Davroth said:
I think free review copies provided by the publishers is one of the problems with games journalism these days. The only other critics I can think of who get special treatment like that are film critics. It's ridiculous, though. Food critics always pay for their meals, for example.
To be fair, it's usually the publication that picks up a food critic's bill. Many game critics (or the publications they work for) wouldn't be able to afford their own review copies. For me and many of my collegues it would nearly halve our income if we had to pay for every game we review. The people mostly doing reviews of smaller games would be hit especially hard if we're talking magazines, because there you get paid by the page. New Battlefield get four pages, the 40 hour JRPG gets maybe one.
Also, if it weren't for those review copies, smaller games might slip under the reader. I've mentioned NISA before. While their games are often quite quirky, they do publish good titles that would appeal to a wider audience. It's easy to overlook them, though. The download code popping up into your inbox is a great reminder. Well, I guess a simple press release would do, but then someone has to go out to buy the game and that might make it sink to the bottom of the priority list, because maybe the title is only available digitally (gifting games can be a hassle) or it's not in stock at a local retailer. For the sake of diversity, right now, review copies are a good thing.
Why this kind of special treatment for film and video game critics? It makes no sense. In an interest to be as impartial as possible, it makes no sense to get free review copies. Not to mention that publishers effectively try to gag big outlets with the threat of not providing review copies and review embargos that sometimes extend past the games release date.
I assume it's because games and movies become available to an extremely large audience within a day of release, and consumers want to know if it's worth their money. It's different from a restaurant that fills, I don't know, a several hundreds seats a day and has customers from within a 50 mile radius? (I don't know much about restaurants.)
Also, if you think reviewers don't know what the price of a new triple A game or a movie ticket feels like, you're dead wrong. Sure, sometimes you get lucky and get to review the game you wanted to buy anyway, but it's not uncommon for a publication to have over a dozen reviewers. So, if you want a certain game, you're probably going to have to buy it yourself.
Sure, embargos are a *****, especially for magazines, but it's not as if publications don't work around it. I've seen some pretty big middle fingers go up. For instance, an old editor-in-chief once found out the reviewer had forgotten to notify him that there was an embargo in place when handing in the review. This was a problem, because they were a few hours before the magazine's deadline and saving the review for next issue would be a disaster. So he chopped of the score, called it a 'thorough hands-on preview', and published it anyway. Or you know, in case of a late embargo, simply claim the review was written by a writer who happened to recieve his pre-order early.
The whole system should be abolished. And the easiest way towards that would be for those journalists to refuse to take them. But no, instead Jim, the "not-journalist" (anymore) threatens the developer right back by saying that the game is now lower on his priority list. Class act, as usual, Mr. Sterling.
So, let's say you abolish the system. You know what would happen? First, many publication would have a massive financial problem on their hands. Their budget for review copies would increase tenfold if not more if they want to keep offering the same amount of content. Sure, they could demand reviewers buy their own copies, but like I said, most of them don't get paid much. They'd also really screw over the writers that focus more on niche titles instead of triple A stuff. Because now they'd have to consider: will I buy and review the newest Call of Duty and earn a paycheck that looks like something one might call a decent? Or should I review this JRPG that looks kind of cool and eat instant noodles for the rest of the month?
