There's something about the word fanzine that I love and loathe with equal regard. The way it shoehorns the word fan - most commonly used in a disparaging tone - and zine - which these days sounds like some strange trying-too-hard-to-be-hip slang - feels so forced and contrived that I wince when it’s used. It implies a messy amateurism, which I'd argue is rarely the case with today’s fan-made efforts.
Yes, fanzines are made and written during spare time, printed at copy shops and usually collated in a possibly boring method best politely referred to as lo-fi. But the effort and lengths fanzine makers go to belies the whiff of overeager low-quality its very name gives off. 'Apprecation' would be a much nicer word, embodying the appreciation of the zine's subject matter and dedication and skill gone its production. But bleeding words as such is naff, so I digress. The humble fanzine, you see, isn’t the most important element of games writing (no my friends, that is - dare I sound so arrogant to say it – talent and inventiveness) but is certainly one of the most important steps in education for any would be games journalist.
Anyone who wants to be a journalist most certainly wants to be published. That is, have their words and opinions printed in the traditional paid-for manner, placed on paper, acting as influence over a readership. The tangible thrill of print journalism is incomparable to words appearing on a website, I am both afraid and proud to say. No wonder, then, that given the rocky road into the weird world of printed games journalism, many turn to self-publishing as an outlet for their work, ideas and critiques.
Indeed, it's a fast declining art now. The internet, with its low overheads and editorial meetings via instant messaging, has replaced the hive-of-industry feel of laying things out in a portable form and fixing them together with an overarm stapler. But web journalism is a very different beast to print journalism, with its indulgently lazy methods of reporting. Note that news appears identical from site to site, pilfered from press releases or found on forums: long gone are the days of a scoop, with publications left to writing a different take on a breaking subject once another has found it. Little news hunting or thought (beyond 'OMFG nu POkemon!!1') goes into the mind of Johnny Joystick, editor of www.heresmorextremegameznews.com: there is no such thing as ingenuity or - and some will tell you it's a dirty word - spin. So, as much of the games writing on the web gets tangled in its own self-consumption, fanzines are able to move in. And the fact they share so much with standard printed magazines, but are at the same time so very different to standard print and web writing, make them immediately important with regards to writing about games.
The problem facing standard print magazines, with their Exclusives! and Demos! and ADD-inspired boxout frenzies, is that both the ‘games’ part and ‘journalism’ part of ‘games journalism’ is becoming extinct. Where is the fun in seeing news and previews based around screenshots that every other magazine has access to?
Fanzines rarely have the links or contacts to secure the kind of exclusive content that would have more common magazine publishers tripping over themselves, so writers are forced to rely on that little thing called creativity to spice up their content. It’s this which makes reading (and creating) a fanzine so thrilling. Yes, many times it can be disappointing - there's only so many times you can stomach another generic pdf fanzine and its "definitive" Halo review - but the best thing about being forced into a corner are the ingenious methods used to get out of it.
Meanwhile, creators, writers and editors of fanzines learn a valuable skill that web writers do not, and that is the value of space. If you can find me one brief news report on the latest Nintendo release date slip, I can give you twenty which waste time over-contextualising details on the subject you already know and rounding off with an impassioned and biased moan about the mistreatment of gamers. (How dare Nintendo enforce quality assessment, eh?) Most points and observations, no matter the subject matter, can in fact be summed up with brevity and panache. Fanzines make writers succinct and to the point - as with normal print mediums, space is limited, and the challenge is to use it wisely.
Print magnifies the blemishes in poor copy and you'll soon learn what words are ugly when you're printing them on a page. The lesson doesn't just apply to writing, but other fields too: even fanfilms and fanfiction, with their limited budget and passion for its subject, can be quickly over cooked. Don’t expect to have everyone’s attention and then hold it for long: no meal or chef ever asked that of a stomach. Fanzines, you understand, teach the most important lesson of all. They teach us when to stop.
Michael French
can stop any time he wants, honest
[Next: The GameGO! Experience]
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