Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

RIP CGW

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the new-boss-same-as-the-old-boss dept.

Heartless Gamer writes "Ziff Davis Shuts Down CGW, Opens Games For Windows. The Ziff Davis Game Group, which produces consumer game site 1UP and Electronic Gaming Monthly and Official PlayStation Magazine in North America, has announced that it is shutting down its US print magazine Computer Gaming World and replacing it with an officially Microsoft-branded 'Games For Windows' magazine and website."

16 of 55 comments (clear)

  1. Sucks, but by flanksteak · · Score: 4, Funny
    Ziff Davis noted that the magazine will carry with it much of Computer Gaming World's editorial style and tone. Because of this, the organization confirmed that it has decided to no longer publish Computer Gaming World. The new magazine and web initiative will carry on the editorial, production and art staff of Computer Gaming World.
    The official MS shilling aside, it sounds like it's going to be the same magazine. Even though it was "Computer" GW, it's not like there were other platforms that have enough games to warrant a monthly magazine. Games for MacOS and/or Games for Linux would just be a pamphlet with the same headline over and over: "Inside this issue! Halo, and this month's newest 75 variants of GPL'd Solitaire!"

    Sayeth I, who no longer loses large amounts of time to big games now that I'm using Linux.

    1. Re:Sucks, but by secolactico · · Score: 3, Insightful

      "Inside this issue! Halo, and this month's newest 75 variants of GPL'd Solitaire!"

      Don't forget Tux Racer. For some reason, whenever someone brings up the "games for linux" theme, Tux Racer is always mentioned. And Nethack.

      --
      No sig
  2. Good Riddance by Biovital · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Good, I wont miss this gaming rag at all. I have a free subscription for it, and its terrible. When I first read it 2 or 3 years ago, it seemed somewhat more mature than PCG had become, but like PCG it tries to be too funny and clever every chance it gets and it usually fails. The reviews (which were crap to begin with compared to other mags) became some silly editorial on the game rather than an actual review (for that you have to goto 1up.com). It just became too taken with itself and lost focus. So I wont miss the magazine at all.

    1. Re:Good Riddance by Cadallin · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Unfortunate that you only caught it so late. The time to be reading it was in the '80's and '90's. When the Editor in Chief was Russell Snipe (the founder) or Johnny Wilson. During those years, the writing was top notch, and the approach much more mature and sophistocated. Originally it was aimed at the over 25, educated game player. The point of view of the magazine was that it was covering an emerging Art Form. They didn't just whore out praise to the highest bidder. How did the game look? How did it sound? How did it play? How did it make the reviewer feel? How was the writing? How are emerging technologies going to affect the industry in the future? Both the review and the editorial content was superb. As long as they continued to focus on their near 30 demographic (who were always the magazine's primary readership) the magazine was good, and thrived. Ziff-Davis, on the other hand, wanted to grow the readership by targeting an increasingly younger audience, this resulted in reduced quality, and the readership plummeted.

  3. Games for windows by CrazyJim1 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Lets play,"How long will my server stay up before it crashes."
    Lets play a game of chance,"Will you let me update my computer or is something wrong with WGA"
    Lets play,"Give all my personal information to Microsoft Passport because I can trust Microsoft and that it won't get hacked again."
    Lets download Vista and play with the voice recognition software.
    Lets play upgrade to a new version of Windows only to find out that the software only works with a new computer(ahem empty harddrive)
    Lets play hide and seek to find out where in the registry the IE overflow virus is hiding.
    Lets play dungeons and drivers to find out where to locate the last usable driver was located at, luckily the internet helps.

    I admit I use windows because I'm too lazy to learn a new OS, but not too lazy to complain on Slashdot.

    --
    God spoke to me.
  4. ouch by mackil · · Score: 2

    That sucks, I just renewed my subscription...

  5. Fare well by BackwardHatClub · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I used to read CGW but it just seemed to go downhill a little bit, I couldn't really put my finger on it but I let my subscription lapse and haven't missed it terribly.

  6. Jumping the shark by JoeCommodore · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Over the decades I've seen magazines get bought out and becomre narrow in ther scope only to eventually die off. I'm sure the new magazine will mainly play to the Microsoft partners and put blinders to the world that is not MS approved, then readers will look for something with more broad and callenging content instead of a glorified MS games catalog and it will die.

    --
    "Enjoy what you're doing! If it becomes drudgery, you're doing it wrong!" - Jim Butterfield
  7. The writing was on the wall when ... by unsigned+integer · · Score: 5, Informative

    They canned Scorpia. And then they started giving ratings to games
    instead of making you read the review and actually make an informed
    opinion. You can see the steady decline once they sold themselves(?)
    to Ziff-Davis.

    This was THE best gaming mag when I was growing up - and then they
    fucked it up with tons of new changes under the new management, and
    you can watch the gradual fleeing of the staff as month after month
    you'd read a little intro of "someone new joining the team" and
    someone else departing. I was a heavy reader once I got into gaming ..
    I guess that was around '85 ... and then I read until the early 90s.

    1. Re:The writing was on the wall when ... by jesup · · Score: 4, Informative

      Giving in to the "ratings" pressure was the first big step down the slippery slope, and the other was selling to ZD. I've subscribed (and/or bought off the newstand) since the mid-1980's; I stuck with it as it slowly declined over the last decade especially.

      I remember when it was fat, covered DOS, (680x0) Mac, Amiga, and ST games, and there was NO console coverage. That was a LONG time ago. I miss it. I also miss the old "Hall of Fame".

      I don't plan to renew my subscription to whatever this new magazine is (even if almost all the games I play nowadays are Windows (plus Nethack, Angband and a few others on Linux).

    2. Re:The writing was on the wall when ... by Xian97 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I have to agree. When they dropped Scorpia, I dropped my CGW subscription. In the 80s, a CGW subscription was a must if you played Adventures or RPGs. I also used to follow Scorpia's roundtable on GEnie. She was always ready to help someone when they got stuck in an RPG, back when there were little else besides hintbooks or CGW to get that kind of information. I still read her reviews and insights at http://www.scorpia.com/

    3. Re:The writing was on the wall when ... by WesternActor · · Score: 2, Interesting
      Bingo. For all of the 1980s and the first part of the 1990s, Computer Gaming World was an exceedingly literate, exciting publication. The articles that "reviewed" games were true criticism, often the way books or politics might be assessed in academic journals. Didn't one of the top editors (was it Russell Sipe or Johnny Wilson?) have a doctorate in philosophy? That kind of thing infused the entire magazine with an intelligent, adult mindset that was utterly crucial for guiding computer games and audiences through the earliest stages of their development. Scorpia had a vast amount of knowledge, played everything, knew even more, and responded personally to readers for a long time. (I had an ongoing dialogue with her for many years, the memories of which I still cherish.) Whether you were looking for technical information about a game, or whether you wanted it assessed in a larger entertainment or political context, or whether you just wanted to know whether you were likely to enjoy it, Computer Gaming World would tell you all these things, and more.

      The Ziff-Davis takeover was disastrous, the firing of Scorpia boneheaded, and just about every other change for the visible worse. But it's quite possible that the real CGW couldn't survive in the market that had popped up, one being driven by children and adolescents--and a publishing company being run by people with hardly more sense--who couldn't be bothered to actually read, consider, and absorb more about a game than a five-star rating or a shilly examination of its graphics, sound, whatever. I was a faithful subscriber all throughout the 1990s, hoping that it would reclaim a bit of its former glory, but when my subscription lapsed in late 2000/early 2001, I don't think I even noticed. For me, and for countless of others who were raised on the thoughtful, brilliantly composed, and engrossingly informative pieces that typified CGW during its best years, the magazine had left many years before.

      I won't waste the time or the money seeking out the last issue. But I'll continue to search for the first one--and as many in between as I need to complete my collection of the best gaming magazine when it and the industry were at their zenith. Rest in peace, Computer Gaming World.

      --

      --Matthew
      "If the lights of Broadway blind me, I won't mind..."
  8. Re:GGW? by 4D6963 · · Score: 2, Funny

    I really thought the article was "RIP GGW" for a minute. That would be a real tragedy.

    Same for me, except that I thought it was GWB

    --
    You just got troll'd!
  9. how absolutley....uninspired by Danathar · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Somehow the announcement of another magazine geared towards windows gaming seems a bit anti-climatic. Kinda like the grand opening of another McDonalds..

  10. Phew by KDR_11k · · Score: 2, Funny

    Almost thought that read GCW. I was already worried where I could get my noCD patches then.

    --
    Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
  11. In my opinion, by Cadallin · · Score: 2, Informative

    The Escapist does a significant part of CGW used to do, at least as far as editorial content goes. If The Escapist were to grow to include reviews and some additional content (Hire Scorpia! I know she's still out there, somewhere, I've found interviews with her around the net from time to time) I imagine it would pretty much be what CGW was.