Magazines and such...

So... I'm walking into the local Wal-Mart today to pick up a couple things and since it was raining I had the hood on my windbreaker pulled up and my head down.  As I'm making my way across the damp blacktop parking lot, something catches my eye.  It's one of those annoying blow-in cards from a magazine, all wet and sodden from the rain.  It was for GamePro magazine, which immediately made me think, "Who the hell reads GamePro anymore?"

Or for that matter, who reads gaming magazines anymore?

I'll admit I pick up the occasional issue of Tips & Tricks when the cover story catches my eye, and every so often I'll pick up PC Gamer (especially if they've got a code for a freebie MMO item in it), but other than that my gaming magazine reading is almost nil.  The only reason Game Informer sees the inside of my mailbox is because I get the freebie subscription with my GameStop discount card.

I blame the internet.  When I was in college and damn near broke all the time the internet was my salvation when it came to getting gaming news.  Things were just starting to ramp up on the Web.  FTP sites abounded where you could download moves lists for fighting games (anyone else frequent brawl.mindlink.net back when it was still around?)  I realized that I didn't need to chunk down $5 a month on a dead-tree edition.

Granted, I still enjoy the dead-tree editions - after all, it's a pain in the ass to try to take a laptop to the bathroom with you.  But in the grand scheme of things I find that they're becoming less and relevant to my interests.  And if anyone ever develops a cheap e-reader device, I get the feeling they'll become non-existent...