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''Electronic Gaming Monthly'' (often abbreviated to '''''EGM''''') is an American Video Game Magazine . It is published by Ziff-Davis as part of the 1UP Network and releases 12 issues a year (and an occasional extra "13th" issue for the Christmas season, also known as the " Smarch " issue, a reference to an episode of '' The Simpsons ''). ''EGM'' concentrates on news regarding current Video Game Console s (see Magazine Content for detailed information). The December 2006 issue introduces new sections, expanded reviews, and focuses more on the Acronym of the magazine's title in a redesign. This is the first issue redesign since June 2003 . ''EGM'' has said that the reason for the design shift is to keep more in line with the site layout of their website, 1up.com . EGM also spawned EGM2 in 1994 , which focused on expanded cheats and tricks (i.e. with maps and guides) which eventually became Expert Gamer , and then to its final moniker, the defunct GameNOW . STAFF Notable writers for the magazine, past and present, include founder Steve Harris, long-time editor-in-chief Ed Semrad, Martin Alessi, Ken Williams (Sushi-X), Terry "Trickman" Minnich, Danyon Carpenter, Mike Weigand a.k.a Major Mike (now Managing Editor at GamePro ), Al Manuel, Andrew "Cyber-Boy" Baran, Howard Grossman, Mark "Mo" Hain, Mike Vallas, current Editor-in-Chief (since 2001 ) Dan Hsu (aka "Shoe"), artist Jeremy "Norm" Scott , Shawn "Shawnimal" Smith, Kelly Rickard, Kraig Kujawa, Dean Hager. Currently, EGM features: Todd Zuniga, Crispin Boyer, John Ricciardi, Jennifer Tsao, John Davison, Bryan "Sporto" Intihar, Greg Sewart, Mark MacDonald, Michael Donahoe, Demian Linn, Greg Ford, and Shane Bettenhausen. Memorable personalities include gossip columnist "Quartermann" (Or Q-Man or The Q) originally penned by Steve Harris (and assisted by Ed Semrad, Danyon Carpenter, Andrew Baran and Chris Johnston). More recently as found out in podcasts, by John Davison and Shane Bettenhausen at one point or another. Many items from the column have indeed come to fruition (such as the impending announcement of a competing game console by Microsoft , which eventually became the Xbox ), though many have not ( Panzer Dragoon sequel on Sega Dreamcast ). Controversy followed the magazine in April 2000 when the column speculated on a port of Metal Gear Solid ( PS1 ) for the Dreamcast, with many gaming news outlets (including international ones) taking this as fact and reporting it as their own, leading to a virtual scolding by the columnist a month after for this practice. Another notable figure is Seanbaby , who pens the "Rest of the Crap" section found at the end of the magazine. Known for his crass, no-holds-barred style of writing, the column playfully and harshly reviews poor-quality games or includes more unorthodox columns and lists. Favorite targets include the " Barbie " games, as well as games based on the TV show " That's So Raven ", Cosplay ers, and those who frequent gaming tradeshow E3 . Perhaps the most infamous name is " Sushi-X ", a pseudonym for a reviewer (and, at times, someone who had a mini-letters section) who was modeled after Taco-X of the multi-panel review in Famitsu magazine in Japan which inspired the Review Crew to begin with. A supporter of fighting games ( Street Fighter in particular) and detractor of RPG s and portable systems, Sushi-X was originally David Siller in the early years and then taken over by Ken Williams for almost a decade. After Ken's departure the moniker was used by several people through the years until phased out by Ziff Davis as a "maturing" of the magazine; initially, the magazine did seem to have planned to have another fictional character, Elephant Sak (or E-Sak) which was the name of a created character by the editors from the game WWF Attitude , take over Sushi-X. The magazine teased the audience with a highlighted silhouette of the character in the photo box as the next reviewer in the issues from the last half of 1999. This never came to fruition. More recent "mascots" for the magazine include a , which is given as dubious honors to the worst aspects of the past year in gaming. MAGAZINE CONTENT ''EGM'' features news coverage on current ''. Cell Phone Games have recently seen coverage on the magazine as well, though this has been rare as well. The first issue of ''Electronic Gaming Monthly'' came out in the summer of 1989, featuring on the cover of Issue 75. After the editorial, the magazine begins with the letters section, followed by Press Start, which includes newsbits, previews of upcoming games, and developer interviews. This is then proceeded by their features for the month (including the cover story), then the review section. The issue ends with more light-hearted fare such as Seanbaby's "Rest of the Crap", Jeremy "Norm" Scott's "The Adventures of Hsu And Chan " comic, and a transcript of a debate on a current topic, among others. Until 2005, the magazine also had a cheats and tricks section named "Tricks of the Trade", originally ran by Terry "Trickman" Minnich and proceeded by David Hodgson in the early 2000s. Issues from the early 1990s also featured heavy coverage on arcade games and international games (particularly from Japan and Europe), complete with full previews and hints and tricks, although this has been scaled back in recent years to a single page for the international section, with the Arcade Action section essentially defunct. Similarly, a more "general entertainment" section rounded out the magazine at this period of time as well, including reviews of Comic Books , Movies , and gadgets. Throughout much of its publication, the magazine has included multiple covers (including the South Park issue, as well as the '' Kingdom Hearts II '' intro issue, the Xbox 360 intro, the 200th issue, and the Gears Of War issue), mini-posters for then-current games with the newsstand issues, as well as occasional one-page extras such as alternate game box cover art slips and calendars for such titles as Jade Empire and God Of War . Occasionally, the magazine also leaves secret messages in their writing, deciphered by combining the first letters found in every sentence in a paragraph. For the most part, the messages were simple ones such as "EGM Rules", although rumor has it that the messages sometimes took pot-shots at their competitors and non-favored game companies. From October 2004 to January 2005 (and including 2004's "Smarch" issue), the magazine included DVD s with newsstand issues, which gained both positive and negative feedback. Positive feedback was mostly received for having plenty of features and interesting Bonus Material, like a Seanbaby video diary of E3, clips of the top upcoming games, desktop wallpapers, MP3 s by game-inspired artists, and exclusive or rare episodes of internet phenom '' Red Vs. Blue '', but negative feedback was also received for increasing the price of newsstand issues including the DVDs, as well as not being available with subscriber issues (this last point is also a consistent complaint about the mini-posters, although posters have been included with subscriptions in recent years). April Fool's See Also: EGM April Fool's Jokes EGM is also notorious for its April Fool's pranks, with many readers sending threatening letters to ''EGM''. Their most popular jokes have included:
THE GREATEST 200 VIDEOGAMES OF THEIR TIME As a celebration of their 200th printed issue, ''Electronic Gaming Monthly'' released their list of "The Greatest 200 Videogames of Their Time." They ranked the games based on how much of an impact the titles originally had on arcade or consoles, rather than a compilation of games based upon how well they hold up today. '''' at number 18, and '' Phantasy Star Online '' at number 21- are featured in the top forty. REVIEW PHILOSOPHY/PLATINUM AWARDS/THE GAMES OF THE YEAR ;Review Philosophy ''EGM'''s review scale is based on a 10-point system with each game they review receives a number, half-points included, although the system was originally a 10-point scale, without the half points. The games are currently reviewed by a team of three members out of a pool of editors who are known as "The Review Crew" (the system used to be built up of four reviewers but eventually brought down to three in the year 2000). They each assign one of the 10 points to the game and offer a few paragraphs of insight on their opinion of a game. ''EGM'' makes a strong stance that games scoring a 5.0 are considered average. Towards the top of the scale (8.0 and above), awards are given to games that successfully score a certain score average derived from the individual scores of the game's reviewers. Originally, the magazine gave Gold awards for games which scored between an 8.0-8.9, and Platinum awards for games which scored 9.0-10.0. This practice changed in the mid-1990s. Now, a game with a score average of 8.0-8.9 earns a "Silver" award while a game with a 9.0-9.9 score average earns a "Gold" award. If a game's scores averages a 10 (meaning all three scores given to the game were 10s), it earns a "Platinum" award; the highest commendation a game can earn at ''EGM'' on a month-to-month basis. The change in practice is why a game like '' Chrono Trigger '', which was under the old procedure, has a Platinum Award, despite not scoring 10s across the board (it did score an average of 9.5). In addition to this, they also award one specific game (or multiple games in the event of a tie, as is the case with '''' for Xbox and '' NCAA Football 2006 '') per issue a "Game of the Month" distinction. Traditionally, this is usually the highest scoring game for the month based on an average of the given scores. There are exceptions, such as if a game won the award previously and they are reviewing a port of the game in another issue, then the game will be disqualified from that month's Game of the Month award (such as with '' Resident Evil 4 '', which won the award for the Nintendo GameCube version, and subsequently received the highest scores for the PlayStation 2 port months later); or if two games have the same average score but one has an editor giving it a significantly less individual score, then the other is considered GotM. In 2003, ''EGM'' has also begun awarding games "Shame of the Month" that earn unanimously bad scores. Due to the fact that some months do not see games with such low scores, this award is not given each month like the Game of the Month but only employed when the editors see fit. Notable winners include '''' (PS2, GameCube, Xbox, PC , DS, Xbox 360). Games were originally given scores by 4 (5, counting the Major Mike, Mike Weigand sidebar reviews) reviewers, but in the year 2000, the decision to switch to a 3-reviewer panel was decided. Previously, a consistent team of four reviewers reviewed all the games (Steve Harris, Ed Semrad (Danyon Carpenter & Andrew Baran), Al Manuel, Martin Alessi, and Sushi-X in its early days, and changed to Andrew Baran, Mike Desmond, Mark Le Febvre and Sushi-X (Scott Parus). With the Ziff-Davis buyout the editorial review team would change hands to Dan Hsu, Shawn Smith, Crispin Boyer, and Sushi-X in the mid-90s), but eventually this process was dropped in favor of a system wherein more reviewers were added to the staff so that no one person reviews all the games for the month. Though the scores range from 0-10, the only games that the magazine gave a zero to so far were Mortal Kombat Advance, The Guy Game, and Ping Pals. ;Platinum Awards There have been many Silver and Gold awards given at ''EGM'' over the years but the prestigious "Platinum" award has been rarely given. To date, ''EGM'' only has a recorded 14 Platinum-worthy games (again, not including games in the era when games scoring 9.0 or up were given the same-named award)--only Japanese gaming publication Famitsu has given fewer games 'perfect' scores. These games in chronological order of when they were reviewed are as follows:
;The Game of the Year The magazine also has its Game of the Year (along with other standard awards such as Game of the Year in a given genre or a certain console or technical accomplishments), which are usually announced in the March issue. Game of the Year winners since the magazine's inception are:
INTERNATIONAL EXPANSION EGM en Español was released in Mexico in November 2002. It is published by Editorial Televisa and is edited by a different staff. Sometimes the content is more focused to the Latin American gaming crowd (e.g. Soccer games have more attention than NASCAR or American Football games), as well as the humor and other features. Sometimes it features jokes among the Mexican community (much of this is credited to Daniel Avilés, managing editor, who expands his particular humour on his blog and podcast) and supports the production with a poster insert every month. Adrián Carbajal “Carqui”, with a long experience in Mexican gaming magazines (prior to EGM en Español , he worked in now competitor publications ''Club Nintendo'' and ''Atomix''), is the editor-in-chief since issue #1. ''EGM'' was also published in Brazil as ''EGM Brasil'' by Conrad Editora since 2003. Since the last quarter of 2005, ''EGM Brasil'' is being published by Futuro Comunicação , a new company founded by André Forastieri, one of Conrad Editora's former owners. The magazine has gathered a strong user base along the years, featuring (or having featured) well-known gaming journalists such as Pablo Miyazawa, Eduardo Trivella, Fabio Santana, Eric Araki, Théo Azevedo, Renato Viliegas, Odair Braz Junior, Orlando Ortiz, Ronaldo Testa, Rodrigo Guerra, Ronny Marinoto and many others in its staff. In 2006 three other editions of ''EGM'' were published around the world. ''EGM Thailand '' is published by Future Gamer Company Ltd., ''EGM Singapore '' is published by MediaCorp Publishing and ''EGM Turkey '' is published by Merkez Dergi. In 1995, EGM's first online website was nuke.com. It merged with gamespot.com in 1996 after Ziff-Davis purchased Sendai Media Group. In 2003, EGM created their current website, '' 1UP.com '', and the gamespot.com brand was shunted to the CNET Networks.
Much like other podcasts on the 1Up network, the program can include discussion of various message board topics, an analysis of new games being reviewed, a mailbag section, a deeper look into the most recent issue of the magazine, or interviews with special guests such as Marcus Henderson and Ted Lange from Harmonix and Cliff Bleszinski from Epic Games .
The podcast is usually recorded on Fridays and released Mondays or Tuesdays. The shows have run anywhere between 30 minutes to an hour. CONTROVERSY In its February 2004 issue, EGM featured an article about the . The article featured a large picture of what appeared to be Russian soldiers holding copies of the game. In reality, the image had been edited. The original picture showed a line of Russian Honor Guards at a memorial service, holding framed photographs of their fallen comrades during the ongoing operations in Chechnya . Many readers, including military veterans, found the image to be in poor taste and an insult to anyone who has served in the military. Protests began springing up on internet forums and an online petition was started asking for a formal apology. When a scan of the offending image was posted on a forum, Ziff Davis responded by sending a notice to forum claiming that the scan was "an infringement of Ziff Davis' copyright." This action simply added fuel to the fire, forcing Editor-in-chief Dan Hsu to issue a personal apology, which was posted on EGM's website and sent to individual forums. The apology also ran in the April 2004 issue of EGM. The apology stated that the image was altered without knowing its original context. Some readers were doubtful of this claim, given the seemingly obvious black bands on the photographs of the dead soldiers. Editor-in-chief Dan Hsu created a controversy in issue #199, where he ran an editorial which accused several of his competitors of selling article opportunities in exchange for advertising contracts. Much of the controversy arose from the fact that he did not give the names of any of the perpetrators, leading some to believe it was all a publicity stunt; although admittedly, much more controversy would have occurred had the editor named names. However, if true, the practice is actually unfortunately not so rare in the industry: a recent podcast has revealed that certain publishers only allow a publication to get the exclusive first review of a game if the game was only guaranteed to receive a particular score. Furthermore, it is quite well-known that upon the release of PC game Doom 3 , ID Software / Activision was known to fly reviewers in to their own offices with top computers to review the game, as well as an optimal environment (i.e., with drinks and snacks). Additionally, in the early to mid-90s, games company Acclaim Entertainment was also known to threaten to pull advertising after bad reviews of their games (particularly the game adaptation of the movie Total Recall ) were printed in magazines. Another minor controversy began in regards to issue #201, dated March, 2006. Pages 60 and 61 contained a large image of a man sitting on a toilet, pants around his ankles, with his hands on his crotch, which was covered by a magazine featuring characters from the game Rumble Roses XX . The simulated image of a man Masturbating upset many people and so the magazine received many complaints for this graphic, not only because some thought it was in poor taste, but primarily because the issue's cover featured Disney characters Goofy and Donald, as well as Squaresoft's character, Sora (all from Kingdom Hearts II ). Some parents felt they could easily be fooled into buying the magazine for their children because of the family-friendly characters and a lack of warning of the magazine's content. EGM defended itself by claiming that these parents were using the magazine as a "substitute parent" and defiantly showed the picture a second time. Not unlike other multi-platform gaming magazines (and websites), EGM has often been labelled as biased against particular gaming systems. However, the magazine has not been shy in taking on the accusations, and has often printed letters complaining about EGM's bias against ''all'' prominent gaming systems. The magazine's standard response has been "Yes, we are biased - against bad games". EXTERNAL LINKS Official
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