Re: Shrapnel to Take on Wargamer.com?
 

(Forgive my English, I go to school in Texas at Rice University and am from Indonesia. I speak well enough but never coud type it well. Papers give me a headache to write them. I glad I'm not English major heh heh.)

I appreciate your reply Annette. I understand your point of view and can see how it makes some sense to a extent, but a sense of humor like that may just make you seem less objectiv. I know Matrix is heard of having spent money on the Wargamer site but I think thier writers are doing a decent job...sure matrix make the gold award (whatever it was) for publisher of the year, but Matrix publish lots of wargames, perhaps with appeael to more peopel in a wargame crowd. Their audience = wargame peopel who eat and live it.

No offence to shrapnel at all because you make good stuff to, just not in same area (make sense??). WWII, it seem, is matrix Specalty and lots of game made in that area. You game like Dragoon and BCT/Tiger are very specific and not broad in general covering a timeperiod of war. 82nd I have highe hope for and look forward to it. Just need $ to get it. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Anyways my point is tat wargamer seems to do more mainstrem stuff that appael to broader audihence where as yours are good yet appael to those with narrow taste. I hope this is clear.


I am relative new to these Games like this, have played not long of late but schoolwork and programming take up more time than I care to give. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif I read a lot of books but I go a little slow to make it sink. But maybe I am not knowing what games You mean. What small companes do 'niche' games??? I have not heard of any except in game mags.

I will be honest again, I see HORSE and think it looks cool, but a freind say it is just MULE all over again. What is MuLE, I asked, but he said it was done in almost twenty years ago. Why remake this??? I hope not many are like this because origenality is more important than rehashing old Ideas.

Again tanks for your reply and I look forward to more.

War_Oberst

Re: Shrapnel to Take on Wargamer.com?
 

I think this hard because there are many peopel who write reviews out there. Is it not their opinion that is posting? It is fair to assume that if a game come out and five hundred buy it. Then say fifty hate it awful and four hundred fifty love it. One of fifty that hate it is the reviewer and writes as such.

Balance of being a good objective writer is knowing you are not the only one who play it and if you hate it there may be peopel that love it. Or other way round. Say you hate the game but ask why can be done to make it better and good. Not telling peopel who make it why they are stupid. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

When you read opinion of gamer reviewer it is a measure of thier publisher who post reviews as to if they let such garbage out there or not or if they make writer temper it.

As for special interest it would be high prase for gamesite to be owned by publisher and make it have fair review ESPECALLY Of games that compettitors make.

Re: Shrapnel to Take on Wargamer.com?
 

What is a competitor? As a niche game publisher, we compete with other niche games publishers for developers products. And that is all. Once a competitor has a game it is in the best interest of all publishers to have that game be a success. The more successes the greater the market.

This isn't automobiles we are selling here, where there will only be two or three to a household. Most gamers, those that account for almost 80% of games sold, buy many games. It is not a matter of I can buy x publisher's game or I can buy y publisher's game. If they like both games, they will buy both games.

So, being a publisher and being fair in reviews is not a problem that I really see. Our policy to reviewers is very simple:

1. Write the review to the products audience. (Don't reveiw a hardcore wargame as it applies to a casual gamer, because that is not the market the publisher is going after).

2. Give the pluses and minuses fairly. (Tell the audience what you like and don't like about the game).

3. Don't score it as this is subjective. (Reveiwer A may not have the same interpretation of scoring as reviewer B).

4. Treat every game equally, regardless of publisher.

Re: Shrapnel to Take on Wargamer.com?
 

By description its supposed to be just about the indies. And I do tend to believe that is what is planned.

Of course a couple of things have to be fought to pull that off. One is that they need to get writers on board who can work on that goal. Another is that they need to find the indies (hence the pre-announcement and a call for contact by any indie developer/publishers). And finally, anyone involved in the project might have to consciously make an effort not to give hints about their own personal preferences.

"Shrapnel" is a great name for a publisher who has their eye on the marketing niche of indie developers doing strategy wargames. And they have done a great job of it. Im not sure if widening their publisher coverage would be good or not. I certainly wouldnt feel pressed to recommend it. So there is a slight dilemma in that we have Shrapnel who obviously loves and actively develops strategy wargames, backing the new magazine for covering all indie products.

They will have a rough go in the early days gathering material. And they will obviously have a wealth of information on their own games, their own developers, and some side surfing on the interest of their own genre. Yet they cant rely on that wealth of material without seeming to have created a biased magazine.

Anyone who believes in their sincerity and wants this project to succeed, feel free to pitch in. Even if its dropping little tidbits of names for your favorite indie developers. Better yet, pitch the mag to indie developers and have them contact the mag for inclusion.

Re: Shrapnel to Take on Wargamer.com?
 

Which indies have you contacted so far?

Re: Shrapnel to Take on Wargamer.com?
 

There are many, many companies out there developing and publishing niche games. And you've found the mission behind TheGamingNews: to bring attention to those games not usually covered in the major magazines. In the meantime, you may wish to visit the Independent Games Festival website for more informatation about indie games.

No, not all indie games are remakes of older games. You may find it interesting to read A Note from the Designer in which Todd Gillessie specifically explains why he was inspired by M.U.L.E. to make Space HoRSE. And there's always our free downloadable demo so you may see if the game is right for you prior to making a purchase.

I'm not the person heading up the process but my understanding is we're still collecting contact information from those who have responded to our press release. We have been very pleased with what we've heard so far. If you know of a developer or publisher who is interested but not yet been in touch with us, please ask them to send us their contact information using this form.

Re: Shrapnel to Take on Wargamer.com?
 

Will do. Jeff Lapkoff and Naval Warfare Simulations come to mind.

Re: Shrapnel to Take on Wargamer.com?
 

Thanks, Jim. I've talked to Chris at NWS. I'm not sure about Jeff.

Re: Shrapnel to Take on Wargamer.com?
 

I�m sure I�ll take some heat for this, but I�m going to play devil�s advocate. The quotes below are the documentation portion of two pc game reviews published on the same review website within a two week period. Both games would be considered wargames from independent publishers. Although written by different authors, one would assume the reviews were held to one editorial policy by one editorial staff. I�ve noted the reviews� publication dates in relation to the games� release dates but obviously cannot say when the review copies were made available. I feel safe assuming Game A was not sent seven months prior to release and that Game B was not sent seven months past release. I have removed the games� titles and replaced them with Game A and Game B respectively.

Game A, reviewed same day as game�s release:
Game B, reviewed 7 months after game�s release : Now, if I told you that one of these games was published by the company which owned the review site, would you believe both reviews were written objectively and without bias?

Re: Shrapnel to Take on Wargamer.com?
 

Brilliantly stated!