Hello friends, did you hear that EGM is returning to print hopefully later this year? This is awesome news for those that grew up on the magazine. I'm happy to hear that the magazine is back, especially that its going back to one of the founders. I'm hoping that they might be looking for new writers, perhaps a genuine fan of fighting games. Not a "fan" in the popular sense of the word, but somebody that likes to play fighters and take them apart as well. A writer that has a pretty good long-term memory of the genre and more importantly, will try to avoid the mistakes in covering their development.

EGM might be considered infallible when it comes to reporting on Street Fighter but they have allowed their own interpretations to color the development of the series. The things they have written, even as an April Fools joke, ended up influencing the actual game. This never sat squarely with me. I felt as if people that didn't really understand all of the nuances for Street Fighter, especially the Japanese origins and influences, were shaping the American perception of the game. What EGM had done to the history of the franchise was endemic of a larger problem. The timeliness and efficiency of print journalism.

It was the February 1997 issue of EGM that got a multi-page preview of SF III. The observations they made were based on a both a work-in-progress and their assumptions about how the characters played and their origin myth. I wonder if the editors ever called the writers on the assumptions they wrote.

The very first photographs of SF III that EGM published were a few issues prior to their dissection. Back in the November 1996 issue. Interestingly enough it was the only time I had ever been published in EGM, as a letter of the month, questioning whether SF III would be good or not. Even back then I was passionate about the franchise. I had followed the SF III developments in American magazines and had noticed that the gap between what was being published in Japan and the US were still a few months apart. In November of 96 my other favorite US magazine, Next Generation also published a news blurb in their "Arcadia" section. The information seemed mistranslated and incomplete. Worse, it lacked a screenshot.

These gripes might seem inconsequential as most Americans got their first glimpse of SF III in November's EGM. However for those lucky types that visited Japanese bookstores had actually gotten a glimpse and solid information of SF III in September 1996's issue of Famitsu. I was one of those lucky types. I brought the magazine and poured over the solitary screenshot and info on the CPS-3 and Warzard day and night. I took it with me to school to share with the other die-hard SF fans. This single page spread allowed me to question whether Capcom was doing the right thing by staying with 2D before EGM had even published a screenshot.

So why am I mentioning all of this now? Why should what was published 13 years ago matter to someone looking to write for EGM today?

Perhaps because I grew up with a firm appreciation for both American and Japanese magazines. I saw how much hard work it took to make articles memorable month after month. I also learned how much influence these magazines held with both publishers and audiences. I didn't want to see EGM, or any other magazine, fall into the familiar habits of making friends with the publishers first and then writing light previews to ensure future access. By ignoring hard-hitting questions most magazines were doing a disservice to the audiences. They were also ignoring the things that made titles memorable in the first place.

I'm not one for making friends in the industry. I'm also not much for newsy writing and reviews. I am a fan of longer features and believe that gamers deserve to know every side of the story, even if that means having to call the developers on their inconsistencies as much as praising their greatness. Damned if I wouldn't want a chance to prove that in the new EGM.

I have no published material to show Steve Harris or any of the former editors. No way of showing my ability and insight other than a mountain of blogs on 1UP and a smaller list on Capcom-Unity. Would my style even fit within the walls of EGM, where higher-profile writers and editors already have a history with companies like Capcom? Or am I destined for other things?

What do you think?