Who will take up the Printed Game Magazine challenge?

[kenobi65]

I will say this -- I predict there will be a half dozen attempts by various publishers to launch something 'Dragon like' in the next 6 months to a year.

I sense a disturbance in the Force...as if much money is about to be lost.

 

[The Hound]

Getting on newstand/bookstores isn't all that difficult.

But we have no plans to try and fill the void.

Jolly, you may end up doing so anyway, by default, without changing anything. KODT seems to be the only game in town now as far as dead tree mags go. I don't think the fact that your magazine isn't strictly D20 is an issue - most of your content seems pretty system neutral.

Now if I were you, I'd help the process along a bit by taking full page ads out in the last issues of Dragon and Dungeon.

 

[Roger]

Polymancer Magazine is pretty decent, in my opinion.


Cheers,
Roger

 

[Grimstaff]

IMO, the primary reason for Dragon and Dungeon's long-running success was the official imprimatur.

I would think that, if a new publication did in fact make it to stands, they would be getting the lion's share of WotC advertisements and previews, essentially making it little different from the Paizo mags. Granted, I'm sure would only feed it out a month minimum behind their DI, but that still means a huge number of folks would be seeing stuff for the first time in this theoretical mag. Maybe there will be some news at GenCon? This seems like an "Adkinson Opportunity", doesn't it?

 

[Steel_Wind]

Polymancer Magazine is pretty decent, in my opinion.

Cheers,
Roger

I'd guess not many have heard of Polymancer in the USA. And even in Canada, I see it Indigo/Chapters - and few other places (including my FLGS).

I would admit however, as one of the few advertising venues, Polymancer is bound to see some kind of uptick.

 

[Kax Tuglebend]

White Wolf tried to do the magazine thing back in the 90s. It didn't last long.

er.. i thought it lasted for 50 issues before some smart-a decided to rename the magazine from the highly informative 'White Wolf Magazine' to the nonsensical 'Inphobia' without bothering to tell anyone it beforehand, thereby causing an immediate 85% drop in sales..

 

[Stormborn]

Wizard Etertainment (Publisher of Wizards, INquest, Toyfaire, and IIRC Anime Insider) already has a foot in the door with a large section of the market to which an RPG magazine would appeal and the financhial resources to do it. If they had an inclination they could try out some articles in InQuest and other places to gauge reaction and then put out a magazine. Not saying they would, but they are one of the few that I see as having the resources to make a serious attempt. Short of a non-"noncompete clause" Paizo.

 

[Keith Robinson]

I don't see anyone stepping up at this point and printing Dragon/Dungeon type magazines. As others have already said, if it doesn't have the official seal it just doesn't sell. And in the present uncertain climate I don't think anyone will be prepared to invest any money in a project which may have a very limited future.

It will be very interesting to see how well pathfinder will do in the market and how well its sales hold up.

 

[kenobi65]

Wizard Etertainment (Publisher of Wizards, INquest, Toyfaire, and IIRC Anime Insider) already has a foot in the door with a large section of the market to which an RPG magazine would appeal and the financhial resources to do it. If they had an inclination they could try out some articles in InQuest and other places to gauge reaction and then put out a magazine. Not saying they would, but they are one of the few that I see as having the resources to make a serious attempt. Short of a non-"noncompete clause" Paizo.

Actually, they've already tried just that. Back in the early days of 3E, they put more of an RPG focus into InQuest (their CCG magazine, even calling it "InQuest Gamer" for a while). After a year or two, they took it back out. I can only conclude they decided it wasn't doing much for sales.

 

[Stormborn]

Actually, they've already tried just that. Back in the early days of 3E, they put more of an RPG focus into InQuest (their CCG magazine, even calling it "InQuest Gamer" for a while). After a year or two, they took it back out. I can only conclude they decided it wasn't doing much for sales.

Yeah, but that was a different enviroment/market. With Dragon/Dungeon gone its difficult to speculate one how succesful a non-official magazine would be, and lots have failed in the past few years because of that competition. I was simply saying that WizEnt had the market presence and money to have a shot at making it a success.