Letter 1

From: Erkki Lindpere [email address deleted]
Sent: Friday, February 25, 2000 1:57 PM
To: randy@justadventure.com
Subject: (Not) Playing the Game Part 1

Very good article Randy!

I haven't read most of the magazines you mention but I bought last months PC Gamer. Now, there are some reviewers listed as 'adventure' reviewers but another person, who was an 'action' reviewer did Atlantis II.

And I agree that some of them should take writing classes. His final words in the Atlantis II review were "If you bought this game, kill yourself". I'm currently taking a course "Basics of human communication" and among 10 basic writing rules that the lecturer gave us, both the 1st and the 10th were: Reader is most important. How can he then tell the reader to kill himself/herself?

Erkki

Letter 2

From: Dimitris Tzanerakis [email address deleted]
Sent: Saturday, February 26, 2000 4:37 AM
To: randy@justadventure.com
Subject: Adventure games in magazines

I just read your first part of the Playing the game articles, and I have to say that it still amazes me that I find people with the same frustrations as me. In the most recent of PC Gamer (I'm writing from Leeds, England, so I don't know if the PC Gamer I'm thinking of is the same as yours) got around 30%! I was so pissed off with them that I didn't read the article, but I did have some entertaining thoughts on possible uses for the bloody magazine (and toilet paper would be to good an ending for it, I might add). But the friend that the magazine belonged to stopped before I could anything.

Sometimes I wish everybody could read Greek (did I mention that I'm Greek?) as we have a very fine adventure reviewer in one of the more popular gaming magazines back home that will invariably have at least one adventure review in the magazine every month. And if that is not possible then he'll try to review an RPG instead. This guy, whose name is Paraskevas Tsourinakis, likes adventures so much that the rest of the writing staff call him Adventur-inakis.

What I'm trying to say is that adventures get decent exposure in Greece and are considered to be far from dead as games go.

And I get seasick from playing Unreal too ...

Dimitris

Letter 3

From: Van der Meer [email address deleted]
Sent: Saturday, February 26, 2000 5:55 AM
To: randy@justadventure.com
Subject: status in the Netherlands

Hello Randy, I read your (not) playing the game article with great interest. I'm afraid that the gloomy situation you describe is true. But I don't really know what the goal of the article is. It looks a little bit like the speeches Bush resorts to: saying how bad the other one is. But what does that help us? I think the JA audience already knows of the adventure phobia of most magazines.

I agree with the fact that you say that a lot of people will only know of adventures by the flaming reviews of magazines such as PC Gamer. That's a pity, but what can we do to give the adventure genre a fair and objective place in the game-reviewing media?

The magazines you reviewed and got a good grade cannot be bought in the Netherlands. I never heard of them and I will probably never see one in the shelves of a Dutch shop. PC Gamer on the other hand has a prominent place on the shelves. One of the most popular magazines here is 'Power Unlimited' (yep a rather English title for a Dutch magazine), consider it to be the evil cousin of PC Gamer. When I occasionally browse through it I find that reviewers claim that a game is 'Crazy dope!'. It makes me sad. But it's not all bad news from Holland. My favorite magazine 'Hoog Spel' (translates literally: High Game, it's also a saying meaning: High stakes). This magazine has showed over the last couple of years that it gives good reviews of adventure games. One of my favorite reviewers is a black woman who is old enough to be my mother. I just write this to show that your point about white, male reviewers in their early twenties is spot on.

I'm really looking forward to the next part of the article.

Greetings from a white male teenager,
Paul van der Meer

PS. The Longest Journey is out with a Dutch translation. This is great news since I heard a lot of good news about the game ... (here it comes), but it's translated into Dutch. I feel that Dutch sounds rather ugly. I played Prisoner of Ice with Dutch translation. I fell off my chair laughing. The acting and translation was so incredibly bad. Here is a translation of the Dutch translation. In a scene the main character sits in a torpedo hull and is about the get shot to the surface of the sea from a sub. Through the walkie talkie he hears to following sentence. "Be careful admiral, it could very well be that your shoes will be rather hot in a minute." I can only guess what the original sentence was. I'm afraid that The Longest Journey will contain the same kind of sentences.

Letter 4

From: [anonymous]
Sent: Friday, February 25, 2000 9:38 AM
To: srandra05@aol.com
Subject: Your Article

Very insightful article. Having read all of the game magazines that you mention and having subscribed to four of them (PC Games was the 4th.) I agree with every word that you have written. Sad but true.

My irritation with PC Gamer was the reason that I wrote to you in the first place. When I wrote (first time) I accused the magazines of the attempted murder of the adventure game. Nothing has changed my mind. As long as the magazines are dollar driven and written by young males I fear that nothing will change in that market.

It appears that Just Adventure and a few other members of the Coalition will have to resurrect adventure on their own. I think that Just Adventure is up to the task.

I look forward to Part 2.

Letter 5

From: [email address deleted]
Sent: Sunday, February 27, 2000 10:21 AM
To: Srandra05@aol.com
Subject: Re: "(Not) Playing the Game" article

I must respond to your article, specifically about Incite PC Gaming magazine. You mentioned in your original response to me regarding your article and this magazine, that it was geared toward the "younger adult gamer". To me, this meant 16-19-year olds. What you did not mention to me, or in the article, either, was that this magazine is a Playboy-oriented gaming magazine and makes no bones about it! In the April editorial, Tasos Kaiafas basically derides a mother who complained that the magazine has scantily-clad women in the articles (not just the ads) and that they have every intention of continuing with that policy. Have you even looked at the April issue (which you have pictured in your article)? I, as a female, was very insulted. I went out of my way to find this magazine, on your recommendation, and couldn't believe what I was seeing. The "Heavy Metal 2K" article had a photograph alongside it that would do Playboy proud. Don't get me wrong, if you guys want to look at Playboy, fine, but don't suggest a magazine to your readers (whom I assume includes females) without a mention as to this aspect of it. And where, oh where, is the female on the editorial team? All I see pictured are 8 males, plus the editor-in-chief.

Sorry to go on so, but this magazine and its attitude really offended me; the article (or shall I say the pictures accompanying it) on Queen B-Julie Strain just put it over the top for me. I would like to hear your comments about this. Are we talking about the same magazine?

Sincerely,
Mary R.

Randy's Response:

I apologize to any readers that were offended by Incite PC Gaming. Right before that article was printed, a new issue was released. I used a screen shot of the issue without looking inside the magazine. When I did, I was shocked to say the least. Nikki Douglas, the female adventure reviewer, was gone. The inside of the mag was as close to softcore porn as possible. I don't mind magazines, or webzines for that matter, trying to be cutting-edge and geared towards adults, but Incite, for reasons unknown, decided to undergo an abrupt change in policy that I was not aware of.