HomeStation Magazine Issue #3: online now!
Wow!
On 1/11/11, HomeStation Magazine published its very first magazine issue. The anticipation was enormous: what would this largely-unknown group of writers and artists be able to come up with? What would this new upstart have to offer?
Granted, we did have a bit of a head start; our website had been up and running for a little while, helping us to spread the word and give people a sense of what HomeStation was all about. But while our website is our core product, the magazine is our signature product: a summation, if you will, of HSM’s ethos. It had to work.
And it did. Thanks to you, our first issue was a remarkable success. We, too, were overjoyed. It’s one thing to have a vision — to dedicate yourselves, collectively, to producing mature and literate journalism devoted to Home — and it’s another thing to be able to actually pull that off. Of course, barely a day after the first issue had come out, the question started to creep in:
Can you do it again?
And it’s a valid question. HomeStation, at the time, was still a largely unproven entity. The hardest thing in the world to do, after enjoying the well-deserved triumph of a job well done, is to face your keyboard once more and do it all again.
Our sophomore issue silenced those critics. Having one of Home’s biggest developers on the cover — Outso — helped take care of that. All of a sudden, we were the real deal. People were talking about us and complimenting us on the Sony forum and elsewhere. HomeStation was stable, growing, and quickly becoming one of the go-to resources for not just information on Home, but also something quite unique: stories devoted to the social aspects of Home.
HomeStation Magazine has a rather intimidating production goal: to produce at least one new story every day. That’s at least 365 stories per year, from an all-volunteer team. And that doesn’t even get into the artists working on the magazine, the filmmakers, or the podcast.
Think about that for a moment: HomeStation has turned into a brand.
In the last 111 days, we have published 147 stories and three magazine issues. The number of unique visitors we receive each week to our website now numbers in the thousands. One need only look at our Alexa ranking to see that we are doing exceptionally well, and in a remarkably short period of time at that.
A typical HSM production meeting
I’d love to say that this was all part of some master plan — that we knew this would happen — but the reality is that the magnitude of the response took us completely by surprise. When you apply the phrase, “mature and literate” to a publication, “boutique” is the euphemism that springs to mind when describing the size of your expected audience.
And yet.
Somehow we knew, collectively, that there was a real hunger for this. A pent-up desire to see some journalism devoted to Home that talks to you like an adult and makes you think. And you proved us right. Far beyond anything we could have had a right to expect.
Along the way, we’ve not forgotten those individuals and groups who chose to support us, particularly back when we were an unknown entity struggling to make our mark. Special thanks must be given to SCEA Home Community Management, Outso, nDreams, Hellfire Games, Urgent Fury, AlphaZone4, PlayStation Home Today, the Homelings, HOMEinformer, Bit-Journal, the Gazette, Jersquall, Sophronia, Conrad_Max, HearItWow, the readers of the SCEA and SCEE Home forums, and of course YOU. If we have been attempting to scale the face of Guallatiri, then you and they have been our oxygen supply.
So now then: our third issue.
If you’re not familiar with the man on our cover — Cubehouse — then I shall only tell you this: aside from being one of the most important community members in Home (as he’s the driving force behind this little-known website called “AlphaZone4″), he also does things in his spare time like…oh, I don’t know…write the Facebook Chess program.
Needless to say, Cubes is a fascinating individual, and we’re absolutely thrilled he consented to be on our cover.
Beyond the cover, we also have a remarkable assortment of stories for you — some of which are extremely introspective, and others which will simply amaze you. So, if you want to take a look at this issue, simply click on the cover graphic under the “Latest Issue” tab on the right side of our website. As always, we offer HSM in three formats: flash, PS3-friendly, and a downloadable PDF.
Also, you may have noticed a new “Submissions” tab on our website; as we continue to expand, we’ve noticed that there are a lot of people out there who have something to say — they have one or two articles burning inside them — but they don’t want to commit to being part of the production team. We’ve now made it possible for you to submit your own writings directly to HomeStation for review and consideration!
We are, at present, looking for additional team writers, filmmakers and layout artists (with a background in Adobe Indesign) to join our successful team; if you feel you’re up to the challenge, or you just want to find out more, then feel free to contact us. As you can see, HomeStation is something rather unique, and we intend to continue providing news, stories and entertainment to the Home community for quite some time to come. This is a Sony-positive and Home-positive publication by the community and for the community, and we hope you’ll choose to join us.
From all of us at HSM, thank you for coming along on this ride. We hope you enjoy our new issue!
Written from the HomeStation,
NorseGamer
Editor-in-Chief, HSM
“The belief in a thing makes it happen.” — Frank Lloyd Wright
March 14th, 2011 by NorseGamer | 4 comments
NorseGamer is the product manager for LOOT Entertainment at Sony Pictures, as well as the founder and publisher of HomeStation Magazine. Born and raised in Silicon Valley, he holds a B.A. in English/Creative Writing from San Francisco State University and presently lives in Los Angeles. All opinions expressed in HSM are solely his and do not necessarily reflect the views of Sony DADC.
LinkedIn
Twitter
I can’t tell if Cubes really looks like his avatar or not because I can’t see if he’s wearing socks!
Nope, he’s definitely *not* wearing a do-rag.
I’ve been waiting months to say this: Cubes in the hiz-OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOUSE!
Once again amazing job guys. But honestly I bow before you Cubes, You are truly incredible.