GMR (magazine)

• 1. Introduction

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  GMR magazine arrived on shelves in February 2003 with a cover featuring Dead or Alive: Extreme Beach Volleyball, carrying the self-aware label "The First Issue." It was sold exclusively through the Electronics Boutique chain of video game stores, making it unlike almost any other gaming publication of its era. From the start, GMR stood apart in subtle ways: its cover art leaned minimalistic, it covered PC games alongside console titles, and it gave its monthly issues playful themed names rather than the usual volume numbers. The questions worth asking are why a major retailer backed a print magazine in the first place, what made GMR distinctive to the readers who found it, and why, after exactly two years, it quietly disappeared.

• 2. Ziff-Davis and EB Games

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  Ziff-Davis published GMR alongside a stable that included PC Magazine, Electronic Gaming Monthly, and Computer Gaming World. That last title would later be renamed Games for Windows: The Official Magazine, and it shared editorial DNA with GMR in ways that would become clear only later. Ziff-Davis brought publishing infrastructure; Electronics Boutique brought distribution and, crucially, funding. Because EB financed the magazine, it was sold only inside EB stores. That arrangement made GMR unusual in the print landscape. Most gaming magazines reached readers through newsstands and subscription mail; GMR reached them at the point of purchase, standing near the cash register or the new-release wall.

• 3. A Different Kind of Coverage

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  Among magazines that covered multiple gaming platforms, GMR was unusual for treating PC games as equal to console releases. The cover list bears this out: issues spotlighted World of Warcraft and Star Wars Galaxies alongside console titles, and EverQuest 2 and Final Fantasy XI appeared together on the August 2004 "The Online World issue," which used four different covers. In its final months, the magazine shifted its editorial focus toward less mainstream titles, a turn that readers noticed. The rating system reflected a similar independence of spirit. Reviewers scored games on a scale of 1 to 10, but a score of zero was used twice, given to Postal 2 and Ping Pals. Each review also carried a one- or two-word comment, often a pun on the game's title, and three lines of comparison: Better Than, Not As Good As, and Wait For It.

• 4. Game Geezer

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  Near the back of most issues sat a column called Game Geezer, written as though dictated by an excessively cranky old man in a comedic register. Readers responded warmly to its concise opinions about the video game industry and the player community. The column was later revealed to have been written by Jeff Green, who served as editor-in-chief of both Computer Gaming World and Games for Windows: The Official Magazine. On a fill-in basis, Greg Orlando, formerly of Xbox Nation, also contributed. The authorship stayed hidden long enough to become a minor piece of gaming-press trivia. The enthusiasm for the column suggests that GMR had cultivated readers who wanted something beyond preview copy and review scores.

• 5. The End

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  GameStop's merger with EB Games ended GMR's run. GameStop already published its own magazine, Game Informer, and had no reason to sustain a competing title funded by a chain it had just absorbed. The 25th and final issue, carrying the February 2005 date and the cover line "The last issue" with Resident Evil 4 on the front, was sent only to subscribers. Print runs were limited enough that not every subscriber actually received a copy. The fates of the full staff were never publicly documented, though James Mielke, known as "Milkman," and Andrew Pfister, known as "Skip," both moved to the 1Up.com Network. Shortly after the closure, a PS2 game called Monster Hunter released an online-only Event Quest that let players obtain a weapon called the "GMR Chrome Heart," bearing an embossed GMR logo.