I was about to sit back and read your PDF past issues to come across a thread about re-printed issues to learn that you do, I guess?, print this magazine!! Can you please post again the information about subscribing and info on passed issues availability? Thanks!!
Hi OZtwo, Yes, printed copies were available, though we no longer have them available for all editions, and we do not foresee that the ones we ran out of being reprinted any time soon. If I am not mistaking, we still have copies available of version 3 (Arkadia) and 4 (Cyrene). They are 18 USD each, which includes worldwide shipping. For now, there will be no more magazines printed. We found the workload was simply too high. However, who knows what the future might bring?
That is sad to read. As I looked at some of them, I noted that they just seemed way to good not to be printed -- not knowing at the time that you did print them. They are needed and you really should work with MA () or other partners to keep it a printable version.
Well, it was a fun experience, but the team making the magazines was just too small, and due to circumstances, we ended up losing quite a bit of money on the deal (basically, our printer was an idiot who used paper that was too heavy. As a result, we paid more on postage than we calculated). Like I said, who knows what the future might bring. If more people would feel like writing a story, perhaps we might give things a shot again at some point.
Consider this a call for more people to write articles to be published on EP or in a future magazine.
Or at least to advertise this a bit more. I knew of it in the past from a friend of a friend or a link or something, but never really looked at it until last night since it was an online version of it. If I knew you had a printed version, I would have started buying them when joining the game over 10 months ago. You probably already have done this, but how much support do you have from planet partners? Have you made an ordering page for this yet? If you don't, Google will not find it!! :) BTW, doesn't Staples offer a printing service now for these kind of projects?
From what I know they sold a few dozen of all the magazine in real print. But since the last issue making the magazine, both online as real life has stopped because of the amount of work that had gone into it and the fact that the 2 main writers (Lykke and MS9) both went to work for planet Cyrene. There was a lot of support from a few PP's and we got exclusive images and stories for the magazines. Like Tass said, if there are more people willing to help out with writing articles I'm sure we can work something out.
Hi :) I believe all planet partners added their support to the magazine, when they could and especially when it was themed their planet. We got some great interviews with them all - and I believe all issues had if not something about all planets - then almost. We sold between 125-200 real life printed issues each time (depending on the issue) - and we had to reprint a few times too. We tried to advertise it - not only on EP but also on other forums, but people didn't seem to care that much - we had the same customers from time to time though ;) and we really really appreciate the support we got every time. I posted on the forums too with real life pictures of the printed copy to make people aware of the possibility, as I posted the pictures on Facebook - and yes, I always got more orders in that way. Unfortunately, as Peter said, we ended up loosing a lot of money in the end - which is not people's fault at all - but because of unexpected issues and it didn't really 'work out' until we reached the last magazine. We also ended up loosing on some huge shipping costs - and it took a lot of free time designing, writing, setting up the pages etc. In the beginning we were a lot of people contributing, but it is very difficult because it is people's real time you use, and we can not afford to pay people for the great work they are doing :( - in the end it was only myself and MindStar working on the magazines, and it was more stressful than joyful, because we both want the quality and standard of the finished products to be very high, even though the magazine was created by 'fans' - it was important for us that it looked professional. As RAZER said the work with the magazines also had to end when both I and MindStar got seriously involved with Planet Cyrene - since it would be a conflict of interests to work with all planets about a magazine, as intense as we did. Often we got information and pictures, that wasn't yet released to public and that we could not share with the EP staff either. Perhaps the EntropiaPlanets team can make a new magazine at a point - but it does require a lot of time, energy and commitment from a lot of people :) If anyone wish to join a group like that, I'm sure the staff would not mind to hear from you. I loved the time working on the magazines though, and every time we released it fell like giving birth to yet a baby. MindArk never suggested to support us financially in our work (and we never asked), but we know from David Simmonds that they were/are very impressed with the work we have been doing, and they also ordered a lot of magazines themselves - as did all the other planet partners (to use at business meetings, fairs, contest etc.) Personally I'm very happy that my dream of a magazine came true and the great times we had creating it with the whole team is definitely memories I treasure.
I feel I would be negligent if I didn't echo Lykke's words here. Working on the magazine was incredibly time-consuming, but it was always a labor of love, and it really did feel like we were giving birth every 3 months. We really enjoyed it despite any deadline stress that we encountered. Magazine production is a very involved process, but as a writer whose passion it is to spill over into print as often as I can, it was one of the most rewarding and fulfilling experiences I've had, and I thank Lykke immensely for inviting me to share her dream. Writing was the fun part - connecting with VIP's at MindArk, Planet Partners, and others to interview and collect data, along with supporting photos, etc., was actually the most labor-intensive part of the process. Although, I really enjoyed conducting the in-game photo shoots for the society profiles I did. It was rather nostalgic, and reminded me of the fun I used to have writing the player and couples profiles back in the day. Besides the writing, I reviewed every single page as a quality control element, and passed on the edits to Lykke, who also did each magazine design and layout ... beautifully I might add. We were both very quality conscious, and prior to publishing any of the issues of the magazine, we were basically attached at the hip, sometimes for hours and hours on Skype and in email in order to meet our deadline, which we always did. Those who worked more consistently with us in the beginning made some special contributions, and I wish they could have continued, because it was a wonderful group effort. It just became incredibly difficult to continue without the additional staff. Perhaps as mentioned by Peter and RAZER I believe, if enough people are interested and willing to put forth the effort, then maybe something could happen again. The support we did get from the community and the VIP's was greatly appreciated, but as others mentioned, it just wasn't enough to keep the magazine going. Lykke and Peter also had the extra work of printing and shipping the hard copies of the magazine too, so that added to the demand on time. I treasure the experience immensely, because it was my close friendship with Lykke and connecting in yet another way that produced something special for the community. We've been friends for over 6 years now, and guess what? I still get to work with her in our official capacity as staff members of Cyrene. I just couldn't have been more excited when Ed asked her to join our team - he's a smart man.
For all who may be interested in this magazine but are having problems accessing them try this link: http://www.entropiaplanets.com/wiki/Category:EntropiaTimes
I have my four issues on the coffee table as well, and I will pick them up and go through them now and then. It brings back fond memories, but also immense pleasure of having the opportunity to have been a part of the staff that produced this magazine. It was truly a labor of love.
I have all the Entropia magazines that were made or that I worked on printed out. If I had a coffee table. They would be there!
