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Ashon · 11-04-2002, 03:29 PM

While I applaud the move to try and make a published magazine, I'm glad at this point that I did not subscribe to it. I thought about, read the website, but never saw any snippits of articles that made me want to purchase the subscription. But on the other hand what Thoric tried to do was make money on a hobby. This is not a bad thing. But he did it without a solid business plan. One in which they could see the magazine grow. Or when shown to someone else, they could see it grow.

The main problem with the business plan was that he tried to base it on existing magazines, where the advertisers carried most of the cost. The following is an assumption and I may be wrong, please let me know if it is. The majority of the advertisers were planned to be muds, and mud related resource sites, mud hosts, and possibly MMORPGS. The fault with this strategy is the following: Most muds are not P2P, and cannot afford advertising, most resource sites, barely make enough to keep the server running, mud hosts are probably the most profitable, but the magazine is targetted at administrators that already have servers, and MMORPGS have marketing departments, that probably aren't aware of the magazine.

If I were to subscribe to the magazine, I would be happy to pay $20US for a yearly subscription. As long as the product was relevant to me. I stopped my Subscription to Dragon, because it focused too much on FR, and not world development.

I wrote 8 Unsolicited articles for IR. Yes a couple of them were a day or two late. Behind Selina Kelley (An Editor) I was the most published writer there. I think the reason the IR died was because lack of time on the part of the Editors. And not having as many articles as they really wanted. I give back to the community the way I feel is best for me. I guide my own development, and talk to people who talk to me. The last Mudwide community thing I did was fill out an interview for Orion for his site. I am prolific enough to be found, and hopefully respected enough, all someone has to do is ask. Other then that I sit back, read, reply to comments, and hack away at my own code.

Can you really ask for anything else from a community of hobbyist on the internet?

11-04-2002, 03:29 PM	#31
Ashon Member Join Date: May 2002 Posts: 75	While I applaud the move to try and make a published magazine, I'm glad at this point that I did not subscribe to it. I thought about, read the website, but never saw any snippits of articles that made me want to purchase the subscription. But on the other hand what Thoric tried to do was make money on a hobby. This is not a bad thing. But he did it without a solid business plan. One in which they could see the magazine grow. Or when shown to someone else, they could see it grow. The main problem with the business plan was that he tried to base it on existing magazines, where the advertisers carried most of the cost. The following is an assumption and I may be wrong, please let me know if it is. The majority of the advertisers were planned to be muds, and mud related resource sites, mud hosts, and possibly MMORPGS. The fault with this strategy is the following: Most muds are not P2P, and cannot afford advertising, most resource sites, barely make enough to keep the server running, mud hosts are probably the most profitable, but the magazine is targetted at administrators that already have servers, and MMORPGS have marketing departments, that probably aren't aware of the magazine. If I were to subscribe to the magazine, I would be happy to pay $20US for a yearly subscription. As long as the product was relevant to me. I stopped my Subscription to Dragon, because it focused too much on FR, and not world development. I wrote 8 Unsolicited articles for IR. Yes a couple of them were a day or two late. Behind Selina Kelley (An Editor) I was the most published writer there. I think the reason the IR died was because lack of time on the part of the Editors. And not having as many articles as they really wanted. I give back to the community the way I feel is best for me. I guide my own development, and talk to people who talk to me. The last Mudwide community thing I did was fill out an interview for Orion for his site. I am prolific enough to be found, and hopefully respected enough, all someone has to do is ask. Other then that I sit back, read, reply to comments, and hack away at my own code. Can you really ask for anything else from a community of hobbyist on the internet?