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Submission Deadline for Issue # 2: December 20th, 2013
With issue # 1 on the verge of being published, I would like to take this opportunity to submit the call for submissions for issue # 2.
It is important to keep in mind that issue # 1 is merely a starting point. With a goal of publishing new issues each month, the objective is to grow the content, while simultaneously improving upon the quality of the finished product, as well as to improve the efficiency with which we publish each new issue.
You are always invited to submit material, whether it be articles, reviews, or other material for future issues, even issues beyond the next one on the immediate horizon. Hopefully, both individuals and PBM companies will get on board, for the benefit of the hobby and industry.
Free advertising for both PBM companies and PBM moderators will be continued forward, for issue # 2. The objective of this approach to advertising is to facilitate growing the hobby, and to encourage development of new PBM and other turn-based games.
We welcome your sending of PBM-related photographs, whether current or nostalgic.
Issue # 2 will be a free issue. Again, the objective is to encourage and to facilitate growth within the hobby.
Thank you for any and all interest. We thank you in advance for your submissions for issue # 2.
Submissions may be sent to:
GrimFinger@GrimFinger.Net
Mark@wyeastgames.com
Submission Deadline for Issue # 2: December 20th, 2013
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what sorts of contributions are you most in need of?
possible ixnay contributions:
- comprehensive review of Cluster Wars
- fun compilation/discussion of Far Horizons experience
- first entry of a monthly column on PBM esoterica
- artwork to fit between articles (any particular format?)
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(12-05-2013, 07:36 PM)ixnay Wrote: what sorts of contributions are you most in need of?
possible ixnay contributions:
- comprehensive review of Cluster Wars
- fun compilation/discussion of Far Horizons experience
- first entry of a monthly column on PBM esoterica
- artwork to fit between articles (any particular format?)
Everything.
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12-09-2013, 01:41 PM
OK, I am off work, today, and thought that I would take a few moments out to provide an update on how the submissions are coming along for issue # 2.
It's looking bad, people. While the submissions cupboard isn't entirely bare, Old Mother Hubbard's selection of what to include is pretty darned thin. We made the first issue happen. But, can we do it, again?
Sure, we can. We're going to, in fact. It may just be a thinner issue, is all. But, we'll get it done. That's the hope, anyway.
This is the month of December. It's probably not the best time of year to be asking for submissions of articles, reviews, thoughts, and what not for a magazine that is fresh out of the starting gate. But, since it's the first new PBM magazine to come along in quite some time, perhaps a couple of you out there reading this will pull on your capes and your cowls and save the day for all of us.
There's some new ads coming in issue # 2 - but, only from certain PBM companies.
I would take this opportunity to remind one and all that this forthcoming issue, Issue # 2, will be the final issue published in the year 2013. So, if you've got an itch to scratch this year, then this will be the final opportunity to scratch it, PBM-magazine-style.
Also, I did create a poll to allow readers of the new magazine, Suspense & Decision, to give issue # 1 either a thumbs up or a thumbs down. The poll is located at the top of the thread that I just provided a link to in this paragraph. But, in case you missed it, click on the link, below:
One dilemma that will always be in our presence, that will always materialize in our midst, is uncertainty. Writing an article off the top of one's head is an unappealing prospect for many - and yet, the vast majority of what I write in any medium tends to be off-the-cuff commentary. To think is to delay, where writing is concerned. For some reason, many seem to suffer under the self-imposed delusion that one must already know what one intends to say, before one begins to set pen to paper or finger to keyboard. I assure you, this simply isn't so.
Writing, to me, is much like talking. Just speak (or write), and dialogue will follow quite naturally. If you continue long enough, then conversation ensures. Try it, if you don't believe me. What do you think this is, but me doing the same?
Articles for the new PBM magazine don't have to be verbose tomes. Rather, they can also be relatively short affairs, brief exercises in opinionated pretty-much-whatevers.
Love a PBM game? Just tell us why. Hate that turn-based game that they're running? Again, tell us why. If you can do that in four or five sentences, then that will work for me. But, if your opinion is a bit more substantial than that, and you require some breathing space to stretch your opinionated arms in, then by God, we've got room for you in Suspense & Decision magazine. If I have to, then I will shove the Mad Scientist out of his hammock in his laboratory, and we'll make room for what you have to say.
Rather than dwell on whether we shall be verbal peasants or literary kings, though, I shall move on to another topic. You know the one. You knew that I was going to bring it up.
That's right, my fair-weathered and big-feathered friends, I'm talking about the front cover of issue # 2. Just what the Hell is going there?
To be honest with you, I really don't know. I haven't decided. Should we go with a blank front cover, this time around (Just to see if anybody notices)? Or, should we incorporate an ad from a particular PBM or turn-based game right onto the front cover? Or, did anyone like the front cover of issue # 1? If so, or even if you didn't, how did our front cover for issue # 1 of Suspense & Decision magazine compare to the front covers of various PBM magazines from the past?
We want Suspense & Decision to be both entertaining and informative. We want it to be interesting. We want it to be fun. We want it to be something of value to you, our beloved, esteemed, and finicky readers. Since Suspense & Decision is a PBM magazine (Despair not, ye turn-based gaming adherents of other clans), I suppose that we're a part of the PBM family, now - like it or not.
That's right, boys and girls. We're all family, now. And you know what that means, right?
This seems like as good a stopping point as any to leave you hanging.
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(12-09-2013, 01:41 PM)GrimFinger Wrote: That's right, my fair-weathered and big-feathered friends, I'm talking about the front cover of issue # 2. Just what the Hell is going there?
To be honest with you, I really don't know. I haven't decided. Should we go with a blank front cover, this time around (Just to see if anybody notices)? Or, should we incorporate an ad from a particular PBM or turn-based game right onto the front cover? Or, did anyone like the front cover of issue # 1? If so, or even if you didn't, how did our front cover for issue # 1 of Suspense & Decision magazine compare to the front covers of various PBM magazines from the past?
You know my point of view on this Grim, though I understand raising a discussion about it. Its a Gaming Magazine, so I find no harm having artwork from the games the magazine writes about; front page artwork included. As long as, several different games from several different companies pass from that position. Otherwise its biased, and none wants that or you are no longer an independent magazine.
Considering you are giving everyone a fair chance to have his artwork published however, I think you should use whatever resources you have available and that includes artwork, because at the end of the day
(12-09-2013, 01:41 PM)GrimFinger Wrote: We want Suspense & Decision to be both entertaining and informative. We want it to be interesting. We want it to be fun.
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(12-09-2013, 05:11 PM)Silver Wrote: You know my point of view on this Grim, though I understand raising a discussion about it. Its a Gaming Magazine, so I find no harm having artwork from the games the magazine writes about; front page artwork included. As long as, several different games from several different companies pass from that position. Otherwise its biased, and none wants that or you are no longer an independent magazine.
Considering you are giving everyone a fair chance to have his artwork published however, I think you should use whatever resources you have available and that includes artwork, because at the end of the day
(12-09-2013, 01:41 PM)GrimFinger Wrote: We want Suspense & Decision to be both entertaining and informative. We want it to be interesting. We want it to be fun.
Just trying to generate some discussion and feedback, and my personal preference (at least, at this juncture in time) is for the front cover of Suspense & Decision magazine to contain art, art generated more for visual interest, visual impact, and poking at the hobby and its many intricacies, rather than to showcase a particular game within the hobby, per se. After all, that's what they make (or should be making) advertisements for, in my considered opinion.
But, for the sake of this site having a forum, and being comprised largely of a forum presence, a separate and distinct interest exists to generate discussion here, beyond the pages of our magazine aspirations.
Additionally, generation of discussion in this forum may well provide fuel for the magazine, from time to time.
If I were to dedicate the front cover to particular games, as in effectively using the front cover as a highly visible advertisement for a particular game, then any approach along those lines would necessarily be with the understanding that no single game nor single game company would hog all of the front cover space, from issue to issue. I would rotate the games being advertised on the front cover, if I went that route. However, if I did ever go that route - which is exceptionally unlikely - I would likely only showcase a single game at a time on the front cover, and there would likely be a certain amount of time, issues-wise, before that same game would be featured on the front cover, again, in a future issue.
Now, with regard to ads in general, in a previous e-mail to me, the Mad Scientist admonished, "I'm working on some general submission guidelines, should be ready after the holiday. While I could have looked up the information (and for the advertisers listing at the end I did), I don't think we want to get into the habit of writing people's ad copy. There's an issue of personal responsibility, and for some reason I can't fathom they may have wanted it that way."
With Mark incorporating links directly into the PDF copy of the magazine, itself, Suspense & Decision should make it easier for readers to connect to games and companies being advertised within its pages, compared to many PBM magazines from bygone days.
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Today, I set into motion the obtaining of cover art for issue # 2's front cover. Following me sending the artist a few ideas for the cover, and telling him to use his judgment, he responded, "That's a relief. I think I can come up with something better."
It will be interesting to see what he comes up with, especially since the deadline isn't staring him directly in the face, as it was with issue # 1, by the time that I got around to choosing him for the task.
On a separate note, advertisement submissions appear to be running ahead of article submissions, for issue # 2 of Suspense & decision magazine, at this particular point in time. Of, course, I haven't even begun writing anything for issue # 2, yet. ACK!!
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I've received some initial sketches for the front cover for issue # 2.
Beyond issue # 2, which will also be the final issue of 2013, I have begun making plans for the front cover for issue # 3, which will herald the arrival of the new year, 2014.
And, assuming that we survive into the new year for a bit, I also have a special treat for our readership several issues into this magazine title. It's sure to drive the Mad Scientist, Mark Wardell, even madder.
Of course, it all depends upon whether individuals rally to support the effort, by continuing to submit articles, reviews, and various other assorted literary sundries.
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Hi Everybody
I haven't been on here for awhile but I really liked issue #1. Still haven't finished reading it. In fact I'm around page 15 but I am still slogging thru it. Thank you Charles for doing this ! I'm definitely thinking of getting into maybe 2 of these games - Empires at War 1805 especially. One note on Legends - I remember ordering the rules & the orders back in the 80s & thinking maybe if I quit my job I can find time to play this. But balance that against being in 5+ games of Hyborian War & a few other things. Anyway I gotta go for now.
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It appears that the front cover for issue # 2 of Suspense & Decision magazine is done.
Now, if we can just get some more articles and ads submitted, and get it all compiled into a single issue.
I wonder if we can get this issue published by Christmas Day?
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