As I’ve said time and time again, it’s never been a better time to be a gamer. But unfortunately, it’s also never been a worse time to be a game journalist.
I’ve made it no secret: my attempts at being a full-time freelance video game reporter has been shaky at best. There’s just too many folks out there like myself and not enough (paid) work to go around. Regarding these other people, they’re either sixteen year old bloggers who ultimately have no idea what they’re doing, but they charge next to nothing, which in turn makes it hard for us “professionals” to bargain for reasonable rates, or seasoned professionals who have been in the game far longer than I, and as a result are also far better than me. Don’t even get me started on the death of print and all that has entailed.
Well that talent pool just became even more crowded; the rumored purchase of Ziff Davis Media by competitor Hearst Corporation was formally announced and made very much real earlier today. Not only will they be absorbing all of ZD’s online portals, the 1UP Network (sites such as 1UP.com and GameVideos.com), but also many people behind them has been let-go, around 40 or so to be exact (mostly those behind all those podcasts that everyone loves so much). This includes people like Andrew Pfister and James Mielke.
I still remember the PM I got from Milkman about, gosh, six years ago, on the Gaming Age Forums, before it went “Neo”. He was impressed by something I had said on the boards, about comic books of all things, since he too had roots in cartooning. Long story short, I was offered the gig of playing and reviewing the bottom of the barrel games for GMR, a job that I still have many fond memories of. Skip served as my editor at the time and was another all-around excellent dude. So I wish both those guys, and the rest of the folks at ZD the very best of luck in the future. Hopefully they’ll find better places and continuing what they do best. And that’s cover video games in a fun and informative fashion for both the hardcore and casual gamer. I still honestly believe that no one in the world of game journalism, mainstream or underground, has come close Milkman’s one week with Q Entertainment or Panzer Dragoon retrospective.
Though I guess the really big news is that Electronic Gaming Monthly, once the mother-ship of the ZD (and before that Sendai Publishing) Empire, and at one time the biggest and most respected name in the world of print game magazines, is now no more. The upcoming February 2009 issue will be the final installment of one of the longest running independently operated publications dedicated to video games (just a few months shy of GamePro). Like most folks such as myself, EGM at one point was a large part of my life; I certainly didn’t grow up wanting to be a game reporter, but it most definitely had a profound impact on who I would become, by serving as my guide to wonderful world of electronic entertainment.
Most dudes my age when they were teenagers would spend countless hours ogling pictures of naked girls in girly mags, and would later waste even more fantasizing about these vixens, wondering what they would be like in the flesh. I was no different, though one will have to replace the photo-spread of a supple, nubile horny blonde with work in progress screenshots of Virtua Racing for Sega Genesis. Basically, EGM was my porn growing up. I also fondly recall my very first issue; it was in the summer of 92, I had just gotten my wisdom teeth removed and was in a total haze while stumbling around the Fort Lewis PX, with my father in tow, while the both of us waited for my perception pain killers to be filled. I was still loopy on painkillers and feeling mighty fine, but knew that I would be bed ridden for the next couple of days, and my dad asked if I wanted some new reading material.
Thus began my relationship with the one gaming mag that I still have the warmest memories off. I was mostly around during the good old days, the 16-bit era, when EGM was at it’s absolute best. Yes, Next Generation was perhaps a better, all around publication, offering the kind of maturity that the industry absolutely needed… for its time, that being the 32-bit era. I was absolutely in love with the wide variety of coverage that EGM provided, even if the targeted audience was early teens (which at the time I certainly didn’t mind since I was one), from domestic titles to stuff abroad. Diehard Gamefan unfairly gets all the credit for introducing the concept of import gaming to the masses, due to their colorful layouts, but when it came to actual usable information, EGM was king. Whereas Gamefan was often drowning in its own fanboy-ish slobber, or have these idiotic tirades as to why every game isn’t as cool as Treasure’s offerings. Plus, as much as I appreciated GF for spreading the gospel of Yuzo Koshiro, not once did it ever mention the Genesis version of Mega Man 1-3.
The editorial section was always the best; there was no lame attempt to suck up to their audience and constantly pat themselves on the back like some, which even I found rather transparent and annoying even as a thirteen year old, or worse yet, the wretched attempts by others at being funny. To this day, I still can’t understand Game Informer’s whole running gag with the guy in the gorilla suit. The rumors section never failed to be amusing, and the entire mag itself was often right on the mark when it came to anticipating the future; I’m surprised no Sega historians have yet to recall how EGM hinted towards the 32X well before it was formally announced (we’re talking practically years here) when they revealed plans for a, or perhaps even just pondered the possibility of the “Super Genesis”, that being a slightly upgraded machine that could play all the old games but new ones that tapped into its enhanced graphics and sound, plus sprite scaling and rotational capabilities.
Though it was their reviews that set themselves apart from the pack; I still recall the first perfect 10 I ever saw in the magazine, for Tempest 2000 of all things. The reviewers had personality, but again, it never got in the way and unlike many high-profile game writers of today, they neither wanted to be your best friend, nor lord you over with their vast knowledge of, in the grand scheme of things, useless information. Many people today still bitch about the review crew, and how it ripped off Famitsu’s format. Whatever.
The 16-bit era was indeed the golden age of gaming, at least to me, and most certainly for gaming magazines. Back in the day, whenever we got five or six screenshots of whatever new, hotly anticipated game, it was something to be celebrated. We’d all spend each month closely examining those same five or six images, over and over again, until the next set arrived. Later, when the internet came along, you’d get five times the number of new screens every other day, and it just seemed to be special. Maybe because of all the clicking involved. Also back in the day, EGMs were about as thick as phonebooks, especially during the holiday seasons. Yes, most of it was ads, but still, they were awesome! Look at them now, especially when in comparison with the overly edgy crap that constitutes as advertisements today, and you will be reminded that, yes, things were far simpler and more innocent back then. And that video games was not the billion-dollar industry that it is today. EGM was so big that at one point that it needed to be published twice a month, hence the short-lived experiment that was EGM2. Which I believe was the closest we ever got to emulating the Japanese video game scene, ever.
But the party didn’t last forever. I stopped following the mag when Next Generation hit the scene… it just offered the right change at the right time. Also around 1995, EGM got a new art director who quite honestly was completely inept; this person was a bit too happy to use every single filter that can be found in Photoshop any chance he or she got. That and the change to crappier paper, and poorer quality screenshots; there was definitely a way to take snapshots of crappy, first gen 32-bit games, and EGM at the time most certainly didn’t know how. I came back around the launch of the Dreamcast, when Next Generation was starting to lose its steam and was pleasantly surprised to find something that was readable again, though it was obviously a different animal by that point. Returned just in time for their top 100 list, and stuck around long enough to check out their top 150; I forget what was number one for issue #100, but I do recall Super Metroid getting the top spot for issue #150. Which I can totally respect. But at this point, all enthusiasm for game news in print was dead… mostly because the true king of video game print publications, EGM’s sister mag GMR, was put to pasture far too prematurely.
Then there was the shift to the web, the birth of the 1UP Network, which truth be told, I was never the biggest fan at first. Mostly because of some questionable editorial decisions in the very beginning, as well as how the site was never Mac compatible until far too later down the road. Also, despite the fact that many folks whose work I was a big fan of would end up being involved, I was also never a fan of their podcasts, but that had more to do with the fact that I cringe in general at the notion of game journalists trying to act like all cool, like MTV VJs or something. Perhaps because it’s so effective? But yeah, I’ve never given them an honest shot, so before they’re all wiped from the servers, I should finally give them a shot (especially Retronauts, which I’ve heard nothing but great things about).
I ended up getting a subscription somehow, about two years ago, and have been with the magazine ever since, till now its final days. Which have been quite nice; the current layout reminds me of GMR and the interviews in particular have been pretty awesome. I especially admire the completely revised review crew format, which was pretty daring, given all the history behind it. But after next month, EGM will be no more, which I’m actually depressed about. I guess there’s always Game Informer (ugh… I mean, seriously), GamePro (which I hear is nothing like it was back in the day, so that enough alone is worth checking out, at least for one issues), both “official” Xbox and PlayStation magazines (though I generally don’t do official mags), Nintendo Power (what I just said about the last two), and finally Play (which I don’t follow all that much due to its ties with Gamefan, whose legacy I’ve long found to be questionable… all I’ll say is that, like it’s predecessor, Play is just as pleasing to the eyes, though that’s where my pal Heather also works and I really dig what I’ve seen from her over there, plus it did give Persona 4 the cover treatment most recently and that most definitely gets a big thumbs up from me).
As for the 1UP Network, who knows what will happen to it and its people in the hands of Hearst and UGO.com. Though I believe it says something that, in this day and age where one needs to be more careful than ever about who you speak poorly off, given the ever increasingly dwindling options for employment, that no one has yet to say a good thing about that place… But so long as Scott Sharkey still has a job, I guess all will be well with the world. Though I have to wonder what Sushi-X will have to do now.
EDIT: Oh, because I’m talking about news, may as well bring this up now, since it surprisingly become such a big thing as of late. I’m talking about Bob’s Game! A monster that at least one angry person at Select Button has accused me of helping to create, since I was the dude that initially gave Mike at Kotaku the head’s up about many moons ago. I know, lol. Long story short: the dude is now pissed that Nintendo won’t give him an official dev kit to make his homemade DS game, which has taken him 15,000 hours, or five straight years to create, a reality (which many are dying to get their hands on since absolutely no one has gotten the chance to play this thing of his). As a form or protest, he’s locking himself in his room for 100 days. What this accomplishes is anyone’s guess. Other than giving the dude tons of attention, which is precisely what’s happening.
My take on the situation? I think it’s fairly obvious by now that Bob is simply a viral spam bot, either for some new gaming site or perhaps a small dev group looking for some cheap and easy pre-release buzz, which again its getting. Or maybe someone bigger, like Rockstar? Who knows, but yeah, nothing really to see here folks.
EDIT #2: You know, I was somewhat expecting a vitriolic reaction to my lamenting the passing of EGM, but was still shocked when it happened. Time and time again, the entire subject of video game journalism always gets certain people intensely pissy for some unknown reason. Actually, I can think of a few, and it all falls into line my long felt belief that gamers are by far the most frustrated and angry out there when it comes to all the different areas of fandom.
Here’s a thread I started at the IC forums for example. My fave part is how EGM was an “intellectually bankrupt pussout”. lol. Once again, the basic sentiment seems to be: yeah, they were okay, till they gave X game a shitty review back in 98. Ever since then, they’ve been dead to me, so f*ck ‘em!
Also, please don’t think no one, especially those behind the scenes, didn’t see this coming. The writing is always on the way, especially for writers. But it still sucks when it the axe finally comes down.
Anyway, it’s been revealed that the last issue of EGM won’t even see print, but will be distributed electronically… another small bit of irony there. Here’s what the cover will look like…
