More Print Periodical Woes and Some Good News Too.

Before I write about a couple of items that I think are great news for those who like games etc., I would like to point out that we have another casualty on the print periodical front. My last post was about the future of print newspapers. In it, I mentioned that Premiere magazine and Disney Adventures had been canceled and would likely only exist in digital format.

I didn't mention, though I should have, that both Dungeon and Dragon magazine ended publication this month in an event that caused great stir in the gaming community. I should have mentioned Dungeon and Dragon if only to point out that when magazines with circulations over half-a-million are going digital only, it should not have surprised gamers that Dungeon and Dragon (who have a much lower circulation) should move to that format.

That said...it appears that Inquest Magazine, the magazine for the collectible card game hobby, is also closing its shades with no word whether it will go digital or not. There are a lot of great things about this here digital revolution, but watching all these magazines fold up isn't one of them.

NOW FOR THE GOOD NEWS.

There are several games coming out in the near future which make me absolutely giddy.

First, there will be a new edition of the Tales of the Arabian Nights boardgame. Z-Man Games will be releasing the new edition some time next year. Tales is one of those crazy games which cause ridiculous bidding wars on ebay. The game can cost upwards of $200.00, on a good day. I remember playing this game with my friend Roger Frederick a couple of times and marveling at how much fun we had.

Second, Fantasy Flight Games will be doing new versions of Cosmic Encounter and Borderlands as well as a Twilight Imperium adaptation of the old Avalon Hill Dune boardgame.

If only I had unlimited time to play games.

Oh, and the Solomon Kane roleplaying game will be shipping this October. I really can't wait for this gem. I wish I was one of the lucky few who purchased it at Gen Con.

Newspapers and Magazines...Paper or Electron?

In a recent article for the National Journal, William Powers discusses his thoughts on the current state of the "newspaper crisis." Are they here to stay or are they going the way of the dinosaur and the Stanley Steamer automobile. In the article, Powers briefly addresses the concerns of the newspaper fan and the newspaper employee and points out that:

Up-to-date information is the coin of the realm, and it's rare to meet a successful person who doesn't follow the news. They may not get it from the hard-copy newspaper, but most online news originates in traditional newspapers and newspaper-related organs such as the Associated Press. In other words, the basic product the papers produce still helps the fittest to thrive.

It might seem that Powers is waxing Pollyanna on us, but I don't think so. News is a commodity in the "information age" and will be for time to come. Whether that news is about sports, business transactions, or Lindsay Lohan doesn't matter. People want information.

But does that mean that they want to read the news on "paper?"

Eyewitness television news didn't kill paper, what about the internets?

Powers doesn't answer this question in his piece, though I expect he'll be writing about the future of paper as a medium soon, but he does mention that Rupert Murdoch is fighting to purchase the Wall Street Journal (one of the nation's leading bird cage fillers).

Powers seems to be hinting that paper may not be dead as paper, but then what does Powers think about the following?

Premiere magazine, which had a circulation of over 500,000, is now purely digital and has featured our friend David Chute.

Disney will cease publication of its 1,000,000 circulation strong Disney Adventures.

And while the Journal is a leader in print, it also has one of the best web interfaces of any news publication.

Which direction is the news going?

Will Mark Cuban's comments regarding bandwidth capabilities have any effect? In other words, do we need paper because we will lack bandwidth?