The Duel Between Gaming Magazines and Websites

The New York Times has up a piece looking at the ongoing battle between websites and magazines in the world of games journalism. With magazine subscriptions falling every year and a non-stop churn of news online, the article examines the ways that mags try to stay competitive, and the views of the gamers that read them. "The circulation for PC Gamer, a leading magazine from Future US, shrank to 210,369 this year from 300,271 in 2003, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations. Magazine publishers say that readers want longer features and in-depth articles as a counterpoint to the short, bloglike pieces they find online. But Kyle Orland, a freelance journalist who writes a media coverage column for Gamedaily.com, wondered if that strategy was working, saying that when a large feature is published, it doesn't get read. 'Attention spans are just getting so small that readers don't know what they want,' Mr. Orland said."

Nonsense

[Cy Sperling (960158)]

Magazine publishers say that readers want longer features and in-depth articles as a counterpoint to the short, bloglike pieces they find online. But Kyle Orland, a freelance journalist who writes a media coverage column for Gamedaily.com, wondered if that strategy was working, saying that when a large feature is published, it doesn't get read. 'Attention spans are just getting so small that readers don't know what they want,' Mr. Orland said."

That is just plain ridiculous. If I am eagerly anticipating game X, and a magazine has an in-depth 8 page preview- of course I am going to read it. Are we all such twitchy ADD zombies that nobody can maintain their attention for more than a page? I call bullshit on that...

Re:Nonsense

[edwdig (47888)]

That is just plain ridiculous. If I am eagerly anticipating game X, and a magazine has an in-depth 8 page preview- of course I am going to read it. Are we all such twitchy ADD zombies that nobody can maintain their attention for more than a page? I call bullshit on that...

If it's an 8 page preview because it has 1 paragraph and 15 ads per page, then it's not going to keep many people's attention.

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[twistedsymphony (956982)]

I can tell you that the Ads are what caused me to cancel my Subscription to Official Xbox Magazine (OXM). I bought it strictly for the disk because there would inevitably be 1 or 2 discs a year with something I wanted and at $24 for an annual subscription and $10 a mag in the stores it was worth just subscribing.

In the span of a year the magazine went from 80-100 pages down to about 40-50, the disc cases went from nice plastic DVD thin packs down to printed cardboard sleeves and then down to generic whit

Re:

[twistedsymphony (956982)]

That should read....

newsstand editions of the magazine were higher quality than the subscription editions

Buy EDGE instead.

[emj (15659)]

$24 annual seems pretty low, if you want quality go buy EDGE [wikipedia.org] which is the only gaming magazine that I would buy, they don't give it to you for $2 each though... From my own experience with printing 4 color newspapars, it's impossible to good quality and sell for that little.

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[brkello (642429)]

If it is an 8 page preview, we are talking about an 8 page preview. Not talking about the ads. The ads on the websites are even worse than the ones in the magazines so your gripe is largely made up.

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[edwdig (47888)]

The original quote was from a writer for a web site who claimed that long stories don't get read. He was speculating on how well long stories work for magazines based on his experience with the web.

Hence my point that it's more likely the amount of advertising than the amount of content that's causing the trends he's seeing.

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[sqrt(2) (786011)]

Or opera. I never saw any ads at all even with FF. The only problem is I have not been able to block google text ads or the ads in search results on google with Opera. With FF I just used customizegoogle plugin but I can't find anything for Opera that's similar.

Gaming websites are pretty bad, usually having at least one of those ugly flash ads and some other random stuff. What is worse are those inline ads when you click a link and it takes you to an ad page first then forwards you. It's always funny to see

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[Hatta (162192)]

If it's an 8 page preview because it has 1 paragraph and 15 ads per page, then it's not going to keep many people's attention.

So is this complaint aimed at the gaming magazines, or the gaming websites? I can't tell.

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[Liquidrage (640463)]

If I am eagerly anticipating game X, and a magazine has an in-depth 8 page preview- of course I am going to read it.

Whereas I would go to their website and read it. And if it's not on their website, I'm not going to read it, but I'll find the best indepth review that is online. Not all "review" online are stubs. I know I'm sorta-off you anti-ADD point here. But I think the real point is that it's not short vs long articles or whatever. It's that compared to the internet magazies and newspapers are horrid

Re:Nonsense

[DocSavage64109 (799754)]

You actually trust magazine reviews to tell the honest truth in a review? I remember buying Outpost [wikipedia.org] based on reviews, and it was quite disappointing when it came to actual gameplay.

Quote from wikipedia:

Initial reviews of Outpost were enthusiastic about the game. Most notoriously, the American version of PC Gamer rated the game at 93%, one of its highest ratings ever for the time. It was later made known that the reviewers had in fact played beta versions of the game, and had been promised certain features would be implemented, but never were.
Indeed, many of the features described in the game's own documentation simply did not exist in the game at all. These included the ability to enter diplomatic relations with the rebel colony and the ability to build roads, among other things. Many of these gameplay aspects were later patched in, though in appearance only, as many of them failed to have any meaningful effect on gameplay.
Following the release of the game, the game's general bugginess and perceived mediocre gameplay, along with the lack of features described in most of the game's reviews and the game's own documentation led to a minor backlash against the computer game magazines of the time by consumers who bought the game based on their reviews.

Re:

[brunascle (994197)]

because of that incident (it might have been a different game but same situation) , PC Gamer now only reviews the final copies of games, and not pre-release versions. the pre-release may make it into the "Previews" section though, which doesnt have ratings.

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[Cy Sperling (960158)]

If you read my post- I talked about PREviews. Anyway, I have the basic understanding of the concept of "opinion" to know that reviews, and even previews, are presented from a subjective point of view and thusly may not be reflective of my own tastes. Any time you purchase a game, there is a chance you might not like it- even if it is rained upon with critical favor. As far as covering a Beta- a good writer will disclose that they aren't playing a finished build- something I routinely see in both print and

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[hal2814 (725639)]

Magazine publishers do want longer features as a counterpoint to... something. I didn't read that far but I see what you're saying and agree that the article is right.

Post 2 long, cn U b brief?

[spun (1352)]

Sorry, you lost me about 1/2 way through.

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[GrayCalx (597428)]

Are we all such twitchy ADD zombies that nobody can maintain their attention for more than a page? I call bullshit on that...

I agree. I often find myself reading long articles when using the facility and I

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[Achoi77 (669484)]

The issue is that both magazine and website compete for exposure of hype. The fresher the hype, the bigger 'impact' you have. This is one of the reasons why blogs have been such a successful hype machine - places like digg, engadget, and slashdot (although /. is "slow" compared to the other sites). You don't have to wait 30 days to hear anything new, or if [hyped game xx] has some new screenshots - you can see them online within minutes of release.

Magazines cannot compete with that. If they release screens

Why I still get a couple gaming mags in the mail

[Pojut (1027544)]

I still have active subscriptions to Game Informer and PC Gamer because they make for great reading while on the toilet...yesyesyes, I know I could just bring my laptop in there, but...well...I'd rather not melt the plastic, if you know what I'm saying...

Plus, while this happens rarely, there are times when I get a gaming mag in the mail and there is an article on a game that I haven't heard of from checking the normal sources online...again, doesn't happen often, but it does happen.

Re:Why I still get a couple gaming mags in the mai

[Cy Sperling (960158)]

Plus, while this happens rarely, there are times when I get a gaming mag in the mail and there is an article on a game that I haven't heard of from checking the normal sources online...again, doesn't happen often, but it does happen.

That is a very good point. Magazines are great for stumbling across a game that you might not click-through to on a gaming blog. If your only exposure to a game is through the banner ads that most of us disable, or the single sentence link on a game-sites front page; you might be overlooking something.

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[Kamokazi (1080091)]

PCGamer subscriber for over 10 years now...each one read cover-to-cover...on the toilet. My laptop is too cumbersome to comfortably use there (but it's definately doable).

Well worth $20/year (I stopped getting the CD once I got broadband).

Duel?

[Aladrin (926209)]

Doesn't a duel imply that both parties are actively attacking each other? Game sites don't -care- about magazines at all, except for Japanese ones where they can scan the page and show that Mega Pony X3 is coming out over there sometime in the future. Local magazines get no attention whatsoever.

Gamers only want game news. The interviews with developers and demos are nice, but the best stuff is always available online somewhere. And any developer that ignores the websites in favor of magazines loses a -lot- of free advertisement that gets to the target -immediately.-

I really don't see anything useful in magazines any more... The stuff they used to have like cheats, maps, etc... All of that is gone. Now the companies sell the maps and walkthroughs directly to the consumer, and cheats are always available online without having to figure out which backissue of Generic Gamer Monthly it was in.

No, it's not a 'duel'... It's 'I'm not dead yet!' Sorry bud, 'You will be soon!'

Re:

[dintech (998802)]

If I don't have a good book to hand, I never take a long train journey without buying a couple of magazines. I think a lot of people read magazines in this kind if situation. Until we get lightweight and portable (or even disposable?) net access we'll still need magazines around to stave off the boredom. Even if there is only enough market demand to support one magazine per gaming platform.

You only need to go to a big book store where magazines are sold to see that there are some pretty niche products out t

Delay

[dunezone (899268)]

Its all about delay. I have a game informer subscription that came with the purchase of my 360. At the end of the magazine they have what will be featured in the next magazine. Unfortunately, whatever is usually featured next month is already online with write-ups and also videos to go along with it at sites like gamespot or IGN.

Either way though, Its good reading material on the pooper.

Lower the price

[Neon Aardvark (967388)]

If sales go down, lower the price.

People on the whole prefer reading something tangible to staring at a screen, especially for in-depth articles, but those magazines put off a lot of people with exorbitant prices (at least on this side of the Atlantic).

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[DocSavage64109 (799754)]

Well, if they make the mags cheaper, then they have to make it up in ads. Those mags are already 90% ads, and that is one of the factors that made me give up on them.

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[geminidomino (614729)]

Well, if they make the mags cheaper, then they have to make it up in ads.

That's the kind of misthinking that led to the slow death their suffering now: We must squeeze every red cent out of every magazine.

Imagine if they cut the price by 25% and didn't jack the ads up to compensate. They'd lose money, oh noes!!!
Of course, if after a short time thier readership increased 34%, they'd profit.

What? Long run thinking? Stupid me.

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[JCSoRocks (1142053)]

I subscribe to Maximum PC and I love it. It's only $10 for a year. That's less than a freaking dollar an issue. (Ok, so I just looked and they've increased it to $12 for a year... but still, a buck an issue is an amazing deal.) I agree that the newsstand price ($8.99) can be a lot, but if you're a subscriber, it's a heckuva a deal.

I think it's a great mag. They cover everything from hardware to games and I actually recently built a machine based almost entirely off of reviews from their magazine. I checked

Re:

[doconnor (134648)]

Which side of the Atlantic would that be?

Ads

[RyoShin (610051)]

My biggest complaint with print media is the ads- almost every other freaking page. I can understand ads when I'm not paying for access to a website, or ads when they lower my subscription costs (not that that seems to have had any effect), but every other freaking page? If I'm lucky, they're back to back, and I can rip out the page entirely.

Even worse, there are some advertisements that act as if they are part of the magazine. For the most part, these have "ADVERTISEMENT" across the top in small-to-regular print, but if the layout is similar to the regular magazine layout, you can easily read a bit before you realize what's going on. I don't want to have to check the top of every damn page to see if I'm reading some advertising bullshit or the magazine's bullshit.

I still like print media- it's useful for when the internet goes down, when I'm on the can, or when I'm on a bus or riding with my family. It's not great for immediate news, but I like it for the reviews and features. However, some of the tactics being taken by various magazines (not just gaming) are making it much harder for me to justify continuous purchase.

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[WarwickRyan (780794)]

I think that that is more of an American disease than anything. I read Edge and GamesTM in the UK, neither of which have ads distracting from the editorial.

Having seen EGM in the past I really don't understand why you all put up with it. Especially the 'infomercials' which are made to look like reviews, they really suck.

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[fotbr (855184)]

We (Americans) "put up with it" because there's very little else out there, so its either put up with it or do without. I'm not going to say one or the other is better, just filling in some facts.

Personally, when I ditched dial-up, I also ditched the print magazines. There are times I miss them (as mentioned above, they did make great materials for quick bathroom reading) but I've traded game magazines for other hobby magazines that aren't quite as bad. Yet.

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[pla (258480)]

but if the layout is similar to the regular magazine layout, you can easily read a bit before you realize what's going on.

Good one - I fear, though, that the group you so sublimely mock here probably won't get the joke.

Of course, you did mean that as a joke, right? That, if the "content" and "advertisements" look so similar, you effectively have bought a magazine for the ads?

Next Generation Magazine and sometimes EGM

[Ang31us (1132361)]

As far as I am concerned, the day of the video game magazine died when Next Generation Magazine died. They simply covered the industry very well from many angles. After its parent company cancelled the publication, I no longer had any reason to read video game magazines, because I could obtain the content online. Sure, I picked up Electronic Gaming Monthly from time to time when they covered a game that I was very interested in, but Next-Gen magazine was the gold standard as far as I was concerned. I'm glad that some of the editors got back together and formed the www.next-gen.biz website.

Magazines and me

[hansamurai (907719)]

I still get two video game magazines (EGM and Computer Gaming... I mean Games for Windows) and I read them quite thoroughly. I also get Wired Magazine, Fast Company, and Game Developer. These are all subjects where I could easily get the exact same information online weeks in advance (and quite often I do), but I simply find it enjoyable to crash on the couch and flip through the magazine. There's still something to seeing video game screenshots in print to me, something I don't get from looking at image

That's not the problem.

[Kingrames (858416)]

The fact is that we see massive shifts in game technology on a daily and weekly basis. A monthly magazine is just going to be completely destroyed by online journalism. If they want to fix the problem, they need to shift to a weekly or daily format and completely change their organization so that it works that way. You might end up with some issues that are underwhelming, and some that are packed with new stuff, but it'll be a lot easier to keep people's attention when you can keep them coming back for more.

In my website design classes, they called it "heroin content" because it was something that kept the consumer coming back. It's the reason blogs and websites like slashdot or magicthegathering.com have so many repeat visitors, whereas other websites are really just there to establish a corporate or personal presence on the web.

Compare the magazine to a newspaper, and you see the difference between your newspaper and the internet. If your audience is shrinking because of the timeliness of your news, then tell the news more often, so that they aren't tempted to just drop you.

Right now PCG is surviving pretty much solely due to its exclusives, which are an opportunity for big game businesses to prepare news releases ahead of time to a specific audience, and to reach as many people at once as they can, with minimal investment. Somebody needs to point it out to them that it's not working. If they shifted to a more regular schedule, they'd pick up more readers, sell more copies, they might be able to save paper, they'd be able to integrate it with their website and as a result, become a big, respected name in PC gaming again. I read PCG every now and then if there's something on the cover that interests me, but it's really turned into a novelty magazine.

Longer articles

[microTodd (240390)]

I for one enjoy the longer articles that are in magazines. Not just reviews, but in-depth behind-the-scenes and interviews as well. Online just doesn't cut it for me. I want something I can read on a subway, an airplane, in bed, in a conference room before the start of a meeting, and on the toilet. Can't easily do that with 1up.com.

The short blurby reviews are useless. If I want to review a game I will do research at gamerankings.com. I want something sevreal pages that takes me 10-15 minutes to read.

Re:

[earthbound kid (859282)]

Exactly. Competing with online gaming news is stupid, because even a magazine with an incredibly short publishing cycle is always going to be a couple weeks behind the curve. On top of that, they can't include video previews of upcoming games. The way for magazines to compete is to go smarter. Write long, thoughtful articles about Game And Society, Games And Childhood Nostalgia, Games and The Meaning of Life, &c. People are interested in those, and they can't necessarily be found just anywhere online, a

Mags must go online or die

[llZENll (545605)]

Mags can't compete with websites for several reasons:
1) space, websites have unlimited space, size, and coverage possible
2) time, websites can publish immediately
3) media, websites can show pictures, video, sound, and link to demos seamlessly
4) cost, websites are a fraction of the cost of anything printed
5) promotion, websites can better integrate with relevant and targeted advertisements
6) user interaction, websites can offer real time discussion of any article or issue

In order for mags to compete they must evolve into something different than what websites can offer. Some ideas:
1) switch to full page color ads with little to no text (I find most ads are quite enjoyable if they are simply/mostly images)
2) focus on quality of reviews and previews rather than quantity, exclusivity, or breaking news, websites can easily beat you on these so you must focus on quality.
3) clean up the format so it is super clear and uncluttered

Ultimately I think all magazines and newspapers will shrink and be shoved in a corner to very specific uses for travel, bathrooms, waiting rooms, basically any public place where you are forced to wait.

If I owned a print only magazine, rather than trying to beat back the online media torrent that will dissolve your format, I would embrace it and move all resources to my online presense, then allow people to print free mini versions of the magazine for use in the public waiting places mentioned above.

Change.

[MaWeiTao (908546)]

Print-based magazines are just as lacking in substance as their online counterparts. Unfortunately, the over-saturation of advertising in print manages to be even more intrusive than it is online. And the lifestyle magazines, gaming including are particularly insane with the advertising. So I find it funny that these guys are talking about the so-called quality of writing in print.

If they were serious about competing with online publications they'd make significant changes. I'd take an approach similar to t

Ebay subscriptions

[bigbigbison (104532)]

I get PCGamer and CGW (or Games for Windows Magazine as it is now called) and I used to get Computer Games Magazine. Why? Because you can get subscriptions to these and many other magazines on ebay for incredibly low prices. I think I got 4 years of PCGamer for $10. That's like 21 cents an issue. Sure they aren't the cd or dvd versions but still, at that price it is a no brainer.

... In Japan

[Ecuador (740021)]

Actually there is a solution and the Japanese know it. A few years ago a Japanese magazine emailed me requesting to add a freeware tool I had made to the CD they include with their publication and asked if I also wanted a free subscription. Sure I said, but I must say I was not prepared for what I would start to receive every month for the following 3-4 years...
So, their magazine was all about games, and multimedia, and naked girls! There was no coherent order of things, on one page there was a game review with adult ads, on the next there was a nude model pictorial, further "decorated" with (regular - non-nudie) pc-software ads, then an article on p2p full of adult, game, software etc ads. There were "combination" articles, like nudie web site reviews, or adult PC game reviews and always in no "sensible" categorization/order in the magazine. The included CD was similar. Game demos, multimedia software, japanese porn videos, all nicely aggregated within the autoplay interface.
After surviving the culture shock, I decided they probably knew their target audience too well and I should just appreciate the publishers ingenuity.

Re:

[GrayCalx (597428)]

What magazine was it?

Seconded.

Re:

[Ecuador (740021)]

Well, I don't have the magazines with me, but going through my emails for permission requests from 5 years ago, I found a couple of titles: "Download DX" and "PC Maxx", but I am not sure these are the ones I actually received (I even remember that every few months I would start receiving a new publication in place of the previous, but they were similar in format - just as I described).
Also, they are only in Japanese, so you won't get the most out of the articles ;)

It has nothing to do with attention spans

[Doomstalk (629173)]

My switch away from print had nothing to do with a short attention span. I subscribed to PC Gamer from 1994 until 2001. In the end, I dropped my subscription out of disgust. The magazine kept getting thinner and thinner while the ratio of ads versus actual content kept growing, and the editorial quality fell off of a cliff. At the same time, I could get more timely updates from the internet at a comparable level of quality (which speaks only ill about the magazine's writing).

PC Gamer

[haplo21112 (184264)]

As a reader of PC Gamer from issue #1 I can understand the falling sub rates. The Magazine in the last two years or so has been in SHARP decline. I am questioning if the next re-up is going to happen for me.

The Mag was originally a VERY good source of news, information and previews in the PC games world. Now its become a big old pile of fluff for the most part. It doesn't really tell you anything anymore. I no longer seem to even be able to get the disc with it when I subscribe, that was always nice.

Th

Evolution of Gaming News

[Amigori (177092)]

Magazines are declining for the same reasons as newspapers, readers are going online daily, hourly, etc. Quality articles and objective reviews have been replaced by lots of pictures, advertisements (well, more than ever), and "non-objective" reviews. Some will argue that last point, but seriously...aside from the games you know will be lousy, everything else is usually in the 6.5-8.0 range. Statistical Bell Curve..yeah yeah, kinda defeats the purpose of a 10-point scale.

Remember Next Generation? I had a subscription for a very long time, quality articles, in-depth reviews along with caption reviews, interviews with developers and company execs, extensive trade show coverage. Thankfully, its back as www.next-gen.biz . Even PC Gamer was pretty good back in the day. I still have a few 3.5" floppies around with demos on them and a stack of demo CDs (including one with the Halo E3 video, ah...what could have been). I stopped that subscription when the discs started containing fewer demos on them, everything got a 80% or better rating, % of ad-content rose, my 56k connection went broadband (thus eliminating the reason I needed the demo CDs), and the net sites improved.

Additionally, many of us older gamers who bought subscriptions to GamePro, EGM, PCGamer, etc. were still young when we had 'unlimited' free time to spend playing games for hours at a time, memorizing articles and cheat codes, highlight the games we wanted in the Funcoland ad, and dream about winning those "Ultimate Gaming Rig, 52"TV, D-VHS, Stereo Sound, big speakers, 4 Systems, 100+ Games, etc." advertisement contests where you just needed to solve successively more difficult puzzles. We've grown up and have higher priorities which take time, so we just look for concise reviews, user opinions, and aggregators like gamerankings.com, assuming we're still playing games. Newer gamers can always remember IGN.com, 1Up.com, Gamespot.com, [insert your fav game site here], etc., but give a cursory glance through the magazines in the store, thinking "I read this X months ago." or "I have the full strategy guide at home."

Is there a fix for gaming mags? No. People will always buy magazines from newstands, especially at the airport/subway terminals, the publishers will just need to adjust their circulation accordingly. Game websites will continue to grow and be purchased by conglomerates, for better or worse.

Same Ad Revenue

[nick_davison (217681)]

PC Gamer may have dropped from 300,000 to 210,000 but their cunning plan to cut from the previous, heady 6 pages of actual content, to a leaner 4, along with increasing from 60 to 90 pages of advertising ensures they still make the same revenue targets.

I joke but it's really not that untrue. I subscribe but am left wondering why. The magazine is virtually unreadable with a couple of pages of letters, half a dozen pages of previews, maybe ten pages of reviews (with half given over to one or two games and the

Some Mags seem to do well

[LKM (227954)]

Over here in Switzerland, I've noticed a lot of Wii and/or DS game mags that are obviously targeted at female adults. They're usually predominantly white, feature fashion sections and models on the front. Some of them have "games my kids could play" sections, but they seem to mainly be for adult females who play stuff like Brain Training on their DS.

No idea how well they're doing, but every few months, a new one seems to be added to the selection.

I guess this is one target audiece which is more likely to bu

Re:

[AnotherSteve (447030)]

I used to subscribe to Official Playstation Magazine for exactly that reason. It was worth the US$40/year for me to get the demo disks, sort of as an inoculation against all the crappy games that come out.

But think of that from the game publisher's point of view. Every time someone plays Spyro: Some Crazy Dwagon on the demo disk, learns that the game is crap, and gives it a miss in the store, that's a fail.

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[BTWR (540147)]

If game companies were smart they would give playable demos to the mags like crazy. Too bad I have yet to see one demo disk for the Wii, it might have prevented me from buying NBA 07, Rapala Fishing and that horrible piece of trash chicken shoot (I thought my 5 & 7 year olds would like it, I was horribly wrong)

Then I guess they're not so dumb for not including demos of crappy games, eh? Oh, and a tip... next time try some of the game reviews online before purchasing a non-AAA game (Rapala fishing g [ign.com]