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Video Game Journalism (Read 37361 times)
SynthR
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Video Game Journalism
06/12/11 at 16:47:12
 
I've been thinking about this for a long time and thought I would bring it up here. Roadie has mentioned it a few times as well, so I'm sure we have a similar view on this topic.

I love video games and I'm a journalist, so why not marry the two together and do something with it. Aside from the fact that it's every gamers wet dream, I doubt I'd have a chance in such a competitive field. However, video game journalism has been going down the tubes. More often than not, I've been reading poorly written and researched articles as of late. Most reviews I read are dripping with opinion over personal taste, which isn't unbiased journalism.

What pissed me off today was this article.

http://ca.kotaku.com/5811155/duke-nukem-forever-appears-to-be-a-full+priced-mess

Although his impressions are probably founded, I can't help but grit my teeth every time I read a poorly written article on Kotaku, which is quite often.

I find it unacceptable to find spelling errors, or in this article's case, words missing entirely in a "professional setting". Everyone makes mistakes, but how do these thing get through the door? Do they not proof read their shit? Where are the editors? I think this asshole wanted to get his opinion out there first and fired it out the cannon ASAP.

Another example is the whole TMPS3 "auto lock" - "tight turn" debacle some dork at Kotaku wrote about. Like how are these fucking people still employed? Do they not research something or ask the right questions in the field? They are at the front lines and reporting false information back to their readers.

These same people don't even know how to review their games either. They get someone who loves Modern Warfare to review the latest Final Fantasy game or a Street Fighter god to give his thoughts on Peggle.

I seriously want to make my own site where we can all review games ourselves. No pointless rating system, no pandering, no personal vendetta against a style of game. Just straight up "this is how it is." If someone loves RPG's, let them review the RPG's and not some shit they don't have a history of playing. Fuck breaking industry news. Leave that to the organizations with the money and connections. I'm talking rent/buy a game on release day, sink some hours into it, and give the world your thoughts.

Alas, we are nobody and there's too much competition. What can a rag tag bunch of gamers do to the video game world?

So the question is, what do you guys think about video game journalism?
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Psycho Se7eN
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Re: Video Game Journalism
Reply #1 - 06/12/11 at 17:03:14
 
You have to remember, all reviews, all blogs, all articles will have the journalists opinion one way or another. Gaming is all about what one likes to play. If they enjoyed the game, great, they will make a great review. If that person didnt like the game, then they will write a poor review. Thats why i like Game informer magazine. It gives you a second opinion of the review, 2 ppl review the game and if the reviews are similar, ill trust that. You cannot have just one review of a game. You have to value others as well. Which is why I am always reading more than one article or review or blog. If IGN or game trailers had 2-3 people writing about a game, i would take them more seriously and would also value there articles more. But I cant. For instance, DNF, got poor reviews. But some ppl are LOVING the game. The demo was good to me so ill at least give it a try. I have to take the commentary over the articles because they are opinions, and sometimes even being too political about it.

To be honest, i dont even read Kotaku, i think they are crap. Always have. I like the following sites:

www.ign.com sometimes
www.gametrailers.com
www.gamespy.com
www.gamespot.com rarely
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Re: Video Game Journalism
Reply #2 - 06/12/11 at 17:07:53
 
I can only agree with you to a point, P7, as there is something to be said for objective reporting.  It is not exactly impossible to give a game you hate a good review (Tekken 6, for me) and a game you love a horrible review (Tomb Raider 3). 

Sure, you can play what you love, but it doesn't have to dictate the temperament or direction of your review. 

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Re: Video Game Journalism
Reply #3 - 06/12/11 at 17:41:00
 
Innately understands what I'm trying to get at. A lot of these reviews aren't giving the game a fair chance. It seems the big players like IGN, Gamespot, and Gamespy put little thought into who reviews what and the format it should be reviewed in. Does a score really mean anything? Does a review really mean anything for that matter? It's all subjective, but what a journalist can do is provide insight into what a person should be expecting.

A lot of people put their trust in these sites when making their purchasing decisions. They won't look elsewhere for a second opinion nor will they try it out for themselves. That's the power they hold over the consumers. I seriously feel like these sites are doing gamers an injustice by throwing together shitty journalism.

When I read a review I want to know what's good and what isn't from someone with credibility. When I read a review that's filled with mistakes and one liners that repeatedly state how bad the game is, that's not a credible review. You're bashing a product that someone could potentially enjoy, while doing the developers a disservice by not taking it seriously. So why should the readers take that person/website/magazine seriously?

Anyway, reviews are obviously opinion, but I feel its integrity has suffered over the years and has degraded into nothing more than a rant from a forum troll. I strongly feel as if a change needs to happen.
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Re: Video Game Journalism
Reply #4 - 06/12/11 at 18:03:43
 
Its funny you bring this up SynthR because me and Brian Evol have been discussing this very same thing to great lengths on xbox Live lately. We've been sort of discussing doing our own reviewing sister site of sorts that is separate from TMA but where a few of the vets around here review games they like and blog about gaming shit in general, unbiased, in detail, and how they want to. So far we are just sort of brainstorming and have only been discussing this casually, but its amazing to me the amount of people who just want more from their gaming media and want to do something about it, even if just for fun, which is how it would start out obviously.

Given the interest in doing this we may have to start thinking about it seriously. I know I myself review games on here all the time and post my opinions and ideas so it wouldn't be to different. It wouldn't be another forum. Just some of us saying whatever we want about games and seeing where it goes. Gaming journalism is something I've always wanted to get involved it if only for fun so we need to discuss this further. I hadn't initially considered you as one of the people for the site because I know you come and go with school being in or out, but if you have genuine interest and a drive to do it I'm totally fucking game. We can bring the TMA no holds barred flare to it and I think that is what would make it great. Plus, people from here would already know our personalities and likes, so they could read our reviews on a more personal level, then later on, maybe other people would read it...who knows.

I think there is genuine good reporting, articles, and stories out there (the new EGM has some amazing articles as does Game Informer from time to time), but I find its the gaming websites that really lack what I want out of it these days. Reviews across the board are awful to me though. I can't recall the last time I felt I read a "good" review that told me what I wanted to really know about a game. Its just always cut and dry shit, and like you said, people don't even review games they like anymore. Editors just pass off reviews and previews to people who don't really even care about the games they are sampling and playing through.

I miss the old days of reading EGM, knowing each and every reviewer and editor by name and personality. You knew the sports guy was going to review Madden or NBA whatever, the racing guy was going to review NFS, the RPG guy was going to do Final Fantasy, and the action shooter guy would review the good FPS games. This isn't the case anymore. I don't even really get to "know" any of the people who's articles and reviews I read all the time and they are so devoid of character and insightfulness that you can just about copy and paste everything.

I hadn't even realized how bad reporting had gotten until the new TM came about. We follow that shit more closely than anyone out there and you can pick out any miniscule falsehood from previews online with ease. Its amazing the amount of bullshit misinformation, misunderstandings, or misprints a lot of these guy just throw out there online for everyone to read and base opinions on that is compete garbage pertaining to the new Twisted Metal.

The only site I really like these days is Joystiq. They have a touch of character, a good sense of humor, they have slightly more interesting, brutally honest reviews, and don't seem to ever mislead the readers. I still like reading or watching reviews on IGN, but that site has become so cookie cutter that its getting a bit hard to take them seriously all the time. They just reuse the same types of articles over and over again just for different games. Top 10 things we want to see in blah blah blah game. Yes, sometimes they are cool, but they do that all the time.

I also find spelling errors or words to be unacceptable but I think its just the fast paced environment of the internet journalists that creates this problem. I find magazines to still be the best place to read really great stuff. Magazines are obviously going to be behind in breaking news, but I don't always use them for that. I love their articles that have to do with the industry as a whole, where gaming is going, where developers and publishers are in this ever changing landscape, in depth interviews with producers and other great minds of the industry. Hell, I think Sean Baby's section in EGM is still one of the most original and funny columns in all of game reporting.
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Re: Video Game Journalism
Reply #5 - 06/12/11 at 18:08:42
 
I hate it when a good game gets a 7.5 rating and people think it's medicore or basically average.

We give this game a 9 out of 10

(in order to give the impression these games are rated on a mathmatical scale)



Thumbs up or Thumbs down would work fine. Then let the reader decide if the game is something they are interested in by reading what you have to describe about it. Alot of game reviews should be legitimate descriptions of the game. I guess that is what makes them think they can try and rate something as subjective as entertainment on a near mathmatical scale.

For instance you can just describe why parts of it are clunky. Which parts look techincally impressive for the hardware and which parts look dated. As well as things like online play and longevity. You can do that all with a simple "Like" or "Dislike" rating. if you are saying the graphics get a 7.5 isn't really telling me why. Is it the framerate? Are some of the textures low detail? Or is it an art thing? It seems really odd to rate that kind of stuff numerically.

If you were going to rate it numerically. Then you should have a test group of 10 reviewers play the game, then give the game 1 mark per players "like" or a negative mark per "dislike". Then you could have some kind of mathmatical basis for that number. Otherwise it's just someones opinion with a number tacked onto it.

Here is a good example.

I give this hamburger a 6.5 out of 10.

Bread 5
Meat 7
Toppings 6
Overall 6.5

Sure you get the jist that i think the hamburger is "average" (by the scale they use of 5 being "barely tolerable"). But it's the description that really means something. You can't put a number value on a games quality based on the opinion of one person.

That is why i usually just see what everyone is playing and excited about for the most part. Showing a little patience and letting other people buy the game at launch and see what they have to complain about makes the purchase alot easier.

Like if it's a shooter game and game reviwer doesn't note a terribe unballance in the multiplayer. Where is your number system now? Hell even a description would be no good. Alot of the shit that unballances online games isnt discovered untill after the inntial release anyways.

In the end you just need to be a smart consumer and don't let the choices and perferences of others get in the way of you enjoying a game. Just use them as a guide to help your self avoid the stuff that is seriously bad.

Also remember the quality of a game is essentially, Cost - Fun = Quality. I think the only number you can put on a game to judge it's quality is the price of it. Even a bad game at 60 bucks could be an awesome game at 5 bucks.

Like Bulletstorm isn't really worth 60 bucks. But if you bought it for 20 bucks it would be damn worth it. On the same note if Gears of War 3 was only 20 bucks people would never shut up about what amazing game and an amazing deal it was.

Still the ultimte thing that makes a game good is longevity. How long you can stand playing it before the mechanics feel repetitive and boring. In that sense the only game worthy of a 10 out of 10 rating would have to satisfy every gamer. Which sounds impossible to me.
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Re: Video Game Journalism
Reply #6 - 06/12/11 at 18:22:14
 
Me and Brian were even talking about how most times the multiplayer and single player of a game should/could get its own treatment, though not always.

I get annoyed that you will have a game like Bad Company 2 where 80-90% of the review is based solely around the single player and then they give you a quick paragraph or two about the MP when the MP is the BEST FUCKING PART AND THE REASON MOST PEOPLE PICKED IT UP!

Reviewers and websites always skimp out on the MP side of reviewing games, but at the same time, how can they really review the MP for a game when its not even available to the public yet and they are just playing with a small group of other reviews or devs?
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Re: Video Game Journalism
Reply #7 - 06/12/11 at 18:42:25
 
I despise the fact that fighting games do not receive anywhere NEAR the amount of technical analysis required to determine the depth of the engine at a competitive level. 

They are often reviewed in the same manner that one would review a shmup.  It's absurd.  Consider the people who would be affected and/or influenced by a comprehensive breakdown of how an engine works---it could change somebody's entire perspective regarding the genre as a whole. 

Yes, that could be said of any game, but fighting games typically get the short end of the stick---there is just so much ignorance and disinterest due to the general lack of detail-oriented reporting on the subject of competitive game theory as a whole (again, pertaining to fighters), save for sites that mainly house the hardcore players:  dustloop, srk, testyourmight, eventhubs, etc etc...
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Re: Video Game Journalism
Reply #8 - 06/12/11 at 19:04:53
 
Yes, exactly, and that is why we were considering you for our little project as well to review fighting games and stuff that most of us don't really play. We need a token black guy reviewer also.
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Re: Video Game Journalism
Reply #9 - 06/12/11 at 19:20:46
 
Trollin' trollaz and fillin' quotaz.
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SynthR
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Re: Video Game Journalism
Reply #10 - 06/12/11 at 20:36:41
 
Xizor - I've been thinking about arranging a blog or something for quite some time as well. Originally I was just going to do something on my own, but figured why not bring TMA in on it since we do it already. All we would need to start is a Wordpress type blog where we can link all of our accounts. From there we can post whatever we want. Just call dibs on a game and do it up. You can even review older games that you're just getting around to playing.

During my fall semester, we had to do a group project of our choosing in my elective. I chose to do a video game review magazine with a couple of other journalism students. I ended up doing most of the work (layout, design, editing, finding hi-rez pics), which happens all the fucking time, but I think it turned out decently. I borrowed design and layout ideas from various magazines, so it's not the most original. Check it out.

http://synthr.wolfenhex.com/School/UGR%20Magazine%20%28Final%29.pdf

The thing I didn't care for with that project is we adopted the IGN review structure. We had a score at the end and the body of the article just expanded on those main points. If we had our own blog, I would suggest no scoring system, but rather sections with headers to help break down the review. We can still talk about sound, graphics, game play, etc but there would be no need to rate/compare it with a number.

---------------

"I find magazines to still be the best place to read really great stuff." - Xizor

You're always going to find the best writing in a monthly publication. The Internet has changed the landscape, as you said, making it more fast paced. It really is about being the first and breaking something before anyone else. Magazines don't have that issue. You have the time to flesh out your work and have people look at it.

---------------

My vision would be to have a site where people have spent the time to play the game, both single and multiplayer, and really sit down to write a solid, fleshed out article. You can have some humour in it, comparisons to other games as long as it doesn't turn into a hatefest, and some really in depth coverage of what gamers are going to expect. There's no need to ruin things on them, just tell them what feels good and if it's worth their time. Definitely no fucking whining either like IGN likes to do.

I honestly believe that's the main issue. Reviewers don't have the time to be intimate with a game.
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Re: Video Game Journalism
Reply #11 - 06/12/11 at 21:15:37
 
For what it's worth, I'll volunteer my time and opinions to rate racing games since that's my main genre..  I've reviewed plenty of games for other friends who like racing games but are tentative to purchase and knowing how damn picky I am about them, they'll usually wait until I tell them how it was..  If you would want me to do this, cool, if not, that's cool too, just let me know what's up. 

If I can find the review of Uncharted 2 that I typed up I can upload it so you all can see my style of writing. 

On this VGReview Blog, would there be a section for other "non-reviewers" to input their two cents about a certain topic of the game that someone else may have overlooked?
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SynthR
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Re: Video Game Journalism
Reply #12 - 06/12/11 at 21:21:14
 
"Non-reviewers" could just post in the comments I guess. We can't allow open access unless we can figure out a way to moderate it. It's possible to have a site with multiple reviews for the same game. Kind of like IGN where they let people do their own reviews and there are separate IGN employee and user reviews. I don't know...
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Re: Video Game Journalism
Reply #13 - 06/12/11 at 21:47:08
 
All I am saying is that you would get more out of a site review if they had say 3 ppl at the site reviewing the game, along with maybe a respected player and site subscriber to review the game. So you get 3-4 reviews and get a decent idea of how the game really is. Today's site reviews are expecting more than they should from gaming, and getting way to political about it. Game informer \ EGM to me is the best place to go for any idea of how the games are. And ill play the demos. You could also get a lot of info from review commentary.

We should really have a sticky thread. And have 3-5 ppl here in charge of gaming reviews. Why not?
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Re: Video Game Journalism
Reply #14 - 06/12/11 at 21:49:33
 
Well since the cat is out of the bag, I think we should definitely pool together and just do it. Especially since we're as diversified in our tastes as we are, for example when I think of Halo I immediately know Roadie and Xizor are all over it. Much the same way SW: The Old Republic almost has my fucking name written on it.

I, too, am very displeased with the way some of these articles are written, day one of E3 two articles appeared about The Old Republic, they were so full of erroneous information all SWTOR fan sites removed the links and the articles were taken down. These morons were listing the wrong class they were playing and gave extremely incorrect information.

So now that we are in agreement to do it the problem is figuring out a format. Something blog-like but broken up into sections, maintaining poster individuality is also essential.

We should also capitalize on our relationships, what I mean by this is Dave Jaffe mentioned US in tweets SPECIFICALLY. "TMA Guys"

It isn't much of a stretch to simply say "hey Dave, can we e-mail you like 5-6 questions for an interview and you answer them at your leisure and shoot it back to us?" Bam, we just secured an interview from Dave Jaffe, someone IN the gaming industry who people CARE about what he has to say. Not to mention if we get extra info about TM.

Food for thought.
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