Emulator influence poll down, paper magazine poll up

Another month, another poll! Prior to presenting the new poll, let's have a look at the outcome of the poll from September/October. How did emulators influence the usage of our real MSX hardware? After 245 votes, here are the final results:

1. used less 37.14%
2. I've no MSX hardware 24.49%
3. used as much as before 20.00%
4. used more 18.37%

Clearly, since emulating started to become really good, more and more MSX'ers spend their time with an emulator. For developing there is a point using an emulator, also known as cross-development. While the poll doesn't show the profile of the ones who voted, it might be realistic to assume that non-developers also use emulation more than their real hardware. What would this imply? In the mid-90's one would be reluctant to develop a demo or game for high specifications, as not everyone has such a configuration. With emulators this is far less of an issue. Who knows, seeing the advantages of a high-end MSX configuration might move someone to spice-up his real MSX a bit.

The new poll is about the traditional paper MSX Magazines from over a decade ago. At the dawn of the silent years they stopped their activities as there was not much to write about anymore. When, in addition, the number of subscriptions goes below a certain minimum, then the plug is pulled. These days however there's a lot of news to report again, thanks to internet and the MSX revival. Would a traditional paper MSX magazines have a chance again? Imagine such a magazine for a while: an international 60-page magazine in the English language, each 6 weeks. Would such an initiative be able to hold up against daily updated MSX websites, and would you subscribe to it? Vote wisely!

If you have an idea for a interesting poll, send your idea to poll@msx.org and we will consider running your suggestion for a month.

Relevant link: Poll results