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Which way to go?

The rise of GameMaker Tech, launch of Game Maker Magazine and apparent demise of MarkUp has put me in an awkward position. Which magazine do I contribute to?

Previously MarkUp has been my magazine of choice, but I haven’t really been happy with what has been going on their for the last couple of months. I’m not alone on this as fellow GMB writer tuntis recently left MarkUp and applied to join GameMaker Tech.

I still have a desire to contribute to a magazine though, and I guess to many the obvious choice would be GameMaker Tech. It is a rapidly improving magazine and has strong management, particularly Kay, who I regularly chat with. I’d be perfectly happy working with GMT and it would certainly be interesting to see how working with them differed from working at MarkUp.

However part of me feels that I should stick with MarkUp. After all I have been writing for them for a year now and they were one of the first sites I went to when I returned to the GameMaker world last year. Loyalty is all well and good, but do I really feel I could turn around the magazine? The simple answer is no, not from its current state.

Then my decision became more difficult. Game Maker Magazine may not have had the best start with its first two issues, but I feel my input here would make the most difference. Despite the shaky start I see potential in the magazine and I truly believe that come a few months it could be the main challenger to GameMaker Tech.

Of course another option is not to tie myself down to any magazine and instead submit articles freelance to magazines as and when I feel like it, or if I receive a request for a particular kind of article.

I think I will wait until after the next issues of GMT and GMM are released before making my decision about which way to go.

What do you think?

17 Comments

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  1. this should not be about competing here Game Maker should be more focused on it’s real enemies if YoYoGames is to go far they need to prevent multiple people saying which is better and which is worst and instead combine ideas and talents to make even more impressive work and get a fight back at where it needs to be taken, where is that you ask? Yes? No? well it’s Microsoft, Apple, Mac, they are the real competition here they think they are better than us and compared to them we are short and stout and they are not doing much in the way other than cutting our hopes short as a defense to fight us off and try to make us loose hope and get knocked off the market slowly, through giving up we can’t let that happen, if we want a say in what happens and comes first, and how we want our software or games or operating systems but they aren’t going to listen to us no, no so we have to fight to get we want and to have equal content between what the developer and the community want, so it’s fair and that also increases our popularity so every YoYoGames member i highly suggest taking that into account. it would have to mean higher popularity for YoYoGames which is a good thing, to proove it has any potential and competition between it’s rivals.

  2. Answering various criticisms/comments from above.

    MU:
    2007 – one issue a month. The best magazine.
    2008 – two issues in 4 months + the fact that no-one really knows what is going on at the moment (well I certainly don’t).

    GMT
    2007 – Issues aren’t always released on time, some quality issues
    2008 – also 2 issues in four months, but huge improvements in quality

    Neither magazine is perfect, nor do I either expect or wish them to be.

  3. On top of everything else, I also had a crashed hard drive; so, claiming that because we’ve had a late issue is the “demise” of MarkUp is a bit absurd.

  4. @Mememe – Alex left because I didn’t wanted to give him three page worth of adveritsing (right after the front cover). Your one of the only people to leave because of that reason, it would be nice to hear exactly what was wrong.

    I thank you for comments saying GMTech has good management. Remember it is a hard job trying to keep people interested in working on the magazine. Your right Eyas many will leave, but it is down to the management to try and replace them -maybe because there are always loads of applications in the GMTech area it seems I am extra active… well I am : ).

    People see GMT and MU as the ‘big two’ as they have been around longer than all others.

  5. Yeah I understand mattthew_H, it can happen, but I wouldn’t say it’s inevitable. GMTech currently has enough games waiting to be reviewed to take us to issue 14 (a whole three more issues worth), and it’s growing each week. Having enough members is always a problem, but gamez93 has done very well to keep a large team so I don’t think that’s a problem for GMT.

    F1ak3r, freelancing is good, but you don’t get the benefit of being part of a team and working together.

  6. “but time will come for us all when we get less content and less writers, it will some day happen.” what makes you think that?

  7. Matthew_H: Sure, people are starting to leave, but that’s the case since the beginning. Look at GMTech, So many staff members have left, others fired — yet keep looking at the application zone for them, its simple for all magazines: people will leave, but if the management is active, others will come.

    I agree however, every magazine might eventually fade away — but NOT because staff members lose interest (you can always get new writers), but because the management will eventually lose interest.

  8. If you’ve been around long enough, you’d know whats going on is simply fluctuation. Magazines get better and worse all the time, some dips are worse than others, and some rises are better than others. So yeah, GMT could be better than MarkUp at the moment — I’m not saying it is (its hard to compare them, depends on criteria I guess), but if it was the case, there’s no reason why it wouldn’t change in a couple of months or so.

    And as F1ak3r said, contributing on a freelance basis is actually the better alternative.

  9. Obviously Kay would say “Come to GMT”. It’s weird how GMT is thought to be becoming better than MarkUp. And a couple months ago, I left GMT because of, as Alex said along the lines of “lousy management”.

  10. Well, some time there will be lest content, news and games relsed one month and Magazines “may” suffer from it.
    And Eventually there maybe a short time where a Magazine has little amount of writers, like how I started out with GMM or like how GMT started out, there wasn’t that many writers.

    And look at MU, some people are starting to leave…
    Do you understand now, what I mean?

  11. Many people have seen the success of GMTech and perhaps wished to start there own. Others started there’s because the wanted too.

    It’s not a hard decision, come to GMTech.

  12. All I hope that he is happy with his chose, knowing that he has made a good desition.
    I do think that GMT is the “Best” GM magazine out there right now, but time will come for us all when we get less content and less writers, it will some day happen.

    I hope that GMT & MU stay and that they still produce monthly issues.

  13. It will be interesting to see how this develops, especially right now, there seems to be some fluctuation in Game Maker magazines; rises and falls.

    I can’t see how MarkUp’s issues could be seen as going backwards in quality — if anything, our 1 year anniversary issue proved that quality is going nowhere, nor is quantity of course. The problem right now with MarkUp is progress on getting issues out of the door, and we’ve had a good amount of delays with this issue, sure, but where’s the problem? The “magazine on rise” GMTech – still, to this day – goes through delays, its only natural.

    Should we be committed to monthly releases as we were in the past? Maybe, but we also realize our potential.. and our potential is a function of time.

    On a side comment, tuntis left MarkUp because he has a problem with another staff member we have recruited and have retalliated against our decision to keep him — nothing to do with magazine quality.

    Enough markup talk..

    Anyways, it’ll be an interesting choice, as I said earlier.

  14. Well Phil, I hope with which ever Magazine, whether GMT, GMM or you chose to stay with MU, I hope that you are happy and relaxed with your chose.

    Matt

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