Last year I had a trial subscription. I am an avid reader, and at lunch you can usually find me with my face buried in a book or magazine. That said the magazine last year had inklings of hope that were as quickly crushed by a return to mediocrity. So when it came time for a renewal I could not oblige.
The problem isn't that print media cannot match digital media for timeliness. The real problem occurs when paper media continues to cover the same ground as the digital media. Paper media should have richer context. The writer has more time to write something compelling, and to give a better explanation. Further more for cost any written work should provide solid value for time spent.
Electronic Gaming Monthly was doing neither. I could get my full value from the magazine in less then an hours reading. That is just plain bad value. A good magazine is worth three or even four hours. The articles were nothing more then what could be produced by a blogger in thirty minutes. Once again the workmanship was shoddy. Finally filler, and stupidity abounded. Did I need four pages dedicated to the dumbest gaming guns, and whether they would actually work in real life. Done with less then two hundred words no less.
I honestly cannot consider this a loss. The times changed, and the magazine did not change. It wanted to still be the timely authority. When it should have moved to a deeper view, and been increasing its content. In fact I could swear that the magazine has only gotten lighter with time, and the writing if anything got worse.
I want to ask others is there any real reason for gaming mags to be jammed with pics from the games in question. Trailers are readily available now, as are demos, television shows, and on demand services. They seem to be utterly vestigial. More often then not eating up valuable page real estate that would be better used on writing.
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