Agree with a lot of the comments above. I thought the product pushing seemed a lot less subtle in the last issue. Also not keen on the dossier approach. Too limiting for me and more likely to produce a mag I'll end up skimming. Will give them the year of my sub to settle in though. Got my Perry Nap Brits out of it but may end up selling them as it's just one distraction too many... Andy

My real concern is that the historical aspect of wargaming could be watered down to the extent where the game no longer needs to bear any relationship to actual events. Once we get there we may as well push pixies and goblins around the table. :yuck:

No chance of Frightening Undead & Cunning Kobolds arriving in my in-box soon then... :) Fair enough. ECW would be nice....

:lol: Not any time soon.

I'm gonna put myself in the new owners shoes for a second.... :coffee: I've bought a magazine, that had a format that wasn't bringing in more buyers....to use a vehicle to sell my products... So what do I do? Firstly I change content to fit my business plan....and if new buyers/customers replace or hopefully exceed the old buyers who don't like the changes and won't buy a copy, then I'm in a win-win situation aren't I? So long as my, (their) business plan works, (ie, makes money, sells my products) then I'm happy....... :eh: Let's face it, all model companies have a bottom line.....and WI mst have one too......and if the price for commercial success is losing some old customers, but gain more new ones who buy also go on to buy more products...then it was a good plan.... And if you like buying wargames magazines and don't like WI content......then I guess, your stuffed! What to do......its the way of the world.... stuart :hi:

This is the first issue of WI I've seen that has absolutely nothing of interest in it for me unfortunately. It's all going a bit MOR by the looks of it. At least with WSS you get the odd quirky article thrown in. On the positive side, I think the production quality is superb even if it is a little bland. I'll give them another couple of issues to improve the content before I start thinking about cancelling the order with my newsagents though.

I wonder if enough ex-buyers of WI approached a magazine say like .......scale military modeller Int. and asked them to add wargames content to their pages, (articles and photos)...would they do it....? Is their enough ex-readers to make it worth any magazines worth while to change....? stuart :hmm:

I suspect we tend not to be that organised :) I agree with CPStu, there'll be a bedding in period before we can see what the real intentions/results are. I don't mind the dossier approach as I'm interested in many periods and welcome the chance to do a little more detail on a subject (not that they're succeeding in that at the moment). Not sure a letters page would add any real benefit. If you've got a lengthy opinion, better to turn it into a small article - short opinions go on the web :flame: . So far, so ok - but Henry can sleep easy.

Yes.....if not happy.....transfer your allegience..... The problemw ith readers pages in magazines...if the editor uses it to 'spark' a 'debate, (s**t stirring more like) to raise sales, (lords knows how that works)........the person or company on the receiving end of the letters can't argue their corner effectively...... So it can become a bit of kangeroo court So I'm with John on that :shades: stuart

i think letters pages have become a bit redundant in the modern world - especially in a monthly publication. The debate will have moved on much more rapidly on various website (and if on here, changed subject radically 9 or 10 times) by the time the next magazine comes out.

Letters should be restricted to comments on articles that have appeared in the mag. WI was at its worst when published, both in article and letter form, those endless "state of the hobby" whinges. But I want to hear if someone has a particular issue with something that's been written up. Occasionally this gets out of hand, like the rather ridiculous letter accusing a writer of being rude about a ACW game at Salute, but then that's what editorial judgment and discretion is for...

I would like to see a magaziner that actually gives stuff a proper review, WI gives everything a glowing review, which makes it hard to know what is actually good, they once gave something rubbish (I forget what) a good review so how do I know that their good reviews are worth anything?

I think figure reviews in magazines are now completely superfluous and a waste of space. Whilst I appreciate that some readers are not internet users etc etc, new figure releases are heavily trailed on the net, which results in instant reviews by all kinds of people. By the time the magazine review comes out, the product is most likely to have been already reviewed several time on the net. In any event, most mag reviews seem to be along the lines of "this figure is advancing with a gun, the next figure is marching with a gun", even if there is a photo of the figures to accompany the review. IMHO, reviews in the mags should focus on rules, games and books and leave figures completely. Or do a longer "period comparison" review, in which the reviewer looks at all the figures for one particular period and had size comparison pics etc - that's far more useful than a few lines on the latest Perry releases or whatever.