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Okay, a change of subject seems needed. We all know about what has happened in the US and I’m sure all our thoughts are with the victims and their families. However, it would be nice to see some signs of other life on the forums, so here’s a new topic. What has happened to the gaming press? It seems the only publication of any quality left is Edge, and there is a severe risk of their already huge heads exploding. Last month they denied reports of an increase in the numbers of “hardcore” gamers as their circulation figures hadn’t increased, which I gritted my teeth at.
While my brothers introduced me to the Sinclair around 15 years ago, I only came of magazine buying age around the 16-bit era. Now, maybe at 12 or so I was in their target markets, but do Total! and Super Play not seem infinitely better that anything around today? They seemed to be written with an obvious passion and understanding that made them fun to read, as well as informative. Okay, so you can accuse them of achieving this through in-jokes that only the regular readers got, but at least they were trying. Flick through any of the sanitised, almost clinical publications that are circulating today and you’ve got to wonder how this is an improvement. Reel in horror at the pointless “life style” sections – if I wanted that I’d buy something like Maxim or GQ or any one of the other 20 magazines that specialize in this area. When I buy a computer games magazine I don’t want to read about German Hard House-Techno fusion albums. I want to read people over-enthusing about the latest games. Sure, the 16-bit era journalists’ writing skills may be highly questionable and some of the gags would now seem immature (something I’ll come back to) but at least they cared about the games rather than keeping the games publishers happy. Opps, letting out video gaming publishing worst kept secret – magazines have to keep publishers happy or risk not getting any titles/news and missing out on “scoops” that other magazines are given. In financial terms it is worth being drastically generous with a review one month if it means you get an exclusive on that publishers next title. Ahem, allegedly.
So we’ve moved on and grown up anyway. There probably is a magazine out there just as good as Mean Machines or Total! but being older and wiser the gags just don’t wash and the constant use of exclamation marks grates (the exact reasons I stopped reading the N64 Magazine). What is there for the “mature” gamer to read instead? Well? The official PS2 and Edge are pretty much the only ones around. The Official PS2 one is overly generous with its gushing reviews, in my opinion, and I don’t want to read about just Sony. Also, it is diabolical for features. Edge is very good for features as long as you don’t mind the slightly pretentious, “industry” subjects/stances. Their reviews are a bit hit and miss too – they tend to be overly strict with all but a select few “historic” big boys or industry names… okay, Nintendo, Lionhead and other long-term players.
Why is this happening? There’s a strange loop. Internet replacements to magazines are supposedly the future. They wipe the floor in terms of response time, for example any major site reported live from Spaceworld, yet Edge publishes a magazine a fortnight later and is still unable to mention a word about it until next month – six to seven weeks after the event. Therefore if people want news anywhere near the time it happens they are pushed to the Internet. However, Internet sights still have to send people around the world to do the reporting, as well as paying for the web hosting fees, equipment and day-to-day expenses of hiring writers, designers and numerous other staff. Problem is where does this money come from? Its been proven that print magazines can’t fund good sites as this just reduces circulation of the print magazine and its advertising income. On-line advertising comes nowhere near meeting the costs of the site and readers simply will not pay subscription fees to an on-line site. This means they have to do things in a half-hearted manner – just look at Daily Radar. Born out of the brilliant Future Gamer, Future Publishing threw money at Daily Radar and for a brief, brief period it was all right. Readers were annoyed that the weekly e-zine, the whole reason Future Gamer was good, had gone but the same high quality writing was there and there was still a good community feel. However, Future began to struggle financially and one of the first casualties was Daily Radar. Now it recycles content from Future magazines and has a laughably poor news service.
Truth is, there has never been a period of consistently lower quality in video gaming journalism. Where the writers used to be dodgy at best in terms of pure writing ability, at least they seemed to care. Now we’ve just got FHM rejects going through the motions, yet making sure “corporate partners” get the required review scores. Oops, there’s me and my “accusations” again.
The only way gamers get to sort the good from the bad before purchase is trying the games before they buy and word of mouth. This clearly points to on-line gamer reviews, which is why I’m delighted to see Special Reserve to reward quality reviews on a daily basis with something actually worth having (not that I’m alluding to the numerous other lesser web-sites that will give you a £5 off voucher if you notch up 12,000,000 reviews) and we’ll get our news from the few website that do it well.
---------
On a strange side note, I opened this months Edge half way through writing this to see if they’d managed to get in any Spaceworld news. They don’t, but they do have a small feature on the history of video gaming magazines. Seems to be a Future back-patting exercise and totally neglects mentioning how Edge, and the video gaming press in general, have gone down the pan. Another subscription hanging in the balance…
While my brothers introduced me to the Sinclair around 15 years ago, I only came of magazine buying age around the 16-bit era. Now, maybe at 12 or so I was in their target markets, but do Total! and Super Play not seem infinitely better that anything around today? They seemed to be written with an obvious passion and understanding that made them fun to read, as well as informative. Okay, so you can accuse them of achieving this through in-jokes that only the regular readers got, but at least they were trying. Flick through any of the sanitised, almost clinical publications that are circulating today and you’ve got to wonder how this is an improvement. Reel in horror at the pointless “life style” sections – if I wanted that I’d buy something like Maxim or GQ or any one of the other 20 magazines that specialize in this area. When I buy a computer games magazine I don’t want to read about German Hard House-Techno fusion albums. I want to read people over-enthusing about the latest games. Sure, the 16-bit era journalists’ writing skills may be highly questionable and some of the gags would now seem immature (something I’ll come back to) but at least they cared about the games rather than keeping the games publishers happy. Opps, letting out video gaming publishing worst kept secret – magazines have to keep publishers happy or risk not getting any titles/news and missing out on “scoops” that other magazines are given. In financial terms it is worth being drastically generous with a review one month if it means you get an exclusive on that publishers next title. Ahem, allegedly.
So we’ve moved on and grown up anyway. There probably is a magazine out there just as good as Mean Machines or Total! but being older and wiser the gags just don’t wash and the constant use of exclamation marks grates (the exact reasons I stopped reading the N64 Magazine). What is there for the “mature” gamer to read instead? Well? The official PS2 and Edge are pretty much the only ones around. The Official PS2 one is overly generous with its gushing reviews, in my opinion, and I don’t want to read about just Sony. Also, it is diabolical for features. Edge is very good for features as long as you don’t mind the slightly pretentious, “industry” subjects/stances. Their reviews are a bit hit and miss too – they tend to be overly strict with all but a select few “historic” big boys or industry names… okay, Nintendo, Lionhead and other long-term players.
Why is this happening? There’s a strange loop. Internet replacements to magazines are supposedly the future. They wipe the floor in terms of response time, for example any major site reported live from Spaceworld, yet Edge publishes a magazine a fortnight later and is still unable to mention a word about it until next month – six to seven weeks after the event. Therefore if people want news anywhere near the time it happens they are pushed to the Internet. However, Internet sights still have to send people around the world to do the reporting, as well as paying for the web hosting fees, equipment and day-to-day expenses of hiring writers, designers and numerous other staff. Problem is where does this money come from? Its been proven that print magazines can’t fund good sites as this just reduces circulation of the print magazine and its advertising income. On-line advertising comes nowhere near meeting the costs of the site and readers simply will not pay subscription fees to an on-line site. This means they have to do things in a half-hearted manner – just look at Daily Radar. Born out of the brilliant Future Gamer, Future Publishing threw money at Daily Radar and for a brief, brief period it was all right. Readers were annoyed that the weekly e-zine, the whole reason Future Gamer was good, had gone but the same high quality writing was there and there was still a good community feel. However, Future began to struggle financially and one of the first casualties was Daily Radar. Now it recycles content from Future magazines and has a laughably poor news service.
Truth is, there has never been a period of consistently lower quality in video gaming journalism. Where the writers used to be dodgy at best in terms of pure writing ability, at least they seemed to care. Now we’ve just got FHM rejects going through the motions, yet making sure “corporate partners” get the required review scores. Oops, there’s me and my “accusations” again.
The only way gamers get to sort the good from the bad before purchase is trying the games before they buy and word of mouth. This clearly points to on-line gamer reviews, which is why I’m delighted to see Special Reserve to reward quality reviews on a daily basis with something actually worth having (not that I’m alluding to the numerous other lesser web-sites that will give you a £5 off voucher if you notch up 12,000,000 reviews) and we’ll get our news from the few website that do it well.
---------
On a strange side note, I opened this months Edge half way through writing this to see if they’d managed to get in any Spaceworld news. They don’t, but they do have a small feature on the history of video gaming magazines. Seems to be a Future back-patting exercise and totally neglects mentioning how Edge, and the video gaming press in general, have gone down the pan. Another subscription hanging in the balance…
Used to read N64 every month, and keep think of picking it up again but the garrish, kiddie friendly covers are off putting. Say "don't judge a book by its cover" all you like, but it is a good yardstick from experience. Arcade was good too - but its folded now, hasn't it? Haven't seen it about and now I think of it didn't it go through a huge revamp? Good before, rubbish after sort of thing.
Here, wasn't it the title that was dropped to make room for the bi-weekly Video Gamer? Video Gamer lasting for all of two issues...
Here, wasn't it the title that was dropped to make room for the bi-weekly Video Gamer? Video Gamer lasting for all of two issues...
I liked CVG until it ditched Freeplay and the High Five system and went for a new modern look.
From then it changed from the special cheap magazine to just another mainstream multiformat mag on the shelf.
The only magazine I buy is N64, the best Nintendo magazine around (not hard when up against the oh so immature NOM).
I've heard it's got a new look now.
From then it changed from the special cheap magazine to just another mainstream multiformat mag on the shelf.
The only magazine I buy is N64, the best Nintendo magazine around (not hard when up against the oh so immature NOM).
I've heard it's got a new look now.
True, it's very hard to find decent games mags these days.
Some of the mags I have respect for are:
C&VG
Been there since the start. Reliable reviews, and had a decent retro section last time I checked.
Arcade:
Adult orientated, with emphasis on the writing content rather than the pictures. Has a great sense of humour, too.
Edge:
Pure class. No cheats section, but the best mage around for anyone seriously interested in knowing what goes on.
Some of the mags I have respect for are:
C&VG
Been there since the start. Reliable reviews, and had a decent retro section last time I checked.
Arcade:
Adult orientated, with emphasis on the writing content rather than the pictures. Has a great sense of humour, too.
Edge:
Pure class. No cheats section, but the best mage around for anyone seriously interested in knowing what goes on.
Okay, a change of subject seems needed. We all know about what has happened in the US and I’m sure all our thoughts are with the victims and their families. However, it would be nice to see some signs of other life on the forums, so here’s a new topic. What has happened to the gaming press? It seems the only publication of any quality left is Edge, and there is a severe risk of their already huge heads exploding. Last month they denied reports of an increase in the numbers of “hardcore” gamers as their circulation figures hadn’t increased, which I gritted my teeth at.
While my brothers introduced me to the Sinclair around 15 years ago, I only came of magazine buying age around the 16-bit era. Now, maybe at 12 or so I was in their target markets, but do Total! and Super Play not seem infinitely better that anything around today? They seemed to be written with an obvious passion and understanding that made them fun to read, as well as informative. Okay, so you can accuse them of achieving this through in-jokes that only the regular readers got, but at least they were trying. Flick through any of the sanitised, almost clinical publications that are circulating today and you’ve got to wonder how this is an improvement. Reel in horror at the pointless “life style” sections – if I wanted that I’d buy something like Maxim or GQ or any one of the other 20 magazines that specialize in this area. When I buy a computer games magazine I don’t want to read about German Hard House-Techno fusion albums. I want to read people over-enthusing about the latest games. Sure, the 16-bit era journalists’ writing skills may be highly questionable and some of the gags would now seem immature (something I’ll come back to) but at least they cared about the games rather than keeping the games publishers happy. Opps, letting out video gaming publishing worst kept secret – magazines have to keep publishers happy or risk not getting any titles/news and missing out on “scoops” that other magazines are given. In financial terms it is worth being drastically generous with a review one month if it means you get an exclusive on that publishers next title. Ahem, allegedly.
So we’ve moved on and grown up anyway. There probably is a magazine out there just as good as Mean Machines or Total! but being older and wiser the gags just don’t wash and the constant use of exclamation marks grates (the exact reasons I stopped reading the N64 Magazine). What is there for the “mature” gamer to read instead? Well? The official PS2 and Edge are pretty much the only ones around. The Official PS2 one is overly generous with its gushing reviews, in my opinion, and I don’t want to read about just Sony. Also, it is diabolical for features. Edge is very good for features as long as you don’t mind the slightly pretentious, “industry” subjects/stances. Their reviews are a bit hit and miss too – they tend to be overly strict with all but a select few “historic” big boys or industry names… okay, Nintendo, Lionhead and other long-term players.
Why is this happening? There’s a strange loop. Internet replacements to magazines are supposedly the future. They wipe the floor in terms of response time, for example any major site reported live from Spaceworld, yet Edge publishes a magazine a fortnight later and is still unable to mention a word about it until next month – six to seven weeks after the event. Therefore if people want news anywhere near the time it happens they are pushed to the Internet. However, Internet sights still have to send people around the world to do the reporting, as well as paying for the web hosting fees, equipment and day-to-day expenses of hiring writers, designers and numerous other staff. Problem is where does this money come from? Its been proven that print magazines can’t fund good sites as this just reduces circulation of the print magazine and its advertising income. On-line advertising comes nowhere near meeting the costs of the site and readers simply will not pay subscription fees to an on-line site. This means they have to do things in a half-hearted manner – just look at Daily Radar. Born out of the brilliant Future Gamer, Future Publishing threw money at Daily Radar and for a brief, brief period it was all right. Readers were annoyed that the weekly e-zine, the whole reason Future Gamer was good, had gone but the same high quality writing was there and there was still a good community feel. However, Future began to struggle financially and one of the first casualties was Daily Radar. Now it recycles content from Future magazines and has a laughably poor news service.
Truth is, there has never been a period of consistently lower quality in video gaming journalism. Where the writers used to be dodgy at best in terms of pure writing ability, at least they seemed to care. Now we’ve just got FHM rejects going through the motions, yet making sure “corporate partners” get the required review scores. Oops, there’s me and my “accusations” again.
The only way gamers get to sort the good from the bad before purchase is trying the games before they buy and word of mouth. This clearly points to on-line gamer reviews, which is why I’m delighted to see Special Reserve to reward quality reviews on a daily basis with something actually worth having (not that I’m alluding to the numerous other lesser web-sites that will give you a £5 off voucher if you notch up 12,000,000 reviews) and we’ll get our news from the few website that do it well.
---------
On a strange side note, I opened this months Edge half way through writing this to see if they’d managed to get in any Spaceworld news. They don’t, but they do have a small feature on the history of video gaming magazines. Seems to be a Future back-patting exercise and totally neglects mentioning how Edge, and the video gaming press in general, have gone down the pan. Another subscription hanging in the balance…
While my brothers introduced me to the Sinclair around 15 years ago, I only came of magazine buying age around the 16-bit era. Now, maybe at 12 or so I was in their target markets, but do Total! and Super Play not seem infinitely better that anything around today? They seemed to be written with an obvious passion and understanding that made them fun to read, as well as informative. Okay, so you can accuse them of achieving this through in-jokes that only the regular readers got, but at least they were trying. Flick through any of the sanitised, almost clinical publications that are circulating today and you’ve got to wonder how this is an improvement. Reel in horror at the pointless “life style” sections – if I wanted that I’d buy something like Maxim or GQ or any one of the other 20 magazines that specialize in this area. When I buy a computer games magazine I don’t want to read about German Hard House-Techno fusion albums. I want to read people over-enthusing about the latest games. Sure, the 16-bit era journalists’ writing skills may be highly questionable and some of the gags would now seem immature (something I’ll come back to) but at least they cared about the games rather than keeping the games publishers happy. Opps, letting out video gaming publishing worst kept secret – magazines have to keep publishers happy or risk not getting any titles/news and missing out on “scoops” that other magazines are given. In financial terms it is worth being drastically generous with a review one month if it means you get an exclusive on that publishers next title. Ahem, allegedly.
So we’ve moved on and grown up anyway. There probably is a magazine out there just as good as Mean Machines or Total! but being older and wiser the gags just don’t wash and the constant use of exclamation marks grates (the exact reasons I stopped reading the N64 Magazine). What is there for the “mature” gamer to read instead? Well? The official PS2 and Edge are pretty much the only ones around. The Official PS2 one is overly generous with its gushing reviews, in my opinion, and I don’t want to read about just Sony. Also, it is diabolical for features. Edge is very good for features as long as you don’t mind the slightly pretentious, “industry” subjects/stances. Their reviews are a bit hit and miss too – they tend to be overly strict with all but a select few “historic” big boys or industry names… okay, Nintendo, Lionhead and other long-term players.
Why is this happening? There’s a strange loop. Internet replacements to magazines are supposedly the future. They wipe the floor in terms of response time, for example any major site reported live from Spaceworld, yet Edge publishes a magazine a fortnight later and is still unable to mention a word about it until next month – six to seven weeks after the event. Therefore if people want news anywhere near the time it happens they are pushed to the Internet. However, Internet sights still have to send people around the world to do the reporting, as well as paying for the web hosting fees, equipment and day-to-day expenses of hiring writers, designers and numerous other staff. Problem is where does this money come from? Its been proven that print magazines can’t fund good sites as this just reduces circulation of the print magazine and its advertising income. On-line advertising comes nowhere near meeting the costs of the site and readers simply will not pay subscription fees to an on-line site. This means they have to do things in a half-hearted manner – just look at Daily Radar. Born out of the brilliant Future Gamer, Future Publishing threw money at Daily Radar and for a brief, brief period it was all right. Readers were annoyed that the weekly e-zine, the whole reason Future Gamer was good, had gone but the same high quality writing was there and there was still a good community feel. However, Future began to struggle financially and one of the first casualties was Daily Radar. Now it recycles content from Future magazines and has a laughably poor news service.
Truth is, there has never been a period of consistently lower quality in video gaming journalism. Where the writers used to be dodgy at best in terms of pure writing ability, at least they seemed to care. Now we’ve just got FHM rejects going through the motions, yet making sure “corporate partners” get the required review scores. Oops, there’s me and my “accusations” again.
The only way gamers get to sort the good from the bad before purchase is trying the games before they buy and word of mouth. This clearly points to on-line gamer reviews, which is why I’m delighted to see Special Reserve to reward quality reviews on a daily basis with something actually worth having (not that I’m alluding to the numerous other lesser web-sites that will give you a £5 off voucher if you notch up 12,000,000 reviews) and we’ll get our news from the few website that do it well.
---------
On a strange side note, I opened this months Edge half way through writing this to see if they’d managed to get in any Spaceworld news. They don’t, but they do have a small feature on the history of video gaming magazines. Seems to be a Future back-patting exercise and totally neglects mentioning how Edge, and the video gaming press in general, have gone down the pan. Another subscription hanging in the balance…