COLUMN: 'Game Mag Weaseling': Mag Roundup 1/12/08
As some of you may've heard, Newtype USA (the mag I worked for) will be discontinued with its February 2008 issue, which will be on stands in a little while. In its place, we will be launching PiQ, a magazine that covers the entire range of (for lack of a better term) "genre entertainment".
There's still much work left to be done on PiQ before I have anything more interesting to say about it, but this re-launch is one reason why I've been following the discussion around EGM and (pictured) editor-in-chief Dan Hsu's public revelation of his title's occasionally rocky relations with game publishers. He discussed his views of game PR and his duties as EIC with the Media Coverage corner of GameDaily, and the whole thing is worth reading, so go have a look. One long quote in particular caught my notice:
"The thing that always guides me is something my first editorial director told me on the day I interviewed at EGM...I brought up an old EGM editorial where the editor said that Capcom has pulled advertising [they later reinstated it], but EGM wouldn't change its ways to win them back. I asked the editorial director about that, and how can EGM survive without advertising...how does the magazine deal with that pressure? He told me, 'As long as you write for the readers and not the companies, the readership will come, and the advertisers will have no choice but to advertise with you'...Eventually, the companies all come back because they need to reach our audience...I know that sounds cocky, and I don't mean it to be, but that's what keeps me going, even when things are looking bad and down for us...We are unwilling to bend on this. I'd drag EGM down with me or quit before we compromise our integrity."
This is a very commendable credo for Hsu and his staff to work under, especially given how much prestige his mag's review scores are often given online. EGM's editors ought to be proud of their boss; I know I was back when I freelanced for EGM in 2003-05 [ish], when I couldn't imagine myself ever wanting a job in any other print-media game mag. And yet, the contrarian part of my mind, the part that can't help but play the devil's advocate (or simply wants to be a prick), can't help but say: Does not compromising your integrity mean having your average book size go down 40 percent between 2002 and 2007?
I'm not suggesting that EGM is suffering for its policies needessly. In fact, the ABCs will tell you that its circulation is higher than it's ever been, and I still think it's the most influential mag in the US -- a position that's the result of many years of consistency in its policies. However, every print-mag editor is facing a reality where they are almost nobody's first choice of media on any given game title -- not readers', nor professionals'. Very few gamers buy a game because EGM said it was hot; they buy a game because an amalgamation of websites, magazines, and their friends said it was hot. More than ever, they're a cog in a machine of hype -- and the way print media can escape this machine is by playing up the inherent advantages of print, concentrating on features, opinion, pretty pictures, the complete package, and not fighting an unwinnable battle with online.
So what does "writing for the readers" mean at this point, then? Every mag grapples with this question, and they all have varying degrees of success at dealing with it. I give nothing but the highest of praise to EGM for doing things like publish opinionated previews -- and being willing to deal with the fallout afterward. That sort of thing we need to see more of. However -- and I say this with the utmost of respect -- I wonder if basing so much of the integrity of one's magazine on what amount to a bunch of numbers is really the best place to put one's efforts. Would it perhaps be better to take some other approach, concentrate on other parts of the mag and so forth? Didn't Gerstmann-gate teach us that an over-reliance on scores in your media trivializes your content and could even set you up for trouble?
These are rhetorical questions and not for me to answer, but obviously, we at PiQ are trying our best to come up with a product that interests and entertains the readers we want to attract. I think that it's time game-mag editors rethink this fundamental topic, too, especially considering that book sizes (not to mention reader mindshare) ain't getting any bigger anytime soon.
That said, here are all the mags of the past couple weeks. Back to the tiny issues again, sadly...
Edge January 2008
Cover: Street Fighter IV
Edge does a split-cover this month; the other cover, depicting Ryu, is largely the same as EGM's Jan. '08 issue.
This is one of those issues where you can really tell the difference between EGM and Edge. Reading Shane's SF4 feature in EGM, you can tell that everyone involved with the text of that article has years if not decades of experience with fighters -- meanwhile, Edge freely admits that "some of the current staff had never played each other at a Street Fighter game before we began working on this issue" (something they, in their defense, call "unacceptable"). EGM's piece expended tons of ink on the planned fighting system and how the new combos and button arrangements work; Edge's covers a bit of that, but prefers to concentrate on producer Yoshinori Ono and the tremendous challenge he's taken up with this project. Both are interesting reads in their own way, but I preferred EGM's more hands-on approach to the subject, one obviously dictacted by the amount of SF experience Shane 'n crew had.
The issue is pretty Asia-centric, featuring interviews with Tetsuya Mizuguchi, Atsushi Inaba, the Ubisoft Shanghai guys, and the Nights dude. This is also the 2007 awards issue, and Mario Galaxy cleans up many of the top ones. (More interesting is the Alternative Edge awards, which includes such topics as "Lushness", "Unsound FX", and "Late to the Party" (the last going to the Dual Shock 3, of course).
Games for Windows: The Official Magazine February 2008 (Podcast)
Cover: Demigod
This issue rocks. You can tell they tried their best with everything in it. The lame-o preview feature isn't so lame this time because it concentrates entirely on heavily delayed and/or entirely canceled games, kicking off with Huxley ("too much, too soon" personified into a PC game) and continuing with such high-profile cancellations as Gods & Heroes and Sin: Episodes. There's also a page on Warcraft Adventures, which I still have a soft sport in my heart for.
Meanwhile, the Demigod feature is a fun venture into the mind of Chris Taylor, and the annual free-games compilationis a neat mixture of dumb Flash stuff and loony original epics (and Dwarf Fortress). Some online discussion has been sparked by this issue's Unreal Tournament 3 review -- PC Gamer gave it 85%, Edge gave it an 8 despite being pretty negative all through the review text, but GFW goes right to the point, giving it a 6 and calling it too UT2004-y.
PC Gamer February 2008 (Podcast)
Cover: Build the perfect...zzz...gaming PC
Hey, don't I want to run Crysis at 60 FPS, not 50? Oh, but there are more important things to discuss with this PC Gamer -- they've gone and redesigned it, again, for like the third time in the past few years. This redo is mostly aesthetic, with an easier-to-read text font, tabs on the edges so you can flip immediately to the section you like, and a generally cleaner look, as seems to be the recent fashion in games mags. The biggest editorial change: a Hopes/Fears box in each preview, also very high fashion among UK mags but not often seen around here.
Oddly enough, this rearrangement and cosmetic redesign has the effect of making PC Gamer look a hell of a lot like Edge, both in design and in structure. News, then previews, then features, then review, then columns -- that's Edge's structure right there, and now PC Gamer's got it too. I like it overall, enough that it's making me wish there was a multiplatform mag like this in the US.
Otherwise, this is your typical PC Gamer, one with a "best games under $20" feature that was timed well with GFW's "best free" games feature and a new column from the zeropunctuation guy which is tremendous good fun.
GamePro February 2008
Cover: Super Smash Bros. Melee, t'would seem
Remember back when every GamePro cover featured original art? I'm glad to see those days back, at least for one month. A pretty straightforward issue overall, with the Melee feature the main highlight -- a highly enthusiastic preview/anticipation-a-thon, similar to their Halo 3 coverage earlier.
Game Developer January 2008
Cover: Portal
You'll want to read the cover-story postmortem, written by three of the eight main guys behind Portal (including Erik Wolpaw). It's a lot more interesting of a story than the "real" postmortem this issue, no offense to the Stranglehold dudes.
Play Magazine Presents Girls of Gaming Volume 5
Oh, sweet, it's that time again! *drops pants*
100 pages of girls, what can I say? I'm sure this magazine is pure profit for the Play folks at the price they're charging. And speaking of which, here's an interesting bit of trivia: you see how the price on the cover is the same for the US and Canada? This is literally the first magazine I've seen willing to do this. Many, if not most, other mags these days are just doing a split cover for the Canada market so they can continue to overcharge Canadians without them wising up to the fact that their money's worth just as much as ours now. Sucks to be you, Timbit heads.
PC Gamer Ultimate Strategy Guide
A fine, if standard general-purpose strategy issue -- some maps, some dev tips, you know the drill. It's all original content and it looks nice 'n well-made to me. Cheers!
[Kevin Gifford breeds ferrets and runs Magweasel, a site for collectors and fans of old video-game and computer magazines. He's also Executive Editor of PiQ, a new magazine hitting stands in March.
Comments
Just out of curiosity are we going to have more information on PiQ soon? I'm a bit worried about this change given how much of a fan of Newtype I was.
I agree with you about Hsu's stand though. I think it's pretty much made me an EGM reader for life, and it certainly makes me think twice before buying another Ubisoft game.
Posted by: Anne Packrat | January 14, 2008 11:27 AM
The bookstore we go to has been doing a "pay US cover price" thing since your dollar started sucking, I would imagine most places are doing similar.. ;p
Posted by: raigan | January 14, 2008 12:41 PM
three of the eight main guys behind Portal
Perhaps you just mean "guys" generically, but don't forget the female contributions to the game!
Posted by: AJane | January 14, 2008 3:51 PM
"Perhaps you just mean "guys" generically, but don't forget the female contributions to the game!"
And to the article, Kim Swift was one of the writers. I understand "guys" is gender neutral these days.
Posted by: Merus | January 14, 2008 4:04 PM
up here in canada, a lot of US-based magazines are now JUST printing the canadian price on the cover (while not lowering it!), in hopes of fooling the public that they're not getting ripped off. irksome!
Posted by: bunnyhero | January 14, 2008 11:51 PM
Is Gamepro really running a feature on SSBMelee? Or is that a typo?
Posted by: mister slim | January 15, 2008 2:19 PM
Canadian Tire money is worth more than US money
Posted by: Brett McGareth | January 16, 2008 4:45 AM