…wherein I discuss the need for games journalists at every level — but especially those just starting out, i.e. me — to start brainstorming utterly fantastic ways by which the glory of magazines could be transferred to electronic media. Because, gosh darn it, all the ideas we’ve currently got lack fantasticness.
A bit of background:
For the past three months, I’ve been working on my MQP — WPI terminology for “senior thesis.” It’s my second (my first was awesome, but it doesn’t apply here), and it’s been a pain.
Behold! 'Tis a checklist.
To be fair, I picked my topic. In fact, I basically designed the entire project. I love gaming magazines, and I figured that if I could get academic credit for making one, well, that would be fairly awesome. So I outlined a project that had me researching five major gaming magazines (EGM, GamePro, Game Informer, Edge, and PC Gamer), giving me a nice balance of demographics, design styles, content, et cetera. I would quantify (read: make a neat little checklist of) every element that I could find in each and put them together into a pretty little graph. That way, my rhetorically-minded Professor could giggle with glee at my nice, categorized findings, and I could be spending time tossing this and that together into my own little prototype.
I was quite proud of myself and the project I designed. The thing is, it was pretty stupid. I really had no concept of where the gaming magazine industry was.
I did not, for instance, comprehend the business side of magazine distribution, or the fact that if a magazine’s publisher isn’t burning money in what amounts to a really big furnace out back, then it doesn’t matter how awesome your editorial staff is or how sweet your design looks. The level of fail will be immesurable with all but the very biggest of teaspoons. You know why. Magazines are dying.
Granted, as someone who wants, really badly, to make a gaming magazine of uberness, seeing the writing on the proverbial wall took some help. Jeff Green and Dan Hsu had to shout from the rooftops of their respective blogs before I understood why magazines just won’t work, and how truly immaterial my senior thesis really was. Saying that it was rather sobering is something of an understatement.
Fortunately, listening to the first episode of A Life Well Wasted reminded me of the levels of awesome to which gaming magazines can aspire. Once in a while, we could all use reminers of why we love what we love, and hearing the illustrious alumni of EGM (which could best be described as the soul of games journalism) recall why they first got into the industry was as cathartic as its state is depressing.
I’ve already gone back through my thesis once and reshaped it, explaning why the heck I’m still working towards a prototype of a magazine when magazines are creaking their ways through retirement homes with pictures of their electronic grandsons in their pockets. But the fact is, though I’ll graduate in May with a hefty discussion of the valuable qualities of print under my belt, I’m joining the ranks of the many who are decrying the medium.
It’s a sad day, because like the many tens of thousands out there who grew up reading GamePro, PC Gamer, and EGM, I adore print. I love the smell of a new issue in my hands as I’m flipping through the pages. I love the rich color and shiny gloss. And, more than anything, I love (and miss!) the quality. I’m sick and tired of websites that are pimping the Top 10 Nude Babes of Gaming next to their not-so-in-depth feature on the Most Awesomest Titles of Who Gives a Damn. Where the heck are the columns? Where are the quality letters that aren’t buried in comments sections next to ZoobityBop_Bob and his recitations on the glory of That Game He Played Last Night? Where’s the top-notch iPhone integration so I can read on the go, just like I used to do with magazines?
Sure, if you happen to be reading this and know of sites that are eschewing quantity for quality, let me know and I’ll send them my resume. But are my perceptions wrong? Is it not the case that 9 sites out of 10 are appealing to the lowest common denominator, and journalists who are in my position need to start thinking up some new ideas? Magazines offer quality, reliability, and a level of respectability that most sites just don’t have. I know I’m not the only one who wants to see that come to the web.
Oh, and I could use a good reason to keep working my butt off on this thesis. Anyone? You’re going to need to shout, the crickets can get pretty loud.
Tags: A Life Well Wasted, Dan Hsu, EGM, Games Journalism, Jeff Green