Ah, so anyway…I sat down last night to start sorting out the bonus goods for people who have been supporting the site’s costs and writers and discovered a grim and unexpected fact. Well, no, actually, it’s a very good fact: I had no idea how many people had enrolled in this thing. It’s a lot more than I’d really stopped to consider. Which is good! The one drawback is that you guys have exceeded my on-hand button-making supplies.
So instead of three buttons, I guess everyone’s going to have to settle for just one button and a GameSpite mini-zine instead. Tragically, the zine will be roughly 12 pages of entirely new content. Even more unfortunately, I will probably mail it out in a week or so. Just a heads-up so’s you know.
I’m working on wrapping up Issue 9 today. In the meantime, why not check out the Dragon Quest gameography that went up at 1UP the other day? I decided to try channeling the spirit of those Japanese “all game guides” like Famicomplete and the Dorimaga Dreamcast “aspect mook” we were using as a reference for the most recent Retronauts — brief, informative, opinionated when possible, but strictly limited in length. My original layout concept was watered down a bit as a matter of necessity to fit 1UP’s style, but it still ended up being something fairly unique on the web, and honestly all the better for it: an online article abiding by the rules of a print piece.
I miss print. (Which is why I’m taking it back for myself, I guess…12 pages at a time.)
The gameography was great. =) Clever idea. And a mini-zine? Cool. Are you writing it yourself?
Oh crap I just realized I forgot to subscribe. Next quarter, I guess.
Fuck all, I forgot to subscribe after Jeremy worked out the PayPal bugs last time. MISTAKE FIXED FOREVER.
Is there any chance that you’ll be offering back issues of the zine for people who can’t afford to donate right now?
In order to keep Parish’s sanity intact (and keep him from getting distracted knocking out new material), I’d suggest that he could just offer back issues once a year (maybe during Christmas or on Gamespite’s anniversary or something) in a small package deal for one small price.
Reading that gameography was a great introduction to the DQ world.
Actually, I’m currently playing DQ VIII for the first time and it is my introduction to the universe that is DQ. It’s mechanics may be old but its won me over with its charming world, fun and simple plot and best of all the “sense of adventure” that a lot of RPGs have lost for me. The last RPG to hold me like this would be Eternal Arcadia.
Horii said that VI is his favorite? I hadn’t heard that – where/when did he say that? I happen to be playing through VI right now, so I’m curious about his thoughts on it.
No, he said it’s a favorite, and it was in an unpublished Q&A I did with him.
My mis-reading. I liked the overview of all the DQ games. Kudos on the layout job – I thought it was very readable.