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[OsirisBlack]

So I'm sitting here at my computer watching videos of upcoming games being played by the people who write the reviews. These are the people who give their opinions and want them to be taken into serious consideration when you decide which games you will or will not support.This is something I never really noticed before this generation but for some reason it stands out a lot more to me now than it ever did.

I first noticed it while watching a walk-through of the neon powers in Infamous Second Son. The reviewer/host was running around button mashing and made everything from the combat to the traversal look boring and uninspired. Figuring maybe it was just this one guy I decided to watch another video demonstration and sure enough the same thing again.

Fast forward a few months I pick up my copy of second son and am immediately able to fire off head shots incinerating enemies where they stand while simultaneously running circles around enemies scaling walls diving down with comet punches sending others off into the air and trapping the remaining enemies in stasis bubbles to be picked off at my leisure. Where was this gameplay in the review videos?

Recently watching a video of Forza Horizon 2 on a major gaming site the reviewer is constantly crashing into the walls and other cars not purposely, it was pretty hard to watch. After a spin out and a head on collision the guy just resets the track.

Watching some of the gameplay videos coming out of TGS there is one on the Order 1886 where the guy literally sprays himself with thermite. After figuring out that spraying the wall directly in front of him is probably not the best idea he proceeds to show the viewer that he does not even possess basic fundamental third person shooter knowledge.

This does not seem to just happen in one genre of game it seems to be pretty bad across the board. So it leads me to this question shouldn't the people who are getting paid to write reviews and give their opinions on games at least be pretty good at playing games? If not then why should anything they say or write matter?

Edited for Mod Assistance: Can a mod change the word Journalists to reviewer. Thanks

 

[Killer]

Giant bomb wouldn't exist.

Spoiler

jk

 

[ponpo]

Dear god, yes.

Reviewers now are all too old and are terrible at games. Because Metacritic matters so much now, devs have to make their games easier so DAD GAMERS can not suck at the game and thus not review it harshly.

That's just reality.

 

[Kinsei]

Good? No. Decent? Yes.

If you can't beat a game on normal don't review it.

 

[Chavelo]

You know what? We should put real gamers into these journalist positions, know what I'm saying? Just guys that have been gaming all their life leading up to a job on an online site. No more fake gamers. DOWN WITH PEOPLE REPRESENTING US UNJUSTLY.

Spoiler

/s

 

[GrizzNKev]

The reasoning from the reviewer's perspective is that they have to review so many games so quickly they don't have time to get good at any particular game.

Therefore, the majority of them are terrible at video games in general. It's often why bad games get good reviews, and good games get bad reviews.

Too hard? 6/10

Too long? 5/10

I spent 5 minutes playing the multiplayer and got 100 kills? 10/10

 

[Gestault]

If they're less familiar with the medium (in the general sense) than their audience, then they won't be able to provide useful perspective for most. But no, they don't need to be "good" gamers.

If a book reviewer has trouble reading, yes, that causes problems. So in that sense, if they literally can't come to grips with controls that most wouldn't find challenging, then there is a problem. I don't think we see that very often, and I do see an over-tendency in audiences to attribute criticisms they don't want to hear to the writer being a "bad player."

 

[AcademicSaucer]

Game Journalists should be good journalists .

 

[RK9039]

Yes.

If they ain't got Platinum trophies,

Spoiler

especially for Demon's Souls

, they're in the wrong line of work.

 

[maltrain]

No. I'm a journalist, I'm editor in chief of a digital videogame magazine and I'm not very good playing FPS, for example... but I can give my personal opinion (I don't like scores by the way) about: fun, graphics, sound, design, etc.

Are sport journalist good actually playing any sport? Almost never.

* Edited *

 

[EvB]

Gamers come in many flavors. Not everyone on here will be at the same level of skill or will be good at all games

 

[ponpo]

No. I'm a journalist, I'm editor in chief of a digital videogame magazine and I'm not very good playing FPS, for example... but I can give my personal opinion (I don't like notes by the way) about: fun, graphics, sound, design, etc.

Do movie critics know how to make films? No.

Are sport journalist good actually making any sport? No.

He asked if journalists should be good gamers not game developers.

 

[sappyday]

They should have critical thinking skills.

 

[commedieu]

Its a problem. But so is putting weight into reviews, but thats another thread. Should they? Yes. All of them? No. It can be a sports commentary model. Where you have experts who know the gaming industry very well (Patcher for lack of a better example) and the actual 'gamers" like the ex-sports players that do commentary.

The problem is that most reviewers do seem to suck at games, so how on earth are they scoring? Its not an issue of "having too many games to play" If you're a gamer, you can easily blow through a shitty game because you're good at gaming. Hand eye coordination, knowing limitations of the controls based on previous experiences. (Like running into a door before its time to be triggered, you know the NPC's are coming behind you and they will trigger the next event, but you've already mowed down all the enemies to show just how horrible the games A.I is)

Its another problem with the review process. They are trying to treat gaming as a matured medium like film, and treating it as if their personal view about something some how means more than what the game was intending to do to begin with. Combine that with someone that can't even keep their car on a track praising how accurate physics are, it just leaves a bad taste in your mouth.

Reviewers should post their gamertag/psn/steamid, the community should see them actively gaming, and I don't think anyone would have beef here.

 

[Curufinwe]

It is kind of amazing how often you see game writers running off the road or into walls while playing racing games at trade shows. But they aren't always going to be the person who actually reviews it.

 

[GrizzNKev]

No. I'm a journalist, I'm editor in chief of a digital videogame magazine and I'm not very good playing FPS, for example... but I can give my personal opinion (I don't like notes by the way) about: fun, graphics, sound, design, etc.

Do movie critics know how to make films? No.

Are sport journalist good actually making any sport? No.

Those comparisons cannot be at all equated to video games.

No one said game reviewers have to know how to make games, and sports journalists don't give scores to teams that may cause the team to fail financially.

 

[Deleted member 17706]

Only if they are covering eSports or something.

Even then, they don't need to be good. Just knowledgeable enough about the game and competitive scene they are covering.

 

[MetatronM]

You don't need to be an expert at playing games. You do, however, need to be able to tell the difference between when you're sucking at a game because the game sucks and when you're sucking at a game because you just suck at the game.

 

[TC McQueen]

They should be decent gamers who know enough to analyze and explain game mechanics, and know what the audience is looking for in a review that is probably being used as an aid in making a purchase of a product.

 

[Talon]

Time to find a new job, Brad Shoemaker.

 

[……forgetit]

Decent, but good? Like pro good? Nah. That would just be unfair.

 

[whiteninja]

They should be able to play through a game and finish it on normal.

 

[CambriaRising]

Having an understanding of a game is far more important for reviewing it than just being good at it.

 

[Euron]

Reviewers should be avid fans of the genre of whatever game they're reviewing. If they're avid fans of the genre, they will be at least decent at the game plus they'll be able to provide excellent insight into whether or not the game itself is actually good compared to competitors in the genre.

 

[Zekra Dezivad]

Yes, because if you pre/review something you shoud know what you are doing and have some background and experience to be trustworthy.

 

[Sweet Ivy]

I don't think so, but they should have some education about games, like any other journalist in their respective fields.

Movie critics aren't filmmakers, economy analysts aren't necessarily full-fledged economist, but they do have some grounds to base their critics/analysis on.

 

[Sentenza]

They should be at very least competent and well informed about the genre they are writing about.
Every time I read someone reviewing a RPG without a clue of what Ultima VII, Torment or Baldur's Gate were, for instance, I feel like reading a movie critic who never heard of Citizen Kane or 2001 A Space Odyssey.
Someone with zero expertise, knowledge and credibility in the field he's writing about.

 

[Kreunt]

I don't think they need to be good, but I'd prefer them to at least be experienced with games.
Occasionally you'll see articles that seem like they're written by people who just started playing video games because they couldn't get a job in any other field.

 

[Gentleman Jack]

If people who wrote about games needed to be as good at gaming as some arbitrarily set threshold set by their audience they wouldn't have time to actually write anything down.

Relax. If you want to see contrived elegance in gameplay videos there's always the officially released press materials for you.

 

[Ivan A Nguyen]

Game reviewers should be average. That's who most of their stuff is going out to.

Spoiler

Journalist shouldn't have to meet any standard. They should be busy covering news and sports.

 

[maltrain]

Those comparisons cannot be at all equated to video games.

No one said game reviewers have to know how to make games, and sports journalists don't give scores to teams that may cause the team to fail financially.

That's not a journalist fault... is gamers one.

A gamer should never trust on reviews before buying a game. As I always says: if you have doubts about a game, look some videos or streamings and take a desicion. Or read two or three reviewers you know and think like you about games.

If someone buy a game for the Metacritic score, that someone is not a good gamer.

 

[Fushichou187]

Dear god, yes.

Reviewers now are all too old and are terrible at games. Because Metacritic matters so much now, devs have to make their games easier so DAD GAMERS can not suck at the game and thus not review it harshly.

That's just reality.

Got any actual stats to back up the claim that as a gamer's age increases, their skill level decreases? Furthermore, that devs are purposely making "easy games" so that all those Olds won't feel so bad and review it more favorably?

 

[GrizzNKev]

That's not a journalist fault... is gamers one.

A gamer should never trust on reviews before buying a game. As I always says: if you have doubts about a game, look some videos or streamings and take a desicion. Or read two or three reviewers you know and think like you about games.

If someone buy a game for the Metacritic score, that someone is not a good gamer.

You're not wrong. That's not to say reviews have no effect.

 

[megalowho]

Writing style, knowledge base and a critical eye is what matters most for those that write about games professionally. Don't care how good/bad you are if you can convey the experience in an entertaining or thoughtful way, hell I'm certainly no pro and I still like to think my opinion on the medium is valid from time to time.

 

[MC Safety]

I worked with some guys who were really good game players.

They made awful testers and awful magazine- and Web site editors.

 

[snoopeasystreet]

Nope. Even if they're bad at the game, their opinion is as valid as anyone else's.

 

[Coolade]

The skill of the reviewer in question regarding the game he or she is playing should always be equated in your own personal evaluation of the review. The more you get to know a reviewer and the types of games they enjoy playing, you get a sense of who's opinion you trust when it comes to reviews of certain genres. Colin Moriarty likes JRPGs. PS Nation loves killzone and MLB the show. Owen Good and people at Operation Sports are heavily into NBA2k and Madden etc etc. As such they tend to be the most adept at criticizing the games they specialize in and I go to those sources first before anyone else.

 

[The Faceless Master]

No. I'm a journalist, I'm editor in chief of a digital videogame magazine and I'm not very good playing FPS, for example... but I can give my personal opinion (I don't like notes by the way) about: fun, graphics, sound, design, etc.

Do movie critics know how to make films? No.

Are sport journalist good actually making any sport? No.

but they aren't saying you need to know how to make gams.

 

[thefil]

No, any perspective and skill level can provide criticism that is informative and helpful to some people. What's more important is their critical and writing capability, as that dictates how well they can communicate their experience (whatever that may be) with an associated audience.

 

[GalacticAE]

Yea. If you cant S Rank DmC 3 missions, or Rockman zero for example i wont listen to your average opinion on the gameplay. Same with fighting games, if you dont understand the game at a competitive level, leave the game system analysis to someone who does.

 

[matrixman92]

they dont have to be anything amazing, but I would hope they would be competent enough to know basics. Some of the Destiny streams were just cringeworthy at how many simple mistakes they were making. Like pressing the wrong buttons to do stuff, when there would be a prompt on the screen telling them what button to press...almost as if they were not familiar with a controller at all.

 

[Coffee Dog]

Should film critics have to understand the works of david lynch while reviewing them?

It's a similar situation. Everyone has barriers that could impede their job and prevent them from enjoying the work as intended.

 

[Sanctuary]

Yes, and no. It really depends on what crowd they are targeting. If you had someone who was truly good at games (or at least has had decades of experience), they might end up being overly critical, especially if a game was made for "mass appeal". But on the flipside, those now rarer games that offer an actual challenge can get labled as "too hard" or "cheap" by those who aren't really any good at games and only play what they need to review.

A lot of people seem to expect some objective, unbiased dissections of games, but that's never been the case and never will be. The only negative aspect to that is when money-hatting is involved.

 

[ponpo]

Got any actual stats to back up the claim that as a gamer's age increases, their skill level decreases? Furthermore, that devs are purposely making "easy games" so that all those Olds won't feel so bad and review it more favorably?

Spoiler

No it's just my conspiracy theory (._. )

 

[Nev]

They should at least be able to finish the game they're reviewing.

 

[Resistance100]

I'd like to think they were better writers than gamers

 

[ShockingAlberto]

Game journalists should be whatever their editors think they should be.

If they're not hiring professional gamers but are instead hiring professional reporters, reviewers, and/or writers, then that's up to them and their organization.

 

[postcyberpunk]

Yes; a good critic knows how to interact with the medium. A good film critic is a good watcher of film. A good literary critic is a good reader of literature. Good game critics should be good players of games. Does this mean they have to be elite gamers? No, but they should be competent.

 

[Curufinwe]

Game journalists should be whatever their editors think they should be.n.

The OP should really be talking about game Reviewers

 

[RockTurtle]

I don't know how i would feel about a reviewer who can't do a simple hadouken to review the next fighting game.

Spoiler

Also if they can't do a simple shoryuken focus cancel dash into ultra finish

some level of competency/intricate knowledge with a genre i think should be expected.

that's why i feel somewhat iffed when reviewers review dynasty warriors games and don't let it be known if it's their first trek through it.