The Troubling Decline of PC Gamer Magazine (U.S.)

I have been a consistent reader of the U.S. edition of PC Gamer magazine for nearly ten years. Within that span, I have seen an interesting and valuable magazine degenerate into a mere fragment of its former self. (I mean that last statement to be literal as well as figurative, for the magazine now averages about one third its former page length.) From Dan Bennett to Gary Whitta to Rob Smith to Dan Morris, the editors-in-chief have successively presided over a lesser and lesser magazine with each passing year. The character of PC Gamer has in recent years shifted from a position of sage maturity and critical authority to one of shallow, mass-market pandering.

I realize that those are some pretty bold claims, and I do not intend to leave them unsupported by evidence. There is one central thread that ties all of my criticisms together, and it is this: PC Gamer is steadily abandoning its commitment to quality writing, in an effort to make the magazine appeal to a wider and, shall we say, less patient audience. Unfortunately, quality writing is the one and only thing that can truly set a print gaming magazine -- with its full-time, paid, and experienced editorial team -- apart from its online and offline competition.

The first time I got my hands on a PC Gamer was in April of 1996 (as indicated by the May cover date). I was in an Electronics Boutique store, and -- hold on. It's worth noting that at this time, EB was an idyllic land of milk and honey, in which pixies frolicked gaily in the warm breeze and delivered lollipops to all the folks who had grown tired of foraging upon succulent grasses of purest mint sugar. That ain't hyperbole or rose-colored goggles talking; that's the truth.

So anyway, I was in EB and one of the fairies, err, I mean Frank, the salesperson, was talking to me about the amazing demo for Looking Glass Studios' Terra Nova: Strike Force Centauri. I, too, had played the demo, which I had laboriously downloaded over my 28.8k modem, but I was unsure as to whether the demo was a faithful representation of the full game. Frank noticed that the latest PC Gamer cover touted the Terra Nova review lurking within. He immediately walked to the magazine rack and tore open the cellophane wrapper. He placed the magazine on the counter and flipped to the review: 90%. Editor's Choice. Screenshots of snowcapped mountains in an enormous and fully traversable 3D world. Oh my God. *swoon*

I bought Terra Nova then and there, and as he printed my receipt Frank surreptitiously slipped the PC Gamer in my bag. Shocked by the gift I had received, I looked to Frank with reverence, and he offered a sly wink. At a cover price of $7.99, PC Gamer represented nearly two weeks' worth of allowance money. To a boy just shy of 14 years, EB really was the proverbial land of milk and honey. Some of the best gaming of my life transpired over the days that followed. I was an instant and loyal adherent to all things sold by EB, all things made by Looking Glass Studios... and all things written by the staff of PC Gamer.

Excepting the bit about EB, I have not yet found any reason to doubt those convictions. Lots of people are fond of noting that publications that accept money for advertisements are inherently subject to a conflict of interests whenever they set eyes upon a game. I agree with this. However, I also think that any such general concerns may be overridden if a specific publication's standards of writing are high, and particularly if the publication's claims are corroborated time and again by my own and others' experience. In short, the capacity for conflict of interests does not necessarily equate to a stacked deck. It is fully possible for an honest and talented editorial team to survive off of advertising revenue without letting their sponsors' wishes govern their every written word. And in the case of PC Gamer, I think this is exactly what has transpired throughout its history.

For the sake of clarity, I shall repeat: I do not think PC Gamer magazine in particular is guilty of systematically lying to their readers in order to please their advertisers. I would prefer that anyone who advances such a theory in the comments below present specific evidence for consideration; for that, too, is a bold claim, and it should not be left dangling freely, where any unsuspecting person may become entangled in its dastardly web. Indeed, let us all, at all times, strive to tie down our proclamations with the firm bonds of evidence.

In 1996, the bedrock of PC Gamer was its lengthy, well written, and frequently inspired editorial columns. This, as I've said, is where a print magazine may most distinguish itself from its peers; those rearward (or in some cases, frontward) pages are where much of a magazine's unique character is sequestered.

That very same May 1996 issue of PC Gamer includes an Extended Play column, dealing with expansions, patches, and the like; The Learning Game, focusing on educational software for children and adults alike; Peripheral Visions, on PC peripherals and upgrades; Lupine Online (written by a man named Scott Wolf, naturally), addressing shareware, demos, and the online gaming community; Alternate Lives, on fantasy and role-playing games; The Desktop General, on historic and war games; Tim's Tech Shop, on PC hardware analysis and trends; and the Sim Column, which is appropriately devoted to driving and flying sims. That's eight editorial columns, spanning a total of ten pages (not including ads). Those pages are not laden with pictures or large headlines. Nor are any of the articles less than a full page in length; in fact, two of them are two pages long.

In time, the educational software column was cast aside, much to my consternation. (Trust me, the author, Heidi E.H. Aycock, wrote about some really neat stuff!) The two PC hardware articles were consolidated into a single hardware section; no complaints here. The column on shareware and the online gaming community was absorbed by the column on expansions and patches; again, no complaints. Columns on PC sports games and first-person shooters were added and later excised. But in all, things remained much the same, with one exception: the two-page columns began to disappear.

This brings us right up to the end of 1999, when the hardware editor, Greg Vederman, began an ill-fated, month-to-month experiment entitled "Dear Greg," in which, in addition to addressing the hardware problems of readers, Greg would also provide humorous faux-advice with respect to their personal problems. I was all for the idea of adding humor to the admittedly stoic pages of PC Gamer, but it struck me that dedicating a particular part of the magazine to humor was probably not the best way to go about this task. Apparently the decision had been made to groom Greg -- or to allow him to groom himself -- into the "wacky" editor of the bunch. This noteworthy change in tenor would, in retrospect, serve as a warning of further changes yet to come. From this point on, PC Gamer's commitment to serious examination of issues and sober expression of opinion would begin to wane.

In April of 2000, Rob Smith replaced Gary Whitta as editor-in-chief of PC Gamer. A veteran of the then-recently deceased PC Accelerator (The best gaming mag ever! But that's another article...), I had little reason to expect that under his tenure PC Gamer would decline dramatically in nearly every respect. For one, the magazine began to shrink in size. Whereas it used to average between 250 and 300 pages (and sometimes exceeded 400!), it had by 2001 been reduced to under 150 pages. Reviews for unanticipated or unpopular games were crammed into half a page, or occasionally even less space. For a time, this allowed for more two-, three-, and even four-page reviews of hotly anticipated titles, but as time went on these extravaganzas were limited to only the surest of blockbusters. By 2004, PC Gamer would only rarely break 120 pages. Many of those pages had become filled with ever-larger screenshots and headline fonts, and ever fewer actual words.

Rob began running a monthly "guess the movie quote" contest, which his successor Dan Morris has seen fit to continue. On numerous occasions I have emailed Rob, Dan, and the PC Gamer letters division suggesting that it be changed into a more appropriate "guess the PC-game quote" contest. I have not ever received a response. This is a minor quibble when contrasted with the magazine's drastically reduced page size, but one which, again, is emblematic of the changes designed to make the magazine more appealing to the masses.

The February 2002 issue contained only five of my beloved editorial columns, and four of those were reduced to half a page in length. From this point onward, extremely talented writers such as Andy Mahood, William R. Trotter, and Desslock were almost always confined to a pitifully small strip of text. The era of the full-page columns had passed, and the era of the two-page columns was long forgotten.

In the July 2005 issue, PC Gamer instituted a new policy whereby the opinion columns would appear on a rotating, bi-monthly basis. The old columns section is now restricted to one page per issue. The July and August issues of this year were both 96 pages long.

I intend to maintain my subscription to PC Gamer, if for no other reason than that my collection of back issues serves as a convenient offline record of the history of PC gaming. And it's not as if it's all doom and gloom. PC Gamer still manages to offer more exclusive reviews, hands-on previews, demos, and unveilings than anyone else in the business. However, exclusives by themselves cannot carry the magazine; all must rest on a solid foundation of writing. Fortunately, what sparse writing remains in PC Gamer is well worth reading. The reviews remain on-target (if brief), and the semi-investigative articles in the front Eyewitness section are topical and interesting. The recently revamped Extended Play section keeps a better pulse on the mod scene than anything I've ever encountered, online or off. But while it may be worth reading, I can't honestly say that PC Gamer is worth paying for, except in the case of those few desolate souls like me, who remember the golden years and desperately want them to come back.

Most troubling of all is the vague and peripheral realization that PC Gamer does not exist in a vacuum, and that the sort of changes it has endured over time are mirrored by other unsettling transitions in the culture -- indeed, in the very nature -- of PC gaming. If I'm Jonah, and this is the belly of the whale, then I hope I am soon regurgitated back into the light of day.

--Lobo

Comments

"People don't talk about anything."
"Oh, they must!"
"No, not anything. They name a lot of cars or clothes or swimming-pools mostly and say how swell! But they all say the same things and nobody says anything different from anyone else."

"Give the people contests they win by remembering the words to more popular songs or the names of state capitals or how much corn Iowa grew last year. Cram them full of non-combustible data, chock them so damned full of 'facts' they feel stuffed, but absolutely 'brilliant' with information. Then they'll feel they're thinking, they'll get a sense of motion without moving. And they'll be happy, because facts of that sort don't change. Don't give them any slippery stuff like philosophy or sociology to tie things up with. That way lies melancholy."

"People want to be happy, isn't that right? Haven't you heard it all your life? I want to be happy, people say. Well, aren't they? Don't we keep them moving, don't we give them fun? That's all we live for, isn't it? For pleasure, for titillation? And you must admit our culture provides plenty of these."

"The same infinite detail and awareness could be projected through the radios and televisors, but are not. No, no, it's not books at all you're looking for! Take it where you can find it, in old phonograph records, old motion pictures, and in old friends; look for it in nature and look for it in yourself. Books were only one type of receptacle where we stored a lot of things we were afraid we might forget. There is nothing magical in them at all. The magic is only in what books say, how they stitched the patches of the universe together into one garment for us. Of course you couldn't know this, of course you still can't understand what I mean when I say all this."

"The good writers touch life often. The mediocre ones run a quick hand over her. The bad ones rape her and leave her for the flies."

I lost all respect for PC Gamer way back when they reviewed Star Wars: Force Commander and gave it 90% (or thereabouts).

I bought some local gaming magazines for a while (this was years ago) but then I realised that the internet had everything I could ever ask for in terms of previews, reviews, screenshots, videos, etc. After that print magazines died a pretty quick death for me.

As regards the quality of print magazines these days: We had a local magazine give Enter the Matrix 90% (or something like that). The laughable thing was the multiple full-page ads for the game spread around the magazine. Unbiased review? Ummm, I think I'll get back to you.

Really, with sites like GWJ there's no need for print magazines any more (except to, as you put it, keep a historical record).

Maybe it's because of the smaller market, but here in the Benelux PCGameplay deserves to be mentioned. Up until a few years ago, out of principle no game ads were accepted. They caved in a bit, but at 10/120 pages of ads it's not really a nuisance. PCGP never accepts adverisments from games that stink in their reviews, so they said some time ago. And I haven't found proof of the opposite until now.

They regularly complain in their editorials about game publishers offering them "exclusives" if they put their game on the front cover, about publishers trying to force them to come over and play the game under their supervision for like 12 hours or so - or else they don't get the game. I believe Jedi Knight II was one of those games. PCGP chooses not to participate in these shady practics, but counting the number of magazines with "exclusive" painted all over the front cover I doubt many have the willpower to resist the Dark Side of Marketing. Including PCGamer.

Well, at least it's not all bad in the printed game magazine business, or at least PCGP seems to uphold some standard. Which pays off too: they often get exclusives, just by reputation, not by putting the game on the cover. Sometimes it's better to be a bit low-profile, due to a smaller dutch-speaking market. Altough most other Dutch magazines are pure marketing devices, Power Unlimited leading the pack. Sadly, PU is the best-selling mag in the Benelux too. Only gamers themselves are to blame for that.

Lord_Xan wrote:

I lost all respect for PC Gamer way back when they reviewed Star Wars: Force Commander and gave it 90% (or thereabouts).

You must be thinking of another magazine or another game, Xan. PC Gamer (U.S.) gave Force Commander a 43%.

dejanzie wrote:

They regularly complain in their editorials about game publishers offering them "exclusives" if they put their game on the front cover, about publishers trying to force them to come over and play the game under their supervision for like 12 hours or so - or else they don't get the game. I believe Jedi Knight II was one of those games. PCGP chooses not to participate in these shady practics, but counting the number of magazines with "exclusive" painted all over the front cover I doubt many have the willpower to resist the Dark Side of Marketing. Including PCGamer.

Agreed, dejanzie. I do not doubt that in return for exclusive deals, PC Gamer gives certain benefits to publishers. Perhaps they promise to put the game on the front cover, as you say; perhaps they offer other incentives, such as reduced cost for advertising. I really don't know. But most of the time when people talk about magazines giving kickbacks to publishers, they're talking about the inflation of review scores. I'm just saying that without specific evidence that a given magazine alters their reviews to please publishers, we should refrain from accusing them of such. This position does not conflict with the overall sentiment that shady deals happen quite often in this industry.

Lobo wrote:

You must be thinking of another magazine or another game, Xan. PC Gamer (U.S.) gave Force Commander a 43%.

Ack! I apologise for the error. It seems it was PC Gamer UK (only link I could find was this thread on Usenet), an altogether different beast than PC Gamer US.

I like the magazine Play, but that's more because I prefer the actual tactile response of a magazine over reading info online. Not that I don't do both, mind you.

I think sites like Game Rankings are the best method for getting reviews and even then, I wish there were better tools for limiting the sample population to a set of folks that had similar reactions to earlier games (like the GWJ community for Audioscrobbler). Maybe it would be different if I could find a reviewer who came across as consistent and immune to editorial influence in a magazine, but that doesn't seem to be possible.

Maybe it would be different if I could find a reviewer who came across as consistent and immune to editorial influence in a magazine, but that doesn't seem to be possible.

Is that really necessary? I mean, employees will always get pressure from above, in whatever form. There are plenty of magazines that offer a relatively unbiased view on games, and I believe to be intelligent enough to be able to filter most of the marketeer-inspired BS out. Especially in previews.

I believe the decline of PC Gaming Magazines is directly tied to the decline of PC Gaming.

Much as many refused to believe that there is anything even remotely like a decline happening one can simply look at the coming soon sidebar in PC Gamer over the last few years... where that sidebar used to have 30-40 Titles (and sometimes more) now throughout the year your lucky to see 15-20 titles on there.. and many titles are charted 1+ years out..

Sure there are smaller niche games getting released from Europe by smaller publishers but for the most part those titles are going uncharted by the US press (for whatever reasons)

So what your left with is a need to get as much filler as possible thus leading to inane articles and gushing previews on every single title to be released..

Not to mention a generally overall air of a magazine despertely trying to appeal to perhaps a more console oriented crowd.

There is a market for a PC Game based magazine its just that none of the current crop of magazines has the guts or vision to create it.

TheGameguru wrote:

I believe the decline of PC Gaming Magazines is directly tied to the decline of PC Gaming.

Then you and I are of one mind!

TheGameguru wrote:

Not to mention a generally overall air of a magazine despertely trying to appeal to perhaps a more console oriented crowd.

I didn't want to say it, so I'm glad you did, Guru.

TheGameguru wrote:

There is a market for a PC Game based magazine its just that none of the current crop of magazines has the guts or vision to create it.

That's about what it all boils down to. And with that, you win the daily award for Post Most Agreeing With Lobo.

I used to read PC Gamer when I was a kid in the mid nineties. I think I got it mostly for the demo discs, but ended-up reading a lot of the content as well. Certainly the magazine helped develope the love I have for video games today.

I stopped buying and reading the magazine when the amount of free information and demos available on the internet made the mag obsolete. Say what you like about quality writing and exclusives, for me, it can't compete with sheer volume of information updated daily and free for all.

dejanzie wrote:

Is that really necessary?

It's necessary if the magazine wants me... and this could be just what I'm most interested in... to buy their magazine. I can get most of their content in no-more-biased format online, so there has to be some other hook. I'd like it to be integrity and commitment to quality gaming, but apparently market research doesn't support my viewpoint

I'd also like to say that all hope is not lost in print publications... I've read good articles and reviews in most of the recent magazines I've picked up lately. I just wish they'd distinguish themselves (in a good way) from the pack of rabid online review venues.

I started my subscription to PCG with the one that had Garriot on the cover and an in depth preview of UO. Besides the demos they put the patches for games on their discs and when you're fastest connect speed is 26.4 you'll spend the extra money for the patches.

But like you said, the magazine was worth it in spades.

Then in 2000 I got broadband and kicked PCG to the curb, the writing while still the best of the magazines didn't seem to be worth the money of the subscription when I could now DL every patch I needed.

I did resubscribe a few years later when I moved into an apartment that didn't have broadband available but again, mainly for the patches on the CD but I really ended taking a year off from online play. Needless to say we moved out quick when the lease was up and my only demand on my GF (now wife) was we needed broadband whereever we moved to next.

Quick thoughts from a skimmer.

There are fewer new PC games coming out now than there were back then.

When magazines get taken off the rack at EB or Gamestop, they get thrown in the trash. Employees might keep a copy or slip a customer a copy on the sly. The corporations discourage it, but it's nothing you couldn't get from digging in the mall dumpster.

LobsterMobster wrote:

Quick thoughts from a skimmer.

There are fewer new PC games coming out now than there were back then.

I've always known GWJ harbored some truly insightful minds, but this...

As another devout reader of PCG from back in the day, I can only share in the lament. The thing I miss most about the golden days was being able to read about GAMES in that most private of places where some people do nearly all of their reading. You know what I'm sayin'. With the decline of quality writing in the print mags, I must admit that my appearances in the royal chamber are much shorter and to-the-point. I think that the rise of online game writing has brought some interesting phenomena like the much-touted "new game journalism". But is it really new, or just an echo of the great articles you could find in PCG? And I too miss the physical artifact of a thick magazine. My PCGs are now archived in the closet of the room I grew up in -- like a geek's version of a National Geographic collection (which fights PCG for space).

I loved PC Gamer. I remember when it was absolutely HUGE, and they used to talk trash about the page count. I really thought it was worth the money when I got it. It's really sad, what happened.

Skeletor9000 wrote:

As another devout reader of PCG from back in the day, I can only share in the lament. The thing I miss most about the golden days was being able to read about GAMES in that most private of places where some people do nearly all of their reading. You know what I'm sayin'. With the decline of quality writing in the print mags, I must admit that my appearances in the royal chamber are much shorter and to-the-point. I think that the rise of online game writing has brought some interesting phenomena like the much-touted "new game journalism". But is it really new, or just an echo of the great articles you could find in PCG? And I too miss the physical artifact of a thick magazine. My PCGs are now archived in the closet of the room I grew up in -- like a geek's version of a National Geographic collection (which fights PCG for space).

Ahh, finally, a PCG fan after my own heart! And bowels.

As for some of the old PCG articles resembling NGJ pieces, I am reminded in particular of an older Andy Mahood article in which he describes his experiences flight-simming across the country with a buddy. I'm going to go look for it now. Once I find it, I'll edit this post to let you know which issue it's in.

Edit: The article is entitled "Coffee, Tea, or Stale Pizza?" and is to be found in the January 2000 issue. Some choice quotes:

Andy Mahood wrote:

I had dinner with an old friend the other night. The dinner was a freezer-burned barbecue chicken pizza that was probably several days past the point of being fit for human consumption, and the old friend was a copy of Airline Simulator 2, a 1999 update on SubLogic's classic Flight Assignment: ATP (Airline Transport Pilot).

Mahood talks about his buddy who accompanied him on over 500 hours of simulated cross-country flying.

Andy Mahood wrote:

I'm sure the FAA would never have sanctioned any of these flights because one of the key ingredients that kept us aloft for four or five hours was beer. Lots of beer.

He later talks at some length about the updated version of the game, comparing it to other popular civilian flight sims.

Andy Mahood wrote:

Sim fans that have been brought up with FlightSim 98 or Looking Glass' Flight Unlimited series will probably snicker at the title's simplistic graphics, but for veteran ATPers like myself it was never about the visuals. It was about earning those elusive captain's bars while keeping passenger fatalities down to an acceptable minimum.

A great article indeed. And a fine example of the sort of thing for which PCG used to be famous.

The decline of PC Gamer is nothing compared to the plunge of Computer Gaming World. It was still a great magazine when I subscribed to it many years ago, but I dropped it to get the even-better PC Gamer. I recently got a free subscription and was amazed to find that the reviews are at most 1/2 page apiece, with screenshots often taking up more than half that tiny space. Sad.

Lobo wrote:

A veteran of the then-recently deceased PC Accelerator (The best gaming mag ever! But that's another article...)

I want to read that article! PC Accelerator kicked serious butt and is sorely missed.

I absolutely don't understand why so many (indeed, any at all) cherish these memories of PC Accelerator. That was absolutely the worst gaming magazine ever. The only positive thing I can recall about it is that it went out of business impressively fast.

If you don't like The Vede's PC Gamer, then it's really strange you could like PC Accelerator even in the slightest. It's like The Vede cubed, lobotomized, doused in Mountain Dew and running around with his pants down and waving a copy of Hustler sneaked from his father's den. In other words, a morbid harbinger of today's idiotic "men's lifestyle" magazines, sans style.

I shall address your points directly, Gorilla... once I get around to writing that article!

Its not all doom and gloom at PC Gamer... in the last year or so they are trying to make some positive changes.. I like the larger MOD section and if I was running that mag I'd even expand that section to more pages..

Because lets face it in the ever increasing din of the intraweb ANY decent coverage of the huge mod scene is welcomed...especially IF said coverage had some respect and quality control.

I would focus more on the niche aspects of PC Gaming... because again that seems to sometimes get overlooked.

I would probably kill all reviews...since by the time they hit print they have been rehashed over and over on the intraweb...or they're are based from an exclusive or early build and end up being nothing more than payola.

I'm ok with previews because again if they are approached correctly have some value in a print form...

I'd nuke all hardware coverage... because lets face it...its completely out of place in a gaming magazine.. sure its important to have PC Hardware For gaming...but I dont think you need it in a software based magazine.

I'd expand the strategy section to 20 pages...covering the top games... and I'd go out and get strategy's from the top players.

I'd do a regular section for MMOG's... since by their nature they are ever changing and expanding... so a dedicated monthly section (4-7 pages) on strategies...changes..direction etc.. makes sense..

I mean HELLO?? PC GAME MAGAZINES!! MMOG's in case you havent noticed are a huge part of PC gaming.

I'd nuke all hardware coverage... because lets face it...its completely out of place in a gaming magazine.. sure its important to have PC Hardware For gaming...but I dont think you need it in a software based magazine.

Disagree respectfully. PC gaming is ALL about latest sh*t. Nuking the hardware coverage out of the mag would be, like, I don't know. Nuking out all of the accessories coverage from a console-oriented mag, perhaps.

Gorilla.800.lbs wrote:
I'd nuke all hardware coverage... because lets face it...its completely out of place in a gaming magazine.. sure its important to have PC Hardware For gaming...but I dont think you need it in a software based magazine.

Disagree respectfully. PC gaming is ALL about latest sh*t. Nuking the hardware coverage out of the mag would be, like, I don't know. Nuking out all of the accessories coverage from a console-oriented mag, perhaps.

I cant think of a single person or instance where the "coverage" of PC Hardware in CGW or PC Gamer was timely or worthwhile..

There are far better sources for PC Hardware.. besides its simply too much every month for anything but a dedicated resource to cover properly.

HA! Love the dis of PC Accelerator. Some very valid points. On the topic of these ridiculous "men's lifestyle" mags, did anyone else get the $5 subscription to GMR from EB? It was basically free for me since I was getting the lame "trade-in" card. Not one of my wiser purchases. However, the magazine wasn't too bad, viewed solely as preview eye-candy. And it went into the royal magazine rack. I was summarily disappointed when, three months after I subscribed, the magazine was cancelled. Imagine my horror, then, when I received my first issue of SYNC magazine -- ostensibly a "suitable replacement" for GMR. Even if GMR were the worst of all gaming mags, SYNC remains an unsuitable selection, with its maxim-wannabe covergirls and engadget-lite tech blurbs. Blech. This is one reason why the internets is replacing print game reporting: the publishers are the ones in control, not the people responsible for creating the magazine; and they are fundamentally disconnected from their audience. Hmm. Sounds a bit like the game industry in general to me.

Like many of you have already so eloquently noted, with the advent of broadband and the explosion in internet gaming sites, PG Gamer and its like became all but useless to me. While it may have still occupied that sacred place next to the porcelain throne, it was no longer there for my edification, but rather just in case I ran out of toilet paper.

I enjoyed PC Gamer as the premier gaming mag when gaming mags mattered ... when they were a necessary part of any PC Gamers monthly routine. However, that day is gone and I could care less even if PC Gamer was still the quality magazine it once was. I haven't bought it for years and see no reason why I would want to. Everything I need is available for free and in spades.

TheGameguru wrote:

I'd nuke all hardware coverage... because lets face it...its completely out of place in a gaming magazine.. sure its important to have PC Hardware For gaming...but I dont think you need it in a software based magazine.

I agree with you that PC Gamer's current practice of reviewing video cards and prebuilt systems is basically useless. But they also have a habit of focusing on strange peripherals, speakers, and various add-ons that the big PC hardware websites routinely overlook. I wish they'd ditch the silly Alienware-Falcon-Voodoo review cycle (they seem to review the "latest" rig from one of them every month), and focus on more things like gamepads, joysticks, speaker setups, keyboard supplements, etc., since very few people seem to be doing that these days.

Those of you who have stated that print mags are essentially obsolete when compared with websites, and have been for years: part of what I think Guru and I are getting at is that, while you may be right to some degree, it doesn't *have* to be that way. There's plenty of room for a magazine to carve out a respectable niche -- especially a magazine like PC Gamer, which has so far managed to cling to some pretty talented writers. I think that if PC Gamer had maintained its commitment to insightful opinion pieces, for example, they wouldn't appear nearly so redundant today.

GG the main reason PCG expanded its hardware is that they were getting *swamped* with people either wanting to know how to get 2-3 more FPS out of their systems or worse yet, emails on how to get Frogger3D to work on their 386 with 8mb of ram. Obviously if these people are going to take time to write in they deserve a voice in the magazine.

That's not to say I don't agree with you there are many other sites/mags that go into hardware better and a game magazine able to spend more space for games is a good thing in my mind.

Console rags don't have to dedicate any room to hardware specs, everyone is the same and you pop the disc in and grab the controller. One of the PCs big minuses in the Pro/Con game is staying state of the art to play the latest/greatest games and probably one of the biggest factors in it's now dwindling market share for games.

Eezy_Bordone wrote:

GG the main reason PCG expanded its hardware is that they were getting *swamped* with people either wanting to know how to get 2-3 more FPS out of their systems or worse yet, emails on how to get Frogger3D to work on their 386 with 8mb of ram. Obviously if these people are going to take time to write in they deserve a voice in the magazine.

That's not to say I don't agree with you there are many other sites/mags that go into hardware better and a game magazine able to spend more space for games is a good thing in my mind.

Console rags don't have to dedicate any room to hardware specs, everyone is the same and you pop the disc in and grab the controller. One of the PCs big minuses in the Pro/Con game is staying state of the art to play the latest/greatest games and probably one of the biggest factors in it's now dwindling market share for games.

Thats fine....then perhaps theres a sister magazine prospect here... there are certainly enough credible internet guys that could contribute to such a gaming hardware focused magazine.

And no shortage of willing advertisers.

Funny the timing of this article. I just decided to stop getting PC Gamer after many, many years.

Recently, the magazine wrote a GLOWING review for DOOM 3, only to later essentially "retract" it in an editorial.

In the latest issue, the E3 coverage features some very childish pot-shots at console gaming. I used to be able to rely on PC Gamer for intelligence and insight. A couple of times in the past, they have had some very neat things to say about "PCs vs. consoles". Now, they've got nothing intelligent to say, except trying to pander to "PC supremicists".

Be gone.

I think one point to consider is the overall decline in the magazine industry. A lot of specialty magazines have gone under and not just pc gaming related. I imagine there has been a pretty big decline in ad dollars, hence the shrinking size of the mags. Playboy/Penthouse numbers have been in decline for years, and even recently succesful mags like Maxim have peaked on their numbers. The Inter-webby is killing magazines (It's also lower televison hours watched, books and newspapers read), and a as a result news stands are becoming a thing of the past, and places like super markets are carrying fewer and fewer specialty mags.

In all honesty, If I didn't like haveing bathroom reading materials available, I would have canceled my subscription long ago, I bet I'm not the only one.