S.WEINBERG3 [Lemming] I don't know Jaded Gamer, I think sometimes they're trying too hard to be funny. The SERF CITY review is an excellent example. The "killing is cool" gag kind of fell flat. I think a simple quip there would have been funnier. In fact, that's sort of a feeling I have for the magazine. They've got a new technology, and the people are playing with it. Playing too hard. A better example. The "Interactive Interview." I mean, this is dreadful. If I see two good questions and choose one, I'll often never get offered the other one again. On the whole I'd much rather just sit back, relax, and enjoy the interview. If you offer an option where I can go to a specific question too, so much the better. PAS.JPD [Jaded Gamer] Agreed on the interactive interview.... I generally watch IE kicked back with my feet up on the desk, sipping a brew (either malt barley or coffee bean!) and excessive clicking irks me, not to mention, as you said, that you have to go through the whole thing multiple times to get all the questions... And yes, sometimes they try too hard. But maybe half the time, they make me chuckle. Which, being Jaded as I am, is more than I expected . I have to believe that they're still dialing this thing in, and that it will just get better and better. I tell you, for us videogamers, seeing the movies of the games in action is a REAL plus. -Jaded S.WEINBERG3 [Lemming] That's certainly true JG. If they can squeeze a few more FPS into these clips then it'll be really good. That and just calm down a notch. OTOH the DOOM II/Fabio/Simmons thing had me in tears. W.ROSADO [Foyle] Re Interactive Interviews, I agree with Lemming and Jaded Gamer. A full fledged interview with cut shots into games being discussed would be more entertaining. S.WEINBERG3 [Lemming] On the Interactive Interview, I'd rather see it just run continuously, with the questions appearing before the answer in nice big friendly letters on the screen before the answer. Perhaps also put the question on the bottom of the screen as the interviewee talks. I'd like to see an option to set how long the question screen stays on. I'd also like to be able to see a list of ALL the questions, and choose from that, so I can go back and review something that interests me. As it stands now you have to keep picking questions at random, hoping that the one you want will eventually come up. R.VILLELLA [Mister V] I've never tried IE, so let me risk putting my feet in my mouth. My problem with "interactive" interviews is I can never forget the interviewer already asked the questions, the interviewee answered them and I'm just querying the database. Lemming's suggestions are good but I'd like to see the interview concept developed further so that, for example, the reader selects a question about what a game designer did to improve a game's graphics. This leads to screen shots or animation from the game that shows what the designer means and how the graphics improved. Perhaps a discussion about game mechanics could lead to a brief demo. If you're already doing this, never mind. --------------------------------------- "Playing too hard with new technology." I like it. It says "IE" to me. I say we ditch "forget reading!" and adopt this as our new slogan! (Removes tongue from cheek) Actually, this is a fair description of what we're trying to do. We *know* that our jokes sometimes stink like old roadkill, but occasionally, we get lucky and land a blow to the universal funnybone. I've sometimes been handed copy from our writers that literally had me in tears (the Fabio Doom piece from the CES episode being one such. Incidentally, the folks at GT Interactive thought it was pretty funny, too). If you don't take risks, if you don't let yourself fail some of the time, you never get to succeed either. You just wallow in a state of bland, indifferent mediocrity. We refuse to let that happen, so we dare to be different. It would be all too easy to assemble a product that was nothing more than a paper magazine, 'cept on a CD. Yawn. Just being on CD isn't outstanding enough, IMHO, for people to justify spending ten bucks for our product. Besides, eventually, there are going to be other CD MAGs, and once the market is as crowded as the paper magazine market currently is, only the quality (or, ahem, lack thereof) of our editorial content will be what keeps our loyal viewers loyal. That, and the fact that we were first, of course :-) The suggestions for improvements to the interactive interview are good ones. As I've said before, we're working on it. Stay tuned. And keep those suggestions coming! T.K.