Video game Journalism is what's killing the industry.

Yeah, Its not consoles, its not Motion controls its not Casuals. Its Journalism. The average gamer isn't a game studying psycho. Instead they look on the web and check what high scoring games there are. Other games that fail to reach 8.0 due to a broken mehcanic or technical issue (that would probably be fixed from a patch) are ignored. Games like this usually are hidden gems that are overlooked due to the number next to them. Heck here on SW I bet hardly anyone buys A games and without a good marketing budget a AA game could be micced for something more well known. What does that mean? well Publishers will insvest in less and work on expanding established games.

The entirty of score is pretty dumb. I mean Gaming Journalism is comming to be like Movie Journalism. CoD does nothing new EVER and its always AAA.It gets to a point where the success of a game depends on a number. Now I've found many games that are rated pretty low yet are a blast to play. However thy won't probably get a sequel do to a number and that people ignore the game due to it.

Well yea, most of the "blockbusters" here are some of the most throw-awable games you can get. Aimed at movie enthusiats for the most part that value representation and ease of use. Then they overblow a average-production values game like Demon souls in the mix to make out theyr still there for the enthusiast :roll:. The games that get covered on gamespot and score in the AAA category are all stupid safe bets with incredible advertising, Your right, its hilarious to see all the shooters out, get AAA despite being rehashes. but what can you do? journalism is largely idiotic and aimed at people who know no better.Birdy09

Could not agree more, my best games like Demons Souls, Fable 2-3, Fallout Vegas, Lost odyssey, Mass effect 1 etc have got low scores

But consoles are mainly for casuals that love to watch the game than play it, so it will only get worst

Nothing is killing the industry, the industry is fine.incuensuocha

Will stop beeing fine though if all games turn to linear 6 hours repeatitve more of the same stuff, just to sell better

I think it's jaded gamers that think a 7.5 means a bad game, and that percentage wise is a 3 star movie.

I will agree that game reviews are done wrong. I think there's too much emphasis on the point system, but the few journalist that have tried to get rid of it have failed miserably. One problem that is the reviewers fault is that they don't know how to objectivly state their opinions. Not all gamers have the same pet peeves, nor look for the same thing in a game.

[QUOTE="Birdy09"]Well yea, most of the "blockbusters" here are some of the most throw-awable games you can get. Aimed at movie enthusiats for the most part that value representation and ease of use. Then they overblow a average-production values game like Demon souls in the mix to make out theyr still there for the enthusiast :roll:. The games that get covered on gamespot and score in the AAA category are all stupid safe bets with incredible advertising, Your right, its hilarious to see all the shooters out, get AAA despite being rehashes. but what can you do? journalism is largely idiotic and aimed at people who know no better.Creator_Of_All

Could not agree more, my best games like Demons Souls, Fable 2-3, Fallout Vegas, Lost odyssey, Mass effect 1 etc have got low scores

But consoles are mainly for casuals that love to watch the game than play it, so it will only get worst

Nothing is killing the industry, the industry is fine.incuensuocha

Will stop beeing fine though if all games turn to linear 6 hours repeatitve more of the same stuff, just to sell better

Mass effect 1 got great scores. It's AAA on metacritic.

Games are to hard to make, require to many people, and cost to much money.

Focing games to be sold at 60 dollars, thats by far the biggest flaw of video games.

You cant bust out 60 dollars for every game that looks interesting.

Is it the journalists fault for pushing standards up, or the gamers who support those journalists' decisions and only buy 9.0+ games?

Games are to hard to make, require to many people, and cost to much money.

Focing games to be sold at 60 dollars, thats by far the biggest flaw of video games.

You cant bust out 60 dollars for every game that looks interesting.

crimsonman1245

Its an insult to call what GS and IGN do 'journalism'...

so this thread is pretty moot.

why does there always have to be something destroying gaming on here....

why does there always have to be something destroying gaming on here....

LucidJubilation

Gamers are killing the industry

Just a thought but.. When a company announces that they will spend half a billion dollars to advertise a peripheral right around Christmas time (Think Christmas bonuses, here) in an industry (the press) that thrives on advertising money, what do you think the effect will be?

I'm not accusing any particular media outlet of corruption here so much as it is a natural human condition to favor your benefactors somewhat. Huge AAAA FPSes have huge AAAA marketing budgets. Marketing dollars = paychecks. The industry has massive tunnel vision right now and the world economic state does not help whatsoever. You can either keep playing videogames and write reviews for a living or stand in the unemployment line... or flip burgers.

That's my take on it. Now where is my Ferrari laptop.

So what GS score do you not agree with THIS time?

So what GS score do you not agree with THIS time?

789shadow

Will stop beeing fine though if all games turn to linear 6 hours repeatitve more of the same stuff, just to sell better

Creator_Of_All

[QUOTE="Creator_Of_All"]Will stop beeing fine though if all games turn to linear 6 hours repeatitve more of the same stuff, just to sell better

PannicAtack

You can throw this in there too...the sychophantic gamers that hang on a reviewers score like its Jesus doing the review. Then proceeding to gloat about a game being a flop because it scored an 8.5 rather than a 9.0.

I agree though about a lot of what you said. After the black ops review I lost all respect for GS reviews. I need to find a different mature review websight.

[QUOTE="789shadow"]

So what GS score do you not agree with THIS time?

mayceV

Then wouldn't it be that philosophy of gamers killing the industry?

What is something a website could do to improve the gamer's experience? Or a journalist? More specific highlights on genres?

I am thinking of going into journalism, aiming to do video games or music, and I was wondering these things as of late.

I honestly think it's that fact that all games don't have demos. It should be law to require a demo/trial of any product or service IMO.

I think it's jaded gamers that think a 7.5 means a bad game, and that percentage wise is a 3 star movie.

I will agree that game reviews are done wrong. I think there's too much emphasis on the point system, but the few journalist that have tried to get rid of it have failed miserably. One problem that is the reviewers fault is that they don't know how to objectivly state their opinions. Not all gamers have the same pet peeves, nor look for the same thing in a game.

jrhawk42

I wouldnt even try to play a 7.5 console game honestly i would play down to a 6.0 pc game though because it seems like they are rated differently.

whenever i read IGN's "journalism", i want to vomit

The average gamer doesn't even care about reviews or numbers. That's something only fanboys make a big deal about. You think all those Madden gamers have been looking at the reviews over the years as the numbers go down and say lemme stop buying Madden? Nope.

Video games journalism is a joke and it has been for some time. People act like this is a new thing.

A journalist shouldn't be held responsible for someone else's stupidity. Thats like blaming violence on videogames.

If scores really were so important though then the Wii wouldn't be the best selling console and Licensed games would usually tank.

The industry is dying?

A journalist shouldn't be held responsible someone else's stupidity. Thats like blaming violence on videogames.vashkey

This. EXACTLY this!! The journalist isn't to blame, not when it's the score he/she thinks it deserves. It's the gamers/readers fault for taking the review out of context.

Are you suggesting reviewers should raise the score to assure more sales? Do they work for the developers now? It's not their jobs to tell eager fanboys what they want to hear, but to tell us what to expect.

I don't go looking for 9.0+ games and I barely have any.Most of my games score in the low 70's and I'm interested in some of the indie games on the Wii currently.

The problem with video game "journalism" is that it isn't journalism at all, it's the business of keeping their sponsors paying.

Game websites don't have advertisers outside the the gaming spectrum the way true news outlets do. If they drive away a sponsor, there aren't thousands of other companies ready to take the spot.

For this reason, game reviews from non game outlets are actually more honest, though the reviewer may not know as much about the subject matter.

I think reviews help to increase the quality of games in general. Most reviewers, including GS, remove points if a game is too similar to its predecessor (AC:Brotherhood, Dead Space 2). It would be far worse if people only bought games based on marketing. Since reviews is the second most accesible type of info (next to marketing) I fear that would be the result if game journalism disappeared. Ofc there are other sources like, demos, gameplay vids, friends, forums etc but they don't tell the whole story either.

[QUOTE="Badosh"]i don't think so. The average gamer (outside of SW) probably buys games more on word of mouth and advertisement of said game than the scores online.Pvt_r3d

The problem with video game "journalism" is that it isn't journalism at all, it's the business of keeping their sponsors paying.

Game websites don't have advertisers outside the the gaming spectrum the way true news outlets do. If they drive away a sponsor, there aren't thousands of other companies ready to take the spot.

For this reason, game reviews from non game outlets are actually more honest, though the reviewer may not know as much about the subject matter.

Pug-Nasty

However thy won't probably get a sequel do to a numbermayceV

Yeah, no. Sequelization is based on sales, and Medal of Honor sold great and is getting a sequel even though critics panned it.

If you want to blame scores for screwing up the industry, look at Metacritic.