The end of ONM - and an era of Nintendo Magazines

Also, if all the old ONM guys do end up in bath, I might take them a cake next time I'm there.

Zaphod_B wrote:

Personally, I'm really sad because I've never really got into any nintendo websites over print magazines, despite a good long search when Nintendo Gamer kicked-it. I looked at following Nintendolife and so on and never really got into them. I had a long think about why and came to three main reasons:

1. I am a sucker for the monthly-physical format that I read growing up, and haven't moved with the times.

2. Website content is mostly news. Look at almost any gaming site and there is a constant flow of dull, 24hr-rolling news style updates, and very little in the way of full-bodies content. To wit, in a magazine you might see 5-10 pages of summed-up news to 70+ pages of previews, features, reviews etc.  This has several knock-on effects: news updates are often poorly written/and/or rushed, they dominate the conversation and tone, well written articles/reviews are buried very rapidly under the weight of updates, games are old-news the day they are released (while I often want to read/talk about them once I've played them and the mental dust has settled!), and there is a tendency to get caught in the moment/tone of the Gaming News (tm). Everything is A Big Deal, and HAPPENING RIGHT NOW, so humour, context and sometimes plain good writing goes out of the window.

3. Website layouts don't have amusing captions, box-outs or foot-notes. I loves me some footnotes, natch!

On 1 I agree with you.  I hadn't through at all about 3, but now that you bring it up, it reminds me how much I miss NGamer's witty footnotes.

2 was a big reason why I used to be dogmatic about the continuing existence of print media: see my previous post.  But I do think that's beginning to change.  Sites need to compete for hits in the same way the magazines needed to compete for sales, and having some entertaining features and writing is a good way to do that.  Look at CVG's podcast (admittedly less common now), or Zero Punctuation, for examples of entertaining gaming features; or CVG's recent review of SSB3D for entertaining writing.  

Will they ever be as good as NGamer was?  Not unless Matthew's new project is a fansite, probably.  And they still won't have the footnotes.  But I don't think that plain boring factual news, which was so dominating in the past, can afford to keep being as dominating.  Not without some competition.

Balladeer wrote:

I have defended print journalism in the past because, to me, it's tended to be more humorous and to contain more "non-news" features.  With sites like the Escapist, and Chris Scullion bringing his writing style to CVG, these aren't really valid any more.

WHAT HAVE I DONE

Actually, it's quite funny. I was saying this to Matthew the other day.

We both joined Future in 2006 - me in May, him a couple of months later, I believe - and I think it's fair to say that since we were the staff writers on 'rival' mags we considered each other rival writers for a while.

It wasn't until a few years later and I got to know him that it was clear he was a bloody lovely chap and we soon became really good friends.

The funny thing is that I started on ONM and he started on NGamer. Eventually though we both jumped ship, with me moving to NGamer and Matthew moving to ONM.

It then fell to me, as the sole remaining staff member, to essentially 'turn off the lights' for NGamer, and eventually it looks like Matthew, as the sole remaining staff member, will be the one who gets to 'turn off the lights' for ONM.

We're basically living parallel lives, is what I'm saying. But WHICH ONE IS THE EVIL TWIN.

(spoiler: both of us)

That should really have been in spoiler tags, man. /

You have to see which of you can grow a more evil goatee.

I just want to say how nice it is to have both Chris and Matthew posting in this forum.

It is lovely; just a shame about the context!

Hello! Me again. So, I can finally talk about the cool side project (well, I think it's cool, anyway) - it's a podcast called The Rotating Platform, starring Mark Green and N64 Magazine's Alan Maddrell. And me. It's a podcast about videogames of all shapes and sizes, and features a live musical performance. You can check out the first episode here: http://therotatingplatform.com We've had great fun putting it together, so I hope you guys dig it too. Do let us know what you think!

Oh bloody hell yes. Cheers for this Matthew - I'll be sure to give it a listen and feed back.

Just downloaded it, will stick it in my ear holes on the train tomorrow. I'm dead keen for another games podcast to listen to, especially one by these guys!

What those guys said. (I'm as lazy as a Springy Lazy)

Ah, superb! Got it downloading onto my phone right now - will post my thoughts once I've had a listen!

Nice! I'll give this a listen tomorrow at some point.

Thanks for the update - it's downloading as we speak, and I'll give it a listen tomorrow night.

Just giving it a listen now.

It is official.

Sad, sad day. Even knowing this was coming, I feel the loss. It's been probably 12 years since I went a whole month without a Nintendo magazine. The announcement is clinical and loveless, as well.

Was surprised by just how sterile it was. Clearly not Matthew's doing.

I'm nowhere near as gutted as I was for NGamer. We all knew it was coming, and I've not been with the magazine for as long and it wasn't as good. That said, my thoughts are with Matthew, left alone on the sinking ship. It's great that we have his inimitable style coming through loud and clear on The Rotating Platform, but I hope that he also manages to find a good role for himself somewhere else. Survival until the year 3000 ain't going to pay for itself.

RIP ONM, and Nintendo Print Journalism. You were great while you lasted.

It's sad to see that they're going, and we might have to adapt some additional forums if most of the ONM members (if they want to) join us.

I'm pretty tempted to get that other logo on the top right now! (the one with fuck Future's...)

This was signalled for a bit longer than NGAMER was.
I'd been with both for a long time, but when NG folded I knew ONM was there to turn to, and Matthew was in the process of NGamerising it anyway. Now, I'm left with this big empty space in my heart.

Sad news, but expected.
Oh, and Matthew just tweeted he'll be the editor of Official Xbox Magazine. As so much of the old ONM crew is involved with it, I'll give it a go.

A good time to be an XBox fan. It's a shame that I have almost no interest in their consoles (as opposed to the absolutely no interest I had last gen.).

I'm certainly tempted to pick up OXM but picking up the recent ONM has reinforced how rubbish I am at reading magazines.

Xelviar wrote:

It's sad to see that they're going, and we might have to adapt some additional forums if most of the ONM members (if they want to) join us.

Are the ONM forums being scrapped along with the magazine too? If so, then it might be worth extending a hand to them.

It's very sad to see the end of Nintendo print journalism in the UK. Best of luck to Matthew in his future endeavours with OXM - don't let the big black boxes of power corrupt you.

Balladeer wrote:

A good time to be an XBox fan.  It's a shame that I have almost no interest in their consoles (as opposed to the absolutely no interest I had last gen.).

They had games Last Gen

I've picked up the last two OXM's just because I've got the machine but seeing the line-up of staff I think I'll continue to buy it out of solidarity.

I said this elsewhere, but on the subject of ONMers I don't think we should invite the whole lot of them over, but if a few of the non-dickheads found us it wouldn't be the worst thing. That is, if and when the forum does close.

Maybe Balla could send individual invites, like when he told me about this place?