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GQ #4, #5, #6 review

 
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leoboiko
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Joined: 17 Aug 2006
Posts: 4
Location: Curitiba, Brazil

PostPosted: Fri Sep 15, 2006 9:56 am    Post subject: GQ #4, #5, #6 review Reply with quote

Wasting time I shouldn’t in the crazy winter of Curitiba

My package with all available printed issues finally arrived, and I read them leisurely over the weeks. I didn’t receive the Pongism buttons I ordered since they were out of stock, but the guys were nice enough to send Gamer’s Quarter buttons as a replacement. I also got an apology in what maybe is ShaperMC’s handwriting (I’m saving it for ebaying when he gets famous), a nice bookmarker and a couple of “You don’t know, Jack” stickers nobody will understand because 1) most people around here don’t know English, 2) those who do don’t know enough English to get the colloquial expression, and 3) the few who do have no idea who Jack Thompson might be.

Oh yes, there were magazines too, all filled with little letters. Here’s my review.

I opened the package in a small restaurant managed by an old, gentle Japanese lady. The books are immediately likable. I noticed #6 is different than #4 and #5. I can’t say I dislike the narrow margins of the older issues, because it makes they seem all full of text and “important”. #6 is definitely more professional though. I browsed for a long time, since Japanese lady is used to me reading stuff.

I got up and, desiring some alcohol and Internet, went to visit a friend who lives in a students’ dorm. The books are physically likable. There’s something fetishistic about them, like typewriters or Lucky Strike cigarettes. The black and white paper is just asking for coffee stains. That they were made like this deliberately is an impressive feat.

Some guy comes to the room and seems to be intrigued. “They’re game magazines”, I explain. He loses all interest and reach for the coconut liquor we’re drinking. “I though they were detective novels.”

Typewriters, Lucky Strikes, coffee stains and now pulp fiction. I realize I’m mystifying the Gamer’s Quarter, but what can I do? I haven’t even read and already like it. And there’s something else they look like, something important, but I can’t say what.

So what about, you know, the contents?

To say it’s “refreshing” to see some diversity in game writing is an understatement. It’s more like if you were almost dying in the streets and found a turkey inside a crate.

I think I can see a dominating style in the articles: personal memoirism about gaming experiences. It seems to be the bread-and-butter of GQ, and it’s easy enough to generate — just grab some reasonably intelligent fellas and tell them to write about why they like the games they like, and you’re set.

I enjoy this style very much. Sometimes there’s identification, like when I first spotted “Chrono Trigger was the happiest time of my life”. I read that and nodded like an Alcoholic Anonymous, mumbling “yeah dude, me too, I know exactly what you mean”. But most of the time these personal impressions are alien to me, and that’s when they’re nicest. It’s very interesting to learn what games mean to other people, such as this guy who grew attached to his collection of ROMs (ajutla, by the way, is my favourite writer). I mean, ROMs are computer files; how can you love computer files? I never had a computer for much time, and most of the ones I had could not burn CDs. I don’t store files, I grab them from the net when I need. Files to me are something expendable and immaterial, like lies from the lips of a lover. But there he is, describing how jealous he got when someone inconsiderate copied his games. That’s as quirky as me insisting on importing an original copy of SaGa Frontier — a game I admit is bad — in a country where I never even saw what an original PS1 game looks like.

It’s a deeper kind of identification. Instead of “this person feels the same as me”, it’s “this person, like me, has feelings about games”. From mainstream media I got the idea people played games because of 9.5 graphics or because you can steal any car. Now I know about an Italian person who’s enticed by Gradius’ grandioseness, or about that Russian guy who claims the course of his life was heavily influenced by Japanese RPGs. Now I know I’m not alone. Thanks, GQ.

Behold! The Guia Games

I was laying in the low bed of my new room doing nothing when it came to me. I knew the Gamer’s Quarter reminded me of something important. I nailed it.

The Guia Games.



The Guia Games ("Games Guide" in cheesy Portuguese) was a weird magazine I prized when I was a kid. It was a single edition and, instead of the usual magazine format, it was a small, thick black-and-white (or maybe blue-and-white) book. It was expensive; my mother bought it for me as a present. It was massive, advertising “tips and walkthroughs” for a whopping 78 games. This was before the explosion of the 16-bit era, when game magazines were still thin and most people in countryside Brazil didn’t even know what a videogame was supposed to be. To my infantile knowledge, 78 games seemed close to a list of all games ever.

The content was also unusual. Games were listed alphabetically, with no relation to each other, and each entry had, below the title, a single, blurry, small, black-and-white screenshot — disappointingly enough, often of the title screen. Below you had the “tips and walkthroughs”, in the usual second-person style. Fly to the top left corner of the screen to find a secret door. Be sure to buy the white gem before leaving town. Use the spray to paint the hydrant purple. At the next room you’ll fight a giant spider.

Words fail to describe the impression those small chunks of screenshot-less text caused in my developing mind. I read the whole thing from cover to cover, again and again, until I memorized most of it. I had all those personal feelings about games I never saw, all this nostalgia about places I’ve never been. Each time when, years later, I finally played one of those games I knew only from imagination, it was like finally scoring a girl you loved platonically; a bit disappointing, a bit like returning home.

The Gamer’s Quarter is my adult Guia Games.

Not quite criticism

I heard on the net that GQ’s personal style of writing is useless because it can’t help you decide whether to buy a game or not. I couldn’t disagree more. Firstly, it’s more interesting to read, and that alone makes it more useful. And secondly, even if I’m evaluating games I find the mainstream “objective” style less informative. For example, I did read maybe a dozen reviews praising Treasure games and rating them four stars out of five, but only a couple of highly opinionated GQ articles actually made me want to try them. The same goes for the Contra series, of which I only knew the first game.

It’s very illuminating that the Contra articles contradict themselves. Sergianov says right at the beginning that “Contra: Hard Cops is the finest Contra game ever made. It is also the greatest work of current series director Nobuya Nakazato.” The rest of his piece enumerates the ways in which Hard Cops is awesome and full of depth. Then, a few pages later, Ursini calls the same game “somewhat souless”, “a flawless and cold exercise in boss-fest”.

I wonder whether that was on purpose, whether the two have discussed the matter before publishing. In any case, that the articles conflict is exactly the point, it’s the proof that they’re writing subjectively, and thanks to this their work can make you feel a little of what they felt about these games. They can do what run-of-the-mill game magazines cannot, namely, make me want to play some game I never saw. GQ is the future of advertising.

Another common criticism I hear is “empty intellectualism”. Yes, the magazine’s “literary criticism” is not, well, literary criticism, but only to the extent that games are not Ulysses. I spotted an awkward punctuation here or an overly-pretentious word there, but it was all within acceptable limits (much saner than local literary magazines, for sure). I think the only article I disliked was “Furries: Hedgehog Hodgepodge” at #4. Sorry Brandon, but frankly I think it resulted convoluted and difficult to read, with your points failing to come out clearly.

But I digress: the magazine is nicely diversified, the interviews were enlightening, the comics high level, and generally I find GQ much better than anything I can buy at a newspaper stand. I have a lot of respect for what you guys are trying to do, and hope you keep up the good work.
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Last edited by leoboiko on Sun Sep 17, 2006 12:08 am; edited 13 times in total
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dhex
Breeder
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Joined: 13 Dec 2004
Posts: 6319
Location: brooklyn, Nev Yiork

PostPosted: Fri Sep 15, 2006 10:01 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

on behalf of the staff, thanks for taking the time to write that.
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Mr. Mechanical
Friendly Stranger
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Joined: 14 Oct 2004
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PostPosted: Fri Sep 15, 2006 12:38 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

It's always nice to hear every now and then what people liked about the magazine instead of what they hated. Thank you.
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SuperWes
Updated the banners, but not his title
Updated the banners, but not his title


Joined: 07 Dec 2004
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PostPosted: Fri Sep 15, 2006 2:50 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thanks man! We're doing this for you!

-Wes
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Shapermc
Hot Sake!
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Joined: 14 Oct 2004
Posts: 6279

PostPosted: Fri Sep 15, 2006 6:16 pm    Post subject: Re: GQ #4, #5, #6 review Reply with quote

I thank you very much for writing that up. I wish I could spend the time to comment on every point you make but we are trying to wrap up the next issue. I did want to touch on one point though, because it is something very important to me:
leoboiko wrote:
It’s very illuminating that the Contra articles contradict themselves. Sergianov says[...] Then, a few pages later, Ursini calls [...].

I wonder whether that was on purpose, whether the two have discussed the matter before publishing.

You didn't mention either writer as "the author" or "the writer of article X" nor did you even mention the article names. This is one of the things I was really hoping would happen with the magazine. Each article is not a throw away review written by a faceless person (or even someone just going by their first name), this is Ursini's opinion, this is Amandeep's opinion, this is their story. When you read a novel or even a good magazine, an authorial voice will stick out and that person is conveying their opinion to you, not a magazine that has a unified voice.

For regular consumers, Consumer Reports exist for products. If you want to find out more, get someone specifics opinion, or just have an interesting read, you go somewhere else. Currently with game publications there really isn't (rather wasn't) "somewhere else."

And again, thank you for taking the time!
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Sushi d
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PostPosted: Fri Sep 15, 2006 6:45 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

what a well written peice of work there. i thank you for writing it.


i understand your love for old strategy guides. i too used to love looking at guides for games i've never owned.

1 cool thing you dont see much of these days is those full level maps from games.

those were nice.
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Persona-sama
Weltbeherrschen Mangaka
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Joined: 14 Oct 2004
Posts: 709
Location: acrylic polymer dismutation

PostPosted: Fri Sep 15, 2006 7:43 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Haha, I really enjoyed those conflicting Contra POVs in that issue too. I think it made the Contra issue seem more unified in its overall Contra-ness despite having conflicting opinions.

Thanks for the feedback, Leoboiko! You should take artsy photos of yourself reading the magazine and then pimp it as the next "must have" alternative accessory! Actually, we should do that too! I recall we sort of did this with an older thread some time ago.
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leoboiko
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Joined: 17 Aug 2006
Posts: 4
Location: Curitiba, Brazil

PostPosted: Sat Sep 16, 2006 11:59 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Shapermc wrote:
Each article is not a throw away review written by a faceless person


Yes, you're winning on that. The authors' identity is visible and well-defined. In this little review I used expressions like "the person who loved ROMs" or "an Italian guy" for stylistic purposes (cof), but I was thinking about each author individually. Even the editorial freedom contributes to this, since you can tell certain writing styles from the first paragraph.

In fact, I wish the table of contents had the author names besides their articles. More than once I was disappointed because I wanted to look for "that Szczepaniak piece" or "whatever ajutla has come up with in this issue".

Sushi d wrote:
what a well written peice of work there


hey thanks!

Persona-sama wrote:
You should take artsy photos of yourself reading the magazine and then pimp it as the next "must have" alternative accessory! Actually, we should do that too!


Now that's a nice idea! In fact, I was already planning some sort of pretentious picture with meaningless cult acessories, but since you suggested the same thing I think I'll take more than one.
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