Decline Why do sponsored reviews still exist?

[Tyranicon]

So I was skimming through the Wrath Aeon of Ruin thread here and one of the first reviews that popped up was one that was sponsored by the publisher. I know literally nothing about the youtuber but he went on a whole "full disclosure, this review is actually sponsored by the people who will gain financially from it" and sure enough, there are affiliate links to the steam store and everything. I'm not picking on this guy in general but the whole idea of a "sponsored review" is such shit and I honestly thought it died long ago.

What kind of fucking mouthbreathers watch this garbage? Any "review" bought and paid for can be automatically discounted immediately. A reminder that these youtube fucks tried getting away with not disclosing these partnerships for years but they literally have to.

Another sign that the industry is cancerous as a whole. Fucking disgusting.

 

[Jenkem]

Are you not an adult? Do you think this is something new? Have you ever read a gaming magazine from the 90s or 00s? You do realize that this is a common practice in almost all specialist journalism, right? Do you think car review outlets actually go out and buy cars with their own money?

 

[Tyranicon]

Are you not an adult? Do you think this is something new? Have you ever read a gaming magazine from the 90s or 00s? You do realize that this is a common practice in almost all specialist journalism, right? Do you think car review outlets actually go out and buy cars with their own money?

A common practice that should've died out. Review copies are more or less fine, expecting anyone to take your video gaym reviews seriously when you're literally getting paid some undisclosed sum to shill is not.

Don't fucking tolerate this consumerist garbage. That's partly how the world got to the sorry state it is today.

 

[AdolfSatan]

Money makes the world go round. The more money you spend on making people love money, the more money you can make off people. Money!

 

[std::namespace]

What kind of fucking mouthbreathers watch this garbage?

The video game crash of 1983 (known in Japan as the Atari shock) was a large-scale recession in the video game indu...

 

[std::namespace]

btw, anyone who plays your games has an actual real mental disability
incomprehensible why one would consume outright trash if there is decent porn around
shiteaters everywhere

 

[Nutmeg]

Don't fucking tolerate this consumerist garbage

*capitalist garbage. The only way forward is to eliminate the capitalist system entirely.

 

[Tyranicon]

btw, anyone who plays your games has an actual real mental disability
incomprehensible why one would consume outright trash if there is decent porn around
shiteaters everywhere

Not enough attribute checks in porn

 

[Baron Tahn]

Does anyone else pay for reviews? Consumers of the actual products certainly don't. This is why the game awards are also ass - its just an exercise in advertising.

 

[Iucounu]

What kind of fucking mouthbreathers watch this garbage?

The kind of people the games are designed for...

It's best to avoid all "charismatic" Youtube personalities claiming to review or test things, since charisma doesn't usually correspond with integrity. The only people that are sometimes honest are the boring ones that don't try to be popular.

 

[HeatEXTEND]

Have you ever read a gaming magazine from the 90s

The quality of these used to be decent, there was a very apparent shift as gaming became more and more popular in "the mainstream". One of the fun ones was a Dutch magazine giving FFVI like a 4/10 or something, the reviewer was unfamiliar with jRPGs and didn't "get" them, maybe a bit shortsighted but certainly honest. As gaming became bigger and bigger said magazine became more shiny/slick and in the end was not much more than an elaborate advertisement. Money ain't a damn thing funny etc.

 

[NecroLord]

I don't even read game reviews or pay attention to game journalism.

 

[Konjad]

I ignore the existence of any reviews outside of RPGCodex.

 

[Lord of Riva]

Well you can watch them to see the game and gameplay and ignore the rest. Why you would not watch a non-shill though is anyones guess.

And yes, Skillchecks in Pron make it immeasurably better.

 

[Cat Headed Eagle]

Are you not an adult? Do you think this is something new? Have you ever read a gaming magazine from the 90s or 00s? You do realize that this is a common practice in almost all specialist journalism, right? Do you think car review outlets actually go out and buy cars with their own money?

It was even there in the 80s. It has never not been like that.

Have you ever read a gaming magazine from the 90s

The quality of these used to be decent, there was a very apparent shift as gaming became more and more popular in "the mainstream". One of the fun ones was a Dutch magazine giving FFVI like a 4/10 or something, the reviewer was unfamiliar with jRPGs and didn't "get" them, maybe a bit shortsighted but certainly honest. As gaming became bigger and bigger said magazine became more shiny/slick and in the end was not much more than an elaborate advertisement. Money ain't a damn thing funny etc.

My favorite ones came in the form of a negative review for Age of Empires 2 from a Command and Conquer fan and another one for Diablo, from a Gauntlet fan. Those were written by different people but had the same argument: you shouldn't be playing a lesser copy of a superior game.

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

Retrospectives are more useful than reviews anyway. The latter just exists for the instant gratification crowd.

 

[HeatEXTEND]

My favorite ones came in the form of a negative review for Age of Empires 2 from a Command and Conquer fan and another one for Diablo, from a Gauntlet fan. Those were written by different people but had the same argument: you shouldn't be playing a lesser copy of a superior game.

I'll take that over "blablablanothingofsubstanceblablabla, 8/10!"

 

[motherfucker]

Any review is paid for, either directly or with favours/free shit/whatever the fuck else. Whether they disclose it or not is a whole other thing entirely. This, of course, includes the so-called "indie" reviewers, which tailor their reviews to their audience to maximize user engagement and clicks/views/whatever, sometimes quite drastically e.g. shitting all over a generally okay game because everyone hates the dev. This also includes non-commercial reviews which are rewarded by attention and clout instead of money and thus also biased towards their intended audience - Codex reviews come into this category.
The proper usage of game reviews, it seems, is to see if the game is overall deserving of your attention by whatever measures are relevant to you personally - after that you're intended to boot it up yourself and draw your own conclusions. That's how I use 'Dex reviews, anyway, and I don't pay attention to anything else. Farewell.

 

[Cat Headed Eagle]

Any review is paid for, either directly or with favours/free shit/whatever the fuck else. Whether they disclose it or not is a whole other thing entirely. This, of course, includes the so-called "indie" reviewers, which tailor their reviews to their audience to maximize user engagement and clicks/views/whatever, sometimes quite drastically e.g. shitting all over a generally okay game because everyone hates the dev. This also includes non-commercial reviews which are rewarded by attention and clout instead of money and thus also biased towards their intended audience - Codex reviews come into this category.
The proper usage of game reviews, it seems, is to see if the game is overall deserving of your attention by whatever measures are relevant to you personally - after that you're intended to boot it up yourself and draw your own conclusions. That's how I use 'Dex reviews, anyway, and I don't pay attention to anything else. Farewell.

Agree, for instance, the butthurt that games like Disco Elysium and Baldur's Gate 3 cause among some "people" in these forums makes me enjoy the games so much more.

 

[Fedora Master]

Just what have these "News Posters", the Jews, been pouring into the Well of Codex Culture for decades?