Or…. “Dan Hsu’s beef with the industry”

Yesterday we introduced readers to Dan Hsu and Crispin Boyer’s new blog, Sore Thumbs. We asked viewers to add the blog to their bookmarks list, and for good reason - today the writings of Shoe have provided another critical look into the inside workings of the often flawed industry.

Shoe comments on the state of an industry in which game companies consistently pressure journalists to provide pleasing scores for their products, listing examples as he goes along. It’s fascinating, really, and runs the gamut from jostling for exclusive reviews via “promising” high review scores, doing “make up” stories for companies who have felt jilted by coverage in past articles so as to save advertising dollars, and even…. wait, even providing prostitutes for lonesome editors? (Note: This one’s just rumor, folks, although Shoe has reason to believe.)

One example provided in the piece:

For example, some companies will offer an outlet an exclusive first review with the understanding that the game gets a certain score or higher. I don’t feel this is necessarily inappropriate on the game publisher’s side — why put a poor review out there if you can avoid it? And I can certainly understand why the press would entertain such an offer. First review = high traffic or magazine sales. But my beef with this (and why we officially stopped doing exclusive reviews when I was at EGM): Just bringing up the offer alone taints the reviews process…something that should be as clean and innocent as the Virgin Mary.

As an example of the above, Shoe was kind enough to source two VGMWatch articles; we’ll do the same for the benefit of our readers. Peep the hubbub we exposed over IGN’s Prey review process here and here.

While these are “indirect” bribes, as Shoe points out, aren’t they bribes nonetheless, and subject to the same level of scrutiny? As we have put forth before here at the Watch, when any such activities proceed at a publication, there is an immediate conflict of interest and as such the journalist’s objectivity is immediately compromised on some level, whether they realize it or not.

Again, check Sore Thumbs for more examples, and don’t forget to view the other two installments of “Behind the Scenes: Game Journalism” here and here. And don’t think Shoe leaves EGM untouched - in fact, impropriety was one of the reasons he left 1UP/EGM (see part three).

Source: Sore Thumbs

While a lot of games allow you to name your characters, not many reviews make it a point to disclose the reviewer’s chosen virtual moniker to the readers. Nintendogs is turning into the exception that proves this rule, though, as many reviewers have been dropping their pups name into their critiques.

A few examples (in no particular order):

• Diamond - San Jose Mercury News
• Fernando - GameSpy
• Dogzilla - GameSpot (Wins my “Best Puppy Name” award)
• Honey - Rocky Mountain News (Named after his PSP, perhaps?)
• Huggy - Associated Press
• LouLou - Game Revolution
• Daisy - MoDojo
• Trixy - N-philes

Perhaps this is indicative of the special pride that reviewers feel for their digital pets. Perhaps this is indicative of the increased relevance and importance of names in Nintendogs, which must be spoken and recognized by the system. Perhaps this is indicative of nothing at all.

I’m sure I missed quite a few puppy name-drops in my list. Feel free to add your own find using the comments link below.

P.S.: I named my happy puppies Max, Gloria and Rover.

Game Informer seems to be anticipating controversy after awarding a perfect 10.0 review rating to Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal, with both its primary and secondary reviewers agreeing on the perfect score.

“I can assure you that these review scores aren’t reached on some whim, a roll of the dice or a throw of the dart,” writes GI editor-in-chief Andy McNamara in this month’s commentary. “I bring this up this month because we have more than our fair share of controversial reviews, which will in turn fill my email account with readers cancelling their subscriptions over this review or that. And to you I say ‘Get over it.’ ”
(more…)

Dave Long of Gamer Dad has some interesting thoughts on game reviews, the yardsticks they use, and how gamers respond to them. Dave’s piece is also being discussed on Slashdot.

Game criticism is a driving force behind fan interest in much of the magazines and web sites covering the video game industry. At the same time, a review is a very different animal than a news story. The task is especially complicated when a game arrives accompanied by huge hype and huge expectations, as is the case with Doom 3 (which provided the jumping-off point for the Gamer Dad column). We’ll be discussing game criticism quite a bit here, so let us know of good links on the topic.