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[Peronthious]

After much anticipation, part 2 of Shawn Elliot's review symposium has been posted to his blog. I haven't had time yet to really dig into it, but as with the last one it looks to be quite a topic.

Participants:

Leigh Alexander, Gamasutra/Sexy Videogameland/Variety
Harry Allen, Media Assassin
Robert Ashley, freelancer
Tom Chick, freelancer
N'Gai Croal, Level Up/Newsweek
John Davison, What They Play
Shawn Elliott, 2K Boston
Jeff Gerstmann, Giant Bomb
Kieron Gillen, Rock, Paper, Shotgun
Dan Hsu, Sore Thumbs Blog
Francesca Reyes, Official Xbox Magazine
Stephen Totilo, MTV News

Introduction
Are reviews primarily a consumer guide, or should they serve another purpose? Do review scores deter intelligent discussion of videogames? Is the presence or absence of a review score the only difference between a reviewer and a critic? What is the role of the reviewer when the Internet is democratizing published opinion? How should reviews and reviewers evolve in light of the emergence and growth of Flash games, small games, indie games and user-generated games?

These questions and more were on the mind of N'Gai Croal, John Davison and Shawn Elliott last summer when they decided to expand their conversation to a number of noted reviewers, writers, bloggers and journalists for a published email symposium on game reviews. (See below for the full list of participants.) The planned list of topics include Review Scores; Review Policy, Practice and Ethics; Reader Backlash; Reviews in the Age of Social media; Reviews in the Mainstream Media; Casual, Indie, and User-Generated Games; Reviews vs. Criticism; and Evolving the Review.

 

[HamPster PamPster]

but but I already posted my comment in the other thread!

 

[Peronthious]

Oh, sorry, I searched and didn't notice. Figured it would be extensive enough to warrant a new thread. Mods, feel free to lock if the other thread covers it well enough.

 

[HK-47]

No leave this thread open. Posting it in the other thread was a bad idea. Now everyone will see it

 

[BenjaminBirdie]

No leave this thread open. Posting it in the other thread was a bad idea. Now everyone will see it

Well, Jeepers, I was thanked by Shawn Elliott himself.

;D

I think the old thread was valuable because this project is clearly an ongoing discussion.

 

[LCfiner]

regardless, neither thread is gonna have many comment till we have a chance to read through this huge article.

Bonus thought: have a thread title that doesn't refer to the part of the symposium if you want a single thread going forward for the future parts.

 

[HK-47]

regardless, neither thread is gonna have many comment till we have a chance to read through this huge article.

Bonus thought: have a thread title that doesn't refer to the part of the symposium if you want a single thread going forward for the future parts.

Or changes as new topics come up

 

[BenjaminBirdie]

Or changes as new topics come up

Which was my request in the original thread.

 

[Etelmik]

Welll, make another bump then. Let us insist that the thread title be changed, and it shall be so.

Spoiler

Right?

 

[BenjaminBirdie]

Welll, make another bump then. Let us insist that the thread title be changed, and it shall be so.

Spoiler

Right?

I already did that.

 

[CzarTim]

Can't wait to read this, now to find some free time...

 

[FartOfWar]

Can't wait to read this, now to find some free time...

I'll definitely all for publishing the next section in small increment as the discussion happens. I'll probably twitter a few teaser quotes from this section to convince people the text monolith is worth inspecting. : )

 

[Crab Milk Mickey]

Shameless bump, because articles like these deserve more attention.

 

[GhaleonQ]

Wait, I thought that we were using the original topic?

 

[Deleted member 30609]

I just need to find some time to read this. Interesting stuff.

 

[Brobzoid]

Skimmed it a little in preparation for reading it and I agree with the sentiment of review authority. I always prefer a review that states clearly where the writer is coming from in terms of the genre and game series, instead of just grasping after some implicit defaulted authority by merely being a reviewer.

It's very annoying when I'm able to predict how a game is going to be reviewed (or rather; scored) by the installed fan-base and the marketing push, etc. Like Shoe mentions about having the same writers on a series because if a Final Fantasy review was written by someone who 'simply didn't get it' the back lash would be too big for the publication and it's credibility. I prefer to read an interesting review, of course someone who has enjoyed the previous installments in the series can certainly write something fascinating, sometimes a fresh perspective is much needed. With Metal Gear Solid 4 there was an almost unanimous opinion of the game being great; having fantastic visuals, production design, improved controls, etc. But there were very few who wrote about how overbearing the story and narrative was, and I don't think I read even one professional reviewer write about the banality of the story or the horrible structure, pacing dialog etc. Obviously if they thought those elements were good, they're entitled to do so. But it was slightly weird that I could find several people who shared my sentiments on message boards and among friends, but not have one representative voice in the professional scene.

Of course back-lash is worrying for a publication, probably even more so if it's a print magazine. So it was very interesting to see how the Edge Killzone 2 review was taken by fans, now the loud minority that usually causes these back-lashes have been quite fantatical with their Playstation games this generation, much like Nintendo ones during the last. Adam Sessler also commented on how people were negative towards their review of KZ2 even though it was awarded the best score available.

Personally I think reviewers focus too much on these minorities, and disregard the larger readership which I can only assume is a little more level-headed.

 

[Roquentin]

Wow. That's the longest text I've read on the Internet in a long, long time. Good stuff.

Thanks to everyone involved.

 

[bistromathics]

Just found out about this while going through shawn's twitter. Not as much fanfare as #1 it seems, even with all the