One of the joys of being a Frugal Gamer, apart from a general sense of smugness, is the money saved. Now this may seem obvious, but I have come to realise that the money I'm not spending on gaming is money that I can splash out on other things. A case in point was yesterday when I went into town (Plymouth) for a stroll, I passed Games Workshop and had a little peer in through the window, all I could see was huge piles of the new edition of Space Hulk. Now I promised myself years ago that if SH was ever re-released, I'd be straight out to buy myself a copy, however, I restrained myself and instead spent my gaming pennies on sitting out in the sunshine by the sea, eating lunch with a friend. Very civilized...
It also goes to show that those 'must have' purchases aren't compulsory, which brings me nicely onto the subject of magazines.
I used to read White Dwarf as a youngster and loved it. It's changed a lot over the years, it used to cover a lot of games, feature reviews and take external advertising. I won't bang on about this, though incidently it is one of the things that marks out the older gamers, harping on about how WD has gone downhill, blah blah blah.
Sorry, where was I? Oh yes, magazines. I don't buy WD anymore, I used to buy Wargames Illustrated and recently stopped getting it as well. I thought that I could never survive without a monthly Wargames Magazine, but I found that I was getting the majority of my gaming news from various internet sites, so what was I buying the magazines for? The main reason I found was the 'in-depth' articles and the wonderful photos of painted miniatures and terrain inside. However, for £4 plus a month, I'm not sure I was really getting my money's worth, so I stopped my subscriptions.
I haven't missed reading the magazines, which is a pretty good sign and like I said above, I've been putting the money saved to good use!Happy Gaming
6 comments:
I gave up the wargames magazines a few years ago. I realised that I was not actually reading all the articles any more, and was tending to just look at the pictures quickly and file them away just in case something cropped up in the future that meant I could use the info. I have not missed the magazines since I gave them up, although I did win a subscription to Wargames Illustrated at the back end of last year. I have had the free sub for almost a year now, but I shall not resubscribe because there is not enough content in every issue to interest me and I have other things to spend my money on.
Yeah, it's one of things that you think you'll miss, but as soon as you give it up, you don't miss it at all!
I also stopped picking up WD (never really got into Wargames Illustrated). Periodically though, I do pick up a copy of Privateer Press still (it's mainly for Warmachine/Hordes, but it easy to apply to anything). I like that they have some of the stuff I began to miss from WD about making your own terrain, painting step-by-step features. I don't pick them up often, but I do thumb through and if something looks good, I'll get it. It helps that it's one of the cheaper wargaming magazine's out there now.
I agree completely, most of what you discover in WD is often on the blogs or forums weeks before, plus quite few of the articles are either rehashes of older ones (esp. painting ones) or just designed to sell product.
The only thing is when i got back into the hobby i bought a pile of back issues back to 250, and they look mighty fine on my shelf. So, every time i dont buy one i get a dreaded gap in my collection :-/
Ah yes, the dreaded 'gap' in the collection. Don't worry, it gets easier with time!
I found I missed the old magazines (Practical Wargames,the Courier,MWAN) that actually had pictures of game tables in it. I archive my magazines and enjoy revisiting them like an evening with an old friend (...especially my old copies of "Battle"!)I think twice before spending $10.00 on a magazine that may only have one article I am only marginally interested in.
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