pauljeremiah
Gold Member
Will anyone read this thread? (It has too many words and not enough pictures). Does anyone read video game magazines anymore? (Every article in them wants and tries to be a meal, not a McNugget). Is anyone reading video game journalism these days? (It lacks the punch, the clips, the thumbs). Can anyone still read? (These days, it's more fun and less work just to watch.)
I've started to notice over the past while that video game reviews are becoming less and less important unless it's a positive one where the publisher can slap a quote on the box.
When I was growing up the late '80s, and early 90's all we had been magazines for all our gaming information. We would love seeing a new issue of CVG, Offical Nintendo Monthly, Arcade, ACE or Zzap! hit the shelves so that we could take one home and devour all the information that lay within.
From reading previews and reviews of games that I would probably never own, due to my young age and lack of income at the time. There was something in there that I find hard to put my finger on. Maybe it was just a lack of options at the time, and since we had such a limited source of information, we ate up what we could and as much as we could.
With the advent of the online gaming community, we got instant information. Breaking news as it happened, podcasts, online exclusive previews and reviews. It felt like the door to the sweet shop had been opened, and everyone was invited in.
My first significant experience with a gaming community was at 1UP.com. I wrote a blog there, and for about four years was pretty active on the site. I made friends with a lot of the staff and users of the site and remain in touch with most of them. It was like a mini family outside my family.
I love podcasts; I just love it when people sit around and talk about games the way people would discuss art, literature, plays, movies and music. To me, it gave my hobby a form of respect and legitimacy. I learned how to talk about and discuss games from listening to podcasts. Yet when I would speak to friends who didn't listen to them about games, the conversation would rarely go past a superficial level. From saying the graphics look great, or it plays well and not much else.
When I would ask them what sites or magazines they would read they would list off the usual names of websites like Gamespot, IGN, Game Trailers etc and they would always quote what the game scored, and not much else. "The game got a 9 on IGN so it must be good!" I remember a friend saying to me about a game I wasn't too interested in.
When did the long-form review die? Did it even exist in the first place? Now it's all copy and paste paragraph topics, one about the graphics, one about the sound, one about the online, one about the setting/story and then a score at the end. Which is all anyone looks at or cares about? I remember when CGW back in the day got rid of the scores on their reviews and people wrote in to complain and that they should bring them back. I'm an avid reader of the film magazine Sight & Sound, and they don't use review score, and I find that it makes you read the review and take it in more.
I would love to see a day when review scores are a thing of the past. The vast majority of people already know if they're going to buy a game or not before they read a review. Or do people use review scores just to justify their gaming pre-orders?
I would love to see a website do a post mortem on games, four to six weeks after a game is released and all the hype is gone. We could have an in-depth discussion and review of the game. But then again, who would ever read this? Would people already be on to the next big game? Maybe podcasts could be the answer. Have an in-depth critical discussion on a game as a whole after it comes out? Would be interesting to try, but I not too sure if many websites would see the point in doing this. I think Giantbomb used to do it, but I'm not sure if they do anymore.
Maybe I'm looking too far back with rose-tinted glasses and wish for better days in video game journalism then watching instant reaction YouTubers play a game, and see them add nothing to the conversation or community.
Apologies for this rant, but I just don't fast food journalism to be the only option at the dinner table.
Thoughts?
I've started to notice over the past while that video game reviews are becoming less and less important unless it's a positive one where the publisher can slap a quote on the box.
When I was growing up the late '80s, and early 90's all we had been magazines for all our gaming information. We would love seeing a new issue of CVG, Offical Nintendo Monthly, Arcade, ACE or Zzap! hit the shelves so that we could take one home and devour all the information that lay within.
From reading previews and reviews of games that I would probably never own, due to my young age and lack of income at the time. There was something in there that I find hard to put my finger on. Maybe it was just a lack of options at the time, and since we had such a limited source of information, we ate up what we could and as much as we could.
With the advent of the online gaming community, we got instant information. Breaking news as it happened, podcasts, online exclusive previews and reviews. It felt like the door to the sweet shop had been opened, and everyone was invited in.
My first significant experience with a gaming community was at 1UP.com. I wrote a blog there, and for about four years was pretty active on the site. I made friends with a lot of the staff and users of the site and remain in touch with most of them. It was like a mini family outside my family.
I love podcasts; I just love it when people sit around and talk about games the way people would discuss art, literature, plays, movies and music. To me, it gave my hobby a form of respect and legitimacy. I learned how to talk about and discuss games from listening to podcasts. Yet when I would speak to friends who didn't listen to them about games, the conversation would rarely go past a superficial level. From saying the graphics look great, or it plays well and not much else.
When I would ask them what sites or magazines they would read they would list off the usual names of websites like Gamespot, IGN, Game Trailers etc and they would always quote what the game scored, and not much else. "The game got a 9 on IGN so it must be good!" I remember a friend saying to me about a game I wasn't too interested in.
When did the long-form review die? Did it even exist in the first place? Now it's all copy and paste paragraph topics, one about the graphics, one about the sound, one about the online, one about the setting/story and then a score at the end. Which is all anyone looks at or cares about? I remember when CGW back in the day got rid of the scores on their reviews and people wrote in to complain and that they should bring them back. I'm an avid reader of the film magazine Sight & Sound, and they don't use review score, and I find that it makes you read the review and take it in more.
I would love to see a day when review scores are a thing of the past. The vast majority of people already know if they're going to buy a game or not before they read a review. Or do people use review scores just to justify their gaming pre-orders?
I would love to see a website do a post mortem on games, four to six weeks after a game is released and all the hype is gone. We could have an in-depth discussion and review of the game. But then again, who would ever read this? Would people already be on to the next big game? Maybe podcasts could be the answer. Have an in-depth critical discussion on a game as a whole after it comes out? Would be interesting to try, but I not too sure if many websites would see the point in doing this. I think Giantbomb used to do it, but I'm not sure if they do anymore.
Maybe I'm looking too far back with rose-tinted glasses and wish for better days in video game journalism then watching instant reaction YouTubers play a game, and see them add nothing to the conversation or community.
Apologies for this rant, but I just don't fast food journalism to be the only option at the dinner table.
Thoughts?