If I'm gonna complain, might as well do it here since the new guy in charge might be able to do something about it, so here goes.
I really don't know why I come here anymore. Originally, I came because it was a great news aggregator and had funny webcomics and videos. I never really liked the reviews and never really felt like the scores necessarily reflected the content of the reviews either. Then a couple years ago, I noticed that about 20% of the news stories started showing up with more clickbaity titles that didn't necessarily reflect the content of the article. The one that stuck with me was when the title of the article claimed something along the lines of "Spider Woman writers quit because of lesbian wedding" where the first part of the article and title lead you to believe that they quit because they were being forced to write a lesbian wedding, when in actuality they quit because the editors wouldn't let them.
The misleading and clickbaity titles disappeared after a while and I don't remember any recently, but what has gone is pretty much everything of substance from the website. I joined Twitter 2 years ago and since then I really get most of my gaming news by following other sites, The Escapist piece usually goes up 15 minutes to several hours after I've already seen the news elsewhere, so it's not useful for me to check out the site. The cool webcomics and funny video series have been cut almost entirely in favor of Top 8 lists, and reviews of every show on the air.
Jim Sterling was alright and I'm a fan of Moviebob, but both of them did way too much stuff for the website and for a good year/year and a half the entire place was utterly dominated by their content. I used to enjoy the letters arguing back and forth between Yahtzee, James Portnow, Jim Sterling, and Moviebob, but once Extra Credits was jettisoned, the series never went anywhere. There's not enough diverse viewpoints and discussion among the content creators anymore, especially since half the people in that series are gone.
I used to love the (I think it was) EGM way of doing reviews, where they'd have one main reviewer, and 2 side columns with second opinions and think that's something that's really worthwhile. It prevents one particular reviewer's biases and tastes from being the only one represented, and would prevent things like fucking Dragon Age 2 getting a perfect score and glowing review which it objectively didn't deserve (regardless of whether or not you liked it, you can't ignore the problems the review ignored).
And while I'm at it, I need to voice a couple of what are sure to be unpopular opinions: LRR need to go. They do really funny Magic stuff, but so many series that were better, more informative, and even more funny have come and gone while they've remained. Unskippable and Feed Dump are both about 20/80 on the hit or miss scale. Checkpoint was OK, the main show/Commadore Hustle is/was OK, and like I said, the stuff they do for Wizards is great, but they're way oversaturated here.
There's way too many goddamned TV show reviews. The Agents of SHIELD one was the only one that I kept reading, simply because someone being able to link the comic book universe to the TV universe is a great skill to have, but Arrow, Flash, and Gotham are all mediocre shows that don't plumb the depths of the comic book mythos nearly as much. Star Wars Rebels is OK, but it's no Clone Wars and the episodes are so simplistic you don't need a freaking review. Constantine never got me. The Walking Dead jumped the shark for me a while ago, but given it's popularity I can see keeping that one. But really, you're doing freaking ARCHER now? A lot of them are cheap content shat out in an hour or two for a few views and can be cut for stuff that's actually either entertaining or informative.
I get that you guys are news aggregators primarily, but are you ever going to do actual journalism apart from trade shows? Just wondering. I get that preview content is largely bought and paid for hence all the hype and positivity before the thing comes out, but I think your review score is pretty broken given I haven't seen a game below 2 stars in a long ass time (certainly none in the last several months, didn't check past that). Even super critical text is met with 2 1/2 to 3 stars. Why the fuck have a star system at all (other than being listed on Metacritic because for some reason people don't feel legitimate without that fucking site) if you're not gonna use it to accurately reflect how you felt about the game?
I usually just come for Critical Miss, ZP, and sometimes Escape to the Movies and Big Picture (and back episodes when I'm really bored). The MO over the last year has seemed to be overload the schedule with as much shit as possible without regard for quality, and I'm not feeling it. If I wanted clickbait lists, I'd go to Cracked or Buzzfeed. If I wanted one person's lengthy opinion on pop culture, I'd go to Reddit or Youtube. I used to come here for clever comics, funny gaming videos, and reviews, all of which are severely lacking in number and/or quality these days.
Ever since Pub Club was announced, I've never seen anything on this site that made me actually consider joining. Not just because there are few member benefits, but I didn't feel like the site was worth supporting. I'd like for that opinion to change, but it just seems lately I've been proven right over and over. Hopefully, you can change that.
