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.