I posted previously about the Ares Magazine Kickstarter. The idea of a SciFi fiction magazine with optional game included (it comes in both flavors) I find intriguing if not a little bit exciting. My initial posting on it did raise some questions in the comments section.
Carmen Andres was kind enough to give some further details and background on the project via an email, which I will share below:
Thank you for sharing news about the Kickstarter campaign for Ares Magazine with your readers! We greatly appreciate your interest and support.Consider this a question (and hopefully answer) thread. Post your comments / questions below and let's see if we can't get you some answers.
In the last couple of weeks, we’ve added several new reward levels--and we’re most excited about the addition of two subscription-based levels. The ITHACAN gives pledgers six issues chock-full of quality science fiction wrapped around a unique board game for $120—that’s $60 off the cover price. The ATHENIAN is for collectors: two copies of the first six issues for $235, which is $125 off the cover price.
We want to provide customers with a range of products to best suit their tastes, so we also offer pledge levels to allow separate purchases of the fiction magazine or the game.
We pay all of our fiction contributors a fixed price per word. We have a small editorial staff that reads each story and assesses it on the bases of preferred genre, quality of writing, and originality. Two of our staff members have worked as staff on magazines, and one has worked on the staff of a newspaper. All of our editors are mad science fiction fans.
Game designs are paid for at a flat rate depending upon completeness and pedigree of the design. Ares Magazine is a project of OSS Games, which has almost two decades of experience in designing and marketing games.
Again, we appreciate your interest and support. If the above information is valuable to your readers, we hope you will continue to share news about us and our Kickstarter campaign. Let me know if you have any questions or would like more information!
Best regards,
Carmen Andres
Web: www.aresmagazine.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/AresMagazine
Kickstarter: www.kickstarter.com/projects/1488075951/ares-magazine
As for me, I might go for the 6 issue subscription. Can't be more of a risk than the majority of the Kickstarters I've backed ;)
Here's my concern: The first name I've seen associated with this project is above (Carmen Andres) in this blog. Not on their magazine site, note on their Facebook, not on their Kickstarter page. I left a message on Aresmagazine.com site and got the following:
ReplyDelete___________________________________
Ares Magazine is a One Small Step Games project.
You can learn more about Ares Magazine and its relationship with One Small Step Games are www.aresmagazine.com
You can learn more about One Small Step and some of the staff members at www.ossgames.com
Hope this help! -Nameless One Small Step drone
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Its just not funny to be that covert in who is really doing the work. On the ossgames.com site under Team, I finally see the names and Carmen Andres isn't one of them. Is it really so much for just a little transparency to know who I'm dealing with? I'm beginning to think Kickstarter should require a real person upfront to identify the project leader otherwise I'll keep my money to myself.
Sheese,
Derek
valid concern noted.
Deleteperhaps they can explain Carmen's position further, or at all.
In the first post at the Tavern pointing to the Ares kickstarter, I noted a similar sentiment. It's a bit odd that every interaction or message from Ares is signed as Ares Staff or some other generic collective. Especially since magazines, and even book publishers, are almost known by their editor's tenures. Even this message, which lists the various editors and type of experience they have, does not provide actual names or publications of said experience.
DeleteThis is a great observation. In fact, i can't even find full names on their Team page--OSS is just "Mike, Joseph, Matt and Jennifer." Perhaps they are more famous in the boardgame community?
DeletePeople might take a different view of a Kickstarter if the "team" turned out to be Gareth Skarka, Mike Nystul, and James Maliszewski.
Did they mention if all the fiction is completed for the first issue? I'm extremely leery of kickstarters that begin raising funds before the most basic work is complete. I would also like to see a list of the game designers they have ready for the 1st six issues they are already selling as part of the subscription. Game design and production isn't a last minute kind of thing and there should be some idea of who they have lined up for future issues.
ReplyDeleteI never liked 90% of fiction in games magazines and games often needed addendums and fixes. I got ares for the articles on rpg games so if that isnt what they doing here im not interested - half the reason i got dragon was ares section and i quit that when dragon axed that
ReplyDeletemaybe some one will re do space gamer and challenge and do what i want
ReplyDeleteWho cares about a clearing house for more shitty, short fiction. There are a dozen digest mags for that already, and .... the internet.
ReplyDeleteMake a sci fi wargaming mag that focuses on sci fi wargames. You could even do reviews and articles about, you know games.
On a side note a wargame of War of the Worlds sounds pretty uninspired. I bet it's fun getting you ass kicked as Britain until Turn 10 when germs kill the Martians.
Without more about future games and nixing the 60 pages of wank fiction, this won't get anything from me.
You weren't the only folks curious about staff, so we just published a staff list at AresMagazine.com--hope that addresses some of your concerns!
ReplyDeletehttp://aresmagazine.com/?p=280
Sorry, meant to identify myself as the Carmen who sent the email above!
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