LamePro (discontinued in 2007)
Every April as an April Fools' Day prank, GamePro prints a 2-5 page satirical spoof of their magazine named LamePro, which is a pun version of GamePro's own official title. This spoof contains humorous prank game titles, parody presentations and funny newslines, similar to The Onion. Many other game magazines have since been the subject of the jokes by LamePro.
Lamepro, however, is not without its own controversy. While some game magazine readers have seen LamePro as something to laugh at themselves and each other, some other readers may have been outraged and very offended at the types of jokes that it presents. In 2000, a spoof ad in the satire made reference to a then newer (and short-lived) game magazine called "Incite: Video Games". At an industry charity auction, Incite bid and won on advertising space within GamePro; in the spirit of charity, GamePro agreed to advertise its own competition, even though it could be considered vaguely tasteless (a mailman delivering a copy of Incite to a female's door, with the legend "It must be that time of the month"). However, in the next LamePro, a fake ad for a magazine named "In spite" was used as bird-cage lining, with the white-background ad saying "You get what you pay for," making reference to the first Incite issue costing 99 cents on newsstands. The following month, Incite responded in their Letters To The Editor section, spouting off in their subwords "Get it, GamePROSE," and many supposed fans of their magazine defending them against the spoof ad. During the remainder of the magazine's 10-month lifespan, Incite ran the "GamePROSE" quote in every issue.
In 2005, another spoof advertisement had a similar effect, and also had an even greater controversy. The spoof was on account of gaming supersite IGN. Once again, on a white background, the ad showed a phony game site screenshot, with a logo similar to IGN's, spelling out "GNO.com" and the phrase "You can't spell ignorance without GNO." This sparked a letter to one of IGN's staff members who does a weekly feedback column on the site, and, in answering to one's e-mail concerning the spoof, mentioned humorlessly that GamePro wasn't mature at all for taking such a shot at IGN.
However, that was not the biggest concern in the 2005 edition. Just a few weeks after the issue hit newsstands, word came out that there was an actual site on the internet that had the address GNO.com. The site was actually an internet publishing site, and GamePro a few months later ran an apology in their letters section, saying that they had no prior knowledge about the site existing before the issue had been released. It is apparent that the 2 sides had made peace, as no civil suits of any kind were filed (it is unclear if such was even being planned).
LamePro has since been dropped altogether as of the April 2007 issue during the magazine overhaul redesign.
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