The Magazine I miss....

[General Kong]

I was not sure which forum to put this in, but I just wanted to ask this question

PC Zone always brought great news and even greater humour, always finding a way to make me chuckle at every page
This however was ended when the Magazine was closed down and its final issue was released in November 2010 (a copy that have right here beside me)
When I found this out I was sad for days afterwards, I practically grew up with the magazine, that is where I heard of Retribution having a Multi Race campaign and the other neat stuff with it
It is also what got me to play company of heroes, the original Dawn of war Homeworld, Cata, and Homeworld 2, not to mention the countless games of other companies that I play now because of
the Info I got from PC Zone

So I ask: who else read misses their favourite publications?

[Langy]

Nobody, which is why they canceled it.

(BUUUUUUURN)

[overmind2000]

Sadly when we started getting internet download speeds that could cope with mods, patches and demos without taking all week the days of the PC mag were numbered. For a niche product the magazine just offered nothing over online distribution - about the only bonus you got was possibly getting references to some demos/mods that you might otherwise have missed - but forums and other bodies quickly replaced that function.
Otherwise with no control over the news the PC mags fast ended up being the "last news" over many features barring a handful of top end releases - which lets face it they put out enough marketing that even if its not your style of game you've likely heard of it.



I do have an old pile of old PC magazines and I certainly enjoyed reading them and getting that demo disk/DVD stuffed with extras and mods (I'd say I played more random mods then than I do now). I also loved that they kept developers eager to push out demos a month or so before a games actual release. Times have changed and I'm sad to see both slowly slipping away (though I still see one or two PC mags have held onto the shelf space).


(will admit that - from memory - he was mostly a PC Gamer magazine fan over PC Zone - but honestly both were generally quite similar with what they covered each month - at least for major reviews).

[Trinity]

Perhaps OT... I miss Omni magazine...at least the early years before Bova left.

http://archive.org/search.php?query=...rt=-publicdate

[Retroboy]

Ahaaahah, I still remember being totally confused when as a teenager I was perusing the large, glossy science-fictiony glorious Omni in a small magazine store in the mall, and a lady nearby started getting louder and louder. For some reason she kept shouting "Excuse me, young man!" until it finally dawned on me that she was shouting at me.

Then she grabbed the magazine from my hands and went to ram it back into... the porno magazine area which was one rack above where they kept the science fictiony magazines.

I looked at her in a deer-in-the-headlights completely stunned look as I realized she was the clerk, and she continued to glare at me as she searched disgustedly (what kind of parent would raise such a boy?) for the matching "adult" magazines ... and then it dawned on her that although large and glossy, Omni was not quite the same as Penthouse or Hustler.

The resulting apology was rather awkward.

P.S. Pretty sure that the science fiction short that I was skimming at the time of this scarring event was rather... uh... vivid.

Anyways, how about turning this into a "publications I miss" thread, because that probably has more legs?

[General Kong]

EDIT: Title changed to a more apropriate title

[Ramrod]

Actually Kong, you can change the thread title yourself if you edit your post and click "Go Advanced," and edit the field above the main body of text. Oh, you know what, just click this link (that link points to the edit page for Kong's post and will only work for him. And I guess mods too).

[Kirjava]

I miss Sonic the Comic, White Dwarf (when it was good) and... I can't remember, is CVG still going? Damn, magazines used to be more fun.

[Retroboy]

In thinking about it, the whole nature of "timing" in entertainment is changing.

It used to be that I'd eagerly snatch up the latest monthly copy of PC Gamer magazine because it came once per month. There'd be this delirious bliss of a whole swarm of new content at once. Then came oft-updated near-real-time online sources of information that supplanted that rush with a steady stream of minor - but incredibly convenient - updates. And my subscription lapsed because the only thing "new" in the latest (and much thinner) PC Gamer was the occasional 'exclusive' interview that was usually restricted to AAA-list titles that I was likely going to buy anyway.

The same is sort of true for television. With Netflix, downloads or DVD libraries you can watch an entire series in just a couple days. There was that week between Deep Space 9 cliffhangers when you got all antsy trying to predict what happened next, and the suspense built up to the point that you didn't care how many ads there were. But that has been replaced with the convenience of clicking "play next file" - and drives people more to watching previous seasons of shows on THEIR schedule, and away from the slower-paced weekly series that they had to wait for.

Some magazines that are more about lifestyle or information than about "news" will likely always be better suited to printed format. I can see National Geographic, Scientific American and gardening magazines never going the web-only route, for example. But others, like Discover or GameInformer or Sports Weekly which require highly timely content in order to differentiate themselves from their competition will probably move away from paper as part of the natural evolution of media delivery.

[overmind2000]

My problem is that many magazines - especially those that target craft hobbies - tend to end up not only repetitive year after year with the tutorial content. But also (and I see this in a lot of magazines) they lack content for the matured interested party. In short with many once you've been subscribed for around a year you've read everything the magazine is going to tell you. You'll get a few tidbits here and there, but the bulk of the magazine is going to be lacking in interesting info.

Game magazines - any any that mostly do reviews on new items tend to do better because there are always new products to review - but your skills based magazines seem to have a real problem with advancing out of being a simplified beginners guide. Eg in photography you can guarantee that - at key points in the year, you'll get a neat guide to "how to do landscapes" which mostly boils down to - use a tripod, small aperture and go out in the morning/evening time. If you're lucky they might mention ND filters!

[Mantaray]

PCGamer is still running strong. i confess i wish it was cheaper. but its still a million times better then the content of say.. white dwarf. what a horrible bag of self-promoted shite that's become. it used to be funny back when fatbloke edited it.

[General Kong]

I sometimes read PCGamer, but it seems that they take less risk with jokes, and this give PCZone a one up IMO

[Carolyavisko]

i am reader of PC gamer magazine but i read very rarely these days as the magazine is getting costly day by day but really a nice magazine.

Click here get more info.

[PetarB]

Omni.

[Flagg]

Sadly most magazines are just repetitive, month in and month out.

I used to be a fan of EDGE magazine and Muscle and Fitness. The latter is particularly guilty of regurgitation and a good 50% of the magazine being made up of advertisements, the other 50% being workout regimes, diets and the occasional interview. I dont know what EDGE is like now as its been a few years, but they used to be so pro Nintendo and Shigeru Miyamoto.

I occasionally buy Movie magazines which usually are pretty good. I havent read a copy of White Dwarf in a very long time.

The problem with most magazines is that you can buy about 3 or 4 copies in a row before you realise you're essentially buying the same edition all the time.

EDIT: The average magazine is also about 5 quid these days.