Comments on: Siliconera Speaks Up: Rules for Reviewers

By: Hello Hello

Hello Hello — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 22:31:17 +0000

I thought it was interesting when Jenni used the word "journalism". The fact is that the vast majority of video game reviewers do not have any kind of formal training in journalism. They didn't take classes that taught them objectivity or journalistic integrity so their reviews often end up being based on their own personal feelings and that's it. A lot of the time it seems like reviewers are fishing for excuses to praise or trash a game that doesn't deserve the kind of treatment they're giving it.

The biggest problem however is political reviews. Like where a reviewer will give a high score to a game that's published by one or their sponsors or because the game is from a high profiled series, causing them to give a high score to avoid a backlash from the angry mob of torch-wielding fanboys. Likewise a lot of great and good games seem to receive bad scores just because they're low profiled. I assume this is to balance out the over inflated scores they gave high profiled games so they can avoid being accused of giving too many high scores.

At this point I don't take reviews from sponsored websites seriously at all.

By: Jenni

Jenni — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 22:18:00 +0000

I wanted to replay directly to your comment, but I think the thread got too log cause the reply option didn't show up.

I ended up getting Echoes of Time too! I found the DS version pretty cheap used. We should try it sometime. :D Whoever has the Wii version could host and we could see how it goes.

By: Ishaan

Ishaan — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 17:59:09 +0000

Yea, Spencer and I wanted to do that with Echoes of Time to test the Wii/DS connectivity, but that never happened. :(

By: Hello Hello

Hello Hello — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 15:31:17 +0000

By: Jenni

Jenni — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 15:18:00 +0000

I wanted to replay directly to your comment, but I think the thread got too log cause the reply option didn't show up.

I ended up getting Echoes of Time too! I found the DS version pretty cheap used. We should try it sometime. :D Whoever has the Wii version could host and we could see how it goes.

By: Ishaan

Ishaan — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 10:59:09 +0000

Yea, Spencer and I wanted to do that with Echoes of Time to test the Wii/DS connectivity, but that never happened. :(

By: Spencer

Spencer — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 23:01:17 +0000

I just wanted to say thanks for the kind and generous offer. The the thought alone makes me smile, but I would rather you donate items like that to a charity than to us. :)

By: CleruTesh

CleruTesh — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 20:54:57 +0000

I cannot seem to directly reply to your reply, as the branch is over-extended. Anyways, you may be right, I did give away my first Wii to my sister, and ended up buying another a year later. I AM excited about Atelier Rorona. But that's pretty much it. I just feel that capitalist excess is a huge problem, and hate feeling like I am a part of it. Also, the PS3 burns about 10x the electricity of the Wii, and I hate that too. Side note: Wii actually burns MORE electricity than PS3 or Xbox360 when turned “off” if Wiiconnect24 is set to be always on. So I highly recommend turning that off if you care about that sorta thing. Sorry if I implied that you were a type of charity, in retrospect that was an inappropriately large thing to offer casually.

By: matty

matty — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 18:39:44 +0000

As many here have mentioned, a reviewer can review just straight out impressions or construct their review specifically for an audience (usually for fans of that genre). Both have their merits. I'm glad for the technical reviewers for being there when I need them as well as the fan reviewers for knowing where we're coming from and being on the same page. I think it's important for reviewers to not lay the burden on the readers.

It's interesting this topic came up when a founder of a game company came out and called out on game reviewers for not adjusting to certain games:
http://news.vgchartz.com/news.php?id=4059

By: Louise

Louise — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 17:29:00 +0000

While I try to write playtests as a mix of both approaches, as a whole I think I look at games in a phenomenological way. I bring to most of my playtests whatever exeperience and biases I have with that genre, and I write with the assumption that I don't have to go *too* much into detail about things like gameplay mechanics or history.

Siliconera is a small site, which is great in my mind b/c people can go to the bigger sites to get bullet-points and generalizations about the game, but they can come to Siliconera for a more personal opinion about it.

By: Louise

Louise — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 17:26:10 +0000

I have to admit, I look at Play more for the pretty pictures than the actual text.

By: Jenni

Jenni — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 15:21:35 +0000

Probably. Then, if it had Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection multiplayer, we could even all play that together to help with a review like that.

By: terracannon876

terracannon876 — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 12:48:38 +0000

A one-time deal, you bastard.

Ask bona, he knows I generally stay away from romance in fics.

By: Ishaan

Ishaan — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 12:47:05 +0000

Need I remind you who wrote the happy romantic walk scene between Tooru and Aiko?

By: terracannon876

terracannon876 — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 12:39:10 +0000

Yes, but now the argument is turning into a "what makes good RPGs." I agree with you that cinematics aren't what define a good game, but they do enhance it, so it's highly possible to have a game that excels in that department as well as others.

Still doesn't say anything about the staleness of RPGs for you =P I'm still standing by my opinion that you need to play some other stuff. Maybe take a break from RPGs?

Yeah, SH is published by Midway, although I think later by Azure? I'm not very clear on these things... It's an excellent game =P It's also one of the only games where I'm a fan of the romance... because I'm an unromantic clod.