Is Gamestop Evil? The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

[Jmustang1968]

I see them being harsh to many games they are trying to sell. I think you are just hung up on the fact that since it is tied to a Gamestop promotion that they have to be promoting games in the mag. I see criticism all over in it.

They talk down to write-ins when they deserve it. I dont think it is overly mean or cruel, usually they are just trying to be funny. By your mindset, if it was purely promotion, why would they say mean things to customers? They are nicer to those write ins than you, me, and many others on this forum are to those who bring up similar points in posts on here.

Basically, your point is all conjecture without much to back it up. You are entitled to your opinion of course, but when you call it terrible, these are flimsy reasons for how it is terrible.

[Ziggy]

Gosh, if I could subscribe to Nintendo Power and Game Pro, I would in a heart beat.

[MrPopo]

Gosh, if I could subscribe to Nintendo Power and Game Pro, I would in a heart beat.

Game Pro had the best names for their writers.

[Luke]

Basically, your point is all conjecture without much to back it up.

Criticizing a magazine I have read for nearly, or over, a decade is not conjecture. At All.

Gosh, if I could subscribe to Nintendo Power and Game Pro, I would in a heart beat.

Yes.

Heck yes.

Magazines that reviewed games and provided useful information, answered questions, and provided a decent rating system. As a bonus, the writers knew how to write.

[Jmustang1968]

Basically, your point is all conjecture without much to back it up.

Criticizing a magazine I have read for nearly, or over, a decade is not conjecture. At All.

Gosh, if I could subscribe to Nintendo Power and Game Pro, I would in a heart beat.

Yes.

Heck yes.

Magazines that reviewed games and provided useful information, answered questions, and provided a decent rating system. As a bonus, the writers knew how to write.

Criticising is one thing, but you offered nothing but conjecture and little substance in that criticism. Your entire point was since it is tied to Gamestop they must be trying to sell games.

Did NintendoPower not have a conflict by only covering and reviewing Nintendo games? I dont see a difference.

[prfsnl_gmr]

It's mindless filler used to sell games.

That's waht video game magazines are...

t outlined how [it] measured games. Not just a "This game is a 9.5" without justification of how the game was scored. And heaven forbid if a game THEY ARE TRYING TO SELL gets lower than a 6.

GI outlines its review criteria, and GI generally contains several detailed review. Also, video game magazines - even during the 1990s - very rarely gave any game a score below a 6.

Ya know why? Well let me educate you. There is a thing called "Conflict of Interest".

I am familiar with this concept, and I think that if you recognize that the magazine is intended to promote video games, you can still enjoy it. Moreover, if you take its review with something call "a grain of salt", then you can still glean useful information from them.

Experience > education

Sometimes.

Waste of paper it is.

Any idea how long the Yoda schtick is going to last? I'm losing hope it was just a phase.

Gosh, if I could subscribe to Nintendo Power and Game Pro, I would in a heart beat.

Game Pro had the best names for their writers.

That's because GamePro was an objective, serious, academic journal devoted to criticizing a burgeoning art form.

[TSTR]

GamePro more often than not hurt my eyeballs trying to read the text.

EDIT: Brainfart--I was thinking of GameFan.

[Fragems]

Overall I don't mind Game Informer the way the rewards program is now it's pretty much a freebie anyways. Love that they finally added a coupon to the Power Up rewards that is good for a free renewal. Was surprised to see that you still get the Buy 2 Get 1 coupon with the free renewal as well definitely worth the points.

Like many others I use it as toilet reading. Never really cared for their reviews but everything else is usually decent enough and they keep me somewhat informed about what's new/popular.

[lisalover1]

Gosh, if I could subscribe to Nintendo Power and Game Pro, I would in a heart beat.

Now that NP and Play are out of print, Retro Gamer is the only print gaming publication that I care about, and since it's imported, it costs an arm and a leg.

[dsheinem]

It's pretty clear to even the most casual reader that the contemporary Game Informer mag offers better, less "pandering" reviews and game industry coverage than any magazine ever published by a console developer themselves. Don't get me wrong, I have a soft spot for stuff Sega Visions, Dreamcast Magazine, and Nintendo Power...but those magazines were designed to basically sell you everything they covered and to hype you up for forthcoming offerings for their respective consoles (good luck finding a negative/highly skeptical preview in any of them). You'd occasionally see a "middling" or VERY rarely a "poor" review...less frequently than in GI, for sure.

GI gets a lot of shit, almost all of it undeserved.

That said, there are certainly a lot better game magazines in history. Still, we could be doing a lot worse than getting GI for what is basically free (especially since the Powered Up membership comes with coupons/discounts that pay for themselves pretty damn quickly).