EGM Closes, 1up sold to UGO

[The 1 2 P]

And notice that the other two magazines I mentioned are being ignored in the argument. Selective rebuttal is so much fun.

I tease.

I was about to ask how someone who's been here for 5 years only has 7 post. But then I realized it's an alternate account.

[shaggy]

Consider yourself lucky. I've had to watch as my subscriptions to Next Generation, Incite Gamer, OPM, PSM, Tips and Tricks and now EGM all went up in smoke. My only subscriptions left are OXM, Play, Game Informer and Gamepro. I let my subscription to Playstation the official magazine expire a few months ago. That mag should be folding before the end of this year.

I liked PSM and than they went and changed to Playstation the official magazine and now it is shit. I actually am on my last issue of it and I am not renewing. I agree that this will probably be the next to go. PSM was awesome before the switch and when they switched they got all new staff and redid the whole magazine and I just don't enjoy it like I did. Kaiser, Justin, and Chris all went to Nintendo Power. I wonder what happened to Bill and everyone else that was on the PSM Team.

[shaggy]

It should've been GamePro that died out. I thought that magazine was pretty good when I was a kid in the early-mid 90s during the fighting game craze, but its been total crap since atleast 2000. And Gamepro's re-design (with the elimination of editor characters, and a complete overhaul of its format) made it lose whatever charm they once had, leaving it as a fifth-rate Game Informer wannabe.

And my beef with Game Informer is that I can't trust them to be objective since they're owned by Gamestop and they're always publishing pics of their editors partying or having dinner with employees from Activision, Sony, or Microsoft.

That's exactly what I thought with Game Pro. When they did there re-design and eliminated the editor characters it made the magazine lose its charm just like you said. I liked it when they had the Pro Tips underneath the screen shots and the heads as there rating system. Now the magazine is just average to me.

[Wolfrider31]

I was about to ask how someone who's been here for 5 years only has 7 post. But then I realized it's an alternate account.

Whoops. Yeah, it's not intentional. I forgot the password to that old account a while ago and then I remembered it again.

[dairugger]

what i hated was when they started making fun of people in the letters section, starting around 01 or so.. you shouldnt belittle your paid subscribers.

[acem77]

Is the final mag up for download yet?
If so any links. i have been searching the blog i do not see it yet.

[The 1 2 P]

what i hated was when they started making fun of people in the letters section, starting around 01 or so.. you shouldnt belittle your paid subscribers.

Unfortunately you really need to get use to this, as pretty much every magazine I have ever subscribed to since 2000(except Play) has done this. I think that game editors consider it a right of passage to mock some of their readers. I actually think it's pretty funny sometimes, like when Game Informer(a few months ago) said they wouldn't have a top 25 Gamecube games special (like they did for the Xbox and PS2 in previous issues) because the Gamecube didn't have 25 good games yet. That shit was hilarious but of course some people thought they were being serious so they wrote in to complain and tell them they were canceling their subscriptions. The issue they ran the complaint letters is the issue they finally did the Gamecube feature, which they were planning all along. But like I said, pretty much all game magazines mock their reader's letters.

[bangtango]

That's exactly what I thought with Game Pro. When they did there re-design and eliminated the editor characters it made the magazine lose its charm just like you said. I liked it when they had the Pro Tips underneath the screen shots and the heads as there rating system. Now the magazine is just average to me.

I have now seen 2 or 3 people in this thread say that they missed the "characters" that used to write for Gamepro.

I find it odd because a large number of people had been criticizing Gamepro for about 15 years for making their writers use fictitious names instead of their real names. That was one of the first things people complained about when they used to talk about the magazine, how all of their writers used phony names.

[Push Upstairs]

Even if the ProTips were lame, and the reviews full of groan inducing puns, at least it made them (good or bad) stand out from other game magazines.

I don't miss "Linoleum Blown Apart", but at least it was silly enough for me to remember 15 years later.

[rbudrick]

I remember talking to one of the writers for Gamepro at E3 99. I asked what the deal was with the fake names, and he shyly said it was "all in fun," or something to that effect. Probably a canned line he didn;t reallt believe, but rather, had to say. But today, I can't help but wonder what business sense it made in reality.

-Rob

[calgon]

If EGM had pulled the plug exactly at issue 100, it would have been the greatest game magazine run. Unfortunately, several editorial and content changes over the years (plus EGM needing to "adapt" to the internet era) drained the soul out of this once great magazine.

I'd still read the newer issues on occasion, epecially during the dreamcast era, where I feel the mag got back on track, but it was obviously not as good.

[bangtango]

I remember talking to one of the writers for Gamepro at E3 99. I asked what the deal was with the fake names, and he shyly said it was "all in fun," or something to that effect. Probably a canned line he didn;t reallt believe, but rather, had to say. But today, I can't help but wonder what business sense it made in reality.

-Rob

Even if the ProTips were lame, and the reviews full of groan inducing puns, at least it made them (good or bad) stand out from other game magazines.

I don't miss "Linoleum Blown Apart", but at least it was silly enough for me to remember 15 years later.

First off, I thought the fake names were clever and I liked them. I also found it funny when Ed Semrad used to take subtle shots at the whole "fake name" thing in EGM's Editor Letter.

I will say this, though........

I bet those fake Gamepro writer names caused stress on more than one occasion after somebody left the magazine and tried to get another job.

Can you freaking imagine putting Gamepro on your resume and sending in samples of your work for the magazine to some other publisher? How the hell is anyone supposed to know the work is really yours?

Sure, a couple of calls to Gamepro's office could verify it. The point I am making, though, is that applying and interviewing for other writing jobs after spending five years writing under a fake name at Gamepro had to be a minor pain in the ass.

"Yeah, my name's Dan Reed. I wrote for Gamepro for ten years.........What do you mean you read the last 30-40 issues and didn't see any of my work? My handle was Mr. Marbles! You say your gonna need proof? Well just call the magazine....."

[Aussie2B]

I would imagine the whole idea behind it is that most major magazines want to present a single voice, and eliminating the individuals behind the writing hides their differences that much more. It's the same logic behind editing articles when there's nothing really wrong with them just to make sure they're consistent with the "sound" of the magazine. It's also why they tell writers to refrain from using "I" and "me" in articles, and sometimes they'll even avoid "us", "we", etc., instead just referring to themselves solely as the title of the magazine to remain a single entity.

Personally, I've always found fake names and cartoon characters to go along with them really childish, and I feel bad for writers that don't get proper recognition for their work. Ideally, I like to see each article credited to the proper person, but if you're not going to do that, then at least put a small credits sidebar at the beginning of the magazine and list everyone involved in its creation, as Nintendo Power used to do (or still does?).

[Jorpho]

I remember waay back when Gamespy reviewers used their nicks, and I thought it added considerably to the site's charm, actually. But I don't think their real names were very deeply hidden.

[Zap!]

Although this sucks and I am upset about it, in all honesty EGM died when Ed Semrad left. Even then it wasn't the same as when the great Steve Harris ran it, with Don Neuart at his side. Kind of like when Captain America and Green Lantern became different people. It was the same in name only.

[ubersaurus]

If anyone was a fan of the 1up Show, it's back!

http://area5.tv/2009/01/21/the-produ...ew-show-co-op/

[ButtonMasher123]

I'll miss this magazine for sure. I used to suscribe to it back in the hey day of the Genesis and the SNES when they were pumping out the monster 400+ page issues.

The sad thing is that I stupidly threw away all my issues about a year and a half ago which was right before the time that I started getting back into video games again. What I wouldn't give to have them back now.

The only thing I have left now is my 1995 buyers guide. Its better than nothing I guess.

[boatofcar]

FYI, the crew at eat-sleep-game.com finally has their stuff together sound quality-wise for episode 3. Thankfully, Retronauts is going to continue without interruption

[Zap!]

Wait a second...I just picked up their final issue, the January 2009 issue. I didn't get to open and read it yet, but nowhere did I read the words "Final Issue" on the cover. Let me get this straight...They didn't even go out in style? WTF!

[makaar]

That really does stink. I have many issues throughout the 90's, and will miss them. RIP EGM