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Letterspace gets iOS writing and editing right
It's easy to write on an iPad or iPhone, but editing and revising, not so much. At this moment I have six separate writing apps on my iPad and the all share the same problem: if you want to edit or change a word or phrase, you are required to touch the spot on the screen near where you want to "insert" the cursor and then fiddle around, moving your finger around to try and get to the precise spot that you want. Letterspace, a clever new iOS app, solves this problem elegantly. Letterspace requires iOS 7.1 or later, is compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. The base app is free, but has an In-App purchase option of additional fonts and colors for $4.99. Letterspace really is beautifully designed. When you create a new document you are presented with not only the blank page and the virtual keyboard, but they are separated by a and a few useful characters not displayed on the basic iOS keyboard. That's nice, but the real magic happens when you type a line or two of text and then run your finger across this bar. The cursor moves easily and quickly back and forth across your text. The moment I started using sliding approach to move the cursor I fell in love with it. This is exactly how editing should work with touch devices. Using it for the first time was one of those, "of course!" moments. It's brilliant, simple, and very effective. But is that enough for a writing app? I found the app to be well designed and easy on read and use. Letterspace includes a few other clever features. Along with the sliding cursor bar the app includes smart quotes and parentheses in the editing bar. Simply touch the parentheses, type, and touch it again and you get both proper open and close characters. That's a nice touch (and it makes it easier to add parenthetical phrases like this). There's also a not as well thought out feature that allows you to create list items that you can then toggle by touching the screen. Once again, clever, but this feature doesn't come off as well. To make it work I needed a total of 10 key presses to start a new task. That took some fiddling about to make it work and once I did figure it out it didn't seem like a strong benefit to me over other list making apps. It would be much more effective and usable is one didn't have to manually start the process. The app also recognizes hashtags, a nice feature for searching, and an archive feature for clearing documents from the front display. Letterspace also uses iCloud for syncing and that worked very well when I tested it on both my iPhone and iPad. I found it easy to send a document that I'd created in Letterspace via the standard iOS methods, including AirDrop, Message, and Mail. I particularly appreciated the "Open In" feature, allowing me to open a Letterspace document in some of the other writing apps on my device. I spend my working day writing, either on my iPad, iPhone, or more likely, my MacBook Pro. I prefer to have my current projects immediately at hand without intentionally and manually moving them about. That's one of the things missing here: a Mac OS seamless option. My current default for writing fully cross-platform is Simplenote (iOS) and nvALT on my Mac (and I can do the same with Pages and even Microsoft Word). When I use these apps I never have to think about where a doc is or how to move it-it's just where I need it. Letterspace's additional niceties don't trump what I need the most: having my documents readily at hand without pre-planning. If you don't need seamless syncing and availability Letterspace is an exceptionally nice writing AND editing tool. My initial delight at using it remains, but that may not be enough to cause me to move from my current apps.
Night in the Woods' snappy dialogue inspired by Twitter
The protagonist of side-scrolling adventure game Night in the Woods is a cat named Mae. Like the other characters in the game, Mae acts more human than feline, a 20-year-old college dropout that's coping with both her and her friends' gradual transitions to adulthood. After the PC, Mac and Linux game earned $209,375 on Kickstarter in November, developer Infinite Fall announced a PS4 version earlier this month, which was playable at E3. Writer and art director Scott Benson's work to provide ambivalent quips and behaviors for Mae that complimented the cynical cat's inner dialogue was immediately apparent in the game's E3 demo. It started with Mae contemplating what news reports would sound like if she chose to burn her room down with her in it. After bounding down the stairs, Mae's mom called her to the kitchen to see if she would be home in time to watch an awful made-for-TV movie about a man that kidnapped his wife. There's an open chair, but Mae sits on the counter while the mother and daughter discuss the film's premise at length (providing players choose to keep the conversation going). The to-do list in Mae's diary then updates: "Watch misery porn with mom." Benson, a seasoned animator and illustrator from Pittsburgh that is crafting Night in the Woods' story with his wife Bethany, admitted to Joystiq at E3 that drafting lines for a video game is new to him: "I've never written fiction or characters really before," as his previous animated shorts tended to be of the silent type. Benson had an interesting source of inspiration for his witty one-liners, then: Twitter. As he explained, the social media channel "has the same kind of cadence and kind of vague feelings" as Mae and friends display in Night in the Woods.
Game of Thrones' author explains why he writes with an ancient DOS computer
You may have heard that Game of Thrones (read: A Song of Ice and Fire) author George R.R. Martin writes on a decades-old computer. Well, it's (still) true: he hones his craft on a DOS-based PC running WordStar 4.0, the same technology he used when he started his fantasy series in 1991. But... why? Thanks to a sit-down with talk show host Conan O'Brien, we know. As he puts it, the ancient hardware does everything he needs in a word processor, and nothing more. Automatic spelling checks in modern software would actually get in the way; you'd get frustrated, too, if you had to watch out every time you wrote "Winterfell" or "Daenerys Targaryen." Martin has a modern PC for everything else, but he makes a good case for using only the technology you need to get a job done. Let's just hope he has backups -- he won't get much help if that old machine eats his Winds of Winter manuscript. [Image credit: Matt Sayles/Invision/AP]
TUAW One to One: Author Michael David Anderson
TUAW One to One is a monthly podcast where I take a variety of people, sit them in front of a mic and have a conversation. It won't always be about Apple, but it will often deal with the intersection of liberal arts and technology. You've probably never heard of Michael David Anderson, but that's because his newest novel, Teddy, hasn't been published yet. He's using Pubslush to crowdfund the first print, although you can also order a digital version. I spoke to Michael about the creative process he uses, what it's been like using Pubslush, and how he's marketing his work himself. Believe it or not, Anderson isn't even a Mac guy! In the interest of speaking to a wide variety of guests here on TUAW One to One, I wanted to talk to Michael about writing, and focus less on the tools he uses. As it turns out, Teddy started as a NaNoWriMo exercise, then grew from there. He also avoids cloud services, so he's not a Live365 guy, either. Listen in to hear what a young author just getting started has to do to get noticed in the crowded book space of today. If you've ever wondered what it's like to start a writing career, especially in fiction, check out this episode. You can subscribe to this podcast here.
Evernote's Penultimate for iPad now behaves more like a real notebook
Penultimate is supposed to mimic a notebook on your iPad, so it only makes sense that the app's interface should mirror the pen-and-paper experience as much as possible. Right? Evernote thinks so, as it has released a Penultimate update that gets closer to the real thing. You can swipe from off-screen to turn pages, and you can set a color for every pen width; effectively, you now have a collection of favorite pens. Not all of the updates are meant to simulate analog drawing. Penultimate notes look much nicer when seen from Evernote, and there are improvements to ink rendering, palm recognition and connections with Jot Script pens. The upgraded app still won't replicate the feel of actual notebooks, but you might not miss them quite so much.
Dragon Age writer calls romance a 'natural outgrowth' for BioWare
A BioWare fan recently asked David Gaider, lead writer for the Dragon Age series, if the company had considered making a game without romance subplots. Gaider responded that it's been a temptation, but he believes it's something BioWare not only does well, but is also something few other developers tackle. "To me, the thing that BioWare does best is not story but characters," Gaider wrote on his Tumblr. "I think our characters are done to a level that few other games even attempt, with an element of agency that strikes a chord in our players ... and romances have been a natural outgrowth of that. Sure we could stop, but that would be turning our backs on something we do which almost no-one else does." While Gaider's defense of romance in BioWare games is certainly passionate, he noted that it's not outside the realm of possibility that they could be left behind in the future. "Perhaps, if we made a new IP, we might decide it's best not to open that particular Pandora's Box (which, yes, romances have always been) and go with something else ... but that 'something else' better be something damned good, as there are a lot of people who enjoy that part of our games immensely and who might not be willing to buy into a new series which didn't have it." "Some folks might be eager to write those fans off, but I'm not really sure that BioWare feels the same."
Textkraft: Powerful text processor for the iPad
I've looked at quite a few text word/text processors for the iPad and most of them come up pretty short. Pages, as an example, seems more of a "create pretty documents" app than a heavy-duty text processor. Textkraft (US$3.99) is likely the app you crave. It's powerful, easy to use and provides a writing environment you can do real work in. Here are some of the top features I found appealing: You can work on up to five documents at once, switching between them with a tap. Cursor keys support, something lacking in the Apple solutions Complete undo/redo Full search and replace Support for external Bluetooth keyboards Import and export with Dropbox, iCloud, Box and iTunes file sharing Sharing with Pages and Evernote There's more, so check the app's website or the App Store description. Using the app is straightforward, but as I first started to type, I was taken aback by a large mid-screen display of words in boxes that changes as I typed. The app was suggesting other words I could use, checking spelling and providing alternates. There are lots of suggestions. It's powerful, but I found it distracting. Happily, the feature can be hidden. I think the feature I'm most happy with is the cursor keys. There's no more fiddling with stabbing my finger on the screen and trying to move the cursor to the correct position. Textkraft also provides delete-forward, something missing on the stock iOS keyboard, and a key that I use all the time. Documents can be password-protected, and export supports text, Markdown, PDF and HTML (email). I tested printing, and it worked wirelessly to my AirPrint-equipped printer. The app works in landscape or portrait mode. While I'm a landscape junky, I liked using Textkraft in portrait mode due to the way the screen is organized. While there are 10 fonts to choose from as well as full bold, italics and underlining, this is not an app for inserting pictures or doing page layout. It is, without a doubt, a very powerful text editor for when you want to do real work. There just doesn't seem to be much missing from this app. I would love for it to import and export Word files directly, but you have to use the Word-to-text converter app the same developer provides for $1.99. I think that functionality should be built into Textkraft. Aside from that caveat, the app is complete as it is, but there is an in-app purchase for more text styles for $1.99. I didn't feel I needed them. If you want to get a feel for the app, download the free Easy Writer Lite. It will give you an idea of the GUI and how the workflow is designed. Textkraft is a very satisfying text processor for the iPad. It's reasonably priced, and I saw no bugs or crashes while using it heavily. Other apps worth a look are Documents Unlimited for iPad ($4.99), which does allow editing of Microsoft Office documents, and Document Writer ($5.99), which also supports editing and sharing Office Documents. Textraft requires iOS 5.1 or later, and is iPad only. It's a 24 MB download.
2014 Writers Guild Awards video game nominees announced
The Writers Guild of America announced the nominees for the 2014 Writers Guild Awards Outstanding Achievement in Videogame Writing today. The writing teams for five games were nominated for the annual award, as follows: Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag Batman: Arkham Origins God of War: Ascension The Last of Us Lost Planet 3 Only games that launched between December 1, 2012 and November 30, 2013 were eligible for nomination. The 2014 Writers Guild Awards will be held on Saturday, February 1, 2014 in both Los Angeles and New York simultaneously. Past winners of the Outstanding Achievement in Videogame Writing award were the writers of the following games, who were also part of the guild in order to be considered: Assassin's Creed 3: Liberation (2013), Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception (2012), Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood (2011), Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (2010) and Star Wars: The Force Unleashed (2009).
Wikipedia adds Draft feature to ease pressure on article writers
Here's a Wikipedia stat you probably didn't know: around 80 percent of new contributions to the crowdsourced encyclopedia are abandoned before they're submitted. The organization thinks a lot of writers get cold feet because, since its creation, Wikipedia has deliberately prevented them from being able to save their articles without publishing them: you either went public or you went home. That's changing now, as the site has decided to implement a Draft mode that allows work to be saved while still remaining invisible to most search queries. The site's designers acknowledge that the feature is pretty basic right now, but they promise it'll be refined over time to allow for collaboration on articles that are still in the draft state. The addition of tools like these make sense given that Wikipedia's legion of volunteer contributors is reportedly shrinking, leaving its pages more vulnerable to the influence of iffy PR firms, but the organization says it has simply "matured" to the point where it can afford to be more flexible about how new content is created.
Medium brings design and photo improvements to its social publishing platform
Medium is debuting a slew of new look-and-feel tweaks designed to let would-be columnists pretend they're working for a well-designed print publication. The site says that one of its initial goals was to empower writers with "dead simple" tools to present their work without a trip to art school. In addition to spacing and typography improvements, now users can add giant cover images and scalable, dynamic photos for each post. Curious to see how everyone can use these tools? Medium has set up a "Beautiful Stories" collection in the hopes of inspiring you to get a little more visual.
Authors rejoice! Pages for iOS now does a better job round-tripping to MS Word
One of the very few remaining reasons why I don't go all "Ticci" and do all of my writing on the iPad is that when I'm writing books for traditional publishers, they have a tendency to get queasy with anything that isn't written in Microsoft Word. Since they also like to keep an eye on what changes authors are making to documents, change tracking has to be turned on in Word all the time. So in the past, the vast majority of my offline writing has been done in Word on a Mac just to keep those publishers happy. Not any more. Through a happy experiment this morning, I found that Pages (for both Mac and iOS) now does a much better job of round-tripping with Word. That's the term for shifting a document back and forth between different applications on different platforms, hopefully without too many formatting changes happening in the process. So here's my workflow: Open Word document from editor in Pages (currently version 5.0.1) on the Mac Turn on change tracking in Pages (Edit > Turn On Tracking) Save Pages document to iCloud Open Pages document on the iPad or iPhone Make sure change tracking is turned on (tap the "Wrench" button, then make sure the change tracking button is green [on]) Work on the document anywhere at any time, and changes are auto-saved to iCloud Once back on the Mac, open the document in Pages on the Mac Export as Word .doc or .docx Sure, it would probably be a lot easier for me to just do the editing on my MacBook Pro, but it weighs more than my iPad Air or iPhone and it's owned by my employer, so it's probably not a good idea to work on a side project on it... Is this a perfect solution? No. My book editor came back almost immediately saying that the tables in one chapter weren't formatted properly, so I'll need to fix them in Word before shipping the files off. But other than that, it's comforting to know that I can now do this work on an iPad or even an iPhone (see title image) from basically anywhere. If you're doing any round-tripping between iWork for iOS or Mac and Microsoft Office, what problems are you running into? Do the current versions of Pages, Keynote and Numbers work better for you for round-tripping than they used to? Let us know in the comments.
LFM: Massively seeks a new columnist and freelancers
Yes folks, it's that time again: the time when Massively hops into the hiring channel and says, "Looking for more!" We're looking to hire fresh meat a new staff member and a set of freelancers for the site: a new multipurpose columnist and West Coast freelancers. Here's the skinny on us: Massively is Joystiq's geeky MMO cousin. We're owned by AOL; we're all paid, remote contractors; and we uphold a strict set of ethical standards you won't find among our rivals. We focus on high-quality writing with fair sourcing and a mix of news and features. We employ actual copyediting and editorial oversight, so you won't see trainwreck English in every headline. In short, we are the MMO site the other sites use as an RSS feed. These positions would be an awesome chance to break into paid gaming journalism if you happen to have just the right blend of availability, excellent writing skills, and passion for the MMO genre. If that describes you, then read on and apply!
Chaos Theory: Nine reasons The Secret World is the industry's best storyteller
Contrary to what I sometimes see in the MMO community, I am a huge believer in games telling stories. If a game lets me create my own story, great, but even better are developers who know how to spin a good yarn and involve me in the process. That's why I've loved adventure and role-playing games throughout the decades, and it's why The Secret World has remained one of my top MMOs since it launched. I don't have a problem saying that I think The Secret World is currently the industry's best storyteller. If you want to take a cheap shot, you can insert some snide remark about rote quest text boxes in the comments, but I think that there's a lot of solid writing and storytelling across the MMO spectrum right now. It's just that TSW does it better. Why? What's going on here to make stories and characters that just stick in my head long after my brain has cycled other MMO's events to deep storage? I started writing a list and had a hard time stopping at just nine.
Medium opens its social publishing platform to all Twitter users
Twitter's Ev Williams started Medium to simplify and socialize online article writing, but the service's invitation-only nature has kept many folks on the sidelines. Today, things are opening up: Medium's now accessible to anyone willing to sign into Twitter and verify an email address. Would-be auteurs still have to publish from Chrome, Firefox or Safari on a computer, although plans are afoot for mobile versions. Those eager to share their (mid-sized) masterpieces with friends just need to visit the source link to get started.
MMO bloggers band together to encourage new writers
Have you heard of the Newbie Blogger Initiative? It's only the latest and greatest craze to hit the MMO circuit. Basically, several experienced MMO bloggers decided to band together to encourage and support players in trying their hand at starting up a new blog. During the month of October, the NBI will be raging across blogs, on its website, and especially on its forums. Veteran MMO bloggers have gathered to offer advice through posts, mentoring, Q&A sessions, and promoting start-up blogs. Yours truly will be a part of this, as will Storybricks' Brian Green. If you've thought about starting up an MMO blog, then this is the perfect month to do so. Sign in, peruse the forums, get posting, and enjoy the resources that the blogging community is setting up to give you the best possible beginning! The NBI should interest all MMO players, as it's a great central location to find interesting and entertaining blogs both new and old.
The Summoner's Guidebook: Divorcing skill from teaching skills in League of Legends
League of Legends is a game where skill takes many forms. Knowledge is a skill, as is mechanical execution, adaptability, decision-making, and prediction. In LoL, the emphasis is mostly on decision-making and knowledge. This doesn't mean that the other skills aren't necessary to become a great player, but being a good player mostly requires those skills. I've said it once and I'll say it again: I'm not a great player. If I were, I'd probably be trying to get on a pro team (or I'd already be on one). Even "good" is debatable. I am kind of emotional when I play, and it messes me up. I tend to surrender vote early, which sometimes brings my team down. I am not a team player. I tend to rely on my superior mechanics. Even my mechanics are bad compared to great players. I tend to think of myself as OK at best and that most people are just awful. However, I also think I'm pretty good at teaching people how to play. LoL has a lot of games-within-a-game to play, and I'm not too bad at explaining how those things work over time. I'd like to think I'm good at giving commentary (both positive and negative) to a player trying to learn. I could be a coach, and I sort of am -- I get to coach all of you guys, after all.
Ex-BioWare writer reveals alternate endings to Mass Effect trilogy
Potential Spoiler Warning Mass Effect fans! Toronto's AM640 did a radio interview recently with former BioWare scribe Drew Karpyshyn, in which he chatted about some of the alternate story theories and endings that BioWare tossed around for the Mass Effect series. Eurogamer has the highlights, including the theory that the Reapers were trying to stop organic life because they were somehow making use of "Dark Energy" (an element only mentioned briefly throughout the series) to bring about the end of the universe. "It's very vague and not fleshed out," says Karpyshyn, adding that "it was something we considered but we ended up going in a different direction." BioWare also played with the idea that Shepard might be an alien at one point, though eventually deemed that too close to the story of Revan in Knights of the Old Republic. Karpyshyn also says BioWare thought about turning Shepard into some combination of organic and cybernetic, a theme that did eventually get generally included in the ending of Mass Effect 3. But in the end, says Karpyshyn, these ideas were just ideas, and should be judged as such. "It's like vaporware," he says. "Vaporware is always perfect, anytime someone talks about the new greatest game. It's perfect until it comes out." Karpyshyn says that even if fans are disappointed with the story as it is, a story that included these other considered ideas, "whatever we came up with, it probably wouldn't be what people want it to be."
Massively seeks a new Guild Wars 2 columnist
Yes folks, it's that time again: the time when Massively hops into the hiring channel and says, "Looking for more!" We're looking to hire fresh meat a new staff member for the site, a Guild Wars 2 columnist to keep up the quality of our GW2 coverage as produced by past experts Lis Cardy and Rubi Bayer and our interim Flameseeker Chronicles video guru Richie Procopio. Here's the skinny on us: Massively is Joystiq's geeky MMO cousin. We're owned by AOL; we're all paid, remote contractors; and we uphold a strict set of ethical standards you won't find among our rivals. We focus on high-quality writing with fair sourcing and a mix of news and features. We employ actual copyediting and editorial oversight, so you won't see trainwreck English in every headline. In short, we are the MMO site the other sites use as an RSS feed. This position would be an awesome chance to break into paid gaming journalism if you happen to have just the right blend of Guild Wars 2 experience, availability, excellent writing skills, and passion for the MMO genre. If that describes you, then read on and apply!
Ulysses strives and seeks to be a better text editor for Mac
Not long after I got my first personal Mac in 2004, I began looking for a robust writing program to replace Microsoft Word. There were a few good offerings that catered to what I wanted -- a word processor and a project manager. There was Circus Ponies' NoteBook, and I also used CopyWrite for a time. I also tried the initial version of Ulysses. Originally released in 2004, Ulysses was everything I wanted in a writing program. It was an organized text editor aimed at creative writers, but the big drawback was the extremely hefty price tag. At the time, a full license was around 80 Euros, a pricepoint that carried on for several more years. The price had dropped by the time version 2 rolled around in 2009, but years before, I was lured away by a little beta program called Scrivener Gold. This eventually became the Mac writing powerhouse Scrivener. Nearly nine years after I first looked at Ulysses, I'm taking a second look. This time, it's a keeper. UI Scrivener users will find that Ulysses looks familiar. The overhauled app resembles Scrivener now in its three-paned setup. The left pane identifies where files are stored, similar to Mail. You can see your entire library or drill it down to documents stored in iCloud (if enabled) or items stored locally. The middle pane features your documents, known as sheets. The right is your editing pane, and you can open a fourth pane that shows you basic keyboard and Markdown shortcuts, something I find extremely useful. You can organize sheets by assigning a header at the start of the document, then use bookmarks, subgroups, filters, and smart folders to further organize them. I really wish you could give sheets unique names without assigning it a header, just in case you forget to remove that header when exporting it. If you have a long document with multiple headers, you can leap from header to header using an option in the toolbar. However, this feature doesn't work if you are using bookmarks and headers in a sheet. Deleting bookmarks is also cumbersome. Tip: Double-click on the part of the bookmark that sticks outside the document to get rid of it. There are several view modes you can toggle among, and going into full screen provides true distraction-free writing. Use Unlike other members of the TUAW staff, I'm not a power coder, and my knowledge of Markdown is rudimentary. I managed to get Sublime Text 2 set up, but felt the $70 was far too pricey for my needs. I write comic scripts in Scrivener, but I want just a nice plain text editor for my work with TUAW and PennLive.com. If you've not explored text editors beyond TextEdit, or you're married to Microsoft Word, Ulysses is a good place to start. It visualizes links, images, headings, code and more. Typing the Markdown code for links and images brings up a popup box that allows you to paste in links or drag-and-drop an image to the file. Individual files are called sheets, and you can join them by highlighting two sheets and "glueing" them together. One thing I really like about Ulysses is the handy cheat sheet included for Markdown. As someone who is still getting used to writing in the language, it's nice to have those shortcuts at hand rather than toggle between windows when I forget a shortcut. The cheat sheet changes depending on if you're using basic Markdown, Markdown XL or Textile in your document. You can change what style you're using by hovering your mouse at the top of the sheet, no matter where you are in the document. You can also use this to add keywords and notes to your sheet. But you don't need to know Markdown to use Ulysses. There are keyboard functions for basic functions such as styling a text in bold or italics or adding a URL. It's the perfect marriage of a Markdown editor and the advantages of writing program such as Microsoft World. For Markdown fans, what few services are missing in Ulysses can be rectified by installing Markdown Service Tools, which can be used systemwide. Another of Ulysses' strengths is the Quick Export tool, which does one-click exporting of your file as Markdown, text, HTML or a PDF, copies the text to the clipboard or opens your file in a number of programs. You can preview your text in a variety of applications, and Brett Terpstra says that with its next update, Marked will provide integration with Ulysses (he says it's in review right now). Basic statistics are also available, including an estimated reading speed. Ulysses is also integrated with Daedalus Touch, an iOS text editor also by the Soulmen. You can sync among copies of Ulysses and Daedalus Touch with iCloud. I would like to see similar integration with non-Soulmen iOS text editors, such as Drafts, but can see why that would not be a priority. Sync worked well with iCloud. I started this review on my MacBook Air, then picked it up where I left off on my MacBook Pro. I suspect there might be an issue when Ulysses tries to sync with iCloud and you can't reach it. The only time the program crashed on me was when I had Wi-Fi turned off and was unable to sync with iCloud. You can add Dropbox as a source, something I didn't figure out until it was mentioned in the Stale Coffee review. Conclusion Programs such as Microsoft Word and Pages put an emphasis on making your text look good. Ulysses, however, makes your text work. No matter how you set your preferences, the exported result will be clean code that will make your web producer very happy if you write for any website. While Scrivener will always be my go-to for creative writing, Ulysses will be the program I use for reporting. Ulysses is on sale for US$19.99. But with a $39.99 regular pricepoint, there should be a demo version. There are just enough quirks with it that you need to try it before you spend nearly $40 on it.
EVE Evolved: End of an EON
This week we heard the disappointing news that EON, the official print magazine for MMO EVE Online, has officially closed down. The quarterly magazine first launched back in 2005 and may have been the first official magazine dedicated to a single MMO. The first edition was packed full of current news, sneak peeks, coverage on major events, fan-written fiction, features, and guides. The experimental magazine was produced by MMM Publishing under official license from CCP Games and proved to be a big hit, going on to publish 30 editions over the next seven and a half years. Though EON has had a much longer run than most official MMO print magazines (the World of Warcraft magazine lasted all of five issues), it's still disappointing to see it go. The closure has a special significance for me because it was at EON that I and many other players started out as writers and editors. It's thanks to the work of the mag's editor Richie "Zapatero" Shoemaker that I went on to get this job at Massively, where I've written the weekly EVE Evolved column for almost five years now. EON Magazine was a real gem that will be sorely missed by dedicated fans, but the biggest shame is that those who might support the mag didn't know it was having financial difficulties until it was too late. In this week's EVE Evolved, I look back at what made EON great, ask why it failed, and interview editor Richie Shoemaker on his thoughts behind the closure.
