Building eMagazines that People Will Want to Read

[robwright]

In the past, Web-based magazines have come and gone many times. Major publishers have largely abandoned the idea, but Cranberry Publishing thinks that it has the winning formula for print-your-own online mags.

 

[VBDude]

http://www.gamerzines.com/ (Didn't see the link in the article.)

I feel a lot like Dave Taylor here. He found games he wouldn't normally try, and now I may have found an eMag. As an avid magazine reader (I subscribe to two, from US-based Future btw, and read as many as eight on a monthly basis) and a devoted net surfer (I frequent just as many news sites) a merger of the two intrigues me. Internet sites seem most concerned about being first, or having the most. ("Why hop around when my favorite site has all the information anyone else has?") Magazines, because of the delay between writing and reading, tend to try to be the most thorough and well laid out. ("I can't even find my way around that mag, and it reads like a news ticker. I need details!") I prefer magazines when I just want to read and internet sites when I want to be current and not miss announcements, demos/videos, etc. But now Cranberry is mixing things up:

Then we'd like to expand the multimedia; we've done some cool stuff before, like the interactive Spot the Ball competition we did in issue 1 of PES Fanzine for Konami. We'd like to do more of that kind of thing, plus as many ways as possible of trying to make the games reviews more interactive. Our lead game piece in PCGZine is going to have much more interactivity than in 360Zine.

This excites me. I've spent a lot of time recently studying the PDF file spec, and he's right in saying there is under-utilized potential in it. It has expanded a great deal from being a cross-platform text document format. Utilizing these features to make the ezines more interactive should add an element of enjoyment not seen in either format. I'm glad to see an effort pioneered.

Everyone loves the video, and the great thing is that you find yourself looking at titles you might not have even considered before. I reckon that there are probably 2 games I'll now buy for the 360 that I wouldn't have considered buying before I saw the ads in our own mag!

This feature on the other hand is what makes the concept of a good ezine more than just the latest thing doomed to fail. The idea that an interactive ad can change the mind of someone already "in the know" says volumes for the media. I would love to see lesser known, creative titles get this kind of awareness turn-around.

What I would like to see is an ezine, or at least a section in their other ezines, for garage games. Show us the little startups that have no other way to get the word out than by word-of-mouth. The ones with the games like Narbacular Drop that only got noticed because Valve picked them up for Portal. With XNA moving forward and the industry crying for creativity, I'd love to have this kind of interaction benefit an area that is in need of it.

With the industry experience they got already, and the plans they talked about, this should at least change the thinking of media producers. I believe anyone who doesn't at least try this out is doing themselves a disservice.

 

[zipdrive]

If you want to see a very good Ezine (IMO, at least), check out "The Escapist" at http://www.escapistmagazine.com/issue/

A great magazine that touches on many subject in the industry and culture of gaming, in a format similar to high quality paper magazines.

 

[VBDude]

Thanks for the link. I'll check it out.

After checking the magazines from the article, I'm disappointed. Sure they have plenty of potential, but they were just way too busy in the layout. I honestly didn't read any of the articles because the graphics were overwhelming and the articles were sparse. They were about as long as a game box rear description. Is this a UK thing or a byproduct of having a magazine-on-a-screen?

edit: I checked out the link and so far I like what I'm seeing. Intelligent, clean, and more like a magazine than an ad. Actually, I'm both happy and disappointed that it doesn't contain ads. I enjoy the links in the narrative, but it still lacks the interactivity that made the original article intrerest me. Still, I like it. I'm a new fan.

Thanks again for the link.

 

[GyRo567]

I've never quite understood why somebody would want to make a magazine in digital format instead of just having a website...?_?...

Ebooks I can understand. Magazines... At least make the paper version first!

 

[zipdrive]

check out how the format and content in the link I put earlier work together. then see if you feel the same.

ok, thst's enough plugging for one forum