Official Feedback Issue 105

[DreamcastRIP]

With respect guys that does sound as dull as dish water, but I guess if you are interested in that side of things then fair enough to you.

Fair enough - each to their own and all that.

Out of curiosity, what is it about such an article that sounds "as dull as dish water" to you?

For instance, is it that you only wish to read about the games and not of those who made the games?

[Hitman_HalStep]

With respect guys that does sound as dull as dish water, but I guess if you are interested in that side of things then fair enough to you.

if i can stick my oar in,i can sort of see what your saying it runs the risk that the axe grinder coming across as nothing more than a bitter person and the other as a suck up both losing credibility.

so how about basing it around a game and conversion/clone,person A:for wonderful company X and person B:working for crap factory Y,both making random game Z for different formats.

or as an alternative find a single person or persons who have experienced both sides of the coin,that could keep the credibility.
now removing oar.

[DreamcastRIP]

Oar positively welcomed and encouraged, Hitman_Halstep!

I certainly like the sound of your second suggestion of hearing the views of those who've experienced the rough and the smooth, so to speak. I suppose by the very nature of such an article there's no real way of getting away from the issue of personal bias completely.

I'm fairly sure some readers would enjoy reading of such opinions from game devs in the mag' as part of a specific article. Some here appear to find 'fact-based' articles to be dull (not a shot at gman72, just to be clear!) and prefer reading more opinion-based content (the recent faux-controversial Kick Off article, for instance) so maybe such an article would appeal to those readers.

[carl_retrotext]

Hi I am still reading the current issue, I found the ST article and the Mire Mare piece very interesting so far, the cover is different as in it looks like a middle management training manual, but it has been well received in this thread so what do I know!

The EA piece was long- but informative, so why repeat it with the same facts and games in the 'instant expert' piece that immediately followed it? I have struggled with the instant expert section although it shows promise and I can see it working well in the future, I don't see it working well in its present form.

But lets not leave it on a negative, overall a good issue, well done to the contributors and the staff.

PS the letters page was a bit on the sparse side, we had better start writing.

[Hiro]

Issue arrived today, will start reading it soon... like the cover, and I'm interested to read about how the ST could have been a match for the Amiga

Still, I expected at least a comprehensive guide to Sensible Soccer written by Dino Dini, or who knows, a definitive guide to Jesus' miracles written by Satan... so I'm very disappointed. But I'll manage.

[NorthWay]

Jay Miner did get funding from Atari near the start of the Amiga project.

Let's just forget the 3 Florida dentists who put up the initial funding of Hi-Toro, and all the employees who took out mortages on their own homes to continue financing the operation.

[gman72]

With respect guys that does sound as dull as dish water, but I guess if you are interested in that side of things then fair enough to you.

Fair enough - each to their own and all that.

Out of curiosity, what is it about such an article that sounds "as dull as dish water" to you?

For instance, is it that you only wish to read about the games and not of those who made the games?

well its just a personel thing i suppose.
I don't have to read an article that holds no interest for me, i understand that RG doesn't just cater for my interests.
I dont mind programmers telling the odd anecdote about a game they've programmed, often these can be entertaining, but the more removed from the actual games and the more industry based the article might become then the more i will start to go glassy eyed and lose interest.
To me industry is just that, largely dull and uninteresting, with the money out to look after itself whilst often shafting the people that helped put the money there in the first place, i'm sure it is often the same in most types of industry. I dunno, if i wanted to read about that stuff then it would be inside some form of in-industry corporate publication not in RG where i seek all my retro gaming goodness.
This is, naturally, just my opinion, maybe others would be fascinated by the industrial tooings and frowings of the industry in the 80's and 90's but not me, i would rather all that research went into articles on retro games and systems, but there you go... you did ask

[merman]

Jay Miner did get funding from Atari near the start of the Amiga project.

Let's just forget the 3 Florida dentists who put up the initial funding of Hi-Toro, and all the employees who took out mortages on their own homes to continue financing the operation.

I didn't ignore them, just kept to the fact that Atari was initially involved in funding the Amiga.

[ncf1]

Just finished the Mire Mare piece - I loved it! I loved the mystery angle, read something like a thriller novel. Some car chases and hints of nudity could even have been added I reckon. I jest, one thing I dont get is just why these programmers are so extremely reluctant to talk about their past... I just dont get that. I write songs and if you want to ask me about it, I would love it - how can it not be enjoyable reminiscing or discussing a piece of creative work? Unless these guys have simply done it before so many times and cant be bothered. But I mean damn, as Darran mentioned not long ago, gaming has not been very well documented in the past and RG is doing their best to rectify this so I say these programmers should do their bit for history's sake. I mean come on... is it THAT hard to throw these guys a bone and provide a few historic lines about an old game they wrote? I dont geddit.

[AmigaJay]

Speaking of the Amiga, thought I'd chip in and say happy 27th birthday to yer! ( god that does really make me feel old!)

[HalcyonDaze00]

looks like a middle management training manual, but it has been well received in this thread so what do I know!

has it? im not going back through all the pages but im sure the cover has had more negative comments than positive

[r0jaws]

Just because it may have received more negative than positive comments on here doesn't mean it hasn't been well received by the rest. Just that some people are more likely to voice their opinion than others, and those people usually have strong opinions.
I don't think I've seen an issue yet where a cover hasn't been panned by at least one person. Personally I like the vast majority of them, but it doesn't really make such a difference as much as the content as far as I am concerned.

[HalcyonDaze00]

Just because it may have received more negative than positive comments on here doesn't mean it hasn't been well received by the rest. Just that some people are more likely to voice their opinion than others, and those people usually have strong opinions.
I don't think I've seen an issue yet where a cover hasn't been panned by at least one person. Personally I like the vast majority of them, but it doesn't really make such a difference as much as the content as far as I am concerned.

but it has been well received in this thread

but his point was clearly about this thread, as was mine. We cannot comment on the views of the wider readership.

[carl_retrotext]

looks like a middle management training manual, but it has been well received in this thread so what do I know!

but his point was clearly about this thread, as was mine. We cannot comment on the views of the wider readership.

has it? im not going back through all the pages but im sure the cover has had more negative comments than positive

Well when I did read through all the pages at the time thats how I read it, FFS stop being so anal. why dont you post some Official Feedback Issue from 105 instead of studying the semantics of what I said or may of implied, why not start a retro gamer feedback feedback thread?

[SirClive]

Just because it may have received more negative than positive comments on here doesn't mean it hasn't been well received by the rest. Just that some people are more likely to voice their opinion than others, and those people usually have strong opinions.
I don't think I've seen an issue yet where a cover hasn't been panned by at least one person. Personally I like the vast majority of them, but it doesn't really make such a difference as much as the content as far as I am concerned.

but it has been well received in this thread

but his point was clearly about this thread, as was mine. We cannot comment on the views of the wider readership.

I think most people who post are here (or a large number anyway) are subscribers. So even if we hate the cover it doesn't really matter as we have already bought the mag. I'd be interested to hear what the 'over the counter' sales are like for this issue though as I can't imagine it will entice many casuals to pick it up and have a flick through.