Wednesday, April 05, 2006

The incestuos swedish gamepress

Quite a powerful title, eh? Well, it isn't necessarily something extremely negative, but my god, it certainly is a mess.

I'll try to make it short, but it's a long story.

Once upon a time there were only 2 good games magazines, one covering console games and one PC games, in Sweden. They shared the same publisher and thrived for years. We know them as Super Play and PC Gamer. Competitiors came and went but they could never really compete with these 2 magazines. But recently, just a year or two ago, things took quite a violent turn. Internal conflicts when the publisher got bought made the chief editors for both magazines to leave for greener pastures. Together with a copule of freelancers and other dropouts they formed their own company and their own new magazine named Reset.

Reset was a massive project with dozens of talented writers connected to it and they competed directly with the old Super Play magazine since they aimed for the exact same target audience. Nothing wrong with some good old competition, because it did feel the trade needed it. Anyway, the Reset team also lined up with the swedish gamesite Gon, to host their community forum called Loading. Although different companies with different writers this cooperation seemed to have worked quite well over the last year. And Super Play? They just kept going in the same old pace, taking in some fresh blood as well as one or two writers from the sister magazine PC Gamer, still being the number one console magazine.

Very recently however, for reasons I can only speculate in, Reset decided they should join a new publisher, and merge with their smaller more independent game magazine called Player1 that had been around for a couple of years. The new merged magazine are to be named Level, and as it seems at the moment is more or less just Reset with a new name (and Reset were to begin with never more than just yet another incarnation of Super Play if you ask me). Time will tell I guess. Anyway, there's a few changes, mostly personell related, and here's where things start to become real messy.

See, Level recruits one of the heavier names from Super Play to write for them and to fill this vacant spot, Super Play in turn steals two other well known writers from the new Level team. So what we have here is really just the same people being cycled through these magazines. Add to that the fact that one or two writers from Gon are also being recruited into this new mess, joining the Level team if I am not mistaken (but I could be wrong). Good writers both, who definitely deserves the attention.

But all these events makes a few certain things quite clear. Sweden has a selfpronounced gamepress elite, and it consists of the people in these two magazines and the site Gon. It's the same kind of people and the same kind of network of contacts and friends being pushed around more or less. They might be different companies and publishers, but as I see it, since it's just the same people, it really is the same entity entirely. Philosophically speaking.

Now, don't misinterpret my intentions of writing this. I do think sweden needs two console magazines, but is there really any competition in material if it's just the same old people anyway? I disgress. And the thing is, although these magazines now have lots of great writers, there is still lots more just as great writers out there writing for many of us smaller and larger gamesites. There's plenty of talent in sites like Gamingeye, Level7, Kong, Gameplayer etcetera etcetera. Why are these sites indirectly but effectively being frozen out from this "gamepress elite"? Because I think the readers deserve a change of atmosphere, just not only the writers.

Well, anyway, it certainly is a mess, and we'll just have to see how this develops further. I am intrigued to how the new Level will land. If it is a new fresh take or just Reset all over again. Super Play I have no doubt will cope without any problems, considering their strong fanbase and heavily established name.

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

A healthy analysis if any.

I agree with alot of your points. For being competitors both magazines think a like.

I see Super Play and Level as twins. Maybe not indentical twins, but twins non the less.

Too bad Pocketplay was just an amatourous venture, I would have loved seeing that mag challenging the gamepress dragons.

I guess we have to cope with Level and Super Play for years to come.

Anonymous said...

I wouldn't say that Kong is being neglected. Super Play has already picked up a handful of Kong writers.

Johan Eklund said...

Oh, you mean like Oskar? That is being pushed around between the two magazines now? ;)

Anonymous said...

Oskar, Mattias Wikström and Naseer Alkhouri are all from Kong

Johan Eklund said...

Yes, but they were, as far as I recall, not recruited this recently. They have their roots there but I hardly see them as Kong people anymore. They have been consumed by the large SP/LEVEL/GON-entity now.

Also, it doesn't in any way interfere with my analysis, except that I should maybe have removed Kong from my example category.

Anonymous said...

Ok! I thought you meant during the whole Reset/Super Play span.

Johan Eklund said...

Yes and no. But not really. Should have been more specific about that.

No, I was aiming arther for the events the last six months and how things have evolved from there.

I should have said: This NEW selfpronounced gamepress elite.

Anonymous said...

Personligen hoppas jag att Kong aldrig blir insnurrat i den soppan. Men det beror nog mest på att jag för gammal och trist för det hela. :)

Anonymous said...

I certainly see your point Mandus. Although it seems to work with it, I mean, they still have Naseer Alkhouri and Mattias Wikström appearing - not Oskar Skog of course because he's tied to Loading in the regular "JUST ONE SITE, ALL ELSE IS EVIL" fashion. Then you have Magnus Alm who is a professional if somewhat overrated freelancer that writes for Kong from time to time. Not to mention the writers who have stayed true to the site over the years. Not putting Rickard Olsson and Petter Mårtensson and of course boss man Thord Daniel Hedengren in the elite is just plain ignorant. Although I'm not pointing finger at you here but more making a point that they have stayed outside this rabble with the will to do something themselves rather than being recruited into some other project. Respect.

Maybe this is the best way to stay independent today. Kong must be a wonderful place to see freelancers return to it.

If only Bengt Lemne could return to Kong. He kicked ass then, as he does now.

Which brings us to...

Where does the Gamereactor crew stand in your thesis, Johan? They are a major factor in the Swedish games industry right now.

Johan Eklund said...

I'm quite surprised that question didn't pop up earlier. After all I very deliberately left them out. The reason for this of course being that they in my personal eyes are standing with a foot in each category, without really being member of any.

Hmm... That sounded too vague, so let me elaborate. Gamereactor by choice are both a commercial magazine as well as a magazine independent from the dominating publishers. I am not really sure how the writers there are recruited, but they don't seem to come from the same communities I personally am used to. To me, this makes Gamereactor a bit of an enigma. I'm not sure where they stand, culturally and morally, and not sure where they are heading. They do pick up influences from new journalism and new games journalism, but they are not as active in those discussions online as other magazines and sites.

Henceforth, I see them as a third entity. Not one of the independent sites, shows and mags, but neither part of the new gamepress elite either. Not outsiders, but not true competitors to the elite throne either. They run their own agenda.

At least from my point of view, but I must confess, gamereactor is the site I visit the least thanks to those fugly popup/layer banners. And I don't read the mag regularily as compared to the HM and IDG publications that I rather read very regularily.

Anonymous said...

I agree that GR is mainly a mainstream paper. However sometimes you might find non-commercial articles. For an example... here's a text I wrote some time ago about (shameless slefpromoting, here we come): http://www.gamereactor.se/texter/?id=6238&x=12&y=6

It's an unbiased article about video game violence (teh old, i know) where I interviewed Fair Play and FHI.

PS, lustigt att skriva på engelska då via alla är svenska =)

Johan Eklund said...

Jo den har jag läst. Bra artikel. Jag och Stefan snackade mycket om att göra något mer grävande kring Fair Play när Postal2 stormen var som värst.. men det blev aldrig nåt av...

Och, tja, angående engelskan... skit i det i kommentarerna om ni vill, bara för mina huvudposter jag skriver på engelska egentligen då jag vill dela med mig av mina tankar och funderingar till alla mina kontakter på nätet egentligen...

Anonymous said...

Då skiter vi i engelskan! :)

Gratistidningar är på sätt och vis ofta mer drivna av pengar än traditionella förlagstidningar. Anledningen är att de ofta har en mindre organisation där fler är inblandade i allt och därför hamnar alla i dra in pengar-rollen litegrann. Det finns vissa som hävdar att tex Gamereactor är väldigt okritiska till spel som kommer från deras största annonsörer men hur det är med det vill jag egentligen inte uttala mig om. Däremot kan man nog direkt säga att gratistidningarna är mer beroende av annonser och välvilliga annonsörer än någon annan grupp, inklusive webbsidor, eftersom deras omkostnader i regel är mycket högre.

Men jag håller nog med dig lite. Gamereactor står lite för sig själva och mår nog rätt bra av det.

Johan Eklund said...

Ja, och jag tror även ärligt talat att gamereactors existens gynnar läsarna. De må ha fått sina kängor från övrig spelpress för misstankar om sellouts och så vidare, men ser man det från konsumentens sida så känns Gamereactors speciella position bra. Det finns en valmöjlighet att välja och kunna jämföra olika källor.

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