{"id":721,"date":"2007-08-03T12:37:33","date_gmt":"2007-08-03T16:37:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/flashofsteel.com\/index.php\/2007\/08\/03\/the-future-of-print\/"},"modified":"2008-02-17T15:02:21","modified_gmt":"2008-02-17T19:02:21","slug":"the-future-of-print","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/flashofsteel.com\/index.php\/2007\/08\/03\/the-future-of-print\/","title":{"rendered":"The Future of Print"},"content":{"rendered":"

There aren’t any good reasons to visit Gamedaily<\/a> for review or previews or editorial commentary. Other reviewers fit my tastes better and I can get a top ten list from pretty much everywhere else.<\/p>\n

But they have a very good “biz” section, so I read that. And for me, the highlight is the weekly Media Coverage column by Kyle Orland<\/a>. And I don’t just say that because he has quoted me a few times. As I said when he left the Video Game Media Watch blog<\/a>, Orland was that site for me.<\/p>\n

His newest column<\/a> on the place of the print gaming media is worth a look. A couple of months ago, Orland wrote an article on the death of print<\/a>, widely quoting a number of news stories that pointed out the obvious – print is in trouble. So now he presents the other side from the mouths of people who depend(ed) on paper.<\/p>\n

Today’s column has the usual suspects (Future’s Dan Morris, Ziff’s Jon Davison and posterity’s Steve Bauman) explaining what print can deliver that differentiates itself from the online gaming press. <\/p>\n

But I’ve been hearing these prescriptions for print for a long time and there still haven’t been any major changes in the gaming mags. CGM loved running columns and features, but also tried to cover everything – from a short-lived console experiment to reviewing wargames that no one plays. GFW is stuck, wedded to a website that will run much of its content and a parent corp that wants to take few risks while it tries to unload its properties. I read PCGamer for the columns. For all the talk about value added features or profiles or the ability to take a “longer look”, many print outlets still rush to get the exclusive first review which often means looking at code six to eight weeks away from release. And the exclusive advantage lasts only as long as it takes someone to read the story and then summarize it in a forum post. If magazines can’t compete on timeliness, why do they keep trying?<\/p>\n

On the plus side, GFW and PCG are much different from each other. GFW has won me over with its lengthy interviews, which often range away from the Game That Is Being Made Now and onto larger issues of design, marketing and audience expectation. PCGamer gets to the point faster than just about any magazine that isn’t EGM and they gave Brett Todd’s mod column a home. You can make a strong case that there are more differences in personality and style on the magazine side than on the web side of the business.<\/p>\n

I do wish had thought of this line from Bauman for my recent Escapist article.<\/p>\n

Because websites cover everything in such detail, nothing really stands out. Nothing lasts. Nothing lingers.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There aren’t any good reasons to visit Gamedaily for review or previews or editorial commentary. Other reviewers fit my tastes better and I can get a top ten list from pretty much everywhere else. But they have a very good “biz” section, so I read that. And for me, the highlight is the weekly Media […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5GFeQ-bD","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flashofsteel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/721"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flashofsteel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flashofsteel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flashofsteel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flashofsteel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=721"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/flashofsteel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/721\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flashofsteel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flashofsteel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=721"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flashofsteel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}