GamePro

GamePro was an American multiplatform video game magazine media company that published online and print content covering the video game industry, video game hardware and video game software. The magazine featured content on various video game consoles, personal computers and mobile devices. GamePro Media properties included GamePro magazine and their website. The company was also a part subsidiary of the privately held International Data Group (IDG), a media, events and research technology group. The magazine and its parent publication printing the magazine went defunct in 2011¹, but is outlasted by Gamepro.com. Originally published in 1989¹, GamePro magazine provided feature articles, news, previews and reviews on various video games, video game hardware and the entertainment video game industry. The magazine was published monthly (most recently from its headquarters in Oakland, California) with October 2011 being its last issue, after over 22 years of publication. GamePro's February 2010 issue introduced a redesigned layout and a new editorial direction focused on the people and culture of its gaming. Despite the shutdown of U.S. operations, the magazine continues to operate internationally in France, Germany, and Spain. GamePro.com was officially launched in 1998.…

GamePro was an American multiplatform video game magazine media company that published online and print content covering the video game industry, video game hardware and video game software. The magazine featured content on various video game consoles, personal computers and mobile devices. GamePro Media properties included GamePro magazine and their website. The company was also a part subsidiary of the privately held International Data Group (IDG), a media, events and research technology group. The magazine and its parent publication printing the magazine went defunct in 2011, but is outlasted by Gamepro.com. Originally published in 1989, GamePro magazine provided feature articles, news, previews and reviews on various video games, video game hardware and the entertainment video game industry. The magazine was published monthly (most recently from its headquarters in Oakland, California) with October 2011 being its last issue, after over 22 years of publication. GamePro's February 2010 issue introduced a redesigned layout and a new editorial direction focused on the people and culture of its gaming. Despite the shutdown of U.S. operations, the magazine continues to operate internationally in France, Germany, and Spain. GamePro.com was officially launched in 1998. Updated daily, the website's content included feature articles, news, previews, reviews, screenshots and videos covering video games, video game hardware and the entertainment gaming industry. The website also included user content such as forums, reviews and blogs. In January 2010, the website was redesigned to reflect the same new editorial changes being made in the print magazine. The website was based at Gamepro's headquarters in San Francisco from 1998 to 2002 and then in Oakland, California from 2002 to 2011. ==Content== ===Rating scale=== At first, games were rated by five categories: Graphics, Sound, Gameplay, FunFactor, and Challenge. Later the "Challenge" category was dropped and the "Gameplay" category was renamed "Control". The ratings were initially on a scale of 1.0 to 5.0, in increments of 0.5, 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. Starting in October 1990, each score was accentuated with a cartoon face (The Gamepro Dude) depicting different expressions for different ratings. The ratings faces remained in use until about 2002. GamePro s reviews became esteemed enough that some games would display their GamePro ratings on their retail boxes. After 2002, the category system was eliminated in favor of a single overall rating for each game on a scale of 1.0 to 5.0 stars. A graphic of five stars were shown alongside the written review. The number of stars a game earned was indicated by the number of solid stars (e.g., a game's 4-star rating was represented by showing 4 solid stars and one hollow star). No game ever received less than one star. An Editors' Choice Award was given to a game that earned either 4.5 or 5.0 stars. ===Role-Player's Realm=== GamePro had a "Role-Player's Realm" section dedicated to the coverage and reviews of role-playing video games. In the January 1997 issue, they published a list of "The Top Ten Best RPGs Ever" which consisted of the following games: The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (Super NES) Final Fantasy 3 (Super NES) Lunar: Eternal Blue / Silver Star (Sega CD) Breath of Fire II (Super NES) Phantasy Star IV (Genesis) Secret of Mana (Super NES) Chrono Trigger (Super NES) Super Mario RPG (Super NES) Might and Magic II (Genesis) Final Fantasy 2 (Super NES) Later in 2008¹, GamePro published another list of "The 26 Best RPGs of the All Time", the top ten of which consisted of the following games: Final Fantasy VII World of Warcraft The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Chrono Trigger Fallout 3 Diablo II: Lord of Destruction Ultima series Xenogears The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic ===ProTips=== GamePro is credited with coming up with the concept of "Protip", a short piece of advice as if spoken by an expert usually attached to an image, which was explained by former writer Dan Amrich that as part of their editorial process, they were encouraged to caption the three-to-seven images used in an article with such advice. One purported image from a GamePro review of Doom (1993) had a caption for an image of one of the game's bosses as "PROTIP: To defeat the Cyberdemon, shoot at it until it dies". The apparent advice, which is common sense and self-evident for players of first-person shooters like Doom, was widely mocked and created a meme of similarly obvious ProTips added as captions to pictures. However, the image was revealed to be a fake, created as an April Fools' joke for a fansite doomworld.com. ===Lamepro=== Every April until 2007, as an April Fools' Day prank, Gamepro printed a 2-5 page satirical spoof of the magazine called Lamepro , a parody of Gamepro ' s own official title. The feature contained humorous game titles and fake news similar to The Onion, though some content, such as ways to get useless game glitches (games getting stuck, reset, or otherwise), was real. The section parodied GamePro itself, as well as other game magazines. ==PC Games== What was called a "sister publication" to GamePro, PC Games, was published by IDG until 1999¹. It was founded in August 1988¹, but changed its name to Electronic Entertainment in late 1993 and PC Entertainment in early 1996. The title reverted to PC Games in June 1996. Its website was merged with several other IDG properties, including GamePro Online, to form the IDG Games Network in late 1997. The print version of PC Games was the fourth-largest computer game magazine in the United States during 1998, with a circulation of 169,281. In March 1999, it was purchased and closed by Imagine Publishing; its April 1999 issue was its last. Following this event, Imagine sent former subscribers of PC Games issues of PC Gamer US and PC Accelerator in its place. According to GameDaily, the move came as part of IDG's rebranding effort to lean more heavily on the GamePro name: coverage of computer games was thereafter centralized at PCGamePro.com, and in the "PC GamePro" section of GamePro s print edition. ==Australian GamePro== Australian GamePro was a bi-monthly video games magazine published by IDG from 10 November 2003 to February 2007. The founding editor was Stuart Clarke, who was succeeded in January 2006 by Chris Stead. According to the latter, the magazine had doubled its sales from 2006 to 2007, but the decision to discontinue the publication came as a result of internal restructuring. ==References== ==External links== Games.net: A Gamepro Media Network website Blogfaction.com: A Gamepro Media Network website Gamepro RetroMags Wiki article Archived Gamepro Magazines on the Internet Archive Archived Gamepro PDF scans on Retro CDN ===GamePro Media international websites=== Gamepro Germany Gamestar Germany Gamepro TV Spain Gamepro en Español Gamestar Hungary

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