• Light/Dark
  • Ever wanted an RSS feed of all your favorite gaming news sites? Go check out our new Gaming Headlines feed! Read more about it here.
  • We have made minor adjustments to how the search bar works on ResetEra. You can read about the changes here.

Early 2000s gaming magazine coverage is a dumpsterfire (Read Mod note in OP)

WrenchNinja

WrenchNinja

Member
Oct 25, 2017
18,765
Canada
Saw this twitter thread about this twitter user going back to their parent's house and going through their old magazines and stuff and this shit is just the worst






LQIguoa_d.jpg
IbAaIWQ.jpg


There are more examples, it goes on for a while. What the fuck EGM, I recognize some of the writers like Seanbaby.

MOD EDIT
Please think about it if your only addition to the conversation is going to be "it was a different time" or a variation of "outrage culture run amok".
 
Last edited:
LuisGarcia

LuisGarcia

Banned
Oct 31, 2017
3,478
Not saying it's ok but it was a different time and not sure why this needs bringing up now unless it was to highlight the positive changes that have happened since.

The writers may have completely changed their outlook on the subject.
 
Forkball

Forkball

Member
Oct 25, 2017
8,941
We were still trying to figure out Lara Croft nude codes back then.

In the early 2000s gaming ads were targeted at horny male teens. You don't remember booth babes? Attitudes have changed, gaming has grown wider, and more women play games now then ever before.
 
GamingRobioto

GamingRobioto

Member
May 18, 2018
1,350
Exeter, UK
Lol, I found it funny. I know it's wrong but still amused me that this was acceptable even in this century.

It also shows how far we've come, which is good.
 
Starlatine

Starlatine

533.489 paid youtubers cant be wrong
Member
Oct 28, 2017
30,540
https://i.imgur.com/LQIguoa_d.jpg?maxwidth=640&shape=thumb&fidelity=medium
i read that as "hitler game spot" for some reason. made me worried.

but yeah, gaming magazines were written for a very specific group of nerdy male gamers back in the days. that some of them found success is surprising by itself considering how limited the target group was back in the days. "bloodrayne is finally a positive female role model" made me chuckle and shake my head though.

shoptroll said:
Wait until they find a trove of PC Accelerator magazines
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

or a stack of Foul magazines
that crap was already considered "edgy" and "try-hard" and fueled every gamer negative stereotype back in the day everything in the OP looked normal. that's a whole new level of awfulness
 
Gxgear

Gxgear

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
1,160
Vancouver
I see everything's getting the James Gunn special now. We know it's inappropriate nowadays, let's leave it at that.
 
Shawndroid

Shawndroid

Member
May 24, 2018
591
Canada
Wow, just over a decade ago 'was a different time'? It's not like they didn't know better. People were complaining then that everything was way too PC. And had been for decades before that.

They are wrong to say it was too PC back then. They are wrong to say it now. They will probably always be wrong.
 
Vinnk

Vinnk

Member
Oct 26, 2017
1,969
Japan
But even back then these articles were sarcasm no? Like in the "Onion" style? I mean it read tongue-in-cheek to me. The part with the only games for girls being Barbie and every Final Fantasy game was not meant to be taken seriously even then.

I realize I may be missing something. Like is is a dumpster fire in a "yes it is satire, but that kind of satire would not fly today" sort of way?
 
swift-darius

swift-darius

Member
May 10, 2018
943


the medium has been, and still regularly continues to be, so damn embarrassing and lowest-common-denominator
 
D4l41L4m4

D4l41L4m4

Member
May 23, 2018
89
Vinnk said:
But even back then these articles were sarcasm no? Like in the "Onion" style? I mean it read tongue-in-cheek to me. The part with the only games for girls being Barbie and every Final Fantasy game was not meant to be taken seriously even then.

I realize I may be missing something. Like is is a dumpster fire in a "yes it is satire, but that kind of satire would not fly today" sort of way?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

The Barbie and FF one is 100% satire, written by Ellie Gibson.



Others, though - yikes.
 
Last edited:
Starlatine

Starlatine

533.489 paid youtubers cant be wrong
Member
Oct 28, 2017
30,540
MELLO said:
It was a product of its time
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

i think thats part of the point

we're thinking "oh, it was just a product of the times" maybe thinking its something from the eighties or nineties... but there are magazines as recent as 2006 there. that's not really that long ago to be handwaved as an outdated mentality people quickly got over.
 
1.21Gigawatts

1.21Gigawatts

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
3,278
Munich
Wez said:
So in other words; it was a different time.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

A time that explains why the gaming community today is such a cesspool.
So its important to learn from the mistakes of the past and do a better job now.
Its not like the issue from 15 years ago ceased to exist. With professionalization of gaming press they might have been largely weeded out here, but the gaming community is still sexist to the core.
It was a problem back then, and it still is a problem.
 
Zatoichi

Zatoichi

Attempted to circumvent ban with alt account
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
1,073
Ireland
Different time, although the 90's slanted more to this type of article / advertising.

With gaming in that era predominantly made up of teenage males, it's not hard to understand why some "sexy" material was used.
 
Slayven

Slayven

Never read a comic in his life
Moderator
Oct 25, 2017
93,630
Honestly the majority of mainstream nerd rags of teh day were trash, The shit I saw in Wizard
 
Dervius

Dervius

Member
Oct 28, 2017
4,973
UK
Vinnk said:
But even back then these articles were sarcasm no? Like in the "Onion" style? I mean it read tongue-in-cheek to me. The part with the only games for girls being Barbie and every Final Fantasy game was not meant to be taken seriously even then.

I realize I may be missing something. Like is is a dumpster fire in a "yes it is satire, but that kind of satire would not fly today" sort of way?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

If only that were true.
 
Wez

Wez

Member
Sep 11, 2018
298
1.21Gigawatts said:
A time that explains why the gaming community today is such a cesspool.
So its important to learn from the mistakes of the past and do a better job now.
Its not like the issue from 15 years ago ceased to exist. With professionalization of gaming press they might have been largely weeded out here, but the gaming community is still sexist to the core.
It was a problem back then, and it still is a problem.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

I really dont see what this has to do with my original comment.
 
Silky

Silky

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
10,522
Georgia
Gxgear said:
I see everything's getting the James Gunn special now. We know it's inappropriate nowadays, let's leave it at that.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

This is such an unbelievably garbage post lmfao holy shit

Why can't we acknowledge that early 00s games writing was absolute shit, what is it about this part of gaming that makes you so mad that it's being brought up today? Mad enough to even compare it to the James Gunn thing?
 
sir_crocodile

sir_crocodile

Member
Oct 25, 2017
23,573
It was better in the 90s tbh. After that it seemed like there was a push by publishers to turn them into more "lads mags" in the UK.

CVG, which in the late nineties was the best video games magazine ever, was forced to do this and the editorial team left and they lost half their readers in a couple of months.

In the nineties CVG, Super Play, Mean Machine/sega, n64 magazine, official sega saturn magazine, maximum etc were all very good. early gamesmaster I think wasn't that bad.
 

Zappy

Banned
Nov 2, 2017
3,738
Its fascinating seeing how far we've progressed as a community and indeed wider society in the past 20 years or so. The pace of societal change can be really quick and you don't even notice it.

I suspect the pace of enlightenment is partly responsible for the rise in the alt-right around the globe and probably why older generations are lurching (arguably) further right this decade that maybe they did in the 3 preceeding ones. But that is OT.

I do find this sort of clear example of societal evolution fascinating though. I wonder what we'll look at in 2038 from 2018 and think "blimey"?
 
Zhukov

Zhukov

Banned
Dec 6, 2017
2,641
Aw come on OP, you didn't even include the best one from those tweets.

DntrbFrW4AA2Faw.jpg
 
PenultimateFantasy

PenultimateFantasy

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,127
London, UK
i bought a LOT of videogame magazines in the late 80s and 90s - although its correct that after maxim. loaded some gaming magazines tried that route it certainly wasn't all of them.

i managed to only buy magazines that focussed on games and less on lifestyle and lad culture.

also it think tis worth re iterating that these were aimed at teenage boys - who were seen as the main market for games then - and the stereotype of teenage boys was horny for girls.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.