Well, you gotta give Editor-in-Chief Dan "Shoe" Hsu some credit for stirring up a pot lately, with his editorials in Electronic Gaming Monthly. Though you got to wonder if he's really going to bring the EGM ship down by trying to be so transparent, and so hardlined with his point of view.
What happened to the EGM of old, when it was so much more lively, and less "cyni-jaded"? Which, BTW, is a new word I'm using in Scrabble, deftly combining "cynical" and "jaded."
I'm like a samurai with my tongue. More after the jump.
Seems Shoe wants EGM to be all about writing for the people, which I guess means churning out a magazine about 25% the size it use to be. Umm, here's a reality check: EVERYONE, including EGM, is all about generating hype for their business. Hype drives sales. And hype, by the nature of hyping, is all about crossing the line every now and then.
If EGM was all about hard hitting journalistic integrity, then it wouldn't have such articles as Seanbaby's features. Nor would it claim on its cover that its "The No. 1 Videogame Magazine." (Surely this can't be based on sales, since Game Informer really dominates here.) Nor would they create 12 variant covers for their latest issue. Slight overkill on the forced collectible there, don't ya think?
My point is, having greater journalistic integrity is really peachy keen, but don't forget to entertain us, OK? Maybe it's just me, but I feel like EGM sorta left the "let's have fun" mantra somewhere back in time. I hope to dear God they don't go under, because the magazine is getting thinner than Jenna Jameson on crack. I sure do miss the old EGM when it was just about fun and games.
So here's my petition: If you want EGM to bring it back old school style, then give me a "Hell Yah!"
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Dr. Boa may sound like someone who starred in some porn with Dirk Diggler, but his true passion is interactive entertainment. He's notched +15 years in the gaming industry from QA to launching several big hits, so he's got a healthy perspective on what goes on from the flipside. It's amazing he's not a jaded cynic yet. He's finally glad to see more drug filled parties with playboy bunnies and B level celebs like all other entertainment fields. Yes, gaming has finally made it.
Contest:
8:43 PM on 01.16.2008
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I bet the ladies love you then, lol.
err...what'd you say?
Is that right?
I don't understand what you're asking for. I don't really think EGM is going to try and attempt to be the Time magazine of video games.
I've been reading some EGMs in the past few months and I see no real push to be some uppity magazine. They have their Shawn Baby section, and they have that small comic in the back (that is sometimes a hit or miss). If anything, they're less serious than their dominating competitor (Game Informer).
I'm confused. Are you saying Hsu shouldn't have posted up that Ubisoft are being dicks and that he's trying to be totally open to his readers? Are you asking for him not to be that way?
Now that I'm no longer 13 I would have to say advertising budgets must have changed for magazines because 50% of the mags were ads. They also had a lot of fluff. I remember an EGM issue that had the hardware specs for every console released to date - and it was detailed.
You should put something like "More after the jump." before the jump... I almost passed this up thinking that that was all you had to say. Then I realized that there's no way something that short would make it to the front page.
Good call, I will add that to Boa's post. Thanks for doing my job. ;)
I remember seeing a lot of ads in big-ass older gaming mags. Also, some of the stuff my g/f picks up, like Vogue or Allure, are about 400 pages, and 90% of it is advertising. I think EGM is doing just fine the way it is, and the fact that Hsu is getting all "I tell you what I do because we're best buds" is because websites like Dtoid are cutting into their revenue, and he has to change to keep up with the times.
Nobody's forcing you.
"No 1 Video game magazine"-
They're number one in magazine sales from off the rack.
Game informer is number one in circulation just cause GameStop sells you the subscription with their lame card.
"let's have fun" mantra-
I guess you like the "connect the dots" or dumb crosswords you get with GI rather than reading the features that are funny. Not a SeanBaby fan, eh? I guess reading the text bores you. Want more colorful pictures? They have those features in the magazine. IF you actually read the magazine you'd know that they have fun stuff in there.
EGM of old-
Do your realize that what made those magazines think back then were ads in almost all of the right hand pages? I have a n old EGM with Sonic Adventure on the cover and it actually has a 15-page ad for Electornics Botique. A lot of those ads were 2-page ones for a game, unlike today where they only often have one.
Honestly, I read EGM because it has stuff that isn't online. I know all about new games from Destructoid and live feeds and shit, but they have some really rad articles, and I like the editorials they do.
There's a REASON there are so few gaming mags these days: the old style got outdated because of the internet, so it's either evolve to die trying.
But then again, I really like the EGM/1UP stuff, as it's the only corporate game business that is staffed by enthusiastic and talented people. It's the best thing you can read short of reading Dtoid.
But then again, I really like the EGM/1UP stuff, as it's the only corporate game business that is staffed by enthusiastic and talented people. It's the best thing you can read short of reading Dtoid.
and yes seanbaby's articles are always funny. Making a guy review an already shitty game somehow makes things funny. Especialy if the guy looks like some 80s punk rocker.
The problem is that print media is simply losing its market share to the series of tubes that we call home.
Some of EGM's most recent podcasts really demonstrate this attitude.
You honestly think EGM is on Par with Destructoid, Necros? Lay off the bong and grow a beard.
As far as length just about every magazine has done the same thing. I remember buying the PC Gamer magazine about Monkey Island 3 and it being hundreds of pages and now you're lucky if its 100. Would it be nice to have more, sure, I have no problem with that, even if 50 of the extra 100 pages are ads.
I know people like saying that printed media is a dying media but there is one reason that it will never die, the crapper. Sometimes I don't feel like playing my DS on the toilet, sometimes I don't want to commit to something like a book at the time, but I'm always up for reading a magazine. Magazines and the toilet are like peas and carrots.
And "Hell yah!" I do miss the ink & paper publications of old.
People with opposing opinions to your own suck, don't they? Jesus. I'm so tired of people like that. It's like, stop. I'm an important person and you should all agree with me.
"I know people like saying that printed media is a dying media but there is one reason that it will never die, the crapper. Sometimes I don't feel like playing my DS on the toilet, sometimes I don't want to commit to something like a book at the time, but I'm always up for reading a magazine. Magazines and the toilet are like peas and carrots."
Amen. I just came from the bathroom with both Game Informer and EGM at hand. I chose to read EGM because I hadn't read the Shawn Baby segment and this story inspired me to.
Here's the last photograph I took of them.
Oddly someone from Italy bought them for $85 dollars
Which is it? You're sending mixed messages here.
You will also never see a 400 page issue again because of the Internet, labor laws and advertisers not seeing print media as the viable source it once was.
But, what do I know? I'm just The Trickman.