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*4@5
          MAGAZINE REVIEWERS

     (AND WHAT TO DO WITH THEM!)
*3]5@3
           by Shaun Watters
*1]1@6
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@1

Let's  set  a  scene.   You  have just
spent  six months of hard work, sweat,
blood  and  coffee, creating your very
own  masterpiece.   Being the generous
bloke/lass  that  you are you think to
yourself  "I  know!   I'll  release it
into  the  PD scene, make no money out
of   it  and  I'll  be  happy  in  the
knowledge   that  somebody,  somewhere
will  get  some enjoyment out of it.".
So  you slap it in a jiffy and send it
off  to your favourite PD library.  If
you're lucky they will send you back a
cat   disk  or  something  and  you're
happy.

A  couple of months later, you're in a
newsagent  flicking  through a copy of
an  Amiga  mag (no names) and you come
across a review of your game in the PD
section.   Cool, you think.  The first
thing  you notice is the screenshot of
your  life  for  the  last six months.
You  can  bet  your life that it's off
the  first  level  (the  first sign of
inadequate  testing)  but you brush it
off.   Next you read what they have to
say.   Now  it does not matter if they
said  it  was  good or not, you notice
that  they  have  got half the details
wrong.   The wrong name, the objective
or  even worse they don`t actually SAY
really  anything about it. @3]3 "BASTARDS,
F**$ing   BASTARD's"@1]1  is  usually  the
first thing that comes to mind.

Of  course,  it's not always that bad,
just most of the time!  The first game
of mine that got reviewed in a mag had
the  wrong name and the screenshot was
that  of  a  door.   Of all the shitty
things  to  show, they showed a ]5BLOODY
DOOR]1.

Six  months  later, they still haven't
got  much  better.  My latest game was
reviewed  in  all  the major mags.  In
each  review  the screenshot shown was
evidently taken after about 30 seconds
playing  and  the  descriptions  given
could  have  just  as easily come from
the same playing time.

Now you could say that I'm just pissed
off  at  these  people because I got a
shitty  deal  but  it`s not just me, I
could  go  on all day listing examples
of magazine reviewer's incompetence.

However, the fact remains that getting
your  software  in  the  mags can help
with  sales,  but  all  we ask is that
they  take  a  bit of time to actually
play the damn thing!
@5]5
Is that too much to ask?