Tips & Tricks no more??!

[BillKunkel]

But taking out The Collector's Closet altogether... I just about cried. It's always the first thing I turn to. But The Download Den was acceptable to hold me over... kinda... because of the old-school goodness dropped into it. This is a classic gaming board, and I am posting here... shows what I'd like to read a bit, eh?

Thanks, everybody, I do appreciate the input and found much of value in what you had to say. However, I'd hate anyone to think that we canceled Collector's Closet. It was always one of my favorite columns and appeared in every issue I edited up to #149. I think Chris and I must have had to cut it from the last issue for space reasons, but remember, when we were putting #150 together we had no idea whatsoever that it was going to be the last issue of T&T.

Collector's Closet, both as created by Joe and carried on by Chris, was exactly the kind of offbeat material I was looking for and we never even discussed the possibility of whacking it.

Honest. :)

[Gamereviewgod]

I don't by any means wish to sound sarcastic, but I am genuinely curious to know what sort of content the current magazines aren't providing for you.

Me writing for them. :p

[Flack]

Web sites may provide most news items long before a magazine but that doesn't mean the magazine should be ignoring the news completely. Running news items weeks after they have posted online is better than not running them at all. So what if the content is a little bit late when your magazine drops into homes or at a grocery store rack? You don't drop out of a race or marathon just because a few guys are half a mile and 3:30 ahead of you. Think of any big story from the past few months, we'll say Sony dumping the 20-gig PS3 or Microsoft extending the warranty on the 360.

Boy, I couldn't disagree more, and here's why. I'm not sure how far in advance magazines like T&T are written before they end up in stores, but I'm sure it's at least several weeks. Compare that to game news sites that post news stories sometimes within hours or even minutes of their release. For the most part I don't go searching very hard for videogame news; we have several users here on DP who post news in the forums, plus big stories usually end up on sites like Digg or Slashdot. Within a day or two, most news stories become old news stories. When I see them pop up a month or two later in a magazine, I'm immediately reminded as to how behind the magazine is.

What I'M looking for in a magazine is quality and depth in writing that you're not likely to find on the web. Being a writer for a magazine gives you (I assume) a certain amount of clout. It's going to get you those pre-release games and access to people to interview that those of us simply writing "for the web" don't have access to. Those are the things I expect to see in a magazine. Good, in depth, articles and interviews.

And yeah, like GRG said, "me writing for them."

[DreamTR]

Tips & Tricks had around a 6 week leadtime, which was even longer awhile back. Imagine trying to get reviewable games to coincide with their release dates on store shelves from companies for strategy guides during THAT time!

[JSoup]

"Rumor: Nintendo Power Shutting Down"

Source: http://wii.ign.com/articles/788/788281p1.html

May 14, 2007 - Hot on the heels of the news last week that Nintendo of America was planning to move a significant chunk of its marketing and sales departments from Seattle to either San Francisco or New York, IGN has learned that the company may be planning to close or restructure its official Nintendo Power magazine. Sources close to the publication tell IGN that mass layoffs are underway and that employees are being told to look for new work by September of this year.

Calls placed to Nintendo of America for comment went unanswered in time for publish.

Founded in 1988, Nintendo Power magazine has over the years faced an emerging threat from game-focused websites, which have the means to provide more timely news, previews, reviews, walkthroughs and cheats. Even so, the publication has maintained a loyal subscriber base.

Without an official confirmation one way or the other, we're still in rumor territory, but what is undeniable at this point is that the magazine is either undergoing a rebirth of some kind or is on its last legs. Some insiders have suggested that Nintendo Power will continue on, but will be published by a third party source.

IGN will continue to follow the story and update readers with more information as it becomes available.

Recently, the NSider forums were shut down due to some kind of 'update'. Maybe these two events are connected?

[Mayhem]

Given Future US are now going to be publishing Nintendo Power, perhaps they will host the accompanying forums instead (or be linked together?).

[Aussie2B]

Recently, the NSider forums were shut down due to some kind of 'update'. Maybe these two events are connected?

Maybe Dan Owsen just had a second nervous breakdown. :P

[Rob2600]

Maybe Dan Owsen just had a second nervous breakdown.

Did he have a first one? What is his role at Nintendo these days?

[suppafly]

After the whole Nintendo Power drama a few months ago, it seems another magazine is about to hit the grave.

Sorry for being so uninformed...but can you give me more details about that NP "drama" please? Im veri curious to know

thanks

edit: already found that out.. thanks

[Ed Oscuro]

But if what you want is mostly news and reviews and are online, why do you care if there are ANY print game magazines?
If there were a "highbrow" journal of games criticism/discussion/interviews, I might care. We're a ways off from that at the moment, though, and there aren't any electronic readers that compete with paper. Even given how heavy magazines can get when you keep a lot of them around (I lately picked up a lot of '90s Forbes issues, many of which had some gaming-related news bits; those were heavy!), nothing beats paper quite yet.

I feel reasonably certain that advertising on the web is here to stay this time. Will it allow review sites to build up to the quality and credibility level of a news magazine? I don't know...people don't like to pay for things on the 'net, and many of the papers that force you to pay to view their archives or blogs are rethinking that policy.

I believe the NYT recently made its "extra" content free, partly because they realized they were losing out on a lot of readers; plus the 'net is a great place for editorials to gain a following. It seems pretty clear to me that any review site worth its salt will facilitate user discussion. I'd rather not see the minimalist (and sometimes minimally informative - "details after the jump") pattern Kotaku and Joystiq often fall into where the focus ends up being on whatever flame war is starting up in the comments.

Finally, a comparison - I'm not a reader of them, but I wonder how magazines devoted to cinema are doing right now.

[Aussie2B]

Did he have a first one? What is his role at Nintendo these days?

I'm mainly just joking. :P Back around '99 or so, when Nsider was a BBS, Dan Owsen was in charge of it (he also had that "Ask Dan" column), and he really didn't have the tolerance level for idiocy to be an administrator. One day he got so fed up with some members being unruly that he threw a fit and shut down the entire BBS. Nintendo didn't want to explain why it was gone or if they'd ever put it back up, and eventually they put up a little blip about how the BBS was "indefinitely" down. Years later they finally created the current forums, and supposedly Dan Owsen is in charge once again.

I'm not really sure how strong of a role he has at Nintendo these days, but it definitely doesn't appear to be as significant as back in the '90s when he was flying to Japan to work with Miyamoto, localizing A Link to the Past, doing the cheesy voice in Super Metroid, writing for Nintendo Power, working on Nintendo's web site, appearing in their promotional videos, etc.

[spoon]

Wow, truly sad.

My friend recently handed me the 150th issue, (which I had no clue was to be the last), and told me I had to check it out. Always reading issues from front to back, I was pleasantly surprised to to Dr. Kunkel's name, and sad to not see Joe's. I was also sad to find out that Collectors closet was gone.

After my initial reactions I was truly blown away. I must say that that issue was truly worth it's weight in words. So much quality and content. Loved the Arcade piece. I loved every minute of it. I could not beileve that it was the same T&T that I had dismissed as "just codebook with some stuff tacked on".

I feel that may have been the general perception of the mag also. Honestly, I just wonder what the book, as well as the web site. could have become. Also, those ideas for the website would have been a great improvement over what I last saw 2 years ago.

Content I myself would like to see in mags:

1. Articles and content geared towards/written by adults.
2. Articles written with a love/passion for gaming as a lifestyle.
2. Reviews written by someone with a small knowledge/love of said games and their genre.
3. Interviews with questions that are a little different from the norm.
4. No tacked on cover ads or "advertorial" ads.
5. Game coverage of games that are solid but not hyped.

I myself really like Play magazine. Reviews seem to be written by peeps that have a knowledge of games and their genre. Games that are covered usually are not normal fodder for other mags.

XBN was another good mag that got canned.

[Rob2600]

I'm mainly just joking. :P Back around '99 or so, when Nsider was a BBS, Dan Owsen was in charge of it (he also had that "Ask Dan" column), and he really didn't have the tolerance level for idiocy to be an administrator. One day he got so fed up with some members being unruly that he threw a fit and shut down the entire BBS. ... I'm not really sure how strong of a role he has at Nintendo these days, but it definitely doesn't appear to be as significant as back in the '90s when he was flying to Japan to work with Miyamoto, localizing A Link to the Past, doing the cheesy voice in Super Metroid, writing for Nintendo Power, working on Nintendo's web site, appearing in their promotional videos, etc.

Thanks for the update. I remember ten years ago, he seemed to be one of the bigger people at Nintendo. Now, like Howard Philips, he has vanished into obscurity.

[Blitzwing256]

i wanted to pick up the last couple issues just to see what I missed the last few years, and there were none to be found at my store, I had my friend who works at gamesuck to pcik me up what was left, and he got me 3 copies of a tips and trick mag that was called tips and tricks CODEBOOK, it had harry potter and metroid prime on the cover...I'm a little behind on magainzes...is this the regular magazine or something differnt? I coudln't find an issue number on it..to my understanding 150 would be the final issue?

[Flack]

tips and tricks CODEBOOK, it had harry potter and metroid prime on the cover...I'm a little behind on magainzes...is this the regular magazine or something differnt?

That is something different. The codebooks are still going to be released, the last I heard.

[Rogmeister]

The codebooks are mostly that, just cheats for various systems. They may also have a strategy guide or two but none of the regular columns. I got 2007's in the mail and it had no codes for GameCube or Xbox so I tossed it out.

[Barbarianoutkast85]

That's shitty, I remember when I was in middle school (a decade ago, wow, times goes fast) Tips and Tricks was my favorite magazine, one of my good friends had a subscription and about three or four days after he got it, he'd let me just have it. I think I still have a box of them someplace in the attic back home. I'm not 100% sure but it would be great if someone could clear this up for me but, did Tips and Tricks have a classic gaming page, or column??? Maybe I'm thinking of the Gamestop/EBgames magazine, I dont know. For some reason I thought tips and tricks did as well.

[j_factor]

The codebooks are mostly that, just cheats for various systems. They may also have a strategy guide or two but none of the regular columns. I got 2007's in the mail and it had no codes for GameCube or Xbox so I tossed it out.

That's strange they got rid of Gamecube and Xbox so quickly. I remember seeing a Codebook in like, 2002, and it still had Playstation, N64, and even Saturn (albeit only like two pages) in it, and also the original Game Boy and Game Gear.

[boatofcar]

If America put half as much time and effort into their gaming magazines as the UK does, they'd be in a much better situation. I mean, just a casual thumb through Retro Gamer or Games^TM shows an attention to the layout and an artistic sense that I've never seen in a US gaming magazine. The writing is also more mature as well. You can be a successful magazine without targeting the lowest common denominator--just ask The New Yorker.

EDIT: Let it be known that I hate The New Yorker, as most of the stuff in there is ultra-pretentious crap. I subscribed and read every issue for a year just to make sure there was nothing I was missing out on. However, I think it's a good example of a magazine that tries to give its authors a pretty long leash as far as length and subject matter goes, and the art direction is also very well done.

[Lothars]

If America put half as much time and effort into their gaming magazines as the UK does, they'd be in a much better situation. I mean, just a casual thumb through Retro Gamer or Games^TM shows an attention to the layout and an artistic sense that I've never seen in a US gaming magazine. The writing is also more mature as well. You can be a successful magazine without targeting the lowest common denominator--just ask The New Yorker.

EDIT: Let it be known that I hate The New Yorker, as most of the stuff in there is ultra-pretentious crap. I subscribed and read every issue for a year just to make sure there was nothing I was missing out on. However, I think it's a good example of a magazine that tries to give its authors a pretty long leash as far as length and subject matter goes, and the art direction is also very well done.

Honestly the best gaming magazine was canceled anyway which was GFW but since it was canceled I just don't buy almost any gaming magazines, been interested in the Edge but can't justify the pricing on it. but I think it's also dissapointment because of GFW cancellation.

Whoops - I didn't realize that boatofcars post was from october last year, oops :)

[rbudrick]

Man, Lothars, way to kick a dead thread a bout a dead magazine from their graves! Two birds, one stone! ;)

-Rob