Dream On Magazine Inquiry

aisupikku · Post by **aisupikku** » Wed Feb 11, 2004 2:47 pm

impetus wrote:willsams you better not leave!!!!!!

I second that!! We're not all bad... and great stuff is happening!

xericx · Post by **xericx** » Wed Feb 11, 2004 3:03 pm

#3 would be the best, as well having a magazine you can carry around with you and whatnot is always better than reading it from a computer screen.however this will be costly(not as much as #2 probaly) so option #1 is the best choice i do believe.PDFs are fine with me.although if you could get enough ads and subscriptions, #3 would be the way to go.

DaMadFiddler · Post by **DaMadFiddler** » Wed Feb 11, 2004 3:20 pm

aisupikku wrote:
impetus wrote:willsams you better not leave!!!!!!
I second that!! We're not all bad... and great stuff is happening!

I very much agree. I know what it's like to leave a dev. scene in disgust (I got sucked in at the very beginning of the TI graphing calculator craze seven or eight years ago, back when I was a lowly high school freshman, and left the scene in '99, appalled by the overwhelming immaturity and absurd personal attacks between various parties in what was supposed to be a mutually beneficial learning experience). It's very disheartening, and it took me a very long time to want to have anything to do with an online community like this again.

So yeah. I just started posting here last week, but I've been reading the site and browsing the forums for a year and a half now, and while it's not without fault, this is a MUCH more friendly and supportive bunch than the calculator folks. No community--traditional or net-based--is going to be completely without friction, and I'm sure everyone either has done or will do something stupid or ill-conceived at some point.

Here's my support.

And just so this isn't COMPLETELY off-topic:

MetaFox: if you want some help with the zine, I'd be more than glad to contribute written articles or interviews or something like that...or perhaps if you just need a proofreader. My top priority in regard to the DCDev scene is Castlevania, but I think I can set aside a little time to help a worthy cause if need be

.

Hobbes T Tiger · Post by **Hobbes T Tiger** » Wed Feb 11, 2004 4:39 pm

I'd like to see issue 1 as a PDF, and maybe a download for the CD. But if you were to also offer the magazine with CD for sale at a reasonable price then I would probably buy it.
So long as it wasn't going to mess me around too much getting it.
I imagine that would be the reaction of others, that so long as it was cheap (and you'll ask so how about $5/5 euros?) and easy for us to get (online ordering) then we would buy it.
I've seen other fanzines who are happy to give them as free downloads but also sell them with extras, and I will pay rather than d'load if the bang for buck pleases me.
And another thing... have you thought about putting the magazine on CDR, perhaps in html and pdf? Then it would be suitable for offline browsing and printing. And if it was possible to mix the data you could put the demos/games on the same CD?
I'd buy that for a dollar!

az_bont · Post by **az_bont** » Wed Feb 11, 2004 4:45 pm

One of the GP32 sites made a magazine once. They offered a downloadable PDF version, and Lik-Sang also distributed them. At first they included it with all GP32 orders, then all orders if you requested it. They also offered it for a few dollars if you weren't buying anything else.

For some more money they also offered a hardback version of the magazine, for collectors.

Perhaps something along these lines? Lik-Sang advertised in the centre of the non-online ones, and provided a great deal of funding and help for the authors.

DaMadFiddler · Post by **DaMadFiddler** » Wed Feb 11, 2004 4:49 pm

Ooh, follow-up random thought to Hobbes' ideas:

CD containing multiboot demos (probably have to ask a menu-bootdisc author for permission to use his system on a for-pay publication, though), containing some demos...and Web browser that pulls up the HTML-formatted zine.

Just a random thought, and may well end up being more work than it's worth. Personally, I'd be very happy with a printed magazine. I just had an odd little idea bouncing in my head after reading Hobbes' post, and decided to let it out to play.

emptythought · Post by **emptythought** » Wed Feb 11, 2004 4:54 pm

I've been waiting for a Dreamcast Homebrew mag for quite some time, all the way back when freeze introduced his demo disc, which unfortunetly, never came about. I'm glad to hear you're trying to get this out for people to read, MetaFox.

As long as the actual magazine pricing isn't too expensive, I'm willing to buy the magazine, and probably a subscription too.

Option #3 seems like the best idea. And also having detailed information about the issue on your site so we know what to expect when purchasing the magazine, would also be cool.

rbenchley · Post by **rbenchley** » Wed Feb 11, 2004 6:18 pm

Option 1 and/or 3 would be best. The example that az_bont gave with the GP32 magazine sounds pretty ideal. I, would definitely subscribe, and I would love to help out in whatever way that I could. I spend quite a bit of time in both Quark Xpress and Adobe InDesign, was editor-in-chief of my high school yearbook, and took a slew of journalism courses in college.

impetus · Post by **impetus** » Wed Feb 11, 2004 6:55 pm

another option is to do the initial run as printed copies and then offer them free online a few months later

UnclePaul · Post by **UnclePaul** » Wed Feb 11, 2004 7:34 pm

Professionally printed would be good, dependant on cost!! (and I dont mind someone making money out of it, it may lead to more projects like this

)

The OK Pope · Post by **The OK Pope** » Wed Feb 11, 2004 9:58 pm

I'd say go PDF with ads thrown in there or perhaps a subscription service through e-mail.

OneThirty8 · Post by **OneThirty8** » Thu Feb 12, 2004 10:17 am

I think you'll find doing it on your home computer is the most costly option. I was in a band a while back, and when we were ready to release a CD I decided to just do them on my computer. The CD-R's and paper were cheap enough, but I spent a fortune on ink, and that was for just a 4-page booklet and CD label. I'd go with professionally printed with ads, provided you can get enough ads to offset enough of the cost so that you make some money off of this, or at the very least don't lose money.

DJ Geki · Post by **DJ Geki** » Thu Feb 12, 2004 2:45 pm

I wish for people to put money into the pockets of people who do stuff for the Dreamcast Scene! Hell, I donated 35 bucks to the Dream On contest. By the way, DONATE MORE, PEOPLE! I want to see some more people enter this contest, and there is still quite a bit of time left before the due date. Hop to! Donate a dollar, five dollars, whatever you can afford!

Thanks!

(And don't leave, Will...I know how you feel, but we need old schoolers to stick with it, as much as it may pain you)

Rigor Mortis · Post by **Rigor Mortis** » Thu Feb 12, 2004 2:58 pm

Becuase it's more convenient, I would read a printed mag more than a PDF. I would still read the PDF, just less. For example, you can't read a PDF in the john or on the subway.

OneThirty8 · Post by **OneThirty8** » Thu Feb 12, 2004 4:57 pm

Rigor Mortis wrote:Becuase it's more convenient, I would read a printed mag more than a PDF. I would still read the PDF, just less. For example, you can't read a PDF in the john or on the subway.

You can on a laptop computer.

Prophet][ · Post by **Prophet][** » Thu Feb 12, 2004 10:11 pm

theirs nothing wring with making money, especially if you've put time into it. I would go with any option that would mean I can get it to Australia for bout $7US. I printed copy would be nice so I can collect them an put them on the self. But I would probably be one of like 3 people in Australia getting it so I wouldn't worry bout what I would like.

JuniorCrb · Post by **JuniorCrb** » Fri Feb 13, 2004 11:12 pm

i'll pay up to $8 USD

pepitonet · Post by **pepitonet** » Fri Feb 13, 2004 11:32 pm

nothing wrong about making money off something you have worked for, i believe if you made it for free it wouldn't last long ,maybe one or two issues but if you not making money you doing it on spare time when nothing else is required to get done, if you making money you will make the time to work on it because no work = no money, by no means i am trying to insult or be mean with this post, and i apologize if it sounds that way.

Life is cruel and unless you are wealthy money will always be an issue and the biggest cruelty of life, so hard to obtain but so easy to spend.

Dream On Magazine Inquiry

How do you think the magazine should be distributed?