Tiger Woods Out...Until August!
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| | | Posted by Alan Dang on Friday January 27, 2006 - 12:00 AM |
(Post a comment) » The 5 Problems with Videogame JournalismThe problem with videogame journalism is that we rarely get an opportunity to experience the game the same way a gamer will. In this article, Alan talks about the challenges that videogame journalism face. This is the final part of three-part series of articles. If you haven't already, please read through our Xbox 360 Racing Shootout and our Dead or Alive 4 Review. Both of those articles were written as "real reviews" but also for the express purpose of this series. |  Previous news article | Back to main news | Next news article  |
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#42
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Anonymous at 06:45pm 04/7/2006
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In the end, it's all about trust. Do I think that what the reviewer,
'journalist' is saying I's true? Or do I need to draw on my own
experience 'opinion' that the most reviewers today are exercicing in
a propaganda machine?
It wouldn't be so hard if it had no reprecusions. But sadly it does.
I have bought games wich were huge dissepointments. And I'm on the
point that I'm thinking to stop buying games just because it isn't
any fun anymore.
I miss the trust I had in game developers. In the early day's I
would buy a game play it and had some fun. I was happy :)
Because I knew I get a good game and I could trust te company who
was selling it.
Nowaday's it's going like this, I buy a game play it after I
installed the latest patch from the website of the developer or
publisher. And try to play it after I discover WTF I bought the
BETA. The 'finished' game is going to be released as a gold edition
after I payd the full amount and for less than I have payd for it.
Where's the trust in that?
And the problem is not the reviewer or 'journalist' it's just the
problem that publishers are getting way to big. They decide who's
going to be published and who's remaing a silent underdog. And even
how it's going to be published and how soon. And a deadline is
deadly for getting a patch free 'finisd' game.
The real problem is that they always trying to maximising their
profit marging by any means possible. Buying advertising space in a
magazine, hiring people to spam on a forum and just saying 'wow what
great game, must buy it' and removing any constructive feedback
because critism is needed to get games out of the wow what a nice
graphics
Read the rest of this comment...
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#41
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Anonymous at 04:02am 02/13/2006
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I know this is probably rude, but to danielc56, I recommend
metacritic. At least you can cancel some of the individual biases
by sampling enough opinions.
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#40
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Anonymous at 03:59am 02/13/2006
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Okay, I'll say it: Great article ;) I've played, thought about and
read reviews of games for about 20 years and here's my $0.02. Games
are there to be fun. They do not have to be innovative, pretty or
anything else to be fun. They should be rated on how fun they are.
If reviewers are not having fun playing them, they are doing
everyone a disservice by posting some thumb-suck score, since no fun
= score of zero. I don't believe anyone is objective enough to
infer whether they would be having fun if they weren't bored, jaded
and generally sick of being a gaming journo.
My personal rant/criticism of reviewers is about what they are (or
are not) achieving for the games industry. Games of the calibre of
Fallout 2, Starcon 2 and Planescape: Torment to name a few classics
are just not being made any more. Why? Because reviewers don't
praise wit, humour and creativity in games. They don't appreciate
story lines (unless they are tortured Max Payne type - perhaps this
reflects their state of mind). Why? Because they're not actually
enjoying the game they are playing.
Reviewers frequently fall for all of the lame-ass hype tricks the
industry pulls on them instead of looking closely at the ugly but
funny indie releases. What indie releases you say? My point
exactly. When games are great it is despite, but never because of
the reception the game designers expect from reviewers. That is
wrong.
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#39
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danielc56 at 12:24pm 02/1/2006
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Alan,
I'm curious which gaming websites you recommend. I also enjoy
reading well thought out reviews. I prefer intelligent,
comprehensive reviews to speedy ones; I never buy $50+ games on
release day anyway. So I'd be curious what you (and FS readers)
think are excellent review websites.
danielc56
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#38
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Snivly Dweeb at 04:23pm 01/31/2006
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Wow!
Thanks!
Your article has some very interesting points that seem to rarely
come up in any reviews or the like .
Now, without trying to repeat things in the article, I wonder what a
more detailed survey would say about our choices that we do make and
how we rate them. Why do we only buy a few games a year?
My own answers to a detailed survey would be simple.
In the last 12 months I bought a total of 3 games, and probably
tried about another 4 demo’s found online, supplied on various
magazines sampler cd’s, or supplied as bundled software. Maybe I
looked at another 4 for 15 minutes.
The real question is
Is this worth my time ,or do I have the time and will it be fun?
Seems most games that I do play seem to take a couple of weeks of
play, maybe 12 hours continuous, to make me feel confident. I tend
to go for strategy or flight sims which in the world of games I
guess is a pretty small market these days.
As for quick start games,I have an xbox which is collecting dust,
since I find that though some games have been interesting they seem
awfully short,making them from my viewpoint,a loss of time and
money.
That then brings up the question, which was touched upon, is what
audience are you writing for?
Reviews from sites that I have come to respect will at least get me
to the point of interest of at least trying or looking at the demo
version of a PC game.
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#37
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Anonymous at 10:30am 01/31/2006
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I totally agree. Great Article
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#36
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wilebill at 09:41am 01/29/2006
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I think professional game reviews are pretty good, in general.
The only suggestion I would make is that reviewers include a
"fun" factor in the rating system. Fun, to me and many
other casual gamers, is all a game has to offer.
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#35
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Grey at 07:01am 01/29/2006
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Good point about innovation bias. The root issue seems to be the
audience that you are reviewing for. If you are reviewing for
people that play tons of games, then you want to factor in
innovation, because those people want to see something new.
Most gamers don't really care about innovation though, since even a
ripoff game will look innovative to a person who hasn't played all
the games that the ripoff is ripped-off of.
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#34
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Anonymous at 01:02pm 01/28/2006
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I do review games on a fairly regular basis and I agree to most
parts of the article.
Biggest problem is the short time span because you want to be
"timely" with your reviews but can't play 100% of the game
to make up your mind.
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#33
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Anonymous at 02:51am 01/28/2006
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I owuld say that the main problem is cheesing off the big sponsers.
Afterall you need sponsers to keep the sites running.
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