LeveL
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
LeveL is a computer and video games magazine originating in the Czech Republic with branches in Romania and Turkey. These three brother divisions occasionally exchange content. In addition to publishing the magazine, LeveL also organizes many yearly gaming competitions for players in all 3 countries; it is one of the biggest Turkish sponsors of international gaming contests (such as WCG).
LeveL was founded by Jan "Beast" Tomanek in 1995 in Czech Republic. Its first issue was released on 24.01.1995. The current LeveL editor-in-chief is Martin Bach (replacing Ondřej Průša).
[edit] LeveL in Czech republic
LeveL was the third magazine, after Excalibur in 1991 and Score in 1994, about computer games, that has been released on Czech market. With the founder Martin Ludvik, LeveL began its history in January, 1995. For one and a half year, the editor-in-chief was Jan Tománek, followed by Petr Bulíř (half a year in charge) and Jan Herodes, who led the magazine for seven years. His former assistant Ondřej Průša, one of the few people who had been with LeveL for its whole history, replaced him during the following 4 years. The current editor-in-chief is Martin Bach. LeveL is considered the best selling magazine about computer games in the Czech republic with nearly 40.000 print-outs dispatched every month. Current editorial staff consists of more than twenty members.
[edit] LeveL in Turkey
The Turkish edition was founded and initially written by M. Berker Güngör (alias "maddog") in 1997 and then Sinan Akkol joined the family couple of years later when he attended to a contest and became the heart of LeveL; today it is the leading computer games magazine in Turkey, with over 15 authors and distribution of 25 000 per issue. While global games magazines Gameshow (magazine) and PC Gamer at first competed in the Turkish market, their Turkish branches closed due to financial difficulty, leaving LeveL without competitors — and with extra staff poached from the failed publications.
The magazine encourages the purchase of legal copies of games, having published a series of articles about software piracy.
During August 2007, The magazine was sold to Doğan Burda, the leading magazine publisher of Turkey. Most of its authors, including the editor-in-chief Sinan Akkol, editors Serpil Ulutürk and Tuğbek Ölek (who had served as editor-in-chieves for ProGamer and PC Gamer respectively) has left the magazine for creating a new gaming magazine. They founded Oyungezer (a combination of Oyun (game) and Gezmek (travel), literally meaning Game Traveller) and launched the first issue in November. Fırat Akyıldız of the remaining staff (who had served as the editor-in-chief for Official PlayStation 2 Magazine Turkey and GamePro magazines in the past) became the editor-in-chief. Famous comedy duo Cenk and Erdem, reader favourite Cem Şancı and fantasy writer Ali Aksöz has returned to LeveL after the split. Also many writers from GamePro has joined LeveL and their new issue launched at November as well, giving a free copy of Dreamfall: The Longest Journey as promotion.
