Poll: How much interest in a new gaming e-zine?

[Great Mastiff Games]

Hmmm, that's an interesting concept in itself, DaveMage. I wonder, also, if a magazine like that would be feasible. Its feasibility, of course, would depend partly on the willingness of advertisers to place material in it. But it's definitely an interesting idea. Does anyone else have any input on that?

 

[Ghostwind]

The biggest problem behind any zine venture is finding the manpower to consistently drive the magazine. Unless a person is willing to literally throw away a set amount of money each month to hire writers, editors, illustrators, and graphic designers (including layout), the ability to generate sufficient content is very limited. You rely upon volunteers and because of this, you are often struggling to get the content. This is one of the main reasons why the magazines I do tend to be quarterly releases.

Dave, I don't think it would be economically feasible because of the hurdles involved. The first is you have to get the publishers on board and be willing to pay for the advertisements. This is much easier said than done. Believe me, I know. The second is getting a solid readership base that will stay loyal to the magazine and not give up because "there are too many ads". When d20Zine! started putting ads in, I was amazed at the amount of complaints I got over having ads in the magazine, despite the fact that it is/was a free download. It's a vicious cycle to say the least.

 

[DaveMage]

Thanks for the reply, Steve!

Pity it isn't so easy.

 

[Great Mastiff Games]

Well ... I can see that the general gaming populace is definitely too broke to support any but the main companies, and my attempt to return was a major mistake. I should have just quit and stayed quit, so to speak, rather than clutching at the vain straw of hope and spending more time and money in an impoverished industry. Thanks for all the input, I'll be closing down Great Mastiff Corp. and trying to figure out something else to do to make money and get a family before I die of old age ....

 

[Ghostwind]

Well ... I can see that the general gaming populace is definitely too broke to support any but the main companies, and my attempt to return was a major mistake. I should have just quit and stayed quit, so to speak, rather than clutching at the vain straw of hope and spending more time and money in an impoverished industry. Thanks for all the input, I'll be closing down Great Mastiff Corp. and trying to figure out something else to do to make money and get a family before I die of old age ....

Don't be too hard on yourself. Your idea had merit but it's just the state of things right now where electronic magazines do not do well as a rule when people have to pay for them. Publishing a zine is literally an end result of one's love for the hobby and not anything that you will be able to make a living from. In fact, it's a lot like freelancing. You do it more for the love of the game than the money, because there are a lot of times when you don't get paid...

 

[Roudi]

Publishing a zine is literally an end result of one's love for the hobby and not anything that you will be able to make a living from. In fact, it's a lot like freelancing. You do it more for the love of the game than the money

Ain't that the truth!

 

[Great Mastiff Games]

Well ... that may be true, but I'm 30, and my girl has already been waiting for a couple years to get married. I may love the hobby ... but I love her more, and consequently, I also love an activity that's likely to allow us to be together more. Hours spent on trying to sell stuff in the game world could be better spent doing something that might produce a little of that which is required to keep these ever-demanding organic cells functioning. In short ... no time to spend on something that will produce nothing but mild satisfaction!

Good luck ... hope all your stuff does well!!! As someone or other said -- "I'm outta here!"

 

[talien]

I'm somewhat skeptical. Even Steve Jackson Games tried a d20 magazine and it failed.

That would be...d20 Weekly. I got an article published in that ezine just before it went belly up.

Then I resubmitted all my other articles to Pyramid and they were accepted. So really, d20 Weekly was absorbed into Pyramid.

 

[talien]

Examples of magazines that have tried this and failed are Steve Jackson Games' d20 Weekly and more recently, Silven Crossroads' d20 Filtered.

I had a column slated for d20 Filtered. Got two articles published. Wrote two more (I think they will show up at the d20 Filtered site at some point). But I'm pretty sure d20 Filtered is not going to be published anymore.

Starting to see a pattern...

 

[talien]

I'm posting this thread to find out how much interest there would be in a new gaming e-zine. I need to find out if there would be enough interest in an e-zine like this to pay for the web space and to offer contributors some kind of reasonable remuneration for their efforts. If you have any opinion on whether you'd be interested on subscribing to an e-zine like that or not, and what would influence your decision, please vote in the poll and post a few comments.

As an aside, I think a magazine CAN be done, but it must heavily leverage the ENWorld community as contributors (which draws ENWorlders to purchase it).

I also think it should not be a subscription. Each magazine should be on sale at RPGNow. If the magazine becomes wildly popular, then switch to subscription. Subscriptions are asking for a lot of trust by readership who may not know your product very well.

Of course, I'm biased because I 1) apparently destroy all d20 magazines that I touch, and 2) am a wandering author in search of a monthly column.