Gameshow (magazine) - The Style

The Style

Gameshow's authors did not have a lot of rules about writing: Adanç had once insulted his readers by describing them as 'a goddamn flock of sheep that went wherever they were led to.' Other writers sometimes used similarly harsh language: In March 2000 edition, for instance, an author who used the pen-name 'Big Ben' (Timur Çataklı) denounced the Turkish education system with these words:

"...Most of the teachers expected us to keep staring at them drooling as they talked, and the rest did not care whether we listened to them or not, since their souls had grown as inert as those of whores.

... (About his physics teacher, who had once beaten one of his friends) He (the teacher) was so disgusting. One day, we heard that he had suffered a stroke, and -I'll never forget that moment- 30 students linked arms and started dancing. Even now I feel that my blood boils: Imagine the rage that lies inside me... Who are you to raise your hands against the child of another man, where do you take that right from? I am disgusted with all you teachers and will never speak of any of you with respect. Your work is by no means sacred, your trade is infamy."

One of the major events ever happened in Gameshow because of the authors' writing style was occurred in 1998 summer. When reviewing the PC game Final Fantasy VII, one of the authors, Ertunç Burak who is known by his anti-American statements, used a very harsh and offensive style describing the Japanese Anime culture. This resulted a severe outcry among the readers of Gameshow and numerous people accused Ertunç Burak of being a fascist and demanded him to be kicked-out of Gameshow. It's unknown what kind of punishment did Burak take, since nobody in the crew talked about this incident ever again. Apparently it wasn't anything serious as Burak continued his work at Gameshow, expressing his thoughts in his writings once in a while. (Although with a slightly less offensive style.) One of the directors later claimed that Ertunç Burak was kind of tired and weary for reviewing multiple games in one month which resulted his outburst.

Other authors took their work less seriously, and developed a sense of dark humor as the magazine's shaky financial situation failed to stabilize. Their sarcasm was mostly about their own incompetence. In 1996, when two authors got lost during a trip to Frankfurt am Main, the magazine's copyright notice was changed:

-What is written on that road-sign?

-It says Frankfurt, but there is no city at the end of the road.

-I think we're lost.

-No, wait -we're saved! There is another road-sign there?

-Read it at once, so that we can go back if we are headed in the wrong direction.

-It says: The Gameshow contains copyrighted material, so you cannot, you know, copy and paste or do things like that. The responsibility of what they write belong to the authors... now... what the hell will we do?

The passage above is an allegory about the magazine itself. Despite all their efforts, the crew seemed to be getting further and further away from their goals...