Edge 200.

Categories: books, and-another-thing, general-stuff

Tags: computer games, computer game, Edge magazine

Date: 10 March 2009 09:09:51

Lol what?

Actually stop, scratch that. I'm a big Edge fan so I come to praise it as much as their most recent action has frustrated me. I've read Edge since issue 1, 200 or so months ago, and until recently had them all stacked neatly in a corner of the house until we had to downsize a little. 200 issues is no mean feat so congratulations are due to editors past and present and the publication house: Future magazines. They don't always do it right but Edge has to be the thing I am most fond of from their stable (although I do also pick up the odd issue of Commy Arts and 3d World).

But, for their 200th issue, they are printing the magazine with a choice of covers. And, you can guess the punchline, there are 200 copies of 200 covers to view and (shudder) collect, if you are so inclined.

Which would cost just a shade under a grand.

I used to work with someone who moaned about many things, not least of the fact that if Edge did two covers it was unfair because you had to buy both to be a completist. I'd LOVE to have seen his face when he heard of the 200 cover thing.

Anyway: 200 covers doesn't bother me per se: I'm not going to collect them all but hope they do a special magazine collecting them all in the future maybe. What bothers me is the sheer lack of imagination and interest they have put into the project over and above the managing of the scale of it all. Yes we all have our favourite darlings and yeah there are games I'm surprised to see omitted. Yet a good number of the covers are dull as dishwater and show nothing over and above the ability to resize and crop a publicity image. A shame, in many ways. 100 covers drawn by industry programmers and 100 drawn by industry artists would have been a far more interesting project I believe, a search sourced collection of publisher submitted money shots slapped on a cover with no consideration towards eyeflow, layout or design seems a waste of the time and effort the rest of the process must have taken.

I am, however, looking forward to seeing the mag in a big way though. Congratulations Edge. You and I may not have seen eye to eye always but you're still the only magazine I read on a monthly basis, 14 or so years since inception, and my world would be a less interesting place without your comments and stories.

[caption id="attachment_637" align="aligncenter" width="257" caption="One of the 170 or so covers I hope to avoid."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_636" align="aligncenter" width="257" caption="One of the twenty or so covers I hope to track down."][/caption]

Hmmm 20 x 200 divided by 200 x 200 x number of newsagents vs number of people after the good covers... I'm guessing that the odds are not good, but we'll see what thursday brings.