So, I just watched a video review of Warhammer: Visions, and I’m a little puzzled and more than a bit disappointed. Before I get into this, it’s important to acknowledge that I think that while the community can be pretty hard on GW, we’re not always completely unfair. Judge the overwhelmingly positive response that the new Dwarf models are getting from pretty much all corners to see that we can still acknowledge when things are done well.
But I’m expecting that there’s going to be another round of mud being thrown GW’s way for Visions. I was really excited for the potential here, mainly because the way they described it sounded like it would be very hobby oriented, but in my mind 95% pictures is not the same as “hobby.” Other than a vague focus on Tyranids, there appears to be very little editorial focus on the content as well. I was hoping for some articles dissecting the background, or at least depicting the process and growth of some of these projects that were featured. The decision to cram 3 languages in is also bizarre, but probably is quickly explained in dollars and cents.
Overall this feels like it was a straight up rush-job, or even something that was decreed from up high and fell to a staff that didn’t have a clear briefing on what it was supposed to be, exactly.
What this suggests is something very straightforward: GW’s White Dwarf team isn’t capable or allowed to create any content beyond exactly the same kind that has always been in White Dwarf. Now, it’s just split up between two publications and 5 issues a month.
I guess it was a stretch to hope that there would somehow be a greater window into the thoughts and ideas from the GW staff and writers with this different and larger format. It was always overly optimistic to think that suddenly they’d be changing the quality of their publications’ content with this move. More of the same, repackaged; that’s all too expected, sadly.