Game Magazines. The Good, the Bad, and the Boring

I’m a designer, I’m a writer, and I’m a publisher, but first and foremost, I’m a gamer. I enjoy reading about games almost as much as I enjoy playing them. I recently stumbled across a Facebook post announcing the debut of yet another wargaming magazine, and after perusing its table of contents, I thought I’d offer a few likes and dislikes on the topic of gaming magazines; what I like to read, and what I don’t.

I like.

Reviews. I love to read well-written reviews. John Burtt’s are the best, most other folks lag a few light years behind. Good reviews provide a feel. I do not give a damn for endless lists of components, historical analysis, or whether the designer accurately modeled the armor thickness of the Tiger’s gun mantel. I want to know if the game is fun, how it feels, and I want that written in active voice.

40K. Pretty pictures. What's not to like?

Lay out. Good magazines look good. Yaah! looks good. Olivier Revenue’s Battles looks damn good, and Vae Victis looks real damn good (yeah, je parle just a little bit of French), and C3i isn’t bad. The list of ugly war gaming magazines? Well, I look at just about all of them, and if they aren’t in the above list? You do the math.

BatReps. Ed Teixiera’s word not mine, but I prefer it to After Action Report, which sounds a bit too much like paper work for my tastes. I love BatReps, but only if they are done right. I don’t want to see columns of numbers and modifiers. Those put me to sleep. I wake up drooling on myself. Nor, and this might come as a surprise, am I a huge fan of the BatRep-as-a-story thing. Sometimes they work, other times I struggle to find the connection between game and story. I enjoy something that not only allows me to follow the battle, but also get a feel for the game. Brad Smith at Hexsides and Hand Grenades does an excellent job.

Color Pictures. Pictures, lots of pictures. This is a visual hobby, and becomes more so every day. It’s why I still buy White Dwarf (the magazine, not a star that's exhausted its nuclear fuel), and it’s been years since I played a Games Workshop game. Well, there was one Epic contest last year, and then Space Hulk, and I love reading Dan Abnet, and… okay, I’m a Games Workshop junkie, but that doesn’t make the pictures any less appealing. Does that make any sense?

I don’t like.

I won’t dwell on the dark side for long, that's Vader's job. It’s simple, really. I don’t like the things that are the opposite of what I like. For example, text-heavy, passive voiced magazines put me to sleep. History articles in any magazine put me to sleep. History articles in gaming magazines not only put me to sleep, but aggravate me as well. If I want to read about (fill in this blank with whatever obscure WW2 East Front battle tickles your fancy) I’ll find a book on it, but trust me, that book is safe wherever it currently resides, because I’m not interested.

Articles on the health of the industry or the future of the industry are equally boring. Usually written by either a consumer or hobby publisher, they rarely address the key problems in the wargaming industry—a small audience, growing smaller by the day, skyrocketing production costs, and a glut of hobby companies flooding an already crowded market.

Untimely Reviews. This is a problem we all live with. The economy won’t support a monthly, professional magazine, so the majority of games that grace the pages of a gaming magazine are at least a year old. Not optimal, but better than nothing.

I guess that’s about it. See you tomorrow. Maybe. 

Mark H. Walker is the author Revelation, a creepy, military action, with a love story, alternate history, World War Three novel thing. It's available from Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing right here. Just $.99. Give it a try. What the hell?