By: Mike Martin-Banks

I had written an editorial in August of 2001 on the degradation of Nintendo Power, Nintendo of America's official magazine. (Read it here.) Years later I received mail from a site visitor expressing his agreement with the article.

The feelings you expressed in your editorial about Nintendo Power are all too familiar to me.

The magazine has improved a little in the last couple of months, but I still maintan my subscription in the hope that it can get better still. In a recent issue one page had photos of both Paris Hilton and "Ludacris". I can't tell you how much this pains me. I emailed Nintendo about it with no response, not that the format of my message called for any reply. In your editorial you assured readers that you intended to bring your concerns to the attention of the company and expected a standardized reply. So I'm writing to ask if that happened, and if their response (if any) was any surprise to you at all.

Steven "Garsh" Minar

I cannot think of a better way to update that '01 article than in the format of commenting to Steven and singling him out to be the subject of his own editorial here, on the internationally-read NES Player, to represent himself and the countless others that never hear back from a game magazine after they spend the time and energy to write a letter. Here's looking at you, kid.

---

Way back in 2001 I was nice and naive about the way that magazines were run. And to answer your question, yes, at that time, I tried contacting them, but no I never received a reply either.

I also sent an opinionated e-mail to another big magazine in the U.S., Electronic Gaming Monthly, and they also never bothered to respond. Interestingly enough, in the case of EGM, in the months to come I noticed photographs and other things exclusive to NESPlayer.Com appearing inside of EGM magazines. It was then I realized that they had probably read the message (because the website's URL was in my signature), checked out the site, took some ideas (at least one specific that I can recall) and pictures off the site (every time you see the legendary Captain Lou Albano in this magazine you know where he was taken from), and finally after all that still decided not to get in touch with me. How professional of them!

You can imagine, although I still do receive EGM in the mail, it isn't because I pay for it but rather because they are sent out as part of a free subscription deal from signing up for GameFly or filling out a survey somewhere, sometime long ago.

Getting back to Nintendo Power for now, I still do subscribe to them but for an entirely different (and even more pathetic) reason than before: for the subscription bonus material. For example, do you remember the "Legend of Zelda: Collector's Edition" that contained all of the Zelda games, save for the SNES one, on one Gamecube disc? I thought that was reason enough for another year's subscription and now I believe they fetch incredible prices in used game stores if I'm not mistaken.

Something that still grabs me about that old piece is the part on NP's then-recent policy of displaying ads. I can recall back when they first began running adverts. The magazine's staff felt obliged to write on the flap of the first page a promise that advertisements would be beneficial to everyone. They felt, because readers would be kept informed about upcoming game releases in the full-page ads, that these spotlighted titles might help inform of their upcoming release. NP promised their readers this was not something to fret because the ads would always be geared toward game-related products and that this was actually a win-win situation for everyone involved. I didn't buy the argument. I thought it odd then that the advertisements were to do the job of informing about new releases and not the NP writers themselves.

Travel four years ahead from that 2001 article to the present-day 2005, and you can full well see how 'gamer-influenced' these ads have become. A typical NP runs advertisements for kid-targeted yogurt, Juicy Fruit gum (Issue 186), "Harry Potter" and "Kangaroo Jack" DVDs (Issue 186) among many other flavor of the month, non-game related items. So much for committing to the reading gamers, huh?

In other magazines, advertisements have jumped right out of the pages and even into your home PCs. Such was the case of GamePro's Axe deodorant ad which came bundled with a CD-ROM that promised "vixen" ladies (and almost assuredly more ads to be downloaded to your computer). And don't you dare get me started on the granddaddy of this interactive advertising: those AOL CDs. As far as I'm concerned, every-single-body in AOL's marketing department is going to hell for the sheer amount of waste they produced over the long years.

To address the "Celebrity Power" issue you brought up, in Nintendo Power Issue 190, just as you said, the magazine does indeed feature Paris Hilton (+sis) and Ludacris posing with the Nintendo DS at the Sundance Film Festival. Though it does take up a full page, and should hardly be owed more than a short blurb, that does not nearly bother me as much as the featured writer's usage of the phrase "lust-see TV" to describe the Hilton Sisters' Simple Life Fox show. Chalk this effort to get slutty women and a foul-mouthed rapper as another desperate act NP puts on to "get with times" or, some might say, (and by "some" I obviously mean myself), N's way to pursue a more "adult" crowd. It is by no stretch of the imagination far-fetched to call me a very enthusiastic supporter of Nintendo, but I can say very candidly that Nintendo is really doing its readers an injustice by acting this way. If they really think this kind of coverage can cause them to become a quasi-competitor with the sexual and violent high standards set a long time ago by the PS2 and Xbox people, they are sorely mistaken and far dumber than I had previously made them out to be.

Despite it being a common thing to pick up an Official U.S. Playstation Magazine and see pages upon pages dedicated to the hottest new DVD releases, and their subsequent DVD reviews outnumbering the magazine's game reviews, I should expect more from the one company that prides itself on innovation and remains dedicated to gaming alone. One only needs to recall how they boldly showed everybody in the games industry this is "who they are" (to use Nintendo's "Who Am I?" ad campaign) by remaining the only current home console system unable to play DVDs, and without a hard drive, for sure. Ironically, it is NP that needs to stop posing the question to its readers and instead remind itself of the answer.

Where have all the REAL Nintendo geeks like Ace Ebb gone to that made NP what it was before? That is precisely what NP needs, more Ace Ebb, more dedicated gamers. OPM might have a different agenda to uphold, but NP has no excuse for this behavior. Gamers do not need a boost of confidence to help raise them from their state of geekiness by seeing celebrities and models adorn their pages, or for that matter hearing about entertainment news outside of the industry. That's what Maxim (and co.) is for. Let's face it, if you buy or subscribe to a game magazine, you are a gaming geek plain and simple. This is not a bad thing or the end of the world; it is saying to the postman that one of your favorite hobbies is video games. If this offends you, maybe you should not renew that subscription of yours (and get that postman off your back). But if you can admit that this description fits you - and why shouldn't it - then it is safe to assume everyone like you feels the same way too and also shares the same urge to write NP by the masses. It essentially comes down to is it too much to expect from an all-gaming magazine all-game news and all-game advertisements?

The truth about the majority of magazines is they are like any other printed media in America. The magazine is run by higher corporate publishing conglomerates; they get paid and live on advertisement; and they always have their biases and pounded agendas. Let's take a closer look into the process.

"Magazines are loss leaders for advertising bucks, plain and simple. The secret is in amassing subscribers through programs, even if you have to pay to get them. Publishers spend millions buying subs so they can audit big and score the ads, that's it. Ad agencies don't know one mag from the other nor do they care. They look at a pink piece of paper and go with the biggest. Most magazines are 90% subscriber, 10% newsstand." - Dave Halverson, current editor-in-chief of Play Magazine*

Mr. Halverson's worthwhile piece of the puzzle puts a spin on the usual method a person would think magazines use to attract and keep customers. Nintendo is a prime example of this model, often offering tee-shirts that feature the latest releases' characters, their strategy guides, and yes even enticing extra bonuses (like the Zelda: Collector's Edition disc that won me over). To put this in a real working example, handing over a $10-15 promotional item while a buyer purchases a $20 12-month subscription might seem like a bad business move for Nintendo in the short-run, but what your little addition to their pool of readers really does is ups NP's quota of viewership and adversely boosts ad venue by scoring higher above other magazines (= more money). Good promotional items do seem like the best win-win situation in the case of helping everyone.

On the other extreme, insufficient promotional items not given to subscribers is a lose-lose situation. What do I mean exactly? I mentioned before that I receive a free subscription to EGM. Sure, it is clearly unfair to expect them to have the resources (or willpower) to give away the sort of swag Nintendo carries; I never expected it in the first place. But when EGM made the effort to bundle DVDs, with which held a handful of video previews and one or two funny segments from a group of filmmakers called Mega64, I expected the mag to serve them out with a smile. However I soon found out to my dismay that I was not about to receive such specially marketed discs in the mail anytime soon. I figured this was because my subscription was free and I got what I paid for - nothing. I shrugged it off. A month went by and another DVD-less issue arrived containing an interesting note from the editors beneath a letter that revealed some eye-opening news about the new add-in. I discovered from this one angry subscriber, that the bonuses were not only removed from the people receiving free subscriptions, but that they were not shipping out to ANY issues mailed to those who actually PAID to subscribe. It was coldly explained, obviously anticipating this potential concern for upset, that the DVDs were a newsstand exclusive because they cost too much to make to give away and it went on to say how EGM was really doing its loyal subscribers a service by removing them (Why? Because in the long run they would have had to raise the subscription's annual price). Woah, in this case, EGM pulled a classic Catch-22. A BONUS ITEM for those who do NOT regularly patronize the magazine! Paying ANNUALLY to ensure you NEVER receive anything in return! After reading the ballsy reply, I figured that the shady marketing practice and the arrogant tone used by the talking head was amble enough reason to turn me away from ever paying for another EGM again. And it has been that way since.

This bizarre example is reason enough to segway to the elusive 10% that remain. To begin things, there is the topic of availability of newsstands to discuss. It doesn't hurt any when your mag is available in almost every grocery store and book store across the country to sway passerbys into buying (and eventually subscribing because "you are saving from the newsstand price"). The widespread circulation is greatly due to one powerful publisher backer's influence (Ziff Davis, in the case of EGM, which also owns Official U.S. Playstation Magazine, Xbox Network, GMR, Computer Gaming World, PC Magazine, etc etc). These newsstand viewers, even if they get rewarded with DVDs from EGM, receive no more attention than anybody else.

Therefore an opinion of one measly person, or for that matter one measly person's money, still means squat to "big" magazines. It is important to note that the case is slightly different if a magazine receives a storm of bad press from people; they may want to address the problem 'coolly' by picking out one and responding to the claim in a letter section. This is often done in a sarcastic manner, making the complaint appear trivial and confusing who it is to blame (as was precisely the case with the missing DVDs from EGMs).

The other letters chosen to fill the proverbial reader mail section usually tend to fall into the mix of the mag's childish humor focus or to reaffirm their previous hype placed on particular gaming issues that they feel are important. If a differing opinion is not agreeable with them, it still might be shown, but likely following a published response that not only rips on the letter but usually the writer himself knowing that the person has no way of responding back in the next printed issue. Offering a roundhouse table of opinions to be honored in the only part of the mag where readers have any input seems foreign to many game magazines. In most cases, the reader input page/s is a continuation of the staff's written voice - only through the mouths of others to appear more authentic-like.

If in the case of the writer is not looking to get published, but only wants a private response, it may very well prove to be just as hard to obtain given the mostly human-less, cyborg automatic customer service that is provided by many mainstream magazines today (I should add, that do no not relate to the financial issues/problems one might have. Inquiring about renewing a magazine will undoubtly receive a more prompt reply, of course).

I am trying to be a realist here. Magazines go with the motions. If one reader ceases to renew a subscription, with the amount of attention these mainstream magazines can get in any given time because they are so readily available by way of the publisher's influence pushing them forward, an act by a dissenter will surely be balanced with one or more new subscribers at the same point in time. But it is wrong to think of yourself as a dispensable customer, no matter how much truth there might be to that in a financial standpoint. Game magazines are supposed to cater towards its gamer base and we expect to be served fairly. Some magazine giants have fallen in the past, and some others will follow suit, because they have failed financially- because they have failed their audiences - or both.

Whenever NP is concerned, it is true that I expect much more out of them because I see them as almost a public relations department to Nintendo of America. Most of the time, unfortunately, they tend to follow the same kind of lowered standard as the others.

I cannot force you or anyone else to do anything, but I would suggest that you really do make your voice heard and check deal websites or various promos to see if there are free subscriptions to be had. There is always the point in taking advantage of a magazine's circulation by flipping a current issue in a book store or wherever. Most of the time the people who read game magazines are only concerned with review scores. GameRankings.Com is a great place to see how printed and online publications rate new and old video games. If previews is your thing, there is a multitude of free public resources on the web only a click away and almost always up before a printed magazine can cover the scoop. So you see, even though game magazines may seem like they have a monopoly on things and to them you are miniscule unimportant committer, remember that you can cancel your subscription in protest without any reservation knowing you have the same available information (and more) at your finger tips and an extra twenty in your wallet.

Yo Nintendo, my subscription will be ending in November; what have you got planned for me this year? A Mario compilation disc, perhaps, this time around? Steven, for people like you and me, that's the best we can hope for until Nintendo gets its act together.

*(Steven was informed enough on this issue to reply back with an interesting quote from an editor-in-chief who was once budding heads with EGM.) source: (page 3 of Gaming-Age)