Advertorials with no game content in Dragon

[Lonely Tylenol]

Same here. Someone mentioned Shadow of the Colossus above, which I really dug when they provided stats for the Colossi in Dragon. Let's hope the God of War games get covered next...

Didn't they stat up that crazy weapon that the dude from God of War uses?

 

[Nlogue]

Same here. Someone mentioned Shadow of the Colossus above, which I really dug when they provided stats for the Colossi in Dragon. Let's hope the God of War games get covered next...

God of War...so tasty! Love that game.

The FF Review didn't bother me really, but then again I love First Watch, I almost always see something there (usually non-D&D related) that I would love to get someone as a present.

 

[Alzrius]

God of War was covered back in issue #328, with stats for the anarch razors as minor artifacts. I also recommend the review that Upper_Krust did of the game (with his own epic stats for creatures and things) over on his website.

 

[ColonelHardisson]

God of War was covered back in issue #328, with stats for the anarch razors as minor artifacts.

Ooh, good call! I forgot about that.

I also recommend the review that Upper_Krust did of the game (with his own epic stats for creatures and things) over on his website.

I'll have to check that out.

 

[WizarDru]

I have the current issue of Dragon with me, and flipped through it again over lunch, specifically going through the FF XII article. It is NOT a review...it is a PREVIEW. There is no mention of the relative merits or faults of the game, but instead a discussion of the story, content and hints at gameplay changes. Now, you could rightfully charge that this preview was no different than what you'd find in EGM or any number of magazines this month....but that doesn't make it an advertisement. I think anyone labeling it as such doesn't read many video game magazines, where this is fairly common practice. Is it an extension of PR from that developer? Surely...but most video game magazines get most of their content this way, so this hardly some form of sell-out. The company provides screenshots, details and possibly access to an earlier build of the game, in return for knowing that a magazine will run a usually favorable article about it. I can understand not liking it, but I think 'advertisement' is a tad disingenuous.

 

[dcas]

I'm not a reader of The Dragon any more and I don't play video games, but I don't see what the big deal is. TD used to cover all sorts of games back in the day.

 

[MKMcArtor]

I have the current issue of Dragon with me, and flipped through it again over lunch, specifically going through the FF XII article. It is NOT a review...it is a PREVIEW.

Thank you WizarDru, you beat me to the punch.

We never once intended the FFXII piece to be a review. We never once called it that. It is a preview. It is simply something we thought our readers might be interested in. That it might also help us generate ad revenue so we don't have to raise the cover price to $10 or more is an added bonus. Right?

 

[DaveMage]

Thank you WizarDru, you beat me to the punch.

We never once intended the FFXII piece to be a review. We never once called it that. It is a preview. It is simply something we thought our readers might be interested in. That it might also help us generate ad revenue so we don't have to raise the cover price to $10 or more is an added bonus. Right?

If Dragon was compensated for the preview, it would be nice to see something in the magazine indicating so. I don't have a problem with it, but I'd like to see it treated as an advertisement and labeled as such.

However, in the grand scheme of things, the whole issue (no pun intended) is a really minor one. Do what you think is best for the magazine.

 

[sjmiller]

We never once intended the FFXII piece to be a review. We never once called it that. It is a preview. It is simply something we thought our readers might be interested in. That it might also help us generate ad revenue so we don't have to raise the cover price to $10 or more is an added bonus. Right?

I guess the question remains, was this in and of itself revenue generating, or in doing something like this you hope that other video game companies will pay to have you pimp their new product in a similar manner?

 

[MKMcArtor]

If Dragon was compensated for the preview, it would be nice to see something in the magazine indicating so. I don't have a problem with it, but I'd like to see it treated as an advertisement and labeled as such.

However, in the grand scheme of things, the whole issue (no pun intended) is a really minor one. Do what you think is best for the magazine.

Whoa whoa whoa. Who said it was an ad? Certainly no one from Paizo. It's a preview. An article. We were not paid to run it. In fact, it would be unethical for us to accept money to run an article, and we are not ones to violate ethics. If we are paid for something we will make it abundantly clear that it is an ad.

For exampel, we made Reality Simulations add the word "ad" to their advertisements when their ads started looking too much like comics. That was the ethical thing to do to prevent blurring the lines of ads and editorial. You may now lavish us with praise for making that decision.

I'm hurt our fans don't trust us enough to make the right choice. If something is an ad, we will mark it as an ad. If something is editorial content, we will treat it as editorial content. The FFXII piece is editorial content (apparently unpopular editorial content, but editorial content nonetheless). We paid a contributor to write it for us; we did not get paid to run it.