Today's internet game journalism is the equivalent of...

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DEATHAMSTER

Today's internet game journalism is the equivalent of...

Lead

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Posts: 1399

(03/28/08 8:28 AM)

O Solo Mio

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The Sega ad campaigns of the 80's and 90's.

Am I right? All this "in your face" crap that's supposed to be really cool and hip.

And what is the obsession with lists? Has anyone else but me noticed that a lot of sites are always making top "#" lists of this and that all the time? It's like they can't choose to write about just one thing so they make a list so they don't have to narrow it down.

CLOUDBOND007

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Posts: 10297

(03/28/08 1:27 PM)

Lunitari Mage
Moderator

Gamespot posted a related article recently.

CB007's Review & GPT Archive
CB007's Gaming BBS

Flying Omelette

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Posts: 17536

(03/28/08 5:02 PM)

Frickin' Fred Durst on Stilts

I like that article and in a non-ironic way.

I compare internet game journalism more to the glam rock/hair metal era of the 80's. It's loud, in-your-face, it's what's most popular so everyone "sells out" to the image to make money, but it's actually annoying and embarrassing - enough to make you feel ashamed of being a ~~fan of rock music~~ gamer.

Think of what you're saying,
You can get it wrong
And still you think that it's all right.
Think of what I'm saying,
We can work it out
And get it straight or say good night.

There is a house in New Orleans
They call the Rising Sun
And it's been the ruin of many a poor boy
And God, I know I'm one

TaroSH

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Posts: 2257

(03/28/08 6:40 PM)

I Ain't Afraid of No Ghost

Holy shit, Kyle Orland, the guy who used to run Super Mario Bros. HQ wrote that!

Flying Omelette

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Posts: 17536

(03/28/08 7:56 PM)

Frickin' Fred Durst on Stilts

Although, ironically, the article is a list. But the reason a lot of sites do list articles is because they're insanely popular right now. You can get a lot of hits from digg by making lists.

Think of what you're saying,
You can get it wrong
And still you think that it's all right.
Think of what I'm saying,
We can work it out
And get it straight or say good night.

There is a house in New Orleans
They call the Rising Sun
And it's been the ruin of many a poor boy
And God, I know I'm one

MaskedSheik

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Posts: 427

(03/28/08 11:26 PM)

I'm surprised to see such an honest, hard look at game review cliches, especially from Gamespot.

Forum Jackass

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Posts: 101

(03/29/08 12:13 PM)

2. Reviews broken up into standardized sections
This has become a bit of an anachronism in major outlets in recent years, but reviews broken into distinct sections (such as "graphics," "sound," "gameplay," "fun factor," etc.) still manage to exist in some corners of the game journalism landscape. This phenomenon seems unique to game journalism as far as I can tell; I've never seen a movie review broken down explicitly into "acting," "cinematography" and "set design;" or a book review separated into "plot," "grammar," and "punctuation" sections. Even if the review isn't broken up, sometimes the final scoring will be. Either way, the format actually transforms a game into less than the sum of its parts--a random assortment of attributes that never comes together into a greater, cohesive whole. It's a lazy, overly simplistic way to organize things that must be excised from game journalism by any means possible.

Even as someone who once wrote in the category format, I completely agree with this. What the hell is up with people rating "polish", for example? Most of the times the final score is just a reflection of the "fun" score, making the others not seem very relevant.

I also don't think that in many cases the scores truly reflect the difference in quality of the game's various aspects. If someone likes a game, they rate every category high. If they don't, they rate every category mediocre. Like those reviews of Legend of Mana that rated the sound low and the vice versa for Paper Mario.

Oh my God, they found Tom.

Lord Vyce

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Posts: 818

(04/01/08 1:09 PM)

Lord of Women's Lingerie

What's polish?

I want my cake, wanna eat it, too...I want blue diamonds and yellow moons.
I spend my money on Lucky Charms...My favorite sausage is Hickory Farms.

I want pizza, lots and lots o pizza...I want that pie in the sky.
I want tuna, lots and lots o tuna...ain't got a fucking clue why.

I wanna be fat!

0o

Flying Omelette

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Posts: 17536

(04/01/08 9:20 PM)

Frickin' Fred Durst on Stilts

Even if that post is meant as a joke, honestly, I don't know. I brought that up in the post I linked above.

Think of what you're saying,
You can get it wrong
And still you think that it's all right.
Think of what I'm saying,
We can work it out
And get it straight or say good night.

There is a house in New Orleans
They call the Rising Sun
And it's been the ruin of many a poor boy
And God, I know I'm one

da dick

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Posts: 1769

(04/03/08 2:32 PM)

and my bird can sing too!

pole-ish like poland?!?

"How can we jump over our shadows when we no longer have one?How can we pass out of the century (not to
speak of the millennium)if we do not make up our minds to put an end to it, engaged as we are in an indefinite work of mourning for all the incidents, ideologies and violence which have marked it?"
- THE END OF THE MILLENNIUM OR THE COUNTDOWN , Jean Baudrillard.

DOVEBLOB

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Posts: 527

(04/04/08 12:50 PM)

Bagel, Dammit! Bagel!

Well, the relevant definition of polish is "To remove flaws from; perfect or complete", so they're rating that category based on how many flaws the game does or doesn't have. Now the real question is what flaws are they exactly looking for? I'm guessing it's probably based on issues of glitches, graphics, and user-friendliness for things like menu navigation, controls, and tutorials.

Where can I find...a bagel?

ACC KAIN

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Posts: 743

(04/08/08 1:01 PM)

Band on the Run

Rating games based on the menus? Really? I guess it is too open to interpretation.

I hardly ever read professional game sites anymore and I couldn't find much about polish just by searching, so maybe someone should force them to come right out and define what "polish" means in regards to videogames.

"No one can withstand the power of KAIN"

MaskedSheik

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Posts: 427

(04/09/08 7:59 PM)

It's not in the Videogame Style Guide, so it's not probably a term that's gained much footing. Reviewers probably just copied each other's Wind Waker reviews, turning "polish" into some stupid buzzword.

Flying Omelette

[-]

Posts: 17536

(04/09/08 8:09 PM)

Frickin' Fred Durst on Stilts

I've seen it in more than just Wind Waker reviews, though. Maybe that's what popularized it, but I know someone who scores games in categories and one of them is for polish.

Think of what you're saying,
You can get it wrong
And still you think that it's all right.
Think of what I'm saying,
We can work it out
And get it straight or say good night.

There is a house in New Orleans
They call the Rising Sun
And it's been the ruin of many a poor boy
And God, I know I'm one

Flying Omelette

[-]

Posts: 17536

(04/09/08 8:11 PM)

Frickin' Fred Durst on Stilts

I actually have an explanation as to why I used to write in category format: I grew up with Nintendo Power and I remember how they always rated games based on four categories in every article. But sometimes I wished they would elaborate more on those categories. Sometimes they'd give a game a high or low score for graphics, but wouldn't really explain why. And nor could I tell from the articles why the "fun" score would often be where it was (hence, why I couldn't tell until I played it that Dynowarz was bad).

Think of what you're saying,
You can get it wrong
And still you think that it's all right.
Think of what I'm saying,
We can work it out
And get it straight or say good night.

There is a house in New Orleans
They call the Rising Sun
And it's been the ruin of many a poor boy
And God, I know I'm one

ACC KAIN

[-]

Posts: 743

(04/10/08 12:39 PM)

Band on the Run

Game magazines were my theory as to why game reviews are often written that way, too. Even if the actual magazine reviews aren't broken down into categories they often have scores for individual categories and it seems natural to want to talk about those things when discussing games. People sometimes do say things like, "That movie had great special effects, but the story sucked", but since no one established the idea of rating movies based on special effects (or other singular things like soundtrack), reviewing them in categories never caught on.

"No one can withstand the power of KAIN"

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Today's internet game journalism is the equivalent of...

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