So we all know that the typical "game journalist" is a sham by now right? There are very few people in the game's journalist business who's opinions actually make sense and their reviews on games can actually be trusted. In fact there are very few people in the industry at all that aren't trying to be political activists instead of doing their actual job regarding playing games. It's a problem that stems from websites having staff and writers that clearly have no experience with gaming nor any desire to be involved with it. When you look at professionals in any industry the people that do the job well are people that first and foremost have a PASSION for it. Gordon Ramsey is an incredible passionate chef and thus has built an empire. John Madden was incredibly passionate about Football and thus was not only a great coach but a fantastic announcer.
IGN writers are idiots. The following video is from formal IGN writer Alanah Pierce who now currently works as a writer for Sony Santa Monica and does youtube videos in which she consistantly proves she knows nothing about how video games work.
You dont have to watch the video because I am about to rant about every stupid point she makes in regards to trying to defend IGN and other gaming sites for giving Star Wars Outlaws a 7/10 and why supposedly 7/10's are so commmon.
POINT 1 -
The start of the video rambles and tries to be funny. But 90 seconds in she illustrates that since she is formally an IGN writer and as such she's qualified to talk about this particular subject. And firstly the thing we must all remember is that a game review is "just some guy's opinion."
Well yes while that is true. I must point out that it is supposed to be the opinion of a "professional". While it is just an opinion, that opinion should be coming from someone who's whole job is playing games and talking about them, thus that person should be exceptionally qualified in order to inform consumers about the quality and fun of new games coming out. It's not "just some guy" it's a professional writer and video game player (in theory) letting an audience of people know what to expect from whatever game is being reviewed.
Alanah will make this point in the video way later, but Gordon Ramsey reviewing food isn't "just some guy" giving an opinion, it's an incredibly knowledgeable professional giving that opinion based on countless taste tests of countless different meals. And so should a video game reviewer's opinion be based on thousands of hours of gaming experience.
POINT 2 -
After explaining that a video game reviewer is "just some guy" she then explains that this person is only different because they get to play video games at work for work and thus play a lot more video games than the average person. Which means they are NOT "just some guy" they are a professional video game player/writer! The definition of professional is being paid to do a specific task, if someone pays you to do a thing you are a professional at that thing. Therefore your opinion is not "just some guy" it's coming from a wealth of experience.
POINT 3 -
Now Alanah explains the breakdown of the IGN rating scale and points out that a 5/10 is not "average" but instead mediocre and thus fairly bad. There are 1000's of games that get released everyday on Steam and these games are solo developed indie projects, shovelware, asset flips, and the bottom of the barrel and thus those are the games that deserve the 5 and below on the IGN scale. Triple A games can't be below a 7/10 because they are complex, have many gameplay systems, lots of songs in the soundtrack, they work and don't crash, (which ironically Star wars crashes and many of it's gameplay systems break throughout the game so.....). Basically the point is that so much shit gets released that a big AAA can't possibly be a 4/10 because there is no room there. Too many shitty games in the 4/10 category therefore we can't stick any AAA games down here.
As if to prove this point she then plays three games in the new releases category on steam. Of which she gives each game a couple of minutes and then just shrugs it off. The footage she shows of her playing these games is actually a really bad faith look, because she never seems like she's actually giving the games a shot but instead just dismissing them to prove a point.
And the crux of this whole thing is that she has no point. Star War Outlaws is a 7/10 because it's more complex that some random indie games? She implies that there would be too many games with shitty scores if they put actual numbers on games like Outlaws, but even that is a fucking bold lie because IGN doesn't review random indie games from the new releases list, therefore those lower numbers are never used on their chart. And even if there are a lot of 4/10's who cares if that's what the games deserve? None of her arguments make any sense to anyone with a fucking brain.
The bottom line is this, the reason why the 7/10 has become such a meme is because everyone KNOWS it's about access journalism. IGN can NOT give a major AAA game a shitty score because IGN needs to remain on publisher's good side in order to continue to get review copies, and thus continue to get early reviews up on the site for clicks. That is the simple truth to all of this, and no amount of pandering or dancing around with made up excuses that don't make any fucking sense will change the truth that we all know is behind the "mainstream" review sites.
That is why Youtubers and Twitch streamers have been the go to source for many people's questions as to whether a game is worth picking up or not. The fact that these sites are still floundering around after all of this time is amazing to me, and even more amazing that it could all be fixed by just having a few people who actually care and are willing to be honest about what the fuck they're playing.
Alanah isn't the only former IGN shill trying to protect mainstream gaming publications either. The Kinda Funny crew has said the same thing many times over the years since their split. But they also currently have to bow to the access journalism because they've propped themselves up on going to events, getting interviews, having developer guests, etc. And being too harsh causes that to go away.
IGN writers are idiots. The following video is from formal IGN writer Alanah Pierce who now currently works as a writer for Sony Santa Monica and does youtube videos in which she consistantly proves she knows nothing about how video games work.
You dont have to watch the video because I am about to rant about every stupid point she makes in regards to trying to defend IGN and other gaming sites for giving Star Wars Outlaws a 7/10 and why supposedly 7/10's are so commmon.
POINT 1 -
The start of the video rambles and tries to be funny. But 90 seconds in she illustrates that since she is formally an IGN writer and as such she's qualified to talk about this particular subject. And firstly the thing we must all remember is that a game review is "just some guy's opinion."
Well yes while that is true. I must point out that it is supposed to be the opinion of a "professional". While it is just an opinion, that opinion should be coming from someone who's whole job is playing games and talking about them, thus that person should be exceptionally qualified in order to inform consumers about the quality and fun of new games coming out. It's not "just some guy" it's a professional writer and video game player (in theory) letting an audience of people know what to expect from whatever game is being reviewed.
Alanah will make this point in the video way later, but Gordon Ramsey reviewing food isn't "just some guy" giving an opinion, it's an incredibly knowledgeable professional giving that opinion based on countless taste tests of countless different meals. And so should a video game reviewer's opinion be based on thousands of hours of gaming experience.
POINT 2 -
After explaining that a video game reviewer is "just some guy" she then explains that this person is only different because they get to play video games at work for work and thus play a lot more video games than the average person. Which means they are NOT "just some guy" they are a professional video game player/writer! The definition of professional is being paid to do a specific task, if someone pays you to do a thing you are a professional at that thing. Therefore your opinion is not "just some guy" it's coming from a wealth of experience.
POINT 3 -
Now Alanah explains the breakdown of the IGN rating scale and points out that a 5/10 is not "average" but instead mediocre and thus fairly bad. There are 1000's of games that get released everyday on Steam and these games are solo developed indie projects, shovelware, asset flips, and the bottom of the barrel and thus those are the games that deserve the 5 and below on the IGN scale. Triple A games can't be below a 7/10 because they are complex, have many gameplay systems, lots of songs in the soundtrack, they work and don't crash, (which ironically Star wars crashes and many of it's gameplay systems break throughout the game so.....). Basically the point is that so much shit gets released that a big AAA can't possibly be a 4/10 because there is no room there. Too many shitty games in the 4/10 category therefore we can't stick any AAA games down here.
As if to prove this point she then plays three games in the new releases category on steam. Of which she gives each game a couple of minutes and then just shrugs it off. The footage she shows of her playing these games is actually a really bad faith look, because she never seems like she's actually giving the games a shot but instead just dismissing them to prove a point.
And the crux of this whole thing is that she has no point. Star War Outlaws is a 7/10 because it's more complex that some random indie games? She implies that there would be too many games with shitty scores if they put actual numbers on games like Outlaws, but even that is a fucking bold lie because IGN doesn't review random indie games from the new releases list, therefore those lower numbers are never used on their chart. And even if there are a lot of 4/10's who cares if that's what the games deserve? None of her arguments make any sense to anyone with a fucking brain.
The bottom line is this, the reason why the 7/10 has become such a meme is because everyone KNOWS it's about access journalism. IGN can NOT give a major AAA game a shitty score because IGN needs to remain on publisher's good side in order to continue to get review copies, and thus continue to get early reviews up on the site for clicks. That is the simple truth to all of this, and no amount of pandering or dancing around with made up excuses that don't make any fucking sense will change the truth that we all know is behind the "mainstream" review sites.
That is why Youtubers and Twitch streamers have been the go to source for many people's questions as to whether a game is worth picking up or not. The fact that these sites are still floundering around after all of this time is amazing to me, and even more amazing that it could all be fixed by just having a few people who actually care and are willing to be honest about what the fuck they're playing.
Alanah isn't the only former IGN shill trying to protect mainstream gaming publications either. The Kinda Funny crew has said the same thing many times over the years since their split. But they also currently have to bow to the access journalism because they've propped themselves up on going to events, getting interviews, having developer guests, etc. And being too harsh causes that to go away.
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