Comments on: Dear Sir

By: EGTF

EGTF — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 02:18:29 +0000

It's amazing how often people who put the condescending "um" before their statements don't really know what they're talking about. "Um Left 4 Dead has no DLC coming out. Valve sucks." "Um I think you'll find Fox news is totally unbiased source." "Um 5133201 is not a base-2 Euler pseudoprime jackass." "Um Ed, you might want to put your clothes back on." Honestly, it's more than I can put up with some days.

By: Jason L

Jason L — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 00:57:29 +0000

There there, deep breaths. The polluted gene pool may be everyone's problem, but it's presumably not your fault.

By: roBurky

roBurky — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 20:35:09 +0000

Heh. I think you need to start using a clearer quote box type thing.

By: Pentadact

Pentadact — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 20:17:34 +0000

*winces*

By: Confused

Confused — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 17:37:55 +0000

It's probably been said but I didn't want to bother reading through all of this --- um, I don't see it as blatant theft of your creation. If anyone is stealing from anyone... you are both stealing from Dr. Who.

I suppose such responses would come from someone playing a game--

By: Rob

Rob — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 01:04:17 +0000

"My reviews are meant to be buyer's guides. I recount subjective experiences because I think they help guide a buyer."

Tom: you're right, I sort of fudged that bit of my comment. I think I meant to say that they don't have to read like buyers guides, you know, shopping lists of features which they may or may not have, and so on. They can have a bit of wit and personality to them. There may even be a personal pronoun or two.

Yes, they are about telling readers what you thought of a game (and by extension: what they might think of it), so that will inform their buying choices.

But not everything you write about games is designed to help people when they're standing in GAME or browsing a website, even within a review. At least half of it is designed to entertain, or to allow the reader to empathise with an experience they haven't (yet) had. Personally I don't think all of that goes towards the question of whether or not they want to buy something. People read reviews for entertainment first, I think.

I guess it's a style issue, either how a writer writes, or how the particular publication tailors its copy.

By: Roadrunner

Roadrunner — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 20:59:35 +0000

Or perhaps I'm that much more stingy with money and therefore Â£30 on a game means much more to me then everyone else :\

By: Dante

Dante — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 20:58:44 +0000

Er... but it was in Tim's opinion. That's what you just said you wanted people to do, you can't have it both ways you know.

Although you should, to be honest, because both subjectiveness and objectiveness have their place in games reviews. On the one hand whether the reviewer found it enjoyable or not is clearly extremely important, on the other hand not everyone is a fan of every genre, and you really should consider who the game is aimed at before you rate it. Practically though that's more a function of editing, making sure you've got the right person reviewing the right game.

Subjectiveness is only really useful when you know the reviewer's tastes, then again reviews as a whole are only really useful when you know the reviewer. Just one reason I'd prefer to chuck out scores altogether.

By: Roadrunner

Roadrunner — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 20:48:23 +0000

If that's the case, PCG's review of Far Cry 2 failed me, because it didn't deserve anywhere near 94%. I guess it's one of those games which are fun an all but there are small unnoticable annoying bits, like the fact you have to drive for ages across your map to reach the objective, or everything attacks you for no reason, and cars will randomly drive into you trying to kill you, again, for no reason. I thought that all these annoying tiny nuances built up and made the game much worse. It's still good, but not 94% worthy, atleast in my opinion anyway.

By: Pentadact

Pentadact — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 20:02:46 +0000

I also think statements of the form "Leave the [type of games writing] to [the person who called for people to do more of this type of games writing]" miss the point a bit. My reviews are meant to be buyer's guides. I recount subjective experiences because I think they help guide a buyer. And I take recommending a game in PC Gamer much more seriously than deciding to spend my own money on it. But we're not going to restrict ourselves to only giving one game a month a high score in case people can't afford the others. If there's a wealth of good stuff, we should tell people that and trust them to know what they can afford. We even rate them on an incredibly fine scale so you always know which of the ones you're interested in is the best. If a reviewer doesn't leave you with a sense of whether a game is worth the money, they've failed you utterly. If a reviewer recommends a game they wouldn't buy with their own money, they've failed you utterly. And if a reviewer can't recount their subjective experience and still guide you as a buyer, they've failed you utterly. I'm sure I've failed a lot of people utterly, and most of the reviews I read fail me utterly, but this is a thing worth doing well, so it's worth keeping your standards high.

By: Rob

Rob — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 18:21:42 +0000

Dante: that's not really a case of subjectivism being a bad thing per se, it was just a really bad review written by someone who didn't understand the genre. And 'sports editor', ye gads, you couldn't make it up. Now if you actually had someone who loved Football Manager write a subjective account of the game, then that would be fine - for the most part that's what it takes to really unpick the game for fans of the series, anyway. I seem to recall Tom's own bemused recounting of his experience with Football Manager 2008 (roughly along the lines of PCG's infamous 'it's a spreadsheet' dictum), which was pretty amusing (and perfectly valid too, of course). I don't really think there's much of a debate between whether you should write (art criticism) with personality, or write like a Reuters article, since that's really what we're talking about; state the facts, just as you see them. J-Man: that wasn't said with a bent to NGJ, it was a general description of what good arts journalism should be about. As for leaving it to Gillen: as he himself would admit, he did not begat NGJ.

By: J-Man

J-Man — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 17:40:16 +0000

@Rob,

Leave the NGJ to Mr.Gillen please.

By: The_B

The_B — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 14:05:20 +0000

But Dante, surely that review was an example of modern art. Some of us appreciaters even decided to make my own tribute piece dedicated to it.

By: Dante

Dante — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 09:25:57 +0000

Well that's the great debate isn't it Rob? Go totally subjective and you get crap like this:

http://www.rockpaper... ...nt-enough/

Where a reviewer who doesn't understand or care for the genre and so ends up giving it a terrible score, regardless of the actual quality of the game.

By: Rob

Rob — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 01:16:51 +0000

Conversely, reviews aren't buyers guides. They're trip reports. They're personal recountings of subjective experiences, and they shouldn't attempt to appeal to the objective, nor the readership (which is anonymous, amorpheous, and probably destined to buy any old crap even if it gets a rubbish score).

By: Kerotan

Kerotan — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 23:19:06 +0000

You know what this reminds me of?

a post made on garry's blog about emails he gets telling him not "to brake a boys heart"

here is the link.

http://www.garry.tv/... ...?p=683

By: Devenger

Devenger — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 22:53:49 +0000

The only articles left on tubes that make stardom are secret government files, you silly. You need to inscribe your article on a wax model of Paul McCartney's head to get readership.

By: Roadrunner

Roadrunner — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 21:08:03 +0000

Leave it on the tube everywhere, or glue it inside leftover newspapers.
Sometimes I write inside leftover newspapers things like "I'm watching you..."
Because on the train, people just glance around for no reason, and sometimes they will fixtate thier gaze on you, and you alone.
So imagine reading that newspaper, and someone gets on only to take a seat and stare at you mindlessly.

By: J-Man

J-Man — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 16:26:19 +0000

Hey Tom, have you ever worked freelance? And if so, what's the best way to pitch an article? I just got rejected by the escapist, and I wanted to know how I could sell an article better.

By: Thomas Lawrence

Thomas Lawrence — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 02:29:58 +0000

He might do, but probably not right now as it is horribly early in the morning in the UK, where his brain is probably resident.