Magazine letter

Hey guys, today I bought the UK Official PS2 magazine, mainly because of the demos it had on the DVD. I was, unfortunately, disappointed, and so wrote this letter...

Being a typically skint university student, and spending the majority of my hard-earned cash (read "parental contributions") on the essentials (read "computer games"), I admit to having become lax in the treatment of my old magazine buying traditions. What can tempt me out of this purchasing lull, is a full to bursting cover DVD.

Your September issue was one such occasion, with some big hitting demos such as Burnout 3, Silent Hill 4, Second Sight, Psi-Ops and Juiced to sample before buying. In fact, you can scrap that last one, as somehow it seemed to be missing from the selection, despite, on both the bag and the demo listing, it's name being clearly mentioned.

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Disappointed but unfazed, I selected Burnout 3 and proceeded to enjoy my single lap. One lap. One, under sixty seconds long, lap. Thanks Criterion, how generous - though no doubt one of EA's decisions as opposed to your own. Disillusioned by these two failings, I decided to sample the apparent delights of Second Sight. Well Free Radical, as impressed as I was by your interesting cursor control on the first room?s computers, that alone really isn't enough to sell me your game, so how about giving us a little more time to appreciate your hard work? By the time I got onto Psi-Op's, I truly wasn't surprised to get little further than the first corridor - just how much of your promised "29 hours of gaming madness" did those couple of minutes account for?

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I can appreciate that the quality and length of demos is outside your control, but when people are forking out above the going rate for your magazine primarily due to the cover DVD, they expect a little more than what seems to be provided. I'm not doubting the quality of your magazine nor the quality of the games, but the providers of the demos that are such an integral part of your product seem to be letting both you AND the readers of your magazine down. The only saving grace that month was the wonderful AND lengthy Silent Hill 4 demo - having spent a good 30 minutes or so on it without reaching the end, it has me convinced they accidentally gave you the entire game to dish out!

Now it wasn't my first intention with this letter, but I have since noticed that the star letter each month wins 5 new PS2 games...which would be nice :smile: Any suggestions on improving it? Think its a bit too against the magazine to stand a chance? Notice any silly spelling mistakes? I'm also concerned its a bit long, but don't feel I could reduce it much without ruining it :sad:

EDIT: For some reason the paragraph breaks didn't show in the quote, and even after editting them back in, they disappear again. Its fairly obvious when paragraphs end though. Ok, they don't even work outside the quote...

I think what's important would be making the letter flow / read easily,
since they're likely going to be speed reading through letters like
this.

Recommend deleting "the treatment of", for example. Maybe making the
sentence structure and your little "demo narrative" a bit simpler in
general. Looks pretty good for the most part, though.

It's a bit overly long, terrible English I know - I actually scored a
letter in C&VG (back when it was good) slating Tomb Raider for
being shallow and boring, and attacking developers for turning women
into easy to sell sex objects.

Controversial and succinct is the way to go.. I would actually have a
good "tear apart" of the letter right here, right now.. but
im a bit tired after working - im happy to have a proper
brainstorm on it tomorrow though, if you can wait :smile:

Rightio, I reworked it a lot to keep its length down and make it less wordy (its not a magazine article afterall, just a letter)...

Disappointed but unfazed by your September issue?s missing Juiced demo, I loaded up the Burnout 3 one and proceeded to enjoy my single lap. One lap. One, little over sixty seconds long, lap. Moving all too swiftly on, I chose to sample the apparent delights of Second Sight. Well Free Radical, impressed as I was by the cursor control of the first room?s computers, that alone isn?t enough to sell me your game, so how about giving us a little more time to appreciate your hard work? By the time I got onto Psi-Op's, I truly wasn't surprised to see the demo's ending screen midway (no pun intended) through the first proper battle - just how much of the DVD?s promised "29 hours of gaming madness" did those few minutes account for?<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p>

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I can appreciate that the length of demos is outside your control, but I see little reason why timed demos are used. Surely it would be more appropriate to limit the number of or size of the levels, and allow players to fool around with the game for as long as they need to formulate an opinion on it? It seems some developers could do well to follow in the footsteps of last month's saving grace, the Silent Hill 4 demo - having spent a good 45 minutes or so on it without reaching the end, it has me convinced they accidentally gave you the entire game to dish out!

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Improved? I kinda had to switch the point away from their not-great-value magazine, to developers putting out s**tty timed demos, but I think thats probably a good thing in the "get it in the magazine" sense :biggrin:

I remember the RE2 demo was timed as well actually, my mate and I played it quite a few times, speeding through it to try and get as far into it as possible :biggrin: I think they gave you at LEAST 10 minutes though, which is plenty of time to get to grips with the controls, game mechanics, AND see some interesting sequences of the game. 2 or 3 minutes, is not.

But I agree, it used to be better. The first playstation's OPSM used to typically have 6-10 demos each month, and normally these would be longer than those featured now. On top of that, it was a ?1 cheaper :sad: As much as the official mags may claim that their ?6 price tag is justified by getting the first reviews and previews, and having the "best quality writing", they are kidding themselves. Look at magazines such as Games or Edge - both independant multi-platform mags with far more insightful comments on the industry, plenty quick enough games coverage, and no mindless bashing of the other platforms, all for ?3/?4.

The official PS2 mag over here is going the same way :sad: it now has half
the number of pages there are less demos and as reno was saying there
is less time to play the demo and it is still $15

Official Playstation used to have those ownage Net Yaroze games (remember that!?) as well...

the letter looks a lot better now reno - perhaps raise a point that it
is only the developers who will benefit in the long term from
longer/more fully featured demos, as people, like you say will have
more time to make a proper judgement on it..