#NerdsUnite: Confessions of a videogame journalist
<editorsnote> Nerds, meet my buddy John. We started talking on the twitter not too long ago, and then he reached out and asked if he could write for us regarding his journey through the nerdy realm. I was all DUDDEEE!! That's so raaaddd!! And now, here we are. Like right now, in real time, this is happening. Pretty cool huh? HIT IT JOHN!!! </editorsnote>
#TalkNerdyToMeLover's @JohnSollitto
Reviews are a tough subject in the gaming world. I know I’m jumping right out of the gate here after not writing something video game related for a while here but I’m going full-frontal journalism on you. It’ll be awesome. Reviews, they’re hard to do and they’re important because some people base their purchases off them. So, naturally, it is a very heavy responsibility for reviewers to take up and shoulder.
Now, there are some people who do not take it seriously or are too cool to do their job right. I’m not going to name names here, but there was once a reviewer who gave a game a 2/10 without even playing the game. You read what I’m typing? HE DIDN’T EVEN DO HIS JOB. HE JUST LOOKED AT THE GAME AND SAID, “THIS LOOKS LIKE CRAP,” AND GAVE IT A BAD SCORE. That kind of stuff pisses me off at the complete lack of professionalism that it displays.
I understand, it’s a chore to play a video game. I mean, really, having so much fun and sitting down for hours playing a video game must be taxing on a person over time. I get it, it happens to us all. But to blatantly not play a game, give it a shit score, and be a part of a large media outlet that will most assuredly be read by the publisher and factor into the decision of future plans for the property is just bullshit.
But, more to the point, this brings forth the age old question that many journalists like myself have had
many a time. I’ve brought it up at G4, my own outlet, at E3 with other people there covering the event and even at PAX. I’ve even brought in developers and people I’ve interviewed into the discussion.
Do reviewers have to finish a game to review it completely?
Let’s look at some examples. “Duke Nukem Forever.” Oh yeah, that game. While it may have been the crudest game to come out in a long time since “Leisure Suit Larry,” “Conker’s Bad Fur Day” and possibly even “Bulletstorm,” that could not save “Duke Nukem Forever.” However, it was the exact game that people were asking for, people just didn’t realize that they had grown up and they might not actually like Duke Nukem anymore because the humor was dated. Still, they asked for a Duke Nukem game and got it.
I played the game. I got about halfway through the game when I realized, “Oh my god. This is the entire game. It’s not going to get better is it?” So I wrote my review. I was a little more forgiving than some other people to the game, but everyone else said the same thing. It was a bad game. It was badly made, and it didn’t get better.
Now, take “Borderlands 2.” That’s a lot of game right there. I mean, easily 50+ hours. I cannot finish a game like that in a timely fashion to review it fully. I mean, with school, work and other activities in life, I really can’t do it. Now, gaming sites and outlets that make their living doing this stuff, they should be playing it all day and night to get the review out. No question. They might even beat it. However, someone like myself who has limited time has to play as much of the game as possible to get a good grip of it and review it to the best of their abilities, or risk the review not being relevant.
For games like this, I judge where to stop in a special way. Certain games will have unlockable skills or abilities that you get over time in the game. In “BL2,” you get to carry four weapons at a time after a certain point in the game. To me, when you’ve unlocked all the spells, or weapon slots, or skills or what have you, that is the point the game where the developers are saying “This is the full game from here on out. The rest is just story and exploring.” At that point, I review the game. I try not to give spoilers about the games I review because not everyone can beat a game in a week. It just isn’t doable and people like to play through the stories. That’s why they bought the game in the first place. However, I comment on whether it’s written well or fits in with the others and yadda yadda. No specifics.
I believe that you don’t have to complete a game to review it well, but you do have to play it for more than six hours or get to a point where the full game is unlocked for you. That’s just being professional and seeing the range of the title. However, others I know would argue that you have to finish the game. “What if something happens at the end that fucks it all up? What if you get special stuff near the end that is different than the stuff at the middle?” True, those things happen. No doubt, but I will play the games all the way through when I have the ability to. And I won’t comment on anything I haven’t seen or come into contact with myself for honesty’s sake.
It’s a difference in opinion, but it’s still professional to do either or. What is unacceptable is just writing a game off before you even play it and costing the company a sequel. That’s just wrong and an insult to the hours a person put into making something. It’s like saying, “Oh, I won’t go to this art gallery because I don’t like anything that person has done. Have I seen it? Oh, no, but I don’t like it.” That’s rude. And stupid. And you should feel bad. You know who you are.
#nerdsunite
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