GamePro
Encyclopedia
GamePro Media was a United States
gaming media company publishing online and print content on the video game industry, video game hardware, and video game software developed for a video game console
(e.g., PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii), a computer, and/or a mobile device (e.g., PSP-PlayStation Portable, Nintendo DS, iPhone). GamePro Media properties include GamePro magazine and GamePro.com. The company is a subsidiary of the privately held International Data Group (IDG), a technology media, events, and research company.
First published in 1989, GamePro magazine provides feature articles, news, previews, and reviews on video games, video-game hardware, and the gaming industry. The magazine is published monthly from its headquarters in San Francisco, California
. The February 2010 issue introduced a redesigned layout and new editorial direction focused on the people and culture of gaming.
GamePro.com was launched in 1998. Updated daily, the website’s content includes feature articles, news, previews, reviews, screenshots, and videos on video games, video-game hardware, and the gaming industry. GamePro.com also includes user forums, reviews, and blogs. In January 2010 the website was redesigned and the editorial direction shifted toward the inclusion of more stories regarding the people and culture of gaming. GamePro.com is published from its headquarters in San Francisco, California
. GamePro.com is also published internationally in countries such as Germany (GamePro.com.de) and France (GamePro.com.fr).
Over the years, the GamePro offices have moved from San Mateo
to San Francisco and Oakland
before arriving at their current location in downtown San Francisco. In 1993, the company was renamed from GamePro Inc. to Infotainment World in refection of its growing and diverse product lines.
The magazine was known for its editors using comic book
-like avatars
and monikers when reviewing games. As of January 2004, however, GamePro has ceased to use the avatars due to a change in the overall design and layout of the magazine. Meanwhile, editorial voices carry over to the newly redesigned and highly active community on its online sister publication, GamePro.com.
GamePro was also known for its ProTips, small pieces of gameplay advice used as screenshot captions. It also has a section known as Code Vault (formerly S.W.A.T.Pro), where secret codes are posted. These particular features have since gone the way of the personas, and slowly disappeared. Though, Codevault exists in print format, sold as a quarterly cheats and strategy magazine on newsstands only.
Despite the demise of the term in GamePro itself, the term "ProTip" has been resurrected as a pop culture meme used to expressing obvious advice with extreme sarcasm, as in, "Protip: Don't call the cops to report your weed stolen."
There was also a TV show
called GamePro TV
. The show was hosted by J. D. Roth and Brennan Howard. The show was nationally syndicated for one year, then moved to cable (USA and Sci-Fi) for a second year.
In 1993, Patrick Ferrell sent Debra Vernon, VP marketing, to a meeting between the games industry and the Consumer Electronics Show (CES). Realizing an opportunity, the team at the now-entitled Infotainment World launched E3, the Electronic Entertainment Expo. The industry backed E3 and Ferrell partnered with the IDSA to produce the event. It was one of the biggest trade show launches in history.
Early in its lifespan the magazine also included comic-book pages about the adventures of a superhero named GamePro who was a video game player from the real world brought into a dimension where video games were real to save it from creatures called the Evil Darklings. In 2003, Joyride Studios produced limited-edition action figures of some of the GamePro editorial characters.
GamePro has appeared in several international editions, including Germany, Turkey, Australia, Brazil, and Greece. Some of these publications share the U.S. content, while others share only the name and logo and generate original material.
Early in 2006, IDG Entertainment began to change internally and shift operational focus from a "Print to Online" to "Online to Print" publishing mentality. The first steps; build a large online network of web sites and rebuild the editorial team. Enter: George Jones, industry veteran.
August 2006, the GamePro online team spins off a new cheats site, GamerHelp.com. Shortly followed by a video game information aggregation site, Games.net and a dedicated gaming downloads site GameDownloads.com.
In February 2006, GamePro' s online video channel, Games.net, launched a series of video-game related shows. The extensive online programming is geared towards an older and more mature audience.
Under the new leadership of George Jones, GamePro magazine undergoes a massive overhaul in the March 2007 issue. While losing some of the more dated elements of the magazine, the new arrangement focuses on five main insertions: HD game images, more reviews and previews per issue, GamePro.com community showcase, user contributions and insider news.
In 2009, GamePro's 20th anniversary coincided with 20-year industry veteran John Davison joining the newly named GamePro Media team in October 2009 as executive vice president, content. "GamePro presents a tremendous opportunity," said Davison. "We have the chance to celebrate the 20th anniversary of this significant marque with some exciting editorial changes, and to reshape it as a thoroughly modern integrated media brand."
Under Davison's direction, the magazine and website were redesigned in early 2010 with an editorial shift toward focusing on the people and culture of gaming. "GamePro is very much about the people and culture of gaming, rather than just the products," said Davison, executive vice president of content at GamePro Media. "With the redesign of both the print and online versions, we've placed strong emphasis on telling stories about games and the people associated with them; not just game creators, but also fans and people inspired by games."
The redesigned magazine and website were met with an enthusiastic audience response.
In addition to announcing the hire of Davison in October 2009, the company also announced an "aggressive growth plan throughout 2009 and beyond, with numerous online media initiatives to deepen consumer engagement and create new opportunities for advertisers." Plans included partnering with sister company, IDG TechNetwork, to build a "boutique online network of sites." The result was the introduction of the GamePro Media Network.
In September 2010, GamePro Media announced a new alliance with online magazine The Escapist offering marketers joint advertising programs for reaching an unduplicated male audience. The partnership was named the GamePro Escapist Media Group.
In November 2010, Julian Rignall joined GamePro Media as its new vice president of content replacing John Davison who resigned in September 2010. Rignall brings 25 years of publishing experience to the group.
The monthly run of GamePro ended after over 22 years, with the October 2011 issue. Going forward, the magazine is changing to GamePro Quarterly, which will be a thicker quarterly publication using higher quality paper stock as well as being larger than a standard magazine. GamePro Quarterly hit newsstands in the first half of November 2011.The quarterly endeavor only lasted one issue. On November 30th, it was announced that GamePro as a magazine and a website would be shutting down on December 5, 2011. GamePro would become part of the PC World website as a section of their site about video games run by the PC World staff.
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:
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.
The personas are still somewhat active on the magazine's website for the last persona characters that were made prior to the change (called "GamerTags" on the site), mostly for their blogs and the forums.
In the past, reviewed games were 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 (The GamePro Dude) depicting different expressions for different ratings. This cartoon gamer's head wore an exaggerated expression based on the number of stars a game received. Some games that received five-star ratings subsequently featured the graphical stars with the cartoon head on their retail boxes.
' 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, others 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 advertisement 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 was not 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 has been dropped altogether as of the April 2007 issue during the magazine redesign.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
gaming media company publishing online and print content on the video game industry, video game hardware, and video game software developed for a video game console
Video game console
A video game console is an interactive entertainment computer or customized computer system that produces a video display signal which can be used with a display device to display a video game...
(e.g., PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii), a computer, and/or a mobile device (e.g., PSP-PlayStation Portable, Nintendo DS, iPhone). GamePro Media properties include GamePro magazine and GamePro.com. The company is a subsidiary of the privately held International Data Group (IDG), a technology media, events, and research company.
First published in 1989, GamePro magazine provides feature articles, news, previews, and reviews on video games, video-game hardware, and the gaming industry. The magazine is published monthly from its headquarters in San Francisco, California
San Francisco, California
San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...
. The February 2010 issue introduced a redesigned layout and new editorial direction focused on the people and culture of gaming.
GamePro.com was launched in 1998. Updated daily, the website’s content includes feature articles, news, previews, reviews, screenshots, and videos on video games, video-game hardware, and the gaming industry. GamePro.com also includes user forums, reviews, and blogs. In January 2010 the website was redesigned and the editorial direction shifted toward the inclusion of more stories regarding the people and culture of gaming. GamePro.com is published from its headquarters in San Francisco, California
San Francisco, California
San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...
. GamePro.com is also published internationally in countries such as Germany (GamePro.com.de) and France (GamePro.com.fr).
History
GamePro magazine was first established in Redwood City, California in 1988 by Patrick Ferrell, his sister-in-law Leeanne McDermott, and the husband-wife design team of Michael and Lynne Kavish. Lacking the cashflow to be able to sustain growth after publishing the first issue, the founding management team sought a major publisher and in 1989 found one with IDG Peterborough, a New Hampshire-based division of the global giant IDG. Led by a merger and acquin team comprising IDG Peterborough President Roger Murphy and two other IDG executives, Jim McBrian and Roger Strukhoff, the magazine was acquired, then a few months later spun off as an independent business unit of IDG, under the leadership of Ferrell as president/CEO. The later addition of John Rousseau as publisher and editor-in-chief Wes Nihei, as well as renowned artist Francis Mao, established GamePro as a large, profitable magazine worldwide.Over the years, the GamePro offices have moved from San Mateo
San Mateo, California
San Mateo is a city in San Mateo County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area. With a population of approximately 100,000 , it is one of the larger suburbs on the San Francisco Peninsula, located between Burlingame to the north, Foster City to the east, Belmont to the south,...
to San Francisco and Oakland
Oakland, California
Oakland is a major West Coast port city on San Francisco Bay in the U.S. state of California. It is the eighth-largest city in the state with a 2010 population of 390,724...
before arriving at their current location in downtown San Francisco. In 1993, the company was renamed from GamePro Inc. to Infotainment World in refection of its growing and diverse product lines.
The magazine was known for its editors using comic book
Comic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
-like avatars
Avatar (computing)
In computing, an avatar is the graphical representation of the user or the user's alter ego or character. It may take either a three-dimensional form, as in games or virtual worlds, or a two-dimensional form as an icon in Internet forums and other online communities. It can also refer to a text...
and monikers when reviewing games. As of January 2004, however, GamePro has ceased to use the avatars due to a change in the overall design and layout of the magazine. Meanwhile, editorial voices carry over to the newly redesigned and highly active community on its online sister publication, GamePro.com.
GamePro was also known for its ProTips, small pieces of gameplay advice used as screenshot captions. It also has a section known as Code Vault (formerly S.W.A.T.Pro), where secret codes are posted. These particular features have since gone the way of the personas, and slowly disappeared. Though, Codevault exists in print format, sold as a quarterly cheats and strategy magazine on newsstands only.
Despite the demise of the term in GamePro itself, the term "ProTip" has been resurrected as a pop culture meme used to expressing obvious advice with extreme sarcasm, as in, "Protip: Don't call the cops to report your weed stolen."
There was also a TV show
Television program
A television program , also called television show, is a segment of content which is intended to be broadcast on television. It may be a one-time production or part of a periodically recurring series...
called GamePro TV
GamePro TV
GamePro TV was a syndicated weekly video game television show that ran from 1990 through 1991. The show was a low-budget partner to GamePro magazine.-First-run syndication version:...
. The show was hosted by J. D. Roth and Brennan Howard. The show was nationally syndicated for one year, then moved to cable (USA and Sci-Fi) for a second year.
In 1993, Patrick Ferrell sent Debra Vernon, VP marketing, to a meeting between the games industry and the Consumer Electronics Show (CES). Realizing an opportunity, the team at the now-entitled Infotainment World launched E3, the Electronic Entertainment Expo. The industry backed E3 and Ferrell partnered with the IDSA to produce the event. It was one of the biggest trade show launches in history.
Early in its lifespan the magazine also included comic-book pages about the adventures of a superhero named GamePro who was a video game player from the real world brought into a dimension where video games were real to save it from creatures called the Evil Darklings. In 2003, Joyride Studios produced limited-edition action figures of some of the GamePro editorial characters.
GamePro has appeared in several international editions, including Germany, Turkey, Australia, Brazil, and Greece. Some of these publications share the U.S. content, while others share only the name and logo and generate original material.
Early in 2006, IDG Entertainment began to change internally and shift operational focus from a "Print to Online" to "Online to Print" publishing mentality. The first steps; build a large online network of web sites and rebuild the editorial team. Enter: George Jones, industry veteran.
August 2006, the GamePro online team spins off a new cheats site, GamerHelp.com. Shortly followed by a video game information aggregation site, Games.net and a dedicated gaming downloads site GameDownloads.com.
In February 2006, GamePro
Under the new leadership of George Jones, GamePro magazine undergoes a massive overhaul in the March 2007 issue. While losing some of the more dated elements of the magazine, the new arrangement focuses on five main insertions: HD game images, more reviews and previews per issue, GamePro.com community showcase, user contributions and insider news.
In 2009, GamePro's 20th anniversary coincided with 20-year industry veteran John Davison joining the newly named GamePro Media team in October 2009 as executive vice president, content. "GamePro presents a tremendous opportunity," said Davison. "We have the chance to celebrate the 20th anniversary of this significant marque with some exciting editorial changes, and to reshape it as a thoroughly modern integrated media brand."
Under Davison's direction, the magazine and website were redesigned in early 2010 with an editorial shift toward focusing on the people and culture of gaming. "GamePro is very much about the people and culture of gaming, rather than just the products," said Davison, executive vice president of content at GamePro Media. "With the redesign of both the print and online versions, we've placed strong emphasis on telling stories about games and the people associated with them; not just game creators, but also fans and people inspired by games."
The redesigned magazine and website were met with an enthusiastic audience response.
In addition to announcing the hire of Davison in October 2009, the company also announced an "aggressive growth plan throughout 2009 and beyond, with numerous online media initiatives to deepen consumer engagement and create new opportunities for advertisers." Plans included partnering with sister company, IDG TechNetwork, to build a "boutique online network of sites." The result was the introduction of the GamePro Media Network.
In September 2010, GamePro Media announced a new alliance with online magazine The Escapist offering marketers joint advertising programs for reaching an unduplicated male audience. The partnership was named the GamePro Escapist Media Group.
In November 2010, Julian Rignall joined GamePro Media as its new vice president of content replacing John Davison who resigned in September 2010. Rignall brings 25 years of publishing experience to the group.
The monthly run of GamePro ended after over 22 years, with the October 2011 issue. Going forward, the magazine is changing to GamePro Quarterly, which will be a thicker quarterly publication using higher quality paper stock as well as being larger than a standard magazine. GamePro Quarterly hit newsstands in the first half of November 2011.The quarterly endeavor only lasted one issue. On November 30th, it was announced that GamePro as a magazine and a website would be shutting down on December 5, 2011. GamePro would become part of the PC World website as a section of their site about video games run by the PC World staff.
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 minuscule 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 MansionLuigi's MansionLuigi's Mansion, known as in Japan, is an action-adventure game published by Nintendo for the Nintendo GameCube. It was released in Japan on September 14, 2001, in North America on November 18, 2001, and in Europe on May 3, 2002. The game was a launch title for the GameCube...
) 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 complaints 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 five 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 NintendoSuper Nintendo Entertainment SystemThe Super Nintendo Entertainment System is a 16-bit video game console that was released by Nintendo in North America, Europe, Australasia , and South America between 1990 and 1993. In Japan and Southeast Asia, the system is called the , or SFC for short...
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 video games to fight off evil creatures taking over game after game called the Evil Darklings.
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 (Paul Curthoys, also used the moniker Bacon, is now Editor-in-Chief at MacLife)
- 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. http://web.archive.org/web/20110607152048/http://www.gamepro.com/news.cfm?article_id=135368)
- 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 InformerGame InformerGame Informer is an American-based monthly magazine featuring articles, news, strategy, and reviews of popular video games and associated consoles. It was formed in August 1991, when FuncoLand started publishing a six-page magazine, free in all its retail locations...
" magazine) - Earth Angel
- Fart of War (Shawn Elliott, who left to work at Electronic Gaming MonthlyElectronic Gaming MonthlyElectronic Gaming Monthly is a bimonthly American video game magazine. It has been published by EGM Media, LLC. since relaunching in April of 2010. Its previous run, which ended in January 2009, was published by Ziff Davis...
, later moving to Computer Gaming WorldComputer Gaming WorldComputer Gaming World was a computer game magazine founded in 1981 by Russell Sipe as a bimonthly publication. Early issues were typically 40-50 pages in length, written in a newsletter style, including submissions by game designers such as Joel Billings , Dan Bunten , and Chris Crawford...
(which became Games for Windows: The Official MagazineGames for Windows: The Official MagazineGames for Windows: The Official Magazine was a monthly computer game magazine published by Ziff Davis Media, licensing the Games for Windows brand from Microsoft Corporation. It was the successor to Computer Gaming World. The first issue was released in November 2006...
). Left in 2008 to become an Associate Producer at 2K Boston.) - Four-Eyed Dragon
- Gideon (Francis Mao, also used Dr. Zombie and Mr. Blister personas, is now creative director at Capcom USA)
- Johnny Ballgame (Jon Robinson, left to write for Incite, then became founding editor of IGN Sports. Is now at ESPN.com)
- 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 http://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3?http://download.gamevideos.com/Podcasts/CGW/082206.mp3. Would eventually work at Computer Gaming WorldComputer Gaming WorldComputer Gaming World was a computer game magazine founded in 1981 by Russell Sipe as a bimonthly publication. Early issues were typically 40-50 pages in length, written in a newsletter style, including submissions by game designers such as Joel Billings , Dan Bunten , and Chris Crawford...
, 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
Sega Saturn
The is a 32-bit fifth-generation video game console that was first released by Sega on November 22, 1994 in Japan, May 11, 1995 in North America, and July 8, 1995 in Europe...
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.
The personas are still somewhat active on the magazine's website for the last persona characters that were made prior to the change (called "GamerTags" on the site), mostly for their blogs and the forums.
Rating scale
Reviewed games are rated on a scale of 1.0 to 5.0 stars with fractions of 0.50. Five graphical stars are shown alongside the written review. The number of stars a game has earned is indicated by the number of solid stars (e.g., a game's four-star rating is represented by showing four solid stars and one hollow star). No game has ever received less than one star. An Editors' Choice Award is given to a game that earns either 4.5 or 5.0 stars.In the past, reviewed games were 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 (The GamePro Dude) depicting different expressions for different ratings. This cartoon gamer's head wore an exaggerated expression based on the number of stars a game received. Some games that received five-star ratings subsequently featured the graphical stars with the cartoon head on their retail boxes.
LamePro (Discontinued in 2007)
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 GameProThe Onion
The Onion is an American news satire organization. It is an entertainment newspaper and a website featuring satirical articles reporting on international, national, and local news, in addition to a non-satirical entertainment section known as The A.V. Club...
. 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, others 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 advertisement had a similar effect, and also had an even greater controversy. The spoof was on account of gaming supersite IGN
IGN
IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...
. 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 was not 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 has been dropped altogether as of the April 2007 issue during the magazine redesign.
External links
- GamePro.com: Official GamePro website
- GameProMedia.com: Online media kit
- Games.net: A GamePro Media Network website
- GameDownloads.com: A GamePro Media Network website
- Blogfaction.com: A GamePro Media Network website
- GamePro API
- GamePro RetroMags Wiki article