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Exclusive Q&A: Martin Mathers. And are magazines dying?

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After reading the interesting Martin Mathers interview here on the site I was dewy-eyed remembering how much money I used to spend on games magazines. (And Mathers Virtua Cop failure on TV). Still to this day I've got them all in the loft. Over 200. These days I rarely buy magazines. The internet is indeed partly to blame with fast-access, varying material and the almost "personalised" experience offered. But the social aspect a magazine offers, such as discussing screenshots on your old school desk obviously doesn't happen with adults so it's a tough area to look at as lots of games magazines seem to be aimed at a teen crowd (Possibly apart from EDGE) plus I'm older now! But there are times I still buy a magazine (usually NGamer or EDGE) if only to reaquaint with old "friends" and to once again enter that childlike, comfortable world of a games magazine (almost akin to picking up a Beano whilst eating the free drumstick lolly). It's easy for magazine editors to blame the internet for the decline of the paper industry yet they rarely do, like Mathers. They have a responsibility for their industry afterall. Yet I still feel there is a deeper, underlying issue at hand.

 

The price of magazines are incredibly steep in relation to what the new-fangled interweb offers. The pricing now seems archaic. Would you rather spend £5 on a magazine or log onto N-Europe etc as part of a £15/£20 monthy Broadband connection? Do you get more enjoyment for your £5 or from checking the web whenever you want?

Maybe £2.50-3 would mean an 'instant' buy or subscription to many. Obviously staff need to be paid and printing costs, travel expenses to fund. Yet I still feel that a lower price point would increase sales. Magazines need to do something unique as Mathers said. And why don't they just try a price point lower than usual? Try a cheaper, fortnightly magazine perhaps. There are many avenues and ideas to be tried yet publishers probably don't want to risk what they currently hold (a small percentage of gamers interest in relation to the internet). Why can't I pay £2-3 every month to get "the thoughts of...(insert journalist here)" sent to my Wii? Something unique has to happen and bringing back something like FoSoYa (uniqueness) may not be enough afterall.

 

I recollect that thousands of UK N64 gamers bought N64 magazine and that was partly because of the poor competition. Plus the market wasn't exactly (and still isn't) saturated. However, the magazine was prolifically well written (justifying staff wages) and they were constant with their review standards/scores. (Which, unfortunately a magazine seems to live or die by). It's easy to see that N64 magazine was popular in its day by the readership amount. With comments such as Clayfighter 63 1/3 (N64) getting 24%: and being described as being "as painful as having red hot needles shoved into your eyes"; the magagine was independant and not scared to print what they wanted. This honesty and British humour hit a chord with the readership. Many magazines can seem too series now (An arena EDGE has, commendably and professionally covered for years now.) Even NGamer doesn't seem to contain the same "fun" as the old N64 team. Or when it does it's almost cringe-worthy. Maybe I'm being too critical. But when they have tried to recapture past glory by recycling staff members :nono: it smacks of ideas running out.

 

So what is the answer? I honestly think the answer lies with (as Mathers states) MORE quality, unique writing. More unique content and using the readership to its full capacity. Get the readers involved as much as possible. I obviously can't increase the magazine sales alone and what I've posted are only my feelings on the issue....How can magazines be as popular as they used to be? Or, with the internet is that now impossible? How can games magazines become a stable, profitable, successful business avenue again? Do we need to rely on the NGJ (new games journalism) technique of writing more? Is the core cycle of reveal/preview/review tiring fast? The future of journalism is 'now'. We buy the magazines, we are the interested. Why do we buy gaming publications? Or do you buy them at all anymore? If not, why not?

Personally, I would love to write for any gaming publication...So I guess I'll have to keep on trying to be unique too, like all of us here. Writing about what we hold dear.

 

Rant over....

 

Connection closed.:wink:

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Until I can read well written articles about gaming while on the toilet via another medium, magazines are here to stay for me.

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Well, I quite buying games magazine years ago, somewhere halfway through Cube's life span. I first started with NOM/ONM back at issue 4 (SFII issue), since then I moved over to SuperPlay, due to the cool Will Overton cover illustrations and unique content. When they moved over to do N64 Magazine, I followed loyally, buying every single issue.

 

Back in those days, i was excited to see a new issue arrive at the kiosk, buying it in an instant. There was always something new happening. Over time, I got access to the internet and slowly it's became a habit of daily checking the games site. When N64 Magazine turned into NGC, I noticed there was no longer a reason to get it. News was weeks old, screenshots which I've seen already, nothing really special.

 

The other reason I quit was the steep price tags. In Holland buying a UK publication is like 10 ~ 15 euro. I'd rather spend that on my real gaming needs: games.

 

It's sad to see the print industry dwindle. It's a great feeling to have a well produced issue in your hand. It just isn't worth it to me anymore.

 

*sigh*

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I still have a subscription to NGamer. Even though most of the news I read in it is old to me, I still enjoy the features and reviews that they do, and I trust their opinion more than pretty much any web review.

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I have not brought a gaming magazine for 3 months now. I get all my news off the net, so why should I have to pay around £4 just for a re-cap. I used to get around 4 a month during the N64 and early Gamecube days tho. I told myself a few weeks back, that I would start purchasing N-Gamer soon but I still haven't got round to that. Seems to have some nice features and quality reviews comapred to other magazines. Only picked up a recent ONM due to the free sweatband :heh:

 

They must be selling less too. My local Spar and corner shop used to have 2 or 3 magazines dedicated to each system, now they only stock one for each system.

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Every issue of ONM that I've got has been awful. I still get magazines because their features tend to be longer and with a somewhat higher available budget. In terms of games magazines I subscribe to NGamer and Edge.

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I Think NGamer recaptured the old N64 spirit of yoro, that got lost in the switch from the old NGC to the new NGC, wich was to serious and old. NGamer recaptures the magical spirit again, the feel of gaming. And they're bloody funny every once in a while.

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Well, I quite buying games magazine years ago, somewhere halfway through Cube's life span. I first started with NOM/ONM back at issue 4 (SFII issue), since then I moved over to SuperPlay, due to the cool Will Overton cover illustrations and unique content. When they moved over to do N64 Magazine, I followed loyally, buying every single issue.

 

Back in those days, i was excited to see a new issue arrive at the kiosk, buying it in an instant. There was always something new happening. Over time, I got access to the internet and slowly it's became a habit of daily checking the games site. When N64 Magazine turned into NGC, I noticed there was no longer a reason to get it. News was weeks old, screenshots which I've seen already, nothing really special.

 

The other reason I quit was the steep price tags. In Holland buying a UK publication is like 10 ~ 15 euro. I'd rather spend that on my real gaming needs: games.

 

It's sad to see the print industry dwindle. It's a great feeling to have a well produced issue in your hand. It just isn't worth it to me anymore.

 

*sigh*

 

Same here, I was up to date with ONM/NOM until middle of the Cube's lifespan, then I just switched to internet news. It was like reading stuff I already knw every month, no surprises, just different takes on things and a few exclusive reviews screen shots. Not worth the rapidly rising cover costs.

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I'll keep buying ONM until the Nintendo logo on the spine is finished.

So there's £3.99 going to whoever makes the magazine every month.

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I think there will always be a place for the written media in our contemporary society. Whether this will always remain in the future remains in doubt however.

 

People said years ago that newspapers would be dead with the advent of the internet, yet despite this we still have them and the despite offering online subscriptions there are still relatively few people who do it despite the low cost (think it's like £1 a week or something for all the same content). One leading english paper (don't know which) has just 400,000 people signing up, its not for everyone to sit and read the news at the computer. Once those fold up/bendy digital PDF viewers are mainstream we could see a chance of them replacing papers but how long that will take to happen who knows...

 

With games of course it is the matter of the media the internet now means you can get any movie as soon as you want no problem. Magazines are always up against it.

Personally don't buy magazines that much, back in the day I used to get ONM, N64 Magazine (and its successors), EDGE and Games TM every single month and something else used to be 5 in total. Now I just get EDGE and that's only for the columns and the features, I don't really care for their reviews as much as I used to. So that's my reason for still buying mags but even this kinda content can be found on the Internet. I find 1up's blogs refreshing as you can read a mini editorial almost everyday by various different editors and execs but even their site can annoy me as they hold back stuff for EGM (which I sometimes pick up if I happen to have past a Borders).

 

I do think Blogs and Podcasts have a big role to play, for me once I've finished my studies I can see myself listening to podcasts on the ride home to catch up on news and blogs are a quick and easy way to view and publish opinions on loads of things.

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I stopped after NOM became ONM.

I remember in NOM when they saw the screens from twilight princess one of the quotes was, "We wet ourselves and it wasnt pee :(" comedy gold. ONM trys to capture the comedy and phails.

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magazines are dying, yes.

 

EDIT: the only reason why game magazines aren't dead yet is because the videogame companies haven't given the fan sites and serious sites as much time as they ought to have, considering how popular they are.. ok, so maybe the "serious" sites have gotten the videogame companies attention, but have a site like N-Europe gotten nintendos attention for example? ok, so N-Europe is a bit difficult to categorize, it's inbetween fan site and serious, but it's definitely more serious than fan.. right?

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Maybe £2.50-3 would mean an 'instant' buy or subscription to many.

 

...

 

Why can't I pay £2-3 every month to get "the thoughts of...(insert journalist here)" sent to my Wii?

 

nRevolution now has a price of £2.99, starting from their next issue (out next thurs)

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Well, nRevolution has piqued my interest actually. I had a brief encounter with the contents of a recent issue and found it to be quite unique. Unique in the mannerism of page layout and almost cartoon, comic-style layout. May have to give this a try come the next issue. It will be interesting to see if this price point forces the hands of the other magazines.

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I think we'll always see atleast one magazine dedicated to Nintendo. Just look at the Amiga mags, they're still in-print, and it was quite a while before the Dreamcast Mags stopped production. There's actually still a few Dreamcast mags in my local Spar. I might go buy it, as I love the nostalgia of old mags, I was reading an N64 magazine the other week which I got before the N64 was released. Delicious nostalgia pie.

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I agree that reading an old magazine can have wonderful sentiments. The previewing and consequently reviewing of old games is insightful to look into with the pleasure of hindsight. Seeing beta shots can also be interesting when you've finished the game and seen everything on offer. Looking back at magazines circa 1990 can even give humorous insights into Sega/Nintendo relations...Always a merry situation in the face of the present. It's nice how I can pick up a magazine from 1997 and see the NEW! 3D Zelda on the N64 and read the buzz surrounding the title. But will we get this with the internet...? I think it's like a HTML graveyard sometimes. We see news pasted, chopped, copied and passed around, digested and then deleted. On paper it's cemented on paper, inked forever. It seems better to savour literature on the bed of a spine, almost intrinsic, natural. If we are to see lightweight, bendable PDF, DOC readers in the future with uploadable content, I hope we have some kind of iPod feature in which we can stock thousands of articles. Maybe then writing will be treasured and those NEW! 3D Zelda titles can once again be oggled over.:love:

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