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A New Chapter for Fire & Movement
After 33 years, Fire & Movement magazine will cease
publication. I am sad to announce that F&M #150 will be the last print issue. All regular subscribers will be receiving a credit memo for their remaining issues. We also want to thank subscribers who received complimentary
subscriptions for their support.
I am glad to see F&M's founder, Rodger MacGowan, interviewed in Eric Harvey's retrospective of F&M's history. I believe F&M was central to the development of war gaming as Rodger and Eric
mention and, despite the changing times, played a supporting role in the emergence of a new era for board historical gaming. In the early 1990's our success with F&M led to our purchase of Strategy & Tactics magazine in 1991 and
the beginning of our boxed game line in 1993. It also gave Joseph Miranda a first step, as well, as he served as F&M's editor from 1989 to 1991 and went on to become the editor of Strategy & Tactics and the most prolific wargame
designer in the history of the hobby. But F&M also provided exposure to a whole new crop of game companies that are now game room staples.
In the mid-1990's, the collective card bubble exploded and took out over half of the
retail game outlets, forcing the new game companies to come up with new ways to market their games. The rise of the Internet was well timed and the game companies that focused their efforts on building a Net presence continued to grow.
After starting to publish boxed games and S&T, the F&M readership began asking whether a game publisher could also publish a game review magazine without the perception of bias. Always relying heavily on feedback (as Rodger
told us directly in 1994), we attempted to sell F&M but were unable to find any potential buyers not connected with other game companies. Thus, we chose the next best alternative and moved F&M's editing and eventually layout to a
series of outside editor. Thanks to John Vanore, John Kisner, and Jon Compton for their efforts over the years.
Since the advent of the Internet, initially the Genie web site, and eventually ConSim World, Board Game Geek, and other
current web sites devoted to board gaming and historical gaming, the circulation of F&M has slowly but surely declined. When we first purchased F&M back in 1989, we had a motto of "Timely reviews delivered on time." We worked hard
to get the magazine out on time (this had been a key problem during the 1980's as F&M changed hands three times) and worked the review cycle down to its limit, which turned out to be about six months after a game's publication. In the
early to mid-90's, six months was acceptable, but not it simply doesn't work. Reviews are being posted within days of a game's release, and thorough after action reports are often up within 30 days. Even if F&M could bring that kind of
quick repose, by the time editing, layout, printing, and distribution occur another 30-60 days would elapse and then add to that the bi-monthly or quarterly frequency and another 60-90 days is added. As a game publisher, reviewers who
showed up at our exhibitor booths at this past summer's conventions who could not guarantee publication within 90 days didn't get review copies (and I have to unfortunately not that not a single individual requested a review copy for a
print publication). The world has changed.
So what are we doing going forward? Will there be a replacement for F&M? Not in print. As just mentioned, print simply can't meet the timeliness expectation. But we have decided to
launch a new area on the new DG web site just for our out of print magazines and the types of articles they ran. This new area will be under our BattlePlan label. It will include many articles previewing our games, designer's notes, and
after action reports (ala MOVES). It will also include reviews by outside reviewers of games from all companies (ala F&M). At least one article will be added every week and all the articles will be done in PDF format for easy reading
(or easy print out, for those that want that option). In addition, we're going to begin uploading all the back issues of MOVES, Fire & Movement, and the other magazines. This library already contains the first 60 issues of MOVES
magazine and the first 10 issues of Fire & Movement.
Another issue of F&M is being added every week at this time. As I mentioned, Decision Games is updating its website for its product lines, updating the look and the utility of its site, and adding new features like a totally automated Pledge Program and immediate order and payment processing.
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