Comments on: Games mags in a coma

By: Karl

Karl — Thu, 20 May 2010 00:08:43 +0000

Hi Stuart. The game is finally done. Some coverage would be nice – you can get the game here – http://myfreefilehosting.com/f/88aaf99d18_6.25MB

By: Karl

Karl — Thu, 13 May 2010 09:57:43 +0000

Cheers!

I will keep you informed.

By: RevStu

RevStu — Wed, 12 May 2010 17:54:10 +0000

Sadly the screenshot doesn't seem to work, but the game sounds fantastic. Keep me updated and I'll be sure to give it some coverage.

By: Karl

Karl — Wed, 12 May 2010 13:47:23 +0000

Funnily enough, I am making a game about the rise and fall of print games journalism at the moment, and then I stumble on this.
Taken from an email I sent to another games journo, asking for advice -
It's going to tell the history of the rise and fall of print games journalism. Every decade will have a game for the player to play and review, a pisstake of a major game of the time.

Between these things the game will play more like an RPG, where your character has to try and cope with increasingly worse working conditions and prospects whilst witnessing the birth of 'new games journalism'

Currently the plan is for the game to end with a Seaside Special-easque level where the main character snaps and collects up radioactive dogshit and then throws it at Kieron Gillen's house.

I was getting advice as I intend to fully lampoon the Driv3rgate scandal but don't really wish to get sued. Oh, and the mag in question takes most of its influence from CVG.
A very early screenshot is here – http://bedroomcoder.wordpress.com/2010/05/11/a-new-upcoming-game/

By: Shapey Fiend

Shapey Fiend — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 01:21:25 +0000

Edge sales being (mostly) flat is kind of crazy. I never understood the point of the massively expensive demo disk magazines in the first place but even then the drop-off in sales is kind of mind boggling. They probably have more editorial (as opposed to news and copy-paste press releases) than any other magazine though so maybe the publishers will tune into that side of things from now on.

By: Lenny

Lenny — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 22:42:44 +0000

Magazines now are completely devoid of character and personality. Not to put too fine a point on it, they are almost entirely half-arsed, featuring boring reviews, boring features and ill-informed opinion.
I blame Edge and the Internet. But mostly Edge. Edge was always up it's own arse when it came to games, treating the subject not as an instrument of fun but one of tedious discussion about "art". Sadly everybody else in the games magazine business thought the po-faced, egg sucking was a good thing and got "serious".
Without much doubt the internet has been a game changer in publishing, especially in terms of information delivery – I remember buying Mean Machines expressly to read the preview of SoR2 and devour the screen grabs, that couldn't possibly happen now – but that's no excuse for the "vanilla", offend no-one, say nothing controversial, boring as piety tripe that gets printed now.

By: Game Retail Store » GameSetLinks: From The Alpha To The Omikron

Game Retail Store » GameSetLinks: From The Alpha To The Omikron — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 09:25:37 +0000

[...] WoSblog: Weird or Standard? » Blog Archive » Games mags in a coma Presumably to be sung to Morrissey/Smiths? But sad [...]

By: Dan

Dan — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 01:16:57 +0000

Shame about the magazines, but considering I've not felt the need to buy one in such a long time I suppose it's not too surprising. Most of them were crap and overpriced anyway. If a lot of old geeks are doing the same it was bound to have its impact (but still hits home when the 125,000 to 11,914 drop is pointed out).

Reminds me of the same sort of dismay, shock and surprise people have when the old shops and town centres all die off after ASDAs/Walmarts (and other similar massive suppliers) open up outside of town, but then continue to ignore that town centre anyway. As if someone else is supposed to take up the responsibility and cost of keeping these things alive for nostalgia's (or some kind of guilty conscience?) sake so they can carry on with their more convenient and cheaper way. Like a museum.

Those circulation figures would have been certain death for many of the old magazines I used to read (I'm sure some of the old Amiga ones were closed with less than that). It is a wonder that they are still going with those numbers. Perhaps many of those old magazines were closed prematurely if they can somehow squeeze profit out of those ones with lower numbers? Still, I can't think of much I will miss that was not already long gone before I gave up on them, so I'm happy enough if they free up WHSmith shelf space for the hobby and wank mags. Boring and/or untrustworthy reviews (when you can see the YouTube videos and get opinions first hand from thousands it seems pointless to take the risk on being misled by a reviewer again), old news, old demos and bland articles…eventually there doesn't seem any point paying six quid or so for something old or uninteresting when there's so much out there I've not read or seen yet.

By: Nathan

Nathan — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 13:04:11 +0000

Nevermind, dug them up myself:

Edge – 29007 (flat) (compares second half 2008 with 2009 average)
GamesTM – 20013 (down 8%) (full year numbers)

By: Nathan

Nathan — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 12:55:08 +0000

As well as being a result of declining interest in the print media, the decline in ngamer’s figures might be attributable to an increased dissatisfaction with Nintendo as a whole within the core gaming community. Nintendo’s primary demographic don’t want to read specialist games media anymore than I’m going to buy Empire regularly. Many longtime Nintendo fans have just stopped to be such and aren’t interested in the platforms any more (it’s trivial to cite sales of titles such as Dead Space: Extraction here).

Have the figures for Edge/gamesTM been released?