Personally, I say screw previews. That, I can get on 1000 fansites. What I’d buy a magazine for is if there was something worth reading, and not just some hype and big glossy screenshots. If you want to put “EXCLUSIVE!!” on the cover, make it an exclusive interview or something like the GvC column. I’d buy that for a dollar.
Now as for the column itself - I dunno… it’s good and all but it’s missing that “certain special magic”. Hrm… I think it needs Battlecruiser Millenium screenshots.
Good use of the Robocop quote! :) Despite your sarcasm, you’ve inadvertently stumbled upon the truth: the majority of gamers in the US would pay about a dollar for a game magazine that ran nothing but reviews and columns – if that. Moreover, big pretty pictures consistently move issues, while exciting and juicy exclusive interviews sans good art do not.
Monthly magazines have long lead times – it’s the nature of the beast. Reviews that hit two months – or even a single month – after a game has hit the shelves only serve a very small fraction of a game magazine’s readership. Previews are what people want. It’s what they ask for in letter after letter after letter, and it’s what they pay for at newsstand.
Based on what I’ve read here on qt3 in the past many months, the magazine a lot of you want is CGM. Okay, that’s cool, but it’s all but out of business due to a lack of readership. You can’t find it in stores, not because of poor marketing, but because it used to be in stores and no one bought it. That mag is dying, and will likely go the way of the Dodo – not because it isn’t as good as CGW and PCG, but because it’s not what people (outside of the qt3 family) are willing to spend their money on.
Girl, you know it’s true. A-girl, girl. Ooh, ooh, ooh.
Yeah, well, whatever. I’m gonna subscribe to CGM 6,000 times just to prove you wrong. They’ll need a crane to bring my mail in every month.
TMBG!
I don’t need no Geryk vs. Chick.
Geryk/Chick, that would be a good read.
Geryk/Chick, that would be a good read.
I don’t know what this means, but I feel like I should mention here that I think chicks who are models are really hot and how about that game last night?
-Tom
You better mention your latest visit to your local strip joint and how much beer you drank last night, since I do believe he’s referring to the sordid world of “slashfic”. Why I’m even aware of it’s existence is a mystery…
What about:
BALLISTIC: Chick vs. Geryk
“Those aren’t pillows!!!”
What about:
BALLISTIC: Chick vs. Geryk
Hey, cool.
How about something where we’re both police detectives? I’m curious, though, which one of us is fresh out of the academy and plays it by the book and which one of us is a cop on the edge? Or is one of us “getting too old for this shit”?
If we can pick, I’d like to be the cop on the edge, since they usually get more chicks.
-Tom
Sorry Tom. “Cops on the edge” don’t wear cute little vests. You’re going to have to be the idealistic rookie being shown the ropes. Besides, anyone who has met Geryk (like at an OldMan Murray party a couple years back) knows he has to be the crazy one. Geryk is a “loose cannon who breaks the rules yet gets results!”
>anyone who has met Geryk (like at an OldMan Murray party a couple years back)
Is that what you considered the GOD party lot at the E3?
Not only that, but to lab rats he’s known as “The Butcher of Champaign-Urbana.”
“What about all you consumers out there? Which mag do you read and why? How has it changed over the last couple years? For the better or worse?”
I don’t write for the gaming magazines any more (in fact, of the three remaining, I wrote only for CGW) and don’t plan to restart, so I guess I could count myself as a consumer. :)
I still get all three magazines–subscribing to PC Gamer and Computer Gaming World and receiving a free subscription to Computer Games. (The sub I got with a game ran out long ago, but the magazine just keeps coming.)
Back in the '80s (and for most of the '90s), I devoured every computer game magazine I laid hands on–especially CGW, which I would read from cover to cover again and again.
But I’ve read the magazines less and less over the last few years. These days, I look at them more for reference than for reading material–this game is out, and this one is coming out–and I can envision a day when I don’t read them at all.
It’s not that I’ve lost interest in games. I probably love games now more than ever.
But I’ve found that the magazines, barring happy events like the Chick vs. Geryk faceoffs, generally don’t discuss games in a way that interests me. (I don’t know that they ever have; it’s my tastes that have changed as I’ve gotten older.) Specifically, I get little sense from them of the gaming experience. The writers tell me what they think of this or that game, but they don’t -show- me.
The upshot is games magazines that, strangely, just aren’t much fun for me to read.
Peter
The only two magazines I have ever subscribed to were Compute! and Dragon magazine.
I used to purchase CGW and CG on a monthly basis but have not done so in the last 4-5 years. Web-based game news has pretty much taken over any need to buy paper based mags.
I do occasionally look for CG in the newsagents but they don’t seem to stock CG or CGW here in Australia anymore.
Whatever happened to Asher vs Chick?!?
Like Ebert vs Siskel.
I guess I should read some CGW. But CG is better! imo. imo of couse. know what i mean? like i like CG better. thats what i was trying to say.
like like like.
etc
Here’s Peter’s nine thousand word exegesis of a partial round of Sudden Strike 2. I hear Fox has optioned it for their new series, When Showing Attacks!
this sounds dangerous, Tom. just setting yourself up b/c at some point one of you has to die and the other has to kneel, holding the lifeless body, look to the sky and scream, “Mennnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnndoooooooooooooooozzzzzzzzzzzaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!”
either that or you end up in Leathal Weapon Part V. yikes.
These articles sound like a reason to buy CGW again-I’ll have to check them out.Are they just give and take sessions on a particular game between you and Tom,or are they sort of like the old ‘series replays’ in the General?Either way,CMBB would be a great article.
I’ve been playing TOA again lately in preperation of the release of Korsun Pocket,which is looking great.Such a well done,thought out system-I like it despite the Bulge setting(I think I fairly well burned out on Bulge games,board or computer,by the time I was 16…).It might be interesting to see this system tackle the Smolensk or Typhoon battles in some future release.
Mike
Somehow I missed Bruce’s reply until I just read Oberly’s post and realized I’d missed something. So, anyway, thanks for the response Bruce.
Ok, here goes: JEFF GREEN YOU SHOULD LET THEM DO THE CMBB GERYK VS. CHICK ARTICLE!!! Hope that works. :D
Yeah, exactly. I used to subscribe to CGW and buy several others on a regular basis, but over the last 5 years I completely lost interest. The web has the news much earlier than the magazines. I also used to derive some entertainment from the ads, but they seem pretty stale now as well.
I feel bad about that – I’d like to continue to see writing about games – but I think the magazines would need to shift focus and do much more in-depth analysis to get me back as a subscriber.