The Gamer's Quarter

[showka]

I was missing print magazines in my life, so I made a trip to Gamestop for the first time in years to renew my subscription to Game Informer, one of the last gaming magazines left. On the way out I walked by Barnes and Noble, which always has a lot of cool magazines from the UK sold at ridiculous prices, and noticed there was a new version of GameFan that just launched here in the USA.

It looks like Dave Halverson is running the show for now, but hopefully he's not just attaching his name to this thing to make a quick buck like Ed Semrad did with the EGM relaunch (IIRC he stopped being the editor in chief after the first issue). I know lots of people have an issue with Halverson, but one thing the guy has always done well was saturate the shit out of print magazines with colorful images, and the new GameFan is no exception. It looks like a condensed version of Play magazine. I don't think Play or GameFan were ever the best written magazines, but I have to admit I loved their look, which stimulates every neuron that's been wired to recognize videogame imagery since I was seven.

The fact that is isn't written well doesn't matter much to me anymore, because as I've grown older I've come to realize that almost all videogame sites or magazines have always consisted on mediocre writing.

With one exception: Insert Credit and the Gamer's Quarter.

The thing that would dovetail beautifully with GameFan's resurrection would be if somehow the web of amazing individuals who worked on the Gamer's Quarter would reunite and try to once again give us new issues of the greatest print publication the gaming world ever saw.

Alas, it seems everyone has gone on to different things, as has the medium itself. I don't know if this is just old-guy nostalgia talking, but it seems that the batshit crazy, mostly Japanese originated games like Metal Gear Solid 2 or Silent Hill 2 just don't get made anymore. Maybe I'm just too busy to spend the hours playing everything to find the few gems that matter. Or maybe, to paraphrase Old Snake, games have changed. I'm sure Kojima would agree with that sentiment right now.

Additionally I'm sure many of the writers, who were mostly in their mid-twenties back when GQ came out, might not be the same people they used to be. It could be the Insert Credit collective "voice" is gone now, though it seems to reappear in pockets across the net. When I think of recent events such as Gamer Gate, it makes yearn for a consolidated place to hear the writers of GQ chime in.

Regardless, it's still nice to dream of how great it would be if somehow GQ reformed and inspired a new generation to deeply consider the medium. Until then, I'll always treasure the volumes of GQ I still have on my shelf.

[Redeye]

Hi there!

I don't know how many people still check these forums, or how often.
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I felt sheer anarchic joy when I ran over my first pedestrian.

[kirkjerk]

Not very often
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[aderack]

i mean.

some of the writing in play was pretty good.

while it lasted.
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[sharc]

we, as a culture, cannot allow ourselves to forgive dave halverson