Another PC Gaming Magazine gone

[Craig234]

I used to subscribe to about 4 PC gaming magazines. All but PC Gamer are gone.

Now, one of the later magazines, Beckett MMO, has published its last issue. Another MMO magazine I was a charter subscriber to stopped after about two issues.

(My subscription with 18 months left gets moved to some 'phone app' magazine, useless).

It's sad to see all the magazines gone.

Even World of Warcraft magazine - a coffee table book format - closed.

 

[GaiaHunter]

I don't see much point for these magazines any longer really.

When the Internet was slow as hell, the demos/patches/utilities on the discs these magazines brought were useful, but these days, meh.

 

[Craig234]

nm

 

[Borealis7]

i used to get PCLamer back in 1998-2000. now i just read Gamespot. the end is not far for printed publishing.

 

[Bateluer]

. the end is not far for printed publishing.

Change with the times, or get left behind.

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Or sue everyone who gets gaming news on line. I hear that's pretty effective.

 

[shortylickens]

I don't see much point for these magazines any longer really.

When the Internet was slow as hell, the demos/patches/utilities on the discs these magazines brought were useful, but these days, meh.

Yeah the whole point at the beginning was most of us didnt have internet or only like 9600 or whatever. Nowadays its not worth it. I used to get PC Gamer cuz it had great articles, solid reviews, and the demo disk (eventually disc) was nice too.

Now their articles suck, their reviews are highly questionable, and the demos can be had faster over broadband than waiting for the disc. Oh, and they're free.

Actually, I'm kinda surprised PC gamer is still in business, they had the biggest fall in quality in my opinion. Right around the time they did Doom 3. The review was bullshit, and that was also the time they started mixing up the formatting, making it too freakin busy (they probably called it "awesomizing" or something like that), let go of their best people and went being half filled with ads, to being 2/3 filled. Oh, and charging more.

 

[frozentundra123456]

I subscribe to PC Gamer and Maximum PC. Will probably drop both when my current subscription runs out. I used to really look forward to them each month, but now most of the information can be found on tech sites and gamespot well before the magazine reaches my house.

 

[HeXen]

i suscribe to e-mags on Zinio. plenty of game mags on there. The only physical mag subs i have left is performance auto and sound. Good updated car audio stuff is hard to come by.

 

[Clinkster]

Why settle for magazines? You can get daily news any time you want online.

They're dropping for all the right reasons.

 

[BladeVenom]

Right around the time they did Doom 3. The review was bullshit, and that was also the time they started mixing up the formatting, making it too freakin busy (they probably called it "awesomizing" or something like that), let go of their best people and went being half filled with ads, to being 2/3 filled. Oh, and charging more.

That's when I quit reading PC Gamer.

I see no reason to ever bother with any magazines anymore. They're going the way of the horse and buggy.

 

[Iron Wolf]

I used to like CGW. I still subscribe to PC Gamer and Maximum PC. Each one is like $2 a month, which is nothing. I also like National Geographic, because it has cool pictures and stories about the world, none of which you can find online. I think mags are "dying" like PC gaming is "dying," especially since mags and newspapers are also available on e-readers and the like. More and more people may opt to not get the dead-tree versions though.

 

[Texashiker]

Back in the late 1990s I bought pc gamer on a regular basis.

In the early 2000s I had an active subscription to pc gamer.

Today, I probably bought 1 magazine in the past 5 years.

Its just not worth $6, $7 or $8 to buy a magazine. Why should I spend $7 on something I can get free off the net for free?

In all honestly, metacritic and amazon gives better reviews then the print magazines. When I am thinking of buying a new games, I usually go to sites like rock paper nuke, and metacritic.

 

[Modular]

I really used to enjoy reading CPU (Computer Power User), but they dropped a lot of their better writers as well. Anand used to write for them for a while. It's still a good magazine, but I think it's just near impossible for print publications to make profit these days.

 

[Nintendesert]

It's the future. The printed magazine is simply the horse and buggy of our times. I prefer my news hourly fresh, not monthly. They simply can't compete with the internet and needed to push into the website content business.

 

[afk5min]

Yeah the whole point at the beginning was most of us didnt have internet or only like 9600 or whatever. Nowadays its not worth it. I used to get PC Gamer cuz it had great articles, solid reviews, and the demo disk (eventually disc) was nice too.

Now their articles suck, their reviews are highly questionable, and the demos can be had faster over broadband than waiting for the disc. Oh, and they're free.

Actually, I'm kinda surprised PC gamer is still in business, they had the biggest fall in quality in my opinion. Right around the time they did Doom 3. The review was bullshit, and that was also the time they started mixing up the formatting, making it too freakin busy (they probably called it "awesomizing" or something like that), let go of their best people and went being half filled with ads, to being 2/3 filled. Oh, and charging more.

Well said. Magazines in general are becoming obsolete, but the decline in quality and general dumbing down that most are turning to will only accelerate their fall.

 

[BFG10K]

It’s the face of changing times. Pretty soon even newspapers will only be electronically distributed.

 

[power_hour]

It’s the face of changing times. Pretty soon even newspapers will only be electronically distributed.

I hope not but thats where this is headed.

 

[tedrodai]

shorty's sentiments pretty much echo mine. The quality of magazines have tanked. I haven't trusted them to have well written reviews for over 5 years...online or offline versions.

 

[lothar]

I don't see much point for these magazines any longer really.

When the Internet was slow as hell, the demos/patches/utilities on the discs these magazines brought were useful, but these days, meh.

This.

 

[Craig234]

I prefer print. But there's another effect of this.

Just as cable has greatly increased people's ability to watch programming much more narrowly targeted, online allows the same thing.

Now, it can be argued that's a good thing for TV. But the country had almost everyone watching one of 3 or 4 channels for a long time, affecting the 'culture'. A lot of it was crap, though. It's different when people can watch things for 'their group' (Fox News is just one example - but take ethnic programming or many others as well). I'm not so sure about gaming magazines.

Used to be you'd get a magazine, and may as well read a lot more things about games you might not otherwise look at - you bought the magazine.

Online it's a lot easier to skip only to a few things. It's a different experience, and one that changes how products get noticed.

I'd read a long article on some issue in gaming in a magazine - I rarely go looking for that online.