Would you read a short GW magazine?

The failed attempt of a thread on interviewing RAWR (congrats!) on their 11th win prompted me to ask a question I wanted to ask for a long while, but always hesitated due to 2 reasons (my lack of time if the project goes forward, the derail-troll-thread phenomenon of Guru). At the moment, this is just an idea floating on an empty wiki.

Would you read a short GW magazine? Say: a monthly which has brief news about changes in the game, the PvP scene, interesting insight into game mechanics/classes/skills/strategies; possibly a section as in the old Scribe; overall or specific insight into GW lore/quests/missions; coverage of player-organised events and more globally the community. I was hoping that many of the great posters on Guru and beyong Guru could help by writing articles (I already have a tentative first list of people to contact).

I realise that there may be similar existing products, like Guru's frontpage (not the forum, but a selection of the most interesting bits of the forum and more, is it organised by Inde?), but I guess/was hoping that going for a monthly format would allow a more in-depth experience, although the substance of many articles are already here on Guru. Quality not quantity would be a principle of such a magazing, so don't expect something huge.

BTW, this thread is no promise that, if there's strong support, it'll happen (time is a critical resource and there's no guarantee that there'll be quality writers). And ofc the idea is open, so I'd be helping anyone who wants to take it forward if I don't.

So: What would you expect from such a journal? What would you make reject the idea or dislike the project? Feel free to submit any idea (if so, PLEASE READ THE ENTIRE THREAD to see if it hasn't been posted already) or comment.

1st and yes

12 chars

Let me quote myself so that this thread doesn't end up in a long list of Yes/No.

There used to be one...they just didn't have very interesting articles.

I'm not sure what I would expect from a GW magazine at this point in time. There isn't a whole lot going on in the game. I expect you'd have a hard time coming up with things to report about.

There was a time when new farms popped up frequently, people were still learning game mechanics, new exciting things were being added to the game.

I'll see if I can find that old one, I honestly don't remember what kind of articles they had in there.

heh...it was still on the Guild Wars community page...

http://photics.com/category/guild-wa...ite/magazines/

I'd enjoy it.

First of all, ease of access. Obviously the format would be online based, but it'd be nice if it had a stickied thread in some subforum with an updated date when new issues are posted.

What would I like to see in it? Well, what you would expect out of any magazine. What events happened in the previous month and how they were received/enjoyed/hated, general tactics, general discussion about any recent buffs/nerfs/meta builds, etc. Having some regular authors who can post mature and yet individual articles would be a plus, just so the community can get familiar with what they're seeing.

What would you expect from such a journal?
With anything journal wise, I'd expect a lot of creativity with content that's relatively "fresh", meaning you don't interview the same guild or player all the time, along with unbiased interviews. Lets see... Advertising community events, Profession Q&A/Articles/Interviews by people who are actually experienced in the class.

I like WoW.com (WoW insider) sections of articles and information a lot, it keeps me coming back to read more even if I don't play WoW. :P

What would you make reject the idea or dislike the project?
Fanboys, poorly written articles, lack of content/creativity. Players who advertise sheep ideas instead of a neutral opinion. Poor layouts/images.

didn't we used to have one on the site from the Scribe?

but yeah, a proper magazine and a Player Community council would bea good idea like EvE Online has

but hey, I've stopped mentioning about it as after six months of trying to get some help setting it up i can't be bothered anymore

It's kinda sad The Scribe has been discontinued. Noticing WoW's Insider, I'm really hoping Anet will increase their interaction with the playerbase a LOT, because that was one of the things I liked about Guild Wars originally.

I don't know if I would read a a playermade magazine, there just isn't anything new and interesting to read about anymore on GW1, if I can be so blunt. Even the 'we will keep the community better informed about what our new update is about', has proven false.

if it's an online magazine - yes, please.

I'd enjoy it very much because it'd be awesome to read others opinions and get some updates and reviews from other people.
/yes

Magazines are good for things which have new and exciting information.

Which is the exact opposite of GW, where nothing changes and nothing is unknown.

I am sure there are people willing to consume community content on the game.

Even if you know exactly what to write, most of the time is consumed by actually writing it down, editing it, finding and creating (!) the appropriate pictures, layouting it and then shipping it out the door and promoting it. Especially guides are a lot of work if you want to make them relatively failsafe. Having an actual topic to write about is your smallest problem.

Have you ever considered podcasting? It has less additional work attached to it. Speaking is more lenient when it comes to screwing up, written mistakes get more poked at and most of all, a podcast is less work, than even a small fanzine.

No, the content will be absolutely essential and the reason why such a project would exist.

I know fully well how time-consuming this could become (talking to Inde helps understand this aspect ). But that's my problem to a certain extent (this is NOT going to be a nice and shiny magazine to a pro standard of layout, unless we get the help from good designers) and I'd rather have a discussion on the suitability of the basic idea, provided the initial setting I described in the OP. To me, a long list of "yes I'd like to read it" sounds like a "why not? but well, I'd probably loose interest with it fairly quickly", except for the people that will spend the time to actually write something with more details.

I know that a lot of quality Guru posters would read it and even possibly contribute to it after a while. But I'm uncertain whether it'd be readable by the average joe, in particular if we discuss a lot of "technical" content. Which is also a challenge for those that'd be tempted to write such a mag!

Ty for those who posted their opinion here. (LoneSamurai you were in my list of people to contact if the project comes alive)

There isn't enough happening in the game to warrant any extra form of media outside forum discussion.

Who gives a shit about pvp tournaments anyway?

I could definitely dig it. Like a few people above me said that nothing is ever changing in guild wars? Yeah, pve doesn't change much over time you're right. But pvp (let me remind you what guild wars is about) is constantly changing. Changes in the metagame, tournaments, shifts in the guild ladder, maybe even what specific players are doing and who they're playing for if you want to get really into it.

I see a lot of pvers with a 'b' key try to talk about pvp and make it interesting, but you can see right through that really easily and it makes reading it feel kinda illegitimate. So, what i'd look for is if there was to be someone writing pvp oriented articles, for them to be legit and have a real opinion and real idea of what they're talking about.

But the idea does sound very cool. Best of luck.

Exactly. PvE wise the game is pretty static. Besides the skill updates and weekend events there is not much going on. You would end up discussion old stuff and known builds or the lore.

Discussing PvP is definitely a possibility, but only a limited crowd would be interested in that (in my experience less than the PvE crowd that would be interested in a magazine).

So ask yourself: Would you be able to produce enough material for multiple issues and would that material attract a decent sized crowd?

Instead of a full blown 'zine, why not a monthly column for PvP'ers focusing on the meta, skill balances, etc. I too worry about the sustainability of anything bigger for GW1.

Thats the main reason my show is only monthly now aswell...

three hours once a week is too much for the game as is, but a monthly show (aslong as the balance happens BEFORE my show and not FIVE MINUTES after it finishes) then we can get people on air and in IRC discussing the balance changes aswell as a topic of the month, but finding those topics is getting increasingly more difficult as the stagnation sets in more

I'd read it and I'd be all for it.

Looking through the entire Guru forums it's clear to me that people still have plenty to talk about, discuss, debate, and share with others. One of my favorite reads here on Guru are peoples creative works in their own stories and artworks. That's something that can certainly be incorporated.

You could have sections for new players. Tips, tricks, and resources. Even give them a chance to be 'interviewed' from a new players perspective. It may give everyone a feeling of being more involved.

Absolutely, PvP has content to be put in as well with current meta's and design. It could even be used as a better resource for players who are trying to make that jump from PvE to PvP. Articles and advice on how to do it, what to look for, what to expect; All can be branched out into many different subjects.

While our game may be past its prime, it's not gone, and not forgotten. Another great thing about any magazine such as this is that it can also be used as a bridge of information into Guild Wars 2 as more information becomes available.

If there's one thing Guru can show everyone, it's that many of us have plenty of creativity and ideas that can be turned into Article Material. There's still a wealth of iinformation out there to be shared and talked about.

there isn't much to discuss. after all, there are not many newcomers and a smal faction of the overall player base is actually pvping and everyone else don't give a s. . the only thing left is creating content with the lore as the background, writing satirical essays on the devs, the game and the community, or gossiping about virtually everything.

i have enough projects to advance, so i can't help you. after alll, i am not even a native english speaker, but i like reading print and online magazines about one of my favourite games.