Review Scores and Mainstream Games Writing

I make no effort to hide my disdain for "games writers" or "games journalists".  The crap that these people churn out, whether it be a poorly written review or some crappy clickbait opinion piece about how something (usually from a Japanese developer) is offensive just isn't worth the time of day.  Also the fact that almost every writer I encounter on Twitter or on some other facet of social media just seems to suck massively at games just boggles my mind.  It's OK to be a less skilled player and we all have our weak spots (mine is RTS!) but these are people who are being PAID to tell you about games and they can barely muster the ability to finish a game on Normal.

Imagine the show Top Gear

One of the reasons that show is so compelling even for people like me who aren't really into cars is that the three presenters for that show are very knowledgeable and passionate about the topic and listening to them talk motoring is really interesting.  It's true for anything, I am a HUGE fan going onto YouTube and firing up some video about musical theory or musical production and despite the fact that I know diddly jack shit about music theory but just listening to people who know SO MUCH about it I find really interesting.

But now, imagine Top Gear but replace the presenters with people who know NOTHING about cars.  3 people who can't drive, know nothing about the topic of cars or motoring and then they are paraded around on TV trying to tell you which car is good or what manufacturer you should pay attention to.  I'd bet you'd change the channel pretty god damn fast and I imagine the show wouldn't last very long.  That nightmare scenario of a TV show is what is currently happening in the games writing scene and it's an absolute joke.  To put it another way, imagine a movie critic trying to tell you what makes a movie good or bad but they only thing they ever watch are Marvel super hero movies, you wouldn't give it the time of day

"Sekiro is too hard", the guy who couldn't clear the Cuphead tutorial, the Astral Chain incident and so much more are just a few examples of just how there is a group of people that don't know all that much about gaming, aren't very good at it and in some cases I imagine they don't even really care that much, trying to get you to respect their opinion on a given title.  Granted in 2020 with the likes of YouTube and Twitch games writers have become somewhat irrelevant but its still mind numbingly frustrating when some trumped up Twitter addict comes along and tries to tell you what's good or not.

Although the people involved in the actual writing is sort of only half the problem, it's the way in which reviews are presented which is also shitty and dumb.  Most review sites will use a 1-10 scale; the writer will do MAYBE one playthrough of the game, write a couple of paragraphs about the mechanics and the story and then slap a number on the end.  When it comes the scale itself 9 and 10 usually mean a good game, 8 means an OK game, 7 is mediocre and anything below a 7 is complete garbage that isn't worth your money.

I can't help but feel that trying to boil down a complex opinion about a game or any piece of media for that matter into a number is an incredible waste of time.  People can't even decide on what certain numbers mean for certain titles, most recently evidenced by The Last of Us 2.  The game got many 10/10s and I saw many twitter threads of people arguing not only about if that score was deserved but what even "10/10" means.  Seeing someone unironically tweet "10/10 doesn't mean it's perfect" made me put my phone down and walk away from Twitter for a while because I cannot believe the stupidity of some people on that website.

The solution to this problem? Don't put so much pressure on the games press to churn out a review as fast as possible.  Make the standard for a review two playthroughs and go into A LOT more detail on various aspects of the game.  I know I was being mean to games writers in the above paragraphs but you don't even have to replace them. If it takes them a long time to get a review out because they found the game hard is a legit point that may help people make a more informed purchase in the end.  They don't have to be good at the game but the writers skill level should be taken into account so that a reader can find a writer who somewhat matches them and get an opinion similar to where they stand.  Also dump the number, with the extra detail given to the review you don't need the number, the writer has more space to properly articulate what individual aspects they like and didn't like

To basically sum up what I mean you should look to a channel on YouTube called Joseph Anderson.  This guy may be a little overboard in the other direction (his latest video on The Witcher 1 is over 4 hours) but even if you don't agree with what he says he is clearly a dude who knows what he is talking about and puts a lot of effort into these pieces.  If HE tells me a game is good I'm more likely to take an interest rather than some dude who rushed through the game once or maybe didn't even get to the end just so he could write 500 words with a 8/10 on the end.

What I'm saying in a very long, poorly put together way is don't get your games info from places like IGN, go find someone who actually gives a shit

Games Media Is Busted

I've mentioned on this blog a number of times that I think games media is a giant steaming pile of horse crap.  I've commented on individual things, events or articles that have pissed me off but never on why I think games media as a whole is so bad.  This is A LOT wrong with this side of the industry so if I tried to go in too great detail then this blog post would never fucking end but to me there are 2 big reasons why games media sucks so bad so I'll talk about those.

1.  The Way They Make Money

So almost every games media site that I'm aware of make money via advertising sponsorships and then clicks on their page.  This in and of itself is not a terrible thing and I'm sure there are plenty of websites that do this without being crap.  The danger of a business model like this though is that your people are going to write things in order to generate those clicks that bring in the big bucks. 

I don't mind people writing articles for clicks if it is relevant to gaming.  You can hype up the newest Call of Duty all you fucking like, lots of people enjoy that series and if writing about that game brings in the money, then by all means.  But we have had a trend in the industry for the couple of years where writers are turning not only to huge titles but to outrage in order to generate the site traffic.

All these fucking articles that have popped up complaining about certain aspects of games that the writers have probably never played or all these idiots moaning about violence and sexism that is apparently rampant in the industry.  I'm almost 100% certain that there is at least a good handful of writers on these sites that don't actually believe this crap, but writing it is what brings the people to the site which in turns brings home the pay check.

It's all well and good complaining about this side of things but I'm no fucking businessman, I don't know how you could fix this side of things.  Like I said it's not a bad model on its own so I guess the only real solution is to hire writers who actually have a sense of pride in their work and aren't willing to write stupid drivel for traffic.  This of course leads me nicely into my second point which is

2.  The Writers

This is my biggest problem with games media, more so than wanking over AAA and stupid Buzzfeed style clickbait journalism.  The writers who are currently employed by games media are fucking trash, for the most part not in terms of writing ability but in knowledge about the industry they are writing about.  This has seemed to be the case for a very VERY long time with writers shamelessly praising certain aspects of big releases for doing shit that other games did fucking YEARS ago. 

This realization came to me a long time ago with the release of the first Halo.  After getting over my disgust for the fan base and all the fucking praise that the game got Halo is actually an enjoyable series.  But every single member of the games media writing about how it was "revolutionary"?  Holy shit are you crazy?  Before Halo, first person shooters were awesome with things like Doom, Duke and Quake.  They had puzzle solving, exploration, great weapon load outs and then Halo comes along and puts everything in a grey corridor with set piece battles and that's seen as a fucking step forward?!  Are you insane?  Halo did do a couple of things for the console FPS genre but it did more to ruin it than revolutionize it.

I think if you are a fan of the horror genre then the weakness in the knowledge of these people becomes most apparent.  ANYONE who gave The Evil Within or Silent Hill Downpour a positive review is a fucking idiot who doesn't understand what they are talking about.  Just look at the IGN review in particular of The Evil Within.  "Terrifying enemies" and "convoluted story".  Most of the enemies in that game are just fucking dudes and the story is only convoluted in the sense that it seems to have been writing by a fucking 6 year old who watched too many slasher movies.

All these writers who gave The Last of Us and fucking 10/10 are either pandering or fucking stupid.  I quite like that game really but it is in no way a fucking 10 on 10 game.  Hell, it's a fucking 3rd person, over the shoulder action game and I saw numerous people praising the games originality.  It's about as unoriginal as it gets but it's very well crafted, polished and is ultimately fun to play so a good 8 or 9 I could handle but a 10?!  You really want to claim that shit is perfect? 

This isn't to say that 100% of the writers in games media are clueless.  Hell, it'd be a little harsh to call most of them "clueless" but their expertise are not enough to be writing about certain things.  This is why small time YouTube reviewers have become so popular because instead of having some idiot chatting about a series or game that you really enjoy, you can go somewhere and get the specialist knowledge.

I think what I'm trying to say in a very long winded and stupid way is that the writers for games media write for money and to echo popular opinion rather than for the benefit of the consumer.

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There are many more issues than this with games media but these are the big 2 for me and they are very closely linked.  I'm too much of a huge dumbass to know how to fix it but really we live in an age where games media isn't really needed anyway.  If you want info on a game, go lookup some passionate youtuber or twitch streamer who will give you an honest and informed opinion because they love the games rather than because they want to make some money, it's that easy.