After reading the new Donkey Kong review, and earlier the Grand Theft Auto 5 review....It made me shudder at the idea of more people with "intense" opinions or expectations entering the editorial industry. God forbid we start letting (and this isn't a hate thread, I'm just going to be honest) Muslims, or Christians review games. People with intense, out of the mainstream views should be encouraged to leave that stuff at the door when they come into work. I wouldn't want some Atheist reviewing a game about Noah's Ark either, in fair play, it's all about mechanics and technical information, not a personal dialogue about what you currently believe.
If we start to allow personal opinions to be the soul reasoning to rating a game lower it leaves a completely open field for offense to rear it's ugly head.
Oh, this game is too sexist!
Oh, this game is too violent!
Oh, this game is an insult to my religion!
Oh, this game is too hard for me!
et cetera.
No one gives a damn about your personal philosophy that's often subject to erratic change. No one cares if the game is somehow blasphemous to your religion, or insulting to your ideas of gender equality, no one cares if you felt something was too hard (and this isn't a discussion of fair / broken gameplay, purely difficulty and the balance there-in).
We need to keep this down to a minimum and stop letting personal philosophy and ideals downplay the greater elements of games. GTA5 didn't deserve to be marked down because a transgender girl was insulted by the (and if you weren't expecting this from Rockstar, are you mental?) hilarious (and blatantly sarcastic) sexism (which ironically is pointed at both genders). No one cares if Mark had a hard time with the perfectly balanced DKC game, these are not valid reasons to start deducting points.
What if someone who believed violence was evil and against God had reviewed GTA5? Well the gameplay is phenomenal, graphics are unbelievable and truly pushing the standard for next-gen despite being on nearly 10 year old hardware, BUT, I prayed about it and God told me to give it 2 points lower on the scale because I find it personally offensive and quite frankly it has too much swearing and blood.
When is this BS going to stop? Who's going to call out Gamespot for this travesty? This is not about letting our personal opinions and philosophy drip into the reviews, it's about being honest, consistent and reviewing something with a pure sight of it's mechanisms and not the offense / challenge that you're incapable of moving beyond emotionally.
Leave out your preaching, get off your soapbox, this professional editorial service you're providing is no place for your quackery, leave that to your tumblr. I couldn't imagine someone who hates difficult games attempting to review Dark Souls, much like I couldn't imagine someone who's allergic or hates fish to eat at diner that exclusively serves fish.
Not sure if this has been discussed, I'm new here, cheers! Also, sorry if this is in the wrong location, let me know and I'll post someplace else.
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