Reviewer Support (or lack thereof)

Whew, so 1Up posted a crappy review of a popular game and then pulled it because it was controversial.

I have to say, I’m with Tycho on this one. He said:

…if a reviewer can only stand to play your game for two hours, I want to hear from that guy. I want to hear from every person with experience on the subject, from the reverent acolyte in the official forum to the sworn enemy toiling on a competing product.

– Tycho, Penny Arcade

Shocking as it may seem, different people have different preferences.

I wouldn’t post a review claiming that game X is the Best FPS Ever! because, frankly, I suck at FPS games and I’m happy to admit that. So I say “Hey, I’m not a huge FPS fan and this game was actually fun even for a newbie like me.” See, it’s not that hard…

Why can’t we have a little honesty from mainstream review sites? If RPGs aren’t your forté then just say so before ripping the game to bits. Even better, get an RPG lover to review the damn thing. If your site’s RPG guy is busy this week, have him review it some other time. I seriously doubt a site as big as 1Up is going to suffer a massive readership drop if their Neverwinter Nights 2 review is posted a week or two after the release date.

Not compared to, say, posting a crappy biased review and then pulling it with a crappy excuse.

Does anyone else remember the Second Opinion that GamesDomain used to post on controversial reviews? They’d post a review. People would complain. They’d get someone else to write another review and address the issues raised. Or agree with them, as the case may be. Now there was a site that had the guts to deal with criticism and stand by their reviewers’ opinions.

The Internet Archive Wayback Machine kindly provided me with a perfect example from 1999:

Did you ever read a review before buying a game and thought that the reviewer was wrong? You know, when you’re reading the reviewer’s final paragraph and you’re thinking, “this guy just didn’t get it – I know I’ll like this game”. Well, when I read Kevin Mander’s review of The Sims, I volunteered to write the Second Opinion review because I just *knew* that he just didn’t get the point of the game and that I’d love The Sims.

Well, did you ever get the sinking feeling after playing the game that the reviewer was right?

James Weiner, GamesDomain Second Opinion – The Sims

I loved that feature, which was one of the first things to go when they got bought by Yahoo :(

Are there any other games review sites out there that do that sort of thing? I’ve been looking for years but not found any yet. Comment please, if you know of one.

Edit: I should have mentioned, with the popularity of sites like MetaCritic you could argue that a negative review of a game generally regarded as good can reflect poorly on your site. Not a good excuse, but understandable. I still say there are better ways to deal with differences of opinion, as described above.

Major review sites know that they can make or break a game. Sloppy editorial control is inexcusable. 1Up got called on this because Neverwinter Nights 2 has a strong enough foundation that the dissenters were heard. Who’s to say there aren’t plenty of smaller games that were buried by the same poor treatment?

2 Comments