All-new PGI

[weedave]

Originally posted by TOOLE
after getting mine, the outside is OK, but the inside is totally abysmal! i aint renewing my subscription if something doesn't happen, it's totally unreadable. i know of NO other magazine that looks so bad inside or is so unreadable. i really hate it!

on the upside, the front cover is good, would be made better by getting rid of the red dot aboce the i in pgi though.

just my 2p

You should buy some glasses as I dont seem to find it hard to read what so ever. Whats so hard about it?

I think the change PGi has made is a good change.

just my 2p

Dave

 

[Robbo]

Originally posted by TOOLE
great way to treat customers, aint it?

BTW i don't think i'll be the only one.

perhaps my argument before was unsuppported

Toole, this is the problem I got with somebody like you claiming the moral high round by sarcastically declaring, 'great way to treat customers, aint it? .

You come on here after presumably reading some of the previous posts (but if you didn't, it matters not) and tell us all you found the magazine 'totally unreadable'.
Really?
Were your retinas destroyed at birth, did you attempt to read it in the cellar at night with the light switched off whilst blindfolded ?

Of course not, you are either lying or exaggerating, I will assume (giving you the benefit of the doubt) it was the latter.
It beggars the question, why on earth would you want to exaggerate the point?

You also said, the insides were 'totally abysmal', not that you didn't like them or thought the style was out of touch, 'totally abysmal' were your words.
And you go on to say 'NO other magazine that looks so bad inside or is so unreadable. i really hate it!'
Really ?
Well I could point you in the direction of many magazines that get nowhere near the content or design qualities of PGI. The paintball world is full of them and that's why we are the second biggest selling magazine in the world.
Our new design won't compromise this position in any way, the same people who have bought you the old magazine are the same ones who are wholly responsible for the new one, our position will be enhanced, if we did not believe this 100%, we wouldn't have done it, it's as simple and as expedient as that.

And if we say 'hello' to another five thousand readers but have to say goodbye to you and your mate, I for one ain't gonna lose any sleep.

So, instead of trying to look clever, either be more mindful of the words you use when criticizing (example of a good, constructive critique: Red Merkin's post) or just go and buy another magazine, simple !

And it's no good coming after your post and then trying to support it, the abuse had already been noted and rebutted!

 

[JoseDominguez]

I only look at the pictures......I'm a teacher so I count reading as work

Still wondering why people outside of PGI are getting so angry about this. To the readers it's a matter of taste, no more, no less. To Robbo et al, it's their job, their creation. So I think anyone using hate, abysmal etc..... is over-reacting. They only asked you if you liked it.
Possible answers are No, yes, sort of and hmmmmm. Seriously, if you start "hating" a magazine because you think it's colours clash then what words can you use to describe the french?
Stop over-reacting.
I don't blame Robbo for getting so pi$$ed off, how many other magazines would even bother to ask the established readers how they feel?

 

[Baca Loco]

Originally posted by JoseDominguez
how many other magazines would even bother to ask the established readers how they feel?

Three of my regular subscription of zines have changed formats in the last year or so and all of them solicited reader opinion regarding the changes made. And in every instance there was a percentage of readers who "overreacted" to the changes. It's par for the course, seems to me, and asking what the readers think gives the upset ones an opportunity to vent and gives the magazine a chance to gauge just how their core readership is responding.

 

[Acidd_UK]

I am just looking forward to getting it so I can make my own mind up - Robbo makes a valuable point - I have found that over the last year PGI has become less and less relevant to me as a UK reader. I understand that this is because the US readership is probably 100s or even 1000s of times that in the UK, so it makes buisness sence that if you can put a UK-related article in, it might give you say 10 or 100 extra UK readers. However, by putting in more US-centric articles you can pull in 100s or 1000s more readers then it makes sence to cover more US stuff and less UK stuff. But then, since PBUK has launched, this doesn't bother me too much, as this gives me a good fix of UK event reviews etc. So, although I expect I will let my PGI subscription lapse, it's not because I hate it or anything, I just feel it becoming less and less relevant to me - I'm just not interested in reading about NPPL or PSP events - though I'm sure many UK readers are.

Not really sure what my point was meant to be - just trying to give my viewpoint in a constructive way I guess.

Anyway, hopefully the new format will blow me away and I'll renew my subscription, but for me, the content is more important then the presentation (ooh, I did have a point after all!)

Tom

 

[Robbo]

Originally posted by Acidd_UK
I am just looking forward to getting it so I can make my own mind up - Robbo makes a valuable point - I have found that over the last year PGI has become less and less relevant to me as a UK reader. I understand that this is because the US readership is probably 100s or even 1000s of times that in the UK, so it makes buisness sence that if you can put a UK-related article in, it might give you say 10 or 100 extra UK readers. However, by putting in more US-centric articles you can pull in 100s or 1000s more readers then it makes sence to cover more US stuff and less UK stuff. But then, since PBUK has launched, this doesn't bother me too much, as this gives me a good fix of UK event reviews etc. So, although I expect I will let my PGI subscription lapse, it's not because I hate it or anything, I just feel it becoming less and less relevant to me - I'm just not interested in reading about NPPL or PSP events - though I'm sure many UK readers are.

Not really sure what my point was meant to be - just trying to give my viewpoint in a constructive way I guess.

Anyway, hopefully the new format will blow me away and I'll renew my subscription, but for me, the content is more important then the presentation (ooh, I did have a point after all!)

Tom

Tom, thanks for your post, it is a constructive one.
We do cover all the Millennium events as well as some of the other UK events, so perhaps it's not as bad as some people are trying to make out.
Most of the articles we run are generic i.e. they are applicable to paintballers no matter where you live.
Tactical and technical articles, hardware reviews etc are wholly relevant to ballers both sides of the Atlantic and these are written by some of the big hitters in our sport which of course may not be available to other publications.
After all, if you wanna know how to play soccer, do you listen to somebody from Man Utd or Crewe Alexander ?
No disrespect to Crewe here but we need some perspective if we are to get a relative handle on things.
We of course do cover the PSP, NXL and NPPL events because this is where the top teams in the world ply their trade and to ignore this in favour of becoming a more parochial publication would be like a so-called international soccer magazine ignoring Real Madrid, Man Utd and Juventus.
Like it or not, the US dominates our sport at every level and as such will dominate the pages of all self-respecting 'international' paintball magazines.
But what I can't understand is you saying you will probably let your sub slide because it is becoming less relevant to you.
You may not be interested in what the top teams and players are doing in the world (but I can’t imagine why) but presumably you would take pride in your performance as a player and as such would want to improve.
If so, I'm afraid you won't be able to get the level of expertise in technical / tactical articles by anything less than the top players and sophisticates of the game and I'm afraid they only tend to write for the big mags.
Also, the hardware reviews in the top mags are more extensive, more sophisticated and better researched because once again, we can afford to pay these expert reviewers to do a good job on many different items per month.
Wouldn't you want to know which is the best piece of equipment around and to be able to reference relative performances?
I know I would but anyway, ‘each to his own’ as they say and thanks for the post.

 

[sjt19]

Personally i couldnt care less what the cover looks like. If the articles inside are the same as they have always been then great, and i would expect them to be as they are still written by the same people, who will not have overhauled their individual writing styles.

I read PGI last night, and was as interested as i have ever been in what the articles were about and what direction the magazine is clearly moving in. The magazine design is clearly being redesigned to attract more US readers to the publication, whats wrong with that? INdirectly, more readers means more exposure, which in turn means greater outside insustry advertising and support for leagues and events. This in turn will make balling more accessible and cheaper to everyone involved. Its a long road, but one that needs to be travelled.

Personally i like reading about the PSP and NPPL and Xball, as i like knowing whats going on where. When you watch the news, you dont just watch the local news, you watch news from around the world as well. Why should magazine coverage be any different? Becomming increasingly diverse is an attractive feature of anything, be it a magazine, paper, tv show etc... Increasing appeal is only going to have a proactive efect on the sport as a whole.

People complaining about the cover, would the content be affected if the cover was designed by a two year old armed with a crayola crayon? Of course not. The cover change is an attempt at reinvention and an unwillingness to stagnate and to move with the times. Lifestyles and fashions are becomming more retro so why shouldnt PGI?

The only thing that bothered me was the interview with Brockdorf saying he wanted to pick up Robbo, shame, it was funny, but i would have been genuinely interested in knowing who a top Euro team had their eye on on the recruitment front. We had answers from the US teams, more Euro teams wanted too! I would have liked to have seen what Sergei was after if anything, or what Maggot was intereested in.

Was the reason Nexus weren't featured in the pick ups section because you guys didnt want to rock any boats, or because you are happy with the current squad?

Peace

 

[sjt19]

Nick, see my thread in SYB bout the Euro super team.

 

[Urban]

The Cover:
I can't really understand all the fuss. Personally I feel neither one way or the other about the cover. It's different to what it used to be, sure, but the criteria that I think will have been considered when redesigning it was probably more along the lines of moderisation, added visual impact, and attracting new readers, not whether or not existing readers are going to like it. Establish buyers or subscribers will, in my opinion, continue to buy or subscribe. I wouldn't have thought anyone purchases any magazine just for it's cover, it's the content that counts; "Men Only" with a pic of TJ on the cover ain't going to affect readership levels.. well, not much anyway

The Inside:
Some people have noted it now seems to be very "americanised" in format and, given the major part of the mags reader base is in the U.S., that makes perfect business sense if that is the market-share you want increased. The same applies if the cover was redesigned with the American market in mind. Again, if the content is there I can fight my way through pink boxes (or is that magenta? ) to find what I want. Internal format is a minor point for the readers, up until it becomes totally unreadable or gives me a headache, and PGI doesn't fall into those catergories.

In General:
I don't subscribe to any magazines. I find it on a shelf, look to see what's in it and buy it if the majority of the issue is interesting to me. For me, and this is a very specific statement about what I like not a sweeping generalisation, I will not subscribe to a magazine when I find it has only a few pages I am interested in. PGI 175 had seven pages from 140-ish that I wanted to read (tactics and techniques and the Ryan Greenspan article) so I read Famines copy instead.

I'm not interested in the NPPL, PSP or NXL: It's highly unlikely I will be taking part in either of them anytime soon and, to be honest, it's "over there" and outside my sphere of influence. Not to say that will always be the case, as the way the U.S. handles paintball will inevitably impact what happens over here, but that's at a strategic level, not at team or player level in my opinon.

The same applies for player profiles, team profiles, who thinks what about who, etc, etc. Not interested. Maybe it's just me but, for example, Olly is good, he plays for Dynasty and that's all I need to know.

Hardware reviews are something that I feel is very specific to individuals. I have an Adrenalin Impulse, I'm considering getting a Timmy or Eblade as well, and there is more than enough free info available 'net-side to help me decide relative merits without paying for it. Others may read the Nexion Raven review and decide they gotta have one (or not).

News and other info... well, it's usual on here isn't it?


PGI is a business. As a business the decisions that are made regarding PGI will be made with the well being of that business in mind. For PGI, if the majority of it's readers are American 17-20 year olds, then decisions have to be made based in no small part on how American 17-20 year olds will react to those decisions. Pretty much all decisions made by a publishing company will be based on two primary considerations; how can we keep our existing readership and how can we expand our readership.

For some, PGI is more than just a business, it is their business. For the readers, it matters little if the cover or internal format changes. For those that produce it, it's their career, mortgage, car, family and a whole lot more all rolled into one.

Urban

 

[Robbo]

Originally posted by sjt19
Was the reason Nexus weren't featured in the pick ups section because you guys didnt want to rock any boats, or because you are happy with the current squad?

Peace

Sam, main reason was, I wasn't asked
But if I could have picked one (not to replace any of my players but to add to) then I am afraid I would have probably gone for Oli)

Urban Good post, can ya please spend a lot more time with Famine in the future, so that your measured, informed and constructive approach to critiques rubs off on him a little more

What I have a little problem understanding, and it may just be me here but whenever I got involved in any sport whether it be soccer, boxing, carp fishing or whatever my nuthead of a brain was enjoying at the time, I wanted to know who was the best, what they were up to, what they used, where they got it, how I could be like them and so on.
I wanted to know the ins and outs of a donkey's ass about everything to do with my chosen sport at the time.
And yet your remit of interest seems a lot less ....'ambitious' I suppose is the word I am looking for.
I been in this game for way too long now but I still wanna know what Oli Lang is doing, how Aftershock are doing in the NXL and so on.
I suppose it all comes down to just how much we all immerse ourselves in this sport of ours, horses for courses I suppose.