Just Another Game

Five months after my first post about GamesMaster, and I’m finally done with my story. Everyone who was able to read (love it or hate it) a copy of the mag should be thankful to the following people for making it possible.

• Lisa Gokongwei and Aurora Mangubat, for deciding to bring in a videogame magazine
• Denis del Callar and Neil Palabrica, for giving me the chance to make my own decisions.
• Ed Geronia, Jaykee Evangelista, and the rest of the GM staff. Next to the FHM people, I think we had the most fun at the office
• The Summit Advertising Team. Special mention to Cha Clarino and Ginger Taduran (O wag na masama loob) for literally hitting our monthly quotas by themselves.
• The Production, Circulation, Trade, Web, and Events teams, for making GamesMaster’s presence felt in the three years that it was on the newsstands.
• Of course, my fellow Associate Publishers, for sitting through the long video presentations

If I forgot anyone, again, I’d like to thank you. So this doesn’t end like a goodbye blog post, time to move on….

To everyone who bought an issue, two issues, all issues — my sincerest thanks.

*For our June 2005 issue, we decided to give away a PSP to anyone who can give us the best picture showing how much he loves GamesMaster. Apparently, the winner was a she

*The GamesMaster forums are still active! Just visit Gamebayan.com.ph

If you haven’t read my blog posts about GamesMaster, just click on the following links:

• The Launch
• Trade
• Editorial Setbacks
• The Advertising Uphill Climb
• The Pinoy Gamer

I was just reading the news on IGN earlier today when I saw an item on World of Warcraft — 10 million subscribers worldwide. To put things in perspective, that’s roughly one-tenth of what the Philippines’ population will be in 2030.

“It’s very gratifying to see gamers around the world continuing to show such enthusiasm and support for World of Warcraft,” said Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. “We’re always pleased to welcome new players to the game, and we’re looking forward to sharing the next major content update with the entire community in the months ahead.”

There have also been numerous claims about bringing over the game to the country. From LUG and Egames, to AMDG, the none of those rumors ever came into fruition. The license may have just proven to be too expensive not just for the aforementioned companies, but for gamers as well.

It put things into even clearer perspective for me, as to why GamesMaster Magazine had to be let go of, even if I felt that it was the right time to have a local videogame mag.

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You look at the magazine stand and this mess is what you see. Hundreds of cover lines. So many different covers. Each title only has a few seconds to catch your attention.

Ensuring customer loyalty is an integral part of any magazine’s overall strategy. You have to make sure that you evolve just enough, so your readers are able to experience something new after a year or so. How do you reel in all those first time purchasers?

You put half of Priscilla Merielles’ face — er, you get their attention with the cover.

All editors and publishers will tell you that the cover is their greatest sales pitch of all.

Some general rules when it comes to making a magazine stand out at the newsstands:

1. All main cover lines must be visible from 6 feet away.
2. Put the most important piece of information on the upper left side of the cover. You know how magazines are stacked over one another because of the limited space — well this is done to address that concern.
3. Don’t effin’ cover your masthead, no matter how good your cover image is. This is pretty basic stuff when it comes to branding.
4. The most important story for the month is usually placed at the upper left side of the page. Believe it or not, some people still buy magazines for the articles.

What happens when you change so many elements on your cover in such a short period of time?

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I was finally able to browse a copy of Playboy Philippines last night, as one of my former officemates had one. Here’s my personal take.

*Please note that I only skimmed through the issue and did not read any of the articles.

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You go to two separate pages on their site…

and see two different pieces of BS information

Just click on the images to enlarge. Pfft.