Why Reviews Don’t Work

Game reviews are a prominent concern of many gamers, and it’s one of the issues which has been gnawing at me since I began thinking about starting this blog. It just so happens that this last week I read an excellent article on it. It started with this Kotaku post , which linked to this original article from Lost Garden.

Danc is a game designer who is concerned with the disconnect between industry reviews by “expert gamers” and actual user experiences. In his critique of the standard reviewing system he makes many valid points, but I get the impression that Danc feels he has a definitive solution to the review issue by encouraging reviewers to examine games from the perspective audience. I think that overlooks the greater issue with game reviews: the attempt to create impartiality on either the side of the reviewer or the reader. The fact is that you can’t say that a game merits a 9.2 by its intended audience, because you don’t know if that audience is reading the review. That’s why I think the whole idea of grading systems in reviews is bullshit. It doesn’t matter if you’re using numbers, stars, clovers, or horseshoes, I think any rating system over simplifies the complexity of videogames as an industry. Some reviews try to get past this by merely recommending or not recommending a game, but that really boils down to a 50/50 rating system.

What I propose is that a review be broken down to the component parts of a game and be expressed openly with bias. I think that if a reviewer is an “expert gamer” and therefore is going to review everything from the perspective of the “hardcore”, then do it. Just tell everyone you’re doing it at the same time. It’s entirely possible that a game will merit a 7.5 to the hardcore but a 9.2 for the casual gamer, who is the demographic the designers are aiming for. That doesn’t invalidate the 7.5. What invalidates the 7.5 is its static position in the ether of public opinion. What the hell does 7.5 mean? Would it not be more informative if a reviewer said “the graphics in this game weren’t very clean and detailed, which detracted from the overall experience because you needed to see certain elements to progress further”? That’s informative. That tells me that if you’re one of those fetishists who needs his/her HD, this game may not be for you. For someone like me the graphics aren’t as great a concern, but how they affect the gameplay does. Look at that, in one simple sentence this example has appealed to two entirely different perspectives on gaming. Perhaps we should be putting more emphasis on getting reviewers who are good at conveying their experience to others, rather than finishing a game in record time and slapping an arbitrary number on it?

This suggestion is similar to what Danc calls “Tourists”:

“The tourists: Every Man players who approach writing about a game like a travel journalist on a safari. The goal is to evoke the emotions that the individual reporter experienced, not to predict what everyone’s experience might be. They succeed if they provide simple entertainment.”

I agree with Danc on this, but I think that this tourism perspective doesn’t account for an explanation of bias. That explanation can do a lot to help readers understand which reviews are going to give them information which follows their own bias. Consumers want to know that the experience they read is what they will get out of the box so they know what to buy. I know Danc feels that reviews are loosing that sway, but I can’t honestly think of another reason for reviews to exist. Other than allowing fan boys to wage flame wars over how their favourite games deserve better scores.

I also think that we need more diversity in reviews. This doesn’t necessarily mean we need more review sites, but perhaps more categorization of reviewers on sites. Why not have a reviewer or two who do nothing but examine casual games from the perspective of those who game only once or twice a week? That would be nice. I always find it frustrating to find all the hidden gems in gaming beyond the Halo and Grand Theft Auto reviews. Perhaps this will insure a little more variety.

All this would require a shift in the industry which I don’t think we’ll get for a while. Let’s face it, reviews with numbers make it easy for publishers who want to see those 9’s and 10’s next to their games, and reviewers want the publishers to pay for advertising. I never cease to be amazed in the fact that reviews haven’t been eliminated with the distaste that so many user-based sites have for them. I guess the average gamer still gives those reviews some clout, and until the user base is willing to make the shift en masse the industry doesn’t need to move forward in this respect.