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Gaming Mags Worth Their Ink
eToyChest takes a look back at five gaming magazines worth subscribing to. Tellingly, four out of five are no longer published. From the article: "What can be said about Next Generation Magazine that would truly do it justice? In its seven-year run starting in 1995, Next Generation virtually defined what good game journalism should be in the U.S. Interviews with prominent industry figures, even those unrelated to game-making such as Henry Jenkins of M.I.T. and Senator Joseph Lieberman were erudite and informative. Imagine what fun they would have had with Jack Thompson." As I've said before, Futurenet's Edge is my personal favorite print magazine. What is yours?
I used to read PC Gamer when I was in high school. Each issue was at least half an inch thick. Now they are a lot smaller, somewhere around 1/4 inch thick. Also, the demos that they include have really started to suck. They used to be quite large, usually the full game without all the maps. Now they usually include cutscenes, or playable demos with only 1 or 2 maps. At least that's the way it was when I stopped buying it. Can't say if the demos have improved, but last time I looked at a copy, the magazine was still pretty small, and still cost just as much as it originally did.
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My problem with Maximum PC is twofold: First, they still distribute their software on CD. Most other mags have moved to DVD and thus are able to jampack more demos and apps into it, making the premium for the disc much more worth it. Second, Maximum PC has A LOT of ads. I know ads bring in revenue (I work in print media), but there's a point when mags have an article followed by three pages of ads--MaxPC has reached this point. It's time for them to have more content or charge more for their ads. They've got a decent subscriber base, they just need to make their advertisers aware of it.
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I'm surprised Computer Gaming World wasn't mentioned. It predates PC Gamer by several years, heck it was around in the 80's when I started reading it. It has seen better years, just like all the rest, but they still have some of the best articles and writing today.
... but I used to remember gaming magazines being a lot better than they currently are. I remember thick issues with lots of great information, previews, import info, commentary by reviewers who were real game players (if they thought a game sucked, they would say it), and so forth. The magazines were made by gamers, for gamers, or so it felt. Even Nintendo Power (completely controlled by Nintendo) seemed better back then.
Nowadays it seems like almost every game gets at least a 7/10 (or numerically similar value... unless it is a total crap title made by a noname publisher that wouldn't advertise anyway), reviewers are wannabe journalists, not gamers, etc. Through no fault of a magazine, new info and tips are available much faster on the web than could ever be put into a monthly magazine. Either way, the magazines just seem to be devoid the feeling of "genuine gamer culture" that I remembered from the 16-bit days.
Maybe it was the web that killed the magazines of old. Maybe I'm an old fogey now.
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