Quote from: GabrielDragon was always a cyclical magazine.  You'd see the same kind of articles every so often because it would be new and interesting to the people just picking the mag up and older readers like me were supposed to quit reading.

That's true but it's not as bad as some of the general interest magazines such as fashion or celebrity gossip.

Quote from: GrimGentEh, "pre-Inphobia", you mean? Because the phrase "White Wolf before the World of Darkness" doesn't make much sense...

:confused:

I have no clue what Inphobia means. But as jrients concluded, there was a White Wolf magazine, and it had generic articles, and it was before Vampire was published.

They also put out a collection of generic fantasy adventures, two of which are my favorites of all time.

Edit: Here's some covers and summaries of some of these mags:
http://www.waynesbooks.com/WorldofDarkness.html

Quote from: Caesar SlaadI have no clue what Inphobia means.

White Wolf Magazine was in the end renamed Inphobia, for about eight issues. The change of direction and attitude which came with that isn't generally regarded as the smartest move in publishing history.

(Aha: here is a thread about it.)

Quote from: GrimGentWhite Wolf Magazine was in the end renamed Inphobia, for about eight issues. The change of direction and attitude which came with that isn't generally regarded as the smartest move in publishing history.

(Aha: here is a thread about it.)

Ah. Well. I'm glad I missed out on that, then.

Dragon, up to about the early 1990s, was good stuff; the earlier stuff up tothe mid-80s rocked in particular.

Shadis was pretty good until jim pinto became the editor, and then it was a trainwreck.  Causality?  I dunno.  But correlation?  Oh, yeah.

Some day, I will get a full set of arcane magazne, every issue, all complete.  Mark these words, then don't stand in my way.

Quote from: Dr Rotwang!Shadis was pretty good until jim pinto became the editor, and then it was a trainwreck.  Causality?  I dunno.  But correlation?  Oh, yeah.

:teehee:

I had Jim Pinto bitch me out over reviews, and he would tell me how much better things were when he ran Shadis.

Quote from: Caesar SlaadI had Jim Pinto bitch me out over reviews, and he would tell me how much better things were when he ran Shadis.

When the art  was mediocre, the cartoons weren't funny ("Cynical Man And Angst*Boy"), the material was light and the covers fell off?

The only gaming magazine I ever read regularly was Dragon.  I bought it religiously from the late '80s to the mid-'90s, and the quality of the content definitely deteriorated over that time.  By the end, I think I was only reading DragonMirth, the review columns, and Roger Moore's editorials (which I always found funny).

These days I buy back issues of gaming mags when I find something useful for the games I play, and I have subscriptions to JTAS online and Pyramid, though I'll probably let these lapse when it's time to re-up.  I've found the old Challenge magazine to be pretty impressive, and Pyramid has quite a few outstanding pieces in its archive (oops, original post is referring to paper mags...uhhh...Pyramid had a few paper issues, right?).

More than likely due to the fact that my current obsession is Classic Traveller, I've found the JTAS reprint volumes to be filled with excellent material.

I started reading Dragon with issue #102, and stopped buying it sometime around #160 or so.  I agree that the quality of the earlier issues was definitely superior.

Quote from: Dr Rotwang!When the art  was mediocre, the cartoons weren't funny ("Cynical Man And Angst*Boy"), the material was light and the covers fell off?

I had a subscription to Shadis for the longest time, but when I started getting ripped and missing covers, and lost interest in the content, I didn't renew. Funny you should mention that I never made any kinda connection with the events and the staff though... just went looking elswhere (which meant Dragon pretty much). I was kinda bummed at the time too.

I would have to say Dragon has always been the best to me because, wax or wane, it's always been there talking about the hobby and genres I enjoy most.

Quote from: GrimGentWhite Wolf Magazine was in the end renamed Inphobia, for about eight issues. The change of direction and attitude which came with that isn't generally regarded as the smartest move in publishing history.

(Aha: here is a thread about it.)

I was looking for that thread I can't really recall a single good thing about Inphobia, and I used to get WW mag pretty regularly. I've never seen a demographic shrink so dramaticaly

Regards,
David R

Quote from: David RI can't really recall a single good thing about Inphobia, and I used to get WW mag pretty regularly.

Well, it did have that "Jail of Night" article series about WoD/Kult crossovers.

let's see:

1.  white dwarf, pre-issue 103 or so.  variety plus sass!
2.  dragon, up until the late 80's, again variety (but not so much sass)
3.  JTAS and Traveller Digest (tie) i lived & breathed traveller/MT end 80's/early 90's and they were invaluable resources.

challenge was okay, very hit or miss.  artwork usually a miss.

Quote from: GrimGentWell, it did have that "Jail of Night" article series about WoD/Kult crossovers.

Yes it did. An interesting series if I remember correctly.

("What did the Romans ever do for us..."

Regards,
David R

I'll put a vote in for InQuest as the worst of all time.  I'd rather be stuck with naught but a stack of Jake Thornton White Dwarfs than read a single issue of that steaming heap of Wizard Communications any time.

Bad puns masquerading as "humor"?  Check.  Leering, immature sexuality?  Check.  Endless Magic wankery?  Check.  Backhanded advocacy of sex offenders?  Check (no shit.)

The whole thing was designed to sell to 13-year-olds, and we lapped it up like dogs at a toilet.