TheFreak (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} freakservo) wrote,@ 2009-01-07 07:02:00 |
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Rag-Time Showdown
Everyone's talking about it, so I may as well, too.
1up's fucked and EGM is dead. Truth be told, I haven't done much rag-reading since the quick-failing GameGo! magazine. But EGM was a magazine rack mainstay. With its termination places the final nail in a coffin that has been pretty much sealed for at least half a decade. The internet made sure to give people the news they want at a fast-as-instantaneous pace, and whatever remaining threads that EGM may have been holding on to gave way the moment the economy went bad.
Of course I am saddened by this. It's the end of an era. An era I grew up reading, along with Nintendo Power, GameFan, and GamePro. And what has happened to these other magazines in the past five years? GameFan folded in 2000, Nintendo Power is now run by a group of assholes in an out-of-house publication, and GamePro...well, probably still has JD Roth under their employ, for all I know...
Point is, the only reason for a published magazine to exist anymore is to look at the pretty layouts; Even now gaming websites are pretty lazy about this. Put your review in a previously-designed blog layout such as this one, post some pictures on the side, done. When I think of a 'good' layout design, I'm probably still thinking in the '90s: I recall the angled screenshots used to cover Final Fantasy 7 or Klonoa in the GameFan mags, nifty placements of the title screen and official charater art, stuff like that. You would think the way HTML has evolved over the years that we would be seeing more of this now. I blame Twitter. Why be productive when you can update your news in half the time with even less strain? One could also argue that this is game coverage in its purest form: Some words, a few screens, that's it. No fancy-schmancy setups or eye candy.
Or maybe...just maybe...Online news sites are cheaper. Why pay 10-some Dollars for a month's backlog of old news when you can jump onto Kotaku and get your info the same hour it was announced...In Japan? Especially in these financial times, that's just the better sense-making.
Whatever the case, The era of magazine-rack publications has become as passe as the record player. It's sad, because I like wax vinyl, too.
Y'know, I wonder if, should this kind of modern progress keeps up, that we won't see a town similar to those Amish areas that focuses on this kind of 80s material. Just imagine today's kids visiting "ReaganVille", listening to an actual record player, learning how snap-bracelets are made (Complete with walk-in workplace similar to those blacksmith shops), A stuffed-and-mounted Q*bert cabinet, and the ability to bring home an authentic reprint of an Electronic Games magazine!
I'll have to see if I can strike a deal with Hostess to bring back Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles vanilla pies. I'd make a mint on Summer Camp visitation days!
Everyone's talking about it, so I may as well, too.
1up's fucked and EGM is dead. Truth be told, I haven't done much rag-reading since the quick-failing GameGo! magazine. But EGM was a magazine rack mainstay. With its termination places the final nail in a coffin that has been pretty much sealed for at least half a decade. The internet made sure to give people the news they want at a fast-as-instantaneous pace, and whatever remaining threads that EGM may have been holding on to gave way the moment the economy went bad.
Of course I am saddened by this. It's the end of an era. An era I grew up reading, along with Nintendo Power, GameFan, and GamePro. And what has happened to these other magazines in the past five years? GameFan folded in 2000, Nintendo Power is now run by a group of assholes in an out-of-house publication, and GamePro...well, probably still has JD Roth under their employ, for all I know...
Point is, the only reason for a published magazine to exist anymore is to look at the pretty layouts; Even now gaming websites are pretty lazy about this. Put your review in a previously-designed blog layout such as this one, post some pictures on the side, done. When I think of a 'good' layout design, I'm probably still thinking in the '90s: I recall the angled screenshots used to cover Final Fantasy 7 or Klonoa in the GameFan mags, nifty placements of the title screen and official charater art, stuff like that. You would think the way HTML has evolved over the years that we would be seeing more of this now. I blame Twitter. Why be productive when you can update your news in half the time with even less strain? One could also argue that this is game coverage in its purest form: Some words, a few screens, that's it. No fancy-schmancy setups or eye candy.
Or maybe...just maybe...Online news sites are cheaper. Why pay 10-some Dollars for a month's backlog of old news when you can jump onto Kotaku and get your info the same hour it was announced...In Japan? Especially in these financial times, that's just the better sense-making.
Whatever the case, The era of magazine-rack publications has become as passe as the record player. It's sad, because I like wax vinyl, too.
Y'know, I wonder if, should this kind of modern progress keeps up, that we won't see a town similar to those Amish areas that focuses on this kind of 80s material. Just imagine today's kids visiting "ReaganVille", listening to an actual record player, learning how snap-bracelets are made (Complete with walk-in workplace similar to those blacksmith shops), A stuffed-and-mounted Q*bert cabinet, and the ability to bring home an authentic reprint of an Electronic Games magazine!
I'll have to see if I can strike a deal with Hostess to bring back Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles vanilla pies. I'd make a mint on Summer Camp visitation days!
