Do you take video game journalism seriously?

[winb83]

The expression on his face is priceless it says they own me. But seriously how can anybody take these guys at face value when their salaries are paid by the companies whose products they're supposed to be objectively reviewing. If they don't get ad revenues from video game companies then they lose their jobs. They get free copies of these games so they can review them. They get told by embargoes when they can release said reviews so how much freedom do they really have to shyt on a major big budget release that might deserve it when they depend on the company that released the game for support?

 

[newarkhiphop]

remember when courtdog was going to open up a video game reviewing website

 

[MidniteJay]

You can only tune in for those guys to get a gist of what a video game is about if you want every nook and cranny, all the pros and cons, you gotta looks to user reviews (carefully) or play the game yourself (rent or )

 

[Responsible Allen Iverson]

No, I quit reading professional reviews years ago.

 

[badvillain]

This holds true to all journalism

 

[TheSedd]

This holds true to all journalism

This...

 

[Mr. Somebody]

Name a game that recieved BAD reviews that was actually good? I mean bad.

 

[x2y]

Nah I remember the End days of EGM and 1up (before being sold) and how them dudes ended up after trying to be real objective Video Game Journalist. They says it was due mags not selling anymore but I know it was due to ad placement and pist of Industry companies I remember EGM mags were thick last I saq them shyt looked like a comic book.

Add to that the internet and there is no use for those guys.

 

[Nuke Dukem]

Nah I remember the End days of EGM and 1up (before being sold) and how them dudes ended up after trying to be real objective Video Game Journalist. They says it was due mags not selling anymore but I know it was due to ad placement and pist of Industry companies I remember EGM mags were thick last I saq them shyt looked like a comic book.

At to that the internet and there is no use for those guys.

Its all the same though, whether the review is in a mag or on youtube

 

[x2y]

Its all the same though, whether the review is in a mag or on youtube

I know it's why I brought up EGM (mag) and 1up (EGM's website). With Internet forums, early mod squad releases, import scenes being more accesable and being able to read about it or watch some one else play it through justin.tv etc there are a ton of ways for people to get the gaming fix with out relying on the Game Journalist.

 

[StraxStrax]

Giant Bomb are solid

 

[duncanthetall]

Giant Bomb >>>

Everyone else I take with a grain of salt

 

[phillycavsfan]

This holds true to all journalism

Not really. But video game journalism has similar faults to music reviews. It's highly subjective, and the same reasons many critics love or hate a project often don't fall in line with that of consumers (L.A. Noire, Life is Good). Another problem with both genres is that the industry has major influence over both sets of journalists, so that reviews often tend to be "overrate" the product. A 60 on Metacritic more often than not means the game really sucks.

The trick to reading reviews is that you gotta find a critic whose tastes you can follow so that you know when to listen or read and when to ignore.

 

[courtdog]

remember when courtdog was going to open up a video game reviewing website

You laugh like if he didn't already do that
Yes, rumor has it that some nikkaz like to work on the low
He might of tried to bring nikkaz with him, I think most bullshytted
But thats cool. I hear his site was recently approved by some major players and his initial "dream" of what he wanted that site to be?
Is soon to become a reality. Since you are laughing now, I'll make sure to remind YOU of it in about 2 months

 

[badvillain]

Not really. But video game journalism has similar faults to music reviews. It's highly subjective, and the same reasons many critics love or hate a project often don't fall in line with that of consumers (L.A. Noire, Life is Good). Another problem with both genres is that the industry has major influence over both sets of journalists, so that reviews often tend to be "overrate" the product. A 60 on Metacritic more often than not means the game really sucks.

The trick to reading reviews is that you gotta find a critic whose tastes you can follow so that you know when to listen or read and when to ignore.

Every piece of journalism produced by a media corporation will have bias, they all have to answer to someone. Most owners of major media corporations have many other business holdings, which they don't want spoken negatively about.

I went to school for PR at the University of Florida, and although I do not practice PR(I'm a web designer/developer/programmer), I send electronic press releases to major outlets all the time. And what I've come to learn from both school and real world experience, is that the news you read is determined by a limited set of people who follow the agendas of their media corporation, they are called "Gate Keepers", they determine what is news and what's not news.

Just like politics, modern American journalism is run by the rich few and corporations.