mosaic
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(01-18-04 04:57:12 AM)
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You know, as broken as this incident was at
the time -- I must admit that my own experience with the
production of gaming mags has made me able to see how
something like this can sneak past a managing editor and
production staff, even if down the line that includes a copy
editor and a few other quality assurance related
folks.
Nonsense paragraphs, bizarre typos, missing or
improper images, headlines that don't fit the text, etc. -- a
lot of this stuff happens to every publication eventually,
mainly because the people involved get so used to what the
magazine should look like that something won't catch their eye
unless it totally assaults the layout. Look at the layout of
that Game Fan article and imagine how easy it would be for
someone used to seeing blocks of text set like that, in that
font, in that color scheme, would just ignore it entirely. "Oh
look, the sports section... I haven't read this in months and
I'm not about to start." Then the magazine comes out and
proclaims jap bastards love to freak and that Namco are on
some good drugs. Hey, the screenshots had a football game in
it!
Dave's real failure, at least for that one
incident, was to write up an apology that totally didn't have
the tone of a publication that was striving for quality or
remorseful of their slipup. Kobe Bryant gave his wife a 4
million dollar ring. Dave gave the readership the equivalent
of a toy ring from a 25c capsule machine. Perhaps a more
sympathetic letter would have allowed everyone to accept the
incident as an unfortunate mishap and simply remember it for
the comedy value. But really, it was the beginning of the end
for that mag....
Of course, I've heard from a few
ex-Game Fan / Game Go / Gamer's Republic people in the past,
and Dave's other slipups are the stuff of legend too. When you
hear how he'd stiff employees, take credit for their work, or
totally rewrite their work, you get the impression that maybe
he's the kind of guy that could proclaim about the freaking of
jap bastards or spend a month cuddling up to Card Captor
Sakura in lieu of working. The chain of events that led to
Eidos taking control of the company hurt my brain to think
about.
Surprise, surprise, his latest endeavor, Play,
honestly seems like a decent magazine... it hasn't sparked an
incident, sent off disgruntled staff or freelancers, or
proclaimed every single game from Japan an 88% must
have.
(Aside -- say what you will about GameFan's
writing; it had a ton of screenshots for the time and their
coverage of imports / quirky games was far and above EGM and
GamePro at the time. I absolutely loved GameFan up until the
point the other mags caught up to their ideas... which was
right around the time the Saturn launched, if I recall. And I
have to admit wanting to stab Nick Rox for his "purple
shadows" rant about Street Fighter Alpha... I got over that
sometime in 2000 I think. Hahaha.)
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Funny to see you roll your eyes at just one tiny bit
of that, Mariner.
