Former EGM editor speaks about redesign

Name drop alert!



Former EGM editor and VG Ombudsman reader Greg Sewart has recently contacted me about the article I did on EGM's redesign. Having worked on the redesign himself, he though he could give you readers some insight into the whole process and reasoning behind it. It's better than my rambling opinions on the matter, anyway. Here's Greg:



One thing to note: the old colour and layout scheme is was actually adopted at issue #100. The redesign back then wasn't quite as drastic as this new one, but this is far from the first time EGM has changed its look. I do agree that the most recent design (the one you describe) was by far the cleanest. However, it could be argued that it was also the most boring. It left very little room for things like art, huge screenshots, etc. Are those things important? That's up to the readers I guess.



The biggest change was dropping the colour coding for each system. At least, that was the part we struggled with the most. Unfortunately, that system was a throwback to the days of the Saturn, PS1, and N64. Not a lot of games were getting the cross-platform treatment back then. So deciding which game went where was enerally pretty simple, and didn't shortchange any particular system's Previews or Reviews section.



As the PS2, Xbox, and GC took over, multi-system ports became very common. We started having to make judgment calls regarding whether to put multi-console releases in either the PS2, Xbox, or GC sections. Due

to the overwhelming popularity of the PS2, more times than not that's where games were placed, which all but decimated our Xbox and GC coverage. At least, that's how it looked when everything was colour-coded. We started getting loads of e-mail from readers regarding our lack of coverage for the two secondary systems.



On top of that, the amount of software being released created a real space issue. Generally that meant it wasn't feasible to review three different versions of the same game. But limiting the review to one system version meant not pointing out potential differences in between the game on the PS2, Xbox, or GC. After agonizing over this problem for what seemed like forever, the current setup is what everyone agreed on.

Is it better or worse? I personally think it's a step in the right direction, though, like the rest of the magazine, it's obviously a work in progress.



A lot of similar problems could be found in a Previews section that was divided by system. That section was my responsibility at the time, and again, having a huge PS2 section at the cost of the Xbox and GC coverage (even though we were covering a lot of games to be released on all three systems) really made us look bad in the eyes of a lot of readers. At least, that's what the hundreds of e-mails led me to think.



The other problem with the old Previews section was it needed a hook. We'd been toying with grouping certain titles together in order to make more interesting (and hopefully more in-depth) mini-features about certain trends, or at least to tell people why we were covering particular games. With an old, colour- and system-organized section, the results were pretty messy.



Does the new setup work? Well, I have my opinions on what does and what doesn't, and have shared them with the folks at EGM. I do like that every game gets a multi-person review now, and gets more than a 1/3 page

column. I like grouping the Previews together into small features, too. The whole magazine just seems to flow more. It's less jarring when you move from one section to another.



That said, the new EGM is not without its problems. I just figured you'd like some insight as to where the editors and art people were coming from when certain decisions were made regarding this big redesign.



Thanks for your insider's look, Greg. A special note to those of you who read this far: School is starting up again next week, and this will likely impact the frequency and length of posts to this blog. I will still try to get a little something up when I can, and my goal will be 3-5 posts of varying length per week. But you won't likely see many more weeks like this one with 8+ posts. Remember, the more greviances you mail me the easier it is for me to post lots of updates! Thanks for reading, and I hope you'll all continue to do so in the future.