"Not that there's anything necessarily wrong with that" : the critic's dilemma

[Skarvey]

Game critics today face a lot of problems in reviewing and previewing games, but what I think is the most pressing is acceptance. There's at least two very distinct sides to reviewing. There are the "respected" game reviewers, (see metacritic) and then there are the blogging guttersnipes (see Yahtzee) and never shall the two see eye to eye.

We can't all shoot the moon like Yahtzee and expect to be taken remotely seriously, nor can we take a game and look at it like metacritic and just go with the general consensus. The middle ground between the two sides is essentially embodied in the quote in the title of this post "Not that there's anything necessarily wrong with that" By saying that, a reviewer or previewer can subtly hint that there's something not quite right with a game without directly sandbagging it and thereby earning ire from developers, other reviewers and previewers, backlash from readers and/or franchise fans, basically all their peers.

I personally think that's garbage. For all the interactivity and feedback that we're seeing in game mechanics (i.e. rating levels in Little Big Planet, the voting channel on the Wii, etc...), shouldn't we be able to say that as reviewers and previewers, "I'd like to see this in a game," or "I don't like this element of the game." No, I'm not saying limit the game designer's artistic freedom, or in any way effect the autocracy of developers, they will do what they want, regardless of what reviewers say, but for the sake of journalistic integrity, let's say what we mean when we review or preview a game

Anyway, what's the community opinion, is it better to say what we mean, or is the reviewing and previewing community stable and strong as it is?

 

[MiracleOfSound]

Your sentences are like pretty spinning ribbons going round and round my head...

OT:

Most 'respected' reviews are very likely to be biased due to pressure from devs so I don't take them very seriously.

One thing they are good for is letting you know a game has fundamentally broken mechanics.

Then again, Far Cry 2 has 85% on Metacritic.

 

[Good morning blues]

...Does this really happen? I haven't been reading video game reviews for a few years but I don't ever remember the critics forgetting that they're critics and trying to allude to their complaints through innuendo. That's not what a critic does - a critic says what's good about a property, what's bad, and who will and won't like it.

 

[geldonyetich]

Game critics today face a lot of problems in reviewing and previewing games, but what I think is the most pressing is acceptance. There's at least two very distinct sides to reviewing. There are the bought and paid for casual-gamer pandering reviewers, (see metacritic) and then there are the genuine game enthusiasts jaded by a world of sellouts/clones (see Yahtzee) and never shall the two see eye to eye.

Fixed that for you.

 

[lodo_bear]

For me, there are two kinds of reviews: those by people who want to like games, and those by people who love to hate games. Those who want to like games are easier to bribe and can be biased that way. Those who love to hate tend to seek out the negative and can be biased that way.

Both reviewers are necessary. If you can get a positive reviewer who can't be bought and a negative reviewer who's willing to admit when he's wrong, then you have a truly thorough look at a game. By providing regular reviews and Yahtzee reviews, The Escapist does a good job of giving us both kinds of reviews.

 

[Skarvey]

Game critics today face a lot of problems in reviewing and previewing games, but what I think is the most pressing is acceptance. There's at least two very distinct sides to reviewing. There are the bought and paid for casual-gamer pandering reviewers, (see metacritic) and then there are the genuine game enthusiasts jaded by a world of sellouts/clones (see Yahtzee) and never shall the two see eye to eye.

Fixed that for you.

Haha, thanks, yeah, "bought and paid for" seems pretty succinct for that, however, I personally revel in being a blogging guttersnipe, I like the feeling that I'm a thorn in somebody's side, so in that instance, "blogging guttersnipe" was a term of endearment, I really like Yahtzee's reviews

 

[Skarvey]

Your sentences are like pretty spinning ribbons going round and round my head...

Wow, thank you, oddly enough, I've had someone praise my syntax in the exact same way before. One of my English professors said what you just said verbatim.

 

[TPiddy]

There's no point in discussing reviews anymore. We know they're all being pandered to either by the need to have an audience (sites that post either good or bad reviews to get site traffic) or they're being pandered to by the publishers.