Maybe We Should Start Issuing More Press Releases

"  @Jeff said:

"Lots of pointless stuff and this:  
Be sure to keep all that in mind when all of the other completely useless, unofficial, and non-exclusive reviews start hitting closer to the game's May 23 street date. "

 

What exactly is the point of this thread?  

 Someone actually spent time writing this?  Are we sure the office kid didn't write this whilst Jeff was having a dump?  Or perhaps this is the result of the dump.   Hello Captain Bleedin' Obvious.   "

" A staff member at Official Nintendo Magazine has responded in this thread: 

http://forums.officialnintendomagazine.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=65436

    
"Meh, whatever.

We'd rather wait for the opinions of people who actually read the magazine and then tell us if it's any good, rather than anyone giving the typical "official = biased lolz" reaction before the magazine's even out yet. I'd respond further, but we at ONM actually care about professionalism and so it's not our place to comment on other sites or magazines."  He has a point, you can't judge something that you haven't read. "

that is embarrassing. i actually used to buy the UK Nintendo Magazine but it got pretty terrible and this is just so so bad.

This is one of the many reasons why I love the staff. 

Gonna be a lot of screenshots on them 10 pages. 

Six covers means six times more Yoshi. 
 
As you can see, Super Mario Galaxy had no Yoshi. Thus, no covers for this issue. Yoshi appears approximately six times in SMG2. Thus... well 
you get the idea.

I used to read ONM... They did a similar thing when Super Mario Galaxy 1 came out, but it might have only been eight pages or something.

Oh Nintendo Defence Force, where would we be without you? <3

Urghhhh. 
 
 
uhrgh

" @TUCKST3R said:

"Meh, whatever.

We'd rather wait for the opinions of people who actually read the magazine and then tell us if it's any good, rather than anyone giving the typical "official = biased lolz" reaction before the magazine's even out yet. I'd respond further, but we at ONM actually care about professionalism and so it's not our place to comment on other sites or magazines."  He has a point, you can't judge something that you haven't read. "

owned. "

" Oh Nintendo Defence Force, where would we be without you? <3 "

" A staff member at Official Nintendo Magazine has responded in this thread: 

http://forums.officialnintendomagazine.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=65436

    
"Meh, whatever.

We'd rather wait for the opinions of people who actually read the magazine and then tell us if it's any good, rather than anyone giving the typical "official = biased lolz" reaction before the magazine's even out yet. I'd respond further, but we at ONM actually care about professionalism and so it's not our place to comment on other sites or magazines."  He has a point, you can't judge something that you haven't read. "

" @TUCKST3R said:

" A staff member at Official Nintendo Magazine has responded in this thread: 

http://forums.officialnintendomagazine.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=65436

    
"Meh, whatever.

We'd rather wait for the opinions of people who actually read the magazine and then tell us if it's any good, rather than anyone giving the typical "official = biased lolz" reaction before the magazine's even out yet. I'd respond further, but we at ONM actually care about professionalism and so it's not our place to comment on other sites or magazines."  He has a point, you can't judge something that you haven't read. "

He said while sitting back in his eazy boy recliner smoking his Cuban Cigars.  Gotta love how Links and Al3x are the first ones to run to Nintendo to bad mouth Jeff. We don't take too kindly to traitors where I'm from. hehe >: ) "

"Or maybe I'm just being a dick".     

Traitors? Not all of us swore unconditional love, loyalty and respect to the staff here. If you did, well, good for you, it's obvious. I didn't say anything there that I didn't say here long before that thread was brought to my attention (as it was, I didn't "run" anywhere, as it's quite obvious given that thread was posted yesterday and my comment is from today, after I had already discussed the topic here). Not to mention you still have trouble understanding they have little to do with Nintendo other than paying for the right to be called official and getting the odd exclusive. I visit their site for CVG content more than anything else since, like I said, the same company runs a wide variety of outlets, often with the same staff, but hey, whatever helps you sleep at night as you said.

Posting a logical response is taking things too seriously? Ok...

It's cute that this was responded to, but Jeff's point wasn't "Offical lolz" it was why buy a magazine for a review when you've already been told it's going to get a stellar review in the press release.    Though I'm sure the "ONLY REVIEW THAT MATTERS" caught his eye too as a gaming journalist. 
 
At the end of the day I'd rather see this on here than *ahem* a Halo control layout.

In all fairness, OXM (offical xbox mag) used to do this type of stuff, too.  Okay, not 6 different covers, but they would have a few to choose from on newsstands and an additional one for home subscribers.  
 
But, it's actions like this from publications that highlight the sentiment that the games press is just another arm of game marketing.  In this case, Official Nintendo Magazine might as well have a cubical right next to the PR department at Nintendo HQ.  Hype is one thing, shameless adoration is another.  
 
Still, there are economic reasons for this.  Chances are the Nintendo faithful will collect several issues if they like the covers, plus people who don't normally buy gaming magazines might pick up a copy if it has lots of coverage and secrets to this latest installment in the Mario franchise.  Every issue sold validates a print magazine's existence.

Pretty fucking hilarious. I know that company endorsed magazines are usually pretty biased, but this is just ridiculous.

I take it that everyone agrees that ONM is a marketing platform and not a bastion of an editorial. To the people that read ONM, who are interested in Mario and all it's iterations, this will probably provide some sort of value to their almost certain video game purchase. I see no difference to this than me waiting for three hours to play Assassins Creed and meet Jade Raymond. 
 
Let me add a caveat and say I haven't read ONM since the N64 days and can't remember if they get raging hard ons for all Nintendo products. 

Hi guys 
 
I'm Chris Scullion, and I'm the Games Editor for the Official Nintendo Magazine. I'm also the person who wrote the Galaxy 2 review discussed here. 
 
I feel it's important to give a little background on myself first, to hopefully allow people to see where I'm coming from. It's a little long, but please bear with me.
 
I started playing games when I was three years old, when I visited my aunt in America (Cleveland, OH) and discovered her NES. When I got back home I got an NES that Christmas and since then have never stopped playing. I have owned every Nintendo system since then: NES, SNES, N64, GameCube, Wii, Game Boy, Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance/SP, Micro and DS/DS Lite/DSi/XL. 
 
However, contrary to claims from some commenters here who are suggesting ONM are biased and fanboys, I also feel it's worth mentioning that in my lifetime I've also owned a Master System, Mega Drive (Genesis), Mega CD (Sega CD), Saturn, PlayStation, PS2, Xbox and Dreamcast. As well as the current Nintendo systems I also own an Xbox 360, PS3 and PSP and play them all regularly. A quick look at my Gamerscore (tag - scully1888) will verify this. Would I consider myself a hardcore gamer? Yes. A fanboy, however? Absolutely not. 
 
Every since I was young I've been reading magazines like CVG, Mean Machines, Edge, N64 Magazine and the like (some of which will only be familiar to UK gamers). I even got my aunt in America to send over EGM and GamePro every month. I knew that the only thing I wanted to do in life was write for a games magazine. 
 
After studying hard at school, I took an intensive four-year degree course in Journalism, which then got my foot in the door at Future, with ONM. I am immensely proud of this accomplishment, and I'm very proud to have been given a privilege that very few people get: to give other gamers advice on which games to buy. 
 
Why am I telling you all this? Because I hope it will go some way to explaining to you why I get personally offended when people, many of whom have never even picked up a copy of ONM, immediately say our opinion must be biased because of the magazine's name. 
 
I'm not looking for an argument here, and I'm not here to pass judgment on Giant Bomb or Jeff because I find it extremely, grossly unprofessional to pass judgment on other members of the games media. I'm only here to set a few myths straight. 
 
We are not biased in the slightest. Simply put, it's widely accepted that the majority of Nintendo games are extremely high in quality, and that's the simple reason why we give these games high scores. Why is it acceptable for Edge to give Galaxy 2 a score of 10/10 but if we give it a high score the assumption is we're biased? 
 
Anyone who's actually been a long-time reader of ONM will note that we've given some first-party games less thean favourable scores in the past. We gave Mario Party 8 a score of 69%, saying it's "not nearly as good as it should have been" and that "overall, it's just not that fun to play". When DSiWare launched, we gave WarioWare Snapped 60%, saying "the main problem simply comes down to the fact that for a great deal of the time [the microgames] don't really work". 
 
If ONM was really "Nintendo propaganda", as has been claimed in the comments here, and if we really were on Nintendo's payroll, there's no way we'd have been allowed to criticise a Mario game and a game designed to launch a new service. Simply put, we are not biased. 
 
I also object to the suggestion in this article that my editor Neil Long is in some way powerless to ONM's marketing. I am fully aware of the problems Jeff has faced in previous employment and I can fully sympathise with his situation, but that does not mean these things happen everywhere and I feel it's unfair to comment on a company's working environment without having ever worked there.

Most of all though, I strongly object to (and am personally offended by) suggestions that my opinion and my review are worthless because of the name of the magazine I write for. I have 24 years of gaming experience (as explained above) and have said numerous times to our own readers that the day I'm told what score to give a game is the day I leave ONM. Four years after joining, I am happy to say I have never had such an issue.

I would urge anyone criticising us to at least read our review before passing judgment on it. From what I can tell by fellow journalists' impressions it seems that my review is very much in line with the rest of the "unofficial" magazines' opinions, so the fact it may get a high score is nothing to do with bias, it's to do with Nintendo releasing a fantastic game. When you read my review you'll see that there are actually criticisms of the game contained in it, and you'll hopefully agree that the ten pages are used well.

Thanks for (hopefully!) taking the time to read all that, and I hope it at least convinces some of you that I'm a genuine gamer, that I'm not a paid monkey, and that it's only fair to actually read my review before passing judgment and dismissing it as biased.  
 
Anyone who wishes to discuss this further and have a chat is more than welcome to contact me at chris.scullion@futurenet.com
 
Regardless of my disappointment at the tone of this article, I still regard Giant Bomb as a good site and enjoy listening to the Giant Bombcast (as well as our own ONM Podcast of course!).
 
Thanks guys! ^_^ 
 
Chris Scullion 
Games Editor 
Official Nintendo Magazine

" @ChrisONM:   
 
Well said, and thanks for the clarification. "

That extremely long post addressed virtually nothing Jeff mentioned.

Oh, and by the way, at no point have I or will I defend Nintendo, its product or an official magazine (which I don't buy, I get NGamer), as I don't care to nor need to.  This is about Nintendo, this is about the biggest bitch piece written here that only showed Jeff to be an absolute dick.  He would still be a dick if it were about Halo on the official Xbox 360 magazine, or Daxter on the latest PS3 magazine.  Nintendo Defence Force is a red herring needed to attempt diversion from how pathetic this thread is.

"That extremely long post addressed virtually nothing Jeff mentioned. "

So you justify your review by stating it's like "every other positive review out there"?  Only review that matters indeed.

" @sixghost said:

"That extremely long post addressed virtually nothing Jeff mentioned. "

I've already said I won't be addressing most of Jeff's comments because it's unprofessional to criticise other members of the games media and it's not my intention to get involved in a war of words. My post was addressing points made by other commenters, not Jeff's article. The only part of Jeff's article I had to address was the part suggesting Neil was some sort of troubled, powerless pawn. Everything else is his opinion, and as someone who gives his opinion for a living I would be a hypocrite if I tried to change it. "

Yup, you made your point Chris, and now people are just trying to tear it apart in stupid ways (it's like every review out there, lol well, apparently it's not since it got Jeff in such a fit) since this is teh internet, it's best to leave it as is and be on your merry way now. Keep it up.

" Plenty even disliked WW. "

" @Al3xand3r said:

" Plenty even disliked WW. "

I come into a thread full of debate and what do I see? This. Heresy. Madness. Insanity. You're just being silly now Alexander, everyone loves Wind Waker and rightfully so.  And with that I'm leaving these comments because, truthfully, I really don't care what publications I'm not forced to read do. The only thing that does come off on their part as dickish is the "We've got the only review that counts", but I've read "Read the definitive review on countless mags, so eh. "

" @sixghost said:

"That extremely long post addressed virtually nothing Jeff mentioned. "

I've already said I won't be addressing most of Jeff's comments because it's unprofessional to criticise other members of the games media and it's not my intention to get involved in a war of words. My post was addressing points made by other commenters, not Jeff's article. The only part of Jeff's article I had to address was the part suggesting Neil was some sort of troubled, powerless pawn. Everything else is his opinion, and as someone who gives his opinion for a living I would be a hypocrite if I tried to change it. "

so what they're saying is that: Miyamoto to them is a god, and Super Mario Galaxy 2 is the shit. They had to come up with six different covers to hit up that kind of rush they get when playing the game, and they think they really rocked it!!

"@ChrisONM said:

" @sixghost said:

"That extremely long post addressed virtually nothing Jeff mentioned. "

I've already said I won't be addressing most of Jeff's comments because it's unprofessional to criticise other members of the games media and it's not my intention to get involved in a war of words. My post was addressing points made by other commenters, not Jeff's article. The only part of Jeff's article I had to address was the part suggesting Neil was some sort of troubled, powerless pawn. Everything else is his opinion, and as someone who gives his opinion for a living I would be a hypocrite if I tried to change it. "

I don't see how that would that make you a hypocrite in the least. That seems like a really weird distinction to draw, you find it unprofessional to respond to another writer badmouthing your magazine, but you are ok with responding to a bunch of commenters doing the same. Since when is it not OK to respond to an opinion? "

 Not to completely derail the hate-wagon, but I interpreted "the only review that matters" as "the only significant review in this issue". 
 
Maybe I'm being too charitable, but it seems a somewhat more reasonable line. "We know you don't care about anything else that's going on in this magazine, so just flip to the only thing in it that matters -- the SMG2 review -- and enjoy!"
 
Just sayin' :-)

I remember a while back in 2007-2009 when ONM had an almost entirely different team (headed by the awesomely haired Chandra Nair), they would do reviews that were 3-5 pages long sometimes, but never 10 whole pages. Thats going a bit too far. 
I miss the old ONM editors, I can't get behind the new ones.

Nintendo fanboys... thanks for the laughs.

Oh, Chris Scullion is still at ONM? I may actually buy a new copy of ONM then.

Faux-journalism.

" Nintendo fanboys... thanks for the laughs. "

" @Trilogy said:

" Nintendo fanboys... thanks for the laughs. "

You are espousing the same simple minded nonsense you perpetrated on the other thread.  This isn't about Nintendo, this is about Jeff's bad and very childish attempts at journalism, that wouldn't get printed in your hometown newspaper because it so void of intellect.  The Nintendo aspect is completely irrelevant. "

I spent over 100 issues being brainwashed by Nintendo Power as a kid about the latest and greatest coming out for Nintendo systems.  And man I loved it.  Glad to see someone else is carrying on that tradition. 
 
But honestly, "Official ____ Magazines" or any other magazine attached to one console only tend to range from adoring to worshipful of the predeclared "hits" that come out.  The odds on this not getting incredibly close to a perfect score are about as good as the odds of Gears of War 3 not getting a near perfect score from an XBox-specific magazine.  Magazines and websites like those have some good content, but for the most part they exist to justify your purchase of that particular console and give ammo to fanboys out fighting the console wars.

" @oldschool said:

" @Trilogy said:

" Nintendo fanboys... thanks for the laughs. "

You are espousing the same simple minded nonsense you perpetrated on the other thread.  This isn't about Nintendo, this is about Jeff's bad and very childish attempts at journalism, that wouldn't get printed in your hometown newspaper because it so void of intellect.  The Nintendo aspect is completely irrelevant. "

Maybe for you it is but I have no vested interest in this article at all.  I just think it's hilarious to see all of the nintendo fanboys come out and condemn Jeff. Fanboyism = Simpleminded.  You're a pretty damn good example of this. Therefore, you make me laugh. Therefore, thank you. "

The difference is that I'm a games journalist and Jeff is a games journalist. I work for a games publication and so does Jeff. It's not right, in my opinion, for two publications to criticise and insult one another. It's unprofessional. He can do his thing and we'll do ours.  That said, had Jeff come out and outright said "they're official, so they're biased", I would have still responded to this. That's not an opinion, that's a false statement presented as fact. He didn't though, he simply gave an opinion (other than the bit about Neil, which I did respond to).  Sorry guys, but I'm going to draw a line under this now. I've said my bit and, like I say, anyone who wants to keep talking about it can do so over email. I'm not looking to come to Giant Bomb and start a war of words on this comments thread, I only came here to defend our credibility and now I feel I've done that, I'm done here. There's nothing worse than endless forum arguments so I'm stepping back. In short, it's not professional for one publication to comment on another, so that's why I'm not addressing Jeff's other comments. Thanks again!  Chris "

" @ChrisONM said: 

The difference is that I'm a games journalist and Jeff is a games journalist. I work for a games publication and so does Jeff. It's not right, in my opinion, for two publications to criticise and insult one another. It's unprofessional. He can do his thing and we'll do ours.  That said, had Jeff come out and outright said "they're official, so they're biased", I would have still responded to this. That's not an opinion, that's a false statement presented as fact. He didn't though, he simply gave an opinion (other than the bit about Neil, which I did respond to).  Sorry guys, but I'm going to draw a line under this now. I've said my bit and, like I say, anyone who wants to keep talking about it can do so over email. I'm not looking to come to Giant Bomb and start a war of words on this comments thread, I only came here to defend our credibility and now I feel I've done that, I'm done here. There's nothing worse than endless forum arguments so I'm stepping back. In short, it's not professional for one publication to comment on another, so that's why I'm not addressing Jeff's other comments. Thanks again!  Chris "

How in the world is a journalistic community supposed to police itself and hold itself to any standard of quality whatsoever if journalists are not allowed to criticize each other? "

" @Trilogy said:

" @oldschool said:

" @Trilogy said:

" Nintendo fanboys... thanks for the laughs. "

You are espousing the same simple minded nonsense you perpetrated on the other thread.  This isn't about Nintendo, this is about Jeff's bad and very childish attempts at journalism, that wouldn't get printed in your hometown newspaper because it so void of intellect.  The Nintendo aspect is completely irrelevant. "

Maybe for you it is but I have no vested interest in this article at all.  I just think it's hilarious to see all of the nintendo fanboys come out and condemn Jeff. Fanboyism = Simpleminded.  You're a pretty damn good example of this. Therefore, you make me laugh. Therefore, thank you. "

Oh yes, you got me good.  Me and my 360, Xbox, 2 x PSP, PS2, PS1, Sega Mega Drive, Sega Master System, PC and assorted Nintendo consoles are such fanboys.  Again, show me how I mentioned Nintendo in any of the replies or stop talking out of Jeff's arse.  All I have read here is simply about the worst kind of journalism perpetrated by the stupidest thread any staff member here has made, and that is saying a lot. "

" @ChrisONM said: 

The difference is that I'm a games journalist and Jeff is a games journalist. I work for a games publication and so does Jeff. It's not right, in my opinion, for two publications to criticise and insult one another. It's unprofessional. He can do his thing and we'll do ours.  That said, had Jeff come out and outright said "they're official, so they're biased", I would have still responded to this. That's not an opinion, that's a false statement presented as fact. He didn't though, he simply gave an opinion (other than the bit about Neil, which I did respond to).  Sorry guys, but I'm going to draw a line under this now. I've said my bit and, like I say, anyone who wants to keep talking about it can do so over email. I'm not looking to come to Giant Bomb and start a war of words on this comments thread, I only came here to defend our credibility and now I feel I've done that, I'm done here. There's nothing worse than endless forum arguments so I'm stepping back. In short, it's not professional for one publication to comment on another, so that's why I'm not addressing Jeff's other comments. Thanks again!  Chris "

How in the world is a journalistic community supposed to police itself and hold itself to any standard of quality whatsoever if journalists are not allowed to criticize each other? "

@Jeff: Watch out Jeff, you've pissed off the Official Nintendo Magazine. Better start wearing bullet-proof underwear to work for the next few days, lest you become scared shitless.

The day that Nintendo Official Magazine gave Red Steel a 92 out of 100 score was the day I stopped buying Nintendo Official Magazine.