&games

For those of you who haven't had an internet connection for the last two days, here's the big news, bigger even than Essen for a while there. The Games Journal will no longer be published.

For those of you who might be reading this because of the Alaska connection, The Games Journal was a monthly, internet, game magazine published by Greg Aleknevicus. Allow me to correct that last statement. The Games Journal was THE monthly, internet, game magazine. It had been published regularly for 5 years.

Truly it is the end of an era.

It reminds me of Wide World of Sports. Back in the day, WWS was the sports show. It was a well produced show that showcased sports from around the world. Sumo wrestling; it was there. Boxing; it was there. Evil Kneivel; there. Ski jumping; had it. Tug-of-war, diving, fencing; they were there, all covered very well and produced by true professionals.

When cable came along Wide World of Sports went by the wayside. Now sports enthusiasts could watch their favorite sport on demand. Baseball; there was always a live game on some channel. Football; you could watch your favorite team, no more being stuck with "The Game of the Week". Hockey; you could watch it in markets outside of Canada, Detroit and Boston. Racing; no longer were the Indy 500 and Triple crown races the only races you could count on seeing. But on the down side, Jim McKay and Frank Gifford weren't there either. Production values waned. Announcers became a dime a dozen. Camera men and producers were fresh out of J-school.

Despite the availability and proliferation of sports on television, television is worse off with the loss of WWS. So is the gaming community worse off with the demise of TGJ.

Here's where the analogy fails. Jump on me if I am wrong, but all of us were there, no?

It wasn't a lack of readers that lead to the demise of TGJ, it was a lack of contributors that lead to the demise. But, as they say in France, "demises are demises".

I don't know that I credit blogs with pushing TGJ out of the market, as do many commentators. It is true that those of us who imagine we have something to say are now able to publish our own work. It is also true that a mere year ago it was easier to send your writing off to a website such as TGJ to get the work published. Most of the core of contributors to The Games Journal have not switched to blogging. I think that the core of writers that contributed to TGJ have moved on to other pursuits.

I never considered submitting an article. Don't know exactly why. For one thing I didn't think the stuff I was writing was compatible with The Games Journal. It probably wasn't, but I could have come up with something once every couple months. For another, TGJ had an "elite" feel to it, and I don't mean that in a negative, hoity-toity way. I mean to us new gamers, those of us who had recently discovered German games and The Games Journal, the writers on TGJ were on a pedestal. They knew games and we went there to learn. I would have felt like the kid who writes the entertainment section of his high-school paper submitting an article to Rolling Stone.

Greg put out the call for contributors and we failed to respond. My fellow blogger Yehuda Berlinger was among a handful of contributors that had made an attempt to fill the gaps when the regulars started drifting away. If I had never started blogging I doubt I would have contributed to The Games Journal. I doubt most bloggers would have. In a sense, and from my point of view, The Games Journal was the victim of its own success.

It's one of those things that you don't truly appreciate until it is gone. Now that it is gone I think, "I could have submitted something." I will miss it. If someone steps up to fill the gap, I will submit articles occasionally, not monthly, but occasionally.

The Games Journal leaves a gap that needs filled.

The staff and management of &games salutes Greg and The Games Journal. Thanks for the memories.

CF

But on the bright side, now that it is no longer around, isn't it eligible for the Hall-of-Fame. I'll have to check into that. If I ever get a vote on the Hall-of-Fame Committee I'm casting my ballot for TGJ.