Double Standars in Game Reviews?

[Acier]

Game reviews seem to be quite a touchy subject for many gamers. The "Kane and Lynch" incident has become infamous among gamers for the apparently "unfair" review it received from a certain game site, and whenever a game receives either a "too high" or "too low" the reviewer is met with cries or anger and accusations of corporate corruption.
While listening to one of my favorite gaming podcasts Three Red Lights, they brought up a really interesting point about game review scores.
While talking about the game Darksiders, the score that it was given came up (the editor who reviewed it was in the podcast) it was mentioned that he received several angry complaints from people saying he gave it too low of a score (7.8). And then he said something that really stuck out to me

There's a sort of weirdness in the community everyone is surprised when people think differently.

He goes on to talk about how when a game reviewer expresses an opinion and it's too far from what the gaming community thinks it should receive, they are dismissed as being "wrong" instead of just thinking differently or having their own opinion. Another editor brought up how they're really the only industry that suffers this much from this. They bring up the point that albums, books, and movies can have review scores all over the place and the amount of flak they will receive is minimum, but if a game reviewer posts his score,which is his own opinion, they can receive a flurry of hate mail that dwarfs any a critic of another medium would receive. And even mention that gamers are so much more passionate about than opinion for no real explainable reason (they muse about the cost factor for a bit).



So I ask, why do you think the game industry have this very obvious double standard when it comes to accepting reviewers opinion when compared to other industries?

 

[Pimppeter2]

Its good to note, however, that some people look at a reviewer who they "respect" or "agree with" for consumer advice.

Therefore disagreeing with him on a game they enjoyed immensely leads them to doubt their old safe instinct of "this reviewer is always right".

Therefore the reviewer looses credibility in their eyes, and they would rather ***** at him to change his score then rather, you know, have courage in themselves.

 

[Acier]

Its good to note, however, that some people look at a reviewer who they "respect" or "agree with" for consumer advice.

Therefore disagreeing with him on a game they enjoyed immensely leads them to doubt their old safe instinct of "this reviewer is always right".

Therefore the reviewer looses credibility in their eyes, and they would rather ***** at him to change his score then rather, you know, have courage in themselves.

But why do movie and music critics get much less hate mail in comparison?

ON a side note, regardless you should find a critic who has similar taste as you no matter what medium it is.

 

[Pimppeter2]

But why do movie and music critics get much less hate mail in comparison?

ON a side note, regardless you should find a critic who has similar taste as you no matter what medium it is.

Because gamers are wankers?

Yes, its true, we are.

Gaming is the only medium that is new enough that people are still doing this.

In the music industry, a "rock fan" will not care if another rock fan listens to some generic rap and likes it. Or listens to a band Rock Fan A likes and dislikes it themselves. In fact quire the opposite, it encourages discussion and lively debate.

However, in gaming, a medium were genres have become so fixed, seeing as games are mostly fun regardless of the genre they fall under, disliking a game someone else likes makes you an enemy.

Instead of a thread about JRPGs making good discussion value, it gets the same 10 versions of "Boys look like girls haha".

Yea, this post is a bit unclear, I'm struggling putting my thoughts into writing. But I hope you got my gist.

 

[Acier]

Because gamers are wankers?

I think you summed it up pretty good there

 

[Nomanslander]

They bring up the point that albums, books, and movies can have review scores all over the place and the amount of flak they will receive is minimum, but if a game reviewer posts his score.

You kidding me, do you know how much bail and hatred I've seen thrown at film critics?

When was the last time you saw a video game made to purposely kill off a game critic in the end....let's say in Bioshock 2 getting the chance to saw a splicer named Bahtzee in half and feed his corpse to sea slugs for good karma...0o

Do you know how many movies have been made of that sort?

 

[Guy32]

It's because nerds hate to be wrong. You know it's true.

 

[RUINER ACTUAL]

People are afraid that the game they bought isn't as good as they thought it would be, and the review that backs up that thought makes them feel worse. They want to try to comfort themselves by yelling at someone else.

 

[Acier]

They bring up the point that albums, books, and movies can have review scores all over the place and the amount of flak they will receive is minimum, but if a game reviewer posts his score.

You kidding me, do you know how much bail and hatred I've seen thrown at film critics?

When was the last time you saw a video game made to purposely kill off a game critic in the end....let's say in Bioshock 2 getting the chance to saw a splicer named Bahtzee in half and feed his corpse to sea slugs for good karma...0o

Do you know how many movies have been made of that sort?

But that's a game designer/movie maker not liking a critic. I'm talking about the consumers, not the producers.