Games Quarterly Catalog 62: The Great Purge

[Paul Czege]

So, I've had Half Meme Press and My Life with Master in Games Quarterly Catalog since late 2004, using just the no-cost mini-listing. And I'm fairly certain that not a single retailer has ever contacted me about the game from having seen the listing. But I do get regular emails from Matthews Simmons Marketing, the publisher of the catalog (about their Games Expo show, and National Games Week, and Games Quarterly Catalog). Which brings me to this snippet from their January 16th email about forthcoming issue 62 of Games Quarterly Catalog:

"This edition will feature game publisher's 2007 new product announcements. It is also our Great Purge Edition. Please contact us with updates, and to  reconfirm your complete product listing. We may delete the listings for companies that do not contact us, to make sure GQC is as current as possible. GQC62 advertising deadline is February 1. It will go to press February 15."

So, my question is, for anyone else with indie games listed in the catalog, are you even going to bother keeping your product listing from expiring? Have you had any upside at all from being listed? I've never even actually seen the catalog, have you?

Thanks,

Paul

[Justin D. Jacobson]

I actually paid for the full-page version, which includes gratis copies of the catalog. First, as far as my listing goes, I think it did something. How much I couldn't guess, but my gut is that it wasn't enough to cover the expense (approx $180 per catalog btw). Brennan might be a better judge of this since my page directed people to the IPR retailer page anyway. Over the past two years, I've had maybe 5 retailers contact me directly based on the listing. Second, as far as the catalog goes, it's actually pretty cool just to see all of the products out there and see what other publishers are doing.

I recently dropped my full listing because I'm cutting corners everywhere with a second baby on the way.

[Jake Richmond]

I get the catalog. It's not overly informative or well laid out, and interest is definetly placed on the comanies that pay for big ads. I keep mine in my bathroom (I have 2 or 3 I think) and thumb through it every now and then. If you don't pay for the ad then you just get a single line listing. Thats no good except maybe as a reminder to a store owner who is already familiar with your game. It seems to me theres all kinds of specials and deals you can buy into to get larger listings, pictures and larger prints. At the time I looked into them I remember thinking that some of these options seemd pretty affordabe (while others where not). No idea if they are worthwhile though.

Point of interest: I arranged to have Panty Explosion listed in the Catalog. To this date it has not appeared (despite reassurances from the catalog people that it would.

[guildofblades]

>>So, my question is, for anyone else with indie games listed in the catalog, are you even going to bother keeping your product listing from expiring? Have you had any upside at all from being listed? I've never even actually seen the catalog, have you?<<

We used to pay for several "catalog pages" which is where you get to place some product covers, logos and/or short product descriptions mixed in with your product listings. We did this mostly because everyone in the industry was snowballed into believing it was essential to keep your name in front of retailers. Then we had several issues where MSM just royally botched our listings so we pulled our advertising. Then after that our company had moved, but for 3-4 issues they refused to correct our listing and kept listing our old address and old phone number. Back then I know a lot of retailers did in fact use the catalog because I kept getting reports that we had gone out of business. Apparently they all kept calling the long disconnected phone number listed in the back of the Gamer's Quarterly Catalog. That coupled with a product listing they had refused to update over a bunch of time was presenting the appearance to retailers that used the catalog that the Guild of Blades had gone out of business. The issue was only resolved once we threatened to sue them if they did not either 1) provide us an accurate listing or 2) remove all mention of our company in the catalog.

I have not seen and looked through a copy of the catalog for many years now but to the best of my knowledge, our company remains not listed. And in those many years I can't say the lack of a listing has hurt at all. While the catalog did seem to get used a lot back in the day, I suspect these days retailers simply go to the Alliance website or the manufacturer's own web page for up to date info.

I basically have bestowed MSM with the title of the industry's greatest con man. He sells a bunch of services that just sap unwitting manufacturers of money and returns nothing of real value for it. Gamers Quarterly Catalog, Gamers Quarterly Magazine, National Games Week and the up coming Games Expo all prey on the industry's desire to foster the growth of the gaming "community" and the "overall health of the industry", but a close examination of each (short Games Expo which really can't be examined definitively yet) function shows that they do not achieve any of the stated goals, and short mostly unprovable hype put out by MSM supporting them, no evidence exists to suggest that they've ever really tried.

Ryan S. Johnson
Guild of Blades Publishing Group
http://www.guildofblades.com
http://www.1483online.com
http://www.thermopylae-online.com

[Justin D. Jacobson]

I have not seen and looked through a copy of the catalog for many years now but to the best of my knowledge, our company remains not listed. And in those many years I can't say the lack of a listing has hurt at all. While the catalog did seem to get used a lot back in the day, I suspect these days retailers simply go to the Alliance website or the manufacturer's own web page for up to date info.

FWIW, my instinct tells me this is true as well.