Well, I guess it could be both
You see what they did there with the letters. Pretty clever, Playstation Network
By Miles Baker
When Masthead magazine, the magazine about Canadian magazines, reviews a new publication they always base it on at least three issues. So, I figure, if it’s good enough for Masthead, it’s good enough for me.
Introduced in June 2008, Qore is a download-only, Playstation Network-only magazine about all things Playstation. It features HD video; interviews with developers about upcoming PS3 and PSP games; and a downloads section where you can get exclusive game demos, wallpapers, and beta trials. This would all be great if it wasn’t a pack of lies.
There is HD video, but it is so compressed that often backgrounds are so pixelated that it looks like they are filming inside a building made of Lego. There are interviews, but they feature puff questions like, “So how much are gamers going to wet themselves when they play this?” and the developer says, “They’re going to need buckets.” You can download some “exclusive” demos and beta trials, but all the beta offers are bogus in that you can’t download them yet. You can sometime in the future, I guess, but not when that issue comes out.
Speaking of downloading, what a pain in the ass. As the file is between 1.3 and 1.8 gigabytes, it takes a few hours to download. I’m not sure why the file is so big; there’s only about 30 minutes of video content in each issue, which makes the “time to get” versus the “amount of time enjoyed” ratio extremely small.
There are also some serious problems with editorial/advertising splits. In print magazines, if you have an article about an advertiser, you try to put that article far away from their ad so it doesn’t look like it was bought by the advertiser. Qore, however, is uninterested in this. In the most recent issue, between interviews about the latest off-road racing game, I was treated to an ad for that exact same off-road racing game. It just reeks of bought content so I stopped watching the rest of the feature.
To be fair, there are signs that Qore will get better. For one, the pixie-cute host is getting better and has begun to ask questions that aren’t soft. It really was the perfect casting on Sony’s part; Veronica Belmont is perfectly girl next door — pretty, but not too pretty. And she knows her stuff and seems genuinely enthusiastic about some of the titles she profiles, which is good.
One thing, and maybe call me crazy, is I think this magazine could benefit from writing. As in, I’d actually like to read parts of Qore. For example, I think it would be cool if there was a feature about how a game is shaping up, with some video of that game used to illustrate the point of the article. There are tons of examples of this online, and I think it would also work here. This would also solve that slim-30-minute-watching-time-for-such-a-large-file problem I was talking about because text is smaller than video. It might also help me feel like I didn’t just swallow a heaping bowl of self promotion.
Newspapers and magazines are looking hard at the future of their mediums. They’ve reacted to the internet by offering video, adding comments, and whatever Web 2.0 they can wrap their heads around. I’ve even heard that some major newspapers are sending their reporters out with video cameras so they can have more video content online. But mostly, they have a keen eye on digital distribution because it’s ever so cheap. Qore presents the model that magazines have feared for so long, but Qore is nothing be be feared. It’s nothing to be bought.
Hey, thanks for checking out Qore. While I would disagree with you on the “pack of lies” comment, we are always trying to make the show better, so feedback is a good thing.
You’re really having a hard time with the HD video? This is the first I’ve heard of it looking pixelated on someone’s TV. Unfortunately there has to be some compression, or we go over our filesize limit (which you also commented on). Hard to win in that area, I guess.
How would you want to read Qore? On the screen? We’ve had some comics in the past, but haven’t really considered anything else written. Would kind of change what we’re trying to do, but interesting nonetheless.
Are you talking about the Baja video? The one with the Progressive ad? I can see why people don’t like ads, and as a “creative” I’m not a huge fan of them either, but in that case it wasn’t an ad for the game — it was an ad for Progressive.
As for the demos and betas, we have no control when they become available. I think it’s pretty awesome that you’re still getting into some of these titles months before they become available to everyone else. It’s in the hands of the developers for when they open up their games.
Anyhow, just thought I’d throw in my two cents. We’re got a lot of awesome stuff coming up for the show in the future, and we’re still learning this whole thing (I mean, no one else has done this before, so we’re figuring it out as we go). So like I said, feedback is always welcome!
Best,
Veronica
Thanks for taking the time to respond to my article. I keep forgetting that people I’m writing about might actually see what I’m saying — the internet is tricky like that.
Anyway, to respond to your comments, yeah, I’ve seen a lot of boxes in backgrounds and some other textures. My TV only handles 720p, so maybe that’s it?
I was talking about the “Progressive” ad for the Baja game. I think a strict ad/ed split has to be maintained in a magazine. If Qore were a print magazine it would be ineligible for Magazine Publishers of America Awards because it hasn’t followed ASME guidelines. In print, “Advertisements should not be placed or sold for placement immediately before or after editorial pages that discuss, show or promote the advertised products.” (for more on that stuff check out http://www.magazine.org/asme/asme_guidelines/index.aspx). I’m okay with the ads, and Qore’s definitely improved how it handles them since the first issue. I know advertisers push hard to have their ad next to related content, but you have to make them realize that putting the ad somewhere else in the issue is going to be better for them and for the magazine’s reputation. The Baja piece looked bought — even if it wasn’t — and that’s not cool.
The beta thing is mostly just frustrating. Like, you read “Resistance 2 Beta in the July Issue of Qore” and you think, sweet, that will be a lot of fun tonight when I play it. Then you download the issue and it says “Oh, yeah, you can download that in a few months.” It’s just a let down. So far, have any of the betas become available?
And I think text could work on the screen. I read text on the internet all the time, this isn’t that much different. I think there’s a possibility to mix text and video in neat ways that Qore could explore (rhyme noted and enjoyed). I also like to see some more atypical topics or features, like videogame post mortems. Maybe interview the story team behind Uncharted and talk about what they were trying to do with the story, what they think they did well, what maybe didn’t come across, what they expect to do with the next game.
I’d like to see you ask more questions like when you asked the DC Online guy how he hopes to compete with WoW or about the pricing structure. Those are things that, as a viewer, I want to know.
And you’re totally right, no one has ever tried this before. As someone who is both a magazine nerd and a videogame nerd, it’s cool to see it evolve. I have the year subscription, so I’m in for the long haul.