What do you think of this publication?
I have read the first two issues. It’s not bad. They do cover a lot of games, including many that I haven’t heard of, but they still focus mainly on the high production value and/or high-concept games that are typical of indie coverage. They also haven’t covered many RPGs so far. There are probably fewer indie RPGs than some other genres, but they are still pretty overlooked on most sites even considering that.
I definitely don’t think there are enough publications about indies out there. Interesting to see that as a model they are starting off fully behind a paywall? This seems like a very new thing, so I’m surprised there’s not a demo issue or something anywhere (maybe I’m just missing something). While I do kinda think “meh” when I see indie-focused content focused on the things that already make waves, sometimes our own little space online can kind of cloud that judgement. If these are physical and they are actually somehow getting them on store shelves or at local libraries, etc. the content probably would be all brand-new to most passerby
There is no demo issue as far as I know, but each issue page has a sampler, such as here. Not sure if they have made it to newsstands or if they are mail-order only. They are based in the UK, so I have just bought the digital issues, since US$17 per issue is a little too steep for a physical copy. It is definitely optimized for print, though, so reading a PDF at my desk isn’t the greatest.
I have said before that I would pay for quality indie coverage (not the insulting stupidity we get from the major news sites), so I put my money where my mouth is and gave them a chance. I’m still undecided about it overall, but I will probably buy issue #3.
It looks like the first two digital issues of this are currently free (here). Of course it’s all old news by now, but maybe some of it is new to you. It’s worth a look for free, anyway.
Issue 3 is currently free. I never did buy it, so I picked it up and skimmed through it. As before, there’s very little in it that interests me. That’s the problem with general coverage when you have specific taste.
Oh well. I gave it a fair shot, and it’s not for me. I will probably not purchase it again.
Hmm, it seems like a pretty tough spot to be in to generate buzz around a games media outlet (given much of the context of recent games journalism)
I don’t know if i eally recognized any of the team behind that one but i think having ‘names’ is a large part of how things take hold these days, hate to say it.
I think this is also just something that plagues a lot of games crit; you either have to subscribe to poor taste to draw in people with popular media or become a kind of taste maker. and the latter only really works if you are like, virally famous elsewhere
The structure of magazine is also a pretty hard sell here it seems like. Nobody else is really trying it, out of the recent stuff like Aftermath, Remap, so on, its more or less just collated online blogs