With the perils of print publishing in the modern market, we've seen a range of gaming magazines utilise crowdfunding to find and maintain an audience; a notable example has been Nintendo Force Magazine. Now a 'high-end culture' magazine is aiming to join the ranks and, based on early momentum, should get into print.
It's called A Profound Waste of Time: A Gaming Magazine, which has the goal of diving into the cultural aspects that drive the industry. You can see the pitch video and description below.
A Profound Waste of Time is a bold new videogame culture magazine, a lovingly produced home to great writing on the medium and its accompanying narratives. Each issue will play host to a rich variety of voices from inside and outside the industry, interwoven with stunning imagery from leading illustrators and artists. Editorially discerning and beautifully designed, each magazine will serve to celebrate and elevate gaming culture and discussion.
Inspired by high-end culture magazines such as Little White Lies and Elephant, our aim is to redefine what a physical videogame magazine can be, and offer a peerlessly presented collection of progressive writing and artwork. Unconcerned with the latest news or reviews, A Profound Waste of Time will dissect the virtual worlds that inspire, unite and challenge us.
The first magazine looks set to have an interesting line-up, with some familiar names for Nintendo fans being Yacht Club Games, NF Magazine contributor Jonathan Holmes and Tommy Refenes from Team Meat.
You can see the full line-up at the campaign link below. At the time of writing it's raised about £16,000 of its £20,000 target with 26 days still to go; do you like the look of it?
[source kickstarter.com]
Comments 19
This is an interesting idea! I like the name
A Profound Waste Of Money
It's a fine idea, but why not just set up a website and write articles on there about it?
Nice idea, but I can't help but think that each issue will only really appeal to people that are interested in the games that are featured in that issue... so if they run it by subscription only it might prove less popular than if they made it available as individual issues.
Anything Shovel Knight related gets my interest. I'll keep an eye on this one.
@Mega_Yarn_Poochy Because print is superior to reading on a monitor or smartphone. It gives a sense of permanence that web links don't. In fact it is permanent unlike the web, much like a retail game compared to digital.
Meh, seems destined to become a "haven" for indie developers to try to put over their often ambitious--yet even more often half-baked--"art" projects.
...But, at least they're up front about it, what with the name. More candour than you've come to expect from contemporary video game journalism...
"Inspired by high-end culture magazines such as Little White Lies and Elephant, our aim is to redefine what a physical videogame magazine can be"
I don't mean to appear churlish, but if one seeks to produce some sort of games as high culture magazine (or whatever it is they are claiming), perhaps they should be exacting when it comes to grammar, especially given that this is part of the mission statement on their facebook page. I would recommend reading up on dangling participles and misplaced modifiers in the present case. Grammar Nazism? Sorry, but zero tolerance when it comes to editing standards, especially at the supposed high end of the market.
@ducktrapper "facebook" should have a capital F.
Hehehe. Had a feeling a typo would creep in. It usually does when one comments on someone else's grammar. Good thing I wasn't writing a Kickstarter blurb, really...
@ducktrapper There's nothing non-grammatical in what you quoted. Everything is firmly in the realm of actual English syntax, even if it might not satisfy the style guidelines of prescriptive grammars written decades ago, grammars which were never correct in the first place.
I kickstarted it the other day. I hope they eventually sell prints of that cover art too. I tweeted them the idea.
Spounds a little pretentious, i love game art and all mediums of design, but this collaboration sounds like a shoreditch popup shop.
I like the front cover, but the concept sounds abit boring
@PanurgeJr If there is nothing non-grammatical in what I quoted then it means that dangling modifiers are now broadly tolerated. Which of course they might be - I'm an old timer. Still, I wouldn't tolerate it from my students and red ink would certainly flow. I'll stick to my grumpy old grammar rules, thank you very much.
@ducktrapper There's no dangling modifier. The participial phrase modifies "our aim," which it literally appears next to. Perhaps you should hold off on some of that red ink.
@PanurgeJr Disagree. The people involved in creating the magazine were inspired. Their aim was not inspired. Their aim, as they themselves state, is to create their own magazine. We can be inspired, and that inspiration can modify our aims and plans, but the subject should be we and not our aim. It is not a clanger of a dangling participle, but a dangling participle it is.
@ducktrapper Whatever. You're arguing style and rhetoric, not grammar. And even if I accept the claim that only a person can be inspired, "our" includes "we" in its definition, and its modification in this case remains perfectly grammatical.
Whatever. I am a grammar teacher but who cares. Believe what you want to believe. If you want to believe the possessive 'our aim' is identical with 'we' as a subject you are welcome to do so. You are also welcome to believe that it has nothing to do with grammar. Good luck to you, sir. Time is precious, and I have no further interest in prolonging this. If you are at all interested, I recommend getting a book on grammar and taking up your quarrel with its author(s).
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