(07-14-2016, 08:59 AM)Harlequin Wrote: Hi Grim,
Really good to see you back!
Harlequin
Thanks! In hindsight, the whole venture has a start-and-go quality about it, but as I scrutinize it a bit, the first nine issues or so did have an air of regularity about them.
We botched a few things. We bungled a bit. Even still, I think that the magazine got a few things right along the way.
I suspect that certain forces are always in play, whether it is on the magazine publishing end of the PBM hobby, or on the game moderator end, or even on the player end of things. Those forces can work to your benefit or to your detriment. Plus, we all have our own respective vantage points, so we all tend to perceive what works and what doesn't differently.
For PBM companies and their lineal descendants, not all games that they created or ran enjoyed the same degree of success. For a PBM magazine, not every issue achieves the same degree of success. Honestly, though, I think that the problems that impacted the magazine the worst tended to have nothing to do with Suspense & Decision, itself.
So, just as when players quit playing PBM games for a bit, only to resume playing later, and just as when PBM companies quit running a given PBM game only to create a new one later, I feel that it's still OK to give the magazine another go, even if the publication lapsed into non-publication, previously.
So, I'll give it another go, and as I proceed about doing that, I will be guided by my own first-hand experience to try and avoid obstacles that I think had a bearing on the magazine not getting published. Granted, ultimately, I may fail yet again. Who knows, though? Maybe I'll stumble upon a better formula, and longevity of publication will emanate from that formula.
Or maybe it will end up just being more of the same, and history will repeat itself, once more. Until and unless it is actually attempted, though, it remains hypothesis and not actual reality.
Some change will be implemented, not because I personally buy into the theory behind it (smaller issues will make burnout less likely), but because multiple people are advocating for it. The primary reason why I do not feel that issue size equates to burnout likelihood is because I have never felt burned out, yet, about publishing the magazine. But here's part of my thinking, Harlequin - perhaps the increased chance of building up potential material for future issues will create a new dynamic, one that brings its own sort of magic into play.
Then again, maybe I should save material like this for the issues, themselves. Of course, if there's anyone out there that's still interested in Suspense & Decision being a regular staple on the PBM scene, again - which there are at least a few indications that there are - then they might want to know upfront at least some of what about the next attempt to resurrect Suspense & Decision magazine will be any more likely to succeed than what was attempted the last time around. Thus, why I bother to plant this nugget of information here, right now.
Will anything actually take root? Only time will ultimately tell.
