EGM, Who Cares
Um, hey, remember when Hecht's closed in Maryland? What a watershed moment. I mean not really, department stores have gone the way of the typewriter.
Now we're seeing everyone crying and moaning about the demise of 1up/EGM. While I would concur that the sale to UGO pretty much kills what redeeming value 1UP had (none), the fact that the print magazine is going out isn't shocking.
I love all the stories about this magazine as it was some sort of holy grail. The magazine sucked. It was tough to even call it journalism.
The epitome of print writing has to be 1982's Electronic Games Magazine -- not the retread of the 90s -- that was written/edited by Arnie Katz, Bill Kunkel and Joyce Worley. They never wrote down to their audience and wrote about games in a time when it was truly a niche industry.
I still remember the review of Defender for the 2600 -- something to the effect of Sound the Alarm -- Atari has released it's best game since Missile Command! That was all I needed to buy that game (remember when games were $30 each)...and boy I couldn't wait to go to Almacs grocery store to pick up that magazine.
In the late 80s GamePro came about, but that was just something to pass the time in the bathroom. Then another magazine came along -- maybe it was EGM -- I can't remember, but it was horribly written. Ugh.
I was more disappointed about the demise of Computer Gaming World than EGM. I was more disappointed about Next Generation. Of course, seeing print gaming pubs go away is sad, but putting this magazine up as the Holy Grail of gaming is blasphemy, especially when compared to Electronic Games.
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Dan:
January 8th, 2009 - 03:06
As a regular reader of this blog, I’m very disappointed by the classlessness of this post. How about some compassion for the people who were just hoisted unceremoniously from their vocation?
Also, if you’d read EGM more often, perhaps you’d know the difference between “its” and “it’s” and wouldn’t use comma splices. However, that’s neither here nor there…
January 8th, 2009 - 06:59
People lose their jobs every day in every industry. It is an awful thing. I’ve been there multiple times in the gaming industry. In fact, I would say that the way these guys were dumped was the norm and actually they knew it was coming because let’s face it, ZD was sinking.
The outpouring of “oh my god” is funny to me. I don’t see how this magazine is the holy grail of gaming. I prefer Game Informer to EGM. EGM’s reviews are not great, just because they stole a Japanese gaming mag’s idea of 3 reviews per game doesn’t make it great. And to say EGM is the best magazine ever in gaming is just complete fable.
As far as my grammatical errors, this is a blog — unedited. I’m posting my thoughts and comments as they come in. If I’m writing a review, believe me, I edit it, my editor edits it and so forth.
And for the record, I’m one of the 600K that subscribe to the magazine. I will miss it. I am sorry for the loss of the jobs. I am just amazed at the outpouring about the loss of the magazine.
January 8th, 2009 - 12:18
I’m numb to it – it was CGM being killed while still healthy that hurt me.
January 8th, 2009 - 13:41
There is still PCGamer. Heh so much for PC gaming being dead.
January 8th, 2009 - 15:18
I was a big EGM fan myself, have been reading the mag for over 15 years, and back before the internet generation getting my new issue was euphoric. I will miss it.
January 9th, 2009 - 12:07
http://www.eat-sleep-game.com/news/2009/01/08/as-promised-episode-1-of-rebelfm/
Enjoy.