(This is a piece I wrote when I first heard the news that EGM was coming back. I thought it was a good time to post this here, since EGM being back is one step closer to a reality.)

    I am not big on miracles. When the plane in New York crashed recently, I joked to my wife that I thought it was more likely that Superman had saved those people than I thought there was any kind of divine influence. Well, now I am a bit more of a believer, because EGM (Electronic Gaming Monthly) seems to be rising from its way too early grave!

     I read EGM on and off again as a kid. While Nintendo Power was my first love, EGM and Gamepro were two other magazines that you could often find in my hands (OK, I also have to admit an obsession with Fangoria- which printed a few letters I wrote as a teenager when I was going through my ‘I want to make movie special effects’ stage).

     I moved away from games and magazines like EGM as a got further along in high school. My band, my football team, chasing girls that were a complete mystery to me and wanted nothing to do with me- all of these things usurped gaming in my life until Star Fox 64, Goldeneye and later Resident Evil helped draw me back into gaming.

     It was not until college (and the release of Metal Gear Solid) that my interest in games was piqued enough to notice EGM sitting on the magazine rack of the Harris Teeter grocery store I shopped at in Boone, North Carolina. Still, once that magazine was noticed and purchased I was back at Harris Teeter every month waiting for them to get in a shipment of EGM.

     I did not agree with everything in each magazine. As a matter of fact part of what I loved about EGM was that it made me think about games in ways that none of my college friends could. There were times when I read the magazine and screamed- wishing that I could tell the writer why they were confused or just plain wrong. While most of my friends were content to come over and spend a night drinking and playing Goldeneye or Twisted Metal, I longed to have an outlet where people loved gaming as much as I did. EGM was that outlet.

     I was my local EB Games dream customer. I already knew exactly what I wanted to buy and only came in to buy my game and possibly ask a date for a certain game. After my new game was purchased I would drive back to my apartment content to skip as many classes as I needed to get far enough to tell if I agreed with the scores the game had received in EGM. 

     Four years ago I noticed an ad in a local entertainment paper in my home town (at this point I was done at ASU and had started a job at a bookstore where I could be even closer to my beloved books and magazines) that asked if anyone wanted to write videogame reviews. I was so stoked about the idea! I was also nervous because I was a history major that took as many creative writing classes as possible. I had never even thought about taking a journalism class. How would I even know how to write a review?

     Still, I disliked the current game reviewer’s work enough, and had also read enough gaming magazines- so I felt like it was worth a shot.

     I went home and typed up a review for Saints Row and sent it to the paper.

     The next day I got an email back asking if I wanted to be their new videogame reviewer. I sent back a resounding yes as fast as my fingers could type! I knew that I had grammar and punctuation problems- but I was so excited to be starting the job that I just had to hope all of that would work out in time (as you can tell by reading my writing- the content is still good, but damn do I need an editor!).

     A few years later and I was really starting to feel comfortable writing reviews and blogs for The Link (now called Metromix), but I was starting to see the writing on the wall. I could tell when I talked to my editor that things were not going well. They kept having cut-backs, and I knew eventually I would be a part of one of those. Eventually I tried to spare my editor the pain and told him I was going to take a break from writing for them.

     Two weeks later I was in deep regret about my decision and got a letter from my editor asking me to come back. I was so relieved- no groveling to get back my writing gig! I went back to writing with more passion than I ever had before. I was much more sure that it was something I loved to do. I had no illusions that I would go far. Working for a publication like EGM still seemed like a pipe dream (and does even to this day). But I came back sure that I wanted to write as much as possible and more willing to try new approaches than I ever was in the past.

     After a few more months I started to feel like my writing was getting better and better- and I started to enjoy seeing my written words printed more than I ever had before. Working for EGM was still a pipe dream, but I did at least feel like I was giving back to an industry that had given me so much enjoyment (which is a large part of why I work for Gamestop now- which shows you that I am not only way too optimistic, but also a bit stupid at times!).

     Then the news hit me like a fist to the gut of a belly that had just been stuffed full of Chef Boyardee. EGM was closing down! It was unthinkable! Unimaginable! Unfair!

     If a publication full of some of the best writers I have ever read could not make it then how could a guy with a slight modicum of skill and whom had discovered way too late in life what he loved to do have even the slightest of slight chances at making it?

     I was in mourning still a few weeks later when I got an abrupt email from my editor  asking me to call him. I should have seen it coming before I called, but when he told me that they were having to let all the freelance writers ,including me, go- I was stunned. I recovered as quickly as I could and tried to make the call as easy as possible for him. He had spent a good bit of his busy time while trying to fight stacked odds on editing my work. I had no doubt that he had tried to lobby for them to keep me on- and there was no chance in hell that I was going to make him feel bad for something completely out of his control!

     The brave face was total bullshit though. I was more depressed than I had been in a long time. Losing EGM felt like the loss of a family member and losing my writing job felt like more than just a small personal failure.

     Well, here we are today! I am now working on turning this site (Overdos3.com) into something real, and EGM is on the way back- at least in some form!

     Who knows what lies ahead for us? Overdos3 and our podcast might never catch on, but I know I will feel proud of however far I get it no matter where it goes. EGM, on the other hand, I have no doubt will succeed! There are too many of us that love it more than we love any other publication. It is not just the name we love either, it is the people who worked so hard to make it what it was- the best damn magazine and staff that has ever existed!

     I may never end up having anything to do with the production of EGM, but I will be proud to have been a part of its history no matter that my role will probably be simply onlooker and audience.

      EGM is back baby! Now that is something we can all be proud of!