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Prolific Gaming Magazine Game Informer Suddenly Shutters, Lays Off Staff After 33 Years | MMORPG.co

SystemSystem Member UncommonPosts: 12,599

imageProlific Gaming Magazine Game Informer Suddenly Shutters, Lays Off Staff After 33 Years | MMORPG.com

After 33 years, the U.S.'s longest-running video game magazine, Game Informer, has suddenly shuttered, with all its staff laid off.

Read the full story here


Comments

  • ZenJellyZenJelly Member RarePosts: 385
    Nothing of value was lost. Most gaming "journalism and journalists" could vanish and it'd only make things better, not worse.
    GinazEldrachGobstopper3DSarlaKidRiskmikeb0817ShinyFlygonMadBomber13
  • GinazGinaz Member RarePosts: 2,558
    What happened to the "modern audience" that was supposed to replace gamers and make operations like this profitable? This is what happens when lol Games Journalists spend years insulting and talking down to the very people that actually buy and play games.
    Robokapp

    Is a man not entitled to the herp of his derp?

    Remember, I live in a world where juggalos and yugioh players are real things.

  • ScotScot Member LegendaryPosts: 24,273
    edited August 3
    I lament the passing of the PC mags, we do not get reviews as good these days. Just look at Metacritic. Back in the day you would not have a title getting one review giving a 60 and another a 90, today you do and that's just more misinformation players have to contend with when making a purchase.
    mikeb0817SovrathLePetitSoldatriningearJeroKaneSlapshot1188
  • UnintendedUnintended Member UncommonPosts: 98
    They used to be your source for gaming news, but now they're not as everything leaks so publishers just go straight to Youtube now. Even then before the downfall of gaming news websites like Gamespot, they'd have gone to them first since the early 00's.

    I do miss the days when you couldn't wait to get the latest magazine to see new games for the first time. I used to take them into school and show my mates these amazing games too. But you cannot undo the internet, so these days will never return.

    I also do think magazines have become so bland in general though as they try to appeal to everyone. Back in the 90s they targeted boys and all had people in their 20's writing for them. So they had lads humour and half naked ladies in them etc etc. Where as now they are just all so clinical in fears of someone complaining.

    SovrathScotriningear
  • Gobstopper3DGobstopper3D Member RarePosts: 970
    Unfortunately, activism has replaced journalism across the industry. There are very few actual journalists around now days or sites that just stick to giving unbiased reviews about games.

    The games industry is going through a correction and I'm fine with it.
    MMOgamerdad666Ginaz

    I'm not an IT Specialist, Game Developer, or Clairvoyant in real life, but like others on here, I play one on the internet.

  • IceAgeIceAge Member EpicPosts: 3,200

    Scot said:

    I lament the passing of the PC mags, we do not get reviews as good these days. Just look at Metacritic. Back in the day you would not have a title getting one review giving a 60 and another a 90, today you do and that's just more misinformation players have to contend with when making a purchase.



    Exactly!

    ..even this very website, writes the "reviews" or articles like an AI bot.

    Yuck!

    Reporter: What's behind Blizzard success, and how do you make your gamers happy?
    Blizzard Boss: Making gamers happy is not my concern, making money.. yes!

  • xkeeperxkeeper Member UncommonPosts: 46
    The lack of audience has nothing to do with "Wokeism" like the little incels like to believe. There's just nothing this sort of publication can offer anymore. In the past companies relied on publications like this to spread the word.

    They needed media events, E3 and overall specialized media, they were literally in the budget of game developement.

    Nowdays all they need is a youtube channel to self publish everything they need and websites pretty much like this one will just replicate the news for free, with bare minimum effort and without the need of specialized people.

    Old fashioned media in game pretty much existed as a marketing tool, there was barely actual journalism being made, just as sites like this. Sites like MMORPG.COM is just a RSS FEED with an interface, there's no journalism being done here, its just scrapping the internet for news as much as Game Informer was, the difference is one had a millions of dollars infrastructure, which needs revenue to operate. The latter can acomplish the same result by a fat man on a basement.
    SovrathJeroKaneShinyFlygonMadBomber13
  • HerithiusHerithius Member UncommonPosts: 273
    So many posters expressing their dislike or frustration with websites that post reviews. I'm not even sure how it's possible to review a title without biases. They are inevitable. In the old days you would have people rate them by category like Sound, Gameplay, Graphics, etc. However I find those equally inadequate if we are scoring sound on par with gameplay. There is just no perfect solution nor a score that every reviewer can find consensus on. For every score of 9 you can possibly find a 7.

    Besides all of this.. I find most of us find a reviewer we like and go to them for our reviews anyways. For an anticipated game we usually go to the websites/content creators we frequent as opposed to a brand new source.

    Everyone has their own value systems on what's important in a game and to expect everyone to agree is unrealistic.
    ScotMadBomber13
  • TheocritusTheocritus Member LegendaryPosts: 9,976
    edited August 3
    ZenJelly said:
    Nothing of value was lost. Most gaming "journalism and journalists" could vanish and it'd only make things better, not worse.

    The sad thing is we often get the appearance that they are being paid by someone to say and promote certain things....Journalism overall isnt an honest experience anymore...It is filled with agendas.
  • riningearriningear Member UncommonPosts: 129
    edited August 3
    What's great about the marketplace of ideas is that you get one person claiming modern news is written blandly and another saying it sounds like activism... If you want news written to cater to your voice, I recommend learning how to produce content :)
    MadBomber13
  • hupahupa Member UncommonPosts: 170
    "Staff were suddenly informed around noon EDT today, and Game Informer itself posted a farewell reader to its social media pages"

    That's so wrong. Hope everyone lands on their feet.
    ScotSovrath
    When you judge others, you do not define them, you define yourself

    - Earl Nightingale
  • kitaradkitarad Member LegendaryPosts: 8,164
    You can get good reviews from Youtube. Mortisimal I think he plays a game for 100 hours and full completion before reviewing it. I trust his reviews since he has a good number of hours in the game he is reviewing.
    Sovrath

  • GinazGinaz Member RarePosts: 2,558
    edited August 4

    Herithius said:

    So many posters expressing their dislike or frustration with websites that post reviews. I'm not even sure how it's possible to review a title without biases. They are inevitable. In the old days you would have people rate them by category like Sound, Gameplay, Graphics, etc. However I find those equally inadequate if we are scoring sound on par with gameplay. There is just no perfect solution nor a score that every reviewer can find consensus on. For every score of 9 you can possibly find a 7.



    Besides all of this.. I find most of us find a reviewer we like and go to them for our reviews anyways. For an anticipated game we usually go to the websites/content creators we frequent as opposed to a brand new source.



    Everyone has their own value systems on what's important in a game and to expect everyone to agree is unrealistic.



    The problem usually isn't with reviews, it's that gaming magazines and web sites talk about everything else under the sun and tend to get very political when all we want to hear about is the games. I don't care about some random glorified blogger's (because that's what all "games journalists" are) opinions on industry layoffs or if scantily clad female characters in a game made in Asia is "problematic". Just tell me about the game and if it's worth my time playing. A lot of them, and the the game industry itself, are finding out the hard way that years spent insulting your customers was not the best idea.

    Is a man not entitled to the herp of his derp?

    Remember, I live in a world where juggalos and yugioh players are real things.

  • SandmanjwSandmanjw Member RarePosts: 531
    Scot said:
    I lament the passing of the PC mags, we do not get reviews as good these days. Just look at Metacritic. Back in the day you would not have a title getting one review giving a 60 and another a 90, today you do and that's just more misinformation players have to contend with when making a purchase.
    A false argument about Metacritic really. 

    You just need to use a little common sense now. Treat the score just like a judge of a sporting event. Throw out the highs and lows and you get the true score from gamers that play the game, not come with a bias one way or the other.

    A bias, I may add, that quite a lot of gamer news sites and mags have. Same with steam reviews or any other reviews that have many reviews, you need to throw out the obvious biased ones to get the truth to spend your gaming dollars wisely.

    The best days of the gaming mags, was way back when they issued a demo cd along with their reviews, to let each subscriber see for them selves exactly how the game was and if it was something they would enjoy.

    Of course, it was not most likely the mags that did away with that. I am sure the game developers that make their huge margins on box, and first day sales, that realized an informed audience was not conducive to their bottom lines.

    As always, progress. Not always good for the consumers, but damn, the gaming consumers with their locust like mentality, of consuming content, buying almost every thing released, and believing hype like it was prophecy, and posting it on hundreds of sites, then abandoning the games shortly after, is a self inflicted curse that we now have to live with as well.
  • ScotScot Member LegendaryPosts: 24,273
    edited August 4
    Sandmanjw said: 

    You just need to use a little common sense now. Treat the score just like a judge of a sporting event. Throw out the highs and lows and you get the true score from gamers that play the game, not come with a bias one way or the other.

    A bias, I may add, that quite a lot of gamer news sites and mags have. Same with steam reviews or any other reviews that have many reviews, you need to throw out the obvious biased ones to get the truth to spend your gaming dollars wisely.

    The best days of the gaming mags, was way back when they issued a demo cd along with their reviews, to let each subscriber see for them selves exactly how the game was and if it was something they would enjoy.

    Of course, it was not most likely the mags that did away with that. I am sure the game developers that make their huge margins on box, and first day sales, that realized an informed audience was not conducive to their bottom lines.

    As always, progress. Not always good for the consumers, but damn, the gaming consumers with their locust like mentality, of consuming content, buying almost every thing released, and believing hype like it was prophecy, and posting it on hundreds of sites, then abandoning the games shortly after, is a self inflicted curse that we now have to live with as well.
    "You just need a little common sense (to read the reviews) now."

    - We are talking about gamers here right? :)
    Sandmanjwriningear
  • mikeb0817mikeb0817 Member UncommonPosts: 171
    I only stop in to check out Game Stop one a year now - a couple decades ago it was much more frequent. The Power Up subscription gets you $5 a month in discounts and you get favorable rates when you trade - but they stopped sending out the magazine years ago, and honestly that was the only thing that I ever kept the subscription up for. I don't care about a $5 gif certificate per month and I'm the type of person who keeps my cartridges and game CDs forever, so the trade-in bonus never mattered, either. I actually had let that subscription go for a LONG time just because I kept getting the magazine, and at one point had a nice collection of those as well.

    It's truly a shame. I miss the old days of being super excited to try out whatever new demo disc was coming with each magazine.
  • SovrathSovrath Member LegendaryPosts: 32,780
    kitarad said:
    You can get good reviews from Youtube. Mortisimal I think he plays a game for 100 hours and full completion before reviewing it. I trust his reviews since he has a good number of hours in the game he is reviewing.
    Mortismal and ACG are two of my “go to’s” as they just lay out the bits, give their own modest opinion and the reader can make up their own mind based off their preferences.
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    Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo 
  • ShinyFlygonShinyFlygon Member UncommonPosts: 589
    It's kind of funny to see individual content creators killing corporate internet journalism just like the internet killed print journalism.

    People born in this century have literally no idea that a thing called journalistic integrity ever existed, let alone what it meant.
    Sovrath
  • cameltosiscameltosis Member LegendaryPosts: 3,832
    It's kind of funny to see individual content creators killing corporate internet journalism just like the internet killed print journalism.

    People born in this century have literally no idea that a thing called journalistic integrity ever existed, let alone what it meant.

    The BBC was, for a long time, the last bastion of journalistic integrity. But even that has gone massively downhill over the last 10 years.


    there may we one or two good journalists still left out there, but there are certainly no good journalistic organisations left.
    Currently Playing: WAR RoR - Spitt rr7X Black Orc | Scrotling rr6X Squig Herder | Scabrous rr4X Shaman

  • KnightFalzKnightFalz Member EpicPosts: 4,522

    Ginaz said:



    Herithius said:


    So many posters expressing their dislike or frustration with websites that post reviews. I'm not even sure how it's possible to review a title without biases. They are inevitable. In the old days you would have people rate them by category like Sound, Gameplay, Graphics, etc. However I find those equally inadequate if we are scoring sound on par with gameplay. There is just no perfect solution nor a score that every reviewer can find consensus on. For every score of 9 you can possibly find a 7.





    Besides all of this.. I find most of us find a reviewer we like and go to them for our reviews anyways. For an anticipated game we usually go to the websites/content creators we frequent as opposed to a brand new source.





    Everyone has their own value systems on what's important in a game and to expect everyone to agree is unrealistic.






    The problem usually isn't with reviews, it's that gaming magazines and web sites talk about everything else under the sun and tend to get very political when all we want to hear about is the games. I don't care about some random glorified blogger's (because that's what all "games journalists" are) opinions on industry layoffs or if scantily clad female characters in a game made in Asia is "problematic". Just tell me about the game and if it's worth my time playing. A lot of them, and the the game industry itself, are finding out the hard way that years spent insulting your customers was not the best idea.



    The worm may be starting to turn in general on recent assertions of the suddenly problematic, in more than just video games. Change seems to be afoot.
  • UnintendedUnintended Member UncommonPosts: 98
    Unfortunately, activism has replaced journalism across the industry. There are very few actual journalists around now days or sites that just stick to giving unbiased reviews about games.

    The games industry is going through a correction and I'm fine with it.

    Journalism today is people spending their lives on Twitter as if it's real life.
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