The Gamefan Incident: Does anyone remember?

[darkpower]

I was just going about my business on the internets, searching around for random things, when I came across something that might irk your eye, or at least bring back memories.

Diehard Gamefan. A game magazine that also covered Japanese Anime before Anime became mainstream. It was the shit back during its prime in 94-97, but started to decline up to its death in 2000. Very interesting reviews and articles in there.

Anyway, September of 1995, an incident happened that someone was apparently asleep at the wheel, and THIS snuck into a sports game review:



Gamefan issued an open apology (open as in they published it in the very next issue), saying:

August 18, 1995 GameFan, more so than any other American title covering the gaming industry, has been the greatest proponent of the Japanese market and culture. This is a known fact in the industry and among gamers. We are also the fastest growing gaming magazine on the market, despite the fact that our cover price is 20% higher than that of our competitors. We are thought of by readers of all gaming titles as the magazine with the highest production quality and editorial integrity. For these reasons, we are the constant target of our competitors. Our September issue was the aim of sabotage. The intention was to include language in our issue offensive to the Japanese to damage relationships and set our friends against us. During the production process, text containing various profanities and language offensive to the Japanese culture was woven throughout the text of the issue. We were able to remove the majority of the language. Despite our efforts, oneparagraph contained within an editorial made it through the production process. By the time we discovered this, some of the copies were already distributed to retail outlets. Unfortunately, because our production process largely involves digitized information on disk and it travels through the hands of several outside sources, it is subject to this type of manipulation. We were caught with our guard down, never having expected such an outrageous act. We have put safeguards in place to insure that this will never occur again. The action was undoubtedly directed to harm GameFan. We ask that you accept our deepest apologies for any offense that it may have caused. Please consider that the persons responsible for this action intended not only an offense against the Japanese, but against GameFan. This type of motive and behavior should not be condoned. Carefully consider the circumstances and our integrity and help us maintain it by not reacting against GameFan, but together with GameFan. Sincerely, Dave Halverson Editor In Chief, GameFan Magazine

Does anyone else remember of this "incident", and what the details actually were beyond the "apology"?

[Blitz]

lol never heard about that. I do have a couple of issues of Gamefan lying around somewhere.

[Funky Fly]

wow

Sucked for them, I guess.

[Gerard]

Originally Posted by darkpower I was just going about my business on the internets, searching around for random things, when I came across something that might irk your eye, or at least bring back memories. Diehard Gamefan. A game magazine that also covered Japanese Anime before Anime became mainstream. It was the shit back during its prime in 94-97, but started to decline up to its death in 2000. Very interesting reviews and articles in there. Anyway, September of 1995, an incident happened that someone was apparently asleep at the wheel, and THIS snuck into a sports game review: Gamefan issued an open apology (open as in they published it in the very next issue), saying: Does anyone else remember of this "incident", and what the details actually were beyond the "apology"?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamefan#Controversy

apparently calling japanese...japs..

[darkpower]

Originally Posted by Gerard http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamefan#Controversy apparently calling japanese...japs..

I added that to Wiki. I was just wondering who else remembered this. And yeah, that was what they "filler text" actually did.

[owenbrown]

What was really retarded was putting that text together was NOT describing the actual game on that page(College Football) but for something completely different. Someone fucked up big.