The death of magazines?

[Nick the Lemming]

The only mag I buy nowadays is the Fortnum & Mason Fortean Times.

I just like some of the articles because they're so off the wall.

Cheers - Phil

I used to get that and Private Eye shipped over after I moved to Canada, but it became too expensive. Shame, I miss them both, but can't afford either of them. :/ 

[Norm]

I buy all three of the Wargame mags off the shop shelf and rarely avoid an issue. (Bought WSS today, which I think I like the best).

I had the Wargames Illustrated gifted to me as a subscription for past 2 years, but then asked the person not to re-new. For me it's the weakest of the three and while I don't mid spending my money on it, I'd rather they didn't.

I read them, then either bin them, or put them on the stash to do crafting and cutting on. I keep some of the WSS ones a bit longer, but collecting magazines is just one hoarding habit I am quite happy to avoid.

I always hope that someone will come across the mags in the high street stationers and perhaps stumble on this great hobby.

[paulr]

...not wishing to be the odd one out...

On this forum

[Dr Dave]

Only by them if there's something special inside, or a useful freebie on the front. I don't think I've bought one for 2-3 yrs. it's all too superficial.

[FierceKitty]

Can't bear to pay for what is generally such shabby writing. I have always tried to be faithful to the language I hold closest to my heart (she knows about and accepts my relationship with Italian, of course).

[Orcs]

I kept them in 5 ream Photo copier boxes and had 4 of them. I photocopied the articles I wanted (mainly scenarios), this reduced the volume to a couple of ring binders  offered the originals round club and recycled the rest

I had a WSS subscription gifted to me a few years back and kept it going until about a year ago.  I found I was not reading them until I had three waiting, so cancelled the subscription .  I  then bought the PDF version as it was cheap, but I the reading on a screen so they are stored on the PC unopened.

I occasionally buy one as light reading for holiday but often find only a couple of interesting articles,and at  £5 each I can get a much more useful and interesting book or an osprey, so I am more likely to do that.   

[Leman]

I have given up on magazines for two reasons - space and cost. There are also content reasons, i.e. the majority of wargames writers tend to waffle to create an article. The real meat of the article is either minute or not there at all. The last mag I bought had an article about WOR scenarios, but was practically useless as the presentation of the scenarios was unbelievably vague and generalised.

[Steve J]

Another good point about general poor content for scenarios. Blogs and Google searches can give me enough info to come up with a scenario for a game and all for free as it were.

[Leman]

Somewhere else on the forum I have written about my initial impressions of Et Sans Resultat. There is a small but very comprehensive section on putting a scenario together. Specifically mentioned is the reasons the two forces are confronting each other and what they hope to achieve; a list of both forces, their abilities, strengths and weaknesses, plus those of their commanders; a clear map with a key, compass and scale information; the initial dispositions of the armies and arrival times of reinforcements, if any. This is a very comprehensive little section. There are some rule sets out there which follow these guidelines really well - I am thinking specifically of Bloody Big Battles and Altar of Freedom, both of which provide very comprehensive scenarios. Magazine writers would do well to follow these precepts.

[Womble67]

I don't buy magazines anymore

Take care

Andy

[Raider4]

Over the years I have at times bought model railway mags (late 70's/early 80's), car mags (mid 80's), computer mags (late 80's/early 90's), music mags, gaming/rpg mags (Dragon, Imagine, White Dwarf in the early 80's), a few White Dwarfs (early 2000's) and a selection of the GW Specialist game mags (BfG, Warmaster, Inquisitor).

But I haven't bought a magazine of any sort for (probably) at least 10 years.

I think the internet is to blame - information is so readily (and freely) available online.

Cheers, M.

[John Cook]

Coincidentally, I was clearing out stuff from my loft today, including Airfix Magazines going back to the 1960s and Military Modelling from the 1970s and 1980s.  All my old wargaming magazines were recycled years ago - I think.  I notice that 'vintage' Airfix magazine on Ebay don't seem to attract much interest so it will be the recycling centre for them I expect.

[Leman]

If you have the Airfix mags covering converting figures for the ACW and the APW, as well as the articles on the uniforms of the FPW they are actually much sought after and would be worth hanging on to to see if you could actually sell them.

[Malbork]

Used to have subscriptions to MW, WI and WSS. 

Stopped with MW just before the departure of Henry Hyde and with WI a few years back.  Just too much eye-candy and FoW propaganda in WI at the time, all seemed very insular. 

As others have said, one of the main things for me is finding out about new products and companies. The games testing section in WSS 'Let's play XYZ' is also helpful in giving you an idea of whether you might be interested in a new set/system or not.

Have to say that recently, I've found some of the painting tutorials a bit OOT. They seem to be along the lines of How paint a Roman legionary, ACW cavalryman, Panzergrenadier in 97 easy stages. That said, the rest of the magazine is usually quite interesting and, at least for the moment, justifies the price.

[Leman]

That reminds me of even further back when WI appeared to have become the Foundry house magazine.