Magazines (as in Periodical Publication, not Ammunition Holder)
I have a lot of old magazines back at my parents' place: mostly gaming stuff, a lot of comics too. A couple of shelves are stuffed with paper that's going to rot unless I take care of it properly, which I should1...
I had my publications I followed religiously, and then those I bought on and off, when they had a cool cover or an article on something I was particularly interested in. The reason I disliked Final Fantasy X so much at launch was that I read about Blitzball on a PlayStation magazine I bought on a whim, fell in love with the concept and then discovered in game that Blitzball actually sucks. Why would a major publication lie to me about how good the next big game is? I can't believe this! Little me couldn't believe it either. These guys are professionals! They would never publish a wrong take!
But that's not what I want to talk about today, especially because nowadays I enjoy reading personal pieces about gaming and the precious opinions of my close friends. Bless them all.
What I want to talk about, is the entire experience surrounding specialized publications: going into a shop and discovering there's an entire magazine about your current fixation, and there might be more coming next month! Buying it, reading it, getting to know the editorial staff and wondering about their lives at the office as they churn out piece after piece, looking at all the pictures and maybe cutting some out too2.
I'm also very fascinated by fictional magazines, especially since their periodic nature is actually fake: there is no next nor previous month in Final Fantasy VIII3, but you can find multiple copies of Weapons Monthly, each from a different month. You might know I love game props, and this love goes way back: when I was in elementary school, I made my own copies of Weapons Monthly out of printer paper and colored pencils! I came up with my own articles and everything, just for myself. If I really think about it, I did start making fake magazines about whatever I was into at the moment, never getting past a couple of pages, never sharing them. But it was always fun.
Nowadays I miss physical magazines a lot, but I can't commit to neither the expense nor the space needed. It's sad, but I also think it's pretty common. Digital magazines are very convenient on that front, but they're rare and kind of a lesser option to me than their physical counterpart. Still... I think I might go and look for a nice one to buy a number or two of. Hopefully this one won't try to convince me the latest Final Fantasy has a fun and engaging minigame.
Actually, I've been looking into preservation societies for some of these and I'd like to donate my copies soon. It's just hard to do so from a distance!↩
My mom was big into decoupage for a couple of years, so I followed in her footsteps personalizing some very... peculiar pieces of my room (like a trashcan) with snippets out of my favourite magazines.↩
Or at least, not one you can experience through an in-game clock. Although finding the very first one in a flashback scene is wild.↩