From: Van der Meer [email address deleted]
Sent: Tuesday, June 06, 2000 12:27 PM
To: randy@justadventure.com
Subject: Dutch magazine closing down

Hello Randy,

Just some news that I think you would like to know.

Dutch PC-games magazine Hoog spel is no more. This magazine always gave attention to adventures and always gave its honest opinion. The reasons why the magazine is gone are sad. They tried to stick to their ideals:

- The game will be reviewed when it's done. Not when we only have a couple of screenshots and a press statement from the software company.

- When a game is bad, the review is negative.

Both statements insure a decent level of objective journalism. But nowadays that seems to be the last thing that the distributors want. They quoted an angry distributor in their farewell article about their first mentioned ideal: 'Why would I post an advertisement for lousy, old games that are already in the store?' Well, there's a guy who loves his work!

Their second statement wasn't received with cheers in the gaming-industry either. Most of the time the distributors tried to make deals: we will post an advertisement as long as you write how great the game is. So, no positive review, no advertisement. Some distributors went even further. Hoog spel gathered information about a game. They had contacts in America and used them to learn about it. Later on, a distributor was furious. He promised another magazine 'the exclusive' (you get the game, only if your review says it's the greatest innovation in entertainment since the kazoo). I do not see what Hoog spel had to do with a deal that that distributor struck with another mag. I thought that 'to monopolize' was a bad thing. Guess, that's only true when you're not the one who has the monopoly-position.

I feel that this situation calls out for a new word: magazinebashing.

Paul van der Meer