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Poll Result |
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What's going on with game reviews? |
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| dumb and don't understand what "average" means in the context of 1->10. |
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14% |
[ 1 ] |
| desperately trying to make everyone feel better about games, i.e. "these are all good, no really, I swear!". |
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0% |
[ 0 ] |
| being paid to be positive which over time is pushing the scores up higher. |
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85% |
[ 6 ] |
| they've got it right, they just don't mention all the average games. |
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0% |
[ 0 ] |
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Total Votes : 7 |
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Author |
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Poo Bear
Pod Team
Joined: 14 Oct 2002
Posts: 4121
Location: Sheffield, UK
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Weeble
Starscape Jedi
Joined: 25 Apr 2003
Posts: 1143
Location: Glasgow, Scotland
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 Posted: Tue Aug 08, 2006 11:53 am Post subject: |
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| I can buy a computer that is a hundred times as "good" as my old Spectrum for the same price. Why haven't the game makers kept up??? I should be playing games with scores of 758 out of 10 for the same money!!! |
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icarus
Troll
Joined: 01 Mar 2004
Location: Olympia Washington
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| Posted: Tue Aug 08, 2006 5:35 pm Post subject: |
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| Well actually gamespot a (and many gaming mags) say that a score of 7.0 means average. Anyways in school a score of 70% is a C. |
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HunterXI
Joined: 26 Dec 2003
Posts: 476
Location: Playing like there is no tomorrow.
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| Posted: Sun Aug 13, 2006 3:20 pm Post subject: |
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| But the problem with that is that in the basic school scoring scheme, everything 50 and below has the same meaning, making it pointless. |
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Johnh
Joined: 06 Sep 2003
Posts: 160
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| Posted: Mon Aug 14, 2006 12:18 am Post subject: |
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| I don't really visit ign or gamespot unless I'm trying to see if there's anything new about Supreme Commander, or another game that I take great interest in. But I think I'm going to agree with Icarus. I believe that game reviews don't necessarily compare a game to other games, but that it is an analysis of the qualities that a game has. Granted, I don't really read game reviews, so my opinion here isn't exactly valid... |
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icarus
Troll
Joined: 01 Mar 2004
Location: Olympia Washington
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| Posted: Mon Aug 14, 2006 4:10 am Post subject: |
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I think the problem with game journalism is not reviews but previews. They get paid to hype upcoming games and then, after accepting the Dirty money they feel guilty so they write a scathingly critical review of the game they just worshiped. The result is optimistic previews and cynical reviews.
And i wouldn't have it any other way.  |
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Magnulus
Joined: 08 Nov 2005
Posts: 556
Location: Bergen, Norway
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| Posted: Mon Aug 14, 2006 7:03 am Post subject: |
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| You don't get money for doing previews of a game, man. Apart from your paycheck, which you also get for doing reviews. |
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Poo Bear
Pod Team
Joined: 14 Oct 2002
Posts: 4121
Location: Sheffield, UK
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| Posted: Mon Aug 14, 2006 8:11 am Post subject: |
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Previews are a bit weird, game sites and magazines see them as crucial to attracting visitors. Once a game is out, there is bitter competition to get the first review, but usually within 24hours everyone has it. Previews are great because it is much less likely that a large number of sites or mags will have them. Anything you can do to differentiate your site or magazine from the sea of others is critical. Now the problem is the game's publisher wont let you do a preview unless you accept the game isn't finished and therefore don't start writing damning conclusions. Plus, at the back of the reviewers mind, he knows if he slates the game then the publisher wont give them any future previews.
So previews are just as corrupt as reviews, but for different reasons. A good review will be secured with $$$ of advertising from the game's publisher. A good preview is guaranteed because the site/mag needs them desperately to attract visitors so they can impress sponsors with large audience numbers which then brings in the cash in the form of advertising.
A final form of corruption also exists in laziness and a fear of being wrong. As soon as certain major sites get a review out you will notice almost everyone else quickly follow suit with very similar comments and scores. The same thing happens in the news media. As soon as the major players make a decision on something, everyone else falls in line and repeats it. It isn't that there is a conspiracy, it's just human nature, a mixture of laziness in forming your own opinion and fear of looking stupid by going against the party line.
So therefore you should only trust reviews from either very small sites or very large sites as in either case there is a good chance they may not care about bringing in advertising cash or extracting preview rights. Alternatively you could just read reviews of indie games, the fact they have downloadable demos and no marketing budget means there isn't really any point in making anything up |
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hair65
Joined: 13 Jul 2018
Posts: 886
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