Qore caused quite a backlash when it was announced… and then when it was released. People have a real problem separating Fact from FUD. Future Publishing announced today that they’re working on a second digital magazine to be distributed via Playstation Network, this time looking at a weekly format targeting the UK market. Future Publishing, behind Qore in the US, describes this new magazine as a “digital magazine” that “will include news, reviews, features and high definition video content.” That’s it; that’s the extent of their description of this new product. Already, in the Sarcastic Gamer forums, we’ve heard cries of anger and disgust over having to pay for demos/betas and having to wait so long after the US getting Qore that people are planning to boycott this simply due to the delay. Wow, over react much guys?!?!
Let’s step back a little and take a look at the arguments against Qore and how most of them are crap (at best), and I want to make it VERY clear that I’m not a Qore fanboy, I haven’t subscribed, and I’ve only purchased two issues. Folks seem to have a real problem with getting over the “paying for demos/betas” misconception of Qore. Frankly, I don’t get the difference between Qore’s premise and dozens of other magazines and even non-magazine products like cereal boxes with freebies inside.
Future Publishing, the guys behind Official <insert console> Magazine have had print magazines for years that come with demo disks, is the fact that Qore is a digital magazine somehow making this practice greedy or unethical? While it’s true, they’re not producing and selling a physical product with actual printed pages, but they ARE sending hosts/reporters out to do interviews and Qore features original high-def content that’s not available anywhere else (hence the “exclusive” part.) Sure, that stuff ends up on YouTube eventually, but chances are if you own a PS3 to begin with you’re likely fairly inclined to, you know, prefer better-than-YouTube-quality video content. Most of Qore’s content is in high-def, YouTube is lower than low-def.
My only real complaint with Qore is that they only seem to feature 3-4 titles/month and if they don’t hit me with a title or two I’m interested in (like issue 3 for me) then it’s not really worth a purchase. I didn’t really have a problem with the first couple issues of Qore. I got into the SOCOM: Confrontation beta, I got the Naruto demo, and apparently with the free code for Issue 3 I got in an issue of Playstation: The Official Magazine (a Future-produced print magazine), I’ll eventually get into the Resistance 2 beta. I didn’t spend a single penny on Qore for these things. Did I check them out? Sure, but they weren’t what I was buying. That’s pretty much like buying <insert sugary cereal> based on the toy offered in the box. What, are the folks complaining about Qore just like 6-year old kids, complaining that they have to buy Frosted Scabby-ohs to get the secret decoder ring? Grow up guys… buy something for what it is, not what’s shiny and dangled in front of you.
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7 responses so far ↓
1 Edthefreak // Sep 24, 2008 at 2:46 pm
Discs is spelt with a C not a K, Rothbart. ;D. Anyways, doesn’t really affect me much as a 360 gamer :(, but people did really seem to overreact about Qore in my opinion.
2 Sean "Rothbart" Workman // Sep 24, 2008 at 3:29 pm
@Edthefreak: Depends how far back you go… Floppy Dis_k_, Compact Dis_c_, same difference. Glad the 360 gamers can swoop in the for the typo complaints.
For the record, disc with a “c” is lame anyway, I’d like to meet the guy that spelled it that was first and kick him in the sac. seewhatididthere?
Somewhat on topic, nothing that people complained about Qore about has even been mentioned with this new mag yet… no official word on demos or betas. Just official complaints…
3 Sean "Rothbart" Workman // Sep 24, 2008 at 3:30 pm
Also, just for the record… _I_ didn’t title the article how it’s currently titled… the current title could possibly be taken to imply more love for Qore than I really have. I just don’t _hate_ it.
4 blades144 // Sep 24, 2008 at 4:51 pm
Great Rant Rothbart! Totally agree!
Greek term “diskos, the Latin derivation is “discus.” - Pick your spelling anyway you like but most take Latin.
5 Drauglim // Sep 24, 2008 at 6:56 pm
who would read that entire article and only think about the spelling of disk?and k kicks ass (it’s way kooler , kool is just convenient for keyboards)
6 Slashlen // Sep 24, 2008 at 7:29 pm
I’ll admit I wasn’t happy to hear about Qore when it was first introduced. Qore sounded more like an excuse to charge for demos than anything else. With digital distribution, we generally aren’t charged for demos anymore, so this seemed like a step backwards. Does anybody remember the Playstation Underground? Pay a subscription fee and get 4 “issues” a year, one disk with crap and one with demos. To use the cereal analogy, the only way to get the toy was to buy the S***ty Flakes.
Of course, that was before Qore came out. Now that there have been a few issues, it seems pretty harmless. PSN still gets demos. I still got to try out Naruto. Qore doesn’t bother me. At this point the reaction’s overblown.
False alarm, people.
7 Tweep. // Sep 24, 2008 at 10:09 pm
Considering it was Sony that gave us the CD you would be kicking a Sony employee… could you _really_ do that?
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