Yahtzee Wrote a Book

[MrSpectabular]

You're employed and paid by a magazine (online or otherwise) to give critical opinion on products for public consumption, you're a reviewer, to suggest otherwise just because it's got a seperate tab on the home page is ridiculous. And the suggestion that a review needs to have a score is a pretty silly one. If anything reviews are at WORST when they're boiled down to a score and there have been pretty convincing arguments raised in the past why review scores should be abolished.

To say he's immune to the rules of journalistic integrity because his video is not officially in the 'reviews' section is rather irresponsible. You have a large viewer base who come to hear your opinions on games, that is power you wield, and as the Spiderman quote goes... well, you know what that is. Journalistic integrity is not something written into a contract. It's the measure of a man who makes a living doing such a thing.

Of course, on balance he can't really ruin any fledgling developers with his sledgehammer wit, even though he could potentially have the power to, but that's only because he would only review something that's already extremely popular and well known because... well, we all know why...

 

[tautologico]

Oh you won't find me getting all offended on a game's behalf. The only thing that winds me up more than Yahtzee is the culture of offence where people whine about someone making a tasteless joke or poking fun at someone else. Boo hoo! They insulted my home town or my football team. People who get offended by satire are the worst.

Very well then, I quite agree with this last statement. But you may be getting worked up over little things.

I'm not 'offended' by his opinion on games, I just value journalistic integrity somewhat and while I enjoy reading cutting reviews of bad games, as soon as your aim is to pick apart games for comedy irrespective of their quality you're on shaky ground. It's the equivalent of chasing ratings and is not a pretty thing.

I'm not going to say "it's just a humor show about games" as some people do. I think he tries to convey his opinions about games in a humorous way, so it's as much game opinion as it is game humor. However, it's definitely not a traditional, objective, fair-and-balanced review. ZP videos are opinion pieces. And as opinion pieces, they don't need to be fair and balanced, objective reviews. If you need one of those, there are tons of other publications where you may get them, but the truth is, most game reviews are quite boring. Besides, he's a nitpicker, as he himself says in some videos, so he tries to find flaws to pick apart, but it's not like he says he hates every game reviewed. He even said he liked some games after pointing a lot of flaws in them.

An example of his poor reviewing though, would be EVE Online.

(snip)

Shoddy, sloppy review. Who cared? No one. Cause it was all for LOLZ.

Well, let me tell you my story with EVE. It was almost two years ago, I decided to try a sci-fi themed MMO, and downloaded the EVE trial. I played it exactly as Yahtzee did. No one told me I had to look for a player-run corporation, and the game certainly didn't tell me. I stopped playing before the 14 days of the trial were up, bored out of my skull with the game.

Nowadays I would do it differently, I'd join EVE Academy, and I even thought about trying it again sometime. But I think Yahtzee did what many players do when they decide to try EVE. So it a valid commentary on the game.

Well it's only a bit of fun, isn't it....? not like anyone could get dragged over the coals for bad journalistic integrity for something like this, is it?

http://ve3d.ign.com/articles/news/46811/Darkfall-Devs-Fight-Back-Against-Bad-Review

SOUNDS FAMILIAR?

As I said before, ZP videos are quite different to the kind of review above. And they're meant to be so, and I don't think ZP would be fun if it tried to go the fair-and-balanced route.

I read the thread on the EVE forums about this ZP. Most people found it funny and admitted that it was a failure of the game to not make it clear what was the optimum way to play it.

In recent reviews people have complained about Yahtzee playing "only X hours" of the game when he should have played Y hours to "get" it. He is entitled to his opinion after however time he spent with the game, isn't he? Now, if someone gives up thinking for himself about the game and says "I was thinkint about getting this, but now I won't, thanks Yahtzee!", it's their problem, not Yahtzee's fault. He is just expressing his opinion in a humorous way.

 

[MrSpectabular]

I don't think ZP would be fun if it tried to go the fair-and-balanced route.

See Charlie Brooker for details. Exactly the same kind of shtick. Where he excels though is picking something that his viewers haven't heard of and probably wouldn't watch if they had a gun at their head, but still makes the reviews MASSIVELY entertaining. And the kicker, he can be all loved up by something he loves and STILL it's massively entertaining. This distinction is exactly what I'm talking about...

There are plenty of bad games he could rip to shreds, and if he was talented enough it would be hilarious, perhaps doubly so, without the seemingly necessary benefit of viewer familiarity. Sadly they wouldn't get the number of views so he has to go with popular games, mostly good ones, to garner the interest.

 

[tautologico]

To say he's immune to the rules of journalistic integrity because his video is not officially in the 'reviews' section is rather irresponsible. You have a large viewer base who come to hear your opinions on games, that is power you wield, and as the Spiderman quote goes... well, you know what that is. Journalistic integrity is not something written into a contract. It's the measure of a man who makes a living doing such a thing.

In every jornalistic medium there are spaces for fair-and-balanced objectivity, and there are spaces for personal opinion. This is not a violation of journalistic integrity. If people hears his words as the word of God, it's not his fault. At all.

 

[MrSpectabular]

In every jornalistic medium there are spaces for fair-and-balanced objectivity, and there are spaces for personal opinion. This is not a violation of journalistic integrity. If people hears his words as the word of God, it's not his fault. At all.

All reviews are completely and utterly personal opinion, silly. (unless bought) the point is that it appears his reviews are not so much personal opinion, unless he's the most miserable game hating person in the world, but desperate hunts for 'personal opinions' that fit with what he thinks his audience expects.

If it were all his true personal opinion I very much doubt he'd ever play video games in the first place. If it were all true personal opinion, and he does indeed have a gamer's heart pumping away in his chest, then every so often a ZP would be a love filled sonnet how utterly spectacular a game was and how everyone should go out and buy it immediately. I may be wrong, but this has probably never happened. At most he'll concede 'oh well it's actally quite fun' after whinging about the expression on the protagonist's face for 4 minutes.

If you find that whining about the expression on the protagonist's face for four minutes funny, then all the power to you. But IMO if you take away the 'removing silence from audio' gimmick, there's little else there apart from whining about the expression on the protagonist's face for six minutes.

There are surely better people out there that would be more deserving of this attention?

 

[DayDark]

You're employed and paid by a magazine (online or otherwise) to give critical opinion on products for public consumption, you're a reviewer, to suggest otherwise just because it's got a seperate tab on the home page is ridiculous. And the suggestion that a review needs to have a score is a pretty silly one. If anything reviews are at WORST when they're boiled down to a score.

I agree that reviews boiled down to a score are the worst, but he's still not the official reviewer, I'm pretty sure that if someone attacked the site for his viewpoints it would not hold up.

To say he's immune to the rules of journalistic integrity because his video is not officially in the 'reviews' section is rather irresponsible. You have a large viewer base who come to hear your opinions on games, that is power you wield, and as the Spiderman quote goes... well, you know what that is. Journalistic integrity is not something written into a contract. It's the measure of a man who makes a living doing such a thing.

He's not immune, and he usually justifies his critiques with an argument, he doesn't just blatantly say something is bad and then be done with it. Now it can be discussed whether does arguments are any good. Should he censure himself though, and not say his opinion because it might hurt someones business? should anyone do that?

Of course, on balance he can't really ruin any fledgling developers with his sledgehammer wit, even though he could potentially have the power to, but that's only because he would only review something that's already extremely popular and well known because... well, we all know why...

He reviewed Nier, which I didn't even know existed until he reviewed it. As well as psychonauts, which is practically a forgotten gem, so it's not all popular stuff.

Most people that watch ZP, already have an opinion of the game when they see ZP, so naturally most people want to see him review those (popular) games. It's not really about the game, but more about Yahtzee, or Yahtzee in combination of said game.

It's kind of like the show, Will It Blend?

 

[MrSpectabular]

Well you're probably right in that most people go in with their own expectations anyway, though I'm confused by your assertion that Psychonauts is not a popular game.

re: his justification of his critiques with an argument. If your critique is so flippant, picking up on things just for LOLs then surely the only real justification is 'this doesn't really make the game any worse, I'm just saying this to get you all coming back to watch my video every week to see what I'll say next.' I'm not sure he's ever said this, let alone in every episode.

He's still a dick though, but people like dicks I guess. I get it. I like arrogant and smug people who genuinely have a right to be arrogant and smug. Ricky Gervais. He has every right to be arrogant (and yet I think a lot of it is act I suspect it's not all for show)he's done like a bunch of stuff and it's all been very good and critically acclaimed. Yahtzee's done this one thing that's proved popular, and subsequently (and previously) proved time and time again that anything else he does is naff. Yahtzee may be smug and self-assured now, but he's in for a shock now he's venturing out of the gaming sphere and into the grown up world of literature where people aren't going to be charmed by Gordon Freeman references and dick jokes.

I can't wait!

I'm tired, I think I'll end it here. Point made, I think. And how!

Also it's not just Yahtzee. Penny Arcade sucks balls as well, but that's an argument for another day!

Thanks all, it's been fun.

 

[Misterian]

very nice, and very creative.

I haven't read anything like that sense the novel 'Another Fine Myth'.

 

[Enkidu88]

I honestly wasn't expecting to like it really, but it was really kind of fun. Since I used to play WOW way back in the day when there were no expansions, it was fun to read a spoof of that kind of environment. It's not exactly great literature, but then I wasn't expecting it to be, it is Yahtzee not Hemmingway.

That said I probably won't be buying it, might try getting it from a library at some point but definitely not buying it. Because I just don't think he can stretch out that kind of humor into an entire book. Even in the few pages of the sneak peak they gave us, after the novelty of the humor and setting wore off there isn't really much left. The characters, what there were of them, weren't interesting or even vaguely involving. And if there is any semblance of a coherent plot I didn't really pick up on it.

Maybe the finished product has that, but like Yahtzee once said back in his review of the Darkness demo on youtube, the point of the extract was to get me to buy the book. And in that it failed. Maybe when I read some reviews of the finished product I'll change my mind.

 

[Aptspire]

Pretty funny. The premise is interesting, and I really liked the developers conversation.

me too. I'll most likely pick it up

 

[Comma-Kazie]

I preordered mine yesterday--I can't wait for it to ship!

 

[ResiEvalJohn]

I wish I could read this from the beginning because I was a little confused at first, but once it got going I had quite a few lol moments. This book certainly won't appeal to everyone, but if you've ever played an MMO before, I think you'll get a kick out of it. I can't wait to pick it up now!

For the people who say it sucks, stop complaining already and go write your own damn book about MMOs if you think you can write better.

I wasn't 100% keen myself, but I don't think that people should be able to write better in order to say they thought something was rubbish; I think Stephen King is a terrible writer, but someone must like him that keeps him on the Bestseller list, and I doubt my writing is a patch on what his is to his publishers.

Well, I think they should at least try, so

 

[Nemu]

Sweet, thanks for the pre-order info, tho I wish I could get it on my Kindle, instead. =/

It's definitely a first novel- not spectacular, but not cringe-worthy. 8 bucks is cheap, so I'm willing to give it a read.

 

[Therumancer]

From what I heard it sounds interesting, and I might pick it up eventually, but I'm not in a huge hurry.

I'm not sure how well Yahtzee's style of humor would translate into that medium (assuming that's what he's doing). Sort of like when I rushed out to pick up a copy of Warren Ellis' "Crooked Little Vein" and while amusing it seemed to be lacking something compared to his comic work on things like "Transmetropolitan". For whatever reason his style just worked better in that format.

 

[Fbuh]

He's an excellent comedic writer, though that isn't unexpected. It reminds me of Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels.

 

[duchaked]

I have a feeling some haters are hatin' just cuz...well okay the point's already been made lol

I'm not sure about what I think, but I'm sorta distracted right now (and not wanting to preorder anything else with all these games coming out)

as always...time will tell what's good and what's not

 

[DayDark]

Well you're probably right in that most people go in with their own expectations anyway, though I'm confused by your assertion that Psychonauts is not a popular game.

re: his justification of his critiques with an argument. If your critique is so flippant, picking up on things just for LOLs then surely the only real justification is 'this doesn't really make the game any worse, I'm just saying this to get you all coming back to watch my video every week to see what I'll say next.' I'm not sure he's ever said this, let alone in every episode.

I see your point, but I don't particularly get that vibe from him, that he is simply talking out his arse if he can't find flaws, every game has flaws, and you can mostly hear when he has actually enjoyed a game, because the review won't be as menacing. He'll still rip into the flaws, but either that is superficial flaws, or he also highlight some parts he liked.

By the way, you said something earlier:

If it were all true personal opinion, and he does indeed have a gamer's heart pumping away in his chest, then every so often a ZP would be a love filled sonnet how utterly spectacular a game was and how everyone should go out and buy it immediately. I may be wrong, but this has probably never happened.

He has, he still critique some flaws, but the overall vibe of the review is positive, those reviews would be Portal, Psychonauts, which I find to have become popular lately, and wasn't before. Those are just the two I can remember, but I'm pretty sure there are more.

He's still a dick though, but people like dicks I guess. I get it. I like arrogant and smug people who genuinely have a right to be arrogant and smug. Ricky Gervais. He has every right to be arrogant (and yet I think a lot of it is act I suspect it's not all for show)he's done like a bunch of stuff and it's all been very good and critically acclaimed. Yahtzee's done this one thing that's proved popular, and subsequently (and previously) proved time and time again that anything else he does is naff. Yahtzee may be smug and self-assured now, but he's in for a shock now he's venturing out of the gaming sphere and into the grown up world of literature where people aren't going to be charmed by Gordon Freeman references and dick jokes.

I can assure you that he has gotten flack for his video game reviews as well, he isn't always right, and people hammer at him when he isn't.

Also it's not just Yahtzee. Penny Arcade sucks balls as well, but that's an argument for another day!

Thanks all, it's been fun.

oh no I like them too! I'll guess will meet again then

 

[f0re1gn]

It probably will never ship to Estonia (no one will buy it here but me and maybe 2-3 other people), but I'll hopefully pre-order it before I go to the army

 

[MrSpectabular]

Yeah I have to admit I was baffled how I managed to avoid a warning and you got one for effectively complementing his joke. ;D

 

[M4rsch]

Good grief, Yahtzee...