Writing about Games, Previews, reviews, commentary and lies

Alongside the video games industry there are games reviews and games journalists. These people tell us what is right and wrong in the gaming world, and what we should spend our hard earned cash on for a bit of entertainment. Not being a very hard-core gamer myself I really don’t know much if anything about games journalism and reviews. After a tiny amount of research I’ve learnt a few basics. A lot of games reviews come with a score, usually a number out of 10 or even a percentage. But as we progress many other forms of game reviews are cropping up. One that I particularly pay attention to, and doing this blog I’ve only just realised I do, are lets play’s on YouTube. Whereby a normal everyday game lover films him or herself playing a game and commenting as they go through. A lot of these are for entertainment purposes but some do voice their opinions on many aspects of a game. I’m pretty sure that game companies and reviewers work incognito to help each other, the whole thing is clinical, controlled and edited as they see fit. THIS IS NOT GAMING and has led to the public creating their own reviewing and advertising network. Being a spectator rather than a player myself it takes a lot more for me to consider actually purchasing a game and play it hence why gaming reviews do nothing for me. I don’t watch someone play to find a number, a score out of 10, I watch for the experience. The NGJ are redundant in many ways to the public they claim to serve, they are there purely as a business outlet, an extension of the games industry. As a race we have become lazy in this modern world, we will always pit for the easy option and pretty much want everything handed to us on a plate. We choose not to think for ourselves when it comes to retail. When buying a product online, from websites such as Ebay, before purchasing, you’ll read the review before purchasing. Everywhere we go we look to others to show us the way and what they think and this fuels our decision almost making it for us if we’re really feeling lazy and zombified at the time. Gaming and reviews are in a world of their own. Purely working for themselves within a system that actually alienates the gaming public. Money circulates between them Underhand payments from games companies to games reviewers such as IGN, to write about their game in a positive light to boost sales. What they make and the press surrounding them is something entirely different to what we as gamers actually experience when exploring these worlds they have created. Something that springs to mind as an example, being a game watcher I’m quite the fan of the YouTube channel PewDiePie.  http://www.youtube.com/user/PewDiePie?feature=watch
For those who don’t know, he makes videos called ‘let’s play’ where he plays a game and films himself playing it in episodes for the viewer to watch as a series. He’s popular for his funny comments and has a huge fan base spread right across the globe. I hadn’t been watching him for long when I came across his series for the game The Walking Dead which funnily enough was a highly acclaimed game, winning countless awards including 2012 Game of the year. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Walking_Dead_(2012_video_game) I watched the series not expecting much, if anything the visual style of the game put me off a little, but being based on a comic book series I can see why they went for this particular style.

I became hooked, drawn in and the clever decision making that affects the characters and also change the flow of the story. I was up watching it until the ridiculous hours of the morning. Like a book I couldn’t put down I had to find out what happened next. The story takes a turn for the worst and as the story drew to a close, PewDiePie himself was becoming incredibly emotionally involved in the characters and story line. So much so that the ending scene reduced him to tears and so was I. I had never cried at watching a game like that and it amazed me. Writing this blog I realised, if I were to read a review of this game and hear it won awards, I may have batted an eye lid but never would’ve attempted to experience it in any way. Watching the story unfold before your eyes, hearing the comments and the thought process of the player, you couldn’t help but become emotionally involved. If I had to read a journalist interpretation on the game I seriously doubt they would be able to hook and completely immerse all my emotions into the game and story. What I’m saying is, the idea of a review where none of the gaming is being viewed by the public and writing is all they have to go by. This is then supposed to help us decide whether we would enjoy playing a game, the whole thing just doesn’t work. A game is a world, it evokes and awakens all your senses, apart from the obvious taste and smell. The only way writing would evoke these feelings, would be if it were a novel. That obviously isn’t the intention of a review, deadlines and word counts are what matter. In my opinion I would never judge a game by what review it got. No matter who gave it or where it was published. I have to be shown it or at least be told face to face with someone who has experienced it first-hand. This is a true test and a closest insight to a game you can get, without actually playing it. Depending on your preference in terms of your relationship with games, for me there’s no better review then seeing it with your own eyes.