Tips & Tricks no more??!

[GizmoGC]

I loved the Collectors Closet and Japan report....thats all I really looked out.

[PentiumMMX]

I'm guilty of not paying for a game mag since the 90's. As much as some of you are slamming gamefaqs, they have an edge over "professional" game sites: user generated content. With no deadlines to worry about, users can take months to make sure their guides cover every feature in a game.

The vast vast majority of game mag guides/official strat guides just aren't in-depth enough. With the exception of some DoubleJump guides, I have ALWAYS found errors / missing info. It's not always the fault of the authors: they have to rush these guides to market in very short time periods, so it's no suprise that things are left out, but it's still damn sloppy. What I'd give to get ultimania guides translated!

With guides out of the way, the only thing mags can offer are features / news. sites like kotaku get me game news much faster than a game mag could. So that leaves features. Currently Mags seem to have the best features, but it's only a matter of time until they're antiques. the move to 1up.com is probably the smartest move Ziff could've made. It'll only be a matter of time before EGM is phased out.

The only reason I've picked up mags in the last 5-10 years has been for demo discs, so if sites like 1up.com could work deals out with the companies, I'd be happy to pay a fee for exclusive features / demo discs mailed to me. I think that this is where the future of game publishing is.

Yeah. Official guides tend to have missing info (*coughOfficialGuideForKingdomHearts*), but the guides on GameFAQs (And sometimes other sites) will have the info. I'm working on my own guide for Zelda: Link's Awakening DX (And also a guide for Zelda: Ocarina of Time, but it's not online yet), and even with the lack of pictures, I still think I wrote a good guide (Expecially since the other guides have huge walls of text, while mine is broken into multiple paragraphs)

[swlovinist]

I liked the collectors closet....but it wasnt enough. I am still looking for a mag that writes to me. GI is the closest. EGM is bad these days. Mark another one up in the growing casualities this year.

[BillKunkel]

I liked the collectors closet....but it wasnt enough. I am still looking for a mag that writes to me. GI is the closest. EGM is bad these days. Mark another one up in the growing casualities this year.

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. What are the subjects, categories, whatever of that the magazines aren't catering to? Do you feel sites like Gamespot speak to your interests?

Thanks for participating in this poll.

[Flack]

Several members will likely come to your defense here, and they may be right in what they say. But that isn't the point. The point is the PERCEPTION you've achieved OUTSIDE of DP, not the reality of what goes on. And incidents like don't help that perception. With all that being said, Mods are welcome to ban this Username and IP now too. I won't be needing them. Time to go sit in the corner and think about what I've done.

Not to (further) derail this thread, but if the PERCEPTION OUTSIDE of DP is that the mods here don't put up with moronic behavior and that keeps people away who are afraid of a forum that doesn't put up with stupid bullshit ... I can live with that.

For every dopey message like this that gets posted in the forums I get 10 PM's thanking us for cleaning up the forums.

[DreamTR]

The majority of gamers these days want the following (not necessarily in this order)

News
Reviews

These are two things Tips did not provide, but they genuinely attached themselves to the needs of a niche crouwd that wanted strategy guides at a much cheaper than $15 Brady and Prima book rate, "bang for your buck" so to speak.

However, and I have been feeling this way for years. Take the strategy guides out and the codes along (as a regular codebook) will sell just the same. Fact is people just weren't reading the magazine anymore, and the majority of people that used to read it have no idea what the content is like anymore.

I like to see reviews on new products, Japan Report, things like that. Pencil Puzzles were cool, and at one time this magazine was the number one video game magazine at Wal-Mart (who is notoriously family friendly), but it was in the best interests of the "suits" to decide that where your revenue comes from (ads), you need to give away to the "kid" look of the magazine, which iis precisely why it was selling so well in the first place. Since then, it's been kind of a hybrid of all sorts of things making it difficult to figure out the magazine's direction.

[swlovinist]

I would love to see a magazine have some balls and review a game without the "shielding" that goes on these days. It is convenient that many so so titles get reviewed a month after the game is released, after 75% of the public has gone out and has decided for themselves to buy it or not. I guess I am looking for a magazine that has more umph than what is provided. Too much of current magazines is advertisement and fluff, not to mention reviewers that admit that they dont or havent played the original of a series before reviewing the "sequel" or "remake". I dont want half baked comic book strips. I dont want cooperate tie-ins that cover up how bad games are really. I dont want reviews that are biased. I have always liked the number system EGM used, but ablosluetly loathed when the went to the "gamer discussion" review mode. Like DreamTR, I want news, and reviews. Even an early opinion on games in development I think would be helpful. I just think that many of the rags today are kind of lost on who their audience should be.

[bangtango]

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. What are the subjects, categories, whatever of that the magazines aren't catering to? Do you feel sites like Gamespot speak to your interests?

Thanks for participating in this poll.

Things that appeal to me:

1. A free/bonus disc (demo disc for a specific system or content for your PC).

2. Game reviews that are more than a couple of sentences or a few numbers.

3. Exclusive interviews with game developers or company heads that can't be found on your web site or other people's web sites. I mean an interview where readers don't see it until the magazine hits the newsstands, as opposed to having all of the good "quotes" leaked a day or two after it is really done.

4. Some regular acknowledgement of homebrew or independent efforts and reviews of Japanese imports (instead of just advance previews or a couple of screen shots).

[FVJVMVP]

I saw the same article and it said that 149 may be the last issue. That turned out to be bull since I recieved a sadly Collector's Closet-less 150th issue at my front door. Still, I think the termination of T&T is plausible, if not imminate.

Too bad, I would've liked to see it's 200th issue

[slapdash]

No, it's done. I've been talking with Chris Bieniek, and 150 is the last issue.

[BillKunkel]

No, it's done. I've been talking with Chris Bieniek, and 150 is the last issue.

T&T has been officially cancelled as of several weeks ago but will continue to issue the Codebooks (mostly the cheat stuff) for the immediate future. I'm not totally sure what the schedule will be but it may be simply a methiod to clear up the outstanding subscriptions.

It's interesting that the two things I hear referenced with regard to what people want in a magazine are news and reviews, neither of which T&T did. When I came on board late last year, I saw no reason to add either since the game sites, while much less dependable in many cases from a journalistic perspective, provide news MONTHS before the magazines can. I could see no reason to compete in this area, just as I felt more reviews were the last thing in the world gamers needed, especially given the lead time issue. Instead, we expanded the Previews section where at least we weren't being squashed by our lead time.

Game journalism has now reached a point where game companies are literally evicting online journalists from press events before demo'ing their game(s) and the print people have to sign NDAs to embargo their coverage until the company's approved date.

I have always believed in "Dirty" Harry Callahan's maxim that "a man [or magazine] has to know his [or its] limitations." So in making over T&T I went for areas that weren't being given extensive coverage elsewhere -- game schools, pro gaming, how to get a job in the business, etc. Game-wise, we also gave the most extensive coverage of Shadowrun of any magazine (as I recall, EGM couldn't decide whether they liked the game or not when they got to play it close to deadline and wrote that they would wait a month before deciding, eventually giving it a thumbs up).

But if what you want is mostly news and reviews and are online, why do you care if there are ANY print game magazines?

Again, thanks for the input, tho I'm intrigued by the fact that than no one responded to the question as to whether the top game sites do a good job of satisfying your wants and needs.

[bangtango]

T&T has been officially cancelled as of several weeks ago but will continue to issue the Codebooks (mostly the cheat stuff) for the immediate future. I'm not totally sure what the schedule will be but it may be simply a methiod to clear up the outstanding subscriptions.

It's interesting that the two things I hear referenced with regard to what people want in a magazine are news and reviews, neither of which T&T did. When I came on board late last year, I saw no reason to add either since the game sites, while much less dependable in many cases from a journalistic perspective, provide news MONTHS before the magazines can. I could see no reason to compete in this area, just as I felt more reviews were the last thing in the world gamers needed, especially given the lead time issue. Instead, we expanded the Previews section where at least we weren't being squashed by our lead time.

Game journalism has now reached a point where game companies are literally evicting online journalists from press events before demo'ing their game(s) and the print people have to sign NDAs to embargo their coverage until the company's approved date.

I have always believed in "Dirty" Harry Callahan's maxim that "a man [or magazine] has to know his [or its] limitations." So in making over T&T I went for areas that weren't being given extensive coverage elsewhere -- game schools, pro gaming, how to get a job in the business, etc. Game-wise, we also gave the most extensive coverage of Shadowrun of any magazine (as I recall, EGM couldn't decide whether they liked the game or not when they got to play it close to deadline and wrote that they would wait a month before deciding, eventually giving it a thumbs up).

But if what you want is mostly news and reviews and are online, why do you care if there are ANY print game magazines?

Again, thanks for the input, tho I'm intrigued by the fact that than no one responded to the question as to whether the top game sites do a good job of satisfying your wants and needs.

I'll give you my honest opinion as a (video game) print magazine reader since 1987 or so.

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. I agree that a large percentage of the readers you would cater to may have already read it online or heard it from a friend. However, you can not assume that everyone who makes up your target audience knows this stuff.

A man has to know his limitations and I don't have all day to read news on Gamespot, Kotaku or most other sites. A decent magazine condenses all of the important stories into one print publication and you'll find these stories spread throughout the magazine. When looking for news online, I usually have to try several sources to get one simple piece of information or wade through a ton of stories I don't care about just to get stuff I want. So the only news I ever get on the industry are from these forums or print magazines because I just don't have the time and energy to surf all of the major gaming sites. I'm a busy guy during the week. Getting a lot of the "good stuff" I really need to know in a magazine saves me a lot of time web surfing and is more convenient, even if I am reading "news" that is a few weeks old.

[JSoup]

I'm curious as to if a collected work of the old Arcade Brigade strip will be produced. I'm sure there is a little money to be made there.

Outside of that, I never really got T&T after I got an internet connection. Although, I did start buying them when Pencil Puzzles started running. It's like Picross for dummies.

[j_factor]

Tips & Tricks did do some news at one point. I still have an old issue somewhere in my house, from early '99, that had a section titled something like "Last Minute Gaming Information". That particular issue had a lot of information about Dreamcast -- including some things that weren't mentioned on other gaming news sources -- as well as some info on PSX games and a little bit of N64. It wasn't much (like two pages), but it was nice, because it seemed like an "alternative press" of gaming, due to the stuff that I wasn't hearing about anywhere else. Aside from that, of course, there was always some news in the Japan Report.

I really liked the Cool Zone section of T&T. Now that is something you don't really see on game sites -- Pac-Men (ramen), Parappa "high tech" plushes, crazy crap like that. Maybe I'm even more of a nerd than everyone else, but I love seeing that kind of stuff.

So, to answer Bill's question, what do I want in a gaming mag? Well, for starters, what T&T had -- mini strategy guides, previews, Q&A/letters (which is a given), Cool Zone. The guides and cool zone are two great things that no other mag offered. I don't really care about cheats, and especially in the age of the internet it's probably unnecessary to have cheats in a magazine. But the guides weren't like guides that you get on GameFAQs, and I think those guides were probably the #1 thing that kept T&T afloat for as long as it was.

You know, T&T had these things that I liked, and yet I wasn't subscribed to it.... I guess it just never compelled me. To be fair, I've never paid for a magazine subscription in my life. Cheapness may be part of it. I think T&T could've been improved by having more writing -- it had a great staff, and I really liked whatever bits of writing it had. Maybe the more recent issues have addressed that; I must confess I haven't paid attention to it for a couple years.

I would like a magazine with some really in-depth informational articles, similar to Hardcore Gaming 101. Even though that's a site that offers such articles for free, I would probably pay for a magazine with that kind of writing. That might only be useful for a magazine dedicated to classic gaming, though... I would also like to seem some really analytical writing, similar to Insert Credit, but perhaps less crazy. IC-style reviews in a magazine would be interesting too, although they wouldn't be able to be timely. Interviews are also great, even though everybody does interviews.

Another feature I think would be very interesting would be an in-depth look at a canceled game. But, again, that may only be appropriate for a classic gaming mag.

Maybe classic gaming nuts aren't the right people to ask about what would be good in a gaming magazine.

[RetroYoungen]

In response to your question Bill, I'm also one who'd like to see some obscure information in a magazine. Not just reviews and previews and news and what every other publication can offer, but something that makes it stand out... maybe a little bit more on what's going on gaming-wise in Japan, reviews of obscure games (like bing the mag to discover Katamari Damacy or something equally as... strange, yet lovable), commentary as to how the industry might evolve in the near (or distant) future by people involved in it, or more about weird-ass (yeah, I said it) game-related memorabilia...

Basically what everyone else DOESN'T cover. Even covering a fun new arcade game would be something worth reading, given the scene as of late. Try to stimulate the arcades in some way once again (like the article in 150, "The Coolest Arcades In America", which I thoroughly enjoyed. Gotta love the freelancers!). I definately think the diverse array of new articles was a good way to go, as it offered a taste of something different. It made T&T stand out more in my eyes.

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?

[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.

[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?