New Releases 03/24

[Kiwi]

Gregorick gives us PSW (UK) issues 09 and 12 just in time for some weekend reading. March already? Yikes!! 

 

[kitsunebi]

Wow.    I'm not gonna pretend that I'm politically correct all the time, but did they seriously print this on the cover?



Offensive racial slur combined with offensive cliche implying Asian women are prostitutes (they can't even tell the difference between different types of Asians, as that phrase isn't traditionally used to denigrate the Japanese.)  Maybe this was commonplace in the UK, but you could definitely NOT get away with putting stuff like this on the cover in America if you wanted to remain in print. (And what game is that, anyway? - the character doesn't even look like it's from a Japanese game.)

Of course on the next issue's cover they make a play on words of the phrase "smack my bitch up," so I'm guessing this mag was probably written by teenagers?  I heard that was a thing in the UK on some gaming mags.

[IloveCats100]

From the magazines I've browsed it did seem that at the time the UK magazines were often more inclined to express such xenophobic sentiment. I couldn't hazard a guess as to why, however I do know that the UK's tabloid news media are infamous for unpleasant content so perhaps there is a leniency in print media over there?

[Gregorick]

As someone who remembers these times (and magazines) well I would say they were very much a part of the late 90's/early 00's lads mags culture. Nearly all British mags around this time were on a race to the bottom for edgy and problematic blokes nonsense. It certainly wasn't just targeted towards teenagers though, guys in there 20's were certainly a target too and lapped it up.

The way that women and minorities were represented during this period was pretty abhorrent. From page 3 girls sitting proudly on newsagents shelves to overly-sexualised beer adverts on tv it was hard to escape. With the slow decline of lads mags (eventually leading to campaigners getting covers changed or removed from shelves) and the rise of the internet a lot of these commonplace things in gaming magazines disappeared but that PS2 era is pretty bleak. It's also worth noting the effect that the extremely repugnant tabloid press had on nearly every facet of British life around this time (as IloveCats100 points out above).

I have previously pointed out how shocking I found some of the content in the PSG 24-7 issues I scanned but have seen similar stuff in PSM2, Play and others. From bizarre racial epiphets to reviews of pornography to straight up nudity it seems crazy to me that these mags (primarily aimed at children or teenagers) were printed at all. I would like to categorically state that my scanning of these materials is in no way an endorsement, purely preservation. They do serve as an interesting time capsule into that period of British life and one that thankfully, it seems most have moved past.

[bigkev]

Wow.    I'm not gonna pretend that I'm politically correct all the time, but did they seriously print this on the cover?



Offensive racial slur combined with offensive cliche implying Asian women are prostitutes (they can't even tell the difference between different types of Asians, as that phrase isn't traditionally used to denigrate the Japanese.)  Maybe this was commonplace in the UK, but you could definitely NOT get away with putting stuff like this on the cover in America if you wanted to remain in print. (And what game is that, anyway? - the character doesn't even look like it's from a Japanese game.)

Of course on the next issue's cover they make a play on words of the phrase "smack my bitch up," so I'm guessing this mag was probably written by teenagers?  I heard that was a thing in the UK on some gaming mags.

PSW was notorious for these types of comments (even screenshot captions) especially when it came to games such as Tomb Raider, Dead or Alive 2 and the WWE titles.

[Kiwi]

Desktop (AUS) #97 has been added by Jason. Never seen this desktop publishing title before. Interesting!!

[Kiwi]

"Stop mugging grannies for a change" and read another two PSW (UK) mags from Gregorick with issues 14 and 15 now available.

 

[Kiwi]

Gregorick also gives us three new PSM2 issues to sink our teeth into this weekend.

   

[Kiwi]

Gregorick surprises in the best possible way by dropping Play (UK) issues 95 and 105 on me.

 

[Kiwi]

Three issues of Australian PC Authority have been added by Jason.

   

[Kiwi]

Gregorick gives three issues of PlayStation 2 Official Tips (UK) ....

   

[Kiwi]

Some PC reading for the weekend with Jason submitting three issues of Australian PC User.

   

[Kiwi]

Gregorick contributes three new issues of PlayStation Power for our weekend edification ....

   

[Kiwi]

Jason scans another six issues of Australian PC Authority. Awesome!!

   
   

[Kiwi]

Gregorick brings us issues 28 - 31 of X-360. Fantastico!!