Igromania

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Igromania
Editor-in-chief Alexander "Comrad" Kuzmenko
Categories Magazines
Frequency Monthly
Publisher Tekhnomir Ltd.
Total Circulation
(2007)		 ~240,000
Year founded 1997
First issue September 1997
Country Russian Federation
Language Russian
Website Igromania
ISSN 1560-2580

Igromania is a monthly Russian games magazine published in Moscow and distributed mostly in Russia and the CIS countries. Tekhnomir (Techworld in Russian) company started the publication in September, 1997. The circulation in March, 2008 was 240,498 copies (ranking second in Europe after GameStar).[citation needed] Each issue contains 256 pages. The magazine comes with a poster, four stickers, and two dual-layer DVD disks. In its early years, Igromania focused mainly on solutions and guides to videogames gradually enlarging the variety of content topics and finally moving solutions and guides to the accompanying CD and later DVD.

Contents

[edit] Igromania History

The first issue of Igromania came out in September, 1997. The magazine was founded by Evgeny Isupov and Alexander Parchuk who were both originally engaged in publishing books in Best Computer Games series and later decided to enter the magazine publishing business.

The print run of the first issue was about 16,000 copies. Due to massive returns, the number of printed copies of consequent issues was significantly reduced. Originally, the magazine was black-and-white with only the cover being in color. Several issues were printed on a Risograph printer. It was planned to start full color printing in the summer of 1998 but the August crisis in the country forced to postpone such plans.

During the first years of publication, the editors could not decide upon the game platform preference of the magazine. If the first issue carried reviews of only a few PlayStation games, the following issue was entirely dedicated to games on this platform. Very soon the magazine focused on PC games and this focus continues to remain unchanged till now with the only exception of Videomania section on one of its DVD disks.

In 1999, Denis Davydov, who had previously worked in Hacker magazine and even before that had created Game World Navigator magazine, became editor-in-chief of Igromania. He initiated dramatic reforms in the magazine and, by 2002, the magazine completely changed its looks and content. Guides and solutions gave way to the widest spectrum of content: game news, previews, reviews, articles about hardware, software, the Internet, game modding and development, features, editors' personal columns, online and desktop games, cheats, retro games, cybersport, computer game competitions, and three hotlines (software, games, and game modding).

The DVD disks that come with every issue of Igromania are very popular and attract a great attention. These disks carry content of all sorts. It is often said that many tend to buy Igromania only because of these disks.

In 2004, Videomania emerged as part of the magazine. Started as intro movies for each disk, it soon turned into a separate section. Videomania now has its own disk and is produced by a studio headed by Anton Logvinov. This studio also produces a regular television program about PC and videogames for A-One channel and video materials for Igromania website. All Videomania movies are dubbed by professional actors, such as Boris Repetur, one of the anchors of Ot Vinta! program that ran on Russian TV from 1994 to 1998.

Each issue of Igromania carries 30 to 60 pages of commercial ads. This relatively small amount of ads (considered to be small as the total size of the magazine is 256 pages) is explained by the publisher due to high advertizing prices.

[edit] Vision

Simplicity and clarity of information published in Igromania are the basic principles that the editors follow so that the published texts can be understood by the widest audience. Yet, unlike Best Computer Games magazine, Igromania does not avoid videogame slang.

[edit] Content Topics

Below is the list of permanent magazine content topics:

  • News Meridian - a selection of monthly gaming news
  • DVD-Mania - the contents of the first DVD
  • Videomania - the contents of the second DVD (video only)
  • Out of the Horse's Mouth - reports about the most promising but not yet released games that the authors managed to played personally
  • R&S: In Development - previews of upcoming games
  • R&S: Direct Speech - interviews with developers
  • In the Spotlight - detailed previews (usually on four pages) of the most anticipated games
  • R&S: Verdict - reviews on new released and soon-to-be-released games
  • Domestic Localizations - reviews localized foreign games
  • Game of the Month - results of the vote for the best game of the month (taken monthly at Igromania website) and advice from the editors about the games worth playing in the upcoming month
  • Hotline: Games - answers to most frequently asked questions about games
  • Game Over - retro games reviews, A Month in the History of Games calendar
  • Iron Plant - reviews of new computer hardware, hardware tests, optimal component configurations and prices, and answers to the frequently asked questions about hardware
  • Game Building - modding, reviews of game editors and SDKs
  • Special - various special materials, such as game companies' histories, analytics, and reviews of new books and movies based on games
  • Playing Online - online games news, previews, reviews, analytics, and interesting links
  • Cybersport - news and reports about everything in the world of cybersport
  • CODEx - cheat codes, Easter eggs, and hints
  • Igromania Mail - letters to the editor and answers
  • Brainstorm - computer games knowledge contests (Test, Screentours, and Photographic Memory)
  • Dissenting Opinion - personal columns

[edit] Rating System

Igromania utilizes a ten-point game rating system with 0.5 minimal increment. From 2003 through 2007, when Igromania dramatically toughened its rating system, only four games received the maximum score: Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Half-Life 2 and Orange Box.

In addition to the final score, game reviews also contain separate scores for gameplay, graphics, music and sound, interface and controls, learning curve, originality, story, and replayability.

Based on the review scores, games can receive special awards:

  • Editors' Choice - an absolute hit in the editors' opinion
  • Supergraphics - games with the most advanced or/and most artistic visuals
  • Breakthrough - innovations in the genre

Since 2002, the highlight of every February issue is the Year Summary that names the Best Game of the (previous) Year:

[edit] Disks

Every issue of Igromania comes with 2 dual-layer DVD disks. One of them contains only video: trailers, video news, reports from special events produced by Igromania, and episodes of Ot Vinta! show. The second disk contains game demos, mods, online games installers (time limited or completely free versions), patches, useful software, flash games, cheat codes, saves, trainers, guides and solutions, wallpapers, utilities for modding, and other useful things.

[edit] Industry Discussions

Starting from 2004, Igromania from time to time publishes controversial columns by leading industry analysts about the current situation on the Russian game development and distribution market causing thought provoking discussions among local publishers and developers. One of such columns Say No to License, by Mikhail Verbitsky, published in May, 2006 launched one of the hottest discussions among Russian publishers and developers.

[edit] Exclusive

Igromania continues to provide to the Russian readers more and more exclusive materials about major Western and local game releases, as well as interviews with game developers. In the spring of 2005, Igromania was one of the three magazines (the others were Game Informer and PC Gamer UK) to publish the first preview of Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars. In April 2007, Igromania was one of the first magazines in the world (alongside PC Gamer) to publish the first details about Guild Wars 2 and Guild Wars: Eye of the North.

[edit] Management Team

  • Evgeny Isupov - Director of Igromedia, Ltd.
  • Azam Daniyarov - Director of Tekhnomir Publishing House

[edit] Editorial Team

Igromania editorial team, as of March, 2008:

  • Alexander "Comrad" Kuzmenko - Publisher and Editor in chief
  • Igor Varnavsky - Executive Editor
  • Oleg Stavitsky - Features Editor
  • Nikolay Arsenyev - Hardware Editor
  • Georgiy Kourgan - Short Reviews, Localizations and Testomania's Editor
  • Alexey Moiseev - Software, CODEx, Brainstorm, and Humor Editor
  • Alexey Makarenkov - Game Building, Playing Online and Igromania Mail Editor
  • Stanislav Lomakin - Cybersport Editor
  • Nikolay Pegasov - Desktop Games Editor
  • Anton Logvinov - Video Producer (Videomania on DVD, Videomania program on A-One channel, and video for Igromania website)
  • Igor Asanov - DVD Editor
  • Semen Chechulin - DVD Editor
  • Alena Ermilova - DVD Editor

The following authors have been contributing to Igromania: Oleg Bocharov, Mikhail Verbitsky, Dmitry Burkovsky, Yury Nesterenko, Oleg and Egor Moskvitin, Alexey Butrin, Mikhail Sudakov, Fedor Usakov, Mikhail Novikov, Andrey Alexandrov, Oleg Polyansky, Kirill Alekhin, Dmitry "Albert Alien" Homak, Igor Asanov, Igor "ViV" Vlasov, Alexander Chepelev, Svyatoslav Torik, Ilya "Orange" Viktorov, Alexander "Lexx" Zavoloka.

[edit] Links

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