The difference is that Raijin manga and manga in general wasn't *that* popular to begin with. Games and manga are on totally different levels in terms of sales.
The Take Out Bandit said:Do you think the market would bear that?
I ask, because this Utopian concept (a weekly) was attempted by a few manga publishers a few years ago in the US and it bombed.
Granted the video game market far surpasses the relevance of the comic market in the US, but is that enough to sustain sales of a weekly publication?
IAWTP.Y2Kevbug11 said:I really feel that the EGM reviews are too short. Most of the actual text in the magazine, aside from features and cover stories, is underdeveloped. I don't see how someone can really address a game in a paragraph where a chunk of that paragraph may be just casual talking and/or joke material (see 2nd Condemned review, I believe). I am consistently asking myself, "Why?" or "How come?" after reading a sentence. I need to know more. I need to know WHY the reviewer felt this way, not just how they felt.
It's a GOOD magazine but I don't like the reviews because I don't get enough info out of them. I realize that because they review so many games they need to keep them short to meet deadline, but I'd much rather pay for like Gamespot Complete, get constant updates, and in addition get live E3 coverage and streaming video.
CVXFREAK said:Who knows. That's why it's good to experiment. A weekly issue of Famitsu is thicker than all the monthly magazines here, to put things in perspective. If it were filled with enough content for people to choose to buy an issue weekly, such as sales figures, tons of interviews, previews, fewer but more in depth reviews, then the restraints of a monthly magazine content limit would be lifted and replaced with a time limit.
Famitsu is very successful because I believe it sells for a low price every week. The issues I have were 350 Yen, which just about everyone in Japan can afford.
That said, I think this requires way more cooperation with the game companies. If RE4 and Game Informer were any indication, there'd be NDA's up the wazoo. But clearly the Japan method is working, and I'd love to see it implemented here.
Vargas said:Is Famitsu printed in mostly color, or is it mostly black and white? And the mag is thicker than most montly mags here? That is surprising. I thought it wouldn't be any more than 40-70 pages since it is a weekly mag.
"Famitsu is very successful because I believe it sells for a low price every week. The issues I have were 350 Yen, which just about everyone in Japan can afford."
I thought they hated ps2 and loved xbox and gamecube...olimario said:EGM hate because they are on the Sony payroll.
john tv said:BTW, Soul4ger, did you get turned down for a job at EGM or something? You sound like Jack Thompson after somebody bitchslapped his mom with a copy of Grand Theft Auto. Sheesh, relax! What magazines do you actually like? (Gaming or otherwise?)
gutter_trash said:so, I respect them for their handling of the fighting game genre in the early 90s.
Soul4ger said:To be fair, the Famitsu folks don't really play much of each game they review. That would be a difficult thing for the staff to manage, play games enough to rate them fairly each week. And let's be honest here, EGM's staff isn't really competent enough to do it properly with a month for each issue.
Honestly, it amazes me. Not only are there like 20 people on the review crew now, they don't have previews anymore. And yet, still, they aren't able to write reviews for every game they get every month. I couldn't believe it when I read the "Reviews Wrap-Up" at the end of this past issue, to find a list of like a dozen games that you could only read reviews for on 1UP, because they "didn't have time" or got the reviewables "too late." Jesus Christ, drop some of your stupid extraneous crap and rate the games. I'm sorry, but I really don't want to see two pages of two random 1UP bloggers debating the greatness of Halo vs. Grand Theft Auto, and taking GRRRRL GMR pictures with their tongues sticking out.
God, what swill. So amazingly irritating. And what's worse, they actually think they're relevant.
bjork said:It went downhill once sushi-x jumped over the sharks on his bike.
btrboyev said:I started to get more and more dissapointed with them whe they changed the design of the mag in 2003. Also they've gotten really lazy about reviewing games...back in the day they reviewed everything..now they have these half-assed quick reviews that are pretty worthless.
I also remember a time when the mail and letter section actually had content worth reading..now its just a letter and a smartass reply.
I also hate the previews...the old format was much much better.
They could just use the Kong Kong model and steal all their content from weekly Japanese gaming mags. No writers = low costs. It was nice to be able to get a game mag in HK for $1.50 though, even if it's just to look at the pictures. I was there during E3 and they had all 3 new systems like 3 days after they were announced.The Take Out Bandit said:Do you think the market would bear that?
Granted the video game market far surpasses the relevance of the comic market in the US, but is that enough to sustain sales of a weekly publication?
Pfft, your logic is no match for vague, fuzzy perceptions of the way things were when we were kids.stewy said:So yes. EGM reviews were much better back then.
From what I recall, the letter section has always been terrible. Early on, it was the overabundant praise and self-congratulatory mail that was posted, then came the "Psycho letter of the month" era and other wannabe rad crap. Remember that? Awful as it sounds though, I'm with you that the incessant sarcasm and smartass-ism of the replies today is extremely tiresome.btrboyev said:I also remember a time when the mail and letter section actually had content worth reading..now its just a letter and a smartass reply.
etiolate said:Plus, the random scores being justified by 'opinion' is old.
Soul4ger said:I'm not going to argue with the man/time argument you talked about, simply because I haven't written for a magazine and I don't know how much time "contributors" are expected to work every week, and what not. I understand the seven staff people are full-time, 9-to-5 people that have other responsibilities. That's cool. But again, I point back to my review earlier. If you're spending time to make sure you play each game enough, and then write a good enough review... Something like that should never, ever happen. If you were over-working, then maybe. But when shit like that is being turned out on a constant basis, and IT IS A CONSTANT BASIS, then you need to look for new contributors.
ToastyFrog said:Pfft, your logic is no match for vague, fuzzy perceptions of the way things were when we were kids.
tal, you forgot to mention that a major strike against gaming weeklies in the States is the logistics of shipping magazines across such a huge area. Print publications are cheap, cheap, cheap in Japan because it's a tiny place and the bulk of the population lives within a few hours of Tokyo. Not so much here.
Edit: Hey, I thought I was banned. What gives!![]()
I respectfully disagree. The average gamer isn't an adolescent, and it would be nice to read content that doesn't use internet elite speak, or other pop culture referrances in order to make it look like the editors are hip, and yet make editorials on how the video game press doesn't get respect as mainstream journalists do. It's simple really. Write the magazine in a professional level as next gen did, and then maybe people will start taking them seriously.I find the complaints regarding the juvenile tone perplexing since its always been this case (its is, after-all, the primary audience, adolescents).........
Korranator said:I respectfully disagree. The average gamer isn't an adolescent, and it would be nice to read content that doesn't use internet elite speak, or other pop culture referrances in order to make it look like the editors are hip, and yet make editorials on how the video game press doesn't get respect as mainstream journalists do. It's simple really. Write the magazine in a professional level as next gen did, and then maybe people will start taking them seriously.
Also, expand the preview sections, upgrade the quailty of paper, and give more detailed reviews.