Irish Game Magazine.

Gastric Apple

i am trying to do a survey,

question: what makes you buy a game magazine?

if you could post comments or do my poll, or both, it would be much appreciated!

thanks!.
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Branoic

I very rarely buy a games magazine these days - all my game news comes from online sources like Gamespot or Eurogamer. I imagine games magazines, Irish or not, would find it very difficult to compete with the daily updates etc from the large game sites. The only thing that might persuade me to pick up a mag is the cover disc if it had playable demos - especially 360 demos, as it takes me ages to download them from Live. For the convenience of getting them on a disc I'd pick up the magazine, but really not for much else.

MooseJam

get all info online so if i was to buy a games magazine it would be for the dvd with playable demos or trial versions

Dont be at yourself

In-depth features - the type that internet sites rarely provide. For example ,the latest EDGE has a multi-page article on flash gaming scene.

super_furry

Like I said in the original thread - good features, opinion pieces and interviews. Reviews and previews matter less and less thanks to the internet.

Don't think an Irish gaming mag will ever be a success - many have tried and failed. They've all been rubbish and relied on the fact that they were Irish to try and succeed. Gaming magazines are universally relevant, so a local magazine would have no benefits over an English or American one.

johnny_ultimate

I remember the Official Irish PS magazine from around 5 or 6 years ago, and why that failed was because it was basically a watered down version of its UK counterpart. Dont try to be extremely Irish just for the sake of it (although the occasional article about the Irish gaming community would not go astray) - as someone said, focus on topics not covered by the internet magazines. Decent reviews, original / offbeat articles and critical previews (which even some of the best magazines seem to avoid) are what you should aim for.

Zillah

I would be extremely suprised if there was a market niche for an Irish Gaming magazine. Its not we as a nation have special tastes that aren't covered by the popular British mags.

RobertFoster

Like super_furry said, good features, opinion pieces and interviews would draw me to a magazine. If I liked the written style of the reviews, they'd draw me too.

Cheats/Hints never interested me in magazines. If I'm stuck, I've gamefaqs and google to rely on. Screenshots can come from anywhere these days. A print magazine that relies on news as it's key feature will be left for dust by the Internet tbh. Cover discs can be nice, but unless there's video reviews or something, I can download the demos I want before the magazine is even printed.

I've often though a weekly magazine, like Famitsu, would be cool. It'd have to be cheap for me to get it weekly though

SeantheMan

I buy PC Gamer and PC Zone each month as they are the 2 biggest PC Gaming mags out there in my opinion

Aside from great reviews, they always have upcoming information about games that are yet to be released and also have excellent sections regarding the best games to buy for your money...hardware guides...and tech problems

Although DVD's full of content come with the games..they would not really influence me to buy the mags as i dont even watch or play the DVD's.

Its the reviews, screenshots and content of the mag that do it for me. Theyre also pretty funny

Before PC i used to buy PSM2 magazine for about 2 years, till i dropped PS2 for PC. But all of the above would have applied, humorous articles, the best games to buy, problem sections, previews etc

Hope ye get on well with your survey

projectmayhem

articles, articles, articles.

most people get their fill of news and reviews online anyway, but don't provide many in-depth articles aimed at niche audiences. that's where magazines fit in (edge, gamestm, etc.)...

i would give a big post of suggestions and comments, but i did that before the "fantastic" gaming tv show... and we got exactly what we said not to do...

Kiith

I'd get Pc Zone/Gamer from time to time (used to get them every month). I like them both, especially Zone. Other then that, the only one that i would read is GamesTM. Some great articles in it, plus it has a great Retro section.

But i'd get most of my gaming news online, so i dont read them as much anymore.

Stephen

I haven't bought a pc/gaming magazine in years. They're overpriced and everything I need is online.

RE*AC*TOR

The only games magazines I buy are

1. GamesTM
2. Edge

They don't come with free cds. I buy them because they produce excellently written articles, they have review scores that I trust (they aren't super-positive about everything). They are well informed, and generally substantial magazines.

The reason I largely don't buy other magazines is because

1. I find them to be mostly re-worded press releases from developers/publishers.
2. Mostly screenshots, with very little actually said in the text.
3. A lot of magazines, especially the console specific magazines give much too much in the way of high scores and are biased.
4. They make up for lack of content with lots of crap stuck on a disc. Most if not all of this can be downloaded freely.

I would strongly advise you not to bother trying to produce such a magazine. The irish market is too small to sustain it. You will be under pressure from publishers to score their product highly, if you don't you might end up not getting review copies of the games.

For reference, have a look at that ill-fated gaming tv program that ran on Channel 6. I can't remember what it was called, but they posted on here looking for advice on what people wanted, and then they went and produced utter garbage, they reviewed really run of the mill carbon copy games, and ultimately they were cancelled after a very brief run.

The market isn't big enough, there is no need for a different magazine to the UK market as we get the same release dates etc. The competitors in the UK will always take in more money because they have the uk market as well, they have more established relationships/access to developers/publishers, and they have more resources to produce a better magazine.

SeantheMan

And arent they under 1 umbrella corporation 'futurenet' or something ??

GamesMaster is a good quick read for a gaming magazine, colourful , full of screenshots etc. You know what your gettin when you buy it cause even the cover is crammed with stuff.
But its not in depth stuff....enjoyable nonetheless :rolleyes:

I like the articles as mentioned befreo...e.g. This month in PC Zone there was an Article on "Gaming Piracy" and the month before an article on "Gaming Addiction" which were reallyinteresting

User45701

well you picked a terrible place to post that survey because you can get any review or demo or trailer on the net before a mag unless its a massive game exclusive interview ect ect

SeantheMan

Well thats not really true

Its about exclusives, i think i read and seen the first things about COD2 in PC Zone and they were nowhere to be found on the net.
As these magazines get invited into the developers studios for special previews

But as the lads said, aside from contending with magazines, there are also the sites such as http://www.gamershell.com http://www.gamespot.com and http://www.ign.com to contend with :eek:

ShowUsYourXbox

I said Cheats/Hints just because its so untrue.

RE*AC*TOR

SeantheMan wrote:

Well thats not really true

Its about exclusives, i think i read and seen the first things about COD2 in PC Zone and they were nowhere to be found on the net.
As these magazines get invited into the developers studios for special previews

But as the lads said, aside from contending with magazines, there are also the sites such as http://www.gamershell.com http://www.gamespot.com and http://www.ign.com to contend with :eek:

Here, i tell you what, if you think they are good websites, consider this your christmas present:

http://www.eurogamer.net
http://www.1up.com

SeantheMan

In work atm, so cant check em..but i will when i get home

Gamershell is the best for downloads of patches, Demo versions, full free games etc

Gastric Apple

User45701 wrote:

well you picked a terrible place to post that survey because you can get any review or demo or trailer on the net before a mag unless its a massive game exclusive interview ect ect

thanks for that.

danbhala

i'd never buy a game magazine these days... the net is enough for me... i'm a member of ign which is about €20 or so a year.. ign is handy for great quality previews and reviews, plus they cover other stuff too...

and demos you can easily download these days on the net and through xbox live etc.. so im not bothered buying a mag just for the included dvd..

Retr0gamer

danbhala wrote:

i'd never buy a game magazine these days... the net is enough for me... i'm a member of ign which is about €20 or so a year.. ign is handy for great quality previews and reviews, plus they cover other stuff too...

Eh, are you sure? If IGN was a print mag it would be worth wiping your arse with. Their reviews are all amateurish muck. The last review I read on IGN was Tomb Raider Anniversary which was just pathetic.

danbhala

Retr0gamer wrote:

Eh, are you sure? If IGN was a print mag it would be worth wiping your arse with. Their reviews are all amateurish muck. The last review I read on IGN was Tomb Raider Anniversary which was just pathetic.

well i meant its great for good video quality for the previews and reviews n stuff... i usually just like to see how the game looks and plays like... but for reading i usually browse around a few sites

monument

SeantheMan wrote:

Its about exclusives, i think i read and seen the first things about COD2 in PC Zone and they were nowhere to be found on the net.
As these magazines get invited into the developers studios for special previews

The problem is an Irish mag is unlikely to get such an exclusive.

Ziycon

Its a nice idea but i honestly cant see an Irish mag taking off!

TheAlmightyArse

The only things a magazine needs are unique features and proper opinion pieces (rather than "reviews" that are mostly written to simply reassure the bulk of the readership); things that won't be on every site on the web first and for free, things that will take the reader by surprise and make them look forward to each issue. And I'd definetely pay to read something with individual style and silliness (games are about fun, remember) rather than the bland bleh of IGN, Gamespot et al or the very serious and important man with a thesauraus Edge.

Oh, and a magazine should remember that it answers to its readers, not its advertisers, and not Sony, Microsoft or Nintendo.

mewso

Previews are bottom of the list for me. I generally buy mags for reviews. My favorite at the moment would be PC Format because it's not just games. I like my hardware so I like good reviews of them too. I also like Format because their previews are generally short and to the point. Pretty much all I need to know although they are starting to fall into the trap of Zone and Gamer now and splashing their front page with Exclusives on games not due for months. I mean Crysis, Hellgate, Bioshock. I know by now they will probably be good games. I don't need the nth preview telling me how amazing they will be. So they got to play the game. Whoop de doo. Does me no good until they play and review it.

Venom

Stephen wrote:

I haven't bought a pc/gaming magazine in years. They're overpriced and everything I need is online.

QFT.