Issue 108 - Issue 108 is Indefinitely on Hold

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Professor Brian Strain
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Post by Professor Brian Strain »

jcompton wrote:Well, okay, if the thrust is that "it'll always be so cheap, no established professionals will do it," that's when you go to the amateurs, who will be excited to make pizza money for the chance to see their name in print. Of which there are many many. (Which, from some of the posts I've read on the Survival forum, appears to be what RG largely did anyway.)

Either way you slice it, there are lots of people who can do this sort of work. With achingly beautiful prose? No, not all of them. But "finding people to write content" has never really been a top challenge for technology magazines.
Again, I think you are missing the point.

I could write a Gameboy history article in half an hour, research it by reading Wikipedia, add a list of obvious games, and churn out another article on the same theme half an hour later...

...but I wouldn't want people to read it in that state. Even my "quickest" article for RG took 3 weeks from commission to the final submission (which was then badly edited, but we won't go into that now...)

RG didn't use "amateurs", as Lee pointed out. And this discussion has kinda hijacked the point of this thread....


SOOOOOO


BACK ON TOPIC...


We've got a core of great people here, those involved in ZZAP! 107 and the Def Tribute. Get all those people involved in 108, and boom. Another killer release. As for timescale... when we're ready to do it.
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Post by So Long Ago »

Professor Brian Strain wrote:...but I wouldn't want people to read it in that state. Even my "quickest" article for RG took 3 weeks from commission to the final submission (which was then badly edited, but we won't go into that now...)
three weeks! flippin eck you're not going to get rich at that pace.

Have to admit at the risk of pulling this thread off topic again I think that JCrompton does have a point. Writing articles for games mags isn't difficult. Hell you're all posting in a forum that's dedicated to a magazine published by a company that made a point of using so called amateurs to write its copy. Don't kid yourself if someone wanted to do an RG clone it would be easy

back on topic - personally 108, don't see the point. Def Tribute was a fitting end. I don't see that 108 would bring anything new to that table.
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Post by LeeT »

Have to admit at the risk of pulling this thread off topic again I think that JCrompton does have a point. Writing articles for games mags isn't difficult. Hell you're all posting in a forum that's dedicated to a magazine published by a company that made a point of using so called amateurs to write its copy. Don't kid yourself if someone wanted to do an RG clone it would be easy
But didn't Roger, Ciaran, Barnaby & co have to re-write a lot of the copy?
back on topic - personally 108, don't see the point. Def Tribute was a fitting end. I don't see that 108 would bring anything new to that table.
....unless you contribute a 'Life at Newsfield' article, SLA! :)
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Post by CraigGrannell »

LeeT wrote:But didn't Roger, Ciaran, Barnaby & co have to re-write a lot of the copy?
I guess SLA's point is that you could get a bunch of amateurs to supply content and then have an editor "tidy" (read: rewrite) it, which, frankly, is precisely what's wrong with a massive chunk of the magazine industry today, but there you go.
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Post by So Long Ago »

CraigGrannell wrote:
LeeT wrote:But didn't Roger, Ciaran, Barnaby & co have to re-write a lot of the copy?
I guess SLA's point is that you could get a bunch of amateurs to supply content and then have an editor "tidy" (read: rewrite) it, which, frankly, is precisely what's wrong with a massive chunk of the magazine industry today, but there you go.
Yes they did rewrite a lot of some peoples copy. My point is that if a publisher had an appetite for a Retro mag getting writers wouldn't be a problem. I understand some of Live's freelancers may have got burned with them going pop but to a certain extent that is part and parcel of being a freelancer (and that's freelance anything - just this morning got a letter from one of my clients that owes me money advising that they are technically insolvent but are prepared to pay 35p in the pound).

I'm not sure if Craig's comment is aimed at the computer games magazine industry or the magazine industry as a whole. In terms of computer games mags don't really read em so can't comment. Gardners World magazine I quite enjoy (sadly true).

Back to Lee's comment about writing an inside Newsfield article for 108; I think enough of those have already been done. What you don't want to do with 108 is rehash what's already been done. 107 and Def I think managed to recapture some of the spirit of the glory years. As you produce more zzap material I think that there is a real danger that it turns into some fanboy thing
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Post by LeeT »

Gardners World magazine I quite enjoy (sadly true).
Go on, admit it. You are....Lloyd!

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Post by CraigGrannell »

So Long Ago wrote:I understand some of Live's freelancers may have got burned with them going pop but to a certain extent that is part and parcel of being a freelancer
That's definitely the case. When a certain mag folded a few months back, that took with it £870 per month of my rolling commissions (which, as I understand it, would have been about 18 pages of copy in Retro Gamer). It wasn't fun, but, hey, shit happens.
I'm not sure if Craig's comment is aimed at the computer games magazine industry or the magazine industry as a whole.
The magazine industry at the moment is in a very weird place. Some editors (and, thankfully, many of those I work with) have realised that the way to keep people buying magazines is to offer unique content that you can't get anywhere else, written by professionals who know their stuff. This enables the editor to get on with other tasks (seeing as most editors these days do a shit-load of admin and budget stuff, too). However, many magazines (those I was referring to—and this is particularly true in certain industries, including gaming) dumb everything down, cover the most obvious stuff (see the old news/reviews/tips staple in most mags, despite features being the thing people actually get stuck into) get in the cheapest writers possible, and then take whatever they spew out and smash it into shape.
Back to Lee's comment about writing an inside Newsfield article for 108; I think enough of those have already been done. What you don't want to do with 108 is rehash what's already been done. 107 and Def I think managed to recapture some of the spirit of the glory years. As you produce more zzap material I think that there is a real danger that it turns into some fanboy thing
My thoughts exactly. I think Roger's fairly candid piece for Rob's Def Tribute was enough as far as Newsfield goes. As for rehashes, that's what I want to avoid, hence me saying it's highly unlikely I'll work on another Zzap! That doesn't stop anyone else creating 108, of course, but I think energies would perhaps be better given to something new.
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Post by PaulEMoz »

Personally I agree, I think that 107 and the Def Guide were fitting end-chapters to ZZAP!. Mind you, if anyone ever did decide a 108 was a necessity, I'd definitely love to be involved again. But I'd be equally happy to see it end as it did, because I think we all accomplished some quite remarkable things.

Unless, of course, someone out there wants to re-establish ZZAP! as a commercial concern. I'd love to see the name appearing regularly on shelves again (and I know that's not going to happen, before anyone says anything!). I do think that people would love to see multi-comment reviews again, although being out of England for over five years now, I'm probably massively out of touch with the country as a whole! :lol:
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Post by andy vaisey »

PaulEMoz wrote:I do think that people would love to see multi-comment reviews again, although being out of England for over five years now, I'm probably massively out of touch with the country as a whole! :lol:
There is a whole generation that would love to see it's return, i.e. us.

There is a whole new generation that would benefit from it's return, as well as benefit from more honest, accurate comments and reviews that reflect gameplay and not reviews raving about GFX...

I guess what I'm saying is do Issue 108... 8) :wink:
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Post by Dogme »

Yeah i'd like to see issue 108 as well! I recently won a C64 on Ebay, the first C64 i've owned since i sold my original one back in 1990. Not sure where else to ask this. I wouldn't mind buying issue 107 if it is at all available. Thanks :)
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Post by gordon »

Well, you can still download it here: http://www.zzap64.co.uk/zzap107/zzap107misc.html

:)
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Post by Lloyd Mangram »

gordon wrote:Well, you can still download it here: http://www.zzap64.co.uk/zzap107/zzap107misc.html

:)
Yup. And while you're at it, download this one as well... :D
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Post by gordon »

...and it's a corker! ;)
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Post by Dogme »

Thanks both :)
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Post by gordon »

Does anybody know where I can get some World of Warcraft power levelling? I'm feeling the urge, for some inexplicable reason.
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