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Why Do We Do This?
For the money and fame? You're Dreaming!
Everything seems to be an inside joke, until you come-in from the cold.
So we continue on-line, looking forward to where Space Gamer is going, and at the same time looking backward from whence we came. This gives me a chance to say "forward and backward" in the same sentence. Where I come from, that's just fancy writing. If ever there was a time for such, this is it. We're reached a pretty momentous point.
For those of you familiar with TSG (as it was called in the golden age befitting the humble blue collar origin of the magazine), the editor's job was to write "Where We're Going." (WWG as it was also called in the golden...Okay not everything was for simple style.) WWG would tell you readers about all the nifty things that were coming, to be sure, many of them were just good intentions never fulfilled. WWG was a chat about the new stuff, and made the reader salivate on what was to follow. I read many a letters section -- that's the word most used, "salivate." I read the articles, and I found it difficult to contain my own drool. In a good way please (family magazine).
Now, I'm just one of many editors. But in that forward/backward looking manner, I thought I would exploit my literary angle. Not to say the new Platinum age of www.spacegamer.com is exploitation. The editor is the only one worth exploiting. On that note, I always wondered what would happen if every article in a magazine had the same title. That would pretty much freak the editor out. Yet as I said, I’m not the editor. The "freeaak age" of Space Gamer; I love messing with my editor.
So, I poured through my back issues and looked for what was there. I expanded my collection of Space Gamers and read the combined works of three decades of the good stuff. All were a delight. Just at random, I was looking at issue fifty-nine, which included a battle suit game that the owner had to split his magazine to pull out the few pages of counters to use to pulverize his opponent in a futuristic, deadly hydraulic-powered slug-fest. Many would be lured into saying this was the Alloy Steel age. This was also the time that the magazine went full color, a Technicolor age. Issue fifty-nine had reviews of software, and suspiciously ads for the same. It had game expansions, a feedback section to vote on your favorite game products, some game reviews and a fun little article on Murphy's Rules.
A good paper magazine. If you can find that issue on eBay, buy yourself a copy. In 2004 we promised a new Space Gamer, bold initiative. We stove for Virtual Worlds and play for the casual gamer. Space Gamer was going to be different than any other magazine. Each issue would read like a magazine and play like a game. The iSpacegamer was crude in places, but bold in execution. "iSpacegamer" was intended to appeal to the Internet savvy consumer. Just in this first issue, you got several scenarios, a premium multi-player game and resource material for all those other games stuffed in the back closet. Dare I say it? A rich, creamy, delight to all senses? We've reached the Nougat Age of Space Gamer.
It languished and died. The editorial staff was told goodbye. The authors had to return to jobs that offered security to pay the bills. What was lost? Very little of the dream, but nearly two decades of attracting an audience.
Maybe we can be less ambitious and still give each Ref who visits some tools to make his life easier. Damn, I wish I could roll a die here for a different number for everyone who visits. But ASP.NET would just throw errors in your browser and on your tablet and on your phone it would really distort.
The hope remains. Sure, we can review software, or just deliver it. Yeah, we can review games, or deliver them. Yes, we can review miniatures or just . . . well that doesn't work as neatly as my forward/backward hook. But, the surveys can be real time, so we can overlook the lack of miniatures.
You don't have to purchase this magazine on eBay, because it's here sitting on line. The content is eternal. You dear reader don't have to clear a section on your bookshelf, setting a place of honor next to your debate and diving trophies; all we ask is for you to set aside one little link on your browser. Think of all the space you can save for those enticing confections filled with, you might guess, nougat. So simple, why hasn't anyone thought of it before, aside from the makers of Milky Way, Three Musketeers, Zero bars,...?
The world moved to Twitter and video slays the novelist. Influencers drive sales. Actors run D&D games without a glint in the eye and delight at advancing a character. Dare I mention the 18-24 male demographic is on console games.
Many web sites make great effort to provide very useful information. I hope to visit them all, but the ones I've seen are missing the interactive element. Yes, I can get my Torg character sheet there. But how long must I wait before others join me in asking, why can't I just play the game here? Aha! A trick question, since of course, you would be asking yourself, Torg? What sort of a fan boy is still playing Torg?
But had you picked a game that was actually fun, when it was published, you might want to still play that game as well as read the articles telling you how much fun you can be having by playing such a game. And I'm talking any game here, games of Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Cyberpunk, Great Battles of the Civil War, board games and even Free-Style Role-Play like Good Guys Finish Last and Barony.
I've played and endured many a system. Yet the road always leads me back free-style. Our method of gaming is head and shoulders above the other guy's Ancient Crap sold as legacy material. Really, join me on the ramparts of the Forthright Age of Space Gamer.
Okay, there are some other games I've enjoyed. Some may even be considered to be fine games.
Now, I don't intend to fill my few electronic pages -- despite having pretty much no page count limit on the web -- with cheap praise. There still is a cyber age to herald, a new era. If I must, I will pound you, my dear reader, over the head so you'll appreciate the difference. This is not just cybertext in praise of all things gaming. We struggled as we stepped our way into the new venture. Many will never see the difference. This is just like all the others to them. The candy is always cane to them, and maybe I too am deluded. But, for lack of a better word, we ended up with . . . Nougat!
Consider yourself properly berated and tasked to go forth and spread the word. Space Gamer will be the refuge of Better Games. Join the frenzy. The orcs of MoonBuld return and must be slaughtered. Toss aside your cause, challenge the worthiness of my words. I dare you. That is in a nice sort of Friendly Age of Space Gamer. And this time, we don't need to ask for postage stamps to get your Mary Anne photographs.
Everything seems to be an inside joke, until you come-in from the cold.
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