markot said:
Everythings 'limited edition' these days in gaming land, its so stupid... it used to mean something, now its meaningless.
It's the DVD Collector's Edition of the Gaming World!
Hyper is okay, I guess. I think I have almost every issue since #5 or 6. The only reason that I still get it is because my sister bought me a subscription to it for one of my birthdays towards the end of the 90s. For a while there it was not really my cup of tea but it probably has improved a bit since Wildgoose took over again.
I think the real issue is that during the Shea and Wilks era it became a incrowd magazine, where they really wrote the magazine in a fashion that they wanted, not what would appeal to an audience. Even though I was a long time reader, it always felt like you were trying to join a well-established group of friends that had their own in-jokes, likes and dislikes. You're being included in the conversation but you know there's years of history between everyone, that you're missing our on some of the meta-details of the conversation and the odd reoccuring feeling that they might be making fun of you at times.
I assume the magazine had some sort of internal management or editorial meltdown, resulting in a weird few months of having a group editor who instigated some weird style and layout choices. It seems to have calmed down a bit under Wildgroose which will hopefully mean that it can settle down and find its direction again.
I don't think it will ever be the same and the Mansell or Clarke year, or even the Toose years, whom may have been the last good editor (I'm not sure, my memory ain't what it used to be). Having said that, I'm not the same person, not the same age, have increased levels of cynisism (dangerously so) and am no longer the awestruck bundle of enthusiasm that I once was, so maybe it can never be that way again.
If nothing more, it is another local voice on the games industry - which this country sorely lacks - and at most, it does stand as a magazine that has weathered the publishing storm when no other Australian magazine has, especially against the tide that it the internet. If for nothing more it should be commended for that.
Clipper said:
Thank you for taking the time to explain it to me