PC Gamer Needs To Hang Up Their Magazine

This has been a sentiment amongst my friends for quite some time now, but I've erred on the side of thinking that print media still had some place in the world. At least until yesterday, when I read the latest edition of PC Gamer -- the one for March, 2011. Interestingly the UK version of the same magazine is dated February, 2011. Good to see consistency.

At any rate, the magazine's core features are: "Best of 2010 Awards" and a handful of reviews of games that came out in December. You know, the games that the internet has had reviews of for two months now. Hell, even the PC Gamer website has had those reviews up for a good while. Oh, and an extremely laughable "Top 100 PC Games" list. Extremely laughable. With emphasis.

For example, the "World of Warcraft: Cataclysm," "Battlefield: Bad Company 2 Vietnam," "Super Meat Boy" and "ArmA 2: Private Military Company" reviews were all from December. And this is in a magazine that we just received yesterday. And it's dated March, 2011. Even worse, there's a review of Lock On: Flaming Cliffs 2 -- which apparently won "Simulation of the Year" -- even though it came out in early 2010. And they're just now reviewing it in the magazine -- it isn't even reviewed on the PC Gamer website. The only valid review belonging in this edition of PC Gamer is the "Dead Space 2" review, which is a game that came out January 28th. Again, nice consistency.

Next up we have the "Best of 2010 Awards" which, again -- like Dead Space 2 -- is understandable. It would have been pretty hard to include it in the January release of the magazine while still giving games released late in the year a fighting chance to actually win an award. It was nice to see The Ball and Minecraft get nods with awards, as they're both very good games -- especially the latter, which is one of the most innovative games in recent history. The problem is, this content is a month too late. So many people have access to the internet now, that a magazine reporting something a month after it's relevant is -- well -- garbage. That's the nicest descriptor I could come up with while still conveying how poor the content presentation is.

Which leads me to two game reveals in early December. Both Mass Effect 3 and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim were revealed during the Spike Video Game Awards on December 11, 2010. And the March issue of PC Gamer has a feature on them. These are very big reveals. It's amazing that this content wasn't rushed into the "February" (Read: January) issue, which even then would have released "late" in terms of breaking news. But at least some people may have discovered something they didn't already know about. Being in the March issue, everyone and their mom has probably already pre-ordered both games, assuming they care about them to begin with.

But the thing that finally caused me to lose all faith in print media -- or maybe it's just this publication, though print media is a horse that needs to be put to pasture -- is the "Top 100 PC Games" list. The #1 game? Deus Ex. #2 is World of Warcraft, which while I agree is a great game, it's not the #2 PC game of all time. It's like saying McDonald's food is great because they serve so many people.

The most appalling of all had to be where StarCraft was ranked versus its sequel, StarCraft II. The latter was considered #9, while the former was placed at #86. That in itself screams "WHAT?!" One of the most-played games of all time -- which is a national sport in Korea -- is considered the 86th-best PC game of all time. Warcraft III was not even in the list, even though it gave birth to the map mod which is the entire reason League of Legends -- #70 -- exists in the first place: Defense of the Ancients. While there were maps prior to it -- especially in StarCraft -- the Warcraft III mod took the "MOBA" genre mainstream in a big way.

I used to be an avid reader of PC Gamer, and a lot of print media in general. This latest issue has soured me on both this particular publication, as well as the print media sector as a whole. I guess there's a reason I only read the newspaper while I'm using the restroom: print media makes a good toilet companion.

Worldwide Invitational 2008 Wrapup

So I just got back from the Blizzard Worldwide Invitational in Paris, France. I have to say, I learned quite a bit from the event; not just during it, but after as well. I primarily learned that there's a huge misconception with gaming events. Many people steer clear of them simply because they have this idea that it's a "gathering of nerds" or whatever. That couldn't be farther from the truth, and it annoys me to no end to see people trash something they've never actually bothered exploring.

The best part about the conventions isn't even the convention itself -- it's what happens afterward during the nightly parties while the convention is still running. Getting together with a bunch of gamers you know and having a good time is what these things are all about, and seeing Blizzard Entertainment getting involved, enjoying themselves, and generally being more rowdy than the gamers are is absolutely awesome. I won't recount specifics other than to say that Monday morning at around 5:30AM, myself and around 8 or 9 WoW Arena players who were invited to WWI were sitting in the lobby of their hotel after a long night of sleepless partying and general mayhem, only to hear music come from the nearby piano.

We turn back to see what's going on, and lo-and-behold, someone from Blizzard is there playing it. This was great to see; so often you have angry fans who think game developers are lifeless entities, and to see that shot down in person by someone enjoying what they do, and having a good time with co-workers is magnificent. Of course, some of the Arena guys I was with weren't bad at the piano themselves.

Regardless of what happened, or who did it, the Worldwide Invitational was a huge success in my eyes. Not just because it was the first Blizzard-run gaming event in Europe, but also because it brought so many fans together for the same reason: we all love Blizzard's games. Some of the pranks we played on fellow Arena players didn't hurt either, though, to be completely honest.

So what was the most important thing I learned from all of this? Well, I learned a few things... A) Blizzard's brass knows more than just games, and they're damn good at it too (not just the making games), B) Being able to get someone's room key just by knowing their name and room number -- not having to show I.D. at all -- leads into mischief that will live on in our minds for the rest of our lives, and C) Kintt from Pandemic will drink just about anything if you say he won't. I'm still kind of disgusted by that, to be honest.

Oh and one more lesson learned... D) I figured I could think of all the places my friend Chris would pass out at while drunk... I guess not, we can add a breakfast hall table to that list!