A modern version of the Frank Zappa quote:
"Rock journalism is people who can't write interviewing people who can't talk for people who can't read."
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Yeah. We know.
Their only purpose at their height was walkthroughs and cheats for games, of which many of them did provide a pretty great benefit. Especially in the pre and early internet era where you couldn't access anything like that otherwise.
They have had no use since, and any use they might have could be achieved by a random nobody on youtube doing the same task.
Back in the beginning they were the only form of contact for like minded people. In Australia in the 80's we would order from British C64 sellers from C&VG - would take months for the games to arrive - but the anticipation ...my god ...those there were the days
I'll be honest I still miss honest to god level maps sometimes. Sure you can just watch someone run through the level on Youtube now, but having that top-down map with all the items and encounters clearly marked out was nice to have, and you only really got that from magazines or player's guides. GameFAQs never could quite compete on that front.
I was a prolific buyer of game guides for that very reason. Gamefaqs has better guides for actually accomplishing tasks because its written by mostly regular autistic players instead of professionals.
But the guides are always full of easy to read maps and appendixes that are just so nice to have on hand. And usually filled with nice art to fill in the spaces and give it SOVL. Shit I used to read guides for games I didn't own, just because there was something so magical about them.
The magazine versions were basically watered down versions of that. It was rare you got one for a game you actually owned due to their random nature, but when you did it was wonderful. I still have one for Brave Fencer Mushashi I managed to snag.
I remember the player's guide for Secret of Mana being like that. It was formatted as a narrative as much as a guide, which served to help flesh out the story a bit. The artwork though, dear god the artwork was just a treat. Every chapter had a bunch of beautiful illustrations of all the various forms of the weapons. That guide just made that whole game feel like so much more than it was.
Honestly, a good guide could elevate a bland game into something way above what it actually was.
Its why to this day I usually play most games with one open, even if the guides themselves are boring text only Gamefaqs stuff. It just feels natural to do because for a time it was the dessert on top of games.
Yea. I used to get gaming magazines all the time. I started noticing something off when I noticed an obsession with getting women in gaming because I knew women who were into games but also knew that men generally played certain games a lot more so that seemed odd
From what I hear PC Gamer didn't always stand for Politically Correct Gamer.
Gone are the days of Nintendo Power. A magazine about vidya for vidya lovers (and how to beat certain games that were literally impossible otherwise unless by brute force autism)
Nintendo Power was 100% a paid subscription to have advertising delivered to your home.
But it was still awesome.
Journalism in general is people who don't know anything about the topic, interviewing people who don't know anything about the topic (and/or paid PR critters), for people who don't know anything about the topic.
Also, https://www.epsilontheory.com/gell-mann-amnesia/
Dave Barry described his early worm as a reporter. He was assigned sewage politics and interviewed big names in his local industry. He fully admits to never having a clue on the subject.
It wasn't always like this.
One of the earliest pulitzer prizes was given to the lefty goon that simped for stalin and helped to cover up the Holodomor - Walter Duranty of the New York Times. The spanish american war was instigated by the newspapers with false and sensationalized headlines, which worked to force the US from an isolationist nation to a colonial power with all of the expansion of federal power and meaningless sacrifices of american lives that entailed.
Relevance to Gaming Journalism>?
Once journalists infiltrated gaming publications and drove out the enthusiasts, we ended up with the same situation. They just lie and lie and lie.
The only difference is that lies of gaming journalists are less destructive than the lies of the New York Times.
You've both gone off on a tangent. Go and find some Gaming Mags from the 80's and 90's - you won't find a woke comment - it was all about the games. Hence - "It wasn't always like this". I think Infocom Adventures have a better parse function than you 2
Narrator: It was always like that.
games journalism is low-level contract work for the game's industry marketing departments.
modern games are progressive netflix scripts sprayed all over an Unreal 1st person shooter default demo framework like hot piss.
gamers are filthy, pedo furries arguing about which version of sonic is fastest, over and over, forever.
Burgers?
That's fucking stupid.