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We've actually been really surprised about how many people have been clamouring for us to re-release exp. -2 and -3. At the time of writing, we are doing another limited reprint of -3 for the Venus Patrol Kickstarter (http://kck.st/mYSiJZ) for people willing to stump up $75 to the project (well worth it, as you get lots of other goodies too) but the fact is that -2 and -3 are, well, side-stories (gaidens, if you will.) They're important, but we intentionally made them limited to experiment with the form and push our own boundaries, and in their current format we can't say that it's likely that we'll ever reprint them.
Ultimately--and as wanky as this sounds--we've come to view exp. more as an art project than a magazine. In the case of -2, for example, each issue was literally hand-crafted, and to do that on a larger (or longer) scale just isn't workable, and could remove at least some of what is so special about it.
But that's not to say we won't ever change our mind and reissue them in some other way, or that future issues won't be more mass-produced. It's just not on the horizon right now. -
This is a difficult question, because it would be hard to consider them directly comparable: it's hard to comment on Duke Nukem until we've seen Forever through, and Lara Croft has been in a state of continual evolution since her first appearance in 1996 (the same year of Nukem's last main-series appearance!)
The issue is ultimately that neither serves as a particularly excellent example of what is wrong with video game characters as one (Nukem) is ridiculously, pointedly extreme (though there is some debate to be had over how well that "joke" works with game character so poorly written in general) and the other having wobbled between feminist icon, eye candy for teenage boys and cold blooded psychopath depending on the day of the week.
What is ultimately abhorrent is that in video games, "idealist fantasy caricatures" are all that is offered in all but the most unusual circumstances. Even in the most well-meaning games stack themselves with wish-fulfillment; Bioware might have recently received plaudits for their stance on not offering only romances for the "straight male gamer" but all of their female characters are patently designed for them, and other examples held up (Heavy Rain, anyone?) would be laughable if it wasn't depressing enough to become worrying.
Picking or choosing one example to hold up--Duke Nukem or Lara Croft or whoever--would allow us to set a benchmark and give people the opportunity to argue, "but we're not as bad as Duke!"
Ultimately people need to examine their characters from the ground up, giving them a life that exists outside of the confines of the game. Deadly Premonition's director, Swery 65 touched on this in his session at GDC, and we can but hope more people start creating characters, not caricatures. -
I'd like to offer subscriptions, but there are a couple of main issues with that. Firstly, exp. is a loss-maker, which means that it's hard for me to commit to the kind of concrete, regular release schedule that I think a subscription warrants.
Secondly that as a still early magazine with fluid plans, I can't confirm that the magazine will always cost roughly the same amount, and I wouldn't want to overcharge people (not to mention how disastrous it might be to undercharge.)
Something I've considered and could implement depending on future plans/interest is the idea of a "patron" program in which I would allow people to donate an amount of money and then simply send them issues deducting from the donation for each one until the money ran out, with the understanding that that money might sit around for quite a while. But that's just one idea I'm floating. -- Mathew -
Hmm. No. In fact, we'd rather you didn't have any conviction in what an video game article should be, or what kind of style it should be written in.
Well, that's perhaps not entirely true. If there's one rule for exp., it's probably "no snark." Games "journalism" and indeed the Internet in general is drowning in articles written in a snide, know-it-all and holier-than-thou tone that has led most entering the "profession" think that no matter what you are writing about, it must be torn down, chewed up, spat out and upon to appease the unwashed masses.
We're not saying there's not a place for expert, on-message takedowns of overinflated egos or genuinely terrible cultural phenomena--when it comes to other entertainment writing, will we ever tire of seeing Michael Bay or the Twilight series skewered?--but within gaming those egos seem to be biggest in the press and the phenomenon is of the websites that nurture bad-tempered and ill-informed opinion in the name of servicing their community, but ultimately only in service of themselves.
exp. is about celebrating games and gaming, first and foremost. We think that's the most important thing to keep in mind. -
Well, we hope that some of the positive reviews linked at http://www.expdot.com/about/ might be convincing enough that (at least) the first 'zine is worth a punt, but we admit it's still a hard sell. As a result, the future may hold an upcoming way to get a taste of the exp. "experience" in your own home without buying an issue.
No matter what, though, articles that are featured in the print magazine will never be found online. -
Honestly, I have no idea. I was talking to a friend recently and he discussed with me the fact that he writes purely for his readers, and about things he doesn't even like, just to serve them. By comparison, I'm utterly selfish, writing things that amuse myself primarily, and merely hoping that other people find what I've written interesting. I guess the kind of people that do will make themselves known to me as the project continues. -- Mathew
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I always have copies of the most recent issues of exp. on hand at Hand Eye Society (http://handeyesociety.com) events, such as the fairly regular Hand Eye Socials. However, that usually requires people find me in the crush of the Unit Bar, but if you ask around you can generally be directed to me. Other options include one of the events I've managed to get a table to sell exp. at, such as the Toronto Comic Arts Festival and Canzine; I should hopefully be at more of these kind of events in future (trusting I know about them; I didn't know about the Toronto Small Press Fair until yesterday, and won't be able to make it to the next one.) -- Mathew
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Why yes we do! You can find it at http://twitter.com/expdotzine. Mathew also has a personal twitter at http://twitter.com/mathewkumar.
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As I was reeling from the fact someone bothered to answer a question, to consider this I just sort of casually glanced over at the bookshelf to my right, and the first thing that caught my attention was 17, by Bill Drummond (not surprising, really, it's massive and bright red.)
Drummond is a good example of an influence along with Tony Wilson and Factory Records. It's easy to get pretentious when discussing influences, so I'm not trying to say I'm trying to "be" these people or do exactly what they did. I just like what they did.
If you're unfamiliar, Bill Drummond was one of the principle members of the KLF, who at one point were the biggest selling singles act in the world. Then they "went off the rails" and burned a million quid.
Since then, he's been writing books and going around doing art and music projects that defy explanation, such as the seventeen piece, no-fixed-membership choir The17 (detailed in 17) that performs improvised music for which the recordings are played once then deleted immediately.
What I like about Drummond is not only he creating art that is strongly influenced by other media and its context, but that he is very honest about what he's doing. He's not trying to pull the wool over anyone's eyes, and he writes very eloquently about it.
Something like exp. couldn't exist without video games, but I like to think taken within that context it stands as something worthy on its own; if you grasp what I mean. And just as much, I'm not trying to reinvent the wheel or create a revolution or blow people's minds. I'm just doing what I'm doing, and I hope people like it. -- Mathew
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exp. Magazine’s Bio
An independent video game magazine published by Mathew Kumar.
