(this should have been submitted to the reader reloaded section but the email failed to send)
01/08/07
I know it's four months late but I just can't let this opportunity pass to say goodbye. I loved your magazine the first time I set eyes my eyes on it and it became part of my monthly must-buys since then. Ever since GM001 i have wanted to submit in the reader reload section but sadly i never had the time and the chance to do so.(sadly i never had the GM000 ish). There were months when I missed buying your issues but i never failed to look for those backissues as soon as possible fearing that they may pull it out from the circulation and the markets. I always read the reader reloaded section and i love gearlab. There were things that i loved and things that i hated about GM. I loved everything about it--the layout, the staff, the articles, the reviews, the prizes(though i never had the chance to bag one), the colors, even the glossy paper. I loved how it evolved in looks and feel and how it grew to be a solid multiplatform mag from the first ish when the staff was sceptical about whether it would be successful or not. I love the writers' wit and humor in gm's pages, the drama and the action. I love everything GM. I hate those who hate GM. In those issues where the reloaded section was infested with harsh, undeserved remarks, i really wanted to submit to counterbash but then i nver had the time.
But now, gone are the times when the 30th of every month was full of anticipation for the upcoming issues. gone are times when i rip the plastic forcibly(but delicately enough just to damage the plastic) to see what poster was hidden much like an old blue box or an old purple box. gone are the times when the smell of fresh GM paper was like breakfast to my senses. I will surely miss those times.
It is a wee bit ironic that i finally get to write you but only after the last issue and four months late. Reading the pages, your words of farewell really made me awfully sad, especially the game over section by joel toledo and the editor in chief's now playing and reader reloaded bit. sadder than losing a game character forever, sadder than losing to the scourge after an hour and a half. Yes, a thousand times sadder, because the first and only magazine that i loved like a best friend is gone forever. But it's better late than never. Even if I would never see my name printed in the mag's pages, even if i never get to win one of your awesome prizes, even if this never even reach your email, because being four months late at least i have a chance of being your last farewell letter... or at least one of the last.
So in behalf of all the people who loved your mag but nver got the chance to say it, let me render every gamer's bitter sweet words of game over.
