Lead Adventure Forum
Other Stuff => General Wargames and Hobby Discussion => Topic started by: LawnRanger on 03 September 2014, 07:47:23 AM
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Why isn't there a Independent Fantasy magazine . :(
Surely there is a opening for one now ?Its such a veritable range now in 6mm,10mm,15mm,and 25mm ect.. and that's just the scale am talking about ,
We have a good 2/3 Independent historical mag Based in England ,I don't think that the usa has any now ? and Europe has a few as well , :)
So why aint there a fantasy mag for us none GW people out there ?which I can get at my local newsagents !
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Marketability, sales? the actual cost of getting it off the ground and selling is probably the biggest inhibitor of such a new launch.
Then there's this - the internet of things. I came back to this little hobby, bought a couple wargaming magazines - including WD - prior to its latest changes. Then did not bother, don't need to mostly.
Is it even necessary? The quality and quantity of available material on-line - forums like this one, blogs, websites, suppliers etc, renders needing a written copy almost unnecessary.. clutter.
http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=69795.0
Is really interesting and I hope it continues to grow.
Realistically cannot see major support for a printed copy of something in the newsagents, won't be a big seller, and most likely they would prefer to use the shelf space for something else thats sells more.
I am not against the idea of a printed mag, maybe posted to my door as a subscription. But going out to get it from somewhere, sounds risky that, people might see me doing it. ::)
And personally with all the old Dragon, Dungeon and WD magazines and others full of stuff I already have from the 80's and 90's well.. All of which are very necessary clutter, and no way am I saying otherwise to my better half. :D
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Tactalvanic pretty much covers it IMO.
Gracias,
Glenn
I would rather spend money on terrain, paint, and figures... now if I could just buy time...
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Well, there is Ravage now, even in the English language.
Yeah, I'd like one too. Unfortunately Ravage didn't quite do it for me.
There have been a few attempts over the years, but unfortunately they have all failed.
This is interesting comparing to historicals. There's Wargames Illustrated, there's Miniature Wargames and there's Wargames, Soldiers and Strategy. Even though Battlefront own WI now, it has lots of articles about other games.
All excellent mags and I subscribe to all of them. Some of them even run the occasional SF/F article.
The funny thing is that I think the SF/F market is actually bigger than historicals. So how come historicals manages to support so many independent mags while SF/F has trouble supporting even one?
The one thing I can think about is that the majority of SF/F gamers have very tight focus while historical players are more varied or at the very least more tolerant of other games.
GW players read White Dwarf and are not interested in other games or figure lines.
Warmachine/Hordes players read No Quarter and are not interested in other games or figure lines.
The other "big name" SF/F games are too small to support their own mags, but a similar monomania is evident: their players typically only care for THE GAME and are not interested in other games or figure lines.
After you deduct these people, the number of generalist SF/F gamers is not enough to support a magazine.
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The funny thing is that I think the SF/F market is actually bigger than historicals. So how come historicals manages to support so many independent mags while SF/F has trouble supporting even one?
The one thing I can think about is that the majority of SF/F gamers have very tight focus while historical players are more varied or at the very least more tolerant of other games.
GW players read White Dwarf and are not interested in other games or figure lines.
Warmachine/Hordes players read No Quarter and are not interested in other games or figure lines.
The other "big name" SF/F games are too small to support their own mags, but a similar monomania is evident: their players typically only care for THE GAME and are not interested in other games or figure lines.
After you deduct these people, the number of generalist SF/F gamers is not enough to support a magazine.
Very well put!
In my limited experience I'd say historical players are interested in periods, which obviously aren't limited to one set of rules, and they can easily adapt any period scenarios or articles to their rules of preference. The equivalent to sci-fi/fantasy gamers are probably specific settings (the galaxy of the 41st millenium, the Iron Kingdoms, Malifaux etc.), or perhaps sub-genres (grimdark space opera, fantasy steampunk, horror etc.), though I think the former is more likely.
In that case, settings are more closely tied to a ruleset (and models) - being created for eachother, and the latter representing specific creatures, cultures, armies and characters in each specific setting. They're proprietary and official settings for the rules, and proprietary and official rules for the setting. They're not as easily untangled as any given historical period from any given set of rules.
Though it does frustrate me that so many don't bother trying! Besides setting, I think a lot of sci-fi/fantasy gamers are drawn to the big-box, one-stop-shop kind of game. Buy a starter set with the official rules and a starter army or two in it, buy a few more models to taste, and that's all you need. If you get tired of the rules, or (part of) the setting, dump the whole thing and start again from scratch, with a big box from another game. I'd hazard it's an effect of GW's long years of near-monopoly and edition boxes, and it seems to be carried on with Warmachine, Malifaux, Infinity, Deadzone and so on (even horning in on historicals with Bolt Action). It even seems tailored in those latter games to appeal to ex-GW fanatics. If I'm allowed to go even more paranoid for a moment, given other factors (power creep and special rules syndrome), it's like they're swapping 40K for 40K in a steampunk, horror, or 1940K costume...
Hanging around Warseer and now Dakka, it seems only the bare minimum of players think of buying any one game's minis for use in another ruleset or as a proxy, or of using their existing collection with other rules if their game of choice takes a turn for the worse. (especially 40K players) It happens with Kings of War, though that's helped by being a direct competitor/remora of WHFB, and otherwise few are interested.
As well as (or in consequence of) the big-box attitude, I've also seen some of the GW-style monomania - as Maxxon puts it - get transported over to the gamer's new favourite game. In part due to the expense of starting multiple new collections from the ground floor, possibly, especially with the 'fantasy tax'. It's a rationalisation I've seen avoiding new games anyway; though I've run into one Warmachine player recently, who didn't at all like the reasons for my disinterest in it's rules, and let me know it...
So, er, yeah, I agree that's another strong reason why you don't see general sci-fi/fantasy wargaming mags.
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I would rather spend money on terrain, paint, and figures... now if I could just buy time...
Funny, my first thought was: But I don't need any more terrain, paint and figures… I've got enough of them to paint. I want a magazine! :)
Really, I like magazines, I like reading stuff on paper and I like to see the hand of a good editor.
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I also like hobby magazines and have seen plenty SciFi/Fantasy Mags come and go. (I reach all the way back to Space Gamer :o) The last one I recall that lasted for several years was Harbinger. I would love to see a similar magazine but I believe with e-publishing we will see fewer magazines all together. While that will make future moves easier lol lol o_o (I recently moved and Magazines are HEAVY) I will miss having them.
On the reason behind the success of the historical gaming magazines I think is the fact that it is something that has real world connections that can be researched. In other words there is a wealth of material to draw from that appeals to the non-gamer as well.
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The basic problem is content. Without content there's no point in buying a magazine and this is where most fail.
What do people write about in fantasy wargames magazines? Compared to historical wargames mags there's not much choice. Both can do news and reviews and both can do painting or making articles. After this cracks begin to show.
An historical battle report has pictures of the action accompanied by background, setting and effects of the outcome as well as OOBs, uniform and organisation details and a plethoria of other possibilities such as extracts from the writings of people who were involved or witnessed it and suggestions on available miniature ranges and rules to use. Lots of interesting stuff to read and inspire the reader to find out more.
A fantasy battle report has pictures of the action. There is no real context and not much to add around the basic subject or scenario description. People look at the pictures but there's nothing to read or stimulate further interest except the thoughts of the players or some average fiction attempting to give a setting.
An historical magazine can have any number of articles about actual battles and ideas on how to game them.
Fantasy magazines might regurgitate (again) a Tolkien battle or two or something from another book or film. There isn't much and there's even less to actually say about them that's new.
Historical magazines can compare rules sets for a period and be comparing apples to apples. Fantasy magazines cannot as no two fantasy rules sets cover the same setting at the same command level so a discussion on relative strengths and weaknesses can't happen.
Interestingly an historical magazine can include the occasional fantasy article but I've yet to see the reverse happen.
tl/dr:
There's nothing to write about fantasy wargames that is worth paying for. This has been shown time and again and is printed large on the flag fluttering above the corpses of the fallen (many of which I have been a contributer to, make of that what you will).
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I do not see content really being an issue to start with.
Games reviews
Figure reviews
A few generic scenarios
A few specific scenarios
The odd advert or two
A bit of DTP work (sorry any editors/publishers reading) and a good printer and you are ready to go - problem is where?
The odd show or two around the country (with fuel at how much per gallon)
The odd local retail shop (THE big chain of shops will not touch other companies figures let alone mags)
Boyes - OK they have some paints and bits but not magazines
The odd supplier or two in the UK
Unless you can get into Tesco / Sainsbury / Smiths etc you are not going to get the footfall to buy it.
Creation is easy - distribution is the killer
Thats my tuppence worth :'(
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Historical magazines can compare rules sets for a period and be comparing apples to apples. Fantasy magazines cannot as no two fantasy rules sets cover the same setting at the same command level so a discussion on relative strengths and weaknesses can't happen.
This is an interesting idea and one that I think could work for fantasy. You could easily fight the same battle with (as an example), Warhammer, Kings of war, Fantasy Warriors, maybe another edition of warhammer, and several others. I think it would be just as good for comparing various fantasy games.
Ultimately, I would agree that this is not something you could build a fantasy magazine around. It would make for a good series of blog articles and I think that is where the excellent fantasy gaming content resides.
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I do not see content really being an issue to start with.
Games reviews
Figure reviews
A few generic scenarios
A few specific scenarios
The odd advert or two
A bit of DTP work (sorry any editors/publishers reading) and a good printer and you are ready to go - problem is where?
The problem is that none of that is worth spending money on when better is available for free on the internet.
But, by all means, give it a go, how hard can it be?
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Unless you can get into Tesco / Sainsbury / Smiths etc you are not going to get the footfall to buy it.
Creation is easy - distribution is the killer
This is absolutely the key issue - apparently Smiths require you to pay them over £20,000 up front for them to stock your magazines in their shops. That alone pretty much kills the idea. Although you could always Kickstart it....
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The problem is that none of that is worth spending money on when better is available for free on the internet.
And that gentlemen is the answer to your question. Almost all Fantasy/ Sc Fi game manufacturors have a website with a forum. They actively encourage their gamers to be active on their fora. They don't need magazine coverage...they have the worldwide web. They don't have to pay editors and contributors, publishers and distributors, or retail outlets extortionate fees. Their fans are more than happy to effuse over the latest product release, write AAR, show pictures of their latest paintjobs and all for free.
Some chums of mine launched The Ancible not that many years ago. Some of you may have read a few, I read every edition, after all, I knew most of the team that wrote articles for it (and may have written one myself). It was packed with reviews of everything from miniatures to rulebooks, scenarios for RPGs and battles, interviews with leading names in the industry, adverts from all the big names (except GW), they even had a column written by a grumpy old b@5]@£d, on a different topic each issue. But they couldn't get the readership required to keep a paper copy on the streets. So, they went online ... and even there they couldn't generate the income needed to break even. So in the end they admitted defeat and the Ancible folded. A sad day, but without the big company behind you to soak up some of the losses how can you compete with the internet?
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The problem is that none of that is worth spending money on when better is available for free on the internet.
True. What you're describing sounds like White Dwarf late 70's early 80's. Probably 30 years too late. Too much high quality content available for free on the net these days. Why do "historical" mags survive? Possibly habit or lack of internet skills. Question is could you get an internet, mobile, ipad, pdf, app exeprience consumer to change habit and by an paper based product? Personally I don't think it's going to happen.
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The problem is that none of that is worth spending money on when better is available for free on the internet.
Call me an old coot if you will, but I don't agree.
Yes, I agree that there are people who think so. How many? Don't know. Are they really right in this? Are they the kind of people who won't pay for anything anyway?
Let's continue with the comparisons.
Historical mags regurgitate Waterloo and D-Day every couple of years, yet no one seems to mind. I even recall two mags publishing a scenario of the same fairly obscure WWI battle within a couple of months of each other.
Historical mags could compare similar rulesets, but they almost never do. Why? Possibly they fear souring relationships with the advertisers? And incidentally, I would love a real article analysing the gameplay differences between say, Warhammer and all the wannabes that bit the dust (Raven, Fantasy Warlord, Fantasy Warriors, Battlesystem etc.) Did they die because they were worse games or simply because GW marketing was better?
I would love articles about gaming in e.g. Conan's world -- what the armies are like, where to get figures, which rules to use.
I can read an article about a game I'm not playing -- Warmachine, Infinity, whatever. Maybe I might even get interested in it. As long as the whole mag isn't the same thing, which is why I have no interest in current White Dwarf, No Quarter or any similar publication.
But enough of that. Let's get onto this Internet thing. I'm old enough to remember Usenet news, and I actually even used them back in the day. I was on the Internet before WWW was even invented. I've run my own website for close to 20 years now (and some of it looks that old too). Don't take this the wrong way, I just feel I need to say this to pre-empt the "lack of net skills" argument looming over the horizon.
The Internet is a wonderful thing. There's loads of information out there. Some of it is true. Some is well written and nicely presented. Some is even both. But do you know what it doesn't do?
No one on the Internet has ever delivered a truly interesting article for my reading enjoyment directly to me. Ever. Not even once in my 20+ years on the net.
Every single time I had to go out looking for it.
The net does not send me a new interesting article on Waterloo. Wargames Illustrated does. And that's the difference I'm really paying for.
While I enjoy sites like this, I enjoy them for the conversation. Not the articles, because there really aren't any. Most of Internet has zero editorial content.
Even when there is editorial content, it's too widely spread and disjointed to effectively follow.
I know Matakishi has a great site. I think I even have the address somewhere in my boomarks. Do I regularly read it? No. The last time I did read it, was probably following a link in a forum post. Most definitely I did not go there just to check what Matakishi has been up to lately. Sorry Matakishi, that's just the way it is.
There's just too many good sites and no good way to know when they have something new up.
(And yes, I know about RSS feeds. I even wrote one for my site. I don't think they really work.)
Even the stuff I write myself, I don't really expect anyone to read.
I read WI, WS&S and MW regularly, because they are delivered to me. I don't read Teahouse because it's not. If I could pay a small sum for Teahouse to be delivered to me, I would. If I had to go to WI site to read it, I probably would not. In fact, I'm getting the digital version of WS&S on the side. I've never read a complete digital issue and lately I haven't even bothered to download them. Too much hassle, I'll rather wait for the mailman to deliver the paper copy.
Internet feeds gaming monomania, because you will basically never see stuff you didn't go out looking for.
If I didn't read the aforementioned magazines, it's very likely I wouldn't play historicals at all. I might even have dropped this hobby completely at some point.
P.S. No, I don't think emailing PDF mags is the answer. It's been tried and found wanting. Full color print magazines are expensive to produce and send around the globe -- we need a completely new delivery mechanism.
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I agree with maxxon - there is lots of free stuff on the internet, but for me, that does not substitute a good magazine. I would have payed for The Ancible (I donated something for every issue via PayPal), I really liked it and I was sad it went under. As I'v already said, there is no substitute for good editorial work. Magazine editors merge different things - things I wouldn't have looked for on the Internet because I didn't know that I would be interested in them - and deliver them to you. That's not something I want to miss.
I think this whole topic touches also on budget allocation. I for example don't make the calculation that by getting information free on the internet I have more money to spend on figures. I tend to be a disciplined buyer when it comes to figures, and when I'm in a project, I don't need any more figures. So the hobby budget goes into other things, mainly books - I guess 50% of my hobby budget is spent on book (including mags and rules, but mostly historical). The rest is divided between figures, paints, tools and material for building scenery.
So for me, the question of buying a magazine is not a zero sum game. The amount of information available on the internet does not influence my decision. The quality of the magazine does.
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I think Shandy has brought us back to the main issues stopping us getting one.
Finance and marketability.
If they cannot make money, profit, from it, in enough quantity, then no-one with the capability to do it, will do it.
It would be nice - to subscribe to a real mag again, but I don't see it happening.
The hobby would be far richer for it, as has been seen in the past when some where available.
The history mags are good, I enjoy the occasion browse, but not really my thing (maybe that will change who knows), and yes they survive quite nicely on a broader range of material and a larger base of customers/support that like the content they provide. Even if they do regurgitate items on occasion - others are far more guilty of that in any case.
Maxxon is very correct about the company specific mags to - they have no appeal, and are of no real interest to hobbyists with a far broader range of interests because of it.
Thats also why I stopped bothering with them. Want more not less to experience, well past the age where I want to just do one company's version of the hobby.
So currently, what I find for myself is enough, perhaps because it has to be, and sadly perhaps because I am kind of used to it, part of the pleasure is finding new hobby related materials, games, companies etc is just that I found it myself - yay go me.
No doubt that much of it would benefit from a good editor. You get what you pay for in a sense, so quality can vary shall we say.
As Shandy mentions, we all likely would find the cash to pay out for a reasonable Priced magazine without impacting our hobby budget in the slightest.
Its surely the main problem is just getting a company capable to pay to do it, to finance it (employees such as editors included) in the first place. That brings us back to profit again.
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If they cannot make money, profit, from it, in enough quantity, then no-one with the capability to do it, will do it.
Yeah, well, yes and no.
As I say on my site, I'm a self-admitted blockhead -- I write for free. I don't make a dime off my site, I don't want to make a profit. I don't run ads, I don't have partnerships, I don't even get free review copies. The quality of my output may be debatable, but at least it's out there.
I do it for the fun of it.
The reason I can do it is because it doesn't really cost me anything either. The website domain name is about $10/year, beyond that I have the line and the server anyway so I might as well put something there. As long as it doesn't get super popular (no fear of that), the bandwidth isn't really a consideration either.
But what this doesn't do, is make me stick to a deadline.
Quality content costs money to produce, especially on a deadline. Someone might do something once in while for free, but if you want them to do it regularly every Friday they'll likely want money for it.
However, new technologies offer new opportunities. We don't have to be shackled by the print and distribution costs of a print magazine.
Let me offer an analogy here:
I watch stuff on YouTube and I listen to quite a host of gaming podcasts off iTunes while I paint.
What do YouTube and iTunes have in common?
They offer a centralized subscription service. I log in, they push all the new stuff from my subscriptions to me. If I had to log in to all those sites separately to check if they have a new video or podcast available, I probably would not do it.
One of my favorite podcasts was on a hiatus for nearly a year. I didn't even notice. Once they were back on air, I just resumed getting episodes. If I had been checking an empty website all that time, I would have stopped going there. It doesn't matter if individual podcasts slip from their schedule, as long as my subscription stream as a whole keeps feeding new stuff to me.
Written content needs a similar delivery mechanism. (Web comics would benefit from that too)
If that were in place, you could probably do an electronic magazine using a large body of volunteer writers/photographers. It could make enough money to pay the editor and bandwidth etc.
Publishing an article on the Internet is pretty much like nailing it to a fence post. Some people will find it, most will not. Some people will even make a habit of checking your fence post regularly, but most will not. There's an awful lot of fence posts out there...
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Yes but that proves the point doesn't it?
We agree the reasoning is money, profit is needed to keep it going whether a paper medium or other - its still a paid subscription in place to service the production and receipt of the media you want to get.
Whether some or all that profit goes back into maintaining the magazine or content stream is up to the providers of the service/product as such.
Still someone has to put up that initial cash input, and then maintain the medium until its able to pay its own way, eg pay for at least itself (staff etc) if thats the model they go for.
As you point out and rightly, quality edited content, on time, on schedule, regularly, costs money.
You don't get all that from single individuals, no matter how good they are.
Yes your articles and copy are out there, and I am having a read at the moment (in between actual work), but its just another fence post compared to regularly paid for content isn't it?
I agree though its nice to have it sent to you , provided, searched, edited and packaged and given, at a small cost relative to us individually, but were in a business sense ( and it needs to be otherwise you don't get paid for what would be your assumed full time job) is the motivation - that has to be seen before someone will attempt it?
Perhaps not forever, but until someone/ or a group grabs that spot, and finds a way to make a living from it we have to find at least some of what we want ourselves, or from the links and information brought to light by others and the fence posts (like that comment) they nail it to?
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Good points being made here (though no, WHS doesn't ask quite that much, but it's considerable).
I'll add one from a publisher's point of view: not being a sic/fant gamer, to me the that side of wargaming seems even more fickle, and as some have said, divided than historicals. Moreover, things potentially change faster and that can be a problem from the editorial point of view. A Kickstarter for a new historical range is not a huge problem: at some point the minis are done and you put them in your review section. But with production times of a magazine being what they are, the Next Big Thing in scifi/fantasy wargaming can be here before you had time to react. Example:
If you've got a very dependable author, you can commission an article from him and have - with some to and fro - a finished, edited article in a week or two. You then need a week or so to layout the entire magazine, two weeks to get it printed (unless you do it locally and are willing to spend a lot more) and a week or two for packaging, mailing to subscribers and distribution to stores. Easy to see how the New Hotness that you commissioned that article about may have fallen on its face just after you sent the mag off to the printers and by the time it reachers your readers, it's gone, forgotten and entirely replaced by the Kickstarter that launched when it was out of your hands and is about to reach become the biggest success ever. Now you look like your editor doesn't know what's going on...
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Would a yearly magazine work better?
Possible crowdsource and more likely to be carried by the independent outlets rather than the big guys I would have thought.
It would have to be wide ranging due to the fickle nature of the gaming and may be hard to keep up to date in the review section but target at Christmas time and you may have a larger 'Granny for little Jimmy' market.
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Harbinger was the last magazine to try and break this and went the way of the Dodo, for all the reasons that Matakishi stated.
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Yes but that proves the point doesn't it?
We agree the reasoning is money, profit is needed to keep it going whether a paper medium or other - its still a paid subscription in place to service the production and receipt of the media you want to get.
We agree that money is needed to provide content.
How much money is the issue.
I used to run a small fanzine back in early 90's, but I'm not a professional publisher. However, I have listened to A View From The Veranda and what I have gathered is this:
Miniature Wargames (12 issues/year, full color) is a commercial publication. It's not big business, but:
- it probably generates some profit for the publisher or it would have been shut down or sold off
- it pays for the print and distribution bills
- it pays for the publisher's overhead
- it pays Henry Hyde's (the editor) salary
- beyond that basically everyone else is unpaid volunteers
If you take that and subtract the print and distribution and even most of publisher's overhead you arrive at a sum that shouldn't be that much money -- especially if it doesn't have to generate a full time salary.
All the podcasters and youtubers who choose to monetize their content are generating themselves a little bit of income. In the vast majority of cases not enough to live on, but enough to keep generating quality content on a schedule.
Here's my hypothesis:
1) Content
There is room for quality content. Everything is not available for free on the Internet.
E.g. Recently I needed painting reference for WWII ships. Did I hit Google? Yes, I actually did but I couldn't find comprehensive information. Did I ask on a forum? No, even though I might have gotten some answers it probably would not have produced anything truly worth of keeping in my reference library. What I did do, I went and ordered all relevant Osprey titles. Ding, 100 euros down the drain ;)
Personally I would volunteer my content, if a mutually beneficial arrangement (NOT money) can be found.
2) Market
I subscribed to MARS and Harbinger when they were extant. I am currently subscribing to three different historical mags. I am subscribing to a gaming web site and a podcast, though it could be argued that those are more donations than purchases.
I would pay for quality content. I would even pay just to have it selected, edited and delivered to me even if it was freely available somewhere else.
I can not believe I am alone in this.
3) Production
By leveraging modern technologies it is possible to eliminate the largest cost factors in traditional publishing, namely print and distribution costs.
By running a lean machine with reasonable expectations, it should be possible to generate enough income to pay the bills and make it worthwhile at least as a sideline for an enthusiastic hobbyists.
Heck, just being able to interview industry figures seems to plenty of incentive for most podcasters...
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Written content needs a similar delivery mechanism. (Web comics would benefit from that too)
It's called an RSS Feed Reader. Using one you can pull all the new stuff from a number of blogs into a single page.
There's an example at http://www.netvibes.com/lardcentral#Lardy_Blogs (http://www.netvibes.com/lardcentral#Lardy_Blogs)
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It's called an RSS Feed Reader. Using one you can pull all the new stuff from a number of blogs into a single page.
There's an example at http://www.netvibes.com/lardcentral#Lardy_Blogs (http://www.netvibes.com/lardcentral#Lardy_Blogs)
Yes but only for items from sites we already know about, that might not have the quality of content thats really being looked for?
Were we seem to be here is,
"how do I get something, paid for - possibly, that tells me interesting stuff, about what i am already into, and new stuff that I might be that I don't know about already, while being consistent and regular in both quality and content"
I suspect Maxxon might agree, RSS feeds/readers from our known resources might not cut it.
Perhaps picky or being old and miserable (but its Friday! - I am at work so misery is acceptable - old is what I have no choice about)
What the post here has brought to light perhaps:
- The costs to leverage the product, and the fact they may not actually be that much.
- But also the interesting point that the printed magazine format, for this hobby and its more modern flexiblity, is maybe too dated, slow a medium?
ie it cannot keep up with the rapidity of some of the more interesting aspects, kickstarters, product change, rules and other things that pop up.
It seems that although this is something of a "small" hobbyist group, it is one with intelligence and the ability to rapidly grasp and use technology, and new tech as it becomes available to their advantage.
Or am I thinking of the pron industry?
Its a slow day, and boring techy config files to do.
Are we edging towards the idea of a subscription site, with RSS and other input/output types, regular articles, audio and video interviews - podcasts, articles etc, and a 'sort-of' paid for staffing to manage, collate, edit, audit and provide the above on a regular basis, ooh a la "sometingorothernotfoxnews.com/news/fantasystuff" - so its more believable..?
With page formating for different device types - pc/phone/tablet - online news rag as such, maybe even fantasy is just a subsection of different hobby sections, so its historical, fantasy, sci-fi, my little pony etc.
? I may have had to much caffeine today ? :D
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...though no, WHS doesn't ask quite that much, but it's considerable...
Have you any idea how much? I'd be interested in some accurate info, and I'm struggling to get it...
I was told by a publisher £20k for permanent placement (subject to sales volumes) in all stores, with a one-month featured promotion, and a colleague who was starting up a magazine was offered a 4 week trial in half of WHS stores for £5k.
Are we edging towards the idea of a subscription site, with RSS and other input/output types, regular articles, audio and video interviews - podcasts, articles etc, and a 'sort-of' paid for staffing to manage, collate, edit, audit and provide the above on a regular basis, ooh a la "sometingorothernotfoxnews.com/news/fantasystuff" - so its more believable..?
Beasts of War's Backstage option isn't far off that really...
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Yes, I do, being the publisher of WSS. The exact amount depends on the number of stores, the expected circulation, projected sales and yes, any 'promotion' you want to buy. You'll easily get to GBP 5000 p/y.
As to subscription models for websites: it's been tried by, say, the NY Times without treat success. If you wanted to do it for SciFant wargaming, I'd think your have an uphill struggle to convince people to pay for content already available for free elsewhere. The great advantage magazines have is that they produce a physical product. Holding something in your hand still works...
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Yes, I do, being the publisher of WSS. The exact amount depends on the number of stores, the expected circulation, projected sales and yes, any 'promotion' you want to buy. You'll easily get to GBP 5000 p/y.
Thanks for the info! So it's a variable thing, then - I suppose that makes sense, really... it's too big a bill to just stick a flat rate on. And I hadn't realized it was a yearly thing, I'd assumed it was a one-off! :o
...The great advantage magazines have is that they produce a physical product. Holding something in your hand still works...
This is so true... I haven't played a historical game in years now, but still buy WSS and WI every issue. Same reason I buy print rulebooks - I still use PDFs as well, but this is a tactile hobby. We model, we paint, we game on the tabletop; all are hands-on, physical things. And I feel the same way about the written parts of my hobby.
Incidentally, Praefectusclassis, if you ever feel like adding a bit of scifant to WSS, I certainly wouldn't complain... I've got a project coming up that is 14th century medieval England, with just a teeny bit of fantasy added - that wouldn't be too far outside the WSS brief...:D
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Yep, it's yearly and based on what WHS thinks they can get out of you / estimate what you'll sell, and it never goes down...
If you buy WSS 74, you just might find a Medieval-esque article... But for you, and all of you, if you have a good idea, please never hesitate to pitch it to Guy: editor *at* wssmagazine.com
Jasper
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Got it, and read it... and yep, I thought the 'Game of Thrones with plastics' was a great article, just enough of a historical / fantasy crossover to keep 99% of us happy. Great stuff, as usual.
WSS is still the best wargaming mag, IMHO.
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Got it, and read it... and yep, I thought the 'Game of Thrones with plastics' was a great article, just enough of a historical / fantasy crossover to keep 99% of us happy. Great stuff, as usual.
It's out already? :o Gotta get to Eason.
WSS is still the best wargaming mag, IMHO.
Ditto.
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Thanks & yep!