GetDotted Domains

Viewing Thread:
"E-magazines! the way forward?"

The "General Games Chat" forum, which includes Retro Game Reviews, has been archived and is now read-only. You cannot post here or create a new thread or review on this forum.

Sat 15/04/00 at 15:41
Regular
Posts: 787
We all buy games magazines to advise us and all of us would have read a review or part of a magazine before we buy. The problem is that there are so many though. Some are expensive as they sell demo discs and some are cheap, as they are not as good quality, so which one do you choose, wouldn’t it be good if we could view any. What would the pubic prefer game mags or free E-mags (electronic-magazines) over the Internet!

You see we live in the age of the Internet, which has only just begun. Magazine sales have fallen short and magazine websites have increased in traffic dramatically over the past two years. The Internet is always changing and who knows what will happen in the future. There maybe faster downloads, video chat, things your mind will never believe.

So what will we benefit from these mags compared to are old. Firstly I feel that PC mags would the most as you access the Internet via your PC mostly although you can with consoles now. Anyway PC owners can download demos, drivers and patches and have the magazine to read at the same time.

Console owners would suffer mostly in the first few years as the age of the internet is only just beginning on there. Players would be able to take part in tournaments, chat, view video clips and read the mag but one thing that most magazines do is a demo disc. Demo discs would be hard on an E-magazine, as you cannot download on to a console. So they may have to be sold separately.

How would these E-mags be free I hear you ask? Well they would not have to charge you as they get paid by certain companies to have banners and links to their site on the magazines. Say you wanted to buy a PC game, you have just read the review, seen the video and now you want to buy it. E-magazines would have a button to buy your game at the bottom where you would be directed to a certain games companies site to buy your game off of them. E-mags would make bucket loads of money by doing this, and if it’s a bigger company then its better for them as the mag gets paid some of the profit. Also they could add advertisements on their page where they would get paid if someone clicked on it.

In the sense of phone bills they would possibly not be free and you may have a bill five times the price of a normal mag. But the way things are going Internet providers are making the Internet free some at a low price and some even for free. If you look you can find a free one with free calls, as at the moment you are probably reading this and you phone bill is going up. So I will hurry up!

Whenever I buy my magazine it is always out of date with dated information. The E-mags would be updated nearly every day like the Special Reserve site and contain all the info you would need when you want it. I feel the Special Reserve site is the closest E-mag we have as they contain almost everything I have said, and as technology moves on it will get better and special reserve have a head start. The Special Reserve site is multi format, which would help other magazines if they went into cyber world.

So would you prefer E-mags to the traditional paper, or do you think it is better to have the original?
If they do go ahead will we be made to buy the games by uninformative reviews? E-magazines are the way to go, they are more interactive, so game mags follow Special Reserve, make an E-mag and get with it!
Tue 12/12/00 at 18:05
"Uzi Lover"
Posts: 7,403
Yep! I am Ryan Bollu!

I hate my new name but i dont wanna change my email thingy!

Damn better just keep it!
Rocketman shall return!
Tue 12/12/00 at 14:02
"High polygon count"
Posts: 15,624
>Some are expensive as they sell demo discs

As I've said elsewhere, I don't see why this is the case.

Any demo disc is essentially an advert on behalf of the software companies whose games appear on it. As such, I don't believe that the magazine's readership should fund it.

Imagine if ITV charged viewers two pounds per month for the "priviledge" of breaking up the programmes with adverts every 15-20 minutes. We wouldn't stand for it, would we? After all, it's bad enough we have to fund BBC with the licence fee!

Yes, it is nice to try out a game before you buy it, but you can do that in most game stores these days, and on the full version instead of a resricted demo.

I don't mind with something like PC Format, where you pay extra for the disc but actually get at least one full program - that can be a bargain. But a console demo disc is pretty much useless after you've seen the demos it contains.
Mon 11/12/00 at 22:58
Staff Moderator
"Must lose weight"
Posts: 5,778
Turns out that Ryanbollu is I am da Game!

And I thought it was Grix - doh
Sun 10/12/00 at 16:03
Regular
Posts: 23,216
Nope.
Sun 10/12/00 at 14:38
Staff Moderator
"Must lose weight"
Posts: 5,778
Well is this Grix or not?
Sat 15/04/00 at 15:41
Regular
"Walking Stick Neede"
Posts: 77
We all buy games magazines to advise us and all of us would have read a review or part of a magazine before we buy. The problem is that there are so many though. Some are expensive as they sell demo discs and some are cheap, as they are not as good quality, so which one do you choose, wouldn’t it be good if we could view any. What would the pubic prefer game mags or free E-mags (electronic-magazines) over the Internet!

You see we live in the age of the Internet, which has only just begun. Magazine sales have fallen short and magazine websites have increased in traffic dramatically over the past two years. The Internet is always changing and who knows what will happen in the future. There maybe faster downloads, video chat, things your mind will never believe.

So what will we benefit from these mags compared to are old. Firstly I feel that PC mags would the most as you access the Internet via your PC mostly although you can with consoles now. Anyway PC owners can download demos, drivers and patches and have the magazine to read at the same time.

Console owners would suffer mostly in the first few years as the age of the internet is only just beginning on there. Players would be able to take part in tournaments, chat, view video clips and read the mag but one thing that most magazines do is a demo disc. Demo discs would be hard on an E-magazine, as you cannot download on to a console. So they may have to be sold separately.

How would these E-mags be free I hear you ask? Well they would not have to charge you as they get paid by certain companies to have banners and links to their site on the magazines. Say you wanted to buy a PC game, you have just read the review, seen the video and now you want to buy it. E-magazines would have a button to buy your game at the bottom where you would be directed to a certain games companies site to buy your game off of them. E-mags would make bucket loads of money by doing this, and if it’s a bigger company then its better for them as the mag gets paid some of the profit. Also they could add advertisements on their page where they would get paid if someone clicked on it.

In the sense of phone bills they would possibly not be free and you may have a bill five times the price of a normal mag. But the way things are going Internet providers are making the Internet free some at a low price and some even for free. If you look you can find a free one with free calls, as at the moment you are probably reading this and you phone bill is going up. So I will hurry up!

Whenever I buy my magazine it is always out of date with dated information. The E-mags would be updated nearly every day like the Special Reserve site and contain all the info you would need when you want it. I feel the Special Reserve site is the closest E-mag we have as they contain almost everything I have said, and as technology moves on it will get better and special reserve have a head start. The Special Reserve site is multi format, which would help other magazines if they went into cyber world.

So would you prefer E-mags to the traditional paper, or do you think it is better to have the original?
If they do go ahead will we be made to buy the games by uninformative reviews? E-magazines are the way to go, they are more interactive, so game mags follow Special Reserve, make an E-mag and get with it!

Freeola & GetDotted are rated 5 Stars

Check out some of our customer reviews below:

I am delighted.
Brilliant! As usual the careful and intuitive production that Freeola puts into everything it sets out to do. I am delighted.
Excellent support service!
I have always found the support staff to provide an excellent service on every occasion I've called.
Ben

View More Reviews

Need some help? Give us a call on 01376 55 60 60

Go to Support Centre
Feedback Close Feedback

It appears you are using an old browser, as such, some parts of the Freeola and Getdotted site will not work as intended. Using the latest version of your browser, or another browser such as Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, or Opera will provide a better, safer browsing experience for you.