Nintendo Power - Cancelled

[AtlanteanTroll]

What is this I don't even.

[Tebryn]

Printed Zines are going the way of the Dodo what with electronic mediums rising up to take it's place for free and better content. This was inevitable. I'd have thought it would have disappeared years ago. Expect to see this more often in more areas.

[INoKnowNames]

I agree; books, magazines and newspapers, are becoming more and more irrelevant. Until the internet itself is threatened, progress is making printed media less and less useful.

Still, it's not like it was -bad- or anything.

[AtlanteanTroll]

I know zines are going the way of the dodo (freaking Shonen Jump did this a few months ago), but ... As far as I can tell there will be no digital zine replacing this. Which is really ... Weird.

[LaZodiac]

Flying over here just to say "for the love of god call them magazines"

But yes, it is a shame, but things change, you know?

[Tebryn]

I know zines are going the way of the dodo (freaking Shonen Jump did this a few months ago), but ... As far as I can tell there will be no digital zine replacing this. Which is really ... Weird.

That I will agree with. Didn't know about Jump, how are they making money still? Is it like how Marvel and DC have done a Pay to Access their goods?

As for NP...I suspect that something will come out eventually. But really, with online walkthroughs. The advent of the Let's Play and other various mediums such as Blogs and such...there really isn't a need for it. Which I suspect was another reason why it died off. Why pay or go through a biased source when you can just enter the game you want specifically?

[Tragic_Comedian]

I'm not saying electronic media is a bad thing, it's very useful. Print media is just so much easier for me to use when it comes to that sort of thing. I think periodicals should stay on paper. I think it's a shame that it's turning into the Titanic. I'm a journalism major, for Boccob's sake.

[Tebryn]

In the day where almost everyone owns a cellphone on the developed world and the line between "Phone" and "PC" is blending more and more print media is just to time intensive and resource intensive.

[tyckspoon]

That I will agree with. Didn't know about Jump, how are they making money still? Is it like how Marvel and DC have done a Pay to Access their goods?

AFAIK the actual Jump magazine is still doing quite well in Japan. Outside of Japan, they probably think of the 'magazine' as more of a promotional tool for their properties than a profit center in itself- it's there to get you interested in buying Naruto/Bleach/etc volume collections and other merch, or so you might get turned on to something outside one of the Big Three while you're getting your Naruto fix, and so on.

[Tebryn]

AFAIK the actual Jump magazine is still doing quite well in Japan. Outside of Japan, they probably think of the 'magazine' as more of a promotional tool for their properties than a profit center in itself- it's there to get you interested in buying Naruto/Bleach/etc volume collections and other merch, or so you might get turned on to something outside one of the Big Three while you're getting your Naruto fix, and so on.

Ahh, I see. To be honest, I've never really followed them outside...internet sources so for me the whole sales set up is a side I've never seen.

[VanBuren]

A Kindle is never going to replace my physical books.

[Lord Seth]

That I will agree with. Didn't know about Jump, how are they making money still? Is it like how Marvel and DC have done a Pay to Access their goods?

Shonen Jump--the American Shonen Jump, to be clear--started up an online thing where you pay an annual fee to be able to access their content (only like $24, pretty good price). The big advantage of it is that they're able to offer more things and, perhaps more importantly, get translated chapters to people a lot quicker as you don't have to spend time printing them.

As far as I know, though, the original Weekly Shonen Jump (in Japan) is still a magazine. Not sure if they offer any kind of online service to subscribers.

[Traab]

A Kindle is never going to replace my physical books.

I once felt this way. Then I had to move my fathers library of books twice in a month. Now I want a kindle so bad!

[Fragenstein]

A Kindle is never going to replace my physical books.

I'm desperately trying to get used to my Nook. Mainly because I appreciate the ability to carry an entire library with me anywhere and everywhere. It's awesome. 32gb worth of books in a pretty handy tablet? And that's just on the device itself without a WiFi connection? Sign me up.

Unfortunately, I've yet been able to actually get absorbed into an eBook the same way I used to with dead trees. Even going back and reading some of my favorites, it's just... lacking something. I don't know. I'm still trying to adjust seeing as how we're not being given much choice.

What's going to happen to collectors? Will some antique-seeking individual fourty years from now say "Wow, this epub copy of Old Man and the Sea was last versionized in 2007? With a digital watermark from Michael S. Hart? How much do you want for it?"

I don't see that happening. Granted, it's not like the common paperback was ever going to become a valued collector's item, but the principle still holds. I have issues of Dragon Magazine that go back almost 40 years. What if TSR had only distributed that electronically? Would I have to put my cherished external hard drive onto eBay if I wanted to convert any of that into cash? Is anyone ever going to pay good money for a scanned copy of the Saturday Evening Post?

So many advantages to electronic distribution... yet such a huge bummer. The company I work for, in fact, has been a dominant force in the publishing industry for around 50 years. We've practiaclly defined it during that span of time. And yet, we've spent the last decade working hard to separate ourselves from that. Here's hoping we make it.

[DiscipleofBob]

I once felt this way. Then I had to move my fathers library of books twice in a month. Now I want a kindle so bad!

I got a Nook Color last year and so far it's turned into a very nice Sudoku-player. One of the biggest problems with nooks, kindles, etc. is the sheer lack of anything. Both my wife and I tried to find any magazine, book, etc. to download that we'd actually want to read and came up short.

But yeah, the availability of electronic media is nice and all, but print media isn't going anywhere. Sure, the industry will probably shrink and some newspapers and magazines will probably go out of print unless they can also adapt to the digital age, but it's not the "death" of print media. There will never be a true "death" to newspapers and magazines.

Nintendo Power's loss is sad. I have fond nostalgic memories, and still a bunch of old Nintendo Power's archived somewhere at my parents' house, but being a Nintendo-only magazine that couldn't promise unbiased reviews, only printed cheats which are easily available on gamefaqs, it's gone the way of the dinosaur just because there are other people doing it better.

[Soras Teva Gee]

I once felt this way. Then I had to move my fathers library of books twice in a month. Now I want a kindle so bad!

Quite aside from having the problem of finishing a book and then having to wait an intolerable couple of hours to reach the next one this is perhaps its strongest feature.

I rent, saving the space needed by subtracting even the book shelf of my favorites is of immense value.

What's going to happen to collectors? Will some antique-seeking individual fourty years from now say "Wow, this epub copy of Old Man and the Sea was last versionized in 2007? With a digital watermark from Michael S. Hart? How much do you want for it?"

Frankly... nothing. Collectibles have to grow organically anyways to have value. They are from a business perspective essentially irrelevant because producing them makes them less collectible.

If anything the market value will relatively improve as paperbacks evaporate and production goes down to where ever the bottom is. And there is a bottom. Some residue of interest will always exist for things like the aesthetic value of a shelf full of books, and those that desire a printed book in the same way some people like owning swords and armor. Its just a question of what sort of price tag will be attached and what sort of level of industry will be behind it. Someone will still be around to do "print to order" business though.

In the end having transitioned to a kindle I realized that I can't muster effort to care about books anymore.

Literature will survive. One of the Greek philosophers is on record having bemoaned that the written word was ruining everything because now people didn't have to remember as much. Possibly apocryphal but if true the only way we'd know that... drink the irony. The only thing at threat by the transitions of technology today is current business models for which I shed no tears.

[Calemyr]

If I'm surprised, it's only that it took so long to happen.

There was a time Nintendo Power rocked. It explained how things were laid out, gave tables on what could be found and where, and generally made it so that if you were a completionist or simply stuck you had the tools you needed.

Then came strategy guides and the did the same thing. But instead of a few pages of glossy pictures and some (sometimes) witty writing, it was more in depth and detailed. It also didn't require a subscription, was easily accessible where the game was sold, and could be useful for getting a feel for the game before deciding whether the game was worth you precious cash. (It's really stupid that they started wrapping those books - they really helped sell the game sometimes.) That said, they were often riddled with inaccuracies at best and stuffed with meaningless fluff more often than not.

Now, however, we have places like Gamefaqs and franchise specific wikis, where not only is all the information on the game is not only free, it is kept up to date, peer reviewed, and often includes advice from real gamers.

The advantage of Nintendo Power is gone. It has little to offer beyond the trade news that other gaming magazines present already.

This is also why books aren't in the same kind of danger. A book is a book. They are not usually updated, outside of reference books. The Old Man and the Sea from 2007 isn't outdated and useless by 2008. Updates and patches are generally not required.

[VanBuren]

Quite aside from having the problem of finishing a book and then having to wait an intolerable couple of hours to reach the next one this is perhaps its strongest feature.

I rent, saving the space needed by subtracting even the book shelf of my favorites is of immense value.



Frankly... nothing. Collectibles have to grow organically anyways to have value. They are from a business perspective essentially irrelevant because producing them makes them less collectible.

If anything the market value will relatively improve as paperbacks evaporate and production goes down to where ever the bottom is. And there is a bottom. Some residue of interest will always exist for things like the aesthetic value of a shelf full of books, and those that desire a printed book in the same way some people like owning swords and armor. Its just a question of what sort of price tag will be attached and what sort of level of industry will be behind it. Someone will still be around to do "print to order" business though.

In the end having transitioned to a kindle I realized that I can't muster effort to care about books anymore.

Literature will survive. One of the Greek philosophers is on record having bemoaned that the written word was ruining everything because now people didn't have to remember as much. Possibly apocryphal but if true the only way we'd know that... drink the irony. The only thing at threat by the transitions of technology today is current business models for which I shed no tears.

Oddly enough, I've heard speculation that the written word has crippled human memory to an extent. Though I doubt we could have preserved the great volume of information without so I imagine it still came out as a good trade.

[Psyren]

I once felt this way. Then I had to move my fathers library of books twice in a month. Now I want a kindle so bad!

This. I gave up on paper books the second time I moved.

I do have some dead-tree sourcebooks for the fun of it, but that's it.

[KillianHawkeye]

What? They were still printing Nintendo Power? I thought that disappeared 15 years ago!

[DiscipleofBob]

What? They were still printing Nintendo Power? I thought that disappeared 15 years ago!

If a magazine prints in a forest,

but no one is around to subscribe to it,

does it make a sound?

[WalkingTarget]

This. I gave up on paper books the second time I moved.

I do have some dead-tree sourcebooks for the fun of it, but that's it.

I've moved 6 times in the last 9 years and still have no plans on going electronic. To each his own.

[factotum]

I don't see that happening. Granted, it's not like the common paperback was ever going to become a valued collector's item, but the principle still holds.

I'm not so sure it does still hold. Any book published in the last century or thereabouts has a built-in destruction timer--the acids contained in the paper slowly destroy it in any sort of humid atmosphere, so unless you're wealthy enough to keep the things in a zero-humidity environment they simply don't last. For this reason, they're never going to be as collectable as the really old books which don't deteriorate in this way.

[Starwulf]

A Kindle is never going to replace my physical books.

Thisx10000000000000000000000000000. lol. I'm starting to wish I had been born a few decades earlier.

[AtlanteanTroll]

I'm fine with reading actual books on a Kindle, or Nook, or whatever, but comics suck on e-readers. There isn't the same love and the quality of the images sucks unless it's back lit, and back lit comics bug the crap out of me.

[Giggling Ghast]

As silly as it may sound, I actually cried at the end of the Link to the Past manga. Holy Christ, was that depressing.

[Mutant Sheep]

If a magazine prints in a forest,

but no one is around to subscribe to it,

does it make a sound?

I've been subscribed since like, 1994. I read it whenever I get it. But I'm not going to mourn it, because the quality of it and Nintendo has gone dow alot anyways.

[Zevox]

If I'm surprised, it's only that it took so long to happen.

Yeah, that'd be my reaction to. I would've imagined that gaming magazines in general would be ding out fast by now, what with the internet readily providing everything they do but faster and for free. I used to get Nintendo Power, but I can't really say that I have any reaction but apathy to their death, simply because they've long since been replaced as far as I'm concerned.

Zevox

[Scowling Dragon]

Sad but expected.

[INoKnowNames]

This seems vaguely relevant.