![This Games Magazine Trolled A Final Fantasy VIII Hater For Two Years 1](https://cdn.statically.io/img/images.timeextension.com/e5c37b2381a3b/this-games-magazine-trolled-a-final-fantasy-viii-hater-for-two-years-1.900x.jpg)
Final Fantasy VIII had a tough act to follow. Final Fantasy VII had turned the series into a global megahit, making JRPGs mainstream all over the world in the process. Its sequel would need to be bigger, better and bolder – and while it remains a solid example of the genre, few would try to argue that it is truly superior to the game that went before it.
Even so, it has its fans – one of which is Video Game History Foundation library director Phil Salvador, who we've spoken with in the past.
Salvador recently created "an unhinged Final Fantasy VIII fansite" which proclaims the 1999 release to be "the best", and he's been sharing posts related to the game – one of which (as spotted by Brandon Sheffield) recounts an amusing story of how a North American video game magazine trolled a Final Fantasy VIII hater for two years.
The publication in question is GameNOW, which ran for 27 issues – although its history spans 20 years, as it was initially known as EGM2, then Expert Gamer, before rebranding as GameNOW.
As Salvador explains, issue one of the relaunched magazine featured a letter from Tim Spollen, a reader who expressed their dislike for Final Fantasy VIII and the fact that, when Expert Gamer had covered the game previously, it had tended to use the same screenshot of the game – specifically, Ultimecia’s throne room.
I have to tell you there is something that has been bothering me. In what seems like every issue of Expert Gamer, in your letter section, you have had the same screenshot of Final Fantasy VIII. Let me express my feelings: Final Fantasy VIII sucked compared with Final Fantasies 7 and 9. If you are going to put the same screen shot up again and again, at least put up a good one. Still, I know you will probably put it up again just to tick me off.
This letter kickstarted a two-year campaign by the magazine to print the screenshot as many times as possible.
![This Games Magazine Trolled A Final Fantasy VIII Hater For Two Years 3](https://cdn.statically.io/img/images.timeextension.com/7cb0ffbb4a38c/this-games-magazine-trolled-a-final-fantasy-viii-hater-for-two-years-3.900x.jpg)
Despite assurances from the magazine that "we honestly don’t know what you’re talking about. We haven’t noticed any such thing" and a claim that it would "certainly not print anything in our magazine that is deliberately trying to upset our readers," an effort was made to ensure that the screenshot was included in every subsequent issue of GameNOW.
In January 2004, publisher Ziff Davis pulled the plug on GameNOW, and in the last issue, the screenshot was printed as a full-page poster. The final laugh, you might assume? Not quite.
As Salvador noticed during one of his shifts in VGHF's library, when all of the issues from 2003 onwards of GameNOW are placed spine-on, the following image appears:
![This Games Magazine Trolled A Final Fantasy VIII Hater For Two Years 2](https://cdn.statically.io/img/images.timeextension.com/b50bb214293ce/this-games-magazine-trolled-a-final-fantasy-viii-hater-for-two-years-2.900x.jpg)
[source ff8isthe.best, via twitter.com]
Comments 11
Hahaha that's savage!! Love it!!
Gotta love the dedication!!
Hiding the image on the spine is hilarious. The on-going in-jokes you'd get in some magazines back then were always fun.
HAHAHAHA!!!!! This is glorious! Oh my the dedication of the entire team to carry the joke for so long. Man I miss those old school magazines.
I would argue that 8 was better than 7, and I also love this type of pettiness
That is amazing!
Hiding it in the spine makes me think of when I used to send numerous emails to my friends at their work in quick succession, with just one letter in the subject each time. When the emails landed in their inboxes one after the other, the subjects would spell a word as you read it down the inbox. Usually a naughty word, obviously. Fooled the filters!
Amazing, hilarious prank! I feel like this would not happen today. Not just because there are no magazines, but I feel like corporate types would put the kibosh on it.
This is funny. Also, FFVIII is a terrible game.
They turned that gaming magazine into a weapon.
I personally would say that VI is better than VII and that the latter is overhyped at this point. Haven't tried VIII, surprising as that may be, but this just made me curious enough to get it on Switch.
This story is great, though the fact that it’s a screenshot from the very end of the game reminds me of that annoying habit game magazines had in the 90s. I had an Ultra Game Players CD-ROM months before FF7 released with a handful of cutscenes from the game, including the final boss’s Supernova attack, which is a very climactic moment that the whole game builds up to. Just incredibly uncool, Ultra Game Players.
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