What is "My Two Bits?"

My Two Bits is the official editorial page for the editor of Techtite.com. Techtite will accept reader submissions, for reviews as well as any editorials deemed well written and pertinent to this web site's audience.

---Is that Your SECOND Answer...?

---Phantom Menace : How Childish is CHILDISH?

---The Current State of Adventure Games, Part 1

---The Current State of Adventure Games, Part 2

---When Does Bending Rules Become Cheating?

---When I Was Your Age...

---2001: A DUH Odyssey!

---DEATH to pop-up window commercials!

---Off the "Daily Radar"...

---PG-13: An Asset, or a Curse?

---Sept. 11, 2001...

---Down with pop- ups: THE SEQUEL!

No Sidebar comments for this editorial. Maybe that will change, though...

January/February's "Two Bits" are titled :

Next Generation Magazine is Gone! [sniff]

We interrupt our regularly scheduled New Year's editorial, to lament the loss of another great web site/magazine. Sure, it's another one of those properties of Imagine Media --which closed down two other magazines and/or web sites in just the past year-- though this one was quite a shock! By comparison, when PC Accelerator Magazine was closed down, it was deemed that the magazine's decidedly pubescent perspectives (complete with a supermodel pinup within every issue) was not prim and proper enough for the cappuccino-drinking, superiorly intellectual masses (sarcasm intended, and deserved). As for Daily Radar's demise last year; that was the subject of an earlier editorial, though suffice to say, that too was predictable. This was not; the demise of Next Generation magazine. Talk about the end of an era!

First, the magazine. Simply put, when introduced in 1995, there was nothing like it. This was the magazine to always have a way-cool piece of computer art on their cover, unlike the cartoonish drivel on the covers of other game rags. These were perfect cover choices based on the initial theme of the whole magazine; all the best, next generation entertainment forms. It's articles were well written and didn't read like they were edited by 13 year olds (let's just say they never added cutesy mascots like "coconut monkey," and leave it at that). When they made the move to online status, their web site, Next Generation Online, was irrefutably the best. Reviews were cool, previews were cool, and feature stories told it like it was. Its responses to its readers' letters were courteous and informative. I miss the way things were...as, I'm sure, everyone does.

So, what happened? For starters, Daily Radar happened. This was the pipe dream that a web site could have separate critics for each platform --PC, Sega, Nintendo, Playstation, and so on-- yet not have the individual departments be biased. Oh, yeah, sure, it could happen...it just didn't happen for Daily Radar. Initial Radar reviews were so wrong, they scared off most of its potential readership. The fair, impartial, serious-minded reviews of Next Generation Online were replaced with the most ridiculous sounding commentary this side of Beavis & Butthead. These are the guys who claimed that Blair With Project 2 was a better sequel than even Godfather 2 or Empire Strikes Back. This was the site with such audacity, it actually attempted a boycott of Nintendo products! What made things even more painful, was that this was what some twit thought was a better web site than Next Generation Online. Although Daily Radar lasted merely a year and a half, the move to re-instate Next Generation Online was never attempted, nor could it have worked if they tried; the site's former readership had been scared off entirely. That was "strike one."

Never mind waiting for two more strikes before they're "out"; the January 2002 issue of Next Generation magazine has been announced to be the last. However, let me be fair here; looking at the last issue, I can slightly see why. They stopped the inclusion of a demo CD years ago, in one of many blind attempts to cut costs...and in the process, cut the value of the magazine as well. The bare-bones magazine itself was very low-quality, when compared to their issues in 1995. Even the cover is embarrassingly blasé! The magazine whose covers once heralded the first-ever glimpse of a fully rendered Lara "Tomb Raider" Croft, now had a mere green "X" in front of a boring black backdrop. Yeah, I know; "X-box"...nevertheless, a mere green "X" alone is not going to turn heads on a magazine rack. In its heyday, this issue's cover would've been a breathtaking view of a cutscene from Halo, all perfectly rendered. I say it again; I miss the way things were.

Why should a separate, non-affiliated multimedia review site, take the time to lament the loss of some-other critic source...? Because NGO didn't even get the privilege to say goodbye; that's why. To add insult to injury, the last editorial for the magazine --ever-- was handed to some guy whose yawn is clearly heard between the lines, as he writes: "...it's Sunday, I'm really tired and haggard, and I need to get this column in before the magazine ships..." Gee, dude; sorry to wake you up. I will cut this guy some slack, and presume he would've said something a tad more moving had he known that this was the last editorial for the magazine, ever. I think what he might've meant to say was, "I'm really gonna miss you guys!" Agreed.

Once again, I'm Techtite, and these are My Two Bits...