I’m not a regular SKOAR! reader for solid reasons. Fundamentally, it’s like reading those catalogues that come free at an electronic entertainment store in the States; if you break it down even further, you’re looking at a picture book. Badass screenshots (Sometimes new, if you’re lucky!) and official artwork littered thought-out those pages, that’s what it boils down to. Who needs them crazy words? Words are for losers! Stop reading this!

But jokes aside, there’s a point to the comparison I’m giving. See, we don’t get those kinda perks here in our main base of operations (i.e. India). Yeah, it sounds stupid when I say it, but sometimes going into a store with these miserable freebies do a lot to educate those that don’t follow up on gaming websites like we do, or hell, even read the back of the box of the game they just purchased (“Company of Heroes is a strategy game? Where’s my first-person-shooting!”). Coming to that, you’ll find those who are willing to pluck down Rs. 200 for an issue of SKOAR! because what’s not to like about buying a magazine catered to an Indian audience about gaming, for crying out loud.

So here I am, doing just that (Hello, Issue XIII). Considering how much shit has transcended in the last few weeks (The death of our beloved SKOAR! forum, the rise of The Angry Pixel), I thought I’d take one last dive. Then, I got acquainted to this little editorial write-up on the first page:

“… We don’t know about you, but we’re getting mighty tired of this whole releasing-on-time routine; it detracts from the various pleasures of life we’re accustomed to enjoying between issues. Ergo, expect something, um, different for the next edition. Don’t say we didn’t warn you!”

Current Mood: Apprehensive.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Page count comes to about 92 pages, if you could really get me to believe that. It feels so much smaller and it shows too; forget about the lack of previews (just one) and the “Game of the Year” feature tossed up together (it plainly reprints the original reviews for those games and states a winner for just three “genres”, some of which don’t even match up), what the hell is up with the page layouts? Go ahead and flip to Page 26-27 of the World of Warcraft review (I hear this game is popular) - pages filled to the brim with awesome elf-chick screencaps and innuendo-laden captions. And some block of text that looked like it was printed in Size 12 font.

Here’s another one! Turn to Page 46 of the Condemned: Criminal Origins review done by our own resident blog writer, Parag Vad. First two pages look pretty alright. I’m definitely diggin’ the entire “limbless, faceless female corpse” picture thing going. And right when I think everything’s ready to be wrapped in the next page alone, here comes a disembodied Kevin Spacey head popping into my imagination yelling out, “WRONG”. The review keeps going for three more pages, with these sparse texts huddled around lots of wicked-cool screenies. I could go on, but as you can already tell the staff sure has some real light bulbs burning down there in Mumbai.

Features were interesting this time around, one devoted to the PC Indie-Developer scene (“Incredible Indies” by various writers, three who now post here at our blog) and another to Classic Gaming (“Blast from the Past” by Nachiket Mhatre). I actually liked the page-layout for these two pieces, especially for the Indie one – done in a nice, newspaper-style perspective. The reviews themselves are good and informative, save for Aayush Iyer’s comment on how next-gen (or is that “now-gen”?) can go suck “donkey balls” (Santa probably forgot to give him an Xbox 360 last Christmas). But major minus points for only including fl0w on their DVDs and not the other cool looking games that were talked about. Nope sorry, gotta make space for Max Payne and StarLancer.

Other regular segments tread on, and most of the time they seem pretty boring. Take the “Gamer of the Month” interview for example (this month being Ola “Element” Moum). Okay, I know this dude has like some of the most illest skillz in Counter-Strike, but then what? Stick any other game name in there, you couldn’t really tell the difference otherwise. Same problem with the “Developer Spotlight” interview; I understand the article is conveying a message to us Indian gamers, saying that basically, yes, there are Indian-based developers, and yes, they’re willing to make a difference. But that’s every other developer talking (Indian or otherwise). There isn’t so much an image from the game they’re working on– just an idea on a piece of paper and some profiles pictures that look like they were ripped from Orkut. I can’t say that makes for a very interesting conversation when you’re this determined to break a leg in the industry.

Speaking of which, somebody on the editorial staff sure likes putting effort into making a mockery out of the ugliest-sounding letters brought to their attention. God forbid I misspell a word when I’m shooting an email to them, less it gets published in the magazine and becomes bolded so that everyone can see it, point it out, and snicker. But the biggest dent on a contributor’s good-will was the botched-up Halo Graphic Novel fan-comic in the “My.Space” section. And I mean “fan-comic” in the loosest way possible, take that as you will. But rather than being honest and just telling the poor kid to keep trying, SKOAR! prints the fan-comic anyway and leaves his email wide-open for spammers, like a cockroach flapping helplessly in toilet water. Crude.

Aayush gives another editorial write-up on our ever-growing culture and it’ll definitely confuse the heck out of first-time gamers or those who simply don’t wing it like we chumps do. To cut you some reading time, he basically talks about how the industry has shaped into this massive heap of persuasion with everyone fallen into, becoming a victim to the glorified impressions given by “corporates, journalists and top posters on your forums”. He cites the success of the Nintendo Wii and the supposed “failure” that is the Sony Playstation 3 as a few of his examples, but the one I definitely gave a nod to was his Playstation 2 reference. Sure it’s “dead”, but dead to whom? To the gamers who paid for it, or to people who made it for them? It’s a fifty-fifty either way. A game will generate hullabaloo whether it’s flat-out intentional on the marketing’s side or just because some one decided to post a thread at a forum. Similarly, you can only push a single schema so far. People want to try something new every step of the way so even if the Dreamcast is still having games developed for it; it won’t make much a sense in the long run. As much as I like to waste hours on these awesome indie-developed games, I don’t think that can ever be the standard the industry will be measured on. And yet, I don’t hate myself for wanting to play something big-budgeted and critically-acclaimed like say, Gears of War. So why should I be called an idiot?

There’s a lot of room for improvement but whether that’ll actually start happening in SKOAR! is anyone’s guess, where even disgruntled forum members weren’t enough to warrant some kind of appeasement for this (along with many others) parted money. You’ll hear all kinds of complaints about their DVDs, but for me, it’s the magazine that I was paying for. When a magazine has trouble measuring up to free catalogue advertisements (and somehow reads worse than GamePro, oh snap), who knows if that kid will ever drop his allowance in that bag of yours again.

If you want to try reading a good free gaming magazine, check online for Hardcore Gamer. If you’re looking for cool game-related software freebies, invest in an internet connection and get them yourself (we’d be glad to show you the way). 92 pages later, I felt like I was better off weighing an extra two hundred rupees in my pocket. You would too.

TRANSLATE

Translate this post into your favorite language. Click on any of the flags below to view the translated version. NOTE: Translations use the AltaVista Babel Fish Translation Service and may not be 100% accurate.

By N2H

You may be the one to comment first. Please leave your message below.