and you will come back next month for more. - High prices also serve as entry point: GW doesn't wants everyone to play, they want it to be a "prestige game".
- Blood Bowl or Gorka Morka were great for players but terrible for sales, as the basic boxes had almost everything needed (so you wouldn't spend over time more money). That's why they don't reappear.
(but now that we've seen Space Hulk and Man'O War/Dreadfleet, maybe as limited reeditions...) - The goal is to keep you in a cycle of perpetually buying your army, by generating the need to have the new things that come out.
- About how plastic models are created:
- Original plan for the 6th Warhammer Fantasy edition was to launch one army book per month. It didn't worked and now development cycles are longer.
- GW's policy is not to release information farther than one month out. They doen't want you saving your money until next month, they want you to spend it every month.
Also if you know that race X will be renewed in Y months , there's no reason for you to buy now instead of saving for the new models.
(apart from buying metal minis before they go finecast) - GW and the stores do not want competitive players/tournaments. They want to run introductory leages, have new players, people spending in upgrading armies, but not playing just for winning.
- Armies are not perfectly balanced. There are "nukes" (too strong units), and GW does almost only internal testing of codexes.
- Gaming in-house (inter-staff) is way different than local gaming clubs. In-house want to play and have a great narrative, at stores/tournaments pleople play to win.
- Prices are not set by manufacturing costs, but for "play value". Their value to a gamer is where the price point is set, rather than what they cost to manufacture. This is the "goblin index". This is why plastic Terminators are only 5$ less than metal Terminators (while they are much cheaper to manufacture).
Employees paid minis by metal gram stock price instead. - Space marines make up roughly 12% of sales, and all of the other races make up roughly 2% each, but that's lumping Ultramarines, Dark Angels, Blood Angels, etc. all in one big bunch.
40k and Fantasy actually split right down the middle in terms of actual sales. Popularity, may tend towards 40k in your area, but overall, both are really equally popular, according to the actual sales figures. - The company LOVES and listens to the online community.
(Or so he says...) - You get paid less than you would elsewhere (working at GW), as they have a steady stream of young fans who would just LOVE to take your job. The turnover rate was pretty high.
- GW isn't really afraid of any other company. For one thing, no other line can sustain an entire store on its own, unlike the GW retail outlets.
- The move to Finecast was due more to the rising costs of metal than anything else.
While they were not able to lower the costs of Finecast models, the cost of resin is much more stable than metal so, hopefully, this will keep price increases in check and make them less frequent. - In his opinion the company has suffered a bit for losing so many dedicated, experienced folks.
Masters for plastics used to be made as "3-ups", 3x larger then the finished model.
They then use resin castings of those 3ups to make a layout of the mold in clay, contouring the mold lines where they need them to follow the edges of the model so there are no undercuts.
Then they make a resin "mold" of the layout. Then they do the same for the other side of the mold.
The resin mold they just made from the 3ups is then used on a machine called a pantograph engraver. The moldaker uses a stylus, which is attached to a flexible arm to follow the cavities of each part, on the other side of the machine there is an engraver removing metal from the aluminum or steel block. The mechanical arm that connects the molddmakers' stylus and engraver can be set to reduce the size to whatever you need, so when the stylus moves 3", the engraver will only move 1" for example.
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