Sean Sands said:
I'm not sure I'm that interested anymore on how "seriously" the gaming industry is taken. I don't see who they are supposed to be trying to impress. They are an entertainment medium. How serious is that supposed to be?
It depends on how you view your entertainment, or if you yourself are an entertainer. Myself, I have no problem with the majority of entertainment being simple fun, though I believe games are making a serious push to have the majority evolve beyond simple fun. This has both good and bad things, and most people insist that the industry is in a state of mediocrity (seriously, if you played most of what was on Genesis and SNES, you'd see the industry was on an uphill scale...and PC's have a very fair share of trash as well. We have a very selective memory of the past).
I like to create ideas and such, and have studied things like game design, so I myself take the industry very seriously. Having looked into game design and tried tackling it, I also feel that my critique is going to differ from your average gamer's. As such, when I look at reviewers, I see a major problem. The people that review games shouldn't just be gamers that can write well, they should be gamers that have an understanding of what design is, as well as the industry as a whole.
Unfortunately, just look at the "most over-hyped game" thread and you'll see most people don't even understand that a game that disappoints you isn't the same as a game advertised to be amazing and ends up being complete trash. You really can't top E.T. or Daikatana in this industry, but people are only focusing on what they felt wasn't the greatest game of all time. And yet that's the kind of jerk we have writing reviews, trying to tell you which games are great and which aren't. Those kinds of assholes saying Grand Theft Auto gets a 10/10 no matter how many bugs it has, while an ambitious title like Alone in the Dark, which tries a lot of new ideas, gets nitpicked for every small issue and games like Too Human often go on people's "eh, maybe" lists.
I take the games industry very seriously. However, you're right. Most people aren't going to take it seriously. To most people, they are just another way to cool off. There's no difference from playing Gears of War after work than checking out the latest episode of Heroes, Lost or Battlestar Galactica. These people need games that are just simple and fun as well, and I don't mean in the Mario Party sense. These guys also need someone to tell them what to think about the games they are buying, and honestly, the best reviewer for them may not be in a gaming magazine at all. They may be better off getting their game review from Maxim or Playboy, to be honest.
Sorry, I've totally rambled, and if I keep going I'll only ramble further.
Now, don't get me wrong, I read reviews and enjoy ZP. ZP is the only reason I found out about this site in the first place. But I like to form my own opinion based on a personal experience with the game and I think that I speak for many gamers when I say that ZP is the best game review approach since Pong. The guy is really sharp, and he knows how to speak his mind. That's something that the behemoth aka game industry needed for a long time.
I like Zero Punctuation, but it's mostly an entertainment source for me. Yahtzee knows his shit, but I clash with him on way too many points if I were to actually take a review of his seriously. My favorites are usually when he takes a game that genuinely sucks and tears it apart, as otherwise it really just sounds like whining and bitching about all the little things that keep a game from being perfect.
The only reviews I can truly enjoy are the ones on GameTrailers, though I find them to be flawed as well. I disagree with some of what was said for the Ninja Gaiden 2 review, and there are some games where the review is riddled with complaints and yet the score is high (GTA4), but usually you get to see the game in action and see what it is they are talking about. That helps me a lot, and it has helped me decide that yes, despite Atari's antics, I'm going to pick up Alone in the Dark (though I had first listened to the impressions of some friends, which were mostly positive).
Again, though, I find it interesting: yes, Atari is being assholes, but while the majority of this website bitches and complains about how poor the industry is doing, when a company tries to be innovative you find the dumbest excuse not to support them.
Maybe the industry is in trouble because consumers won't take risks for innovation, and just expect new and innovative games to play perfectly on the first attempt.
