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Next Generation Magazine Returns

Posted by Zonk on from the like-a-phoenix dept.

The Video Game Ombudsman has word that Next Generation magazine will be returning as a website. The site will apparently be focused on the business and development sides of the industry, and avoid a pure consumer focus. From the article: "The official announcement will come in a press release any day now, but the Web site reveals a lot of information about the new incarnation. The site will be managed by editor-in-chief Colin Campbell and consultant editor Christian Svensson, who co-created the Next Generation Online site back in 1995, and published by Future USA. Besides the two editors, most of the content will come from freelance contributors, which the site is actively seeking. The site says it's looking for writers that "have strong opinions" and are 'stylish, original and witty.'"

35 comments

  1. Online Magazines are hard to read by MBraynard · · Score: 1

    Can't take them on the train and can't take them into the bathroom or at the breakfast table. Can't read them easily in bed.

    1. Re:Online Magazines are hard to read by Yaotzin · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Let's say you a have a laptop with a wlan card built in or whatever. You have a wireless network in your home. That gives you access on the bathroom, at the breakfast and even in bed.
      I'm not sure about the trains though but wherever there's WiFi, you can access onlinr magazines.

      --
      Error: No error occurred
    2. Re:Online Magazines are hard to read by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      print them
      PDF them
      AvantGo them

      it's easy enough

    3. Re:Online Magazines are hard to read by MBraynard · · Score: 1
      Those laptops get hot and I really don't like taking stuff into the bathroom that I intend to keep for a long time. See here. You can get wifi on some networks here but again, battery life, harder on the eyes, etc. I will always read a print mag first.

      Yes, I suppose I could print them. I hope they make the format so that it comes out of the printer nice and neat.

    4. Re:Online Magazines are hard to read by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes that it so much easier than just grabbing the top mag off a stack when the urge hits ya.

    5. Re:Online Magazines are hard to read by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      your karma will suffer...

  2. Raise your hand... by EnronHaliburton2004 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Raise your hand if you have been laid off, or know someone who has been laid off, by the publishers of Next Gen magazine. (It was Imagine Publishing, then Imagine Media, and now parts have been spun off or renamed to be "Future USA").

    Those people were like the EA of the gaming magazine world. It wasn't at all unusal to see 50 people (out of 200 employees) laid off one day, and 50 people hired the next day to work on some new magazine, only to get laid off one year later, with 50 people hired the next week to work on some new-new magazine.

    --
    94% of Repubs and 21% of Dems voted to renew the Patriot Act
    1. Re:Raise your hand... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's the way the world works. We are not owed jobs, if they were fired they deserved to be. I've been fired twice for not being a good worker. That's the way it goes in America. The ones who rise to the top have earned it and we shouldn't second guess them.

  3. Ads.. by turtled · · Score: 2, Funny

    And, I bet this site will be more ads then content... just like the old mag. It's hard to read real magazines, there's no Ad-Block for paper mags.

    --
    "I cannot think of any need in childhood as strong as the need for a father's protection." -- Sigmund Freud
    1. Re:Ads.. by KillShill · · Score: 1

      and the fact that you pay for the privilege of reading a "magazine" full of ads , which are supposed to pay for the magazine...

      --
      Science : Proprietary , Knowledge : Open Source
  4. Excellent News by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting
    I'm glad to hear NextGen will be back in some form. I was upset when NextGen kicked the bucket, I had subscribed for much of its lifetime. It seems NextGen was the only gaming mag that recognized that people over 12 play video games (maybe that's still true today). The writing was good, and most issues were absent of the dick and fart jokes you see in every issue of all the other gaming mags. Its sister website DailyRadar was decent, though it lacked some of the maturity of NextGen.

    Best of luck to the new site!

    1. Re:Excellent News by roadies · · Score: 1

      I agree. NG was by far one of my favorite gaming mags. The original glossy cover sold me. I was so easy then (bring back a glossy cover print, I'll bring back my easy).

      --
      DS vs.
    2. Re:Excellent News by ghostlibrary · · Score: 2, Interesting

      > It seems NextGen was the only gaming mag that recognized that people over 12 play video games

      "Computer Gaming" took up the mantle. They specifically talk about how hard it is to not just give in to payola reviews, fart jokes, and cheap humor.

      They also have the best parody ads I've seen. They do a good job, check 'em out at the newsstand.

      --
      A.
    3. Re:Excellent News by Lewisham · · Score: 2, Insightful

      May I suggest you start importing fellow Future publication Edge from the UK? The commentary seems to describe almost word for word what Edge does. It seems like Future USA are simply using this site as a toe in the water for a full-blown launch of an Edge-style magazine. If it's successful, they'll spin it into paper format.

      Otherwise it'll be canned within the year.

      Future have been very bad at treating their web sites. The other staff treat the journalists like any other, but the suits see the medium as the easiest to cut when the money gets low. See: Future Gamer; Daily Radar US and Daily Radar UK. I don't expect this to be any different.

    4. Re:Excellent News by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The original covers weren't glossy at all. They were a cool matte finish without any ads on the back cover. Very classy, very stylish.

    5. Re:Excellent News by superpulpsicle · · Score: 1

      At one time I had 6 videogame magazine evaluations going on concurrently.... GamePro, GameInformer, Electronic Gaming Monthly, Computer Gaming, Nintendo Power, NextGen. Each magazine had its flaws. Today, I only subscribe to GameInformer.

      As I remembered, the biggest flaw of NextGen...
      1.) NextGen was hardcore in a non-entertaining sense.

      2.) You'd read about interviews from developers after developers after developers. Boring.

      3.) Typical hardware console articles down to the brutal IEEE standards details was too much.

      4.) So much was emphasized on next generation games to the point where most were not coming out till 3 years later.

      5.) Overloaded with Ads.

    6. Re:Excellent News by zeno_2 · · Score: 1

      Id agree as well, I subscribed to NG for a while, I was sad to see them go. They had some of the nicest covers (almost like a plastic type of cover), and most of the magazine was worth reading.

    7. Re:Excellent News by iocat · · Score: 1

      It wasn't glossy. It was a plastic matte that you could actually peel off to reveal he glossy paper underneath. At the time Next Gen came out, it was the only US magazine that had that kind of cover (although you saw it more frequently in Japan),and there was only one machine in the country (or so the production manager claimed) that could actually apply that matte finish. It was pretty rad to be in a meeting and see people just stroking the magazines cover because it was so neat. (Yes, I used to work there.)

      --

      Dude, I think I can see my house from here.

    8. Re:Excellent News by ctlloyd · · Score: 1

      You might try looking at Play magazine. It is in a glossy format. It is done by the same guy that was in charge of Gamefan magazine. The writing and overall tone of the magazine is more oriented towards the adult gamer.

  5. Writers who have by XFilesFMDS1013 · · Score: 1

    [i]"have strong opinions"[/i]

    There's all of /. for you. Well, probably not actually, they might also wants facts to back up their opinions, god forbid.

    [i]and are 'stylish, original and witty.'"[/i]

    Nothing like overlords, Korea,a nd "free as in beer" to get those stylish and witty nerds to start writing for them!

  6. Sounds interesting (MAYBE) by kniLnamiJ-neB · · Score: 1

    ...but this could be a problem. Do "strong opinions" mean people who will string together a paragraph of profanity when you make a negative comment about their favorite game (they're usually in the forums, saying something like "HL2 is b3tt3r th4n Doom3, and Doom3 luv3rz suX!"), or can they back it up their claims with proof? Now if it's one of those artsy types of mags whose articles are just stories about the "one time when I was playing Eve Online and ripped off 3 million credits", I'll probably enjoy it. True or no, that was a pretty good read.

    --
    Windows isn't the answer... it's the question. NO is the answer!
  7. Stylish and witty... by softspokenrevolution · · Score: 1

    Can we throw in some 'edgy', I hear that sells.

  8. Same Colin Campbell? by BigWhiteGuy_27 · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    The site will be managed by editor-in-chief Colin Campbell
    Is this the same Colin Campbell who laid the suspension down on Todd Bertuzzi? I hope so, since that guy is tough! :)

  9. Hire Maddox by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The site says it's looking for writers that "have strong opinions" and are 'stylish, original and witty.'"

    In that case, they should hire Maddox http://maddox.xmission.com/.

  10. NextGen editorial guide by metamatic · · Score: 1

    Don't forget the NextGen editorial guidelines:

    1. Any game that involves shooting things in 3D, and which only exists as slideware, should be praised as if it's the Second Coming.

    2. Any game that doesn't involve shooting things in 3D should be quietly ignored.

    3. Any game that has actually shipped should be derided as boring, bug-ridden and disappointing. This applies even if it was previously hyped in NextGen as the Second Coming (see 1).

    4. When Bill Gates says "Kneel", you kneel, bitch.

    --
    GCHQ Quantum Insert installed. If only our tongues were made of glass, how much more careful we would be when we speak
    1. Re:NextGen editorial guide by ArmorFiend · · Score: 1

      Remember the time their cover screamed "How can Saturn keep up when Playstation games look THIS GOOD?", and then they had a non-realtime-rendered image that you were supposed to think was a screen-shot of the as-yet unreleased Playstation. Now *that* was a shining example of journalistic integrity.

    2. Re:NextGen editorial guide by kingsmedley · · Score: 1

      I have to disagree with your assessment. For me, Next Generation always stood out for three reasons:

      - The magazine was written for adults.

      Of course, NOT in the sense that Maxim is written for adults! I simply mean the literary style was devoid of the silliness of most mags, and certainly lacking the sophmoric Beavis-and-Butthead style antics often found in the current crop.

      - The game reviewers were extraordinarily tough.

      My rule of thumb was that if a game scored at least a 7 in Next Gen, I would love it. They were usually quite brutal in their reviews, savaging titles for even the most trivial of flaws.

      - The magazine's bias was much less pronounced compared to other magazines, and it was clear they made efforts to hide it.

      Any fanboy can pick up a magazine, and scream that any comment critical of their platform of choice proves the rag in question is biased. But Next Gen was always extremely fair in their treatment of all platforms. Even the much maligned Atari Jaguar received a relatively fair treatment at their hands. For instance, I remember quite clearly comparing the coverage of the 1995 E3 in several different magazines. I focused on write-ups of the individual console makers (Sega, Sony, Nintendo, 3DO, and Atari), and decided to count the number of both positive and negative adjectives in each one. (I thought this would be more objective than simply judging the relative 'feel' of the individual articles.) I found that most magazines treated the big 3 pretty equally with very positive writeups. Similarily, the 3DO articles were pretty well balanced. But when they wrote about Atari, there were approximately twice as many negative adjectives as positive.

      Next Generation's approach to the 1995 E3 was dramatically different. They had the EXACT SAME NUMBER of positive and negative adjectives in their coverage of Sony, Sega, Nintendo, and 3DO. Their Atari coverage also had the same number of positive adjectives, though it did have two more negative adjectives than the other console makers. For me, this clearly showed that they were making a tremendous effort to overcome whatever personal bias they may have had to present a fair and objective coverage of the industry as a whole.

      --
      Must... think up... something... clever!
    3. Re:NextGen editorial guide by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Any fanboy can pick up a magazine, and scream that any comment critical of their platform of choice proves the rag in question is biased. But Next Gen was always extremely fair in their treatment of all platforms.

      I admit I'm a bit of a NeoGeo fanboy, but NextGen absolutely hated the system. You could count on the games being criticized for being 1. 2D, or 2, not Capcom, if not both. Each fighter review (and, yes the Neo had its share of fighters,) read like the previous one, just with the appropriate names cut & pasted in.)

      Weird thing was their reviews were often inversely proprotional to what the NeoGeo community thought of a particular game. If we liked it, they hated it.

    4. Re:NextGen editorial guide by iocat · · Score: 1
      Yeah... Those tools! Remember how Saturn beat the PlayStation, Sega went on to buy Nintendo, and Sony exited the game industry with its tail between it's legs?

      Oh wait, that didn't happen. Compared to Saturn games, PlayStation games *did* look as good as a rendered shot of WipeOut... Bitch all you want about Sony, but in 1995 the PlayStation was the most revolutionary piece of gaming hardware released since the 2600.

      --

      Dude, I think I can see my house from here.

    5. Re:NextGen editorial guide by ArmorFiend · · Score: 1

      No, playstation games *did not* look like pre-renedered photos, they looked like playstation games. When you hold up a picture and say a game "looks like" this, the picture should be from the game, not something rendered in Softimage for marketing purposes.

      Since the PS hadn't been released, it was impossible for John Q to detect the lie in their cover, and for all the public knew of 3d that really was what the PS was capable of rendering in realtime.

      I suppose since PS did win, you think its okay to lie in its service?

    6. Re:NextGen editorial guide by iocat · · Score: 1
      I think anyone who made life or purchase decisions based on one magazine's cover lines, without looking inside the magazine to see the screen shots, was probably not acting rationally. I think that anyone who picked up the magazine would then get to see screens comparing Saturn with PlayStation and make an informed decision. I think that holding a grudge about it 10 years later is not rational. I think the editorial intent of the coverline was backed up by the editorial inside the magazine, and in fact that editorial view was validated by the fact that the PlayStation was much more popular than the Saturn. Finally, I think that judging an entire magazine's six year run by one cover-line, on one of its first issues is unfair.

      --

      Dude, I think I can see my house from here.

  11. Someone is already making some profit by krelian · · Score: 1

    Who ?
    The guy that got next-gen old address and turned it into a casino affilate site...

  12. Too bad it's only online by Rallion · · Score: 1

    Their magazines were nice. And I'm not referring to the content, but rather the physical quality of the things. I'm certain that I've never seen another magazine that came close.

    I like to keep mags, because it can be VERY interesting to, every five years or so, look back at old issues. It's incredible how things change, isn't it? Anyway, I have a good number of old mags, and most of the time anything over two or three years old is in shambles. That's to be expected, really, I keep them but not wrapped in plastic or anything -- as long as I can read it I'm satisfied. But the NextGen issues, there for ten years, stored and handled with the same lack of care, are exactly like they were when I bought them.

    1. Re:Too bad it's only online by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Their magazines were nice. And I'm not referring to the content, but rather the physical quality of the things.

      I'm not sure if they're still around, but the magazine Play is of similar physical quality. The writing is also of a simliar mature styling.

  13. Not that I thought EGM PwN3D... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ...Next Generation bored me out of my mind. I had high hopes for NG. I wanted to like it. I bought the first several issues (and the last one when I heard they were shutting down,) but never could read one cover to cover. The magazine put me to sleep.

    However it'll always have a special place in my heart as they published an email I sent them criticizing their reviews. (Their review of fighters tended to be if it's not 3D or Capcom, it sUx0Rz, um, rather I mean the game is, tiresome, lacking in originality and doesn't compare to [CapcomsLatestOffering].) They published (part of) my email, then brushed me off with a few words.

    Back then spam wasn't as big a problem, so my address accompanied the letter, and shortly after I got a couple of emails from other readers supporting my comment. I thought that was cool.