The last good mag was Arcade anyway.

Good article, Ben.

I think it’s a shame, but logic tells me that gaming mags aren’t worth the money any more. Less money spent on mags leaves more money to spend on games. The only thing I’ve lost out on is cutting out pictures to stick on my wall – which I’m slowly growing out of, anyway…

However, I do think that, in a sense, online gaming sites such as Gaming Lives are simply the new era of games journalism. Writers still write articles, readers still read them – only the writers generally have to have a drive and passion to write, and readers are able to find articles about specific things that interest them.

It’s one of those things – it’s a shame to see something we loved when we were younger dying out, but there’s just better options now, and they’re becoming obsolete.

I don’t like reading globs of text on a screen, I like even less the idea of carrying a gadget to read a mag or book rather than an actual mag or book. The whole thing just feels…less real and utterly utterly soulless. The steady demise of the industry is something that I find pretty tragic to be honest but it is hard to see a way through. Sad times indeed but a great article, Ben.

Oh wait… it’s a gaming site… um… yeah I probably played some of the games from their coverdiscs too. Actually I DO remember a demo for Rick Dangerous and Magic Pockets, both of which I loved so much I bought the company. No that’s wrong, I bought the full games. Rise Of The Robots though… all they ever put out on demo was some little movie clip thing and I went mental over how good it looked, bought the full game… and it was utter shit.

I miss Amiga Format. Like really good Westlers hot dogs.

I like magazines… they’re tangible, they’re solid, and they’re always accessible… web sites have a tendency to vanish into the aether. The net is too fluid, nothing is built to last. Formats change across entire sites, removing a point of comparison between older content as it originally was and the stuff that’s come along since changes. Looking through old magazines, you can clearly see the demarcation lines between different eras. And they don’t just vanish one day when you go to read them.

I have a cupboard filled with old copies of PC Zone, Official Nintendo Magazine, CUBE, PC Utilities, and SEGA Power. And some other mags, but they have nothing to do with gaming or computers. I still occasionally go back to them… my old editions of the Ninty mag were immensely helpful when I was trying to get used to the format for writing game reviews, back when I started writing here.

I don’t like eReaders. I’m one of those people who can’t move for books, read vast amounts, and you’d think would be the ideal candidate for some kind of electronic book. But no, I like the feel of paper in my hands, the smell of the ink, the creak of the spine, the heft of a good sized volume… and the fact that I can read them at my own leisure without sitting in front of a monitor, and without having to worry about battery power, or memory corruption. If I fall asleep reading, I don’t have to worry about screen damage, or dropping it, or rolling over onto it. Do that to a book, and it survives unscathed. Do it to a Kindle, and it’d probably result in a painful and expensive experience.

Eventually books and magazines will die out entirely… but I just hope I’m dead before that happens. As someone famous once said; “I cannot live without books.” I’m already finding it hard living without most of my favourite magazines.

Good article Ben.

I do hope that Digital Distribution keeps it alive. I don’t ever see the day where I’d feel comfortable bringing out an iPad on the bus to browse and smaller media like iPhones just dont have a big enough size for the job but I’m willing to make the sacrifice if it means keeping alive the best sources of Gaming Journalism.

It’s sad that Future House wasn’t able to keep PC Zone alive in that respect but understandable given that the brand already carried PC Gamer, it was inevitable I suppose and a testament to PC Zone’s staff and the readers who had constantly defied business logic by forcing the publisher to keep producing the mag. I will miss it’s features and I hope that the writers find new homes, paid ones of course and are allowed to continue producing their own stuff.

I read about 20 news sites a day on the web and despite enjoying being ahead of the curve, rather than having to wait for 1-2 months for the mags to be able to write about it -it’s not the same as holding a well written and edited mag where the headlines aren’t just reproductions of other sites news stories and the content fluffed out with irrelevant information.

Long Live the NeverQuest -Thankyou Ben

A valid and excellent point Ben, not only towards gaming magz, but all. Surely with the iPad and e-books/e-mags(?) this means a boost too the magazine world? I know I would much rather read an e-mag in bed when the kids are asleep and I can relax, than rustling a paper copy running the risk of waking them…

…that might sound strange, but our eldest can hear a crisp packet at 15 miles away being opened, a magazine might have the same effect!

#NIGHTMARE