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7/20/2015 3:05:25 AM
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Gaming Journalism is Awful Thread
Just wanted to start one of these. Gaming journalism for years has been terrible, and I feel bad for the men and women who are actually passionate about games but are forced to abide by its shit standards.
First, let's talk about reviews, and how crazy bloated review scores are. You can't honestly tell me tech demos like The Order and Ryse deserve 8.5s. The frequency of which major gaming journalism sites throw out 10/10s to any game with a decent following and production quality is absurd. Games like Zelda: Skyward Sword, Uncharted 3, and Dark Souls 2 were games that were riddled with countless flaws but were scored based on the quality and hype of their predecessors which were far superior to them (even if I personally loved DS2). I won't bother talking about being payed for positive press because that's a cluster-blam!-, but the point is that these sites will spin a terrible game into a mediocre game, a mediocre game into a good game, and a good game into a masterpiece.
The quality of writing for gaming journalism is terrible across the board. The other day I was reading an article that someone linked about how Nintendo fans were disappointed with their E3 showing and how it might impact public perception and sales of the Wii U. It was a very informative, well written read. "Wow", I thought. A piece of gaming journalism that isn't filled with clickbait, shoehorned in advertisements, terrible writing, and insults to the reader? Whoops, never mind, it was a Bloomberg article. No wonder.
Actual gaming sites are filled with clickbait and titles that withhold information for no reason but to generate traffic for money, which I understand, but sometimes it's just dumb. I'll click on the article anyway for more details, you don't need to say "Here's the solution to Halo 5's LCE digital issue". You can say "Trade in your digital Halo 5 code for a physical disc". Sometimes, titles are just downright retarded. I saw a Kotaku article that said "Your big ass phones won't fit into the Fallout 4 Pip-boy". Seriously? Aren't you supposed to be professionals? I know "ass" isn't really a curse word of considered NSFW, but what the hell is the point of having a title like that?
And then there's of course all the overstatements, exaggerations, and pandering to the fanboys. No, Uncharted 3 didn't "take the bar and shatter all expectations". No, Skyward Sword isn't the best Zelda game ever made. And no, The Last of Us isn't the Citizen Kane of gaming. Gaming journalism has boiled down to catering to the Japan-sessed western audiences that the Internet is full of. That GT video of the Shenmue 3 reaction is downright cringe. Watching Kyle Bosman, a middle aged man who normally looks like the embodiment of despair crack a pathetic smile as a result of a [u]CG TRAILER[/u] of a [u][b]REMAKE[/b][/u], makes me question the meaning of life. Seeing GT say "Every dream has come true!" makes me wonder if we're watching the same press conference. For me, the only dream that came true was Fallout 4, which was announced before E3. Unless I missed the announcement of a No More Heroes style open world Wario game in Diamond City where you cruise around on the Wario Bike, I still have many dreams that have yet to be fulfilled.
TLDR: gaming websites suck
Thoughts?
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Well the thing about reviews is that[spoiler]they are one persons opinion, it is sad to not buy a game because someone else said it was bad[/spoiler]
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2 RepliesSuck a few dicks and you get a 10/10 and a platoon of white knights to defend your game to the death. Look at Depression Quest and Revolution 60. Gaming journalism is dying. E3 refused multiple gaming journalists recently. It's only a matter of time before they die off as a whole. It's about time.
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2 RepliesI don't pay much thought to them these days. I can't remember the last time I read a game review. Generally I'm going off Neogaf hype or what I'm hearing on the few gaming podcasts I listen to. Lots of game sites are garbage. I like the use of letter grades so you don't have to get too into what the difference between a 9.1 and 9.2 are. An A+ should be for a game that is pretty much flawless. I do get frustrated with games media at times over their reluctance to call out BS practices by companies. No one ever calls out the disgusting use of DLC. Only when it's taken to heinous levels like with Destiny will you finally see games media budge.
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Thats why I just go on Giantbomb.
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http://i.ytimg.com/vi/IJXSmsEmeKQ/maxresdefault.jpg I don't have any idea what you mean...
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Biased as hell just look at IGN. Whoever is paying for the most advertising gets favourable reviews, very interesting lol I do visit these websites it I take everything they say very sceptically and I don't buy any games in release based on their reviews. Just look at Destiny what a joke.
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3 RepliesI liked skyward sword
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Edited by JacobTM4627: 7/22/2015 2:22:59 AM
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Edited by Smarkdow: 7/22/2015 2:12:02 AMI recommend watching Razorfist's [i]Downfall of Gaming Journalism[/i] videos (along with his other stuff)
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2 RepliesI agree. Look at witcher 3. It's nothing special. Generic plot crappy controls amateur gameplay and people act like it's masterpiece. It's a good game but nothing that great. I just got a ps4 after no PlayStation since ps2 and the last of us is one of those games i felt i was missing out on, so far it's a survival horror in the same vein as dead space and resident evil 4 and on. Not really scary though. Not saying it's bad but it's not as good as the hype.
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1 ReplyWhat people need to do is experience the games themselves. Even just reading tons of reviews you still won't know what it's like without playing it. Even player reviews are generally biased, especially for over hyped games. I've read so many reviews on tlou, many were saying it was the best game ever made, my friends all worshipped it. I went out and bought it, and was severely let down when I played it. Maybe it was all the reviews and the hype that I was expecting a god tier game when in reality it seemed like just an okay game. I got bored of it within several hours and never went back to it. All I could think when I played it was "why didn't they just make this a movie?".
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Especially when I see the bullshit CoD reviews from IGN
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6 Replieshttp://www.businessinsider.com/super-mario-maker-hand-2015-7 Ugh. Perfect example of how gaming journalism is going down the toilet
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You can tell which ones are bought and paid for...they're the ones bitching about so called sexism in gaming all the time.
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The problem I find is that they only have a limited time to review the game in question. A lot games may start off with that "wow" factor but after time you realize what is wrong with it. It's not like a movie where you watch till the end of it before making the review. Essentially it is like reviewing a movie based on the trailer alone. I'm also guessing that they have to be nicer to the game companies so that they can continue to get early access and free games for their reviews. Imagine how expensive it would be for ign or shows like EP Daily to have to pay full price for games so they could review them.
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The worst offender (no surprise) is Polygon. I kid you not, the journalist who went to the Rock Band 4 preview talked about the food and politics. Yeah, that's what I want to know as a potential customer, how good the food was at the event. Anyways, I just stick to let's plays for how the game plays or rent before buying.
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Major gaming journalism is shit tier at best. There are a few smaller ones that I like but I mostly get opinions from fellow gamers since they know what video games are.
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Only review single player games or campaign portion of game Never talk about MP
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You only need to read any ign article to know these the filth of the filth
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1 Reply
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Agreed - it's down to money, like everything. Look at the Destiny leak recently... something about 'industry voices' being given promotion kits.
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Omg it's trash. Every award show. Every paid "journalist." It's all fake. What's that one guy who has been doing it for years??? Know who I'm talking about?
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Every time I venture onto Kotaku I wished "journalism" was gone.
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I totally agree. Click bait headlines and hate/hype train articles make me cringe. I understand why they do it mind you, but I still find it distasteful. What bothers me the most is that people will cite said articles as if they were some kind of authority on the subject. Especially when half of the articles are being written as "contributor" op-ed crap, that is no more legit than an amateur gaming blog. There are a handful of YouTube channels out there that are pretty decent, but the majority of those are as bad or worse. But that's all my non-authoritative opinion on the subject. :)
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No your right. Too many articles I click on and it's like a little kid wrote them, the amount of ign articles that are literally filled with nothing Title ESO ONLINE EXPANSION DETAILS REBEALED Article ESO EXPANSION AUGUST 1ST PC AND LATER ON CONSOLES, and I'm sitting there like wtf did I just waste time on this for. Every hour it seems another dumbass destiny article is wrote copying the dudes from another site who copied dudes from another site. Or people who just post their opinion as fact, or clearly have NOOOO clue about the game or even usually the genre is just disgusting. I'm with you, the journalism in gaming is at am all time low.
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"Journalism" Pretty much the only thing I actively listen to is Total Biscuit on stuff because it's not complete horse crap to look at. To bad he only does PC.
