Now that we all have gotten over the Wraithknight model, it is time to talk about the biggest news that occurred with the White Dwarf leakage: the Iyanden digital supplemental codex. As an Ipad owner it was a master stroke by Games Workshop. Now they will most likely get me investing in two rules books, when history indicates they should've been just one combined product.
The Iyanden release brings into clarity the rumor White Dwarf won't be producing updates or expansions for GW. Instead, it turns out that supplements are being produced for digital consumption only. So, expect more Death from the Skies type of limited direct only releases followed by a digital version.
Socioeconomically, it continues to edge GW towards a higher end hobby, as entre to some rules will now require the purchasing a $400 tablet. If GW doesn't provide more open source platforms for its digital offerings the new haves and have-nots conditions will prevail. It also doesn't help that the Iyanden alleged price is the same as the basic Eldar codex!
Of course, everything is conditional on what is in the Iyanden supplement, and if GW puts any conditions on the rules with in. Worse case the Iyanden contains "required" rules to run certain builds accessible in the previous codex. Imagine, if the only way to get Wraithguard as Troops is if you use the Iyanden rules.
That would invalid an old set of rules, requiring players to either buy both books or get copies of the rules illegally. What if the Iyanden rules give access to a powerful army list that dwarfs anything in the basic Eldar codex? Average Eldar players will feel cheapened, as the Iyanden get special treatment. Luckily, all those answers are only a few weeks away.
Looking farther down the road, what does this mean for the future releases? Well it means we have an answer to what happens to the Black Templars. Mark my words, the Space Marine codex coming out in early fall will have Black Templars for the digital releases. After that players will start clamoring for every little faction under the sun.
Tyranids will get Genestealer Cult expansion? Orks will get a Bad Moon expansion? Chaos Space Legions expansion? For every mini-dex there will be a host of whinny players wondering why their special needs weren't met. The book ideas are endless, but the means to acquire still won't.
Wisely, GW knows digital is the future, but their fear of releasing control will handicap them. Besides being the easiest platform to produce content, iBook provides security, with other development tools GW will open itself up to rampant piracy something it has always attempted to negate.
Unless GW has a lobotomy, expect them to drag their feet before we ever see worthwhile content accessible through websites.
Then there is the case of what to do with White Dwarf? With every special digital release White Dwarf becomes more and more useless. Extra content is what has always driven people to buy White Dwarf, but now bonus content appears gone. White Dwarf is now really only an advert, Jervis writing for tweens, and some limited painting tutorials breaking up the
Like many venerable print magazines they find it hard to come to terms with obsoletion. So some of GW rumor clamp down can be attributed to protecting White Dwarf-- by funneling all pre-release information. To a certain extent it has worked, as most of us lap up those leak pictures as they appear. Still, many bloggers know content is king, the same goes for print magazine, and if the content isn't compelling a publication cannot last.
So, either by intention or inadvertently GW has signaled the death knell for White Dwarf, with the addition of digital content.
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Meat for Meta is rated editorial nonsense. These articles are meant to complain about some group, somewhere, that is playing the game for all the wrong reasons or simply to just make fun of 40k nerd rage.