Editorial RPG Codex Editorial: Games Journalism Scandal

[Jaesun]

http://www.shacknews.com/tag/weekend-confirmed

Wii U, Halo 4, Assassin's Creed 3 and Gaming Journalism are just some of the topics discussed on this episode of Weekend Confirmed. Christian Spicer and Andrew Yoon join Jeff and Garnett for this week's show. The Wii U and Halo 4 are discussed heavily in the first segment and then the crew changes gears with some Assassin's Creed 3 talk and the Gaming Journalism discussion continues from last week. All that, Finishing Moves, and the football tailgate make this one great episode.​

I've never even heard of this site before (I only knew of just shack news). Just mentioning it here.

 

[tuluse]

the only way to fix the gaming journalisim industry is to move away from overall scores/grades and to move to a breakdown system.

Movie reviews work pretty well with a single number score. The problem is 10 points is too many. Roger Ebert said he went with a 4 star rating system instead of 5 because he wanted to force himself to take a stance on a movie. Either he liked it and it was better than average with 3 stars, or he thought it was less than average with 2 stars. No middle ground. Another side effect is that score inflation is not nearly as bad with a 4 star system. All those 8.5s become 3 stars.

 

[Spectacle]

Not everyone appreciates grotsnik's fine writeup though:

Seriously, who the fuck are you, grotsnik?!

 

[Davaris]

the only way to fix the gaming journalisim industry is to move away from overall scores/grades and to move to a breakdown system.

Movie reviews work pretty well with a single number score. The problem is 10 points is too many. Roger Ebert said he went with a 4 star rating system instead of 5 because he wanted to force himself to take a stance on a movie. Either he liked it and it was better than average with 3 stars, or he thought it was less than average with 2 stars. No middle ground. Another side effect is that score inflation is not nearly as bad with a 4 star system. All those 8.5s become 3 stars.

I haven't read a movie review from a mainstream source since I discovered IMDb. So something like IMDb for games, with user rated reviews + a forum for each game, would be pretty great.

 

[tuluse]

There's always metacritic

 

[Awor Szurkrarz]

I haven't read a movie review from a mainstream source since I discovered IMDb. So something like IMDb for games, with user rated reviews + a forum for each game, would be pretty great.

MobyGames.

 

[Oriebam]

but does it have as many people as imdb?

anyway, I don't see the IMDB concept anything special

 

[Davaris]

anyway, I don't see the IMDB concept anything special

As you know, it has a rating for the movie voted by users. It also has user reviews that are voted on by users. And if you suspect there is corporate manipulation occurring on a new release movie, you can check the overall tone in forums. All three things together, makes it a very reliable system.

 

[Metro]

the only way to fix the gaming journalisim industry

The only way to fix the game journalism industry is to destroy it. Or simply ignore it. It serves no purpose.

 

[almondblight]

I haven't read a movie review from a mainstream source since I discovered IMDb. So something like IMDb for games, with user rated reviews + a forum for each game, would be pretty great.

Gamefaqs is pretty much an IMDB for games. Plus it has some pretty monocle opinions. if I remember right I actually found out about RPGCodex from Gamefaqs.

 

[evdk]

Gamefaqs is pretty much an IMDB for games. Plus it has some pretty monocle opinions. if I remember right I actually found out about RPGCodex from Gamefaqs.

That does not match my experience at all.

 

[Oriebam]

if you're gonna depend on imdb-style sites for gaming you might as well depend on the codex, it's probably actually better too

 

[almondblight]

That does not match my experience at all.

Check out reviews or the message board for any of the games the Codex considers good. For instance, here's a decent review of KoTC. Sure, you probably won't agree with all the opinions you find, but the same is true for IMDB.

 

[evdk]

if you're gonna depend on imdb-style sites for gaming you might as well depend on the codex, it's probably actually better too

Yeah, you could buy games Morgoth recommends.

 

[laclongquan]

Why the need to fix those FUBAR shits?

We have the torrent/Free DDL systems. It will serve as some sort of 100% demo system. You who have played it will buy it when you can, because you can, right?

We have a big industry surviving and thriving on the backs of many dumb but rich customers. This is all to the good because good games are not that easy to make or that big a percentage. So you have a moutainous pile of dumb games for dumb gamers and good games out of that mountainous pile.

We have a big informal, biased-as-hell blogs and gaming sites like Codex where we will discuss!!! to death any game worth discussing. Smart gamers will frequent those to get a good idea of the games.

The existence of those propheshunal gaming reviews survive on ads is simply parasitic and dont need our attentions.

 

[Jarpie]

anyway, I don't see the IMDB concept anything special

As you know, it has a rating for the movie voted by users. It also has user reviews that are voted on by users. And if you suspect there is corporate manipulation occurring on a new release movie, you can check the overall tone in forums. All three things together, makes it a very reliable system.

Film studios are known to put their own employees to vote new big releases with 9s and 10s, thus distorting the average new film gets, at least at beginning. Not sure about reviews but I wouldn't be surprised if some PR people writes praising reviews to IMDB for studios new blockbusters.

 

[Davaris]

Film studios are known to put their own employees to vote new big releases with 9s and 10s, thus distorting the average new film gets, at least at beginning. Not sure about reviews but I wouldn't be surprised if some PR people writes praising reviews to IMDB for studios new blockbusters.

Yeah, I've seen them try that. If it is a new release, with unreasonably high scores and glowing reviews, yet some people are complaining loudly in the forum, that is a contradiction and you know its going to be bad.

As for older movies, I look for high fives and sixes and I read the reviews to see if the story interests me. Anything much lower than six and its likely to be a time waster.

 

[Alex_Steel]

I always wondered, can someone charge all those lying bastards with fraud? Is there some type of organization or court that handles something like that, maybe fine them?

 

[Harg Harfardarssen]

I always wondered, can someone charge all those lying bastards with fraud? Is there some type of organization or court that handles something like that, maybe fine them?

Its an interesting thought, but I don't think it reaches the level of fraud (at least in the US). Fraud requires, among other elements, a misrepresentation of a material fact and the reliance of the victim/plaintiff on that fact. I think it would be stretch to characterize any given opinions or comments and reviews of a movie as material facts which are relied upon in the purchase of a product.

 

[Brother None]

I gotta say though, even as someone who just freelances and hasn't been doing all that much work recently, this stuff makes me think about how I approach my job too. Which I think is the case for many journalists, which is a positive by definition.

Now, as mentioned on NMA, the only piece of swag I ever got for free as journalist (I've bough some paraphernalia off eBay) is a Fallout 3 T-Shirt, and I don't think it colored my perspective on the game much. I do get free games sometimes, and sometimes not. I'd be impressed by anyone who looks at GB's reviews and figures out which one is based on getting it for free, though maybe I should discuss with Buck again about showing an hour-log and free/not-free on reviews, I think I floated that idea before.

I think the biggest problem for me, personally, is just being a fan or hater of companies. I've always liked Piranha Bytes and their school of design, and I think I might've gone a bit too easy on Risen 2 as a result. I still think it's a decent/good game, but its flaws are rather significant, and definitely something they need to improve on for the next Gothic or Risen. Conversely, I might be too harsh on BioWare and Bethesda, just biased against them. Nothing wrong with having an opinion and tastes, but if you go too far in one direction of just not liking a genre (like I don't really like BioWare's games much) or of absolutely loving a genre too much, you might be best off avoiding reviewing them. I don't think I've ever reviewed an open-world TPS game (when writing for other sites than GB) and that's good, because I tend to love them always. Anyway, don't think it's been a huge problem for me since my review structure tends to be informative and explaining the reasoning indepth, so readers should be able to filter out taste. But still something to think about more than I have, when writing. Lesson to take on board!

Another thing I thought on was working for inXile. They don't pay me, obviously, though they might eventually compensate me for my work with some extra swag on top of my pledge. I'm kind of a community manager for the company, so I'm kind of invested in the title, and I think that shows in my forum posts on them. Not a problem, I think, as long as I just stick to forum posts. I decided ages ago not to preview or review Wasteland 2 for any site, GB and NMA both have better suited people for it. Still, good to think about it, even if it's an easily avoidable problem.

So uh...random rant!

 

[Stinger]

Which I think is the case for many journalists, which is a positive by definition.

BN, judging by all the recent excuses and terrible apologising done by games journalists as a whole in response to this mess I think you are overestimating the integrity of these people.

They're certainly not as critical or as self-aware of their own potential biases as you've clearly demonstrated.

 

[waywardOne]

Reviewers' biographies should be required to have a list of all the games they've played, how many times they've played each, and their "rating" for each. Brother None's 3rd paragraph ^ provides a necessary filter that clarifies any review he would write.

Just as an example, Lauren Wainwright's bio might look like this:

I've played every game that was adverstised in at least three gaming magazines or one non-gaming magazine. I've only played a handful of them more than once but they're all so similar I can't recall them specifically, and they were all 9 or better.

Upon reading something like that, you'd be able to instantly know how relevant that person's reviews are to you.

 

[Misconnected]

BN don't the outlets you freelance for provide you with copies of the games you're contracted to review? Writing reviews of games the reviewer has bought for their own private entertainment sounds like a recipe for the worst kind of fan-wank kind of fishy to me.

As for phat lewts, in my opinion reviewers should send that shit back. No matter what it is or how minor it is. Mostly to reinforce the clear separation of industry and industry critic, in the mind of said critic (not suggesting a shitty T-shirt has savagely murdered your ability to act as a critic of all things remotely Bethesda or Fallout related, BN).

...

I'd kind of like to see reviewers not only mention their biases, but also mention how much time they've spent with the game under review and at least a couple of similar games they have experience with.

I've largely stopped reading reviews. In fact BN is one of just three critics whose reviews I'll go looking for. And - no offence intended - I read those more because of familiarity with the tastes of those three people, and very much less for a critical opinion and consumer-oriented review (though to your credit, BN, you do manage the consumer-oriented bit rather well). Mostly, I've taken to watching Let's Play videos on YouTube when I want to know about a game. At least that way, the ability and enthusiasm of the player is usually pretty evident, and really serious issues with the game are very hard to hide.

 

[Awor Szurkrarz]

Now, as mentioned on NMA, the only piece of swag I ever got for free as journalist (I've bough some paraphernalia off eBay) is a Fallout 3 T-Shirt, and I don't think it colored my perspective on the game much.

The one you shoot up together with Suaside and gave as a reward in some contest on NMA?

 

[Harg Harfardarssen]

But still something to think about more than I have, when writing. Lesson to take on board!

But you do think about it. And from reading your posts here it seems like you think about it quite a bit. I don't think anyone expects journalists to not have biases; the problem isn't a bias, its a failure to confront that bias and work to minimize its effect on their work. That seems to be at the core of the problems we're seeing. What was rage-inducing to me wasn't the existence of corruption, it was the inability of significant chunks of the journalist corps to even recognize that this is an issue and to reflect on their role in the system.

Quasi-sidenote: I think this lack of reflection is best illustrated by the way in which many game journalists refer to the games industry as "our industry". If you are a journalist, journalism is your industry. If someone views themself to be part of the games industry, then they have already picked a side.