A new boardgames review

Anybody want to subscribe or contribute? (Read full article)

Siti

Anybody want to subscribe or contribute? (Read full article)
Gentlemen and Ladies,

I've been asked a few times to consider founding and publishing a new magazine to replace the faithful old "Boardgamer", whose demise is upon us. As some of you may know, the Boardgamer is ceasing publication with the October issue, Bruce Monnin the editor has become the new editor of Operations the house organ of Multi-Man Publishing. And, I as one of the last major contributors to his magazine have been contacted several times by a few of his readership to found a replacement. In this effort I've discussed on a couple of wargame websites the methodology of publication and costs involved, as well as the goals of such a publication.

The editorial goal of the magazine is to produce articles on unsupported wargames and long out of print wargames. Articles on games such as 1830 or Advanced Civilization will also be welcome, even articles on Sports games such as the old Football Strategy will also be just fine. The publication is not limited to only Avalon Hill games. Articles on games from other companies such as West End Games, Clash of Arms, etc. … are more than welcome, in fact the goal is to produce articles on games that people play and like that are
older. My goal is to produce a publication every 3 months, and if it warrants every other month (one can hope anyway).

I seek to publish articles on strategy, tactics, and variants (which is a biggie for me as a veteran tinkerer). In fact the only type of article that will be de-emphasized is the review article. That shouldn't be a problem as the games covered for the most part will be older games whose review in magazines should have been accomplished long ago. And this single de-emphasis is one of the two distinctions between this proposal and those of extant publications (the other being the emphasis upon older unsupported games).

Articles on newer games are also welcome as long as they tend to be those games that are not having mounds of press thrown their way. I seek to serve that which is not largely in the public eye. In this way the "Old Soldiers" can help smaller wargame companies to prosper.

It has been suggested that the magazine begin as an e-mail publication. That is to say begin with the least costly method first with an eventual goal of reaching enough subscribers that the publication can proceed to print media. This helps international subscribers as they don't have to pay the exorbitant costs of international postage. And, as someone else pointed out, the lack of paper is eco-friendly. It will be set up so that subscribers will be able to print off the entire issue, or specific articles as they desire or need.

I also have a desire to provide a graphics insert or counter sheet at least once a year. Though we will have to see if the cost can be born.

I have not yet set a subscription cost, but I do want to keep it to less than $25 a year, and prefer $20 or less. I also have not figured out the remuneration for submissions. I hope to follow the example of the old Boardgamer in that remuneration is offered in future free issues of the magazine (subscription extensions).

If anyone truly wants to subscribe to a publication such as this, please respond to the following e-mail address, which I've set up in order to manage this effort. Please DO respond to this address as I've set it up to build a subscriber database and e-mail list.

tgunslinger@excite.com

Take Care,
Tom Cundiff