GamePro

From Retromags

GamePro
Editor	LeeAnne McDermott, Wes Nihei, George Jones
Categories	Video and Computer games
Frequency	Bimonthly (1989), monthly (1989–present)
First Issue	May 1989
Last Issue	N/A
Publisher	Superplay (1989), IDG (1989–present)
Country	USA

GamePro is a monthly magazine devoted to console video games, although it added PC games coverage in 2000. The most popular magazine in America for much of the mid-to-late 1990s, its teen-oriented design and writing style has led it to be derided by "hardcore" gamers, but allows it to maintain a devoted audience that no other magazine targets.

History

GamePro was originally founded by Patrick Ferrell, a businessman who left his job as chief financial officer of Tengen in 1989 to start his own publishing outfit. Ferrell's sister-in-law LeeAnne McDermott was the magazine's first editor-in-chief, and the husband-and-wife team of Michael and Lynne Kavish were brought on as designers. The magazine was originally designed to be a little different from its competition -- instead of functioning purely as a video game preview and review mag, it would also serve as a catalog of sorts for T-shirts, baseball caps, and other GamePro-branded merchandise.

Over 500,000 copies of the first issue were printed, but Ferrell was unable to find a newsstand distributor interested in carrying the magazine. As a result, the entire inventory was offloaded to Toys R Us, which gave an issue away with every video game purchased in their stores during May 1989. When that move still failed to stir up distributor interest, Ferrell decided to sell GamePro, and his company entered a publishing partnership with IDG in the summer of 1989, agreeing to take up editorial production of IDG's PC Games in the process.

With IDG's distribution power, GamePro quickly became a hit, thanks to its unique voice and design. Unlike most of its competition at the time save Nintendo Power, GamePro was an extremely colorful magazine, with each review filled with screenshots, vibrant backgrounds, and multiple playing tips, or "Protips". All the writers also used pseudonyms, or "personas," originally to disguise the magazine's tiny editorial staff. The formula clicked with the kids and teens of the day, and many of the innovations and departments invented in the first year of GamePro are still in use in the magazine today.

By the 16-bit era, GamePro was the largest game magazine publisher in the U.S. outside of Nintendo. It would retain this position until the early 2000s, when changing gamer demographics eroded their target audience and they were slow to adapt. The past two years have seen major upheaval in both their editorial staff and their design; the magazine looks far more "modern" now, and a lot of GamePro's traditional design quirks (including persona portraits and scores based on a smiley-face scale) have been removed.

Currently, GamePro is part of IDG Entertainment, a subsidiary of IDG that also publishes Code Vault and Star Wars Insider, as well as maintains several web sites. Overseas editions of GamePro are currently published in Germany, Spain, Australia and Turkey; the German one is 100% original content, while the others are a mix of original and exported content from the U.S. edition. British, Brazilian, Greek, and Latin American versions also existed at one point.

Circulation

Circulation numbers are taken from 15h of the United States Postal Service's Statement of Ownership:

2004: 480,021
2010: 91,631

GamePro's main sections (as of February 2010)

• Inside: A redesigned table of contents page listing the major pieces and games in the issue.
• From the Editor: A column found at the beginning of the magazine from the editor relating to a feature or big games covered in that month's issue.
• Inbox: User feedback and letter of the month, which is once again at the front of the magazine
  • Art Attack: Reader art sent into the magazine, with that month's best art winning a game-related prize.
• Editorials: Articles on varying topics by free-lance writers and individuals working in the game industry.
• Spawn Point: Front of magazine sections featuring Behind-the-scenes game news and insights, interviews, Game Previews and a calendar listing "gamer-culture events" (game releases, movie releases, birthdays, TV show events, etc).
• The Bonus Level: A short guide to "essential geek gear", including video releases, books, and game-related items for sale at various websites.
• Features: Any cover stories or featured games/issues that warrant a separate article would be told here.
• Reviews (formerly known as "ProReviews"): The reviews format has changed over the years, but the basic format has stayed the same: One reviewer speaks for the entire GamePro group about a particular game. The magazine first started by giving each system its own section of reviews near the end of 2005, GamePro changed this to have one review for any game that would be released for more than one system, describing any differences one system may have over another with that particular game, and giving scores for both systems' versions of the game separately. During 2006, another aspect of the reviews debuted, called "Key Moment", in which the reviewer names one particular instance or a standout piece of the game to them that had made them make the decision they made in a short, one sentence description. "Key Moment" was eventually replaced by "Pros" and "Cons", found with the review score, which briefly list any issues that stand out with the game, both good and bad. Games are rated out of 5 stars.
• Parting Shot: With the major overhaul of the magazine with the February 2010 issue,Opening Shots was dropped, and Parting Shot went from being art of particular game showcased at the back of the magazine, to a look back at the issue of GamePro that appeared that month 10 years ago.

Retired sections

• Opening Shots/Parting Shot: Use of higher quality HD images and bigger, more detailed screen shots throughout the magazine. "Opening Shots", in particular, is a new screen grab gallery at front of the magazine, while "Parting Shot" is art of particular game showcased at the back of the magazine.
• The Hub: Complete section dedicated to the gamePro.com online community. Back of the magazine highlights of Reader reviews, comments, new Ask the Pros" Question of the month, community leaders profile highlights, featured forum threads and the new Head2Head: User feedback and letter of the month. Every week, the Hub gets a new Featured Member.
  • Ask The Pros: Returns from the past in this new, Online version of user submitted question(online) and answered by the editor of relative expertise.
  • Head2Head: User feedback and letter of the month return to new subsection in rear of each issue.
• Previews (formerly known as "Short ProShots" and then "Sneak Previews"): A peek at games in development, telling of the projected release dates of games and what to expect out of them. When this column first appeared, it was in the back of the magazine, with only minscule information. In 1996, it was moved to the front of the magazine after the features. It was shortly after the rearranging in 1996 that GamePro started a new approach to the previews, labeling previews as either "First Look", where they first saw the game as only a movie and only have information on storyline and features in the game, and "Hands-On", where the editor providing the preview got to play a preview build (incomplete copy) of the game provided by the publisher in order to tell of any first impressions of how the game could be and describes any problems in the game that the publisher could fix before the final release. Also added for a short time in 1996 was a "percent complete bar" graphic that noted how far along the game was. This graphic was dropped in 1999 during the 10th Anniversary redesign.
• Games To Go: Reviews and previews of games for portable game systems.
• Sports Pages: Previews and reviews of sports games. When this section first debuted in 1993, each review and preview got its own "headline" to give the section a newspaper feel. This tactic was dropped in 1999 for the 10th Anniversary redesign. This section also was the first section to have the "multiplatform game review" tactic described above, in 2003.
• Role Players Realm: Reviews and previews of role playing games (RPGs).
• Code Vault (Formerly "S.W.A.T.", then "S.W.A.T. Pro"): Game cheats, codes, secrets, and easter eggs revealed. Both game companies and readers send in submissions for this section, with a random prize to the reader who sent in the best tip (usually a game). When this section first debuted as SWAT and then SWATPro, the SWAT stood for "Secret Weapons And Tactics". This feature's name was changed in 2002 to Code Vault, to match the name of GamePro's short-lived cheat-code spinoff magazine, although the change could also be credited to 9/11, as the December 2001 issue cover (which featured Luigi's Mansion) featured the "GamePro" logo dressed in the American flag to commemorate the event, and the name was changed just one issue afterwards.
• Head-2-Head (formerly known as "The Mail"): A Letters To The Editor section that features responses to the letters, as well (although this doesn't mean that every letter published will have a response tagged after it). They began doing a "Letter Of The Month" special in 2004, with the winning letter's author winning a particular prize, different every so often. This section has also recently begun to feature a Reader Review from their website on a particular game as a way to entice other readers to visit their site and do the same. Throughout the magazine's lifespan, this section was in the front of the magazine. However, as of April 2007's redesign, the section has been moved to the back of the magazine.
• Buyers Beware: A consumer advocacy section in which readers send in complains about issues with defective and malfunctioning games, peripherals, systems, and the like. Currently, GamePro is the only publication to feature such a column. Every once in a while, the column steers away from its usual formula to feature an issue that is a current widespread issue. At times a representative of a game company directly answers a query in the section (although sometimes the editor may put his own reaction to the answer after if deemed necessary for various reasons). It's not uncommon for GamePro to slam a game company in this column for poor customer support if warranted, an area where the column seems to be highly unforgiving. This is also the only GamePro column to be authored by the same editor since its debut in 1994: The Watch Dog. This section has completely migrated onto Gamepro.com as of the April 2007 redesign, and has seemingly been dropped from the print magazine.
• ProNews: GamePro's news section. This section first appeared in the back of the magazine after the reviews, but found its way to the front of the magazine in 1996 to follow suit with other game magazines. This section has shape shifted over the years to include various "game watches", a random quote generation sidebar called "Static" that seemingly disappeared after 2003. GamePro Labs, which used to be a separate column, now appears as a part of this section.
• Hot At The Arcades: Previews and reviews of cabinet arcade games were featured. This section appeared regularly for about 5 years after the magazine debuted. The section still appears every now and again, but it has been absent for the most part since 1997 due to the steady decline of arcades in general. This section has at times been folded into the Pro news section.
• Overseas Prospects: Import games were featured and sometimes reviewed. This section is still in the magazine, but appears only rarely.
• Video Game Survival Guide: Originally titled "16-Bit Survival Guide" when the Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis were on the last year of their respective runs, to review those games that were still being released for the systems. This was changed to reflect other game systems that were nearing the end of their lives, namely the Atari Jaguar and Sega Dreamcast.
• Adventures of Gamepro: The Adventures of Gamepro was a comic strip run in the early issues of the magazine detailing the adventures of a superhero named after the magazine. He was a gamer drawn into the realm of videogames to fight off evil creatures taking over game after game called the Evil Darklings.

LamePro

Every April as an April Fools' Day prank, GamePro prints a 2-5 page satirical spoof of their magazine named LamePro, whose title is a play on GamePro's title. The spoof contains humorous prank game titles and fake news, similar to The Onion. It seems that no one is safe from the LamePro satirical arm, even themselves. Many other game magazines have been the butt of the joke of LamePro.

LamePro, however, is not without its own controversy. While some game magazines have taken LamePro as a chance to laugh at themselves and each other, other have been very offended at the types of jokes that it prints. In 2000, a spoof ad in the satire made reference to a then newer (and short-lived) game magazine called "Incite: Videogames". At an industry charity auction, Incite bid and won on advertising space within GamePro; in the spirit of charity, GamePro agreed to advertise its own competition, even though it could be considered vaguely tasteless (a mailman delivering a copy of Incite to a female's door, with the legend "It must be that time of the month"). However, in the next LamePro, a fake ad for a magazine named "In spite" was used as bird-cage lining, with the white-background ad saying "You get what you pay for," making reference to the first Incite issue costing 99 cents on newsstands. The following month, Incite responded in their Letters To The Editor section, spouting off in their subwords "Get it, GamePROSE," and many supposed fans of their magazine defending them against the spoof ad. During the remainder of the magazine's 10-month lifespan, Incite ran the "GamePROSE" quote in every issue.

In 2005, another spoof ad had a similar effect, and also had an even greater controversy. The spoof was on account of gaming supersite IGN. Once again, on a white background, the ad showed a phony game site screenshot, with a logo similar to IGN's, spelling out "GNO.com" and the phrase "You can't spell ignorance without GNO." This sparked a letter to one of IGN's staff members who does a weekly feedback column on the site, and, in answering to one's e-mail concerning the spoof, mentioned humorlessly that GamePro wasn't mature at all for taking such a shot at IGN.

However, that wasn't the biggest concern in the 2005 edition. Just a few weeks after the issue hit newsstands, word came out that there was an actual site on the internet that had the address GNO.com. The site was actually an internet publishing site, and GamePro a few months later ran an apology in their letters section, saying that they had no prior knowledge about the site existing before the issue had been released. It is apparent that the two sides had made peace, as no civil suits of any kind were filed (it is unclear if such was even being planned).

Lamepro was dropped altogether as of the April 2007 issue during the magazine redesign. No reason was given as to why the feature was dropped.

Editorial characters

From the birth of the magazine until issue #230, the Gamepro staff went by monikers and never by their real names. When GamePro began, the magazine only had a limited amount of editors on staff, but the small start-up wanted to give the illusion that they were bigger. Therefore, they created character names, and each writer generated articles under mulitple nicknames. The monikers caught on and became a tradition, one that's continued to this day. Many of the names, according to GamePro, are a play on the personalities, interests, and/or past jobs that the real person behind the persona has, and the editors choose their own name (while some they have admitted to being just "bad puns," such as Miss Spell and Bad Hare). After the first few years, most editors picked one name they liked and stuck with it.

Once an editor left GamePro, the name was respectfully retired, although the magazine retained all copyrights to the character. The names were rarely if ever used again, unless that writer returned (as was the case with Boba Fatt and Manny LaMancha, both of whom contributed work as freelance writers after their original runs with the magazine).

Many editor names have come and gone. However, there have been many names in the magazine's bylines that many longtime readers remember. Some of these names:

• Abby Normal
• AgentMarmalade
• Ahoy and Avast
• Air Hendrix
• Boba Fatt (never worked at the magazine full-time, but was a contracted freelance writer for several years)
• Boss Music
• Bro Buzz (Wes Nihei, the long-time Editor in Chief left the company in 2007. [1])
• Dan Elektro (also wrote under Bad Hare; he revealed his dual identities in forum posting upon leaving the magazine in 2004.)
• D-Pad Destroyer (also wrote under The Freshman, Dunjin Master, and 5-o-clock Shadow. Left in July, 2004 to work as an editor for BioWare, where he now works as a writer.)
• Dr. Dave (David Winstead, who went on to Capcom to work with James Goddard on the Street Fighter II arcade series.)
• Dr. Mario (Parminder Ressan, formerly of "Game Informer" magazine)
• Earth Angel
• Fart of War (Shawn Elliott, who left to work at Electronic Gaming Monthly, later moving to Computer Gaming World (which became Games for Windows: The Official Magazine). Left in 2008 to become an Associate Producer at 2K Boston.)
• Four-Eyed Dragon
• Gideon
• Johnny Ballgame
• Jonny K
• Lawrence of Arcadia
• Long-Haired Offender
• Lunchbox
• Major Mike (Mike Weigand, formerly of EGM)
• Miss Spell (reviewed games on occasion, but mostly worked in the magazine's design department)
• Mr. Marbles
• Nurse Furatu
• Papa Frog
• RebelPrincess
• Rice Burner
• Scary Larry (probably the most popular editor in GamePro's history and also the best-known because of his outspoken nature in writing reviews. He left the magazine in 1999 to have more time with his family)
• Slasher Quan (one of the few GamePro editors to have his persona moved to a different magazine; he kept it when he moved to Diehard GameFan; online editor Syriel also kept his moniker intact when moving to Hardcore Gamer magazine.)
• Star Dingo (Sean Molloy, originally worked in the movies review section of GamePro.com but transitioned into reviewing games [2]. Would eventually work at Computer Gaming World, but left in 2008 to join Blizzard Entertainment.)
• Tenacious Moses
• The Rookie (later changed his name to The Enforcer; also left to write for Incite in 1999)
• The Vixen
• Tommy Glide
• Vicious Sid (left as of October 2009-Issue#254)

In 2006, GamePro.com received a revamp, and in turn, another tradition was seemly dropped: That editors would not reveal their true names, as the editor bio sections of GamePro.com may show the editor's true name (seemly in the event that an editor chooses). Also, both in the magazine (in the "Ask The Pros" sidebar of "Head-2-Head") and on the site, a picture of the editor is shown, albeit in an interpolated rotoscoping style. The Watch Dog's identity is also kept secret, probably due to the column he maintains, Buyer's Beware, and the backlash one might receive for writing the column and the scathing criticisms of game company's customer support that the column is known for publishing.

Also, in 1994 and 1995, a total of four people who won The Blockbuster Video World Game Championships got to write reviews under their own personas for GamePro; the 1994 winners got to write reviews for Super Punch-Out!! (Dark Mark and Fred Dread) and the 1995 winners got to write reviews for the Sega Saturn version of Virtua Fighter. The tournament went defunct after 1995.

On issue #230, the GamePro editors had relinquished this practice and had begun to use the real names of the editors in the bylines. This has come with mixed reviews. While some commend GamePro for finally making a crucial move to be more "grown-up" (many of the criticisms of the magazine stemmed from the personas), others have cited that GamePro had eliminated one of the key elements of the magazine that made it unique among gamers.

Rating scale

Until recently, reviewed games were typically rated in four categories: Graphics, Sound, Control, and Fun Factor. The ratings were initially on a scale of 1.0 to 5.0, but a possible "0.5" score was later added. The first game to receive such a score was Battle Arena Toshinden URA for the Sega Saturn. Until about 2000, each score was accentuated with a face (often just called The Gamepro Dude) showing different expressions for different ratings.

Today, reviewed games are usually rated with 1.0 – 5.0 stars with fractions of 0.50, so that their reviews could be easily compared to other reviews found online (PC World, another IDG publication, also made the switch). No game has ever received less than 1 star. Five graphical stars are shown, some hollow, some full filled, and sometimes one half filled based on a half-star rating. These graphical stars are often accompanied by a cartoon gamer's head with an exaggerated expression based on the number of stars. Several games that have received 5 star ratings have subsequently featured the graphical stars with cartoon head on their boxes.

In the past, Gamepro had been known to publish reviews of games not near completion and showed bias, resulting in reviews of games that highlight features that may or may not be absent. One such time included a review for Street Fighter Alpha 2, where the reviewer claimed the Playstation port was far better than the Saturn port, though the final version showed the Saturn version having many more features and better graphics.

Issue Index