Man, yesterday took the wind right out of my sails. As in, I came home and crawled into bed rather than sit around dwelling on matters.
In the time I’ve been at Ziff, I’ve sat through entirely too many magazines being shuttered, but this one was the most depressing. GFW was a magazine approaching three decades of continuous publishing under one name or another, the oldest extant gaming publication in America — maybe the world? — and it also happened to be the most smartly-written. Despite not being a PC gamer, I still read each and every issue cover-to-cover. And I fondly remember thumbing through the old, glorified-newsletter-style CGWs that my friends had stacked by their computers as they trekked through The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy or Pools of Radiance or whatever. At least the smart writing will still be around, since the GFW crew will simply be focusing its efforts online. What this means is that 1UP’s PC coverage will soon crush the rest of the Internet’s… in fact, we’ll probably have to improve the console content to match.
Certainly I’ll need to shape up. This new preview for The World Ends With You feels like it’s within spitting distance of being really great, but doesn’t quite get there and just comes off scattered and unfocused. And I’m still not happy with Retro Roundup, despite the new format. I need more space and more time so each write-up can focus on the game and really dig into the details; all I can manage currently is a brief, fatuous, cursory glance at each game. And any jackass can do that. Ah well.
That’s right: Cry, emo boy.
On the plus side, I did manage to coin the term “Nomuraverse.” And better yet, that fishy smell from the crawfish place has finally dissipated from my fingers. Small victories, man. Take ’em where you can.
That’s . . . odd. I just finished reading Jeremy’s review of The World Ends With You yesterday in EGM, and now he writes a preview for 1UP. Crazy . . .
Well, like the man says… Let’s go where eagles dare.
It really is depressing to see GFW go. I’ve been a print-mag editor for ten years now, and I’ve always enjoyed EGM and GFW/CGW. Lately they’ve been the only legitimately readable gaming magazines (although I tend to feel like EGM, with the tone of its content, is speaking to a slightly younger “target reader” than me).
It seems like older readers are going to be the primary consumers of print publications, or at least the only people who will pay money to have bound stacks of paper shipped to them on a regular basis. I’d love to see someone start a mook-type mag for us (something like MAKE would be an ideal template). I want retro articles, in-depth postmortems, profiles and interviews with lesser-known developers, roundtable discussions…all that stuff that’s in no way marketable to 15-year-olds. Hell, if anyone wants to start that mag, let me know! [/delusion]
@ jeffk
I will join you in your delusion. I’m in my 30’s and would love to read a magazine like that.
The internet is great, but it’s still very enjoyable to open up a print magazine and curl up on the couch and read.
Magazines are also great for that first and last 20 or so minutes of a flight (where I find myself as a passenger several times a month) when you can’t do anything other than read…and I’d much rather read a gaming magazine than the inflight magazine found on the plane.
Don’t be sad, Parish. As long as your fans agree with your tastes, they’ll never have cause to complain about your prose!
…that was actually pretty depressing for me to write, even facetiously. Congratulations on spreading your angst. I guess nothing helps a bad mood better than sharing it!
I am aware it is not the same, but some sites put out PDF magazines with layouts that you can technically download and print. I personally do not enjoy the magazine layouts as much online and find places like 1UP to have far more enjoyable, less obtrusive layouts.
I am a little concerned about that kid. He has a wristband over one of his wrists. I think I’m going to need to schedule a parent-teacher conference.
I know it’s considered badass for anime / FF characters to have overly large collars that cover the lower half og their face, but MAN. That kid’s collar is getting dangerously close to his waist.
I think (think?) that’s a backwards hoodie. Why he’s wearing a hoodie backwards, that’s outside my purview.
“Why he’s wearing a hoodie backwards, that’s outside my purview.”
Because it’s fashionable, as determined by Tetsuya Nomura.
Nomura’s brain: “What would be awesome? I know. Mixing emo kid fashion with Kriss-Kross. YESSSS”
I already miss GFW something fierce. FIERCE.