Settling Video Game Arguments, Part 1: Game Reviews

74 点作者 Darthy超过 7 年前

14 条评论

LeoJiWoo超过 7 年前

I found the recent EA Battlefront 2 controversy hugely interesting. Gamers rebelling against micro-transactions, then being attacked for being greedy or selfish by the games media.It really brought into picture that various interests of major players in that community are not inline creating a huge amount of tension. The journalists are basically a PR arm of the bigger corporations or a specific political agenda.This article seems to ignore the fact that often groups or tribes often form to protect their own interests by creating various forms of economic and/or social moats. The various groups are all trying to reduce competition by creating monopolies or gatekeepers, which in turn increases the tension or hostility between gamers and the mainstream journalists.It's pretty interesting seeing this occur in real-time. I'm still not sure how the "gamers" are organizing or whether its just an emergent reaction.

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lobotryas超过 7 年前

Jeff's article is spot-on as always. I'm a bit surprised that any of this still has to be mentioned, but I guess people forget. It's the same reason why I would never go to Roger Ebert for a movie review: he and I like drastically different things.That said, please allow me to make two suggestions to anyone reading this:1) Check out more of Jeff's blog. His writing is fun, excellent and educational. Even if you only care about tech it will be interesting for you to read Jeff's frank discussion of his game sales numbers and the challenges he has overcome almost single-handedly coding and writing his many games.2) Give Jeff some of your money. His games are unapologetically targeted at people who enjoy rpg elements, turn based combat and an interesting story. If that sounds like your cup of tea then buy one of his games if you like the gameplay video.

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sotojuan超过 7 年前

Many times I've read a game review by someone who has no interest or experience in the genre. While a different point of view is always interesting, I personally enjoy reviews and writing by someone at least knowledgeable about the subject matter and its context.An example was a review for the Crash Bandicoot remakes by someone who has never played or been into classic platformers. Therefore, the review was mostly complaining about how you go back to the beginning if you lose all your lives (!?).--Personally, like others have said, I rely on friends and communities devoted to a few specific genres I like (turn based JRPGs make up 80% of my game library).

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Feniks超过 7 年前

If you really think about it game reviews are outdated. This isn't the 90s anymore.Go to YouTube and search for the title of the game followed by gameplay. Example: "cold steel gameplay". Now go to page 3 of the search results to make sure you're NOT getting advertising or ecelebs. You're looking for that random guy who is just recording the game. And doesn't talk. Very important detail. You want that video with sub 100k views. And now you can see for yourself exactly what you will get and can make an informed purchase.But I suppose its just one of those things people want to do that has nothing to do with practicality.

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problems超过 7 年前

Interesting - I've never cared for professional reviewers or anything of the sort - instead I just look for the biggest user review site around, which is currently probably Steam and read the comments a bit and then if I'm on the borderline I'll watch a YouTube video of actual gameplay. I can understand why they existed before, but what's the benefit of professional reviewers in this day and age, when it's far easier to determine what the common opinion of something will be?

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apozem超过 7 年前

This article reflects an opinion I've long held about game reviews - it's okay for other people to have different opinions. All a review can be is one person's opinion. It might be insightful, helpful, great, terrible, but it's all just an opinion.There should be room within artistic criticism for critics to have different opinions. If Polygon wants to analyze games through the lens of left-leaning politics, that's fine! Readers who want games examined in that way will find that useful. If Totalbiscuit wants to rate games based on their PC ports and framerate, that's also fine! He has an audience that enjoys that.It is acceptable and even valuable for there to be a wide variety of opinions and criticism for an art form. Forget Metacritic bonuses. It's not our job to worry about that. When you read criticism you disagree with, have the confidence to say, "I understand why you didn't like that game, but I did and that's okay."

fartcannon超过 7 年前

As a counter arguement to the one put forward in the blog, it's also ok to care deeply about how journalists in the game industry behave because it's ok to care about stuff, even if it's not politics.

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hexane360超过 7 年前

"Look, I love laughing at game professionals flailing at games as much as anyone. Remember when that unnamed Polygon writer tried Doom and showed no signs of ever having played it (or any video game) ever before? That was a hoot.(My favorite bit is when the player unloads a full shotgun blast into a health pack resting on the ground, in what I can only assume is a post-modern deconstruction of late-stage capitalism.)But some people watched that video and said, "Wow, I should never buy this game," and were right to say it. So the video was useful after all."I feel like he brushes this criticism off without really confronting it.A reviewer who's experienced with gaming and good at it can gauge difficulty, one who's inexperienced and terrible can't reliably. Reviewers shouldn't be perfect mirror images of the people they represent. They need to be above average to have cogent criticism and to communicate that to gamers effectively. Terrible analogy: No one is arguing that war correspondents don't need to know anything about geopolitics because "most people who read about geopolitics don't understand it, and they deserve correspondents who advocate for them."

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shmerl超过 7 年前

I don't care about "critics'" reviews or most media reviews for that matter. To evaluate something, I prefer to ask those who like given genre and can express an educated opinion.

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bitwize超过 7 年前

Here's the thing: Game journalism corruption has been a thing for decades now. When Bubsy first came out, there was a media blitz in magazines like GamePro, who had fulsome praise and promoted Bubsy as the next Sonic. Of course anyone who's played the game knows it's rather terrible. So I think when we see outrage against games journalists, what we are really seeing is a skeptical audience and that's a sign of health in the community. Games journalists who praise a bad game as good because they were paid to, or who criticize a good game as bad because they can't be arsed to learn to play it and somehow, to them, it's the game's fault, are not fulfilling their ostensible function of informing the potential audience for these games.That said if you're going to call out a games journalist, it's important to be gentlemanly and civilized and not act like a rabid chimp.

firefoxd超过 7 年前

One thing I still try to understand is the anger flared when a game/movie sucks. I think the only thing anyone should do when a game sucks is not buy it, and not watch it anymore. But for some reason some people make it their mission to make it a vendetta against the developer.

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awill超过 7 年前

I thought an important part of this article was to avoid sites where a different reviewer reviews games chosen seemingly at random (like the mainstream IGN, Gamespot, Polygon). Just because you agree with/like John's IGN review of game A doesn't mean you'll agree with Mark's IGN review of game B. Instead find a review site with consistent reviewers whom you like or agree with and read them. For me, I like RockPaperShotgun and Destructoid. Both of those sites seem like they are written by gamers who love gaming, not paid critics. I'd be interested in hearing about other high quality game review sites.

chickenfries超过 7 年前

Good video summing up "outrage" that occurred around Cuphead:<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-P9_oUV9Gw" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-P9_oUV9Gw</a>

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jorgec超过 7 年前

A journalist is like a Lawyer, they think that they are good at everything but they should be specialized, for example, a business lawyer trying to act in a criminal case.In this case, a game journalist should be specialized in some kind of games. Its not as simple as "i play xbox" or "playstation". For example Flight Simulation games or Wargaming. All of them are niche, and if you don't get it, you could considers it as a boring game, and yes, they are bore if you aren't part of the target market.Cuphead is an example, a apparently good journalist trying to play a game where hes clueless. IT WAS PATHETIC.