• 29Sep 09

  Fair reviewing, 5 rules that need to be told.

  Now I'm not going to say my reviews are perfect, they're not. My vocab is severely lacking and I often either tend to ramble on or be way too brief with making points, so sorry if even just the idea of making this comes off as egotistical or self promoting. Its come to my attention however that reviews are becoming less and less of what they should be, and more and more just stupid, controversial or a sad attempt at comedy. So without further attempts to justify myself, lets get into it, 5 rules every reviewer should realize.

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  1. Every fantasy universe has the right to set their own rules, whether it takes place in the real world or not. Don't complain about recharging health because it's unrealistic, don't complain about how people should die in 1 shot to the face from any gun, and don't you dare bring up the scientific effects of what radiation does to a man. Most of the time this directly applies to people demanding realism, but it can also apply to other stuff. Example, people complain about the anime style "power of heart and friendship" in kingdom hearts and other such stuff. So what? In their universe it's a mysterious physical power, let them make it that way. If the street fighter devs want their characters to be bullet proof, so be it. Fantasy is fantasy and a game designer can be given whatever rights to the rules of the universe as they want. Otherwise we don't have a fantasy world, we just have world number 2.

  2. Balance the good and the bad in what you write. If you write a review purely to address how much you think it sucked, you will definitely overlook what some people actually play the game for. If you write a review raving about how amazing the game is, you're most likely overlooking an very brutal flaw just to tell us about all the features we already know. In this respect, I don't mean your reviews should be 50/50, but just try to address the other side. People looking for bad, try to understand what the maker was actually trying to accomplish and give it a small shot before ripping it a new one, and goody goodys should try to admit a flaw here or there at the very least and continue the good act talking about how you got over it or how it wasn't that big a deal in the end.

  3. Don't give in to hype, no matter what side you take. Many people take this advice the wrong way and these people are some of the most obnoxious reviewers I have ever met. Not giving into the hype doesn't mean yelling at the fanbase about how wrong they are and arbitrarily hating a game, it's about not giving into heaven or hell on this scale. You should always be out to give an honest review, not just out to rip the game to shreds in an attempt to balance out all the people who are giving the game a perfect 10. outside influence shouldn't play a part and the game should be reviewed as if you just got it as a birthday present and had no prior knowledge about the game.

  4. Play a game as far as you can before you decide to review it. I don't care if the game just came out and you're eager to tell everyone about it. Your love of it should build up over the time you play it and shouldn't be just a blinding light in your face. further more you also shouldn't quit a game you got frustrated with and just dub it not worth playing half way in. Let the hate or love of the game build up over time so you actually get the full experience of it. The only reason you should ever review before you finish is if there is a game stopping moment that happens on multiple occasions which is literally almost impossible to get past, or if you've beaten the game, little extras excluded, and seen the end credits of all it has to offer the average player. Until then, keep your comments and criticism to what you tell people in your IM buddy list.

  5. Play the game to enjoy the game. What is a videogame? A videogame is a interactive experience made with computers to bring pleasure to the user. If you walk into every game with this mindset, your reviews become a lot better. This isn't to say you're supposed to enjoy every game the same way. Some games are enlightening and others are just about delivering a punch to someone's face. This also doesn't mean you're going to like every game either, there are good and bad games in this world and that's why we do what we do. I just say this because a lot of people walk in with the wrong mindset when turning on a game and that immediately sabotage the review one way or the other. This is just the way to walk into it without any problems and with reaching the most people.

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  Take my opinion as the opinion it is, even if it's an opinion on how to form proper opinions, but these are rules to keep in mind. Can you never ever break a rule? No, otherwise I'd be calling them laws of reviewing. Are these the only rules? No, there's probably more, but I just felt like addressing whats in the media today. Reviews are becoming a joke and it's almost saddening. People say never to take their advice, but we have the good intentions of just trying to guide you into what's worth your money and not. People are also making reviews almost a complete parody. Rather than giving a structured review, we're fed a reviewer trying to be a character while throwing trash on a game to be funny. As entertainment, I won't question whether it's funny or not, but as these becoming real reviews, we're entering a dark age of reviewing here.

  Now I've gone on way too long of a rant on this. Thank you anyone who read all that, and as for personal life, nothing much other than continual progress of my own game and college which is a drag. I'll brief you more on the game when I can get a tiny bit further, art is hard to make when you're no artist.

  • Posted Sep 29, 2009 1:31 am PT
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• 15Sep 09

  Why I love this industry.

  First of all, I usually save this til the end of my blogs, but I'd like to apologize to nintendo dream. Last time I said I was back, I got pulled away instantly and disappeared all summer. I feel terrible about that, sorry. I'll have that "I got owned" video up asap about failing the bet as soon as I get this new fangled camera working, also, pictures of rooster hat then as well.

  Now, onto the blogish parts of my blog! Highschool came and went like a horrible speed bump in the road, but that's school for ya, what's new? I recently got asked an odd question, what do I love about the gaming industry? Why is this odd you may probably not have asked? Good question! This is odd because up until now, I have heard nothing bug rage from questions like there. They're always questions about what I hate or want different in the industry. For a world of delivering enjoyment, some comically harsh but too seriously taken reviewers have made it quite a fad to bash it with a hammer and call everything new a failure that just wishes it were as good as the old. Ok, I'll stop being around the bush about it, YAHTZEE FANS, SHUT UP AND FORM YOUR OWN DAMN OPINION ON THINGS FOR ONCE IN YOUR LIFE!

  Ahem, anyways, there are many things I love about the game design industry in comparison to say books movies and tv. Game designers care about their fanbase, they try to keep up to date, ambitious ideas are rewarded more than punished. However, what I love most is that indy devs get a chance. Anyone can get into the industry with some hard work and a good idea. TV and movies have their indy films but they're seen at mostly bad things that end up on the sci fi channel. There are thousands of books getting released every year but only 1 or 2 turn out to be good. The gaming industry, indy games are something people love and respect as long as you know what you're doing.

  World of Goo was literally just a two man team in the end and they produced an award winning puzzle game. La-Mulana was made by about 5 guys in spare time hanging out in a basement and its gathered a good cult following for not having a single commercial or advertisement, and Nifilas has actually moved amazingly high up the road, going for free adventure game maker to now a big musician in the industry and a maker of a couple retail wiiware games. maybe this shouldn't shock me, maybe this happens every day, but as a person starting my own adventures into the industry, this gives me a massive ray of hope.

  These games usually are only successful though by word of mouth, so I'll do my part and say you should do yours. Indy games I've played recently and recommend:

  Iji

  World of Goo (Not free though)

  La-Mulana

  Mondo Medicals (Though only play if you want to be massively confused)

  Spelunky

  Cave Story

  Within a Deep Forest.

  By the way, I have the greatest college schedule ever. I only have to go to school on tuesday and thursday, leaving the rest as a huge weekend outside of homework and more attempts to find a job.

  • Posted Sep 15, 2009 6:20 am PT
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• 29Mar 09

  The most annoying people in the world.

  So gamespot? Anyone from my school? Good. I'm an overly nice guy. Basically, I'll talk with anyone without being a jerk to their face. The problem in that? I get a load of annoying people relying on me for conversation, and it just so happens in my school, I must have the most annoying stupid people in the world following me.

  First one I'll just call Jimmy. Jimmyis a kid who is probably the biggest lier I've ever met. He is full of stories to tell you, but problem is that none of them are even remotely true. He's even aware that everyone knows his stories are bull having to confirm us as to what's reality and not (though now what he confirms as reality is starting to head into the bull section). He tells me all about how much of a badass he is, beating people up, breakin the law, shovin it to the man, but you take one look at this kid and it's just obvious, he's nothing like what he pictures himself as. Why does he do this? Attention. As long as he remains the center of attention, he'll keep telling stories, even if it's the bad center of attention. How does he get these stories out? He inturupts everyone just to tell us of a story he knows.

  If you couldn't guess, these people will grow gradually worse. Second one is the second most annoying kid I know. I'll just call her Tori.Tori you see is actually a random friends request I got on facebook one day who happens to go to my school. Why does she annoy me? She is the embodiment of everything I hate about girly girls, and she is attracted to me (good to note she's 2 grades lower than me). I think her last boyfriend of the 6 she had since I met her 5 months ago said it best. She's clingy. However, not only is she clingy but parasitic as well. My general talks with her goes as follows. She says what's up, I say I'm playing some game, and she proceeds to complain to me about her problems, and as soon as I stop talking politly about thus said problems, keeps prodding at me to say more, despite that there is nothing to say. Why is there nothing to say? Because that "what's up" was only a formality, she doesn't care about anything in my world, she just wants to complain about her boyfriend troubles to me as if that's all she does. Hell, from what I know of her, that IS all she does. Putridly enough, she asked me to a dance once, and it was the first time I've ever been asked out, and the first time I've rejected an asking out. The funny part comes up when a day later she tries to make me jelous with this boyfriend she's bragging to me about online in the silliest attempt to attract me I've seen of her yet. How do I know she was trying to attract me? Because this guy didn't evist and she's not very subtle about anything she does.

  Wew, that turned into quite a large paragraph. Luckly the last one doesn't need much explanation at all, but being aorund makes me wish I was trapped on a desserted island with the above 2. This guy I'll just call Alec. How does Alec annoy me? He talks to me. Talking with him though, is like grinding your head on a chalkboard. You see, when Alec talks to you, he gets right up close to you, way too close for comfort. You take a step back, he takes 2 steps closer, with everyone he talks to. Oblivious to all my shimmying, back stepping, and person dodging I do, he's always in my face. Further more, he's always doing this. Like the above 2, a moment of silence is a terrible thing and he must talk. What's different from the above 2 is that he has nothing to talk about. Constantly brining up stuff he already brought up, or just talking non-sense in general, he will never let it be quiet. Further more, I didn't want to bring it up because I don't hate people for how they were born, but he has an annoying voice. A speech impediment with braces and a naturally loud voice, he has the voice of an airhorn. I wouldn't mind this on a normal person, but that airhorn is in your face sprewing nothing of any importance at all at any given time.

  So there, these are what I'll hate about school the rest of the year. You know more annoying people? Would like to hear em. I just had to get that off my chest. Until next time, this is 3 dawg! Umm, I mean kittykatz5k. Also need to stop being addicted to fallout 3.

  • Posted Mar 29, 2009 9:47 pm PT
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