Ahh, now this kind of thing is something I wanted to talk about for a long time. Magazines. Unfortunately they come in many kinds of styles, pretty much like websites. The way they write varies, the way they rate games varies, but ultimately they all have one thing in common and that's that they will write anything for the money.
I used to work for the Greek version of GamePro (yup, there's a Greek GamePro believe it or not) and for the Greek Playstation Magazine and I did some reviews for some PC gaming mag. They were all published by the same company. Anyway, even though most of the news, reviews ect were merely translations of the english and american texts some games were reviewed and the people who worked there I must say weren't gamers (OK maybe one or two and two more PC gaming dudes that were convinced that strategy games have 'depth'). To give and example, the editor of the Playstation magazine (my 'boss') was a woman who didn't even know what a game looked like. Sure I know that this is not the case with american and british magazines but there was this one time when I was assigned to write a review of this stinking PSX game called Koudelka (do I have the spelling correct?). Anyway, the british PSM gave that waste of MB a 3/10, now I was asked to write a review giving the game a 8/10 because the publisher of the game had some deal going on with the publisher of the magazine (go figure), I was of course not going to get any extra pay but even if I was I wouldn't do it, first because the game sucked so badly that even a 3/10 was too good and second because I am ethical when it comes to games, simply because I love them and my interest is in the industry's wellfare and not into cheating poor 8 to 12 year-olds (who were to core readers of the mag opposite to the chief's beliefs, a read through the mail would convince anyone) to spend their parents cash for some bad game and even worse, cheating a child into getting a bad game and then letting it down and dissapointing it. I was guided into writing specific answers to childrens mail about how great the PSX was (and all this when SOny of Europe didn't give a rat's left butt cheak about the PSM while they held the Greek GamePro in high regard) and not give a more balanced opinion even if it still was in the PSX'x favor. I was made to respond to 8 year-olds as if they were 23, dissing them and being ironic when they asked a simple question showing so much trust and friendship towards the magazine they were writing to. I couldn't stand it so I got into a fight with the editor who was a pain in everyone's butt (even the owner of the publishing company hated her but she owned some stock of the company so the owner couldn't fire her) and I quit like a hero, pissing her off so badly that she even refused to give me references, but so what.
So, if this happens in a small country like Greece and to a small time mag that makes no difference to the world then just imagine what gives in all those other big mags.
There is also one more thing I'd like to mention. Has anyone noticed how much the attitude of gaming magazines and their quality has changed over the years. Seven or eight years ago, there would be plenty or mags and people in that buisness that were on the looks out for excellence in gaming, now they all seem to throw in a score for gameplay as if it corresponds to the number of buttons on the controller that are used.
Take my advice, read EGDE and FLEX hehe...
Topic: GI being idiotic to nintendo (Read 4983 times)
