Fungi Forums
Video Games => Video Game Chat => Topic started by: Super-Jesse on May 14, 2007, 06:42:54 PM
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Hm, the end of an era might be near. Everyone's favorite site, IGN.com, is claiming to have heard that Nintendo is planning to either close or restructure its official Nintendo Power magazine. This comes a week after NoA announced they were moving a large chunk of its marketing and sales departments from Seattle to a new city (San Fran or New York, where's the TEXAS love?-ed). Apparently, IGN.com has sources close to the publication that say they were told to find work by September or be left out in the cold.
Now, I gotta rant for a sec. I used to love Nintendo Power, but I always felt that from the moment they re-designed the mag a few years back, it's been unreadable and really a waste of time, especially with free-based blogs running rampant and other magazines, such as GameInformer, that offer more than a subscription with help from a retailer. I believe a tall rebirth would be in order to save the publication. Why not start a Club Nintendo here? With a Nintendo Power subscription, you could get points towards purchases on the Wii's Shop Channel. Or, better yet, move the magazine to become a Wii channel. You save the cost of having to print a paper, and could instead charge a 10 dollars a year digital subscription that allows you to download demos, customer mii skins, or items from the channel. In addition, you could still get the in-depth features that the magazine would want to offer. Now, that'd be Playing with POWER!
Okay, might be a bad idea, but I seem to be excited over it. Thoughts? Suggestions?
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Game Informer rules. It's a shame Nintendo Power could be shutting down, though I'll agree with the whole "re-design" thing. The magizine kinda sucked after that.
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Nintendo Power went downhill long before the redesign; the redesign was a good step in getting it back to its former glory. You're right about the need for Club Nintendo... or even bringing back the Super Power Supplies catalog. I recall another rumor a while back about Nintendo considering putting back issues online as a Wii channel. Nintendo really should start offering demos; from what I understand, Nintendo Power wanted to do it last gen, but NCL wouldn't let them. Also, the Shop Channel already has the infrastructure to handle demos; it's just a matter of putting some up.
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I agree with MB. It's a much better magazine now than it was a few years ago.
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I've never really liked Nintendo Power. This will sound blaringly stupid, but they seem biased towards Nintendo products (as in, they tend to rate Nintendo-made stuff high no matter what). I'm not a Nintendo-exclusive gamer, so I've never really found it helpful.
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Almost all magazines are gonna seem biased toward or against some area of video games. I read a lot of biased magazine reviews against the PMD games. PMD blue and red rescue teams are by no means bad games.
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Almost all magazines are gonna seem biased toward or against some area of video games. I read a lot of biased magazine reviews against the PMD games. PMD blue and red rescue teams are by no means bad games.
For a moment I read PMD as "Paper Mario's Dungeon."
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Almost all magazines are gonna seem biased toward or against some area of video games. I read a lot of biased magazine reviews against the PMD games. PMD blue and red rescue teams are by no means bad games.
Well, then you're biased towards Pokemon. I've played one of them (the DS version), and it is absent of anything resembling fun. But that's probably because I'm biased towards action games; most anything RPG-ish I find boring.
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I'm not necessarily biased toward Pokemon alone. I love RPGs. If I ever find the chance, I'd like to try one of the old Final Fantasy games (any FF game before 7)
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NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! ToT
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I don't think NP will ever shut down. Not as long as Nintendo of America continues to fund it. It would be quite upsetting since I have a 2 year supscription.
A rebirth also seems unlikely since they went through one back in late 2004 and then again in mid 2005.
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I wish there we some numbers on the installed base of readers and profit that NP is putting out. That'd give a better idea of what Nintendo is trying to do. I guess we'll see next week, as alot of Nintendo announcements are nigh...
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Once NP stops using slanted subtitles with cheesy sayings, then I'll start supporting them. It looks too...MTV-ish (circa 1980s).
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Okay, here's a place to finally unleash my rant.
I've been getting Nintendo Power ever since I was, like, seven. Looking back, it was maybe just a little infantile, but I have almost every poster from every issue since 103 on my walls. It was that big a deal. Then... came that infamous '05 makeover--and with it, clearly, a rapidly modified staff. So stunned was I at such a crucial part of my existance--then, at least--turning into garbage, and mildy obsessive-compulsive, I labored over a two-page grievance about what the folks at NP had done and fired it off. They either never read it or thought I was insane, because nothing came of it. Now, I'm really only getting it because I just, for some reason, can't bear to stop after nearly a decade of constant subscriptions... and I like the posters (though they print them on the other side with cheaper paper now--go figure).
In a nutshell, what was once an enjoyable and kinda-biased publication is now a shoddy, sloppily made POS that seems legally required to make at least three asinine typographical and/or factual errors per month, and at least one use of the word "badass". Their layout is inconsistant, their computer evidentally only has three fonts, and the whole tone comes across like something your mom would write when she was trying to sound cool. It's sad, really, because this was supposed to be a great new beginning for them, a "maturation", as I think they said at one point. For I while, although I hated it, I thought maybe they'd succeeded with a wider audience, but as I'm rapidly seeing on many a website with the announcement of this story, that's not really the case. Sure, I'm getting a little used to the "New NP" (it's been two years, FYI), but if it does go down... eh.
...Oh, and if they wanted to prove they weren't biased, giving Twilight Princess a 9.5 wasn't the best way to do it. What beats that? When Jesus breaks into the gaming biz? Come to think of it, I don't think they're biased (well... at least not totally biased), I just think everything else on Nintendo systems ususally sucks so much in comparison.
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No, they're really pretty much right about game reviews, it seems to me.
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I've always disliked NP's reviews. They need not one, but two lame subititle jokes, usually ABOVE the name of the game, like this:
POOPY
A GAME WITH STUFF THAT EXPLODES
EXPLODING BARRELS 4
That alone is annoying. What's worse is that they never really tell you whether or not a game is good; they just use a constant stream of lame puns and observations, like Gene Shallet. What's worse is that they seem to give every non-Nintendo game a score of 6.5 or less, regardless of quality (now for someone to show me a single example to the contrary and go, "nuh-uh!"). Basically, NP is like one of those 20-page catalogues of games you'd get at GameStop designed to look like reviews.
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I loved that game!
Haha, on a serious note...
My Rant, By Super-Jesse
I think it's easy to call an in-house gaming mag's reviews biased because we have no other systems to base them on. Their paycheck comes straight from Nintendo, bottomline. Now, Nintendo's made a few bad games here and there, and I think the fact that they churn out less games than 3rd parties collectively, it makes it seemed like their scores are a bit skewed. I am not saying I don't agree with both arguments, each have valid points. What I am saying is that I believe Nintendo Power has lost relevance in this day and age, something other print mags are experiencing. What NP needs more of is in-depth features, like what GameInformer, and to an extent EGM, are doing. I think it's not about triyng to be "hip" or "edgy", but moreso about giving older readers something to think about, while not alienating the younger crowd, which is the majority of the readers I'd assume.
It's a fine line Nintendo Power must walk, and I say the best thing to do is to either scrap print mags, or incorporate the mag with a Wii channel. Nintendo needs to start adding incentives, and that's a marketing decision. So, maybe the Bay area will give them better insight :P
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Although I'm sure this isn't what you meant, I'm tired of the "print magazines are dead" thing I'm hearing so much about these days. I actually prefer print mags like GI and EGM, since they generally focus on bigger issues instead of every little news bit. The one thing I dislike is how they're often late with some news. For example, many magazines were still calling the Wii Revolution a month after the name change.
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Although I'm sure this isn't what you meant, I'm tired of the "print magazines are dead" thing I'm hearing so much about these days.
Yeah, I didn't mean to sound as if that was my stance. My stance is that Print magazines need to embrace the advances that the internet has brought. GI does a good job of this, with their Insider. For those who don't know, GI in the last few months has moved to where you get a huge amount of in depth articles and information in their mag and online. This allows to introduce readers to the articles, and then give more details by going on their website and seeing maybe some candid comments from the developer, or openly participate in the discussion on their forums. This gives that immediate satisfaction that the internet is known for, and the traditional feel of a print magazine. This was my point: Nintendo need to embrace the technology, because if they do not Nintendo Power will become the GameCube of print mags: Alot of potential hindered by better technology. I don't want print magazines to die at all, I just want them to evolve, and not become stale. Despite a new look, how much has Nintendo Power changed from times before? Is there more information, better information, more accurate information now?
I also want them to bring back the Nintendo cataloged, because if I could buy Mario plushes again, I'd love that :)
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Interesting thing is, Nintendo Power was one of the first magazines with a major online presence! First with an AOL site and later with Nintendo.com before it got all corporate. You could even download some issues off of the Satellaview in Japan. Like I said before, old Nintendo Power (80s-90s) was great and fizzled during the N64 years (much like Nintendo). The newer editions, at least, have been bringing exclusive interviews, and they need to keep doing that kind of stuff to stay relevant. They're starting to engage fans and the internet more as well, but they could certainly do a better job. I never saw reviews as their strong point, it was all about the game strategy info, and that's something that almost died completely. I think part of the problem is just that there are more games released than ever before, and that gums up the magazine.
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I agree with MB, the interviews are pretty much the only reason to read Nintendo Power anymore. The Community section at the end of each issue is nice, but it doesn't really interest me because my interest of video games has never really crossed over with any other media.
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I also want them to bring back the Nintendo cataloged, because if I could buy Mario plushes again, I'd love that :)
Speaking about that, I have an old catalogue the has all these plushies with Mario and friends, and other assorted Nintendo junk, it was from around the time SSB was released, I could scan some pics if you like.
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I could scan some pics if you like.
Shoot me a PM once you got the scans up, and I'll make sure to save'em.
Nintendo Power, if I'm not mistaken, was originally known for their strats. I only bring this up because it is the one thing Nintendo has going for it. That's where other print mags are lacking, and Nintendo should exploit this difference. I don't see in-depth strategies on other mags like I do with Nintendo Power, plus, when they do "Oh, next level next month", it sorta creates this series for some younger gamers, and that'll be a big hook. I think this line of thinking, going back to the roots, is the first building block to a better mag. They ( the editors) just gotta look at themselves and ask "What do we want Nintendo Power to be about?"
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Well, I was going to say "What about Tips & Tricks?" but lately, they've been adding in all manner of assorted non-strat crap. I remember when they bumped down the strategy guide count to just 2 per issue. I literally said, aloud, in the store, "Who gives half a cup of crap about music in video games?" I remember when they had, like, six guides per issue. That rocked.
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Glorb, you just made an enemy.
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Two of them.
I personally don't want to see Nintendo Power get shut down. That's where I get all my information on what new Wii and DS stuff is coming out.
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Make that three!
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I agree with Glorb about the stupid subtitles above the game names, but I give a crap about game music. Not a whole crap mind you, but at least half a cup of crap.
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Well, regardless of the quantities of crap given, what I meant was T&T's new section about various stupid bands I don't care about. It's always about the announcement of some song in Guitar Hero VI or how some member of some stupid punk band mentioned something about Mega Man or whatever. It's completely useless information that no one could possibly care about, especially not in a strategy magazine. Furthermore, no one wants useless info about the editors' opinions, upcoming Uwe Boll films, toys, comics, or cartoons in a strategy magazine. Sorry if I'm ranting, but it really annoys me.
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Nintendo Power is not a "strategy magazine".
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Rumor to the rumor:
http://themushroomkingdom.net/board/index.php?topic=10315.0
check it out, yo
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Nintendo Power is not a "strategy magazine".
I was talking about Tips & Tricks. I've always assumed that's what Tips & Tricks meant, unless my definition of the word is out of date.