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Print Gaming Magazines Doomed?
Joystiq has a pair of interesting posts up looking at the future of print gaming publications. Besides positing on the future of the print media, they discuss subscription and reach rates for some of the major U.S. magazines. From that piece: "Game Informer really is several times larger than their nearest competitor. How did they manage that? And why the heck is the Official U.S. Playstation Magazine passed around so much than all the other publications?" I wonder what the differences are between here and abroad? In the UK, for example, there are a large number of publications, all of which seem to have avid readerships. (Though, with magazines like Edge and PC Gamer UK, it's hard not to see why.)
The print medium is quickly becoming legacy. I read 3 newspapers a day and a few magazines a month, but they are all online. It's much more convenient as I can read them from anywhere at anytime. Plus, the online search tools are nice, makes it much easier to filter out all the garbage articles I have no desire to read.
First, let me clarify that I said better writing, not good writing...Gamespot, on average, makes me cringe about three or four times less per article than Gamepro.
Reading books, magazines, and other text not on a computer screen is becoming a thing of the past. Blame schools, they're the ones who encourage and demand the children to use computers so badly.
rellix
Print is doomed in general. Check the financials of the big newspaper corps....
7 November 2006: The day Americans realized corruption and incompetence weren't addressing 11 September 2001
That may be true, but print(and other media) will still stay around as long as the consumption of digial media is tied to inconvenient technology. Reading a book, magazine or newspaper is far more pleasent to many, rather than looking at the same text on a computer, pda, etc. It's nice being able to hold something in your hand and take it anywhere without batteries or cords. Outmoded idea? maybe, but it's the truth.
...go away forever, unlikely.
I'll be the first to say "you cant take it to the bathroom". But, as a subscriber to PC Gamer, I like the magazine. I have a job. I own a house. I do not have time to troll the internet looking at every review site under the sun. Boom, once a month I get a magazine, full of pretty pictures and (to me) well written articles that are both humorous and honest.
I also get Rolling Stone, yet I don't see articles talking about how that is going out of print anytime soon. (and it better not, I shelled out $50 bucks a few years ago to become a subscriber for life!)
I know Nintendo Power is a special case, but I quit my NP subscription when I was younger when they introduced advertisements. I've toyed with the idea of subscribing again, but the thought of buying a book of ads divided up by the odd game review doesn't really grab me, you know? On the internet, at least, I have the power to block ads.
Modern copyright is theft of culture from everyone and it retards the progress of the useful arts and sciences.
Informative to the XTREME.
rellix
Reading books, magazines, and other text not on a computer screen is becoming a thing of the past. Blame schools, they're the ones who encourage and demand the children to use computers so badly.
Do we still use clay tablets or papyrus?
Or how about bamboo reeds or sheep skin?
Reading online is still reading.
Knowing how to read today is more important that it was even 10, 20, or even 100 years ago because of computer. Heck, I daresay in a given day I generate more text than a scribe in the middle ages a month. In 100 years (or less), paper books as we know it will be like clay tablets. Archaic tablets that collectors keep. All information will be provided on electronic media.
At this point, it is imperative that a child learn how to communicate properly via electronic mediums and use computer than to be forced to do things only because it was the way that things were done 20 years ago. If you want a job in the real world today (and one that doesn't require retail or physical labor) then you need to know how to use a computer.
Heck, even if you do build houses, work at retail store, or do plumbing for a living, it generally requires you to use a computer for references or finacial tasks for those jobs as well.
Elsewise, if nothing more than to communicate with relatives and do online banking, chatting etc etc.
IMO, at least the kids are reading internet articles and not watching TV.
"I am the king of the Romans, and am superior to rules of grammar!"
-Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor (1368-1437)
I feel like the slashdot writers watch Invader Zim because at least one article a week has to do with something being "doomed... DOOMED.... DOOOOOOMED!!!!!". This is of course followed by another article explaining why the first article was wrong. People should just stop reading and replying to articles with the word "Doom" in the title.
Sample of games rags from www.abc.org.uk
Official Playstation 2 (Future Publishing Ltd) 133,242
Official UK Xbox Magazine (Future Publishing Ltd) 85,072
Games Master (Future Publishing Ltd) 55,388
PC Gamer (Future Publishing Ltd) 48,326
Nintendo Official Magazine (EMAP Active Limited) 37,760
Edge (Future Publishing Ltd) 31,078
Games TM (Highbury-Entertainment Ltd) 20,117
First off, print media will never go away. Certainly, I foresee a reduction in the amount of publications but for the most part, the price, ease and legacy of paper media is far too appealing.
However, for gaming magazines, I have a feeling that most of their content will move to an online medium. Gaming in general implies electronic devices (not including board games). Since the audience is already familiar with technology, moving magazines to an electronic medium makes sense. I forsee that online strategy guides with images and links will be the "soup du jour". Of course all this exists now but will be more prevalent in the future. It's been a while since I have read a gaming magazine and to be honest, the reason I quit was lack of actual depth within the article. Certainly, I don't expect much from a game review or news on the latest hardware but sometimes I want something a little more. The writing in these magazines is severely lacking.
However, just recently, I did find one online magazine that actually had some depth and the writers some talent, The Escapist. Hopefully this is an example of what's to come when the majority of the magazines move online. Something that is not just reviews but actual journalism as well.
Sigh ... personally, I just can't believe there's so many uninsightful people. Please, all you who think mags are dead, ask yourselves, what business is it that these people are actually in? Will that change because the medium has? Yes, a little. So what does this mean? Hint - think website, every "publication" has one!
Will the same people enjoy similiar positions, and salaries? The adaptable will, the others are dinos. Welcome to change. Why, oh why, can't all you peeps just get with it?
I would never give up print magazines. My personal favorite, of which I'd pay double the subscription rate if they were in trouble, is "Computer Games." That magazine doesn't try to be the most quick on reviews, but they try to be the best. They usually have thoughtful comments and interesting articles. The "Applied Game Theory" column alone is worth the cost to me. I personally like being able to sit with a magazine on the couch or outside and not have to worry about net connection or a computer or a screen.
How does Game Informer manage the large numbers? Simple. They shove it down your throat. I can remember way back when it was Funcoland, they would give away a subscription to GI (or maybe a different magazine?) when you signed up for the membership card for 10% off used stuff or whatever it was at the time, and AFAIK they still do it today as Gamestop. I can remember sometime in fairly recent memory turning down the free subscription, much to the surprise and chagrin of the sales monkey.
Adjust the monitor's brightness and contrast so that it is comfortable to you. Also font size and selection can be an issue. I prefer the room to be dark when looking at the monitor, other's preferences may vary. Also, refresh rate. The current refresh rate of your monitor may be playing havoc with your neural net. Try faster or slower refresh rates.
About schools. They don't seem to publish much in the way of disclosing what they teach children, which is a real pity. Then there's the whole grade system. You can graduate wanting to take a Calculus class, which public schools teach, but you can't because, well you've graduated.
...is for the demo discs for console games. And with the whole Xbox 360 marketplace online demo delivery system, which will surely make everyone else follow suit, I doubt that'll be an incentive come next generations, so yeah, they can screw off. I don't like reading reviews of alpha versions that they claim are the final versions just so they could meet the deadline, and I don't like reading out of date stuff when I can get the latest news online. Plus having so much paper around is annoying.
IMHO, this is a question of value. Does the print bring more value to the reader than online material? In most videogame magazines, the answer is unfortunately NO. One publication, Play Magazine, attempts to deliver value to the gamer community in their publication by printing articles that go deeper than your standard publication, along with exclusive interviews with many different facets of the game developer world. Their magazine provides additional information covering topics such as gaming in Japan, anime, manga, DVDs, and music, interesting to gamers and media junkines. The in depth reviews I read there tend to examine artistic merits of a game, and look at the emotional impact as well, moreso than some other rags. I digress... If a print publication can provide value, it will gain momentum and gain readership. It's true of any product really. If there's a product out there that demonstrate more value than another competitive product, then it will be chosen.
Also, it doesn't hurt that Play Magazine reads really well on the shitter... Every time I sit down to do my business, I pick up a Play Mag and read it, looking for tidbits I missed. And they look great piled up on the back of the toilet!
The editors at PC Gamer (the American one) feel like a second family to me. A second, flabby, balding family. I don't respect any web journalists by name as I respect the writers at PC Gamer. However, I'm not thrilled about the price. Subscription price is very reasonable, but individual issues cost as much as $12CAD! Considering most issues come with a CDROM with 1 demo that's pretty tough to justify. I have some ancient PC Gamer issues that cost $6CAD - including the Quake 1 issue which was over 300 pages long.
I picked up Gamepro from the very first issue it ever printed and have been a subscriber ever since. Nowadays it is simply more out of habit and my family wanting to continue the tradition my grandmother started than my strong desire to read it. The problem with that magazine in particular was that the very strong minds in the writing and editorial staff were promoted or poached away to places that offered higher salaries/position. I can understand the lure of more money and escaping more of the "hectic deadline" kind of life, but it really hurt the magazine. The combination of newer people and an increased level of "make money with adds" rather than "provide substance to readers" culture brought the quality of the magazine down. They seemed much more interested in competing with other rags that wanted to play off the pop culture fads of the day,(I really REALLY don't care what games the tards in Linkin Park or from some sports team play), than providing me with a source of new info on the games/developments I was interested in. It is so bad today that any source of real news, like a new GTA or the Revolution controller, get full layouts as if it was written by that company's marketing dept, and maybe it is. Much of the genuine critiquing has gone by the wayside. Something has to be a HUGE pile of shit to get negative press.
I want to note one exception very quickly. The Buyers Beware section was an enourmously wonderful addition and incredibly inciteful into gaming bugs. it even does follow up for patches/fixes!
I am not saying that the kind of magazine I used to read does not exist. I am only stating that the general trend towards serving the industry instead of the consumer has plagued many of the major ones.
I am and always will be a stereotype, because who in their right mind prefers mono?
Not at all suprised that the UK gaming magazines still have a large and avid readership. When I was a kid, I would pass over US-pressed pap like Vidiot and Electronic Games magazine and get the local WH Smith to import the UK magazines Zzap!64, C+VG and such, the quality and editorial content is about 100% better, funnier and more diverse. The same exists today, in mags like Edge. If the US paper gaming mag industry wants to live, they need more smart writing and lower price tags, and less bulging DVDs of demos no one cares about or they would have downloaded them already.
Devil bunnies! I snort the nose! Lucifer! Banana! Banana!
One of my gaming magazines recently contained a 30 page advertisement. That's right, 30 pages. They were even numbered. This seems to have been the trend with gaming magazines as a whole: more ads, less content. That issue with the 30 page spread is they day they lost me as a subscriber. I like having magazines as a supplement to the news I get online, but I certainly don't buy them for the ads. If that kind of nonsense is the way they are going I guess I'll have make do without them.
I don't think game mags can be judged in with other print mags.
I stopped buying game mags years ago because they all seem to be giving good reviews to bad games because they have special deals with distributors or publishers.
online mags to me, tho, are just as bad. I don't read them either.
I buy a game because I think it looks or sounds good and I make my own decisions. I never let my opinion be swayed by biased game "journos."
The reason girls and Windows users don't understand UNIX is because all the documentation is in Man files.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PC_Accelerator_Magazi ne
there is none higher
I may be one of the select few left in the world, but I prefer reading a good magazine over a good online article. Printed mediums are much lighter on the eyes, and the pages are not attacking the reader. Sure there are many ads in magazines, but rarely do printed ads flash incessantly or jump from corner to corner or scroll down until you hit the x in the corner.
However, I have completely stopped reading gaming magazines. It's not that they've stopped being useful. Oh wait, that's exactly it. Gaming magazines completely suck now, not because a physical form is more annoying than a flock of bits. I rather enjoy having a physical copy. No, it's the fact that nobody can write good articles, nobody can format pages well, and nobody can give me my $30 worth per year.
Take PCGamer. At one point (back in 1999), each issue was 200+ pages long (sometimes up to 300). The main articles generally featured some new information. Many of the writers shared a similar viewpoint for games, on which rule and which suck. Each issue had about 15 reviews, each receiving at least a page describing many areas of the game in great depth. Though usually serious, some excruciatingly bad games (Extreme Paintbrawl for example) had incredibly humorous reviews. And though the columns were relatively stale, the rest of the magazine provided much information and entertainment. I thoroughly looked forward to every issue.
After two years, the writing got pretty stale. Part of the reason was that the original team left and a former competitor "PC Accelerator" merged in, bringing some of the most audacious people. Many new policies were enacted, such as reviewing expansion packs (understandable), shrinking some reviews to half page (getting annoying), and reducing pages by every issue (what the hell?). Though the lack of money is the biggest reason why I did not renew again, I am rather glad now that I look back.
Lately, I've tried picking up another copy of PCGamer. Some poor (metaphorically... he's quite rich) friend actually thinks it's rather good so I flipped through. Complete crap. Well, it has some good stuff. 30 reviews! Oh wait, about 20 of them are on 5 pages. There's only about 50 pages of ads... in the 100 page magazine.
It's not just PCGamer though. I've had Computer Gaming World temporarily, and it was a crock of shit. Game Informer... well, let's just say that my friend and I made fun of every issue for about two hours at this other guy's house.
There was a time I trusted magazines. Now, I find myself detesting every one. Now I'm not saying that I find online columns fun to read (most of them are just stupid... take a look at the Sin and Punishment award, but do I really have to spend $30 a year just to have an incessant swearing spree per month?
But that might be changing. Last year Jason Calcanis of Weblogs Inc. was touting his network's AdSense revenue, and noted the low per-click payouts for WIN's video game sites, several of which were inactive soon after. But Calcanis, who tracks AdSense trends very closely, recently changed his mind and launched the Joystiq network, which includes new sites focused on the Xbox 360, PSP and World of Warcraft. My guess is that Calcanis has seen the payout numbers improving.
RichM
Data Center Knowledge
Zonk completely fails to mention that Highbury Press is currently up for sale and most of its magazines face closure.. UK magazines are in a pretty sorry state. Edge is good, but PC Gamer is a self-congratulatory smarmy piece of chauvinistic rubbish. I used to get PC Format but that's gone downhill too.. now the only thing I get magazines for is the exclusives (and the only decent one in months has been OXM360's FFXI beta).
"Frag the weak, hurdle the dead, and assassinate those cursed snipers."
Very easily. For a long time, you got a free subscription to Game Informer whenever you signed up for the Used-Games club at GameStop (a very large national retailer with many, many small neighborhood shops). So, for a year or so, I got the magazine in the mail. I actually liked it better than websites when it talked about games. Obviously, for E3 news, print will always lag behind, but it's nice to sit down for 20 minutes and know what's in store in gaming for a whole month. No need to check a site three times a week, ten minutes at a time.
Although for some this might be obvious, there's a very good reason that magazines do whatever they can to keep you as a reader/subscriber. The more readers they have, the higher rates for advertising they can charge. If you look at their media kit (PDF), they even take it a level further, promoting the "synergy" with GameStop that gives you (the advertiser) a "win/win" when it comes to readership.
Hence, they can command such lofty advertising rates. IDG's publication GamePro garners $30,000 for a one-off advertisement as the 2nd cover spread in the magazine. That same ad in Game Informer would cost you (the advertiser) over $100,000! And how many of those are readers like me, who get the magazine for free but maybe aren't as interested in games as much as someone who subscribes because they wanted to? (An aside: Realistically, only suckers pay the "retail" price found on Rate Cards. Between antsy account representatives, specials, bypassing agency commissions, and slow ad months, you can easily get 10-50% off from the posted amounts).
And then you wonder why games are so highly priced. A well-written editorial on Penny Arcade coupled with 4-5 links and discussions on other sites would probably net you just as much, if not better, results.
Small potatoes make the steak look bigger.
I really enjoy print game magazines. I like the fast and simple interface of being able to flip through from start to finish- I see screenshots of all the games (some of them as big as a page), I get exposed to games I would just ignore when there's just a title and a tiny screenshot and maybe a line of text that I have to make a conscious decision to click on and wait for it to load in the case of a website. I think the graphic designers of magazine are usually better than for websites, which typically have horribly busy masses of different links and ads and crap all crammed into a tiny space (and then they choose a white on black font that makes your eyes hurt after a paragraph or two- but that same color screen works all right in a magazine because it isn't backlit).
That said, I don't subscribe to any game magazines even though I could easily afford to, I just like to pick them up for a dollar each when they're a few months old from Half-Price books or sometimes Value Village. People rarely sell their old game magazines it seems like, but in a big enough city you can usually find someplace that gets a trickle of them (but then people like me just buy all the game magazines at first sight).
"Print is dead." -- Dr. Egon Spengler, 1984
Bruce