Igromania
Encyclopedia
Igromania is a monthly Russia
n games magazine
published in Moscow
and distributed mostly in Russia
and the CIS
countries. Tekhnomir (Techworld in Russian) company started the publication in September 1997. The circulation in June 2009 was 190,000 copies (the largest in Europe). Each issue contains 208 pages. The magazine comes with a poster, four stickers, and two DVD
disks.
In its early years, Igromania focused mainly on solutions and guides to videogames gradually enlarging the variety of content topics and finally moving solutions and guides to the accompanying CD and later DVD.
The print run of the first issue was about 16,000 copies. Due to massive returns, the number of printed copies of consequent issues was significantly reduced. Originally, the magazine was black-and-white with only the cover being in color. Several issues were printed on a Risograph printer. It was planned to start full color printing in the summer of 1998 but the August crisis in the country forced to postpone such plans.
During the first years of publication, the editors could not decide upon the game platform preference of the magazine. If the first issue carried reviews of only a few PlayStation
games, the following issue was entirely dedicated to games on this platform. Very soon the magazine focused on PC games and this focus continues to remain unchanged till now with the only exception of Videomania section on one of its DVDs.
In 1999, Denis Davydov, who had previously worked in Hacker magazine and even before that had created Game World Navigator magazine, became editor-in-chief of Igromania. He initiated dramatic reforms in the magazine and, by 2002, the magazine completely changed its looks and content. Guides and solutions gave way to the widest spectrum of content: game news, previews, reviews, articles about hardware, software, the Internet, game modding and development, features, editors' personal columns, online and desktop games, cheats, retro games, cybersport, computer game competitions, and three hotlines (software, games, and game modding).
The DVDs that come with every issue of Igromania are very popular and attract a great attention. These disks carry content of all sorts. It is often said that many tend to buy Igromania only because of these disks.
In 2004, Videomania emerged as part of the magazine. Started as intro movies for each disk, it soon turned into a separate section. Videomania now has its own disk and is produced by a studio headed by Anton Logvinov. This studio also produces a regular television program about PC and videogames for A-One channel and video materials for Igromania website. All Videomania movies are dubbed by professional actors, such as Boris Repetur, one of the anchors of Ot Vinta! program that ran on Russian TV from 1994 to 1998.
Each issue of Igromania carries 30 to 60 pages of commercial ads. This relatively small amount of ads (considered to be small as the total size of the magazine is 216 pages) is explained by the publisher due to high advertizing prices.
, published in May 2006 launched one of the hottest discussions among Russian publishers and developers.
and PC Gamer UK
) to publish the first preview of Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars
. In April 2007, Igromania was one of the first magazines in the world (alongside PC Gamer
) to publish the first details about Guild Wars 2
and Guild Wars: Eye of the North
.
The following authors have been contributing to Igromania: Oleg Bocharov, Mikhail Verbitsky, Dmitry Burkovsky, Yury Nesterenko, Oleg and Egor Moskvitin, Alexey Butrin, Mikhail Sudakov, Fedor Usakov, Mikhail Novikov, Andrey Alexandrov, Ilya Yanovich, Oleg Polyansky, Kirill Alekhin, Dmitry "Albert Alien" Homak, Igor Asanov, Igor "ViV" Vlasov, Svyatoslav Torik, Ilya "Orange" Viktorov, Alexander Shakirov .
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n games magazine
Magazine
Magazines, periodicals, glossies or serials are publications, generally published on a regular schedule, containing a variety of articles. They are generally financed by advertising, by a purchase price, by pre-paid magazine subscriptions, or all three...
published in Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
and distributed mostly in Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
and the CIS
CIS
CIS usually refers to the Commonwealth of Independent States, a modern political entity consisting of eleven former Soviet Union republics.The acronym CIS may also refer to:-Organizations:...
countries. Tekhnomir (Techworld in Russian) company started the publication in September 1997. The circulation in June 2009 was 190,000 copies (the largest in Europe). Each issue contains 208 pages. The magazine comes with a poster, four stickers, and two DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
disks.
In its early years, Igromania focused mainly on solutions and guides to videogames gradually enlarging the variety of content topics and finally moving solutions and guides to the accompanying CD and later DVD.
Igromania History
The first issue of Igromania came out in September 1997. The magazine was founded by Evgeny Isupov and Alexander Parchuk who were both originally engaged in publishing books in Best Computer Games series and later decided to enter the magazine publishing business.The print run of the first issue was about 16,000 copies. Due to massive returns, the number of printed copies of consequent issues was significantly reduced. Originally, the magazine was black-and-white with only the cover being in color. Several issues were printed on a Risograph printer. It was planned to start full color printing in the summer of 1998 but the August crisis in the country forced to postpone such plans.
During the first years of publication, the editors could not decide upon the game platform preference of the magazine. If the first issue carried reviews of only a few PlayStation
PlayStation
The is a 32-bit fifth-generation video game console first released by Sony Computer Entertainment in Japan on December 3, .The PlayStation was the first of the PlayStation series of consoles and handheld game devices. The PlayStation 2 was the console's successor in 2000...
games, the following issue was entirely dedicated to games on this platform. Very soon the magazine focused on PC games and this focus continues to remain unchanged till now with the only exception of Videomania section on one of its DVDs.
In 1999, Denis Davydov, who had previously worked in Hacker magazine and even before that had created Game World Navigator magazine, became editor-in-chief of Igromania. He initiated dramatic reforms in the magazine and, by 2002, the magazine completely changed its looks and content. Guides and solutions gave way to the widest spectrum of content: game news, previews, reviews, articles about hardware, software, the Internet, game modding and development, features, editors' personal columns, online and desktop games, cheats, retro games, cybersport, computer game competitions, and three hotlines (software, games, and game modding).
The DVDs that come with every issue of Igromania are very popular and attract a great attention. These disks carry content of all sorts. It is often said that many tend to buy Igromania only because of these disks.
In 2004, Videomania emerged as part of the magazine. Started as intro movies for each disk, it soon turned into a separate section. Videomania now has its own disk and is produced by a studio headed by Anton Logvinov. This studio also produces a regular television program about PC and videogames for A-One channel and video materials for Igromania website. All Videomania movies are dubbed by professional actors, such as Boris Repetur, one of the anchors of Ot Vinta! program that ran on Russian TV from 1994 to 1998.
Each issue of Igromania carries 30 to 60 pages of commercial ads. This relatively small amount of ads (considered to be small as the total size of the magazine is 216 pages) is explained by the publisher due to high advertizing prices.
Vision
Simplicity and clarity of information published in Igromania are the basic principles that the editors follow so that the published texts can be understood by the widest audience. Yet, unlike Best Computer Games magazine, Igromania does not avoid videogame slang.Content Topics
Below is the list of permanent magazine content topics:- News - a selection of monthly gaming news
- Previews - previews of upcoming games
- In the Spotlight - detailed previews (usually on four pages) of the most anticipated games
- Reviews - reviews on new released and soon-to-be-released games
- Domestic Localizations - reviews localized foreign games
- Game of the Month - results of the vote for the best game of the month (taken monthly at Igromania website) and advice from the editors about the games worth playing in the upcoming month
- Hotline: Games - answers to most frequently asked questions about games
- Game Over - retro games reviews, A Month in the History of Games calendar
- Iron Plant - reviews of new computer hardware, hardware tests, optimal component configurations and prices, and answers to the frequently asked questions about hardware
- Game Building - modding, reviews of game editors and SDKs
- Special - various special materials, such as game companies' histories, analytics, and reviews of new books and movies based on games
- Playing Online - online games news, previews, reviews, analytics, and interesting links
- CODEx - cheat codes, Easter eggs, and hints
- Igromania Mail - letters to the editor and answers
- Brainstorm - computer games knowledge contests (Test, Screentours, and Photographic Memory)
- Dissenting Opinion - personal columns
Disks
Every issue of Igromania comes with 2 dual-layer DVDs. One of them contains only video: trailers, video news, reports from special events produced by Igromania, and episodes of Ot Vinta! show. The second disk contains game demos, mods, online games installers (time limited or completely free versions), patches, useful software, flash games, cheat codes, saves, trainers, wallpapers, utilities for modding, and other useful things.Industry Discussions
Starting from 2004, Igromania from time to time publishes controversial columns by leading industry analysts about the current situation on the Russian game development and distribution market causing thought provoking discussions among local publishers and developers. One of such columns Say No to License, by Mikhail VerbitskyMisha Verbitsky
Misha Verbitsky is a Russian mathematician . However, he is primarily known to the general public as a controversial critic, political activist and independent music publisher....
, published in May 2006 launched one of the hottest discussions among Russian publishers and developers.
Exclusive
Igromania continues to provide to the Russian readers more and more exclusive materials about major Western and local game releases, as well as interviews with game developers. In the spring of 2005, Igromania was one of the three magazines (the others were Game InformerGame Informer
Game Informer is an American-based monthly magazine featuring articles, news, strategy, and reviews of popular video games and associated consoles. It was formed in August 1991, when FuncoLand started publishing a six-page magazine, free in all its retail locations...
and PC Gamer UK
PC Gamer
PC Gamer is a magazine founded in Britain in 1993 devoted to PC gaming and published monthly by Future Publishing. The magazine has several regional editions, with the UK and US editions becoming the best selling PC games magazines in their respective countries...
) to publish the first preview of Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars
Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars
Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars is a military science fiction real-time strategy video game developed and published by Electronic Arts for the Windows, Mac OS X and Xbox 360 platforms, and released internationally in March 2007...
. In April 2007, Igromania was one of the first magazines in the world (alongside PC Gamer
PC Gamer
PC Gamer is a magazine founded in Britain in 1993 devoted to PC gaming and published monthly by Future Publishing. The magazine has several regional editions, with the UK and US editions becoming the best selling PC games magazines in their respective countries...
) to publish the first details about Guild Wars 2
Guild Wars 2
Guild Wars 2 is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game in development by ArenaNet. Set in the fantasy world of Tyria, the game follows the re-emergence of Destiny's Edge, a disbanded guild dedicated to fighting the Elder Dragons, a Lovecraftian species that has seized control of Tyria in...
and Guild Wars: Eye of the North
Guild Wars: Eye of the North
Guild Wars: Eye of the North is an expansion pack to the Action RPG Guild Wars made by the Seattle-based ArenaNet studio, a subsidiary of NCSoft. It was released worldwide on August 31, 2007. Unlike other games in the Guild Wars sequence, Eye of the North requires players to own one of the earlier...
.
Management team
- Evgeny Isupov - Director of Igromedia, Ltd.
- Azam Daniyarov - Director of Tekhnomir Publishing House
Editorial Team
Igromania editorial team, as of August 2010:- Alexander "Comrad" Kuzmenko - Publisher
- Alexey Makarenkov - Editor in chief
- Linar Fetcoolov - Previews Editor
- Georgiy Kourgan - Features editor
- Alena Ermilova - Special and Hardware Editor
- Dmitriy Kolganov - Hardware Editor
- Anton "Fat boy" Logvinov - Video Producer (Videomania on DVD, Videomania program on A-One channel, and video for Igromania website)
- Alexey Moiseev - CODEx, Brainstorm and DVD Editor
The following authors have been contributing to Igromania: Oleg Bocharov, Mikhail Verbitsky, Dmitry Burkovsky, Yury Nesterenko, Oleg and Egor Moskvitin, Alexey Butrin, Mikhail Sudakov, Fedor Usakov, Mikhail Novikov, Andrey Alexandrov, Ilya Yanovich, Oleg Polyansky, Kirill Alekhin, Dmitry "Albert Alien" Homak, Igor Asanov, Igor "ViV" Vlasov, Svyatoslav Torik, Ilya "Orange" Viktorov, Alexander Shakirov .